Sith apprentice

Sith Lords demanded unwavering allegiance from their apprentices, yet were prepared to betray and supplant them should they perceive greater potential in another. Apprentices who were younger were prime candidates for masters seeking to draw individuals to the dark side of the Force, due to their lack of the emotional discipline possessed by a fully trained Jedi Knight. Youthful and inexperienced individuals were more readily corrupted and molded to serve the aims of the Sith. According to the tenets of the Rule of Two, a Sith apprentice was obligated to eventually eliminate their master and assume their position. The newly instated Sith Master would then select an apprentice of their own to impart the teachings of the Sith. This framework ensured the Sith Order progressively enhanced its cunning and strength across generations, remaining concealed rather than repeating the internal conflicts arising from an overabundance of Sith at any one time. An apprentice was permitted to train a disposable dark side operative known as a Sith acolyte, whom they were expected to prevent from becoming a true Sith, thereby ensuring only two Sith Lords existed concurrently.

Should a Sith apprentice fail in their attempt to overthrow their master, they would likely be killed in the process, thereby proving their unworthiness of the Sith lineage and compelling the master to seek a new apprentice. Furthermore, a Sith Master might scheme to intervene and replace their apprentice with a more promising student. An outsider seeking to claim the title of Sith apprentice could attempt to prove their worth by assassinating the current apprentice. In their endeavor to usurp their master, an apprentice might defy the Rule of Two by prematurely training their own apprentice—perhaps by elevating their Sith acolyte beyond the designated parameters—to enlist their aid in overthrowing the master.

In the aftermath of the internal strife among the Sith, the surviving Sith Lord Darth Bane established the Rule of Two, decreeing that there should only ever be two: a master to embody power and an apprentice to covet it. Bane then took an apprentice, Darth Zannah, who managed to elude the Jedi Order when they seemingly killed Bane, although rumors suggested that Zannah herself had slain Bane in a lightsaber duel on Ambria. Presumed extinct by the Jedi, the Sith persisted and upheld this tradition for over a millennium. Throughout the ages of covert operations against the Jedi, Sith apprentices traditionally employed specialized starships known as Sith Infiltrators.

Prior to the Invasion of Naboo, the Sith Lord Darth Sidious underwent training by Darth Plagueis. Together, they aspired to achieve immortality and jointly govern the galaxy as equals within a new Sith Empire. However, Sidious betrayed and assassinated Plagueis in his sleep after acquiring all the knowledge he sought. The Sith and their practices endured through Sidious and his own apprentice, Darth Maul, son of the Nightsister Mother Talzin.

During Maul's training, Sidious brought him to Malachor, a planet that had been ravaged by the conflict between the ancient Jedi and Sith. While the young Zabrak's animosity towards the Jedi was sanctioned by his master, who recognized the strength his disciple derived from it, the latter sought to instruct his apprentice to temper his bloodlust with patience, lest reckless actions on Coruscant reveal the Sith's resurgence to the Jedi Order. The ensuing Force vision experienced by Maul taught him that rage alone was insufficient to overcome the Jedi, who possessed advantages in numbers and the trust of the Galactic Republic.

Although Maul survived his encounter with Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi, Sidious proceeded with the Grand Plan and replaced him by enlisting a new apprentice, the Count of Serenno and former Jedi Master Dooku. Dooku had already been collaborating with Sidious but had yet to fully embrace the dark side. Despite his reservations, he believed he was working towards a better galaxy and operated under the alias "Tyranus." He even assassinated his friend, Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas, thereby seizing control of his clone army with Sidious's assistance. Following the duel in the Works, Dooku fully submitted to Sidious as his new apprentice, Darth Tyranus, through whom Sidious manipulated the Confederacy of Independent Systems. However, Sidious regarded Tyranus not as a true apprentice, but rather as a temporary expedient and a tool for fostering instability.

Dooku also enlisted the bounty hunter Jango Fett to serve as the clone template, and around this period, he erased the data concerning Kamino from the Jedi Archives. The Sith Lord further secured the success of the Grand Plan, allowing the Separatist Crisis to escalate into the Clone Wars before personally delivering the blueprints for the ultimate weapon to his master on Coruscant. For three years, the Count of Serenno led the Confederacy in opposition to the Republic. During this era, Tyranus took the Dathomirian assassin Asajj Ventress under his tutelage, designating her as his dark acolyte in what could be construed as a violation of the Rule of Two. Ventress was effectively the Count's Sith apprentice but could not formally claim the title of Sith Lord.

During a mission on the planet Cato Neimoidia, Ventress attempted to recruit and abduct a Jedi youngling named Mill Alibeth, promising to liberate her from the Jedi's teachings and ensure she received training under a true master. However, she was compelled to flee and abandon her plan to kidnap Alibeth. Despite Ventress's efforts to prove herself worthy of becoming his apprentice and a true Sith, Tyranus was forced to dismiss her during the Battle of Sullust when Sidious grew suspicious of their relationship, realizing that Dooku was grooming her to become a Sith apprentice in order to usurp Sidious's position under the Rule of Two.

Dooku subsequently sought a new apprentice on Dathomir, Ventress's homeworld, where he discovered the Nightbrother Savage Opress, whom he took on as his next dark acolyte. With Opress at his side, Tyranus resumed his plan to eventually overthrow Sidious until the Count discovered that the Zabrak was part of his former pupil's scheme to exact revenge upon him. He later attempted to sway the undercover Jedi Master Quinlan Vos to the dark side, believing they could jointly overthrow Sidious as master and apprentice. Unlike his other two disciples, the Count assured him that he would become a true Dark Lord of the Sith. However, Vos would betray Tyranus after the latter killed his lover Ventress with Force lightning.

