Summary: For too long, the Sith have been seen as pure evil. I, Darth Laisvas, am not evil. I am cruel, but not evil. Welcome to Sith Philosophies and History.


I am Darth Laisvas, a Sith Lord with radical views on the Sith. I am a warrior, scholar, and philosopher. I enjoy taking long walks at night through the wild and stargazing.

Today, I will be showing you a new way to think of the Sith, as both a faction and a race.

Originally, the Sith were the native species of both Ziost, after 27,000 BBY, and Korriban. They had either obsidian or red skin, occasional bone spurs on their bodies, a pair of protrusions on their faces, just beneath their noses, akin to the lekku of the Twi'lek, and brown or black hair. They were separated into castes, the Massassi, the Sith Warriors that made up the Sith Army, the Zuguruk, the Sith Engineers responsible for building and maintaining Sith Technology, which was a combination of science and Dark Side magic, the Kissai, the Sith Priests that delved into Dark Side Magic such as Sith Alchemy and Sith Magic. The final caste was that of Slaves, though they were never considered a true caste in Sith culture. Later, they bred with Humans, and the Sith Purebloods became revered and exalted.

The Sith were, as a species, primal and ruthless. They killed when needed, and wasted nothing of their kills. They were tribalistic, led by a singular Sith sorcerer, barbaric, and hedonistic, while thriving off of the Dark Side of the Force. They were fused with it, and spent their lives feeding off of it, being empowered by it, and perfecting and developing Dark Side techniques that were formidable and thought impossible, such as Sorcery. The Sith found a way to fuse the Dark Side with technology.

Through the Sith art of Alchemy, the Sith developed Talismans that enhanced their focus and deepened their connection to the Force, allowing them to tap into even more Dark Side energy. Alongside other artifacts, they were often employed in Sith rituals. They later developed ensnarement talismans, which would corrupt the user in favor of the Dark Side, after Jedi were found using the Talisman for the Light Side of the Force. Talismans were just the surface of the Sith's ability to create things, though. Many Sith sorcerers created unique items, such as the Scepter of Ragnos, the Sword of Ieldis, and the Heart of Graush. Sith Artifacts were notoriously difficult to destroy, as well. The Jedi employed a veritable smorgasbord of techniques to destroy them, ranging from purging the well of Dark Side energy within them, which could sometimes only be done by another Dark Side user, to complete obliteration. Shortly after the destruction of the species, the remaining artifacts were outlawed, destroyed, or stolen and hidden by Jedi.

Contrary to popular belief, Holocrons were not a Sith invention. The Sith stored their knowledge in tomes and scrolls. The Holocron was a technology originally adapted from the Rakata. It was a preferred method of storing knowledge, but Holocrons were very few and far between.

Sith Alchemy also allowed Sith to create some very powerful weaponry, such as the Sith sword, a blade that was treated and reinforced to be able to withstand any and all blows, even those from Lightsabers. Some of the ancient Sith Lords of Ziost were known to use Cortosis-weave to create the Sith Tremor swords, a powerful vibroblade melee weapon. In addition to this, they often used Sith Alchemy to enhance various blade weapons to enhance their sheer destructive force. They also modified a hunting weapon, the Lanvarok, to be used as a ranged combat weapon. Individual Sith also created dark armor that was tailored to meet the measurements and requirements of the individual Sith.

Their sheer talent in Sith Alchemy allowed the Sith to engineer biological weapons, such as the Tuk'ata, a creature used to guard various Sith tombs. The ancient Sith Empire even engineered Chrysalis Beasts and the mutating Silooth to be used for war.

The Sith, however, were best known for their architectural skill. They considered every building to be an extension of the creator's personality. This meant that no two buildings were the same on the inside or outside. In war, this gave the Sith a tactical advantage; nobody but the Sith knew where anything was in any of their buildings. They built things like the Sith Meditation Sphere, a semi-sentient ship that amplified a Sith's powers by a great amount. Their greatest creation, perhaps, was during the years of the Great Hyperspace War, known as the Dark Reaper. It was a Force-empowered super weapon.

Created in 5000 BBY, the Dark Reaper could harvest the Force inside of anything, except a Force Wound, and focus it into a beam that destroyed everything in it's path. It was never destroyed until 22 BBY, during the Clone Wars by Anakin Skywalker.

