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Sith Master

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Sith Master

Historical information

Established by

Sith^[1]

Date suspended

4 ABY^[2]

Date reestablished

After 4 ABY^[2]

Date abolished

35 ABY^[2]

Organizational information

Organization

Sith^[1]
Shadow Collective(rogue)^[3]

Position type

Sith rank^[1]
Mentor^[4]

Duties

To train aSith apprentice in the ways of thedark side of the Force^[4]

"It is your duty to learn what I know. It is my duty to learn what there is to teach."

―Darth Sidious, to Darth Vader^[4]

ASith Master was a rank in theSith Order, reserved for aSith Lord who instructed aSith apprentice in the arts of thedark side of the Force. The role of a Sith Master was to pass their knowledge to the student. By tradition, the apprentice had tokill their Sith Master in order to complete their training, or the master could train another student to kill and then replace their outgoing student.

Under theRule of Two established byDarth Bane, the Order's ranks were limited to two SithLords—a Sith Master and an apprentice—at any giventime. After amillennium of hiding from theJedi Order, the Sith returned to power inthe galaxy through the rise ofDarth Sidious, theDark Lord of the Sith who killed his Sith Master,Darth Plagueis, and mentored the Sith apprenticesDarth Maul,Darth Tyranus, andDarth Vader.

Description[]

"I'm looking forward to completing your training. In time, you will call me master."

―Darth Sidious, to Luke Skywalker^[5]

In theSith Order, a Sith Master was the title of aSith Lord who trained aSith apprentice in the ways of thedark side of the Force.^[6] It was the duty of a Sith Master to learn all that there was to know aboutthe Force, and then to pass this knowledge to their Sith apprentice.^[4]

History[]

"You don't know the power of the dark side. I must obey my master."

―Darth Vader, to Luke Skywalker^[5]

Darth Sidious was the Sith Master who trained several apprentices during his reign as the Dark Lord of the Sith.

Approximately amillennium before theInvasion of Naboo, the Sith's greed for power led to infighting, which caused them to be defeated and nearly destroyed by the Jedi. As a consequence, the last survivor,Darth Bane, established theRule of Two, which restructured the sect so that there could only be two Sith at a time, a master and an apprentice.^[6] In the lastdecades of theGalactic Republic, the Sith MasterDarth Plagueis tutored at least two apprentices in the ways of the Sith;The Stranger, and laterDarth Sidious.^[7] After betraying and murdering Plagueis, Sidious subsequently took over his master's role as the Sith master, and managed to reach the highest echelons ofdemocractic power beforeanointing himselfGalactic Emperor.^[8]

Darth Tyranus, although still apprenticed to Sidious, trained Asajj Ventress in the ways of the dark side.

Darth Tyranus trainedAsajj Ventress as his apprentice during theClone Wars, though he was still apprenticed toDarth Sidious.^[9] As Ventress grew in power, Sidious grew suspicious of Tyranus' intentions. He ordered his apprentice to kill theNightsister assassin, and Tyranus complied despite regarding Ventress as his most reliable asset.^[10] Tyranus then sought to replace Ventress withSavage Opress, intending to overthrow his Sith Master after training theDathomirian formerNightbrother in the ways of the dark side.^[11]

Darth Vader rebelled against his Sith Master, saving his son and dying as Anakin Skywalker.

Sidious eventually betrayed Tyranus by orderingAnakin Skywalker to kill him. Tyranus was then replaced by Skywalker, who pledged fealty to his new Sith Master as Darth Vader.^[8] Like his predecessor, Vader was an apprentice who mentored Force-sensitive students despite not holding the rank of Sith Master. His apprentices belonged to a cadre of fallenJedi-turned-Jedi hunters known as theInquisitorius.^[12] Sidious eventually sought to betray and replace Vader, by becoming the Sith Master of his apprentice'sson,Luke Skywalker. However, he was killed by a redeemed Anakin Skywalker, after Luke pledged himself as a Jedi like his father before him.^[5]

Kylo Ren, thegrandson of Vader, was lured to the dark side through the machinations of a revived Sidious and hisStrand-Cast clone,Supreme Leader Snoke of theFirst Order. Although Snoke directly oversaw Ren's training, Sidious considered himself to be Ren's true master. By using Snoke as a proxy mentor for Ren, Sidious managed to circumvent a dark side tradition in which the apprentice completed his training by killing the master who trained him, as Ren killed Snoke rather than Sidious.^[13]