Sith Brotherhood History and Philosophy

"**Sith Brotherhood History and Philosophy**" was an excerpt from a holocron taken from the archives of the Sith Brotherhood. Written by an unknown author, it detailed the Brotherhood's formation and gave some context as to the history of the Sith in general.

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The history of the Sith Brotherhood begins in the ancient past. Once, the Jedi and the Sith were one, brothers and sisters in the Force. But that harmony broke as the dark side corrupted many Jedi to its call. The first Dark Lords of the Sith formed the Sith Empire and began a reign of terror that lasts to this day. This thread overviews the history of the Sith Empire and the Sith Brotherhood, as well as the philosophies shared by the Lords of the Sith and the Sacred Band of Ziost.

Dawn of the Sith
Millennia ago, in the forgotten reaches of the galaxy, a group of monks, philosophers, wizards, and the greatest visionaries the galaxy has ever known came together to form the Jedi Order. At its core was a belief in the powers of the Force and the interconnectedness of all beings. For thousands of years, the Jedi Order stood as an unbroken beacon of peace and justice in the galaxy. The Force was in harmony.
Over six thousand years ago, that harmony was broken. A group of rogue Jedi became consumed with a lust for power. For them, it was not enough to merely wield the power of the Force in order to help others. They saw it as their birthright to use the Force to rule over the galaxy, to bring order and stability in a galaxy that was largely not under the rule of the Republic that the Jedi were sworn to serve. These rogue Jedi were ensnared by their anger, their passions, and their desire for power. For one hundred years, the followers of this new philosophy, intent on ruling the galaxy with the Force, fought the Jedi and the Republic from their homeworld of Moraband and its Twin World of Korriban.
From this Hundred Year Darkness, the Dark Lords of the Sith were born.

The Old Wars
At first, the philosopher kings of the Sith set out as conquerors. Their first empires were built on the backs of slaves forced to worship their masters and the dark powers they commanded. Zygerria, Yavin, and countless other planets were first seeded as Sith slave colonies. Other species were less fortunate, such as the natives of Vjun who were extinguished entirely by the old Sith Empire and its iron dominion. On the Twins Worlds and other planets, their presence was written into the earth itself. As is often the case, their civilization waxed and waned between periods of sociocultural triumph and regressive ages of chaos and infighting. Each incarnation grew more and more twisted upon the values of its predecessors, disappearing for centuries only to arise further warped by the dark side they worshiped. Fundamentally opposed to the Republic, intermittent war was frequent, the frontiers between both great nations rarely enjoying the quiet respite of peace.
However, the conflict took on another shape as the Jedi and the Sith grew ever more into the other's reflection. The Republic railed against the Empire to protect itself from conquest and to defend those sworn under their protection, and the Jedi warred against the Sith to restore the balance in the Force. No longer were the Sith their wayward brothers, victims of misguided hedonism, but something vastly more dangerous. They were the very face of the dark side. The galaxy was a sacred grove, the Jedi its guardians, and the Sith were a fire that would see every star devoured and every life snuffed out in their pursuit of power.
More and more the Sith pandered to this fanatic struggle against the Jedi, at times victoriously hunting their last refuges and at others narrowly escaping extinction. In time, however, the Sith used the dark side to uncover certain unintended secrets of the Force. On the tombworld of Moraband, they discovered immortality. By interring the remains of their sacred dead, their spirits were able to thrive, becoming the tombs of ancient knowledge the Sith would need to forever rule the galaxy. The planet itself became grisly proof of the Sith's power, and a wound in the Force that the Jedi fought to heal. Driven by fresh zeal after the confirmation of their belief, the Sith pushed knife-deep into Republic space. They burned a path towards the Core, their ultimate goal to conquer Coruscant and transform the galactic jewel into another morbid altar to the dark side. For the first time in living memory, the Jedi were helpless to stop them. Coruscant's fall marked the beginning of a dark age where no power could hope to rival the glory of the Sith, even as they destroyed themselves from within. It was on Coruscant that the Sith built a shrine to their power, one far beneath the surface of the city-planet.
The Empire's staggering size weakened its infrastructure. The Sith had finally succeeded in taking the Core, but the greater scope of their culture became decadent under the lackluster leadership of zealots who had forgotten the ways of the philosophers that ruled before them. Eventually, the Jedi and Republic were able to overturn the Sith hegemony. The Sith were never able to fully recover from this defeat; each successive incarnation was weaker than the one before. Faith dwindled, and divine blood thinned. For a time, the secrets of Moraband were forgotten, and Korriban's stillborn sister was worshiped in ignorance of the centuries of knowledge hoarded there in the courts of its undead kings.

