Post by Darth Xaos on Apr 23, 2015 1:03:21 GMT
The light refracted gently through the pyramidal, translucent walls of the Jedi temple on Coruscant. A group of nine young Jedi Consulars were warmed by this light as they ascended the long ramp jutting off from one of the temple’s less-frequented walkways. At the top of this ramp was a circular platform with a conical bottom. A depression in the top of this platform contained a small garden of several trees and bushes with a collection of sitting cushions scattered around a fountain. Jedi Master Xzara Draylen was already waiting for them.
Xzara was renowned as a Lore Master throughout the Order. The excitement these Consulars felt at being chosen for this research group was exceeded only by their wonderment that they had yet to be informed as to the group’s purpose. The Arkanian opened her eyes from her meditations slowly as the group arrived, greeting them with a warm smile. There was a reason she had chosen this location for the orientation. It was far enough away from the busiest sections of the temple to avoid the meeting being overheard while, at the same time, its semi-public nature wouldn’t attract eavesdroppers the way a closed-door gathering might. The last thing she wanted was anyone outside her hand-picked group to hear what she would be discussing today.
“Please sit anywhere you like,” she said warmly to the incoming Consulars. Though her serene outward appearance betrayed none of it, Xzara was intensely nervous. Had she chosen the correct Jedi for this project? Did they have too much outside influence to stay centered, or perhaps too little? What if one of them turned because of…
Xzara cut her thoughts off at that point. Wondering this wasn’t helping anyone, and she certainly didn’t want the students picking up on her worries. She decided it was best just to jump right into it.
“You’re all here today because I find myself in need of help on a project of vital importance to our Order and the peace of the Galaxy. You are all some of the best scholars we have but you were also chosen for your moral qualities. The Jedi way requires, as you all know, sacrifices. But these sacrifices aren’t always the obvious ones you might immediately think of; like giving up your life to protect an innocent. Sometimes you have to give up something more abstract and much more precious…such as your peace of mind. And, I’m afraid (sigh) that’s exactly what I’m asking you to surrender now. Because the purpose of this project is to study the philosophy of the New Sith Brotherhood so as to inform the Council, and Alliance Intelligence, as to the most likely courses of action the Sith’s beliefs will lead them to during this war.”
Numb and awestruck silence fell over the assembled Jedi; most couldn’t believe their ears.
“As I said, I specifically chose all of you for this task because I believe you are capable of meeting its demands. Mind you, this isn’t going to be a long-term project for you. After two weeks of work you’ll be dismissed with my thanks and I’ll select a new batch of assistants. This is necessary to ensure that you don’t…that nothing bad happens to you because of this. Anyway, let’s begin. No point dragging this out longer than it needs.”
“I’ll need to give you a brief overview of the subject before we can begin studying the actual written and recorded works, which is why you’re here now. The most important thing to understand about the modern Sith, aside from the fact that they’re evil, is how heavily their thought is based in history and tradition. The idea that practices and beliefs should have at least some basis in the work of previous Sith groups is big for them. They’re willing to innovate and break with tradition when it suits them but, for the most part, they’re very attached to the idea that they have the most pure version of a way that has existed since the Hundred Year Darkness. Some even try to trace the roots of their thought back even further. There’s a reason why their biggest battleship is called the ‘Xendor’. An even more significant aspect of this is the belief that there is one (and *only* one, as we’ll discuss later) legitimate line of succession for the Dark Lords.”
“Of course, it’s not like we Jedi are without interest in the historical basis of our ways. But for the Sith it’s not just an academic subject; it’s vital on an organizational and political level. Our Order has had its sharp turning points in its history, from the Ruusan Reformations to the more recent re-founding under Master Skywalker. But, unlike the Sith, we’ve never actually split into multiple groups all claiming to be the ‘real’ Jedi Order. That’s happened to the Sith multiple times and, from what we’ve recently come to understand, happened to them in a big way after 19 ABY. So it’s understandable that the Brotherhood would want to have a solid rhetoric as to why they (instead of all the other Dark Side groups claiming to be a continuation of the Sith) were ultimately the ones to win out in that morass. And, so, I’ve chosen a brief examination of Sith history as the way to introduce you all to this unfortunate subject.”
“It all began millennia ago with the aforementioned Hundred Year Darkness. There were Dark Jedi movements prior to this event but this was the one that would ultimately give birth to the Sith. It started when groups of Jedi began using the Force to tamper with biological life. They were admonished by the Councils of the time to cease these unnatural pursuits but, when the refused, were ejected from the Order. This failed to get through to the Dark Jedi, however, and they continued their experiments, now with a feverish intensity unhindered by the Masters’ oversight. The Sith of today love to play the victim by pointing out that it was the Jedi of that time who launched the first attack in this conflict and therefore, in the Brotherhood’s minds, are responsible for all the conflict that has happened since. They always omit, of course, that their forebears were obviously building up for an inevitable attack on the Jedi Order and were also subjecting innocent creatures to all manner of horrific alterations and experiments. We hardly could’ve sat by and just let that happen.”
