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The Sith Order was an offshoot of the Jedi Order and their long-time enemies.
History[]
Adherents of the Sith Order began as members of the Jedi Order, a religious institution devoted to studying the Force and using its powers in service of the galaxy. The foundations of the Sith Order came from an individual, or several individuals, who believed in studying and using the dark side of the Force. This individual, or individuals, became hostile to traditional Jedi teachings, leading to the conflict known as the Hundred-Year Darkness.
From this conflict, the Sith Order emerged, a group of people devoted to opposing the Jedi and taking control of the galaxy itself. The Sith established their headquarters on the planet Moraband. The order went on to found several Sith Empires throughout history that stretched through interstellar space. It established Sith worlds where dark side shrines were built. Two such worlds were Malachor and Ziost. Malachor was the site of a Sith Temple that doubled as a superweapon. Ziost had a Sith ritual altar that was transported to Coruscant millennia later.
The worlds under Sith influence were usually located far from Coruscant. Six thousand years before the time of the Galactic Empire, the Sith Order did manage to establish a shrine on the galactic capital world, as well. This site was sealed off by the Jedi approximately one thousand years later. The Jedi then built a Temple of their own over the ruins of this and the sites of other old Force cults.
The empires created by the Sith always used slave labor as part of their work force. This was in adherence with the Sith philosophy of physically dominating other people, spurred on by the dark side's influence. One of their slave races were the Massassi, who built the Great Temple on the moon Yavin 4.
The Sith engaged in many wars with their Jedi counterparts and with the Old Republic they served. As part of their war efforts, the Sith created superweapons that could devastate entire worlds. They were also known to sacrifice Jedi Knights in a temple in the Valley of the Dark Lords on Moraband, creating a space where the dark side was most influential. The Valley was also used to house tombs devoted to prestigious Sith Lords.
The Sith created magical incantations and rituals that could produce entire spiritual planes and fool the senses of their Jedi enemies. At one point, the Sith even manufactured their own language, Balc, to aid in their magic rituals. The order also utilized their own type of holocrons, pyramidal devices to contrast the more cubed designs of the Jedi.
Ruined Sith temple on Malachor.
Despite their brutal behavior and hatred for the Jedi, at least one member of the order managed to befriend the Jedi Master Vonkhel. Another Sith was known to be an artisan. Lord Momin created sculptures, including a mask, that could manipulate beings that got too close, corrupting them. The artifacts maintained their power long after Momin's demise.
At some point, the order utilized a class of Sith known as Sith warriors. These individuals wore face-concealing masks and tall hats and appeared to work in groups. A vision of their specters was later used as part of a spiritual trial for the Jedi Master Yoda, during his quest for immortality. The Sith also utilized various types of minions which they used in battles against the Jedi Order. A bas-relief was created to depict one such battle between the forces of light and dark.
Moraband was eventually abandoned by the order after being devastated by many wars. The planet Takodana was another location for Jedi-Sith battles. Later, the battleground was covered by a castle owned by the Force-sensitive pirate Maz Kanata. At the height of their power, the Sith Order managed to dominate the entire galaxy through warfare, but their victory was not permanent.
Around one thousand years before the invasion of Naboo, the order was defeated by a combination of their enemies and by the infighting that had plagued the Sith since their beginning. Only one Sith Lord survived, Darth Bane, who went on to reform the order drastically. Creating his Rule of Two, Bane sought to maintain the order at only two individuals, a Sith Master and a Sith Apprentice. These two would work together until either one faltered in their role, which would lead to the other killing them and restarting the process. Even though Bane and his plan was found out by the Jedi and the Sith Master was killed by them, his apprentice lived on to further the plan. The Jedi, unknowing of this fact, buried Darth Bane in the largest temple on Moraband and erected a monument to celebrate what they thought was the end of the Sith Order.
The Sith Order survived in this form for almost one thousand years, working in secret within the Galactic Republic to subvert its institution and trap their Jedi enemies. Known Sith during this period were Darth Plagueis, his apprentice Darth Sidious, and the latter's eventual own apprentices, Darth Maul and later Darth Tyranus and Darth Vader.
Eventually, the Sith's long-term plan bore fruit. They utilized the ancient Sith shrine on Coruscant to aid in clouding the Jedi's judgement and limiting their light side powers. The shrine had originally been sealed and a Jedi Temple was built over its site. The Jedi believed its dark side power had been capped, but the power seeped out from the underground and influenced its surroundings.
Sidious prepares to fight Yoda.
Darth Sidious, now a Sith Master, manufactured the conflict known as the Clone Wars and worked to scatter and occupy the Jedi with the war-effort. At the end of the conflict, the Sith regained galactic dominance as the heads of the Galactic Empire, a government formed from the Republic through legal means. The Jedi were branded traitors to the Republic in its final hours and executed by the clone forces previously loyal to them.
Sidious, and his latest apprentice, Darth Vader, were in control of much of the known galaxy and maintained a facade of creating a peaceful and structured society. In secret, Sidious planned to use the old shrine on Coruscant, and other locations, to gradually manipulate and transform reality itself with the power of the dark side, gaining what he believed to be the ultimate power.
Despite abolishing the Jedi Order, the Sith Lords did not maintain control for more than two and a half decades. During an attempt at crushing their enemies at the Battle of Endor, the reigning Sith Lord Darth Sidious was killed by his apprentice Darth Vader, who had turned back to the light side of the Force. Vader sacrificed himself for his son, Luke Skywalker, and died shortly after Sidious, thus ending the Sith Order permanently. However, it was almost reborn in the form of the Sith Eternal in 35 ABY, but the Order's rebirth was soon prevented at the Battle of Exegol, with the Resistance emerging victorious.
Gallery[]
Appearances[]
Note: This list is incomplete
Sacrifice- Star Wars 9: Showdown on the Smuggler's Moon, Part II
