in:Legends articles,Articles needing citation,Incomplete lists,Sith doctrines and philosophies

Rule of Two

<Rule of Two

Edit

This article details a subject that falls under the Legends continuity.

Click here for Wookieepedia's article on the Canon version of this subject.

This article covers the Legends version of this subject.

For other uses, seeRule of Two.

Help me,Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope.

This article is in need of referencing per Wookieepedia'ssourcing guidelines.

This article needs appropriate citations. Help usimprove this article by referencing valid resource material. Remove this notice when finished.

Rule of Two

Historical information

Creator(s)

Darth Bane^[1]

Date created

c.1000 BBY^[1]

Other information

Utilized by

Sith^[1]
- Order of the Sith Lords^[1]

"Two there should be; no more, no less. One to embody power, the other to crave it."

―Darth Bane^[1]

TheRule of Two doctrine, also called theBanite system and known asChwayatyun inSith, was the guiding principle of theOrder of the Sith Lords after the internecineNew Sith Wars. It replaced the practices ofLord Kaan's Brotherhood of Darkness, which claimed equality among Sith Lords and forbade the use of the title "Darth."

The Rule of Two was instituted byDarth Bane, once a student at Kaan'sSith academy, in response to what he viewed as inevitable, self-destructive infighting within theSith Order. The Rule of Two states that there would be only two Sith at one time, amaster and anapprentice, guaranteeing that when the apprentice becomes powerful enough in the ways of thedark side to take the title of master, only then would they be worthy of the title. This transfer of power would only take place when the apprentice takes their master's life and finds a worthy student to repeat the cycle, this way the Sith will grow more powerful and still exist through the new master. Both master and apprentice were considered to be Sith Lords.

The practice survived with varying levels of enforcement for a thousand years until the murder ofDarth Tenebrous at the hands of his apprentice in67 BBY—Darth Plagueis held the doctrine in contempt, and intended to live forever together with his own apprentice,Darth Sidious. Although the latter betrayed and murdered his master in accordance with the Rule of Two and trained apprentices of his own, never more than one at the same time, he did not fully accept it, following instead his ownRule of One, in order for him to continue as the ruler of the Sith.

History[]

Creation[]

"When your power eclipses mine I will become expendable. This is the Rule of Two: one Master and one apprentice. When you are ready to claim the mantle of Dark Lord as your own, you must do so by eliminating me."

―Darth Bane, to Darth Zannah^[2]

Darth Bane, Sith Master, and Darth Zannah, Sith apprentice; first in the order of the Rule of Two

In an attempt to avoid the seemingly inevitable clash between power hungrySith,Darth Bane sought to reinvent the Sith Order with only two members—aSith Master, and anapprentice. Bane created the Rule of Two in a way which would prevent the Sith becoming like Kaan'sBrotherhood of Darkness; Darth Bane thought the Brotherhood was weak and decided he must destroy it, then rebuild the Sith order as otherwise they were doomed to fail like all Sith before them. He decided there should only be one apprentice because if there were multiple the strongest would be held back by the weaker apprentices, this also prevented the weaker apprentices joining together to defeat the more powerful master leaving the master to be replaced by someone weaker. Bane decided "One Sith must contain all the power of thedark side. One Master must decide how that power should be used."^[1]

His course of action decided, Bane destroyed theBrotherhood of Darkness in true Sith fashion by dupingLord Skere Kaan into using aForce technique he learned from his studies of the dark arts known as theThought bomb. Lord Kaan gathered together everySith Lord in the Brotherhood as the Jedi were closing in to destroy them when he detonated the Thought bomb. Bane, knowing what would happen to Force-sensitive users within the bomb's range, escaped the Brotherhood's fate and hid from the survivingJedi. Bane was then free to start his new Sith Order implementing the Rule of Two with his newfound apprentice,Zannah. Through his actions, Bane fulfilled the prophecy of theSith'ari and ended theNew Sith Wars.^[1]

For nearly 1,000 years, theSith watched and waited, destabilizing theGalactic Republic whenever opportunity arose without revealing themselves. Around188 BBY, during theDark Jedi Conflict,Kibh Jeen warned the Jedi that the Sith had survived and were operating utilizing the Rule of Two,^[3] though his warnings were mostly ignored or passed off as the rantings of a madman.^[4]

Prelude to the Empire[]

"Remember, the first and only reality of the Sith… there can only be two. And you are no longer my apprentice. You have been replaced."

