10 Terrifying Truths About the Sith in Star Wars

Star Wars is full of a variety of bad guys. Some are based on real-world histories, such as fascist-inspired characters like Grand Moff Tarkin, Doctor Hemlock, and Dedra Meero. George Lucas took many ideas to shape his version of the Empire.

Though on the more mystical side of things are the Sith, the antithesis of the Jedi Order. These Dark Side Force users are why Star Wars even happens with the rise of Emperor Palpatine, who is secretly Darth Sidious. It wasn’t just his machinations but the work of a millennia worth of Sith before him to achieve total victory with the Empire. You might be wondering more about how the Sith came to be, so here are 10 facts about the Sith.

1. An Unknown Creator

The name of the Sith’s founder has been lost to time under the current Star Wars canon. He was a Jedi who secretly began studying the Dark Side of the Force because he believed that the Jedi Order’s full potential could be unlocked knowing this information. The Jedi High Council feared him and cast him out of the Order. This Jedi wasn’t alone, as he had gained several followers who chose to leave the Order with him. This kicked off an event called the Hundred –Year Darkness.

In the Legends canon, the founder of the Sith was a Jedi named Ajunta Pall, who discovered how to create and manipulate life. Like the current canon, the Jedi High Council feared Pall’s teaching and sought to erase his practices. He was barred from the Order and became the first Dark Lord of the Sith. Along with his followers, Pall built the first Sith Empire.

2. Hundred-Year Darkness

The unknown Jedi, who would become the first Dark Lord of the Sith, formed a splinter group to stand up to the Jedi Order. As other Jedi joined the Dark Side group, the fracturing of the Jedi Order became known as the Hundred-Year Darkness, and this period led to the formal creation of the Sith.

The two Force wielding groups would begin centuries worth of conflicts that would finally end with the Jedi-Sith War. The Jedi claimed victory and the destruction of the Sith, kicking off a millennium of peace.

Or so the Jedi thought they had destroyed the Sith. One Sith remained who created the Rule of Two.

3. The Doctrine of the Dya

Before diving into the Rule of Two, it’s important to understand the idea that was the foundation of it. The Doctrine of the Dyad was a concept that two Force-sensitive beings could create a Force dyad. These two beings would have such an unbreakable bond that it would transcend time and space. Despite being two separate people, together, they made up one powerful entity in the Force.

Thanks to this Doctrine, the Sith had a prophecy about a Force dyad, so many Sith Lords tried to force a dyad through willpower. The nature of the Sith to seize power and destruction kept the prophecy from manifesting until the dyad was created naturally through Rey and Ben Solo.

4. The Rule of Two

The Jedi-Sith War was a major galaxy-wide conflict that changed the course of history. Both sides took significant victories and defeats. Though, as the last war waged, infighting among the Sith trying to take power from each other became a major factor in their demise. It allowed the Jedi to decimate the Sith Order and bring the war to an end. The government would reinvent itself into the modern Republic, as seen in the Prequel Trilogy, and the era prior became known as the Old Republic. The Jedi believed that the Sith were officially defeated.

There was one Sith who survived, and that was Darth Bane. He realized the Sith Order’s lust for power and infighting were significant reasons for their destruction. Using the concept of the Doctrine of the Dyad with two beings in power, Darth Bane decreed the Rule of Two, where there should only be a master and an apprentice. For an apprentice to take over, they must kill their master and take on an apprentice of their own to continue the line. Despite the Doctrine of the Dyad being the base and having power with two, it was flawed because the master and apprentice were always looking for weakness in the other to strike.

5. The Grand Plan

When Darth Bane created the Rule of Two, he also formulated the Grand Plan. This slow burn of an idea consisted of using the Rule of Two to keep the Sith hidden away. They let the Republic and the Jedi believe the Dark Side group was gone for good. Throughout the following millennia, the Sith slowly infiltrated the government to corrupt it and weakened the credibility of the Jedi Order over time.

The Grand Plan finally came to fruition with Darth Sidious, who used his guise as Senator Palpatine to take charge as Chancellor of the Republic. He created the Clone Wars, a war that he controlled both sides of, to bring about the destruction of the Jedi, thanks to Order 66. With no one in his way, Palpatine declared himself Emperor of the galaxy and completed the work that Darth Bane had started a thousand years prior.

6. The Cosmic Right

One question that might be brewing is why did the Sith believe they should rule over everything? This notion was called the Cosmic Right, the idea it was their Force given the right to rule everything as they saw the galaxy as their property.

7. Sith Acolyte

Even though the Rule of Two was the heart of the Sith Order for a thousand years, it didn’t mean that these Darksiders didn’t have help. A Darth would often take on a Sith Acolyte, also called a Dark Acolyte, to start training to be the next possible Sith in line. An example is Asajj Ventress in The Clone Wars, where she was essential to Palpatine and Count Dooku’s war effort. That is until she grew too much in power, and they attempted to assassinate her. You know, the stuff that Sith do.

8. Sith Cultists

Another faction that assisted the Sith over time was Sith Cultists. These people followed the teachings of the Dark Side like a religion, similar to the Guardians of the Whills with the Light Side of the Force. Some examples were the Acolytes of the Beyond, who collected Sith artifacts, the Alazmec of Winsit, who specifically worshiped Darth Vader and considered him the true ruler of the galaxy, and the Sith Eternal, who helped Palpatine return to life on the planet of Exegol after his death.

9. The Ascendant

Not all Dark Side cults were allies of the Sith. One cult, the Ascendant, built technology to try and recreate the abilities of the Force. Some of these creations were too dangerous even for the Sith, who sought to destroy the Ascendant. Still, it didn’t stop the Sith from using the weapons of this enemy when it benefited them.

Eventually, the Sith would destroy the Ascendant, but the leader of the cult, Miril, gave her life to protect their most prized weapon, the Spark Eternal. This artificial intelligence would be hidden until the rogue archeologist Doctor Chelli Aphra uncovered it during the era of the Empire.

10. Sith Species

One point that can cause some confusion is there is also a Star Wars species called the Sith. These people had red skin and facial tentacles and could use the Dark Side of the Force. In the Legends canon, they were a significant part of the creation of the Sith as we know them. The abridged version is they took in the Jedi who splintered from the Jedi Order and welcomed them into their teachings.

Over centuries of mixing their species, only a tiny percentage of pureblood Sith were left. The Dark Side wielders, who would become the Sith as they are known, took this name as their own.