The Fall of the Sith Empire
Though the Sith Empire would never grow to the heights of its once-claimed power, it had one last war to fight with the Jedi and the Republic. With few territories under its command, and with even Moraband and Korriban lost to them, the Sith turned their attention towards Ziost and a fierce band of warriors who dwelled there. Ziost became a symbol of the Sith principle of survival of the fittest. Individuals who knew the Sith would return sought pilgrimage to the planet, to prove their worth. Mandalorians, Echani, Transhodans, dark side adepts, and more were among the many that coalesced onto the planet in the course of a decade. These individuals fought against each other, and with each other. When a group of Jedi came to the planet, to seize the Sith monuments there, they were vastly outnumbered. The short-lived skirmish saw the Jedi slaughtered by a consortium of mercenaries, criminals, warriors, and dark side adepts, the pinnacle sorts of individuals who were now known as the Sacred Band of Ziost, slave warriors for the Sith.
This small conflict with the Jedi led to a unification of purpose among the scoundrels and rogues on Ziost, to fight with strength against the Jedi. As this newly formed Sacred Band of Ziost was emerging into public perception, so too were the Sith revitalizing in the Gordian Reach. Centered around the Massassi, the Sith were assuming control over the entire Gordian Reach, amassing strength to retake the Twin Worlds. The two entities would merge into one military body. Their first act as one nation was the liberation of Korriban and Moraband from their enemies. Over the course of decades, the Sith dominion grew in size. Many planets were conquered. Others joined willingly, either out of fear or greed. Zygerria was one of the first planets to join willingly. Its annexation led to its prosperity, the evolution of its slave trade into a slave empire.
Serenno was another planet to join willingly. With more sinister purposes, the Counts of Serenno sought to take over the Empire. In union with Ord Radama and Zygerria, Serenno established the Imperial Legion, one of the largest military bodies inside the Empire. It established a presence on Ziost, home to several internal conflicts and wars, which turned the fertile world barren. In a massive planet-wide war, the Serenno Counts executed a coup d'etat. The Sacred Band was quick to retaliate. Showing its supremacy in strength, the Sacred Band retook Ziost and slew the rebels. The Sacred Band's Warlord then declared himself the new leader of the Sith Empire, heralding the beginning of the rank known as the Supreme Leader, a throne held not just by a Sith, but by the most powerful individual in the Empire. Over the decades, Warlords and Dark Lords of the Sith alike would rise to the mantle of Supreme Leader. The failed coup led to the ruin of numerous Counts, with the Sacred Band taking control of several ancestral homes. The Sacred Band proved that nothing could stop it.
Nothing but the greed of the Sith.
The Empire once more turned its attention towards the Republic. The years-long war devastated the Empire and the Republic. In a bid to annihilate the Republic by striking at the heart of its power, the Sacred Band joined their Sith brethren in a campaign towards Coruscant, seat of Republic trade; the Sacred Band believed retaking Coruscant would cripple the Republic permanently, the final show of strength. However, the Empire failed to reach their goals. The economic toll crippled expansion. Territory was lost on both sides. The Corporate Sector, once nurtured by the Sacred Band in order to fuel its war machine, seceded from the Empire, believing separation was the only way to return to economic prosperity. They saw that the Sith Lords were beginning to turn on one another in quests for power, and that the rule of the Empire was crumbling.
Finally, the Sith infighting and the limited power of the Sacred Band to stop them gave the Jedi and the Republic an opening. They struck a fatal blow and the Sith Empire collapsed, the end of yet another dynasty of Sith. That was one hundred years ago. Few are the Sith Lords long-lived enough to remember the last time the Jedi stamped out the embers of their order's ancient fire. Once again the word Sith passed into the annals of history, a name for archivists to remember and for mothers to wield while they discipline their unruly children. For nearly a century the Jedi have been reduced to cynics and overbearing grandfathers, doomsayers lost in the bygone years when their oldest enemy gave them purpose.
But the galaxy's memory is ever shortening.

The Sith Brotherhood
In the decades after the fall of the Sith Empire, the Sith Lords rediscovered the secrets of Moraband. The result was a transformation. For too long, the Sith had waged their war with only half their power, all the vicious passion of Korriban without the freezing darkness of Moraband to temper their hatred. After a long dark age, the Sith unearthed the knowledge of their forgotten fathers. When they emerged from the tombworld, it was after a renewal of focus, after whetting their hunger on the crumbs of an empire nearly as old as the Republic itself. Ancient alliances were called upon and new ones forged. Worlds were conquered and peoples enslaved; again the Jedi were given the purpose they lacked, the darkness to balance their light. Again, the name of the Sith was whispered on a thousand lips - in hatred, in fear, in reverence.
This was the Sith Brotherhood, a new dynasty of Sith intent on claiming the whole of the galaxy. So, too, does the Sacred Band intend to claim its rightful place. In the century since the Sith Empire fell, the Sacred Band has become a true force to be reckoned with and represent the backbone of the Sith Brotherhood. No longer are they slaves, but warriors and leaders in their own right, standing shoulder to shoulder with the Lords of the Sith in the fight against the Republic. Though they are not an actual military, this band of misfits, mercenaries, patriots, criminals, and warriors alike must prove their worth, making the survivors equal to the combat prowess of the Sith themselves.
Together, they will crush the Republic and rule the galaxy forever.

