The Sith Code
Like the Jedi, the Sith
have a code, a perversion, if you will, of the Jedi Code from which it
was derived.
There is no peace, there
is anger.
There is no fear, there
is power.
There is no death, there
is immortality.
There is no weakness, there
is the Dark Side.
I am the Heart of Darkness.
I know no fear,
But rather I instill it
in my enemies.
I am the destoyer of worlds.
I know the power of the
Dark Side.
I am the fire of hate.
All the Universe bows before
me.
I pledge myself to the Darkness.
For I have found true life,
In the death of the light.
In order to understand the
code itself, one must first understand the full orgins of it. As
stated previously, the Sith are an ancient order which has seen many incarnations.
Each particular incarnation can generally be traced back to a single
fallen Jedi. It is the incarnation that would come to form the galactic
empire that would commit to words the codes of the Sith, though they would
draw upon its predicessors for inspiration. Thus, for the purposes
of the Code, this section is devoted to that single dissident Jedi, whose
name has been lost to history, and thus he has been referred to as "the
Dark Jedi".
Hitherto, the Jedi Knights
had devoted much of their time to passivity and contemplation. However
at the same time, the order was also called upon to be the law enforcement
arm of the Old Republic. Often times, this would require the use of more
aggressive means than mere contemplation and reflection.
The Dark Jedi reasoned that
this contradiction could best be resolved by embracing the Dark Side, which
by emphasising anger, fear and aggression, had a lot more to do with law
enforcement than meditation.
The Jedi Council not only
rejected
this idea, the Dark Jedi was expelled. However, others followed him. The
problem was that the Dark Side, undisciplined and uncontrolled, can be
self destructive: a power struggle within the new Sith order led to its
membership being nearly annihilated.
The one survivor was
Darth Bane, "Darth" being the traditional forename of all members of the
Sith. Bane reasoned that the Sith could perpetuate itself by limiting its
numbers to two, a Master and an Apprentice. Thus when the Master passed
on for whatever reason, the Apprentice would take over the Master role,
and take on a new Apprentice.
This arrangement proved
to be successful. In time, the title of Sith Master fell upon Darth Sidious,
who also held considerable political gifts. It was the alliance of political
as well as Dark Side powers that allowed the Sith to finally emerge from
the shadows as the driving force in the galaxy throughout the Imperial
period.
The Brotherhood of the Sith
values the following:
-
Loyalty - unquestioning loyalty
is expected of Sith Apprentices to their Master, and the Master is expected
to adhere to the goals of the Sith Order, namely its perpetuation and increase
in its power.
-
Discipline - which goes hand
in hand with loyalty. The anarchic nature of the power of the Dark Side
means that military-like discipline is required in order for the Sith to
be effective.
-
Stealth - which goes hand in
hand with discipline. The Sith survived for centuries by remaining in shadow,
only allowing themselves to emerge when the time was right.
-
Cunning - which often goes
hand in hand with stealth. The most effective strategems often involve
not being able to see the hand of the strategist in events as they occur.
In practice, this code allowed
the Sith not only to survive, but to eventually eliminate all the pillars
of the Old Republic, establish the Empire and destroy the Jedi, whom the
Sith had never forgiven for the humiliation of the Dark Jedi. A tough,
disciplined order, even when the Jedi smugly assumed they might have been
eliminated, they were wrong.
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