Sith Lord

History

The Era of the Old Republic

The Sith, an ancient order originating with a renegade Jedi during the Hundred-Year Darkness, utilized the dark side of the Force and opposed the Jedi. Each Sith Lord incorporated the title Darth into their name, with "Darth" roughly equating to "Dark Lord." The designation Dark Lord of the Sith itself was a title employed by the Sith Order's leaders. During the period of the Old Republic, numerous individuals held the position of Sith Lord and engaged in countless conflicts against the Jedi Order. However, their numbers diminished due to internal strife, which the Jedi exploited, ultimately leading to the Sith's defeat and near annihilation by the Jedi. Following Darth Bane's establishment of the Rule of Two, Sith doctrine mandated that only two Sith Lords—a master and an apprentice—could exist at any given time.

High Republic Jedi Murders

During the High Republic Era, Darth Plagueis, a Sith Lord trained by Darth Tenebrous, adopted a former human Jedi as his apprentice. This human became a Sith Lord under Plagueis's guidance, functioning as a Sith warrior. This individual would later assert that he possessed no name, identifying himself solely as "the Stranger." Around 148 BBY, the Stranger, presenting himself as the Master, encountered and enlisted Mae-ho Aniseya, the lone survivor of Mother Aniseya's coven of witches.

This self-proclaimed "Master" rigorously trained Mae in the ways of the Force, designating her as his Sith acolyte. In 132 BBY, he assigned her a mission to assassinate four Jedi who had been stationed on her homeworld of Brendok at the time of her coven's destruction. Mae successfully eliminated her initial two targets, first by ambushing Jedi Master Indara on Ueda and subsequently by manipulating Master Torbin into dying by suicide within the Olega Jedi temple, thereby attracting the attention of and causing significant concern within the Jedi Order. After discerning the connection between Indara and Torbin, a Jedi Order council led by Masters Vernestra Rwoh, Ki-Adi-Mundi, and Holden resolved to conceal the matter from the Jedi High Council, as doing so would necessitate informing the Galactic Senate. Instead, they assembled a task force, headed by Master Sol and comprised 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 journeyed to Khofar, the residence of the third Jedi from Brendok, Master Kelnacca. Unbeknownst to them, Mae was already present on the planet with the Stranger, who had adopted the guise of Qimir, a friend of Mae and purported associate of the Sith Lord. The pair advanced towards Kelnacca's shelter ahead of the Jedi, but before they arrived Mae deceived Qimir and lured him to one of Kelnacca's traps, having resolved to betray the Master and surrender to the Jedi. The Stranger extricated himself from the trap, donned his cortosis armor, and reached Kelnacca's shelter before Mae, killing the Wookiee and awaiting Mae's confrontation. Mae, however, arrived simultaneously with the Jedi group, who witnessed the Stranger. To maintain the secrecy of his existence, the Sith ignited his lightsaber and attacked them, eliminating the entire team except for Sol, Osha, and their tracker Bazil.

With Mae exchanging places with her sister, the Stranger transported Osha back to his island hideaway and attempted to entice her to the dark side as his new acolyte. Both eventually made their way to Mae and Osha's homeworld of Brendok, with their departure secretly witnessed by Plagueis. On Brendok, where Sol had also arrived with Mae, the Stranger engaged Sol in a duel while Osha and Mae came to blows. However, upon learning that Sol himself had killed their mother years prior, Osha herself killed the Jedi Master and fell under the sway of the dark side. With Mae's blessing, the Stranger wiped Mae's memory of her sister while Osha departed back to the island with the Stranger, who sought to train her as a new Sith acolyte. Meanwhile, Jedi Master Vernestra Rwoh covered up the recent Jedi murders as Sol betraying the Order and began a hunt for the Stranger, whom she had sensed on Brendok before his departure, with the amnesic Mae.

Republic's Final Years

Eventually, Darth Plagueis acquired an apprentice named Darth Sidious, who subsequently murdered Plagueis and chose his own apprentice, Darth Maul. Sidious's alias, Sheev Palpatine, assumed the role of senator of Naboo to infiltrate, deceive, and ultimately dismantle the Jedi and Galactic Republic. Sidious initiated the groundwork for what would become the Confederacy of Independent Systems by forging an alliance with the Trade Federation, a corporation directed by Viceroy Nute Gunray. Sidious persuaded the Trade Federation to deploy their army of battle droids to blockade and invade the peaceful planet of Naboo, with the objective of removing Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum and installing Palpatine as Chancellor. While the invasion failed and Maul was apparently killed by a Jedi Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Palpatine was elected as Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic.

The Sith then resurfaced a decade later. Darth Tyranus, Darth Sidious' apprentice, convened with Gunray and other influential figures on Geonosis. They supported the Confederacy of Independent Systems, thereby initiating the outbreak of the Clone Wars against the Republic. Numerous other Sith were also active during the war, including Sidious's former apprentice Maul, Tyranus's initial apprentice Asajj Ventress, and Tyranus's second apprentice and Maul's brother Savage Opress. Given Sidious's dual roles as Chancellor of the Republic and master of Tyranus, the Separatists' Head of State, he could manipulate both sides of the war to advance his own schemes. A number of other Sith agents were also active during the war: Asajj Ventress served as a Sith Acolyte, one of Tyranus' disciples, as did Savage Opress. Both were ultimately cast aside, with Opress becoming the pupil of the returned Maul. The two Sith warriors established the nefarious organization known as the Shadow Collective, but were soon defeated by Sidious, who considered them a threat. The machinations of the reigning Sith Lords culminated in Order 66 and the establishment of the Galactic Empire, at the cost of Tyranus' life.

Empire's Rule

Shortly after Tyranus was sacrificed and betrayed by Sidious, Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker succumbed to the dark side and became Sidious's new apprentice, receiving the name "Vader" which was preceded by the moniker Darth. With the Great Jedi Purge underway, Sidious solidified his dominion over the galaxy as the self-proclaimed Galactic Emperor, while Vader served as his forces' Commander-in-Chief.

Years into the Imperial Era, Governor Wilhuff Tarkin and Lord Vader supervised 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.

Aftermath

The millennial lineage originating with Darth Bane concluded with the demise of the final Sith Lord, Darth Vader. Unbeknownst 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 reinstate the Sith Order through Vader's grandson, Kylo Ren and his granddaughter, Rey. Upon Ren's arrival on Exegol, he heard the voices of long-dead Sith Lords—Locphet, Mindran, Felkor, Naga Sadow, and Sissiri—and encountered Sidious, who had been preparing 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 tyranny of the Sith by destroying Sidious.