―Darth Sidious, to Darth Maul^[5]

Darth Plagueis and his apprentice, Darth Sidious

By the time ofRugess Nome/Darth Tenebrous, the Sith had come to the conclusion that the Rule of Two had essentially expired, as the time was coming when they would finally gain their revenge over the hatedJedi Order. However, this was always the opinion of the Master only, as the apprentice was invariably in the same subservient position as when the Rule was first envisioned.^[6]

During this 1,000 year period, theBith Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Tenebrous emerged, taking aMuun,Darth Plagueis as hisSith apprentice. Regarding the Sith of the Rule of Two, Plagueis said there were "30 in a millennium rather than the tens of thousands fit to be Jedi." Plagueis eventually came to realize the Rule of Two was old and outdated. In67 BBY, Plagueisbetrayed and killed his master onBal'demnic, becoming the new Dark Lord of the Sith, but not before declaring that the Rule of Two ended with them. Shortly after arriving atSojourn, Plagueis discovered that Tenebrous broke the Rule of Two whilst training him, as he had taken a fellow Bith as an apprentice, dubbing himDarth Venamis. The mantle ofSith Master ultimately went to Plagueis, not Venamis, after Plagueisbested him in a duel. After defeating Venamis, Plagueis discovered that Venamis had kept a list of potential apprentices in case he would have succeeded in killing him: aShi'ido changeling, anIktotchi prophet and the dementedNautolan Naat Lare, but Plagueis eliminated the former two and Larefailed to fulfill Plagueis' expectations.Two years later, Plagueis took the humanPalpatine as his apprentice, inducting him into the Order as Darth Sidious, and had intended to rule alongside him forever. However, wanting all the power for himself, Sidious became the Dark Lord of the Sith by betraying and murdering Plagueis.^[6] Sidious, under the guise ofSenator Palpatine, was electedSupreme Chancellor in32 BBY^[7] and masterminded a devastatinggalactic war between theRepublic andConfederacy.^[8] His double identity allowed him to infiltrate, deceive and eventually destroy the Republic and nearly the Jedi. After becoming theEmperor of the newly formedGalactic Empire, he brought the Galaxy under the control of the Sith, bringing about their foretoldrevenge.^[9]

Darth Sidious with his first apprentice, Darth Maul

Sidious broke the Rule of Two at least twice: once by trainingDarth Maul while still under the tutelage of Darth Plagueis;^[6] and secondly, by taking on two apprentices at once, and in the form of two Jedi:Count Dooku, the formerPadawan of the legendaryJedi Master Yoda, dubbed Darth Tyranus,^[8] and theFosh JediVergere. Vergere was said to be merely a candidate and not a "true" apprentice, and apparently left after discovering the depths of Sidious's madness.^[10] In Maul's case, Plagueis had been informed of his existence and purpose by Sidious before Sidious began training him. With regard to Maul, Plagueis and Sidious had planned from the start for him to be nothing more than a disposable weapon and not a true Sith Lord. As such, neither Sidious nor Plagueis considered his existence to be a violation of the Rule, not even when Sidious bestowed the title of "Darth" upon him. It also appears that Sidious considered offering Tyranus a place at his side prior to Maul's defeat, although details on the timing are vague and, as previously stated, Sidious did not consider Maul to be a true apprentice.^[6] In any case, Sidious secretly intended to create anew doctrine that ensured he was the permanent ruling Sith Lord, and that his apprentices would merely be useful tools rather than usurpers.^[11]

Darth Sidious with his second apprentice, Darth Tyranus

Darth Tyranus pledged to personally teach youngAsajj Ventress in the ways of the dark side, and privately referred to her as "apprentice," and she addressed him as "Master."^[12]^[13] Tyranus never bestowed the title of Darth to Ventress, perhaps out of respect for the Rule of Two. She certainly believed their master/apprentice status to be genuine,^[12]^[13]^[14] and in any case it can be heralded as a sign of Tyranus' rising ambitions. Sidious sensed a disturbance in the Force concerning Ventress. He considered her enough of a potential threat that he ordered Tyranus to eliminate her as a test of his continued loyalty. Tyranus acquiesced and, while disavowing Ventress as his apprentice, turned his fleet's own guns on her at theBattle of Sullust.^[12] Erroneously giving Ventress up for dead, Tyranus soon after tookSavage Opress as a new Sith apprentice with the ultimate goal of overthrowing Sidious and ruling the galaxy together,^[15] though that plan did not come to fruition either, as he was a puppet for Ventress who survived her master's betrayal and attempted to use Savage as pawn to kill her master which failed.^[13]

