Darth Bane

Originating from Moraband, the ancient homeworld of the Sith, Darth Bane, a [Dark Lord of the Sith](/article/dark_lord_of_the_sith] of great renown, existed during the dark age of the Old Republic, one thousand years before the Clone Wars. During his time, the Sith Order's numbers were nearly equal to those of the Jedi Order; at their peak, the Sith's influence had spread across the galaxy. However, the Sith were often driven by their own desires for power, and it was common for them to turn against each other in combat.

While serving in the Sith Empire, which was known as the Brotherhood of Darkness, Bane came to the realization that infighting and the greed of other dark side warriors created a significant vulnerability. This internal conflict ultimately contributed to the defeat of their order at the Mid Rim planet Ruusan in 1032 BBY, where the Jedi nearly wiped out the weakened Sith. Bane emerged as the only survivor of the Jedi-Sith War, orchestrating the eradication of all other Sith.

Bane understood that the old Sith ways were failing and resolved to guarantee the Sith's survival. To accomplish this, he developed a new Sith philosophy that superseded the older doctrine of the dyad in the Force, a rare and potent Force-bond shared by two individuals. Instead of amassing a new army of Sith Lords, Bane's Rule of Two stipulated that only two Sith could exist at any one time: a Sith Master who embodied power and a Sith apprentice who craved it. Only by killing their master could the Sith apprentice earn that title and choose their own apprentice, or they could perish trying, proving their unworthiness of the Sith legacy, and be replaced. These Sith would favor the shady tactics of trickery and scheming to destroy their enemies rather than outright force.

The purpose of Bane's decree, and the new structure it established, was to secure the Sith Order's continued existence. The Rule of Two acknowledged the inherent ambition for power within Sith philosophy and used it as a means of succession from one Sith Master to the next. Consequently, the Rule of Two encouraged Sith apprentices to seize the power they had been trained to desire by overthrowing their masters, who were obligated to anticipate signs of betrayal while imparting agonizing lessons to their apprentices.

The implementation of the Rule of Two coincided with the creation of a plot, known as the Grand Plan, for the Sith to corrupt the Galactic Republic from within, degrade and discredit the Jedi Order, and ultimately rise to conquer the galaxy. The Sith would weaken their adversaries before targeting them for total domination. Believing that the new principle would prevent the power of the dark side from destroying the Sith Order, Bane accepted Darth Zannah as his apprentice and began to share his knowledge. The Jedi became aware of Bane's new philosophy and mistakenly believed that Bane's demise marked the permanent end of the Sith, ushering in a prolonged era of peace under the governance of a reformed Galactic Republic. However, Bane's plans persisted through his apprentice, who killed the Sith Master to claim his place. Although historical accounts are unclear regarding the identity of Bane's apprentice or the exact circumstances of his death, it was rumored that Zannah killed Bane in a duel—a pattern that nearly all Sith repeated afterward—which took place on the Inner Rim planet of Ambria.

Following Bane's death, his remains were entombed in a sarcophagus adorned with runic inscriptions in the ur-Kittât language within the Valley of the Dark Lords on Moraband, rumored to be haunted by a fiery spectral image of the deceased Dark Lord. Furthermore, a colossal statue of Bane in his armor was erected at the end of his massive burial chamber. Bane was the last Sith Lord to be interred on Moraband.

Darth Bane, one of the most infamous Sith Lords, is regarded as the founder of the modern Sith, who continued their pursuit of revenge, operating in secrecy as they plotted their return to galactic dominance. These plans were carried out by Darth Sidious, publicly known as Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, who orchestrated the Clone Wars to expand his power over the Galactic Republic. He also manipulated the war—fought between the Republic and the Separatist Alliance—to force the Jedi to compromise their principles as they served as leaders in the Grand Army of the Republic. This would enable him to justify his eventual destruction of the Jedi Order. Sidious also possessed a personal protocol droid named 11-4D that he inherited from his Sith Master, Darth Plagueis, and the droid's memory bank contained information about the former strongholds of ancient Sith Lords, such as Darth Bane's tomb on Moraband.

During the war, in 19 BBY, Jedi Grand Master Yoda ventured to Moraband on a quest to uncover the secrets of immortality. He entered Bane's tomb and encountered a fiery apparition of the ancient Dark Lord. As part of Yoda's trial to learn the power of immortality, the apparition attempted to persuade the Jedi Master to embrace the dark side. Yoda refused, stating that Bane was deceased and that what stood before him was merely an illusion offering nothing of value. Yoda's defiance banished the screaming specter back into the sarcophagus, and Yoda continued his journey. The Jedi Master's journey to Moraband was later documented in a series of hand-drawn maps believed to be created by the Ithorian artist Gammit Chond, along with an illustration of Darth Bane's fiery specter. These maps were eventually restored and compiled in the Graf Archive on the moon Orchis 2 sometime after 34 ABY.

