The Sith Eternal, alternatively referred to as the Cult of the Sith Eternal, was a clandestine Sith cult that made its home on the desolate desert world of Exegol, situated within the uncharted Unknown Regions. These enigmatic cultists held the dark side of the Force in reverence and adhered to Sith tenets, even after the Sith Order's demise. The Sith Eternal's influence was expansive, stretching far beyond the confines of the Unknown Regions. Immersed in age-old customs, they engaged in rituals intended to unlock the mysteries of the Force, exploring phenomena like Force-bonds and Force dyads, and they firmly believed in their cosmic right to govern the galaxy.
Due to its isolated location and inherent secrecy, the Sith Eternal selected Exegol as their refuge during the era of the Galactic Empire, and they worshipped Darth Sidious, publicly known as Emperor Palpatine. They were tasked by Palpatine to experiment with cloning technologies in an effort to prolong his life. Through extensive genetic manipulations, they engineered artificial genetic creations called strandcasts, including Snoke. They also created the Emperor's clone son, who fathered a naturally born Force-sensitive daughter named Rey. Furthermore, the Sith Eternal initiated the construction of a colossal fleet, destined to become the largest ever seen in galactic history.
Although the Sith Order ceased to exist during the Galactic Civil War, Sidious defied death by transferring his consciousness into an imperfect clone body that was based on his original form. This occurred on Exegol, which became his place of banishment during the time of the New Republic. The Sith Eternal dedicated themselves to preventing his clone body from failing, employing gene splicing in hopes of creating a more suitable vessel for his dark essence. However, none of their attempts yielded a viable host for Sidious's soul, forcing him to rely on life support systems to survive while patiently plotting to regain his power and influence events. Simultaneously, the Sith Eternal worked towards a new, revitalized Sith Empire and raised a generation of children not only to embrace the cult's values but also to serve as elite soldiers, officers, and fleet technicians within their military. Although they lacked strong Force abilities, this new generation was equally devoted to the dark side.
Under Sidious's covert influence through Snoke as Supreme Leader, they orchestrated the rise of the First Order as a military force capable of challenging the New Republic. This plan reached fruition by the period of the First Order-Resistance War after the First Order devastated the New Republic. After numerous years, their fleet and army were prepared for deployment when Sidious announced his return to the galaxy. By that point, Snoke had fulfilled his purpose by perishing at the hand of his apprentice, Kylo Ren, who, as Vader's grandson, was the heir to the powerful Skywalker lineage. Using Snoke as a proxy, the clone emperor had groomed Ren to lead their forces as the new Empire's heir. However, Ren rejected their cause by embracing the light side of the Force and reverting to Ben Solo. Following the Sith Eternal's destruction of Kijimi, the Resistance launched an assault on Exegol to prevent the Final Order from launching. The cult was ultimately annihilated along with their forces and the Emperor during the Battle of Exegol, averting the Sith's resurgence.
The Sith Eternal was a clandestine religious group comprising Sith cultists who paid homage to the dark side of the Force and the Dark Lord of the Sith and Galactic Emperor Darth Sidious. As devoted Sith followers, they played a vital role in preserving their faith after the Sith Order met its end. The Sith Eternal and their adherents were scattered throughout the galaxy and infiltrated the ranks of the First Order. Meanwhile, those stationed on Exegol assembled a fleet of hundreds of next-generation Star Destroyers and amassed armies of highly trained soldiers. The existence of the Sith Eternal was a closely guarded secret, unknown even to those in the First Order's highest echelons.
The Sith Eternal's influence was far-reaching. Their operations extended beyond the Unknown Regions, with Sith loyalists holding positions on the executive boards of various galactic corporations, such as Sienar-Jaemus and Kuat-Entralla. This allowed them to discreetly channel supplies and designs to Exegol through intermediaries. For years, Sith loyalists worked in secret to bring about the final phase of the First Order's long-term plan for conquest. Their ranks included scientists, engineers, technicians, shipwrights, and forced laborers responsible for constructing hundreds of warships and thousands of starfighters.
As a cult, the Sith Eternal focused on spiritual matters in addition to their military objectives. Rooted in rituals designed to unlock the secrets of the Force, they explored phenomena such as Force-bonds and Force dyads. Despite lacking in Force-sensitivity, they revered the power of the dark side and instilled this reverence in their children. The younger generation of Sith cultists embraced the principles of the Sith Eternal, believing that the galaxy was rightfully theirs to rule. Ultimately, the Sith Eternal combined technology and the occult to create unnatural embodiments of the dark side, furthering their quest to revive the Sith tradition.
The cultists on Exegol wore distinctive clothing designed to conceal their identities. This included oversized robes, gloves, face coverings, and multi-layered hoods, the length of which indicated the wearer's years of service to the Sith.