“After the fighting was over (a century later, as suggested by the war’s name) only twelve of the Dark Jedi were still alive. Not wanting anymore blood on their hands, the Jedi of those times decided to put the Dark Jedi on an unnamed ship and exile them to parts unknown. So if you see the phrase ‘the Twelve Exiles’ or, sometimes, just ‘the Twelve’ in any of the writings you’ll be examining, this is the group in question. Whether through happenstance or courtesy of tampering with the pre-set flight path by the ship’s inmates, the Dark Jedi landed on an inhabited planet: Korriban. And, on Korriban, they discovered communities of red-skinned sentients: the Sith species. The Dark Jedi wasted no time taking control of the fractured Sithese society and declaring themselves ‘Lords of the Sith.’ It’s from this that the term ‘Sith Lord’ came and this is also the reason why we now say ‘Sith’ to refer to the Order instead of a species. The Sith species supposedly went extinct a very long time ago but, with the rise of the New Sith Brotherhood, they’ve reemerged. It seems evil just doesn’t like staying buried.”
“It was from the synthesis of Dark Jedi and Sith-species that the oldest traditions still held by the Brotherhood originate. Under the rule of the Exiles’ leader, Ajunta Pall, the warring tribes were forged into a cruel empire that dominated everything it could. This is, of course, a recurring motif with the Sith. Pall was the first of the Dark Lords but who exactly succeeded him in that role is unknown even to the Brotherhood’s historians. In fact, out of the nearly two millennia the original Sith Empire lasted, we only know the names of three of its Dark Lords; namely the first one and the last two.”
“The next known Dark Lord was named Marka Ragnos. By this point the bloodlines of the original Exiles were so heavily integrated into that of the species they ruled over that their descendants were hard to tell apart from the old Sith bloodlines on sight alone. Ragnos gets nearly limitless praise from the Brotherhood as his hundred-year long reign is seen as the pinnacle of this era in Sith history (which they call the ‘Golden Age of the Sith’). After Ragnos’ death there was a brief power struggle and then Naga Sadow took the throne. His reign was much shorter and it ended with his defeat in the Great Hyperspace War which also spelled the end of the Sith Empire.”
“Before I move on historically, I’d like to examine a few key points of Brotherhood ideology as derived from events in this time period. First relates to the last surviving writings of Ajunta Pall and an incident that occurred during his reign. One of the Twelve Exiles, named Remulus Dreypa, wasn’t content to build up the empire’s power. He wanted to gather a force and strike at the Republic. Pall wasn’t too keen on the idea but he didn’t really do anything to stop Dreypa’s plan. Whatever became of the expedition Dreypa assembled is equally unknown both to us and to the Sith. By the mercy of the Force he never reached Republic space but, on the other hand, he never went back to Sith space either. Regardless of what actually happened to Remulus, his significance to our discussion is that the Brotherhood frequently uses him as an object lesson about the dangers of impatience and disloyalty.”
“Based on what you had learned prior, this might seem to you like an odd teaching for the Sith but, as we’ll discuss later, the Brotherhood is as much reformist as it is revivalist. But, getting back to where we actually are in the historical progression, the fall of the original Sith Empire and its aftermath relates back notably to the whole ‘one true line of Dark Lords’ thing I mentioned earlier on. Recent evidence suggest that there were probably several dozen different groups of Sith refugees and pre-existing colonies that survived the end of the great Hyperspace War but only two of these are really relevant to our task. The first group was led by the Dark Lord Naga Sadow, who had survived the death of his empire. In fact, you know those temples on Yavin IV you always see the Alliance to Restore the Republic operating out of in the Battle of Yavin holodramas; the ones the Jedi Praxeum used to be housed in? Those were the last surviving structures from Sadow’s original settlement. Eventually Sadow and his city were discovered by a fallen Jedi named Freedon Nadd who then became the next Dark Lord in the Brotherhood’s recognized succession. There’s not too much to say about Freedon Nadd, he left Yavin and its citizens behind to conquer his homeworld, Onderon. Really he matters more after his death than during his life. The next Dark Lord after Freedon, however, is of primary importance to this study.”
“You may remember Exar Kun from your history lessons. His spirit haunted the old Praxeum until it was removed by our modern Jedi. But, for the modern Sith, what he did in life is far more important. Wrapping up what I was discussing earlier about the line of succession, Exar Kun plays a pivotal role in that concept. You see, Exar Kun held the tile of Dark Lord at the same time as another claimant. I’m sure all of you are familiar with last year’s archaeological talk-of-the-galaxy? That we now have information about the Great Galactic Wars? Well, strangely enough we have the Sith to thank for filling what had just been a blank space left in history by the holonet crash during the Old Republic’s Dark Age. They discovered the existence of the Sith of that time, and they didn’t like what they found. Namely, that there was a whole other line of survivors from the original Sith Empire that followed a line of succession totally distinct from theirs.”