The Sith had numerous enemies, as all great empires do. By 30,000 BBY, the Sith had discovered the most efficient and effective methods of channeling the Dark Side. Rage was the purest of the Dark Side catalyst, and this made the Sith a rather angry species. Word of their mastery over the Dark Side was quick to spread when the Killik species attempted to invade Korriban, only to be trounced by the overwhelming force they faced.

In 36,453 BBY, Tho Yor pyramid ships began to gather the galaxy's Force-sensitive beings, including Sith from Korriban. The Sith that left Korriban would eventually become the Je'daii, the ancestors of the Jedi.

Around 28,000 BBY, the Sith of Korriban were united under a singular banner, the banner of the Sith Adas. He was a prodigy of Sith magic, and wielded a pair of massive battle axes forged from Sith Alchemy. He was as skilled a warrior as he was a scholar, and was well versed in the Dark Side's power. It was during his reign that the title of Sith Lord was created.

Sith'ari.

It was the name Adas was given. He became the God of the Sith, and seemed to be immortal. When he had ruled for 300 years, the Rakatan Infinite Empire sought to absorb the Sith into their empire. They hid their true agenda from Adas, and gave the Sith new technologies, such as the Holocron.

Unfortunately for the Dark Sided Rakatans, they misjudged the confidence the Sith placed in them. They attempted to conquer Korriban, only to fail by the hand of the Sith'ari himself, backed by the indomitable will of the Sith people. During the Sith-Rakatan War, the immensely powerful Rakatans were outsmarted by Adas and the Sith, despite being at a technological and numerical advantage. The Rakatans were eventually defeated, and Adas took control of their Hyperspace-capable fleets, and led his people to expand, colonizing planets such as Ziost. Sadly, Adas sacrificed himself to secure his people's freedom.

With the Sith'ari gone, the Sith descended into chaos again. The united Sith race fell back into their tribal circles, and into their endless civil war. Several reigning combatants announced themselves as the new Sith'ari, eventually degrading the name so much that anyone could become Sith'ari.

Korriban was abandoned as the Sith's capitol world in favor of becoming a ceremonial tomb world, and Ziost was crowned the center of the Sith Empire. The Sith spread their empire further, to Malachor V and Jaguada, planets both far and near. The Kissai caste largely oversaw the rebuilding effort.

The acquisition of new technology was not all that the Sith garnered from the conquering of the Rakatans. They gained the concept of the Dark Side of the Force, which conflicted with the Sith's spiritually serene lives of war, sacrilege, and sacrifice to their gods. A further rift was driven into the species when a sect of the Kissai believed the death of their Sith'ari to reject the new views that the Sith had largely come to accept. They were declared as heretics, and exiled. Through the Force, they found their way to Tund, where they formed their own society of pureblooded Sith sorcerers, based on their new beliefs. Like the Rakatans, they believed all sentients were Force-sensitive, and that there were not sides to the Force.

Recorded history began here for the Sith.

Around 14,000 BBY, the Sith had built a library and temple on the planet Krayiss Two, where they would go to meditate on their experiments—evolving Sith techniques and manipulation of the Dark Side.

By 8,000 BBY, the Sith Empire had been encountered by Republic citizens, fleeing from some calamity during the Tapani Dynastic Era, though, due to the properties of the Stygian Caldera that affected hyperspace travel, the Sith Empire was relatively secluded from the rest of the galaxy.

Near 7,000 BBY, one Sith conqueror named Dathka Graush and his forces had won one of the cyclic wars of Korriban, leaving the majority of planet's cities devastated. Graush was cruel, even by Sith standards, and ruled for fifty years before he was assassinated and entombed in the Valley of Golg. He had conquered two-thirds of Korriban.

Around this time, in Republic space, Jedi had begun to discover the Dark Side of the Force for themselves. These Dark Jedi conducted dark experiments in secret, and eventually converted a large number of Jedi to their side, and announced themselves free of the Jedi Council's control. The Second Great Schism was begun. Three years later, the Dark Jedi openly rebelled, starting a war between the Jedi and the Dark Jedi.

The Dark Jedi were, after a century of war, defeated through sheer numbers, and sent into exile, erased from all records but alive.

They were sent into uncharted space beyond the Outer Rim, where they were guided by the Dark Side to Korriban.

