One Sith

Prior to his death, the coming of an entity known as "the One Sith" was foreseen by Darth Tenebrous, whose predictions actually match the ascent of Darth Sidious, his own apprentice's apprentice, more than they do the coming of Darth Krayt's One Sith.

Darth Krayt, formerly the Jedi Master A'Sharad Hett, was the founder and leader of this new generation of Sith Lords. A witness to a galaxy deeply wounded by the Clone Wars, the fall of the Old Republic, the rise of the Galactic Empire, the Galactic Civil War, and the Yuuzhan Vong War; A'Sharad came to believe that the galaxy was fractured and weak and that a single will was needed to make it whole and strong again. Having been taught the ways of the Sith by XoXaan's Sith holocron on the order's homeworld of Korriban, Hett renamed himself Darth Krayt, after the fierce creature of his homeworld, and reestablished the Sith Order under his leadership. Krayt's Sith differed significantly from Darth Bane's Order of the Sith Lords in that he decided that his nascent Order should not be limited by the ancient Rule of Two. Instead, he introduced the Rule of One—a new system in which many lesser Sith served under the will of the Dark Lord of the Sith. He believed that the Sith needed to grow in strength over the decades, while the Jedi Order would become increasingly weakened and compromised by their lack of ruthlessness. As such, the One Sith kept their existence a secret. When the balance of power had shifted sufficiently, Krayt and his Order would execute their agenda to restore the absolute rule of the Sith to the galaxy.

Krayt's Order was founded at some point by the year 27 ABY. Its agents, including Lomi Plo and Welk, were active during the Yuuzhan Vong War, and by 40 ABY, they numbered more than thirty. The new Sith were not connected with former Imperial assassin and Dark Lady of the Sith Lumiya, or her plans to remake Jacen Solo into a Sith Lord, which culminated in the former Jedi Knight's ascension as Darth Caedus. Although Krayt's claim to the title of Dark Lord was contested by Caedus—unwittingly, as Caedus remained unaware of the One Sith's existence—the One Sith remained in hiding and did nothing to interfere with Caedus' Sith Order or his fight against the Jedi.

The existence of two separate Sith Orders had arisen due to Krayt's philosophical differences with those others who wished to ensure the continuation of the Sith. Vergere, a failed Sith apprentice of Darth Sidious, encountered Hett in Yuuzhan Vong captivity prior to the Yuuzhan Vong War, and had philosophical discussions with him, ultimately leaving him behind as they did not see eye to eye on certain matters. Lumiya, a former pupil of both Sidious and Darth Vader, apparently encountered the One Sith some point during the early years of the Yuuzhan Vong War, but eventually opted to actively reject their vision for the Sith. Lumiya and Vergere were both unwilling to discard the Rule of Two and thus were not compatible with Krayt's Order. According to the Sith on Korriban in 40 ABY, it was believed that Luke Skywalker's Jedi Order would also grow in strength with time, frustrating the new Sith Order's long-term plan. They therefore took advantage of Solo's fall to the dark side in order to pre-empt the Jedi, effectively using him to deflect attention away from themselves.

In 41 ABY, Darth Caedus perished at the end of the Second Galactic Civil War and his apprentice, Tahiri Veila, found redemption in the light side. Without Caedus or Tahiri to preserve Lumiya's Sith Order, Darth Bane's millennium-long legacy was effectively eliminated. Once again, the Jedi presumed that the Sith were extinct, while the galaxy at large had virtually no knowledge of the One Sith or their Master as the last surviving remnant of the Order of the Sith Lords was dissolved after over a millennium.

A few months after the end of the Civil War, Darth Krayt experienced a vision regarding a frozen moon. His lieutenant Wyyrlok assigned the Anzat assassin Kell Douro to Fhost to discover the truth hidden behind the vision. When Kell Douro inquired to Wyyrlok about why the One Sith did not investigate the vision themselves, Wyyrlok responded by telling him that Krayt still wanted the Sith to remain quiescent. Later Wyyrlok sent two more agents, the Umbaran Nyss Nenn and his sister Syll Nenn, to track the Jedi Jaden Korr for use in a plot to infiltrate the New Jedi Order but apparently the plan failed.