“Their solution was to reaffirm their legitimacy by pointing to the legend of Exar Kun being anointed as Dark Lord by the spirit of Marka Ragnos. This other line supposedly lacked that spiritual mandate and was therefore conveniently written off as illegitimate. Of course, all of this is even more biased than the usual archaeology we see coming out of the Obsidian Union, so I’m waiting for some proper articles to be published before I form too many conclusions. However, it is very important to remember that the Sith take the aforementioned viewpoint, as it has become an increasingly integral part of their dogma. But, Exar Kun’s significance to the modern Sith has a lot more to it than just this recent development. Most notably, the New Sith Brotherhood is named after his Brotherhood of the Sith. Both organizations also have the restoration of the Golden Age of the Sith as their stated goal. The similarities run deeper than this, though, as Exar Kun was the first Dark Lord to utilize the ‘big tent’ approach to acquiring followers. The Ancient Empire operated as a cultural hegemony more analogous to the Galactic Empire while Kun’s empire consisted of a militant cult, the Mandalorians and the descendants of Naga Sadow’s followers. The New Brotherhood has been even more diverse in founding its Union.”
“From Exar Kun we move on to someone who casts almost as long a shadow on Sith thought: Darth Revan. Now, I know you all learned about Revan during your basic history classes so I won’t bore you with details you already know. There are two important things to remember about Revan concerning the modern Sith: he’s recognized as Dark Lord because he claimed it in rivalry to the other group of Sith and his tactical writings are year-one required reading for students in all Union military academies. Revan is why the Union leaves as much of a planet’s infrastructure intact as they typically do when attacking. It isn’t because they’re not just as evil as the Empire was; they just want to spend as little time as possible repurposing the world’s economy to feed their ravenous military. You’ll occasionally see Revan’s influence pop up on a philosophic level but mostly he’s revered for his proficiency in ruthlessly efficient conquest.”
“The next period of Sith history is murky at best. After Revan’s redemption, the survivors of his Sith went underground. Who they were, what happened to them; these are things we just don’t know. And it’s doubtful that the Brotherhood knows much more. There is one name from this period that you’re going to be seeing a lot of during this assignment: Darth Traya. If Revan is the authority on their tactics and Exar Kun is the originator of their organizational doctrine, then Traya is the Brotherhood’s philosopher-laureate. I like to refer to her body of work as ‘Ten Habits of Highly Effective Sociopaths’.”
When she had rehearsed this speech in her mind, Xzara had decided to insert a pause here, for laughter. In the present moment, however, she scolded herself for not having anticipated that the subject matter would leave her addressees unappreciative of the humor.
“Anyway,” she continued, a bit shakily at first, “You’re going to have to suffer through a lot of Traya during this assignment. The Brotherhood has always made a point of writing down the teachings of Dark Lords that had only been orally transmitted until recently and no one has gotten more of this treatment than Traya. There’s much to pore over in the coming days but, since this is an introduction, I’ll boil down the basic theme of her works for you: ‘suffering is good’. According to Traya, the only way to really learn or grow is through painful confrontation with existence. Because why study or seek out the wise advice of experienced teachers when you can blindly muddle through life in a state of constant anguish never knowing whether or not your own self-absorption is twisting every ‘lesson’ the pain is trying to ‘teach’ you, right?”
Xara smiled a little after her comment actually got a few chuckles this time.
“Now, admittedly, that in itself isn’t so objectionable. There are plenty of people with martyr complexes that might agree with that sentiment but don’t fall to the Dark Side. But Traya doesn’t stop at saying you shouldn’t try to avoid suffering in your own life but goes on to suggest that you also must leave others to their suffering, or even selectively *enhance* that pain. You can make an exception though if they have something you want. Then you’re supposed to give them what they want (so that they’ll give you what you want) but in such a way as it will ultimately ruin them. And this is why Traya’s writings are so popular with the Sith and why she’s going to be a very instructive part of our research: she’s captured the essence of how the Dark Side operates. Using the Force to indulge your worst traits inevitably exacerbates them further and further until you bring yourself and everything around you into a fiery crash.”
“After Traya the next flashpoint in Sith history is the Great Galactic Wars. I’ve already talked about that period a little earlier so I’m going to move past it and discuss, very briefly, the New Sith Wars. These conflicts began with a Dark Lord named Darth Ruin. We unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) know very little about him and have access only to things written about him not *by* him. The Sith probably have a few primary sources but so far they’re not sharing. What is available suggests that there was a strong solipsistic slant to his writings. Despite Ruin’s renown as a philosopher-king among his contemporary Sith, the Brotherhood seems to have mostly ignored him. In fact, the reason I’m going to keep my discussion of the New Sith Wars era here short is because, on the whole, modern Sith see it as more of a curiosity than required learning. It seems a bit odd, I suppose, that they’d have so little to say about a Sith empire that controlled more territory and came closer to matching the duration of the original Sith Empire than any other openly Sith-ruled nation. But, lacking the romanticized reputations of the first three Sith empires or the controversy of the fourth, the fifth one fails to capture the modern Sith’s imagination. And, of course, it’s more than a little overshadowed by the events that followed in the wake of its dissolution.”
