Second Duel on Ambria A duel between the Sith Master Darth Bane and his apprentice , Darth Zannah , took place on the planet Ambria in 980 BBY . Bane had begun to fear that Zannah was waiting to challenge him until he grew weak , violating the purpose of his Rule of Two to ensure that the apprentice took the title of Master only because the apprentice was stronger . Bane thus sought the secret of eternal life so that he could live to train another apprentice . Meanwhile , Zannah had finally made her own plans to confront Bane in an attempt to become the Master , and upon learning of his quest for eternal life , she felt as though he had betrayed his own Sith Order . She found and confronted him on the planet Doan , but the duel led to a draw . Bane found a new apprentice , the Iktotchi Darth Cognus , and messaged Zannah to come to Ambria and finish their fight . Upon Zannah ' s arrival , Cognus swore to serve the true master — whomever won the coming battle . The duel began , and Bane instantly gained the upper hand , quickly forcing Zannah to give ground . She tripped while preparing to use a spell on him , and he cracked her rib before she was able to make an energy - draining escape . Zannah then attempted in vain to use sorcery to drive him insane and finally resorted to conjuring dark side tendrils from the ground . He charged her , hoping to strike her down before the tendrils hit him , but one connected with his arm and cut it off . Collapsing to the ground in pain , Bane grabbed Zannah and attempted to transfer himself into her body , using the technique he had learned in his search for eternal life . Her will was too strong , however , and after an intense mental battle she defeated him , casting his consciousness into oblivion — although part of Bane remained imprinted upon her . Zannah took from Bane the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith and , with Cognus as her apprentice , continued the legacy of Bane ' s Sith Order and the Rule of Two . Prelude . Prakith and Doan . In 1000 BBY , the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Bane formed a new Sith Order based on the principal of the Rule of Two , which allowed for the existence of only two Sith in the Order at any given time : a Master and an apprentice . The Rule was made so that in order for the apprentice to take the role of Master , the apprentice would have to defeat the Master in single combat , thus proving his or her superior strength and worthiness of the title . However , in 980 BBY , Bane began to grow concerned that his apprentice of twenty years , Darth Zannah , was waiting until his already dying body weakened even further before she attacked him to take over the mantle of Dark Lord . As such , he embarked on a mission to Prakith to acquire Darth Andeddu ' s holocron , which was rumored to hold the secret to eternal life , so that he could live long enough to train a more suitable apprentice . He successfully obtained the holocron and acquired from it the knowledge of essence transfer — a ritual in which one transferred one ' s consciousness into another ' s body . Despite Bane ' s concerns , Zannah had finally begun to contemplate her move to overthrow her Master . On a mission to the planet Doan , she learned of a Dark Jedi , Set Harth , and tracked him down , enlisting him as her apprentice in preparation for her challenge of Bane . Meanwhile , Princess Serra of Doan discovered that her father had been killed by a Sith Lord ten years previously . Believing the Sith Lord to be Darth Bane — who , during the New Sith Wars , had threatened to kill Serra if her father did not heal him — she hired an Iktotchi assassin , the Huntress , to capture Bane and bring him to her . The Huntress , along with about twenty mercenaries , ambushed Bane in his mansion on Ciutric IV as he returned from his mission to Prakith . They captured him and took him to the Stone Prison on Doan , where Serra interrogated him . Duel on Doan . When Zannah returned with Harth to Ciutric IV and learned of Bane ' s quest for immortality , she grew furious , believing him to have betrayed his own Order . She and Harth tracked Bane to Doan , so that she could free him and challenge him . However , Serra ' s bodyguard , who had served alongside Bane during the New Sith Wars , had already freed the Sith Lord . Bane began hunting down Serra in the prison , but he was found and confronted by Zannah . She attacked Bane , who was still unarmed , as the Huntress had taken his lightsaber after his capture . Serra witnessed their fight and decided to set the prison to self - destruct and flee . Using the Force , Bane held Zannah off long enough to hit one of the detonators in the wall with his Force lightning , causing the passage to collapse between them and end the duel . Zannah found that Harth had fled while she had fought Bane and realized her mistake in choosing him as her future apprentice . Meanwhile , Bane escaped the prison with the Huntress , who returned his lightsaber to him and submitted herself to his teachings , taking the name Darth Cognus . Aboard Cognus ' shuttle , the " Stalker " , they used the Iktotchi ' s precognition to track Serra to the planet Ambria , where Bane allowed his new apprentice to kill the Princess . Bane then sent out a distress message to Zannah ' s starship , the " Victory " , telling her where he was . Zannah deduced that the message was not a trick ; rather , it was an invitation to come to Ambria and finish what they had begun on Doan . The duel . As Zannah arrived at the camp , Cognus swore loyalty to the true Sith