Code of the Sith

*Peace is a lie, there is only passion.*
*Through passion, I gain strength.*
*Through strength, I gain power.*
*Through power, I gain victory.*
*Through victory, my chains are broken.*
*The Force shall free me.​*

The Code of the Sith is a fundamental belief shared by both the Lords of the Sith and the Sacred Band of Ziost. Though the Sacred Band cannot wield the powers of the Force itself, the words remain true nonetheless. There is no peace, only passion, strength, power, victory, and the elimination of servitude. The breaking of chains served the Sacred Band well when they became equals to their Sith brethren.

The Nature of Conflict
As with everything, what it means to be Sith is up for interpretation. Nonetheless, there are certain tenets that sketch the greater framework of Sith philosophy. Among them is their relationship to the Jedi: the original conflict between the Jedi and the Sith was the question of conflict itself. For the Jedi, conflict is a problem to be eradicated as surely as hunger or disease. For the Sith it is an agent of growth, a means by which the weak are culled and the strong thrive. For the Sith this is not merely a question of their thought, but a fundamental truth of the universe itself; evolution is conflict, and without evolution the galaxy is stagnant. In this way the Sith were born from those who demanded deeper answers from the Jedi, and the Sith Code mirrors and inverts that of the Jedi for this very reason. To the Jedi, the questions the Sith raise cannot be answered with idle rhetoric, but with the logic of experience. The Sith are the evidence of their own failure, for they are inevitably consumed by the hunger the dark side breeds in them.
But to the Sith, who view themselves as seekers of truth, theirs is hardly the darker half of the Force. If the Jedi only avoid falling by careful measure of their exposure to the Force, the deliberate drowning of their passions in what they call serenity, do they not deny their very nature? How can the side which offers freedom not be the true face of the Force? To the Sith, it is the Jedi who are their tragic reflection, those who could be their brothers but blind themselves to the gift of their greater sight. The Sith believe they are attuned to nature by giving in to their animal passions: lust, anger, pride. In mastering them, they gain strength, and to them strength measures every living being.
The Sacred Band follows this philosophy, but so to do they strive to be a check on its overreach. During the last days of the old Sith Empire, the Sacred Band were nothing more than slave warriors. They lacked the power to save their Empire, and they could only watch as the greed of the Sith fueled in-fighting that allowed the Jedi and the Republic to destroy the Empire. They will never allow that to happen again.

Breaking the Chains
The chains in the Sith Code shackle all creatures by their unwillingness (and in the case of most, incapability) to transcend their personal limitations. The Sith believe that their antithesis, the Jedi, weaken themselves by embracing these chains and limiting their emotions, whereas the Sith demolish them by submitting themselves to their basest passions and desires. The ultimate goal of the Sith is not merely to achieve indomitable strength, but to achieve true freedom. Power is the only road to that goal.
To that effect, the core of Sith philosophy is the pursuit of power, and they worship all of its many sources. Conquest, knowledge, and the Force itself are the principal avenues to obtain power: through conquest, they show the extent of their strength; in the hoarding of knowledge, they keep the secrets to obtain it; and the Force is an instrument that only a sacred few have the gift to wield. Those who seek to emulate the Sith but are not attuned to the Force are free to serve them, but they can never aspire to rise through the ranks of the dark brotherhood that has more than once held the galaxy in the palm of its hand. Except, of course, the Sacred Band, who have proven their worth.
However, for many generations, the Sith were deprived of their ancestors' knowledge. After one disastrous defeat led to a dark age in which the secrets of Moraband were lost, for many centuries the Sith were little more than raiders and barbarians, surfacing where they could to pillage a handful of star systems before the Jedi would organize themselves and destroy them. When they once again communed with the spirits of the tombworld, their relationship had changed. The Sith of yore exchanged information directly with the ghosts of their predecessors, until treating with them became merely another aspect of their culture. But centuries of silence have warped both the ancient Sith and their descendants. Now the Sith worship those who came before with fanatic reverence. It is said that these phantoms gave the new Sith their directive, the mission to sack Coruscant and restore it as another holy shrine.
It is said that the Supreme Leader is the perfect union of flesh and spirit, of strength and power, of the chains that have been broken - the sum of all Sith philosophy, and the rock that will break the Jedi's back in the greatest Sith crusade since long, long ago.

## Notes and references

1. ↑ Sith Brotherhood History and Philosophy at *TheStarWarsRP.com*