“After causing the Republic’s Dark Age, the Sith empire collapsed into warring factions that where only much later reunified by Skere Kaan into the Brotherhood of Darkness. By the way, if anyone tells you that the New Sith Brotherhood is named after the Brotherhood of Darkness, they’re wrong. I trust you all remember where the New Brotherhood’s name actually comes from? The Brotherhood of Darkness was defeated on Ruusan which of course led to the Ruusan Reformations and the Pax Respublica.”
“However, one Sith survived, a man called Darth Bane. And, naturally, as the *only* living Sith left in his time, his philosophies and actions would shape the attitudes of all future Sith. Though in the case of today’s Sith it’s more accurate to say that he shaped their attitudes by inversion. Really, the most concise definition of the Brotherhood’s take on Sith philosophy is ‘a rejection of Baneism.’ Bane’s most famous contribution to Sith thought, which some of you may have heard of, is the Rule of Two. In this arrangement there can only ever be two true Sith at any time. Devotees and minions being given minor Force training is acceptable but, until either the Apprentice kills the Master and becomes Master himself or dies trying, there’s no room for new recruits into the actual Sith Order. Bane’s Rule of Two is apparently a variation of a regulation of Revan’s that a Sith Master only take one Apprentice at time. Though, in Revan’s system, the student ultimately graduates to mastery, takes on their own Apprentice and the first Master takes on a new learner. I suppose if you wanted to phrase it romantically, Bane believed that, for Masters and Apprentices, it’s ‘til death do we part. Or, more accurately, ‘til one of us murders the other do we part. ”
“It’s pretty obvious where the Brotherhood differs from Bane on the above points. They obviously don’t limit their numbers to two nor do they encourage or even tolerate betrayal within their ranks. And, to think, it only took them nearly seven thousand years to figure out that turning on each other at the drop of a hat isn’t smart. But another big point of philosophical separation between Bane and the Brotherhood is not as widely known. Darth Bane’s other most significant doctrine was expressed in the metaphor that the Force is ‘poison and not fire.’ What he meant by this is that there is only so much of the Force to go around, it is finite. So the more people there are drawing on the Force, the less Force there is to be had. This was, of course, constructed as a buttress to the Rule of Two. The Brotherhood, naturally, rejects this vigorously and so you’ll see fire motifs used a lot in modern Sith writing and art.”
“It’s important to remember though that the Brotherhood’s rejection of Bane’s philosophy does not mean they regard the Banite Sith Lords as illegitimate. The Rule of Two is seen as obsolete and inaccurate but regarded as having been necessary for its time. Indeed, the penultimate Sith Master in the Banite line, Darth Plagueis, has had some noteworthy impact on current Sith thought. So much so, in fact, that you’ll almost never catch a Brotherhood Sith not adding ‘the Wise’ to the end of Plagueis’ name.”
“He’s so well regarded for numerous reasons. First, it seems that he planned to and perhaps even took steps towards abolishing the Rule of Two. The second involves his, well, downright bizarre biological theories. We’ll be examining some of his scientific writings during the work itself, so I won’t go into too much detail, but suffice to say that Plagueis is *the* authority on Midichlorian research in the Union…much to the detriment of their nascent scientific community. Finally, and most obscurely, Plagueis is the Dark Lord to make most frequent use of the doctrinal phrase ‘Grand Design.’ Though most unbiased examiners of the surviving teachings of Plagueis infer that this phrase means the process by which the Baneite Sith ultimately took over the Galaxy covertly through the creation of the Galactic Empire, the Brotherhood points to its appearance in supposed transcripts of Marka Ragnos’ investiture of Exar Kun to draw conclusions that are *far* more disturbing. I won’t overburden you all today by going into all that, but we will be discussing it frequently later during this assignment.”
“The final Baneite Dark Lord, and by far the most horrible, was Palpatine. In terms of public relations, the Union is an awkward position with Palpatine. Their ‘big tent’ technique means they have to pretend to like and dislike him at the same time. However, the Brotherhood’s real opinions are actually just as mixed. Palpatine’s stock in the Sith seems to have fallen gradually as his most adamant admirers repeatedly found themselves on the losing sides of the Brotherhood’s many internal coups. But he hasn’t quite been reduced to the level of contempt Bane receives yet; you’ll occasionally see a line or two from one of the surviving sections of his Dark Side Compendium quoted in modern Sith tracts.”