The end of the war in 19 BBY, one thousand years after Bane's death, marked the culmination of the Sith's millennium-long vendetta against the Jedi. Sidious declared himself Emperor and transformed the Republic into the Galactic Empire. To eliminate the Jedi, he issued Order 66, a command implanted in the clone troopers of the Grand Army of the Republic to execute the Jedi as traitors. Furthermore, Sidious seduced Jedi Knight [Anakin Skywalker](/article/anakin_skywalker], whom the Jedi believed to be the Chosen One of prophecy destined to bring balance to the Force and destroy the Sith, to the dark side. Skywalker assumed the Sith title of Darth Vader, and the Grand Plan set in motion by Darth Bane a millennium prior was thus fulfilled by Sidious, who was subsequently recognized as the greatest Sith Lord after Bane.

Between 3–4 ABY, Luke Skywalker, a Jedi trainee and Vader's distant son, journeyed to the planet Gazian in hopes of learning more about the ways of the Jedi. Upon reaching a vergence in the Force known as the Living Sea, Skywalker encountered a duplicate consciousness of a Jedi from the High Republic Era—an imprint of Jedi Master Elzar Mann's mind. Witnessing the Republic and the Jedi Order at their peak, Mann described the Jedi in his time as living in their golden age, approximately eight hundred years after they ended the rule of Darth Bane. Skywalker, already concerned about his lack of knowledge about the Force and the Jedi, interrupted Mann after the latter mentioned Bane, and complained about his struggle to move forward in his life without proper guidance.

Despite achieving their objective of galactic conquest, the Sith victory proved short-lived as the Emperor's reign ended within a generation of his rise to power. During the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY, Vader sacrificed his life to save his son, Luke, killing the Emperor and dying as the last Sith Lord in Darth Bane's lineage. The destiny of the Chosen One was fulfilled, and Anakin Skywalker became one with the Force. With the end of the Sith rule, understanding Bane's tactics and rationale was deemed essential for the Jedi to rebuild their order and prevent the Sith from rising to power once more.

Unbeknownst to the galaxy, however, Sidious was resurrected by transferring his essence through the Force into an imperfect cloned body. He secretly created a Force-sensitive genetic strandcast that became known as Supreme Leader Snoke to govern the First Order, a military regime succeeding Sidious's Empire, as a proxy. Later, Luke Skywalker, the last Jedi in existence, included a reference to Bane and the Rule of Two in a book in which he chronicled the history of the Jedi Order, titled The Secrets of the Jedi. Sidious also mentioned Bane while chronicling Sith history in his book, The Secrets of the Sith. He acknowledged Bane as a great Sith Lord who survived the purge of the ancient Sith and ensured the revival of their Order through the Rule of Two. Additionally, Sidious credited Bane as the founder of a lineage of Sith Lords that culminated in his own rise to power.

Three decades after the Battle of Endor, Kylo Ren, leader of the Knights of Ren and grandson of Darth Vader, betrayed and killed Snoke, who had trained Ren in the ways of the dark side. Ren then seized his late master's title and assumed control of the First Order in an act of ascension worthy of Darth Bane's Rule of Two. One year later, the resurrected Sidious made a failed attempt to restore the Sith Order to its former glory, which led to his final defeat, when his granddaughter Rey used the power of the Jedi that came before her, ultimately leading to Sidious, the Sith, and Bane's long lasting vendetta to be destroyed for good.

Darth Bane, a visionary Sith Lord, was a human male characterized by pale skin and yellow eyes. He firmly believed that strength should triumph over weakness, a philosophy he developed through personal experiences and the study of ancient Sith documents. Having witnessed the destruction of the Sith and recognizing the inherent isolation that arose from serving the dark side, Bane realized that their infighting and greed had caused their downfall. To preserve the Sith as its last survivor, Bane adopted the Rule of Two, believing that limiting the number of Sith to one Master and one apprentice would enable them to survive in secrecy and plot their revenge against the Jedi. Like his successors, Bane instilled fear in the hearts of other beings.

As a former member of the Brotherhood of Darkness and the founder of the Rule of Two, Darth Bane is historically recognized for his military tactics and leadership abilities. Bane, a Sith warrior renowned for his skills in lightsaber combat and the use of intimidation, was an agile, strong, and skilled fighter. While he was a powerful Force wielder and possessed high intelligence, Bane lacked diplomatic skills.

Darth Bane wore ancient Sith armor in the colors of blue, gray, and red, which featured gold etching on it and covered most of his body. Weapons in the Sith Lord's arsenal included a red-bladed lightsaber and a lightsaber pike featuring a fiery-orange blade. Bane additionally owned a T-class long-range personal cruiser named the Valcyn, which was also used by other Sith Lords.

Darth Bane, created by George Lucas as part of the backstory for the Star Wars prequel trilogy, was first mentioned within the Star Wars Legends continuity in the novelization of Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, written by Terry Brooks and published in 1999. The character later made his first appearance in the short story "Bane of the Sith" by Kevin J. Anderson, published in the Star Wars Gamer magazine's third issue on April 17, 2001, and Bane's story was then expanded upon in a number of Legends stories, including a novel trilogy authored by Drew Karpyshyn that focuses on the character as the protagonist.

