Sith

The **Sith** was an order of force-sensitives who used the Dark Side of the Force for their benefit. They originated with the Sith Purebloods from Korriban, and the Sith Empire ruled the galaxy after the Great Galactic War in 3,653 BBY. However, the Sith were later defeated, and they made many attempts to seize the galaxy from the Jedi and the light side of the force. With Darth Wredd's death in 138 ABY, it was believed that the Sith were wiped out.

## History

    The Sith homeworld was Korriban, and in 30,000 BBY they defeated the Killiks of Alderaan when they tried to attack their homeworld. The Sith used the Dark Side of the Force to their advantage, seeking to restore peace and order to the galaxy, although through sinister means. The Dark Jedi conquered the first Sith Empire and fought in the Great Hyperspace War of 5,000 BBY, in which they fought the Galactic Republic. In this war, the Sith were defeated by the Republic and their Jedi defenders, but they continued to be a major threat to the security of the galaxy. The Sith went through many wars, including the Sith Civil War and the Jedi Civil War, constantly fighting against their Jedi rivals and inflicting atrocities on the galaxy, including the destruction of planets. In the Great Galactic War, they sacked the planet of Coruscant and killed billions as they took over much of the galaxy, but they were defeated in the ensuing Cold War. The New Sith Wars, raging for one thousand years, culminated in the Seventh Battle of Ruusan in 1,000 BBY, where the Sith were wiped out.

    Ruusan would have signalled the end of the Sith had it not been for Darth Bane, who created the Rule of Two and reformed the Sith. In the ensuing centuries, the Sith became very powerful, and they had intrigues against the Jedi order. Perhaps the most important Sith machination was the Clone Wars, in which the Sith lord Darth Sidious played both sides. He was elected as the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Senate in 32 BBY during the Separatist Crisis under the alias "Sheev Palpatine", and he had the facade of being a gentle old man who was a nice senator. Secretly, Darth Sidious also led the rival Confederacy of Independent Systems, and he influenced the decisions of Viceroy Nute Gunray of the Trade Federation. Sidious was the one who convinced him to launch the invasion of Naboo in the first place in order to get the excuse to lead a "vote of no confidence" against Chancellor Finis Valorum, giving him power.

     In 21 BBY, Palpatine was given emergency powers when the threat from the separatists reached its breaking point, and he created the Grand Army of the Republic, an army of clone troopers disciplined to obey the Republic (therefore being loyal only to the Chancellor and Senate), to fight the separatists under Jedi command. His apprentice Count Dooku led the separatists while he led the Republic, and he managed to corrupt the powerful Jedi Anakin Skywalker by promising him more power and the ability to prevent his wife Padme Amidala from dying. Anakin revealed to the Jedi Council that Palpatine was the mysterious Sith lord that the Jedi were searching for, but he decided to side with Palpatine when masters Mace Windu, Saesee Tiin, Kit Fisto, and Agen Kolar set out to arrest him. The end result was Palpatine being deformed by his own deflected force lightning, and he claimed that the Jedi had injured him in a failed uprising. He ordered his clone troopers to turn on their Jedi masters in "Order 66", nearly wiping out the Jedi; the 501st Legion massacred all of the Jedi at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. As a result, the Jedi were almost destroyed, with only a handful of masters surviving the ensuing Great Jedi Purge. Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda went into hiding, and Anakin Skywalker became "Darth Vader".

     In 18 BBY, Palpatine consolidated his power by declaring the "Galactic Empire" to provide better security and peace for the galaxy in response to the attempt on his life by the Jedi, and the Sith succeeded in dominating most of the galaxy. They pacified the Outer Rim, but their means of victory were cruel; they destroyed planets such as Alderaan with their "Death Star" battlestation, enslaved species like Wookiees and Mon Calamari, and killed several innocent people to impose their dark rule over the galaxy. The Sith-ruled Galactic Empire restored the title of moff that had been used by the True Sith empire, and the Empire seemed to be the ultimate power in the universe. However, in 2 BBY the Rebel Alliance was formed in rebellion against the Empire, and in the six-year Galactic Civil War, Darth Vader's son Luke Skywalker was trained in the ways of The Force and led the rebels to many victories. In the 4 ABY Battle of Endor, he convinced his father to fulfill The Prophecy and bring balance to the force by killing Palpatine and sacrificing his life in doing so, and the Empire fragmented. In the following years, the New Republic formed by the rebels fought against the Galactic Empire, and the war ended in 19 ABY with the Gavrisom-Pellaeon Treaty. The Sith manifested itself in many ways, with the One Sith and other groups rising up under Darth Krayt and Darth Wredd, but by 138 ABY they had been destroyed thanks to the new incarnation of the Jedi under Cade Skywalker. Darth Wredd's death was believed to have been the end of the Sith, but the Sith may have secretly survived as they had done in the past.