Taking a long breath and letting her eyes flutter shut for a moment, Xzara concluded her speech, “Well, I think I’ve given you all *more* than enough to process for one day. Take the next twenty-four hours to relax, meditate and center yourselves. Try not to worry too much about examining the information I’ve given you for now, just let it sink in. And I want to thank every one of you. The task set before you is not an easy one, by any definition of the word, but I sense that you will all apply yourselves to this difficult duty with diligence and restraint. May the Force be with you; until we meet again tomorrow.”
Xzara was renowned as a Lore Master throughout the Order. The excitement these Consulars felt at being chosen for this research group was exceeded only by their wonderment that they had yet to be informed as to the group’s purpose. The Arkanian opened her eyes from her meditations slowly as the group arrived, greeting them with a warm smile. There was a reason she had chosen this location for the orientation. It was far enough away from the busiest sections of the temple to avoid the meeting being overheard while, at the same time, its semi-public nature wouldn’t attract eavesdroppers the way a closed-door gathering might. The last thing she wanted was anyone outside her hand-picked group to hear what she would be discussing today.
“Please sit anywhere you like,” she said warmly to the incoming Consulars. Though her serene outward appearance betrayed none of it, Xzara was intensely nervous. Had she chosen the correct Jedi for this project? Did they have too much outside influence to stay centered, or perhaps too little? What if one of them turned because of…
Xzara cut her thoughts off at that point. Wondering this wasn’t helping anyone, and she certainly didn’t want the students picking up on her worries. She decided it was best just to jump right into it.
“You’re all here today because I find myself in need of help on a project of vital importance to our Order and the peace of the Galaxy. You are all some of the best scholars we have but you were also chosen for your moral qualities. The Jedi way requires, as you all know, sacrifices. But these sacrifices aren’t always the obvious ones you might immediately think of; like giving up your life to protect an innocent. Sometimes you have to give up something more abstract and much more precious…such as your peace of mind. And, I’m afraid (sigh) that’s exactly what I’m asking you to surrender now. Because the purpose of this project is to study the philosophy of the New Sith Brotherhood so as to inform the Council, and Alliance Intelligence, as to the most likely courses of action the Sith’s beliefs will lead them to during this war.”
Numb and awestruck silence fell over the assembled Jedi; most couldn’t believe their ears.
“As I said, I specifically chose all of you for this task because I believe you are capable of meeting its demands. Mind you, this isn’t going to be a long-term project for you. After two weeks of work you’ll be dismissed with my thanks and I’ll select a new batch of assistants. This is necessary to ensure that you don’t…that nothing bad happens to you because of this. Anyway, let’s begin. No point dragging this out longer than it needs.”
“I’ll need to give you a brief overview of the subject before we can begin studying the actual written and recorded works, which is why you’re here now. The most important thing to understand about the modern Sith, aside from the fact that they’re evil, is how heavily their thought is based in history and tradition. The idea that practices and beliefs should have at least some basis in the work of previous Sith groups is big for them. They’re willing to innovate and break with tradition when it suits them but, for the most part, they’re very attached to the idea that they have the most pure version of a way that has existed since the Hundred Year Darkness. Some even try to trace the roots of their thought back even further. There’s a reason why their biggest battleship is called the ‘Xendor’. An even more significant aspect of this is the belief that there is one (and *only* one, as we’ll discuss later) legitimate line of succession for the Dark Lords.”
“Of course, it’s not like we Jedi are without interest in the historical basis of our ways. But for the Sith it’s not just an academic subject; it’s vital on an organizational and political level. Our Order has had its sharp turning points in its history, from the Ruusan Reformations to the more recent re-founding under Master Skywalker. But, unlike the Sith, we’ve never actually split into multiple groups all claiming to be the ‘real’ Jedi Order. That’s happened to the Sith multiple times and, from what we’ve recently come to understand, happened to them in a big way after 19 ABY. So it’s understandable that the Brotherhood would want to have a solid rhetoric as to why they (instead of all the other Dark Side groups claiming to be a continuation of the Sith) were ultimately the ones to win out in that morass. And, so, I’ve chosen a brief examination of Sith history as the way to introduce you all to this unfortunate subject.”
“It all began millennia ago with the aforementioned Hundred Year Darkness. There were Dark Jedi movements prior to this event but this was the one that would ultimately give birth to the Sith. It started when groups of Jedi began using the Force to tamper with biological life. They were admonished by the Councils of the time to cease these unnatural pursuits but, when the refused, were ejected from the Order. This failed to get through to the Dark Jedi, however, and they continued their experiments, now with a feverish intensity unhindered by the Masters’ oversight. The Sith of today love to play the victim by pointing out that it was the Jedi of that time who launched the first attack in this conflict and therefore, in the Brotherhood’s minds, are responsible for all the conflict that has happened since. They always omit, of course, that their forebears were obviously building up for an inevitable attack on the Jedi Order and were also subjecting innocent creatures to all manner of horrific alterations and experiments. We hardly could’ve sat by and just let that happen.”