In 44 ABY, Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight Ben Skywalker, and Sith apprentice Vestara Khai came to Korriban during the emergence of another Sith Order, the Lost Tribe of Sith. During the visit, the One Sith were not detected by the trio and their Order continued on in secret, continuing to grow and strengthen undetected. However, Krayt was later forced to expose the One Sith's existence when forging a temporary alliance with Luke Skywalker to defeat Abeloth in the realm of beyond shadows. Although Skywalker saw through his lies about being part of the Lost Tribe, Krayt preserved the mystery of his identity as well as the location and the motivations of his Sith Order.

For more than a hundred years, Krayt grew and strengthened the One Sith on Korriban, surreptitiously planning to bring its vision of peace and order to the galaxy. While the order grew in secret, Krayt attempted to heal the wounds inflicted upon him by the Vong, going into lengthy stasis-treatments and conferring only with his most trusted servant, the first Darth Wyyrlok. At some point, the Lost Tribe were also cast down, leading the galaxy to again assume that the Sith were gone.

At last, in the period of 127–130 ABY, the One Sith emerged after an entire century of hiding and made their presence known openly under Krayt's leadership, and the result of his machinations was the Sith–Imperial War. Krayt's own holocron contained entries relating how he caused the fall of the Galactic Alliance and the restoration of the Galactic Empire as the dominant galactic power.

Knowing that many worlds still harbored intense hatred and distrust towards the Yuuzhan Vong, Krayt's agents sabotaged the Ossus Project, a Jedi-backed plan to use Yuuzhan Vong terraforming techniques to restore a barren section of the once-devastated Jedi fortress world of Ossus. When the test proved successful, the response was tremendous. Out of a host of applicants, one hundred worlds were selected for the Vong terraforming process. Yuuzhan Vong Shapers, overseen by Jedi escorts, produced incredible results. Thanks to the One Sith's sabotage, however, the ecosystems soon deteriorated; vegetation withered, and bony growths like those once seen on those the Vong had taken as slaves began forming on the skin of the inhabitants. The Jedi immediately suspected sabotage, but could never prove it. It did not matter; the lingering resentment the galaxy felt towards the Vong, even decades after their defeat and exile, did Krayt's work for him, and soon the Vong were accused of trying to restart their genocidal crusade against the galaxy by other means.

The results were everything the One Sith could have hoped for. The Jedi, devoted to the truth above all, defended the Vong and encouraged the Galactic Alliance to support them. The Empire reacted accordingly; members of the Moff Council demanded retribution and, invoking the Treaty of Anaxes, declared war on the Alliance. But in addition to war with the Empire, the Alliance found itself facing dissension from within its own ranks. Worlds that had suffered the most under the Vong now aimed their resentment at the Alliance; many of them refused to support the Alliance and actively sided with the Empire, while others just stood by and watched under the banner of neutrality. So divided, the Alliance was easy to conquer. But Emperor Roan Fel himself was less than enthusiastic; he'd only reluctantly declared war and never threw his full support behind it. He even prevented his Imperial Knights from participating. Because Roan Fel refused to let the Imperial Knights enter the war, the Empire didn't have the strength necessary to counter the Jedi, and so, the Sith joined the conflict.

In three years, the Galactic Alliance was defeated and the Empire absorbed all its former holdings, even reclaiming Coruscant as the Imperial throneworld. It was a reversal of the galactic order that no one could have foreseen, or believed was possible. But despite the grandeur of this victory, it was but a stepping stone for Krayt.

With the Empire triumphant, it was time to remove the last obstacle to the Sith; their ancient enemies, the Jedi. With the fall of Coruscant, the Empire's ruler, Emperor Roan Fel, had called on the Jedi to surrender and submit to the Empire. But by now, the Jedi were aware of the Sith's involvement in the war and refused to join them. They withdrew from Coruscant, yielding their Temple to their enemies, and holed themselves in their praxeum on Ossus. Krayt dispatched his Hand, Darth Nihl, to conduct a devastating attack against the praxeum.

What came to be called the Massacre at Ossus did not prove to be as absolute a victory as he had hoped for. Although Nihl managed to make several significant kills, especially one of the most prominent members of the Jedi Council, Kol Skywalker—scion of the very bloodline that had proven to be both the greatest boon and later the greatest impediment to Sith dominance. But the death of even a good number of Jedi did not make for victory. The Jedi were sent to flight, scattered, but they were not yet defeated.

