The Sith Empire represented a form of empire governed by Force-sensitive religious practitioners known as the Sith. Across numerous iterations, this entity at times held sway over a significant portion of the galaxy. It frequently engaged in conflict with both the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order through a series of wars and battles, encompassing events like the Great Hyperspace War, the Great Sith Wars, the Great Scourge of Malachor, and the Crusade of Krath, among other clashes, until its ultimate downfall.
Nonetheless, its influence persisted, as the Sith eventually reobtained galactic dominance towards the conclusion of the Clone Wars by founding the Galactic Empire. Following the collapse of this government during the Galactic Civil War, cultists during the era of the New Republic toiled with the aim of resurrecting the ancient Sith Empire.
Before the Galactic Civil War, various governments led by the Sith existed, all sharing the designation of the Sith Empire. Approximately 5,000 years prior to the Imperial Era, the Sith Empire participated in the Great Hyperspace War against the Galactic Republic, an event triggered by the advancement of hyperdrive technology and faster-than-light travel. By the time of the Imperial Era, this once-mythical conflict was chronicled in the semi-historical Qel-Droma Epics.
As detailed in the Qel-Droma Epics, shortly after its formation, a Sith Empire invaded Empress Teta, a planet situated in the Deep Core. Sith forces were under the command of the Sith Lord Naga Sadow. This invasion prompted Empress Teta to form an alliance with the Jedi Order, the sworn adversaries of the Sith. The resulting conflict, known as the Great Hyperspace War, saw the Jedi and Empress Teta purportedly repel Sadow's forces, leading to their defeat and the subsequent scattering of the Sith throughout the galaxy. The Qel-Droma Epics also recount an incident where Naga Sadow devastated the Jedi world of Ossus by triggering the stars within the Cron Cluster, resulting in the Cron Supernova, which left Ossus barren and scarred.
In another instance, a Sith Empire maintained a presence on the Sith world of Malachor. Upon its surface stood a Sith Temple, housing a superweapon created by Darth Tanis. Ultimately, the Jedi Order launched an invasion of the planet, an event known as the Great Scourge of Malachor. During the ensuing battle between the Jedi and the thousands of Sith warriors led by a Sith witch of the Sith Empire, the superweapon activated, petrifying the planet's surface and killing all combatants.
Around 4,000 BBY (either during or after), a Sith Emperor held dominion over the Sith Empire. His chambers were once decorated with the Great Sith Wars Bas-Relief. At one point, the Sith managed to seize control of the majority of the galaxy. As a consequence, gemstones were traded without restriction, which led to market saturation and a decline in their value, prompting the implementation of bans and limitations. Additionally, many iterations of the Sith Empire were constructed utilizing slave labor. According to legend, Serenno was one particular planet under the control of a Sith Empire, until a victorious charge led by a member of House Serenno resulted in its overthrow. Around 3650 BBY, a Sith Empire engaged in the Sith Wars against the Galactic Republic and the Chiss Ascendancy. In the millennia preceding the Galactic Civil War, which spanned from 4 BBY to 5 ABY, various Sith Empires exerted control over the planet Auratera following an initial invasion. Control of the world shifted between the Republic and the Sith depending on who controlled the nearby regions.
Furthermore, the Qel-Droma Epics recount that, a millennium after the Great Hyperspace War, corrupt descendants of Empress Teta's nobility established the Krath, a dark side cult, after being empowered by Sith artifacts. Ulic Qel-Droma, a Jedi Knight, infiltrated the group after they initiated a bloody crusade against the Jedi Order. However, he succumbed to the dark side of the Force and, alongside the fallen Jedi Exar Kun, led the Krath. Together, they transformed Empress Teta into a stronghold for a resurgent Sith Empire.
The Brotherhood of Darkness was a Sith army that eventually participated in the Jedi-Sith War. The Sith Brotherhood remained active on Auratera until its collapse, marking the end of the last Sith Empire. The planet's inhabitants coordinated with the Jedi to secretly alter official Republic records, misclassifying the system as uninhabitable. Consequently, the inhabitants and the planet became largely isolated from the rest of the galaxy, severing ties with the few remaining trading partners they had when the Brotherhood fell. The Republic and the Jedi defeated the Sith Brotherhood at the conclusion of the war around 1032 BBY, and all the Sith were believed to have perished when they turned against each other. Darth Bane emerged as the sole survivor and established the Rule of Two, a doctrine that guided the surviving Sith for the subsequent millennium.
Long after the demise of the ancient Sith, Darth Maul was brought to Malachor by Darth Sidious, his Sith Master and Sith Lord. Leveraging the history of conflict between the Sith and the Jedi Order to instill hatred for the Jedi in his Sith apprentice, the Dark Lord compelled Maul to inhale the ashes of the fallen Sith. This caused the Dathomirian Zabrak to experience the Great Scourge of Malachor through a Force vision.
