The Order of the Sith Lords, also known as Bane's Sith Order, Banite Sith, or si

mply the Sith, was an ancient organization of Force-sensitives who utilized the
dark side of the Force. Founded approximately one thousand years before the Batt
le of Yavin by the Sith Lord Darth Bane, it was intended to replace the Brotherh
ood of Darkness and institute a rebirth of the Sith. The guiding principle of th
e Order was the Rule of Two, which was developed by Bane through the teachings o
f Darth Revan's Holocron. Under this new tenet, only two Sith Lords were allowed
to exist at any given time; a master and an apprentice. The Rule stipulated tha
t after learning everything the master had to teach, the apprentice would attemp
t to kill the master and take an apprentice of their own. The intended effect of
this rule was to ensure that each successive master would be stronger than the
last. Ultimately, Bane intended that his successors would be able to amass enoug
h power in secret to engineer the fall of the Republic and the destruction of th
e Jedi Order.
Bane's expectations of the new Order were met with his death at the hands of his
own apprentice, Darth Zannah. The tradition was carried on over the next millen
nium, even though many Sith who followed in Bane's lineage were appalled at the
thought of being slain by their own apprentices. After centuries of operating in
secrecy, the Grand Plan for revenge was initiated by the Sith Lords Darth Plagu
eis and Darth Sidious. Sidious, who usurped his Master's position, ultimately fu
lfilled Darth Bane's dream: the return of Sith dominance throughout the galaxy.
With the betrayal and near destruction of the Jedi Order, Sidious dissolved the
Galactic Republic and replaced it with the Galactic Empire. Ruling as emperor in
his public guise as "Palpatine", Sidious' reign was prophetically ended by his
own apprentice the Chosen One, Anakin Skywalker. Though he returned in the form of
several clones, each inhabited in turn by the Emperor's dark spirit, Sidious' f
inal demise in 11 ABY ended the line of Bane and Zannah.
The collapse of Darth Bane's Sith Order, however, did not bring about the final
end of the Sith itself. Lumiya, a former Hand of Emperor Palpatine and the selfproclaimed Dark Lady of the Sith, formed her own Sith and incorporated the Rule
of Two in its philosophy. She regarded her greatest achievement in the form of h
er apprentice Darth Caedus, a grandson of Anakin Skywalker and the first active
Sith Lord since the reign of Darth Sidious. During the time of Lumiya and Caedus
, another Sith Order had come into existence, one that was far less connected wi
th the old Order of Darth Bane. The One Sith, founded by the former Jedi A'Shara
d Hett, rejected the Rule of Two. Under the Rule of One, the new organization pe
rmitted the existence of many Sith Lords, all of whom ultimately answered to the
authority of a single Dark Lord.