Dark Lord of the Sith was a title used by members of the Sith, also known as Sith Lords. Under the Rule of Two, it was applied to both the Sith Master and the Sith apprentice.
Darth Plagueis' apprentice, Darth Sidious, conspired to restore the Sith to power roughly a millennium after the death of Darth Bane, the Dark Lord who reformed the Sith. During the Clone Wars, Darth Maul and Savage Opress claimed the mantle of Dark Lord despite the presence of Sidious and Darth Tyranus. Sidious killed Opress and chastised Maul, reminding his former apprentice that there could only be two Sith Lords at any given time in the galaxy.
After the Galactic Republic fell, the galaxy was ruled by two Dark Lords—Galactic Emperor Darth Sidious and his apprentice, the fallen Jedi Darth Vader—during the era of the Galactic Empire. Their reign ended when Vader sacrificed himself by destroying his master, rendering the Sith extinct through the deaths of the final Dark Lords.
Despite the Sith's prophesied destruction, their legacy endured through Sidious, who was revived through cloning and the dark side of the Force, as well as Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, Vader's grandson. During the First Order's war against the Resistance, Ren aspired to rule all the galaxy as the new Emperor and Dark Lord of the Sith. Following Ren's redemption, Sidious perished along with his followers in the Battle of Exegol as the very last Dark Lord of the Sith remaining.
Darth Bane was the Dark Lord of the Sith who created the Rule of Two after the culling of the Sith Order.
The Dark Lord of the Sith, alternatively known as a Sith Lord, was a title in the Sith Order.
The Valley of the Dark Lords on the planet Korriban contained crypts of the deceased Dark Lords of the Sith. The planet became a sacred place of ceremonial rituals for the Sith. The burial ceremony of a Dark Lord of the Sith would be accompanied by hundreds of Sith warriors carrying the body of the fallen master. The corpse was stored in the tomb along with precious objects, and an escort of slaves accompanied the deceased on his journey to the spirit realm. The Sith then left the planet until the next burial.
The Sith later fell victim to infighting because of their greed for power, weakening the Sith Order to the point where the Jedi Order defeated and nearly destroyed their ancient rivals. However, the ancient Sith Order had one surviving member: Darth Bane. Bane assumed the mantle of Dark Lord and established a philosophy known as the Rule of Two, declaring that only two Sith Lords could exist at any time—a Sith Master and a Sith apprentice. After his death, Bane was the last Dark Lord to be buried at Moraband's Valley of the Dark Lords.
Darth Sidious concealed his nature as the Dark Lord of the Sith behind the facade of Sheev Palpatine.
The Dark Lords that succeeded Darth Bane would adhere to his teachings, maintaining the Sith Order's ranks at two members throughout the millennium-long reign of the modern Galactic Republic. Darth Sidious, publicly known as Sheev Palpatine from Naboo, became the Dark Lord of The Sith after betraying and murdering his Sith Master Darth Plagueis. Sidious was the Dark Lord of the Sith during the last years of the Republic and the rise of the Galactic Empire.
At the time of the Clone Wars, Sidious' former apprentice Darth Maul sought to reclaim his status as a Sith Lord while training his brother, Savage Opress. Having replaced Maul with Darth Tyranus, Sidious confronted the Zabrak Sith claimants on Mandalore. There, he killed Opress and subdued Maul. The Dark Lord castigated Maul, informing the Dathomirian that he had been replaced in an Order that permitted only two Sith Lords. However, Sidious informed Maul that he still had uses for his former apprentice, using him to draw out Mother Talzin.
The dark side of the Force transformed Anakin Skywalker into the Dark Lord of the Sith known as Darth Vader.
Sidious would later betray Tyranus and have him killed by the Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, as he desired to make Skywalker his apprentice. After the death of Tyranus, Skywalker fell to the dark side and became Darth Vader, Sidious' third apprentice. Sidious proclaimed himself Galactic Emperor after destroying the Jedi Order. The Dark Lords ruled the galaxy for a generation until the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY, when Sidious betrayed Vader and tried to make Luke Skywalker his new apprentice. Previously, Vader had tried to do the same, but he gave up on his quest to make his son his apprentice after the mission to Exegol.
During the Battle of Endor, Luke refused to kill his father, however, declaring his allegiance to the Jedi. Enraged by Luke's refusal to turn to the dark side, Sidious tortured the Jedi Knight with Force lightning. Luke begged Vader to save him; unwilling to see his son die, Vader sacrificed his life by destroying the Emperor.
The deaths of Sidious and Vader marked the end of the lineage of Dark Lords going back to Darth Bane, and the beginning of the New Republic Era. Vader died as Anakin Skywalker having returned to the light side through an act of selflessness and sacrifice, which allowed Yoda to preserve Anakin's identity when he became one with the Force. As a result, Anakin joined Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi in death as a Force spirit. With his death, Anakin brought balance to the Force and his destiny as the Chosen One was fulfilled.
Resurrected on Exegol, Darth Sidious endeavored to reclaim the galaxy as Emperor and Dark Lord of the Sith.
Unbeknownst to the galaxy at large, Sidious was revived when he used the dark side to move his spirit to a cloned body. Aided by his followers on Exegol, the Sith Eternal cult, the fallen Emperor engineered the strandcast Snoke to groom Vader's grandson, Kylo Ren, into an heir that was worthy of inheriting the Sith legacy. Ren, who coveted the power of his Sith grandfather, sought to rule all the galaxy as the new Emperor and Dark Lord of the Sith.
Sidious' plan to restore his Order through the creation of a new Sith Empire ended at the Battle of Exegol. Kylo Ren had returned to the light side of the Force, renouncing the dark side and his claim to the Sith mantle, while Sidious' granddaughter, the Jedi apprentice Rey rejected the Emperor's entreaty to succeed him. Ultimately, Rey used the power from all the past deceased Jedi to destroy Sidious and Sith for good.
In the story of the non-canon Star Wars: Visions short "THE TWINS," the Force-sensitive twins Am and Karre both held the title "Dark Lord." In that capacity, both wielded power over a Galactic Empire that emerged after the Battle of Exegol. The twins' empire hoped to claim control over the galaxy, only for Karre to rebel and abandon the regime.
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