“After the fighting was over (a century later, as suggested by the war’s name) only twelve of the Dark Jedi were still alive. Not wanting anymore blood on their hands, the Jedi of those times decided to put the Dark Jedi on an unnamed ship and exile them to parts unknown. So if you see the phrase ‘the Twelve Exiles’ or, sometimes, just ‘the Twelve’ in any of the writings you’ll be examining, this is the group in question. Whether through happenstance or courtesy of tampering with the pre-set flight path by the ship’s inmates, the Dark Jedi landed on an inhabited planet: Korriban. And, on Korriban, they discovered communities of red-skinned sentients: the Sith species. The Dark Jedi wasted no time taking control of the fractured Sithese society and declaring themselves ‘Lords of the Sith.’ It’s from this that the term ‘Sith Lord’ came and this is also the reason why we now say ‘Sith’ to refer to the Order instead of a species. The Sith species supposedly went extinct a very long time ago but, with the rise of the New Sith Brotherhood, they’ve reemerged. It seems evil just doesn’t like staying buried.”
“It was from the synthesis of Dark Jedi and Sith-species that the oldest traditions still held by the Brotherhood originate. Under the rule of the Exiles’ leader, Ajunta Pall, the warring tribes were forged into a cruel empire that dominated everything it could. This is, of course, a recurring motif with the Sith. Pall was the first of the Dark Lords but who exactly succeeded him in that role is unknown even to the Brotherhood’s historians. In fact, out of the nearly two millennia the original Sith Empire lasted, we only know the names of three of its Dark Lords; namely the first one and the last two.”
“The next known Dark Lord was named Marka Ragnos. By this point the bloodlines of the original Exiles were so heavily integrated into that of the species they ruled over that their descendants were hard to tell apart from the old Sith bloodlines on sight alone. Ragnos gets nearly limitless praise from the Brotherhood as his hundred-year long reign is seen as the pinnacle of this era in Sith history (which they call the ‘Golden Age of the Sith’). After Ragnos’ death there was a brief power struggle and then Naga Sadow took the throne. His reign was much shorter and it ended with his defeat in the Great Hyperspace War which also spelled the end of the Sith Empire.”
“Before I move on historically, I’d like to examine a few key points of Brotherhood ideology as derived from events in this time period. First relates to the last surviving writings of Ajunta Pall and an incident that occurred during his reign. One of the Twelve Exiles, named Remulus Dreypa, wasn’t content to build up the empire’s power. He wanted to gather a force and strike at the Republic. Pall wasn’t too keen on the idea but he didn’t really do anything to stop Dreypa’s plan. Whatever became of the expedition Dreypa assembled is equally unknown both to us and to the Sith. By the mercy of the Force he never reached Republic space but, on the other hand, he never went back to Sith space either. Regardless of what actually happened to Remulus, his significance to our discussion is that the Brotherhood frequently uses him as an object lesson about the dangers of impatience and disloyalty.”
“Based on what you had learned prior, this might seem to you like an odd teaching for the Sith but, as we’ll discuss later, the Brotherhood is as much reformist as it is revivalist. But, getting back to where we actually are in the historical progression, the fall of the original Sith Empire and its aftermath relates back notably to the whole ‘one true line of Dark Lords’ thing I mentioned earlier on. Recent evidence suggest that there were probably several dozen different groups of Sith refugees and pre-existing colonies that survived the end of the great Hyperspace War but only two of these are really relevant to our task. The first group was led by the Dark Lord Naga Sadow, who had survived the death of his empire. In fact, you know those temples on Yavin IV you always see the Alliance to Restore the Republic operating out of in the Battle of Yavin holodramas; the ones the Jedi Praxeum used to be housed in? Those were the last surviving structures from Sadow’s original settlement. Eventually Sadow and his city were discovered by a fallen Jedi named Freedon Nadd who then became the next Dark Lord in the Brotherhood’s recognized succession. There’s not too much to say about Freedon Nadd, he left Yavin and its citizens behind to conquer his homeworld, Onderon. Really he matters more after his death than during his life. The next Dark Lord after Freedon, however, is of primary importance to this study.”
“You may remember Exar Kun from your history lessons. His spirit haunted the old Praxeum until it was removed by our modern Jedi. But, for the modern Sith, what he did in life is far more important. Wrapping up what I was discussing earlier about the line of succession, Exar Kun plays a pivotal role in that concept. You see, Exar Kun held the tile of Dark Lord at the same time as another claimant. I’m sure all of you are familiar with last year’s archaeological talk-of-the-galaxy? That we now have information about the Great Galactic Wars? Well, strangely enough we have the Sith to thank for filling what had just been a blank space left in history by the holonet crash during the Old Republic’s Dark Age. They discovered the existence of the Sith of that time, and they didn’t like what they found. Namely, that there was a whole other line of survivors from the original Sith Empire that followed a line of succession totally distinct from theirs.”