The Dark Jedi were astounded to find that the Sith were all Force-sensitive. The primitive, religious, and superstitious species greeted them with their Sith swords, and crude and imaginative, but impressive, illusions, attempting to terrify the Dark Jedi into leaving. Rather than leaving, the Dark Jedi were impressed, and sought this knowledge for themselves. They attempted to subjugate the jealously secretive species, and eventually succeeded, due to their intelligence, lightsabers, and Jedi training. They used their superior skills to persevere and stole the Sith's knowledge, and used it against them.

The Sith showed honor, even in defeat, and became the unwilling servants of the Dark Jedi. The newly christened Jen'jedai then used the reigning overlord's Shadow Hand to guide the self-proclaimed Sith King into a false sense of confidence, and killed him. Astonished at the unforeseen turn of events that led to the downfall of their Sith'ari, the Sith accepted the Dark Jedi exiles as their masters, and even gave them Adas' Holocron. The Dark Jedi proclaimed themselves gods, and became overlords of the Sith. One of their number, Ajunta Pall, who slew a dozen Jedi in the Battle of Corbos, was the first to earn the title Jen'ari—Dark Lord of the Sith.

The Jen'ari conquered the Sith Empire and made it their own. Ziost was made the capitol world of the Empire, where the Dark Lord would rule from. New starships and technologies were created, and the Sith Empire became prosperous. The already impressive Sith architecture was improved by the Dark Jedi, and the formerly chaotic society became structured and defined.

Eventually, a number of Sith Lords disobeyed the Dark Lord, and took an army into Republic space to conquer it. They failed, and only succeeded in revealing the Sith Empire to the Republic, allowing them to know that the exiled Dark Jedi had survived and flourished.

The remaining Sith Lords discovered that they could alchemically reproduce with the Sith, and began to do so. For two millennia, the Jedi blood was added to the Sith gene pool. Traits such as superstition, loyalty, and sympathy were bred out, while ambition, cunning, and raw power in the Force were bred in. Soon, the elite, ruling Kissai class was made up of ruthless, ambitious, and powerful hybridized offspring of the high Kissai priests and the Dark Jedi.

The Sith Empire spread further, conquering everything from Malachor V to Korriban, and everything in between, colonizing hundreds of worlds. They rarely bothered with the Republic, as the Stygian Caldera made escaping Sith space next to impossible. The magocratic Sith Empire, led by a council of Sith Lords headed by a Dark Lord, was an ever evolving society. They were militaristic and revered the dead. The ten Sith Lords, who controlled around a dozen worlds each, often employed private armies to kill their rival Lords, and sought to become the Dark Lord by right of conquest.

Around 5,100 BBY, the Sith Empire entered a Golden Age under the iron rule of the half-breed Sith Lord Marka Ragnos. He was both physically powerful and in raw Dark Side power. He ruled for a century, bringing the empire great prosperity and wealth.

When he died, he was to be succeeded by one of two prominent Sith Lords: Ludo Kressh, who had the backing of the majority of the Sith Lord council, or Naga Sadow, who was in control of the Sith military. Kressh was a half-breed, like Ragnos, and like Ragnos, he sought to maintain the empire's Golden Age. He believed the Sith Empire had to grow strong within before they expanded further.

Naga Sadow, however, was a progressive Sith-Human hybrid. He believed that in it's Golden Age, the Sith Empire had grown stagnant. He sought to conquer new world and bring glory to the Sith Empire.

Sadow was odd for a Sith Lord. His mindset meant that he would allow nearly anyone a high position of power under his command. Those that weren't Red Sith, the ruling class of the time, could reach positions higher than Grotthu under Sadow, something the Sith Lords and Kressh were very keen on disallowing.

At Ragnos' funeral, Kressh and Sadow fought for the position of Dark Lord of the Sith, but were interrupted by Ragnos himself, in spirit form. He told them of the Sith Empire's history, and cautioned them to choose their paths wisely. At that moment, a ship carrying two hyperspace explorers, Gav and Jori Daragon, appeared, and they were imprisoned.

Kressh and the council wanted them executed, but Sadow felt they were instrumental in expanding the empire into the Republic. He secretly rescued them, killing Ragnos' rival Simus in the process to make it seem like a Republic attack.