But the Jedi had still been brought low enough to allow him to take the next step; now that the Empire was triumphant, it was time to claim its throne as his own. He launched a daring palace revolution, marching with his cohorts straight into the audience chamber of Emperor Roan Fel himself, killing the man who sat on the throne and seating himself in his place. Noting the confusion and outrage from the members of the Moff Council who were present, he laid out the facts of life for them, that Emperor Fel was never really interested in going to war. Krayt then declared himself Emperor of the galaxy, stating that a man of vision such as himself was required to reinstate intergalactic stability.

Faced with little choice, the Moff Council swore loyalty to him. For the first time in almost a century since Darth Caedus, a Sith Lord held the galactic seat of power. At once he set about imposing order on a galaxy that sorely needed it, but this too was an incomplete victory. The "Emperor" he had killed had been anything but. It had to be a double, he thought; Fel was a fully trained Imperial Knight and would surely have defended himself, rather than simply let himself be slain. Krayt made it a priority to find the real Fel, before he recruited allies among the Moffs, the military, or those Jedi who had survived.

And there was a further concern that he kept to himself and his lieutenant, the third Darth Wyyrlok. Krayt knew all too well that his health was failing him; he was ruling on borrowed time. But he had felt a murmur in the Force during the Ossus massacre; someone, a Jedi, had somehow used the Force to heal someone else, bring them back to life from the brink of death. If his reign was to endure, if he was to establish his vision of galactic order, he had to find this Jedi with the power to bring beings back to life, and bend his power to serve the dark side.

For seven years, the Sith began to impose their rule over the galaxy. Unfortunately for Krayt, unlike how it operated under Darth Sidious, the Empire was unable to maintain complete control, for Fel had gathered his forces on Bastion and there were many Jedi who weren't killed; while the Alliance Remnant struck at them at every turn. Things got so out of hand that the Sith had to resort to trickery to lure out their enemies to be slaughtered. But the leaders of the three factions were not fools and refused to walk into a trap. Also in the Moff Council, Grand Admiral Morlish Veed, and his lover, Nyna Calixte, were planning to undermine the Sith to take control of the Empire.

Hearing word that a Skywalker had survived the massacre, Krayt ordered all his resources to search for the lost Jedi. When he arrived on Coruscant to rescue Jedi healer Hosk Trey'lis, the Sith were able to catch him, and called off the search. Krayt, after torturing him into using his powers, proceeded to turn Skywalker to the dark side, so he could use his healing power to cure him. This caused a number of Sith to question their Dark Lord. But Skywalker escaped along with a little help, and Trey'lis joined the Force. Krayt ordered his minions to resume the search for Skywalker.

After Gar Stazi stole the new Advanced Star Destroyer Imperious from the Mon Calamari Orbital Shipyards, Krayt ordered 10% of its Mon Calamari population exterminated. His loyal Sith and stormtroopers began by slaughtering the entire Mon Calamari Council, while the rest of the Mon Calamari population was pushed into forced labor camps. While the Mon Calamari Rangers organized to fight against the genocide, the Sith, under the command of Darth Azard, created a Sea Leviathan and unleashed it on the unsuspecting Mon Calamari.

Skywalker later lured Krayt into a trap, which would spell the Dark Lord's downfall. After attacking the Imperial base on Had Abbadon, Krayt received a message from another Sith: Karness Muur, an ancient Sith who had possessed the body of the Jedi Celeste Morne. Muur told Krayt that he could heal Krayt and had captured Skywalker, but to travel alone. Ignoring Muur's demand, Krayt traveled to Had Abbadon with Lords Wyyrlok, Maladi, Stryfe, and Talon. Once there, Skywalker sprang the trap, and Jedi and Imperial Knights ambushed the Sith.

Emperor Krayt was stabbed through the chest by Imperial Knight Azlyn Rae, blasted with Force lightning by Morne, and then thrown off a cliff. After Wyyrlok, who had not participated in the battle, recovered the injured Sith Lords, he found Krayt still alive. He had finally discovered the information on how to heal himself, taking it from Muur. Wyyrlok, however, finished off the Emperor by blasting the wounded Krayt with more Force lightning, presumably killing the Dark Lord and ruler of the One Sith, and claiming that for Krayt's dream to succeed, he would have to die.

Wyyrlok put Krayt's (unknown to him) unconscious body in a special tomb that appeared to be a stasis chamber, located within Korriban's Sith Temple. This way, Wyyrlok could appear to still be serving Krayt while in reality the Sith were now under his control. Yet, Lord Wyyrlok's plan was to bring Darth Krayt's vision for a unified galaxy to reality: every single being in the galaxy becoming a member of the One Sith.