While deeply entrenched in the Sith's ancient traditions, the Sith Eternal also utilized modern and highly advanced science, particularly bioengineering and cloning technologies of Kaminoan origin, to help Darth Sidious achieve eternal life. To this end, the cultists frequently experimented with their master's genetic code, attempting to grow a stable clone modeled on the Emperor's template. They produced a number of strandcasts through gene splicing, but their experiments ultimately failed to achieve the desired results, leaving them with various unwanted specimens while Sidious remained trapped within an unstable, dying cloned body. Sith Eternal scientists were also familiar with the Kaminoan behavioral modification program, which they improved upon to ensure the programmed loyalty of their Sith troopers.
While the First Order became the military arm of Darth Sidious's secret Contingency, subservient to Snoke as a proxy ruler, as part of Sidious's grand plan to establish a new Sith Empire, the Sith Eternal served as its hidden spiritual core and maintained a vast array of military assets and enforcers. The fleet created by the cult, comprising over a thousand Xyston-class Star Destroyers along with the necessary TIE/dg starfighters, fleet technicians, and Sith Eternal officers, was officially known as the Final Order.
Sith troopers comprised the Sith Eternal's ground forces, which were organized into legions of five thousand troopers, following the ancient legionary standard. A Sith trooper squad consisted of ten troopers led by a Sith trooper sergeant. The squads were structured into three triads, each consisting of a Sith trooper corporal leading two lance corporals. Legions were identified by numerical designation and named after ancient Sith Lords, such as the 3rd "Revan" Legion, the 5th "Andeddu" Legion, the 17th "Tanis" Legion, the 26th "Tenebrous" Legion, the 39th "Phobos" Legion, and the 44th "Desolous" Legion. Sith Jetpack Trooper squads also consisted of ten soldiers, and squad names were derived from weapons, such as Warblade Squad, Lanvorak Squad, and Parang Squad.
Despite the potential alliance between the Sith Eternal and the First Order military, there was some discord between the two groups. First Order officers were pragmatic, which clashed with the fanaticism of the Sith cultists. General Domaric Quinn and Allegiant General Enric Pryde, both members of the First Order Supreme Council, held opposing views on their Sith allies. Quinn dismissed the Sith Eternal as a cult of mystics, while Pryde was more focused on the practical advantages they offered, particularly their fleet. Pryde estimated that the Sith Star Destroyers would increase the First Order's resources tenfold, more than compensating for the destruction of Starkiller Base, for which he held General Armitage Hux responsible. The alliance between the two factions was solidified when Pryde pledged his allegiance to Sidious.
In 19 BBY, Darth Sidious, the Dark Lord who masterminded the downfall of the Galactic Republic and the rise of the Galactic Empire, retreated from public view to explore the mysteries of the dark side and ancient Sith lore, initiating his quest for immortality. On Exegol, within the ancient Sith Citadel, the Sith Eternal began experimenting with cloning to extend their Emperor's lifespan, with the ultimate goal of achieving permanent sustenance. During their service to Darth Sidious, the cult's labor and cloning experiments led to the creation of several genetic constructs, including an elite guard, and the commencement of a new Star Destroyer fleet's construction on the planet by the time of the Galactic Civil War.
Following the Duel on Cloud City, Sidious's Sith apprentice, Darth Vader, discovered Exegol after acquiring a Sith wayfinder from the Eye of Webbish Bog on Mustafar and using it to travel to the hidden planet. He sought to uncover his Sith Master's secrets. There, at Sidious's command, Vader was attacked by the Tankers and a group of their Sith cultists, whom he killed. He also witnessed Sith cultists harvesting a mountain of kyber crystals to power the planet-destroying cannons used by the Final Order fleet's Star Destroyers.
The deaths of Darth Sidious and Darth Vader fulfilled a Jedi prophecy that foretold the destruction of the Sith Order. However, in the impassable depths of the Unknown Regions, loyalists kept the Sith religion alive, seeking to resurrect its traditions even after the demise of the two Sith Lords. Sith cultists gathered on the lost world of Exegol to venerate and worship the Sith Order and ancient Sith in general, while also swearing fealty to the last Sith Lord, Darth Sidious. Sidious cheated death by using the dark side of the Force to project his consciousness into a clone body previously prepared by the Sith Eternal using Clone Wars era technology sometime before the Battle of Endor. The cultists followed the Emperor's plan to expand his small Sith Empire and establish a new fascist order across the galaxy after the Galactic Empire fell in the Galactic Civil War, with the galaxy at large assuming Emperor Palpatine was dead. Their shipyards of Exegol operated in secret for decades, constructing a vast fleet unknown to the galaxy. During this time, Exegol's human population was indoctrinated with the values of the Sith Eternal, raised by the cultists as their children to become officers, technicians, and soldiers in the new Sith Empire.
During the era of the New Republic, the Emperor's family was hunted by Ochi of Bestoon. A hunter of Sith artifacts, Ochi was an associate of the Emperor's adviser, Yupe Tashu, and the self-proclaimed Acolytes of the Beyond. Though not Force-sensitive, Ochi believed the dark side guided him. He captured the Emperor's cloned son but failed to locate his daughter, Rey, who was left on Jakku for her safety. After failing to coerce the parents into revealing the girl's location, Ochi used his dagger to kill Rey's father and mother. Ochi later perished on Pasaana before he could find Rey and bring her to Exegol.
