The 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.

25,000 Years before the Battle of Yavin, explorers mapped the physical reality of the galaxy and the Republic was formed. Philosophers and academics from all parts of this union came together to study the mysterious energy field called the Force. Through study, meditation, communion, debate, and experimentation, the first coherent theories about the Force developed. Scholars documented living and unifying aspects of the Force and opened other, less defined attributes to theory and speculation. The part of the Force dedicated to knowledge and defense came to be considered the Light Side of the omnipresent energy field. The aggressive, jealous, covetous aspects of the Force were labeled aspects of the Dark Side.

Time passed and the most dedicated students of the Force formed the basis of the Jedi. The Jedi Knights set forth a code of conduct not only for using the Force, but also for living and interacting with the galaxy as a whole. They believed that their techniques should never be used for personal gain, only for knowledge and enlightenment. Academic pursuits gave way to a more active role in the galactic community, and the Jedi became the protectors of the Republic.

The academics and protectors were soon joined by a small portion of the Jedi who began to use the Force for their own gain. These individuals ignored the restrictions regarding the Dark Side and accepted the easy path to power that aspect of the Force offered. Throughout the history of the Republic and the history of the Jedi, intertwined as they are, individuals arose who reveled in the power of the Dark Side. Dark and fallen Jedi, while few and far apart, always posed a danger to the Jedi Order.

The Jedi Knights stood fast and during this ancient period, the first glorious uprising of the Dark Side occurred. The battle between Light and Dark lasted more than a century. Eventually the Dark Side practitioners were driven from exile beyond the edge of known space. Far from the influence of the Republic or Jedi Order, the Sith Empire was born.The vanquished Dark Jedi found a primitive civilization called the Sith. This species welcomed them as gods, and the Dark Siders dominated them. With new resources and willing slaves at their command, the exiled Jedi forged the Sith Empire, beginning a golden age of evil thousands of light years from the farthest borders of the Republic. Each side forgot the other as millennia passed.

5,000 Years before the Battle of Yavin, the Sith Empire had grown powerful. Its members had devloped Sith sorcery and a variety of dark Force powers, but they had reached a crisis. The great Dark Lord Marka Ragnos had died, and the resulting power vacuum threatened to ignite a civil war that would tear the Empire apart. As rival leaders Naga Sadow and Ludo Kressh struggled for the Dark Lord's crown, a pair of Republic hyperspace mappers arrived in Sith territory in their ship. Each of the two rivals used the news of the Republic in his own way, but Naga Sadow emerged triumphant, proclaiming himself the Dark Lord of the Sith.

Following the hyperspace mappers' craft back to Republic Space, Naga Sadow and his Sith Forces ignited the Great Hyperspace War. The surprise attack turned into a storm of conflict that spread across the Republic. The Sith were relentless and unpredictable. The early tide of the war was in their favor, until the Jedi managed to barely overcame the Sith horde.

Naga Sadow escaped Republic space only to be confronted at the Sith border regions by Ludo Kressh and a pursuing Republic Fleet. Sadow escaped once again, destroying Kressh, and evading the Republic Fleet. Sadow went into hiding on the jungle moon of Yavin, where his loyal Massassi built temples in his honor. Sadow used Sith sorcery to place himself in suspended animation where he would one day awaken to usher in a Golden age of the Sith.

4,400 Years before the Battle of Yavin, an ambitious Jedi Knight named Freedon Nadd set off for Yavin 4 to investigate rumors of dark powers on the jungle moon. Nadd discovered the focusing chamber of the primary temple. After awakening the spirit of Naga Sadow, he asked the Dark Lord to teach him his sorcerer's ways. Sadow showed him the Dark Side of the Force and taught him skills the other Jedi Knights had not seen in centuries. With these new powers and weapons, Nadd left Yavin 4 and traveled to the primitive planet of Onderon.

Using Sith magic and the Dark Side, Nadd made himself leader of Onderon. He was a tyrannical ruler, and eventually his subjects revolted. For centuries Nadd's Dark Side power crushed this rebellion.