The Sith Council believed his trickery, and voted him the Dark Lord. Keeshond USA outraged, and declared himself the true Dark Lord, and left with his followers. The Sith Empire was split between the two. Kressh discovered Sadow's trickery, and launched an attack on his fortress on Khar Delba. The fortress was a decoy, however, and Sadow launched an attack from the dark side of the moon Khar Shian, where his real citadel was. Kressh's forces were forced to retreat, and Sadow had Jori Daragon sent back to the Republic, with a tracking device attached to her ship, giving him a clear route to the core of the Republic.

Sadow began rallying his forces on Khar Delba in preparation for the invasion of the Republic, but Kressh appeared above the meting, and attempted to alert the Sith Lords below to Sadow's trickery. Sadow had Gav Daragon activate the automated systems to block the transmission. Kressh's ship was destroyed in the process.

5000 BBY. The start of the Great Hyperspace War.

With every available ship under his command rallied at Khar Shian, Naga Sadow and his fleet set off to the Republic, following the Daragon Trail.

The Sith forces came out of hyperspace around the unstable red supergiant Primus Goluud. He assigned a mining flotilla to mine Lignan from Phaegeon Three in preparation for the Battle of Kirrek. A few months later, he assigned his forces to consume the entire Republic at once, while he hung back at Primjs Goluud in his Meditation Sphere. Knowing he was heavily outnumbered, Sadow was relying heavily on the element of surprise and cast an illusion to make the Sith fleet look larger that it really was.

The Republic was swiftly pushed back to Coruscant, underprepared for the Sith and their unique weapons. Though the Jedi were warned of the impending invasion, they were unprepared for the Sith as well. They were forced into the Senate Hall by the Sith forces, led by the Sith Lord Shar Dakhan.

During this, Gav Daragon, having been made the commander of the army on Koros Major, was intent on betraying the Sith, after the death of his friend Aarrba the Hutt. He set a course to Primus Goluud, and fired on Sadow's Meditation Sphere, breaking his concentration and interrupting the illusion.

With the true extent of the Sith forces revealed, the Republic forces on several planets counterattacked, forcing the Sith to retreat from Republic space.

Jori Daragon led the Republic forces to Primus Goluud, where they confronted Sadow's remaining forces.

Sadow had tricked Gav into his damaged Meditation Sphere, and was now on his Sith battleship. The Sith and Republic forces clashed, and Sadow forced the star to go supernova, killing Gav Daragon in the process, and retreated into Sith space.

Ludo Kressh was awaiting him, and had been made the new Dark Lord. When Sadow appeared above Korriban to drum up more forces, Kressh revealed himself, and explained that the ship destroyed was a decoy ship, as well as informing Sadow of his new exile.

A battle of pride ensued, with Kressh decimating Sadow's damaged fleet. The battle ended when Sadow had one of his doomed ships kamikaze with Kressh's ship, killing the Dark Lord.

Immediately after, the Republic forces appeared and fired on the remains of Sadow's fleet and claiming victory over them.

Rejecting Empress Teta's demand to surrender, Sadow had his ships from a barricade, and fled to the Denarii binary star system, where he forced both stars to go supernova with both the Force and the power inside his ship. He escaped, and destroyed his Republic pursuers in the process.

Empress Teta saw the Empire as defeated, but Supreme Chancellor Paltimo did not. He ordered a purging of all things Sith—the total destruction of the Sith civilization.

Over the next few years, the Sith were outgunned and outmanned, and systematically destroyed.

Despite the thorough cleansing of the Sith from the galaxy, the Jedi did not destroy everything the Sith had built. They chased the Sith into Unknown Space, and let them go. As a faction, a race, and a religion, the Sith were far from extinct. One ship in particular was carrying a few hundred Sith and tens of thousands of slaves with them, and spent twenty years in Unknown Space going from place to place wildly, restarting the Sith Empire in the middle of Unkown Space.

After a while, the Sith encountered the Chiss Ascendency. Like they did with everything else, they demanded the Chiss surrender to them. The Chiss, however, requested non-violent negotiations with their leader. In their confusion, the Sith agreed. The Chiss Ascendency became the New Sith Empire's first ally, and the Sith settled on Dromund Kaas.