However, despite Wyyrlok's appointed position as Regent of the Order and his new place as the de facto ruler of the Empire, not all were satisfied with Wyyrlok's rise to power. Darth Maladi suspected (correctly) that Wyyrlok had in fact killed the Dark Lord of the Sith and taken over for his own purposes. She shared her concerns with Darth Nihl, and convinced him to go to Korriban to corroborate whether Lord Krayt was alive or dead. After arriving at Krayt's tomb, guarded by Darth Talon, both Nihl and the Twi'lek were surprised to see that Krayt's body had vanished, leaving only his empty Vong armor behind.

At the same time, Wyyrlok also ordered the execution of the Final Protocol, the extermination of all life on Dac. Though the Galactic Alliance Remnant managed to save nearly twenty percent of the planet's population, Wyyrlok still considered the act of genocide a success that would keep the galaxy in line.

Meanwhile, a number of Sith Lords of the First Sith Imperial Strikeforce attacked a meeting between Roan Fel and members of the New Jedi Order on the world of Agamar. In the resulting confrontation, Fel managed to flee the planet, though Princess Marasiah Fel was captured in the process.

After the disappearance of Krayt's body, Talon herself disappeared from the Temple. Darth Wyyrlok used this opportunity to frame Talon for Krayt's death and sent Darth Nihl to capture her. Nihl found her in the Valley of the Dark Lords, where he also saw the resurrected Darth Krayt, who had become more powerful than he had ever been since he had successfully purged his body of the Vong seeds that have been consuming him the past century. Krayt showed Nihl and Talon a secret chamber where he had been creating a new breed of Force-sensitive troopers that were unquestionably loyal to him. With the use of these troops, Krayt planned to end the war and impose his vision of peace and order over the galaxy. He then used his magnified powers to call out to every being in the galaxy that touched the dark side showing that he had returned. The entire One Sith once again pledged loyalty to their Master, with the exception of Darth Wyyrlok, who now stood alone as Krayt's enemy.

Following his resurrection, Krayt, along with Nihl and Talon, started to implement his plan to conquer the galaxy. Due to his newfound view on death, as he believed that it was a path to something much greater, Krayt believed that the galaxy needed to experience the pain of death before enduring rebirth so as to finally be at peace. Krayt's first objective was to reclaim his throne and have his revenge on Darth Wyyrlok. To that end, he led Darth Nihl, Darth Talon and two of his Sith troopers into the Temple of the Sith on Coruscant. Upon learning of Krayt's rebirth, Wyyrlok had revealed his deception to the Sith but lied, claiming that Krayt had succumbed to his illness. He then proclaimed himself as their leader and the multitudes of Sith there decided to follow him. Most, including Darth Stryfe, said that they would follow the victor as 'might decided'. Krayt and Wyyrlok dueled, both proving to be extremely powerful masters of the dark side. Wyyrlok used his sorcery to try and subdue Krayt by invoking the painful memories of his tormented past but Krayt had mastered and overcome his weaknesses. Feigning weakness, Krayt killed Wyyrlok and reclaimed his throne both in the Sith Order and the Empire.

After his coup, Krayt launched a series of violent attacks against worlds such as Borosk, Vinsoth and Falleen. He also received a message from Cade Skywalker, who had sworn that he would hunt Krayt down and end his reign of terror. Krayt wanted Skywalker to go through what he had been through and what he was putting the galaxy through: death and resurrection.

With the death of the Sith Lord Darth Krayt at the hands of the former Jedi Cade Skywalker during the Battle of Coruscant, Darth Krayt's Galactic Empire was unable to fight on without its emperor. Although his short-lived empire was lost, Krayt's Sith Order ultimately survived, albeit in a weakened and diminished state.