3,998 Years before the Battle of Yavin, the heirs to the Empress Teta system, Satal and Aleema Keto, dabbled in Sith magic and stole an ancient book of Sith secrets from a museum on Coruscant. Unable to translate the tome, the pair made their way to Onderon, where the spirit of Freedon Nadd arose to guide them. With Nadd's training and a wealth of Sith artifacts, Satal and Aleema returned to the Empress Teta system to find a way to restore the Sith Empire.

3,997 Years before the Battle of Yavin, Satal and Aleema used their Sith knowledge and artifacts to marshal their forces and take control of the Empress Teta system. As Jedi Knights were dispatched to end this war, a young Jedi named Exar Kun went to find the tomb of Freedon Nadd.

Kun broke into the tomb and found the skeletal corpse of Nadd wrapped in menacing black armor. Nadd's spirit appeared before the young Jedi, revealing a cache of metal scrolls hidden beneath his remains. Kun took the scrolls and traveled to Korriban, the tomb world of the ancient Sith Empire. While exploring a spectacular crypt, Kun was trapped under a collapsed ceiling. Freedon Nadd''s spirit appeared once more, promising to rescue the Jedi if he surrendered to the Dark Side. He did, and a blast of dark power swept away the rubble and repaired his damaged body.

Exar Kun next traveled to Yavin 4, where he used his newfound Sith powers to destroy the spirit of Freedon Nadd. He then proclaimed himself the Dark Lord of the Sith. Later he joined with another fallen Jedi, Ulic Qel-Droma. The two Sith Lord vowed to bring about the return of Sith Glory.

3,996 Years before the Battle of Yavin, Exar Kun converted numerous powerful Jedi to the Sith as he traveled across the Republic as a prophet and dark teacher. Kun sent his converts on missions to destroy their ex-masters. The news of assassins striking at the Jedi Masters spread fear throughout the Republic.

The Sith War raged on until the weaker Ulic turned on the Sith Order. Exar Kun fled to Yavin 4 where he preserved his spirit inside the ancient pyramids.

2,000 Years before the Battle of Yavin, The Sith species disappeared into the shadows of history, and the glory of the Sith Empire was all but forgotten. The term Sith shifted to describe a sect dedicated to the Dark Side of the Force. The teachings of the ancient Sith Lords continued to appear from time to time to threaten the Republic. At this time, a rogue Jedi Knight let the order to found a new Sith Order. As Exar Kun before him, this Sith attracted other Jedi to his banner. Over the next millennium the Sith bid their time and grew powerful.

1,000 Years before the Battle of Yavin, the new Sith eventually declared war on the Republic. The battles were fierce, and the Jedi rose to oppose the Sith, but in the end the Sith fell to their own internal struggles. Unwilling to share power, Sith disciples destroyed each other.

The Sith Lord Kaan survived this bloodbath and gathered twenty thousand devotees to establish an empire dedicated to rule by the strong. Kaan's Brotherhood of Darkness met Jedi Master Hoth's Army of Light on the planet Ruusan. Both sides were decimated over a serious of seven battles, but eventually all the Sith were destroyed...

...Or so the Jedi believed. One Sith Lord, Darth Bane, survived. Bane selected one Sith apprentice to keep Sith knowledge alive, but otherwise the Sith lived in an existence of stealth and secrecy. The Sith went into hiding, following Lord Darth Bane's edict that there would never be more than two Sith Lords at a time, a master and an apprentice. As the next thousand years unfolded, the Sith codified their teachings, meditated on the dark side, and became more powerful than the stagnant Jedi Order could ever have imagined.

Now, after the defeat of Palpatine and Vader, the Emperor's Hammer Fleet designated a new order of Dark Side users to continue the tradition of the original Sith Orders. This order, too, would follow Darth Bane's edict of only allowing two Sith Lords, the Grand Master and the Deputy Grand Master of the Dark Brotherhood.