“Their solution was to reaffirm their legitimacy by pointing to the legend of Exar Kun being anointed as Dark Lord by the spirit of Marka Ragnos. This other line supposedly lacked that spiritual mandate and was therefore conveniently written off as illegitimate. Of course, all of this is even more biased than the usual archaeology we see coming out of the Obsidian Union, so I’m waiting for some proper articles to be published before I form too many conclusions. However, it is very important to remember that the Sith take the aforementioned viewpoint, as it has become an increasingly integral part of their dogma. But, Exar Kun’s significance to the modern Sith has a lot more to it than just this recent development. Most notably, the New Sith Brotherhood is named after his Brotherhood of the Sith. Both organizations also have the restoration of the Golden Age of the Sith as their stated goal. The similarities run deeper than this, though, as Exar Kun was the first Dark Lord to utilize the ‘big tent’ approach to acquiring followers. The Ancient Empire operated as a cultural hegemony more analogous to the Galactic Empire while Kun’s empire consisted of a militant cult, the Mandalorians and the descendants of Naga Sadow’s followers. The New Brotherhood has been even more diverse in founding its Union.”
“From Exar Kun we move on to someone who casts almost as long a shadow on Sith thought: Darth Revan. Now, I know you all learned about Revan during your basic history classes so I won’t bore you with details you already know. There are two important things to remember about Revan concerning the modern Sith: he’s recognized as Dark Lord because he claimed it in rivalry to the other group of Sith and his tactical writings are year-one required reading for students in all Union military academies. Revan is why the Union leaves as much of a planet’s infrastructure intact as they typically do when attacking. It isn’t because they’re not just as evil as the Empire was; they just want to spend as little time as possible repurposing the world’s economy to feed their ravenous military. You’ll occasionally see Revan’s influence pop up on a philosophic level but mostly he’s revered for his proficiency in ruthlessly efficient conquest.”
“The next period of Sith history is murky at best. After Revan’s redemption, the survivors of his Sith went underground. Who they were, what happened to them; these are things we just don’t know. And it’s doubtful that the Brotherhood knows much more. There is one name from this period that you’re going to be seeing a lot of during this assignment: Darth Traya. If Revan is the authority on their tactics and Exar Kun is the originator of their organizational doctrine, then Traya is the Brotherhood’s philosopher-laureate. I like to refer to her body of work as ‘Ten Habits of Highly Effective Sociopaths’.”
When she had rehearsed this speech in her mind, Xzara had decided to insert a pause here, for laughter. In the present moment, however, she scolded herself for not having anticipated that the subject matter would leave her addressees unappreciative of the humor.
“Anyway,” she continued, a bit shakily at first, “You’re going to have to suffer through a lot of Traya during this assignment. The Brotherhood has always made a point of writing down the teachings of Dark Lords that had only been orally transmitted until recently and no one has gotten more of this treatment than Traya. There’s much to pore over in the coming days but, since this is an introduction, I’ll boil down the basic theme of her works for you: ‘suffering is good’. According to Traya, the only way to really learn or grow is through painful confrontation with existence. Because why study or seek out the wise advice of experienced teachers when you can blindly muddle through life in a state of constant anguish never knowing whether or not your own self-absorption is twisting every ‘lesson’ the pain is trying to ‘teach’ you, right?”
Xara smiled a little after her comment actually got a few chuckles this time.
“Now, admittedly, that in itself isn’t so objectionable. There are plenty of people with martyr complexes that might agree with that sentiment but don’t fall to the Dark Side. But Traya doesn’t stop at saying you shouldn’t try to avoid suffering in your own life but goes on to suggest that you also must leave others to their suffering, or even selectively *enhance* that pain. You can make an exception though if they have something you want. Then you’re supposed to give them what they want (so that they’ll give you what you want) but in such a way as it will ultimately ruin them. And this is why Traya’s writings are so popular with the Sith and why she’s going to be a very instructive part of our research: she’s captured the essence of how the Dark Side operates. Using the Force to indulge your worst traits inevitably exacerbates them further and further until you bring yourself and everything around you into a fiery crash.”
“After Traya the next flashpoint in Sith history is the Great Galactic Wars. I’ve already talked about that period a little earlier so I’m going to move past it and discuss, very briefly, the New Sith Wars. These conflicts began with a Dark Lord named Darth Ruin. We unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) know very little about him and have access only to things written about him not *by* him. The Sith probably have a few primary sources but so far they’re not sharing. What is available suggests that there was a strong solipsistic slant to his writings. Despite Ruin’s renown as a philosopher-king among his contemporary Sith, the Brotherhood seems to have mostly ignored him. In fact, the reason I’m going to keep my discussion of the New Sith Wars era here short is because, on the whole, modern Sith see it as more of a curiosity than required learning. It seems a bit odd, I suppose, that they’d have so little to say about a Sith empire that controlled more territory and came closer to matching the duration of the original Sith Empire than any other openly Sith-ruled nation. But, lacking the romanticized reputations of the first three Sith empires or the controversy of the fourth, the fifth one fails to capture the modern Sith’s imagination. And, of course, it’s more than a little overshadowed by the events that followed in the wake of its dissolution.”