Sadow settled on Yavin IV, but died there after committing many heinous experiments on his Massassi warriors. Centuries later, in his quest to learn all Sith secrets, Exar Kun visited Yavin IV, and was captured by the descendants of Sadow's experiments. He was to be sacrificed to an old Sith wyrm, one of Sadow's Massassi experiments, but Kun was able to kill the beast, having fully embraced the Dark Side through an old Sith amulet. With his newfound power, he destroyed his master's spirit, and became the ruler of the Massassi of Yavin IV.

He experimented with the Massassi himself, seeking to gain an army of servants like Sadow did.

Kun also searched for fellow students of Nadd, hoping to destroy potential rivals before they became a threat to him. Taking two of his Massassi warriors with him, Kun traveled to Empress Teta, formerly Koros Major, and found two of Nadd's students, Aleema Keto and Ulic Qel-Droma. Keto died easily, but Ulic forced Kun into a lightsaber duel.

After a while of fighting in a stalemate, the spirit of Marka Ragnos appeared, drawn by the power of the Dark Side in the amulets both combatants were wearing. He declared Exar Kun the new Dark Lord of the Sith, and Ulic Qel-Droma his apprentice.

Qel-Droma went out to conquer the galaxy under the Sith's banner, and Exar went to do the same: by bringing several Jedi to Yavin IV.

The Jedi and Kun began arguing, and the Massassi misunderstood the situation, and attacked the Jedi. Kun stopped them and proceeded to convert the Jedi by unleashing the spirits of Sith exiles trapped within a Sith holocron he had stolen, and allowing them to possess the Jedi.

Shortly after, Qel-Droma was captured in a premature attack on Coruscant, and Exar was forced to rescue him while his new students killed their former Jedi masters.

After taking control of the Senate and the guards with a Sith spell, he and his Massassi were forced to battle several Jedi, included Kun's former master.

Kun also had some of his forces attack the Republic, and use Sadow's ancient ship to rip the cores from several stars, forcing them to go supernova. The Jedi learned that the world of Ossus was going to be destroyed by the force of the explosions, and began to clean their libraries. Kun took advantage of the confusion, and stole several artifacts that may have been of use to him, though he was forced to leave behind the ancient lightsabers that were held by the Head Librarian.

Kun and his forces returned to Yavin IV, but they were betrayed by Qel-Droma, who had revealed their base on the moon. With Jedi converging on his home, Kun turned to ancient Sith knowledge to survive. He sent some of his Massassi off-world, and mutated one further, before having it hibernate in the isolation pits below the temple in case his plan failed. Then he sacrificed the rest of his forces to free his spirit from his physical body.

Every Massassi in the ritual died, as the Jedi formed a Wall of Light to counteract the dark energies on the moon's surface.

Yavin IV was reduced to a barren wasteland, and abandoned.

In the far reaches of Unknown Space, the New Sith Empire was preparing for war. The Sith Emperor was causing disunion into the Outer Rim, making deals with warlords and criminals, and setting up puppet governments in a few worlds. After he believed he was ready, the Emperor devastated the Outer Rim Republic worlds. Then he sent Sith battle cruisers to the fringes of the Tingel Arm, and waited for a diplomatic convoy from the Republic to arrive, so that the Emperor could reveal to the Republic the true nature of his forces.

After he revealed to the Republic what they were up against, his forces destroyed the convoy, and the Emperor's forces moved on to the Aparo sector, conquering it before the Republic forces had a chance to arrive there. When the Republic did arrive in the Tingel Arm, they found themselves surrounded by enemies as their allies on Sernpidal, Ruuria, and Belkadan had turned on them. Forcing the Republic into desperate measures; every available ship was requested to assist the Republic fleet there, but eventually the Republic fleet was overwhelmed and forced to scatter.

During this time, the Republic had sent for all its ships, leaving Korriban defended by only a few Jedi security ships, allowing the Sith to take the holy planet back as their first priority, without the Jedi Council even realizing it.

Meanwhile, the Sith continued to attack and seize targeted Outer Rim worlds, destroying the Sluis sector's Republican shipyards, blockading the Rimma Trade Route, and forcing the Minos Cluster and their resources into submission. The Republic and the Jedi were unable to respond to the initial invasion, caught up in confusion and politics over whether choices made would leave specific systems open to attack.

As a result of the Republic's infighting, systems had to defend for themselves against the Sith, as the Emperor had planned, giving him time to improve his plans on the sweep of the Core Worlds.