Maul, after narrowly surviving his duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi and faking his death, broke the Rule of Two as well. Shortly after returning from his exile and uniting with his brother, Maul declared himself Opress's master and demonstrated his superiority over Opress.^[16] He remarked that there could only be two—yet in his decision he had created two rival pairs of Sith. However Darth Sidious eventually corrected this oversight by searching them out and single-handedlydefeating both in mortal combat and killing Opress, preserving the Rule of Two. Only Maul survived the battle, but Sidious decided that his former apprentice could be of further use to him.^[5]

After eventually deciding that it was time for him to makeJedi Knight Anakin Skywalker his apprentice, Sidiousstaged Palpatine's kidnapping, in order for Anakin to kill Tyranus and then replace him. While Tyranus knew about the plan to capture the Chancellor, he was unaware that he would be sacrificed. Anakin defeated Tyranus in the battle. Sidious then betrayed Tyranus by having him killed by Skywalker. Not too long after, Skywalker betrayed he Jedi, fell to the dark side and became Sidious apprentice, with Sidious naming him Darth Vader. After gaining Vader, Sidious unleashed his^[9]secret protocol toforcibly compel^[17] theRepublic's army to turn against the Jedi, leading to the defeat and near destruction of the Jedi Order and rise of the Galactic Empire.^[9]

Imperial Period[]

Sidious andDarth Vader trained and employed a number ofDark Jedi and otherForce-sensitive agents such as the Dark Acolytes, theInquisitorius, and theDark Side Elite. As these agents were not taught the secrets of the Sith and were considered merelyacolytes, not apprentices, they did not consider this a violation of the Rule of Two. However, the fact that Tyranus sought to replace the Jedi Order with a Sith army, the so-calledFist of the Empire, indicated that he had envisioned the abolition of the Rule of Two once the Sith took over the galaxy.^[18]

Just as Sidious had taken Darth Maul as an apprentice before truly ascending to the rank of Master, Vader took it upon himself to train a secret apprentice of his own. Vader's physical and psychological traumas had diminished his potential in the Force, and he did not believe himself capable of overthrowing Sidious, the most powerful Sith Lord in history, alone. To that end, he endeavored to mentor an exceptionally powerful Force-wielder who would not only serve as his personal assassin, but would one day stand with him to overthrow Sidious. Thus for several years,Galen Marek, codenamedStarkiller, was trained in the ways of the Sith and the dark side of the Force. Marek became a merciless assassin, devoted to the goal of destroying Sidious in order to become a true Sith Lord. Vader later changed his mind about using Marek to overthrow Sidious and attempted to kill him. Marek survived, and went on not only to redeem himself, but to provide the impetus for the formation of the Rebel Alliance.^[19]

Marek would defeat Vader. Seeing this as an opportunity to replace and be rid of Vader, Sidious ordered Marek to finish Vader, but Marek instead, refused, and subsequently redeemed himself and attacked Sidious. Marek ended up using all his energy to kill the stormtroopers and destroy much of the dome, but ended up dying in the process.^[19]

Darth Sidious and his third apprentice, Darth Vader

Despite Marek's unanticipated redemption and subsequent death, Vader refused to lose an extremely powerful asset and resorted to relying on thecloning technology ofKamino, and thus continued to violate the Rule of Two by creating a clone of Marek to replace his former apprentice. After many failed experiments, including arogue clone who escaped from theTimira City Cloning Facility, Vader succeeded in achieving his goal by creating aperfect clone who wielded all of Marek's strengths, but none of his weaknesses.^[20]

Despite all of the strengths of the Rule of Two, Bane overlooked two critical weaknesses in his philosophy: the first, and the one of most concern to Bane, was the possibility the Master might spend most of their lifetime training an unworthy apprentice. Later in his life, Bane believed this to be the case with his apprentice Zannah. Aging poorly due to a lifetime of immersion in the dark side, and with Zannah apparently content to toil in his shadow, Bane desperately sought out the secrets to eternal life in order to buy himself enough time to train a truly worthy apprentice. His fears for Zannah came to naught, as she had in fact been preparing to kill him even as he had begun to worry that she was simply waiting for him to age to the point where he would be an easy kill. Zannah proved herself worthy by dueling and very narrowlydefeating Bane onAmbria, and continued the Rule with an apprentice of her own.^[21] The possibility of training a failed apprentice would go on to irk other Sith Masters likeDarth Cognus, whosefirst apprentice left her over ideological differences.^[4] Additionally, despite being the very inspiration for the Rule of Two,^[1] Revan renouncing the dark side and killingthe reigning Sith Lord served as proof of Darth Bane overlooking another critical weakness in his Rule—that one of the Sith Lords could be redeemed while killing the other at the same time.^[22]