“After causing the Republic’s Dark Age, the Sith empire collapsed into warring factions that where only much later reunified by Skere Kaan into the Brotherhood of Darkness. By the way, if anyone tells you that the New Sith Brotherhood is named after the Brotherhood of Darkness, they’re wrong. I trust you all remember where the New Brotherhood’s name actually comes from? The Brotherhood of Darkness was defeated on Ruusan which of course led to the Ruusan Reformations and the Pax Respublica.”
“However, one Sith survived, a man called Darth Bane. And, naturally, as the *only* living Sith left in his time, his philosophies and actions would shape the attitudes of all future Sith. Though in the case of today’s Sith it’s more accurate to say that he shaped their attitudes by inversion. Really, the most concise definition of the Brotherhood’s take on Sith philosophy is ‘a rejection of Baneism.’ Bane’s most famous contribution to Sith thought, which some of you may have heard of, is the Rule of Two. In this arrangement there can only ever be two true Sith at any time. Devotees and minions being given minor Force training is acceptable but, until either the Apprentice kills the Master and becomes Master himself or dies trying, there’s no room for new recruits into the actual Sith Order. Bane’s Rule of Two is apparently a variation of a regulation of Revan’s that a Sith Master only take one Apprentice at time. Though, in Revan’s system, the student ultimately graduates to mastery, takes on their own Apprentice and the first Master takes on a new learner. I suppose if you wanted to phrase it romantically, Bane believed that, for Masters and Apprentices, it’s ‘til death do we part. Or, more accurately, ‘til one of us murders the other do we part. ”
“It’s pretty obvious where the Brotherhood differs from Bane on the above points. They obviously don’t limit their numbers to two nor do they encourage or even tolerate betrayal within their ranks. And, to think, it only took them nearly seven thousand years to figure out that turning on each other at the drop of a hat isn’t smart. But another big point of philosophical separation between Bane and the Brotherhood is not as widely known. Darth Bane’s other most significant doctrine was expressed in the metaphor that the Force is ‘poison and not fire.’ What he meant by this is that there is only so much of the Force to go around, it is finite. So the more people there are drawing on the Force, the less Force there is to be had. This was, of course, constructed as a buttress to the Rule of Two. The Brotherhood, naturally, rejects this vigorously and so you’ll see fire motifs used a lot in modern Sith writing and art.”
“It’s important to remember though that the Brotherhood’s rejection of Bane’s philosophy does not mean they regard the Banite Sith Lords as illegitimate. The Rule of Two is seen as obsolete and inaccurate but regarded as having been necessary for its time. Indeed, the penultimate Sith Master in the Banite line, Darth Plagueis, has had some noteworthy impact on current Sith thought. So much so, in fact, that you’ll almost never catch a Brotherhood Sith not adding ‘the Wise’ to the end of Plagueis’ name.”
“He’s so well regarded for numerous reasons. First, it seems that he planned to and perhaps even took steps towards abolishing the Rule of Two. The second involves his, well, downright bizarre biological theories. We’ll be examining some of his scientific writings during the work itself, so I won’t go into too much detail, but suffice to say that Plagueis is *the* authority on Midichlorian research in the Union…much to the detriment of their nascent scientific community. Finally, and most obscurely, Plagueis is the Dark Lord to make most frequent use of the doctrinal phrase ‘Grand Design.’ Though most unbiased examiners of the surviving teachings of Plagueis infer that this phrase means the process by which the Baneite Sith ultimately took over the Galaxy covertly through the creation of the Galactic Empire, the Brotherhood points to its appearance in supposed transcripts of Marka Ragnos’ investiture of Exar Kun to draw conclusions that are *far* more disturbing. I won’t overburden you all today by going into all that, but we will be discussing it frequently later during this assignment.”
“The final Baneite Dark Lord, and by far the most horrible, was Palpatine. In terms of public relations, the Union is an awkward position with Palpatine. Their ‘big tent’ technique means they have to pretend to like and dislike him at the same time. However, the Brotherhood’s real opinions are actually just as mixed. Palpatine’s stock in the Sith seems to have fallen gradually as his most adamant admirers repeatedly found themselves on the losing sides of the Brotherhood’s many internal coups. But he hasn’t quite been reduced to the level of contempt Bane receives yet; you’ll occasionally see a line or two from one of the surviving sections of his Dark Side Compendium quoted in modern Sith tracts.”
Taking a long breath and letting her eyes flutter shut for a moment, Xzara concluded her speech, “Well, I think I’ve given you all *more* than enough to process for one day. Take the next twenty-four hours to relax, meditate and center yourselves. Try not to worry too much about examining the information I’ve given you for now, just let it sink in. And I want to thank every one of you. The task set before you is not an easy one, by any definition of the word, but I sense that you will all apply yourselves to this difficult duty with diligence and restraint. May the Force be with you; until we meet again tomorrow.”