While the French version of the 2017 reference book Star Wars: Geektionary: The Galaxy from A - Z establishes that Bane hailed from Apatros, which was the case in the Star Wars Legends storytelling, Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Character Encyclopedia - Join the Battle! and Star Wars: The Dark Side Pocket Expert — sourcebooks that were published in 2021 and 2023, respectively — list Moraband as the Sith Lord's homeworld. This article assumes Star Wars: Geektionary is incorrect.

During the writing of "Ghosts of Mortis," the seventeenth episode in the third season of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series, Lucas wanted to include two ancient Sith Lords who could serve as an "uber evil influence guiding the Son," the villain of the episode. The production team decided that Darth Bane and Darth Revan, the main character of the Legends video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, would be the two Sith Lords.

The two characters were styled and modeled for "Ghosts of Mortis" based on their appearances in Star Wars Legends, but the scene, despite being laid out, was never animated. Dave Filoni, the series' supervising director, was apprehensive of the idea that Sith Lords could return as spirits, believing that Bane and Revan's appearance would have greater implications than the episode was exploring. Lucas thought about it as well and eventually agreed that the scene should be removed from the episode due to those implications on his ideas about the Force.

The unrealized scene, titled "Son Confers with Ancient Sith Lords" and released in an uncompleted form in the Jedi Temple Archives feature for Star Wars: The Clone Wars The Complete Season Three, depicts Bane and Revan speaking to the Son in the Well of the Dark Side located in the ethereal realm of Mortis. The Son, who has been guided by the two Sith Lords in the past, questions why he feels pain over the events of the two previous episodes, "Overlords" and "Altar of Mortis," and the Sith Lords tell him it is because he has not embraced his pain and resentment. When the Son demands to know their true identities, the two spirits reveal themselves as Bane and Revan and tell him that controlling Anakin Skywalker, the Chosen One, is the key to controlling the galaxy.

Despite being cut from "Ghosts of Mortis," Darth Bane would eventually make his first canonical appearance, albeit as a specter, in "Sacrifice," the thirteenth and final episode in the sixth season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which first aired on March 7, 2014. Cutting the previously planned appearance allowed the series' team to redesign the character and define what Bane would look like in the new Star Wars canon. The production team wanted Bane's outfit to resemble ancient warrior armor while still featuring futuristic, high-tech elements.

The design of Bane, envisioned by Darren Marshall, showcased a complete armored suit. This armor drew inspiration from samurai armor, a source that also influenced the design of Darth Vader's suit, alongside ancient Chinese medieval armor. Although it didn't make it into the "Sacrifice" episode, the concept art featured a "Sith warrior lightsaber pike" crafted by David Le Merrer; this weapon later surfaced in the 2021 reference book, Star Wars: The Secrets of the Sith. Moreover, Lucasfilm Story Group member Pablo Hidalgo stated that the Force Priestesses were responsible for summoning Bane's specter in the episode.

Mark Hamill, famed for his role as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars saga, lent his voice to Bane's specter. Dave Filoni directed Hamill to record his lines with two distinct vocal inflections to achieve Bane's unique voice in the episode. Subsequently, sound designers Matthew Wood and David Acord combined these recordings. Hamill was unfamiliar with Bane and his place in the broader Star Wars narrative before accepting the role. Nathan Hamill, his son, possessed knowledge of the character's history and enlightened his father upon his casting.

A second confrontation between Darth Bane and Yoda is depicted in the 2017 children's activity book Star Wars: The Doodles Strike Back. The book implies Yoda couldn't defeat Bane alone this time, prompting readers to draw "some Jedi friends" for assistance. Darth Bane also appeared in Fantasy Flight Games' Star Wars: Destiny collectible dice and card game through the 2020 Covert Missions booster pack. Martin de Diego Sádaba, the illustrator of the "Darth Bane—Ancient Master" card, explained that his artwork portrays Bane "keeping the gate to a forgotten Sith temple."

A retelling of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and the original trilogy in the style of Homeric epic poetry is presented in The Odyssey of Star Wars: An Epic Poem, a book from 2021. It offers an alternative version of the scene in Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back where Vader communicates with the Emperor via hologram. The epic poem depicts the Emperor instructing Vader to remember Bane's restoration of the Sith Order and his establishment of the Rule of Two. This conversation, unlike in the film, takes place before the Empire discovers the rebel base on Hoth. The Odyssey of Star Wars also states that Sidious maintained matching statues of Darth Bane and the nameless founder of the Sith Order in his throne room on the second Death Star battle station. These statues were crafted from the strongest [crystal], with Bane's statue showcasing him in his [iron] armor. Jack Mitchell, the book's author, clarified that these statues serve as ekphrastic tools, offering background information interwoven into the story, and shouldn't be taken as strictly canonical facts.