In4 ABY, during theBattle of Endor, Sidious had theJedi Knight Luke Skywalker, his apprentice's son, fight against Darth Vader so he could become his new apprentice. After Skywalker defeated Vader, Sidious betrayed his apprentice by ordering Skywalker to kill him, but Skywalker refused to slay his father, so Sidious decided to unleash his wrath on him throughForce lightning. Unable to let his son die at the hands of his master, Anakin Skywalker killed Darth Sidious in a selfless act of sacrifice and succeeded to redeem himself of the life he lived as Darth Vader. Without Sidious or Vader, the Order of the Sith Lords was effectively dissolved since its only two members were dead. As a result, it appeared that there were no others to carry on the Order's traditions and teachings, and the Rule of Two was veritably destroyed.^[23]

Darth Vader acknowledging Starkiller as his apprentice, thus breaking the Rule of Two

Lumiya, one of Vader's secret apprentices and a formerEmperor's Hand, declared herselfDark Lady of the Sith and established her ownSith Order.^[4] She remained faithful to Darth Bane's ancient diktat, the Rule of Two,^[10] by takingFlint as her first apprentice and thenCarnor Jax as her second.^[4] Her third and final apprentice was Darth Caedus, the grandson of Darth Vader and formerly known as Jacen Solo.^[10] Lumiya was ultimatelykilled by Luke Skywalker after Solo murdered Skywalker's wifeMara Jade.^[24] Prior to her death, however, Lumiya instructed Caedus to find an apprentice for himself. He fulfilled her last wish after finding a suitable apprentice inTahiri Veila, a fallenJedi Knight whose emotional attachment to Caedus'sdead brother brought about her fall to the dark side.^[25] However, Caedus's death, alongside Veila's turning back to the light side shortly beforehand, brought an end to the Rule of Two for good.^[26]

Abandonment[]

By the year130 ABY, anew Sith Order emerged under the leadership ofDarth Krayt, thus taking the place of the former Order of the Sith Lords. Unlike Bane's Order, Krayt abolished the Rule of Two and replaced it with theRule of One, with one Dark Lord of the Sith representing the Order itself, while also commanding many Lords, acolytes, and minions.^[27]

His revision of the Sith was met with extreme disapproval and outrage, particularly from the gatekeeper ofDarth Bane's holocron. When Krayt sought the wisdom of the ancient Sith Lords, they rebuffed him as an offensive heretic and afalse Sith.Darth Nihilus did not provide Krayt with helpful information,Darth Andeddu accused him of heresy, and Darth Bane warned the Rule of One would be the death of Krayt and the entire Sith.^[27] In the end, however, Krayt wasfinally killed byCade Skywalker and the One Sith retreated to reexamine how to retake the galaxy.^[28]

Surviving Adherents[]

By138 ABY, at least one Sith known asDarth Wredd still believed in the philosophy of the Rule of Two, and ended upwiping out the One Sith to re-establish it.^[29] However, this ironically led to the assumed extinction of the Sith as a whole, as his attempt atprocuring an apprentice failed, with him dying at the hands ofAnia Solo.^[30] Some, such as theEmpress Fel doubted the Sith were gone and indeed a few such asDarth Talon were not known to be among the slain.^[29]^[28]

Behind the scenes[]

"Don't get any clever ideas, kid."

―Palpatine to Vader, referring to the Rule of Two^[31]

The Rule of Two was first mentioned inEpisode I: The Phantom Menace and itsnovelization byTerry Brooks. The rule was not named as the "Rule of Two" in either; it became known as such by fans by May 2000.^[32]

Chronologically,Darth Rivan predates Darth Bane, yet one of the traps in Darth Rivan's fortress, as shown inA Mon Alone, is based on the Sith adherence to the Rule of Two. However, Rivan did not pre-date Darth Revan, and in fact based his name off of the historical texts of Revan,^[3] whose teachings about apprentices inspired Darth Bane to implement the Rule of Two.^[1]

OnHypori around54 BBY, Darth Plagueis said to his apprentice Darth Sidious that rather than the tens of thousands of Jedi, only thirty in a millennium were fit to be Sith, implying that the Rule of Two spanned at least 30 individuals, including or up until him and his apprentice.^[6]