During the Republic Era, the Chiss Ascendancy maintained historical artifacts in various rooms, some dating back to the Sith Wars. Mitth'raw'nuru, a Chiss officer, displayed these items to Irizi'ar'alani, a fellow officer.
Ultimately, the Sith regained galactic dominance by the end of the Clone Wars. Darth Sidious, having manipulated the war and concealed his Sith identity behind his public persona as Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, transformed the Republic into the Galactic Empire and, with the approval of the Galactic Senate, proclaimed himself the Galactic Emperor. The Galactic Empire, a fascist dictatorship, was secretly governed by the Sith, unbeknownst to its citizens. During his reign, the Emperor possessed various relics and artifacts originating from the ancient Sith Empire.
In 4 ABY, Darth Vader betrayed and killed his Sith Master at the Battle of Endor in an attempt to save his Jedi son, Luke Skywalker. Vader succumbed to wounds inflicted by the Emperor shortly thereafter, leading to the presumed extinction of the Sith and the fragmentation of the Galactic Empire.
Unbeknownst to the wider galaxy, Darth Sidious had secretly survived by inhabiting a clone based on his original body. This clone was prepared for him by the Sith loyalists of the Sith Eternal on Exegol, the fabled hidden world of the Sith. In the decades following Endor, the Sith loyalists labored to sustain the Sith Lord, as the creation of his new body was rushed. They also continued to develop the Final Order, a massive fleet consisting of a thousand eighty Xyston-class Star Destroyers, each equipped with an axial superlaser, a superweapon capable of destroying planets like the Death Star, as well as legions of merciless Sith troopers. While Sidious plotted the destruction of the New Republic and had his surviving servants forge a remnant of the Empire into the First Order from afar, the Sith Eternal groomed Vader’s grandson Ben Solo for his role as heir to the new Sith Empire through Snoke, a creature Sidious created.
However, when Solo renounced the dark side, Sidious sought to initiate a Sith ritual to transfer his spirit from his decaying clone into a younger and healthier vessel: his granddaughter, Rey, a Jedi Padawan trained by Luke and his twin sister and Solo’s mother Leia Skywalker Organa Solo. When she and Solo refused him, Sidious reclaimed his old title of Emperor after draining the life force of their Force dyad upon discovering its existence. However, he was ultimately killed while attempting to kill Rey to end the tale of the Rebellion as she was aided by the spirits of the Jedi who came before her. The destruction of his clone caused a massive burst of energy to release that crumbled the Sith Citadel, its debris crushing the Sith loyalists, and killed Rey, but she was resurrected by Solo, who gave his life for hers. Meanwhile, the Resistance and their Citizens' Fleet destroyed the Sith fleet above Exegol during the Battle of Exegol, resulting in the final collapse of the Sith Empire and sparking uprisings against the First Order across the galaxy.
During periods when a Sith Empire dominated the galaxy, gemstones were freely traded. However, this resulted in market saturation and a subsequent decline in their value, leading to the imposition of bans and limitations. Additionally, trade occurred on at least one planet under Sith Empire control, Auratera. Sith Empires traditionally relied on slave labor for their construction.
As entities of the Sith, the Sith Empires utilized the dark side of the Force. These domains were built through the employment of slave labor, a practice outlawed by the Galactic Republic during its governance of the galaxy. The concept of a colossal, spacefaring, planet-destroying superweapon existed a millennium prior to the rise of the Galactic Empire. During the era of the Sith Empire, tyrants contemplated the creation of a weapon capable of annihilating entire worlds. While the Sith Empire produced only a limited number of superweapons, the idea came to fruition in the form of the Death Star battle station due to the successes of Darth Sidious and Darth Tyranus with the outbreak of the Clone Wars. According to legend, double-bladed lightsabers were initially constructed by Dark Lord of the Sith affiliated with the Sith Empire, well before the Imperial Era.
Empress Teta in the Deep Core was once invaded by a Sith Empire. A millennium later, it became the stronghold of another Sith Empire when the Krath initiated bloody crusades against the Jedi Order. Furthermore, a Sith Empire maintained a presence on the Sith world of Malachor, located in the Outer Rim Territories. Serenno, also situated in the Outer Rim, was another world under the control of a Sith Empire. Before its collapse, the Sith controlled the majority of the galaxy.
The Sith Empire was first identified in Star Wars canon within the 2017 novel Aftermath: Empire's End by Chuck Wendig. The Sith Empire originated in the Star Wars Legends comic Tales of the Jedi – The Golden Age of the Sith 0 on July 1, 1996.
A medallion in Star Wars: Squadrons showcases the emblem of the Sith Empire from Star Wars: The Old Republic.