Sith Lord, also known as a Lord of the Sith, was a title conferred upon individuals who followed the Sith tradition. Sith Lords drew upon the dark side of the Force, using it to gain power.
The title "Darth" was given to newly christened Sith Lords in place of their old identities. It roughly translated to "Dark Lord."
Founded by a rogue Jedi during the Hundred-Year Darkness, the Sith were an ancient order who used the dark side of the Force and fought the Jedi. During the days of the Old Republic, many individuals held the mantle of Sith Lord and fought countless wars against the Jedi Order. However, their numbers began to dwindle due to infighting, which the Jedi took advantage of, ultimately resulting in the Sith being defeated and nearly destroyed by the Jedi. After Darth Bane established the Rule of Two, Sith tradition dictated that there could only be two Sith Lords—a master and an apprentice—at any given time.
The Master was behind a series of Jedi killings during the High Republic era.
By 148 BBY, a Sith Lord claiming to have no name but identifying himself as the Master came in contact with and recruited Mae-ho Aniseya, the sole surviving witch of mother Aniseya's coven. The Master trained Mae extensively in the ways of the Force and in 132 BBY he tasked her with a mission to assassinate four Jedi that had been stationed in her home planet Brendok at the time of her coven's destruction. Mae succeeded in killing her first two targets, first by ambushing Jedi Master Indara on Ueda and then by coercing Master Torbin to die by suicide in the Olega Jedi temple, attracting the attention of and causing significant concern to the Jedi Order.
After identifying the connection between Indara and Torbin, a Jedi Order panel led by Masters Vernestra Rwoh, Ki-Adi-Mundi, and Holden decided to keep the matter a secret from the Jedi High Council, as they would be required to notify the Galactic Senate of the matter. Instead they assembled a task force, led by Master Sol and consisting of his Padawan Jecki Lon, Jedi Knights Yord Fandar and Ithia Paan as well as another Jedi and Mae's sister Verosha Aniseya who Sol believed could approach Mae without risk. The team traveled to Khofar, where the third Jedi from Brendok, Master Kelnacca lived. Unbeknownst to them, Mae was already on the planet with the Master, who had assumed the persona of Qimir, a friend of Mae and supposed associate of the Sith Lord. The pair made their way to Kelnacca's shelter before the Jedi did, but before they reached it Mae tricked Qimir and drew him to one of Kelnacca's taps having decided to betray the Master and surrender to the Jedi. The Master freed himself from the trap, donned his cortosis armor and reached Kelnacca's shelter before Mae, killing the Wookiee and waiting for Mae to confront her. Mae, however, arrived at the same time as the group of the Jedi, who witnessed the Master. To keep his existence a secret, the Sith drew his lightsaber and attacked them, killing the entire team save for Sol, Osha, and their tracker Bazil.
Darth Sidious and Darth Maul were Sith Lords during the late era of the Galactic Republic.
In the years leading up to the Invasion of Naboo, the Sith Lord Darth Plagueis, who had been trained by Darth Tenebrous, was killed by his apprentice Darth Sidious, who also took on his own apprentice, Darth Maul. Sidious' alter ego Sheev Palpatine became the senator of Naboo in order to inflitrate, deceive and eventually destroy the Jedi and Galactic Republic. Sidious planted the seeds for what would become the Confederacy of Independent Systems by forming an alliance with the Trade Federation, a corporation led by Viceroy Nute Gunray. Sidious convinced the Trade Federation to use their army of battle droids to blockade and invade the peaceful planet of Naboo, in order to unseat Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum and have Palpatine become the Chancellor. The invasion failed and Maul was seemingly killed by a Jedi Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi, but Palpatine was elected as Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic.
The Sith then resurfaced ten years later. Darth Tyranus, Darth Sidious' apprentice, met with Gunray and other influential magnates on Geonosis. They supported the Confederacy of Independent Systems, leading to the start of the Clone Wars against the Republic. A number of other Sith were also active during the war, such as Sidious' former apprentice Maul, Tyranus' first apprentice Asajj Ventress, and Tyranus' second apprentice and Maul's brother Savage Opress. Due to Sidious being both Chancellor of the Republic and the master of Tyranus, the Separatists' Head of State, he was able to manipulate both sides of the war to suit his own schemes. A number of other Sith agents were also active during the war: Asajj Ventress served as a Sith Acolyte, one Tyranus' disciples, as did Savage Opress. Both were ultimately cast aside, with Opress becoming the pupil of the returned Maul. The two Sith warriors founded the nefarious organization of the Shadow Collective, but were soon defeated by Sidious, who viewed them as a threat. The machinations of the reigning Sith Lords led to Order 66 and the establishment of the Galactic Empire, at the cost of Tyranus' life.
The Galactic Empire was ruled by the Sith Lords Darth Sidious and Darth Vader.
Not long after Tyranus was sacrificed and betrayed by Sidious, Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker turned to the dark side and became Sidious' new apprentice, receiving the name "Vader" which was preceded by the moniker Darth, roughly translated as "Dark Lord." With the Great Jedi Purge in effect, Sidious consolidated his power over the galaxy as the self-proclaimed Galactic Emperor, while Vader would act as his forces' Commander-in-Chief.
Years into the Imperial Era, Governor Wilhuff Tarkin and Lord Vader oversaw the deployment of the Death Star battle station. However, the Rebel Alliance destroyed it along with Grand Moff Tarkin during the Battle of Yavin. The Rebels then continued to defy Imperial rule for a further five years, leading to the Battle of Endor with the destruction of the DS-2 Death Star II Mobile Battle Station and both Sith Lords. As the battle turned in the Alliance's favor, Vader sacrificed his life by killing his master in order to protect his son, Luke Skywalker, thereby renouncing the dark side, fulfilling his role as the Chosen One, and dying as Anakin Skywalker.
Kylo Ren aspired to become a Sith Lord like his grandfather, Darth Vader, before him.
The thousand-year lineage that started with Darth Bane came to an end with the demise of the last Sith Lord, Darth Vader. Unknown to the galaxy, Darth Sidious was resurrected when his consciousness transferred to a clone body on the desolate planet Exegol, where his followers, the Sith Eternal cult, preserved the teachings of the Sith religion. In addition to a Sith fleet known as the Final Order, the Sith Eternal trained an army of Sith troopers, divided into legions that were named after ancient Sith Lords, such as Revan, Andeddu, Darth Tanis, Darth Tenebrous, Phobos, and Desolous.
The Dark Lord sought to restore the Sith Order through Vader's grandson, Kylo Ren and his granddaughter, Rey. When Ren journeyed to Exegol, he heard the whispers of Sith Lords long dead—Locphet, Mindran, Felkor, Naga Sadow, and Sissiri—and met Sidious, who had been grooming him for use in his plans for decades. Ren was not a Sith Lord, but he embodied the Sith Order's teachings as well as those of the Jedi Order. Sidious doubted that Ren could overcome his connection to the light side of the Force, but still tasked him with killing Rey as a final chance to prove himself. Despite Ren's intention of becoming the new Dark Lord of the Sith, for which he had been groomed to inherit through the machinations of the Sith Eternal, he ultimately rejected the dark side like his grandfather before him. During the Battle of Exegol, Rey prevented the return of the Sith by destroying her grandfather Sidious.
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