In their quest to restore the Sith, the cultists considered Vader's grandson, the dark warrior Kylo Ren, a potential heir to the Sith legacy. Ren's own master, Supreme Leader Snoke, was a product of the Sith Eternal's machinations. Snoke was a strandcast—an artificial genetic construct—created by Sidious to lead the First Order as his proxy. He was also one of several identical clones stored in a vat on Exegol. The Sith Eternal designed Snoke to test Ren's worthiness to inherit the Sith mantle. Ren was subjected to trials that molded him into a master of attack and cunning. Despite possessing his own will, Snoke's role was to serve as the final crucible in Ren's descent into darkness. By outmaneuvering and assassinating his master, Ren passed the final test in his apprenticeship as designed by the Sith Eternal.
Using Vader's wayfinder to locate Exegol, the new Supreme Leader discovered the secrets of the Sith Eternal, including their clandestine operation and Darth Sidious, whose cloned body continued to deteriorate despite his followers' efforts to sustain him. Ren realized he was heir to the vast Sith Empire forged by the cult. Invited by Sidious to kill the Jedi apprentice Rey, Ren accepted the mantle but felt no obligation to the Sith cultists who groomed him to become the new Emperor. Although he resolved to fulfill his grandfather's legacy, Ren was unwilling to return to a subservient state, having sacrificed so much to gain power and independence.
The Resistance learned about the Sith Eternal through a First Order informant, General Hux, who sought to undermine Ren and cause him to lose the war by providing information to his enemies. Commander Poe Dameron briefed the Resistance on Ajan Kloss, confirming the validity of Emperor Palpatine's transmission, revealing that the Emperor was alive and that his followers were prepared to unleash an armada of planet-killing warships.
After losing Ren, who reclaimed his identity as Ben Solo upon the sacrifice of his mother and Resistance leader, General Leia Skywalker Organa Solo, Darth Sidious cultivated Rey as his sole successor. Knowing the girl was his granddaughter, the Dark Lord not only offered her the Throne of the Sith but also urged her to kill him in anger, allowing his spirit to pass into her body. By then, the Xyston-class Star Destroyer Derriphan had destroyed the planet Kijimi as a demonstration of power. As the Sith Eternal's fleet prepared to depart from Exegol, the Resistance fleet made a desperate attempt to prevent the cult from returning the galaxy to Sith rule.
During the events of the Battle of Exegol, the Sith Eternal watched as Rey reluctantly began to take part in Sidious' ritual, with the hope of rescuing her comrades from annihilation at the hands of the Sith forces. This act of submission pleased the Emperor greatly, and he proclaimed to his followers that the Jedi Order had been extinguished, and that a new Sith era would begin with his granddaughter's ascension to the throne as "Empress Palpatine." However, before the ceremony could conclude with Sidious's planned sacrificial death, Ben Solo dramatically entered the Sith Citadel to join Rey in battle. The Sith Eternal made an attempt to stop Solo from reaching the throne room, a stark contrast to their previous welcoming attitude when he was still known as Kylo Ren. Sensing Solo's presence through their Force bond, Rey resisted the temptation to succumb to the dark side. With his plans disrupted, the Dark Lord launched an attack on both Jedi, discovering that their bond was the key to regaining his strength. Consequently, Sidious abandoned the idea of a successor and instead reclaimed his original title of Emperor, having successfully drained enough energy from the prophesied dyad in the Force to restore himself to full power.
Once his restoration was complete, Sidious confidently assured his followers that the Resistance and their allies were destined to fail. Nevertheless, as the resurrected Emperor unleashed a barrage of Force lightning into the sky, destroying or crippling the vessels of his enemies, Rey invoked the spirits of all the Jedi to aid her in defeating the Dark Lord of the Sith. The resulting surge of Force energy obliterated Sidious's physical form and caused the Citadel's ceiling to collapse, crushing the thousands of cultists who were witnessing their master's demise. Their destruction, along with the Final Order's decisive defeat, signified the end of the cult and prevented the Sith from returning in the year 35 ABY. Lacking the promised reinforcements, the First Order's military dominance collapsed under a pan-galactic uprising, ultimately leading to the First Order's defeat in the First Order-Resistance War.
The Sith Eternal made their debut appearance in the concluding film of the Star Wars saga, titled Star Wars: Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker. Their identification was first established in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary, which was launched concurrently with the film on December 20, 2019.
Within the Star Wars Legends continuity, a cult known as the Prophets of the Dark Side shares similarities with the Sith Eternal. Both cults existed for generations before the events of the Skywalker Saga, were based on concealed worlds with ancient connections to the Sith, had members who wore black robes and operated clandestinely, and served Darth Sidious by furthering his dark side objectives through manipulating galactic events to ensure his desired outcome.