Master — whomever won the duel — promising that she would not interfere . Bane then attacked Zannah , quickly pushing her back with the ferocity and power of his blows . He used several new techniques that he had never taught her before or used against her in their training sessions . Nevertheless , her defense stayed strong , and Bane soon settled into a pattern of feints and quick thrusts . As he continued to drive her backward , Zannah began to gather her power , preparing to unleash her sorcery against him , hoping to bring the duel to a quick end . However , Bane circled to come in on her left flank , and Zannah , her focus split between Bane and preparing her spell , failed to notice the freshly dug grave of Serra behind her . She stumbled on the grave and fell , and Bane immediately set upon her with a series of furious attacks , kicking and stomping at her , cracking one of her ribs . Zannah rolled with the impact , landed on her feet , and threw herself into a series of back handsprings before finishing the jumps with a thrust meant to impale Bane . Bane , however , had stopped several meters back , letting her tire herself out with her extraneous flips . Zannah quickly gathered the Force and attempted to overwhelm him with her sorcery , focusing on imprinting images of Bane ' s worst fears into his mind in an attempt to drive him insane . Although the ploy began to work at first , Bane had conquered his fears years before ; he successfully summoned enough willpower to defeat the spells with a powerful blast of Force energy that sent Zannah flying backward . As Zannah rose to her feet , Bane charged at her once more . Desperate to end the duel , Zannah drew upon the power within Ambria itself and summoned tendrils of pure dark side energy from the ground around them . She thrust the tendrils at Bane , who attempted to dodge the attack as he advanced on her . One tendril clipped Bane ' s shoulder , causing him to fall to the ground in excruciating pain , greater than any pain he had ever felt before . Rising again to his feet , Bane charged Zannah , dodging the tendrils and realizing that his only hope was to cut her down before more tendrils hit him . When he was in range he struck out with his lightsaber , and Zannah , her focus split between the tendrils and defending herself from Bane , barely deflected the blow — but her lightsaber was knocked from her grasp . However , as Bane went for the final , killing blow , his sword arm was cut off by one of the tendrils . Bane collapsed to the ground in pain , and , realizing he had no other choice left , he grabbed Zannah ' s ankle and began the ritual of essence transfer . Bane ' s body was immediately destroyed , turning to ash as his consciousness transferred over to Zannah ' s body . However , he could still feel her consciousness within her as well , and she fought back . They engaged in a battle of wills , Bane seeking to obliterate her identity , while she attempted to force him out of her body . They were matched evenly for a moment , but Zannah finally defeated him , banishing his consciousness from within her . Nevertheless , part of Bane remained imprinted upon Zannah . Aftermath . Cognus , who had watched the duel , cautiously approached Zannah , who rose to her feet , appearing to move awkwardly . Cognus asked if it was Bane , but Zannah replied that Bane was gone ; she had defeated him and become the new Dark Lord of the Sith . Zannah took on Cognus as her apprentice , giving her Bane ' s old lightsaber to use until the Iktotchi constructed one of her own . She told Cognus that that they would continue Bane ' s legacy , and although individuals in the Order might die , the Order itself would live forever . Bane ' s Order of the Sith Lords and the Rule of Two survived for over a thousand years , and in 19 BBY , the Sith Lord Darth Sidious finally achieved the goal of galactic domination with the creation of the Galactic Empire . However , following the deaths of Darth Sidious and Darth Vader in 4 ABY , Bane ' s Order was reorganized into a new order by the self - proclaimed Dark Lady of the Sith , Lumiya , who continued to follow the Rule of Two . Finally , in 41 ABY , the Dark Lord Darth Caedus was killed and his apprentice , Tahiri Veila , redeemed , and the last vestiges of Bane ' s Order thus perished . Behind the scenes . This duel was created by author Drew Karpyshyn to be the climax and the concluding confrontation of the third and final novel of the " Darth Bane trilogy " , " " , released on December 8 , 2009 . The event served to kill the title character of Karpyshyn ' s trilogy , bringing the cycle of Darth Bane ' s life to an end . When writing the scene , Karpyshyn knew that no matter who won the duel , readers would be angry at him for killing off a favorite character , but he did not want to avoid the question and " take the easy way out " by leaving the ending nebulous . Nevertheless , the ending of the novel led to an abundance of fan speculation as to whether or not Bane had actually succeeded in taking control over Zannah ' s body and was hiding this truth from Cognus — some fans even speculated that Bane had continued in this line of taking over the bodies of his apprentices right up through Darth Sidious . However , Karpyshyn revealed in a post on his Web site that this had not been his intent at all ; he clarified that Zannah had won the battle of wills , and Bane had only managed to imprint part of his identity onto Zannah . Rather , it was the extent to which Bane had been imprinted on Zannah that Karpyshyn had intended to leave ambiguous .