Tyranus remained Sidious's apprentice while Opress's training was continued by his brother Maul. Their claim to the mantle of the Sith prompted the true Dark Lord to confront his former apprentice, resulting in Opress's death and Maul's capture. Sidious ultimately sacrificed and betrayed Tyranus in favor of a younger and more powerful apprentice with greater potential, Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, who was also the Chosen One destined to restore balance to the Force by destroying the Sith. After manipulating Anakin with promises of granting him the power to save his wife and convincing him that the Jedi were hindering him, Sidious successfully turned Skywalker to the dark side. Skywalker pledged his allegiance to Sidious, becoming a Sith apprentice under the name of Darth Vader.

However, Vader was unable to realize his full potential after sustaining severe injuries in a duel with his former master Obi-Wan Kenobi. They governed the Galactic Empire for a generation, with Sidious as the Galactic Emperor and Vader, his apprentice, serving as the de facto Commander-in-Chief. Before considering Vader's son Luke Skywalker as his apprentice, Grand Master Yoda entered the Cave of Evil on the planet Dagobah, where he was in exile, to confront his fears. As part of the vision, an illusion of Sidious mocked Yoda for failing to recognize the Sith Grand Plan when he had the opportunity, proclaiming Yoda as the greatest of his apprentices. However, through a vision of the boy Bree Menaren, Yoda was reminded that hope always persisted and triumphed over the illusions, thus preparing him for his impending mentorship of the young Skywalker.

During the Galactic Civil War, Vader attempted to persuade Skywalker to become his apprentice and jointly rule the galaxy as family. After failing to turn Skywalker to the dark side and enduring a trial on Mustafar, a damaged Vader journeyed to Sidious's hidden Sith world of Exegol, where Sidious was served by numerous Sith cultists and concealed secrets, such as a genetically engineered force of warriors known as the Tankers. Discovering Exegol via a Wayfinder and declaring that he was no longer Sidious's apprentice upon arrival, Vader turned against his Sith Master and attempted to hunt him down. Upon encountering the Tankers, Sidious's servant Ochi of Bestoon, whom Vader had pressed into his own service, assumed they were additional Sith and, therefore, violations of the Rule of Two. Although Sidious taunted Vader with the assertion that the Tankers could replace him should he fall, Vader rebuked both Ochi's and Sidious's remarks. Engaging four Tankers and even falling through the floor, Vader ultimately killed all four. Then, confronted by a horde of Sith cultists, whom Sidious also heralded as potential replacements for Vader, Vader used the Force to turn the hordes' own daggers against them, cutting down all.

After discovering the Final Order fleet and a massive kyber crystal being harvested by his servants, Vader resubmitted to Sidious upon witnessing the immense power at his master's disposal: Sidious directed the crystal's power at Vader, forcing him to witness the "ultimate power" of the dark side. While he experienced a vision of his son informing him that it was his destiny to overthrow the Emperor, Vader was left with the conviction that only two Sith could exist, thereby compelling him to hunt down and kill his own son in order to share in the true power of the Sith as Sidious's apprentice; according to Sidious's claims, only as a Sith apprentice consumed by pain could Vader share in his ultimate power. Following a skirmish against Skywalker in the battle over Jekara and suppressing Crimson Dawn's war against the Sith alongside his master in the Battle at Amaxine Station, Vader would once again betray his master during the Scourge crisis: delving into his self-hatred to reestablish his connection to the Force after the Force Wave and thwart the Scourge threat on Mustafar, Vader rediscovered his hatred for Sidious and ventured to Coruscant to test Sidious's own abilities.

While he still acknowledged Sidious as his master, Vader attacked the Emperor at the Imperial Palace and unleashed the Scourge on Coruscant itself. With Sidious swiftly containing the Scourge of Coruscant and defeating his apprentice, Sidious revealed that, as long as Vader attempted to augment his power through hatred, his own power would increase by thriving off his apprentice's hate: as the Scourge would reason to Vader, it was impossible to overthrow the Emperor with his hatred as his power source. At that juncture, the Scourge knew that Vader's greatest desire was to overthrow the master who had repeatedly humiliated him. Vader briefly allied with the Scourge and attempted to create his own version of the virus in the name of opposing his master, yet his efforts failed, and he was unable to control it. Vader then attempted to overthrow his master by joining the ranks of the rogue Schism Imperial. Together, they launched an assault on Exegol. Vader also resumed his efforts to turn his son to the dark side as his apprentice.

Vader's schemes would ultimately fail: by the time of the Battle of Endor, Vader believed it was futile to resist his master and that he had no alternative but to obey the Sith Lord. Additionally, Sidious had plans similar to Vader's for Skywalker: he intended to replace Vader with Skywalker. Despite the tenets of the Rule of Two, which implied Skywalker would need to be his or the Emperor's apprentice alone if Skywalker was involved at all, Vader believed that they would turn Skywalker to the dark side as a third member of their order. Sidious betrayed Vader by attempting to provoke Skywalker into killing his father to assume his place as a Sith apprentice, but Skywalker resisted the dark side and inspired Vader to revert to Anakin and destroy his master at the cost of his own life. With the presumed destruction of Sidious and the Sith, the now-redeemed Anakin brought balance to the Force, thus fulfilling his destiny as the Chosen One.

After returning from death, Sidious conspired to train Vader's grandson, Kylo Ren, by using the strandcast Snoke as a proxy master. Although Ren was not a Sith, he was a product of Sith teachings as well as Jedi training.

It was customary for a dark side apprentice to kill his master in order to achieve his ascendancy. However, Sidious managed to bypass this custom by having Snoke die in his place. Ren sought to destroy Sidious, who considered himself to be Ren's true master, having sworn to never serve another master after Luke Skywalker and Snoke. By then, Ren aspired to rule the galaxy as the new Emperor and Master of the Knights of Ren.