Upon Krayt's death, command of Sith-Imperial forces on Coruscant fell to Darth Nihl, who immediately ordered the extermination of Darth Krayt's Sith troopers. Without Krayt's power and influence to keep them in check, the Sith troopers swiftly descended into madness and began targeting everyone at random, including members of the One Sith. With the war lost and their enemies victorious, Nihl commanded all of the surviving Sith to retreat from key worlds, such as Coruscant and Korriban to escape capture or death. As the newly-formed Galactic Federation Triumvirate asserted its dominance over the entire known galaxy, the One Sith remained in hiding as per Nihl's orders, ironically finding themselves in the same position that the Jedi endured for several years—hunted and on the run. With their empire destroyed and their capabilities severely weakened, Nihl instructed his Sith followers to infiltrate every planetary government in the galaxy; the Sith would continue to wage a war for galactic dominance through stealth, patience, cunning and secrecy. However, their infiltration would ironically be exposed by a renegade Sith Lord by the name of Darth Wredd who desired to return the Sith to the Rule of Two, when he killed one of the infiltrated Sith on Ceitia Five, as the start of his campaign against his fellow Sith.

Wredd's campaign was initiated to destroy the One Sith and re-establish the Rule of Two, and he began his insurgency. In 139 ABY, Darth Wredd lured out many of the loyal One Sith infiltrators, whom had gathered as an army once more in an attempt to crush Wredd and his allies, where they were killed in the Battle of the Floating World by the arriving forces of the Imperial Knights. Wredd himself fell to yet another descendant of Anakin Skywalker; the spacer Ania Solo.

Unlike the previous incarnation of the Sith, Krayt abolished the Rule of Two, Darth Bane's ancient dictate commanding that there could be only two Sith at any one time—Master and apprentice, as well as the organization of the Old Sith Empire, where individuals would constantly fight for power. Instead, there would be the Rule of One—that One being the Sith Order itself, under which there would be many Sith, all trained to follow the Dark Lord of the Sith with blind obedience, even at the cost of their own lives. Eschewing the unisex usage of Lord by the Order of Darth Bane, the One Sith restored the title of Sith Lady for its female members, such as Lady Maladi, Lady Rauder or Lady Talon.

Among the One Sith of both sexes, those who had proven both their power and loyalty were bestowed the title and rank of Darth.

Sith Intelligence and Assassination was an organization within the One Sith tasked with information gathering, interrogation and political assassination intended to further the goals of the Dark Lord of the Sith and strengthen its power. By the time of the Sith–Imperial War and the subsequent insurgency, it was lead by Darth Maladi and counted both Sith Lords like Darth Kruhl and acolytes like Jor Torlin amongst its numbers.

Hand was the name Darth Krayt gave to his personal assassins. Lord Krayt bestowed this rank only to his most loyal and deadliest followers, such as Darth Talon. Darth Nihl also held the title of Hand because Darth Talon's training was not complete when the previous Hand perished during the Massacre at Ossus. After Lord Nihl was demoted, Krayt named Darth Stryfe his new Hand.

Fist was the title held by the Sith Lord who served as the supreme commander of the Sith military forces. During the Sith-Imperial War, Darth Nihl held the title of Fist, but when he was given the rank of Hand, Darth Stryfe became the new Fist.

The Sith Lord who held the ranks of Voice and Regent was the second in command of the One Sith, serving as advisor to the Dark Lord of the Sith and as his caretaker and mouthpiece during Lord Krayt's periods in stasis. This title was held by the line of Chagrian Sith Lords known as Darth Wyyrlok. By the time of the Second Imperial Civil War, there had been three Darth Wyyrloks, while the fourth in line, Saarai, underwent Sith training in Korriban.

After the disappearance of Darth Krayt's body, Darth Wyyrlok promoted Darth Nihl as the new Voice so as to keep his loyalty after his self-elevation as ruler of the Sith and the Empire.

The Loremaster was a Sith Lord who kept the number of Sith artifacts and records attained by the Order. The third Darth Wyyrlok also held this position, and was an expert in the history of the Sith and the Order's many incarnations throughout the millennia.

Inquisitors were Sith Lords responsible for extracting information of enemy prisoners. They employed a number of techniques, ranging from imprisonment and interrogation to torture. Darth Havok was an Inquisitor within the order.

Sith troopers were strong Force-sensitives beings, who were secretly chosen by Darth Krayt shortly after their birth and augmented through cybernetic implants in order to turn them into servants of unquestionable loyalty and obedience to Krayt and the dark side.

John Ostrander has stated that "We haven't come up with a definite number [for the Sith] but it's certainly over 1,000, probably over 10,000. […] It's not that they outnumber [the Jedi]. They're more cohesive and they have a better power base."

On the page 156 of the Legacy Era Campaign Guide there is an error, which states that Krayt's order was secretly growing in power on Coruscant instead of Korriban.

• Battle of the Sith Lords