After ten years of war, and dozens of victories for the Empire, the Empire had established true dominance in the Outer Rim, and turned their attention to pushing through the Mid Rim.

Believing that the Republic was still recovering from its losses, the Empire attempted to take Bothawui, but instead were obliterated as they met the full force of the entire Republic fleet. As the first major victory for the Republic, the hopes of Republican citizens were re-vitalized.

The Sith struck back at the Bothan space and the renewed strength of the Republic, and suffered heavy losses against their Republican and Jedi foes that had already accepted that their death was inevitable. The Republican soldiers and Jedi were eventually wiped out, but not before the Imperials were forced into a full retreat.

The Emperor had expected to sweep through the galaxy destroying the Jedi and the Republic without the need for alliances, however he did not foresee the sacrifices his enemies were willing to make, such as the heroic stand on Bothawui that restored hope, and rallied the Republic's forces to fight with renewed courage.

As a result, the Empire changed strategy by 3667 BBY, and used Imperial Intelligence officers to forge alliances with criminal networks, Hutt cartels and Bounty Hunters. Most would remain independent however, until Imperial Intelligence managed to produce a puppet Mandalore figure for Mandalorian mercenaries and Bounty Hunters to rally under.

This was the second step in the Emperor's master plan. Using their Mandalorian allies to their advantage, the Sith used them to blockade the Hydian Way and block off the Republic's supplies and military support to the Outer Rim.

Even though the blockade was ultimately unsuccessful and eventually broken, the blockade had already set the stage for an attack of the Core worlds by the Sith.

Though the Emperor had control of half the galaxy, he grew impatient after 28 years of war, having expected his triumph over the opposition to come quickly. This forced the Emperor to undertake a risky maneuver, as all of his previous methods had failed.

He had his Dark Council approach the Republic with an offer of peace, and offer that the Jedi and Republic could not refuse; especially when the Republic was still in recovery from the recent Mandalorian blockade. The Republic and Sith diplomats converged on Alderaan to discuss the treaty of ceasefire, however, the Sith tricked the Republic and attacked Coruscant and captured the Jedi Temple and Senate Tower.

With the Sith Empire holding the Republic capital hostage, the Republic diplomats had no choice but to sign the unfair terms of the Treaty of Coruscant.

After the Treaty, the Galaxy teetered on the edge of war. Neither side was entirely sure of their boundaries. This caused the Emperor to defer his power to his council while he pursued his own, secret goals. His absence created a power vacuum, which was filled by the Dark Council. The Empire changed, allowing the military to focus on practical matters while the Sith Lords pondered the Empire's future.

Sith Lords began to train acolytes under a relaxed regiment, and anyone born with Force-sensitivity was allowed to be trained.

Slowly, the Sith began to vanish. They either bred out, or simply died, or retreated into Unknown Space. Nobody is entirely certain of their fate.

The Pureblooded Sith on Tund were wiped out in 5 BBY, and in 41 ABY, a Sith ship carrying Lignan ore appeared, bringing a relic of the time of Naga Sadow well over five thousand years into the future due to the Hyperspace core being ripped in half by a Jedi. The same Jedi crashed the Harbinger into a moon, killing both himself and everyone aboard the ancient ship.

Some time after the disappearance of the Sith, a cult appeared, bearing the name of the ancient warrior race, though they shared only one connection: the Dark Side. These new Sith were weaker than their predecessors, and failed to access ancient Dark Side skills like Sith magic or alchemy.


Thanks for reading!

As I said before, I am Darth Laisvas. I'm a Star Wars nut, and I follow the Sith teachings.

While I, sadly, cannot alchemize a badass axe into existence like Adas, I can utilize their philosophies to better my own life. The Jedi are all about order and control, while the Sith are about freedom and chaos. They teach the beauty of passion, and embrace all but one bit of the human psyche.

I, however, embrace it all. My pain and anger strengthen me, but so does my ability to be merciful and my ability to love. While I won't be shooting Force Lightning of love any time soon, I find love to be just as passionate as hate. And, like the Sith of old, I am a hedonistic person. My pleasures, however, lie in a great many places. Fighting, learning, and reading are just some of many.

In this story, I intend to educate people in the truths of the Sith and philosophies of the same. Later, I will attempt to do the same with the Jedi.

May the Force be with you.