Rule of Two

=Rule of Two= 
 * "Two there should be; no more, no less. One to embody power, the other to crave it."
 * ―Darth Bane[src]|undefined

The Rule of Two doctrine was the guiding principle of the Order of the Sith Lords after the internecine New Sith Wars. It replaced the practices of Lord 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 by Darth Bane, a former student at Kaan's Sith academy, in response to what he viewed as inevitable, self-destructive infighting within the Sith Order. The Rule of Two states that there would be only two Sith at one time, a Master and an Apprentice, guaranteeing that when the Apprentice had become capable of usurping the Master, they would be worthy of the title. The former would take the latter's life and role, and begin the cycle anew. Both Master and Apprentice were considered to be Sith Lords.

The practice survived until the death of both Darth Sidious and Darth Vader, although it was later reintroduced by Lumiya's Sith until the death of Darth Caedus. After the death of Caedus, the Rule of Two was then replaced by the Rule of One doctrine of Darth Krayt and his One Sith.

HistoryEdit

 * "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[src]|undefined

Darth Revan trained only one personal apprentice, Darth Malak.To avoid the seemingly inevitable clash between power hungry Sith, Darth Bane sought to reinvent the Sith Order with only two members—a Sith Master, and an Apprentice. Thus, he formulated the concept of the "Rule of Two" after discovering a holocron in the Temple of the Ancients on Lehon. The holocron belonged to the ancient Sith Lord Darth Revan, who was the first to realize the flawed logic of training more than one apprentice. Through the gatekeeper of his holocron, Revan taught Bane how any master that trained multiple apprentices was a fool. Bane learned from Revan's holocron that, in times past, the students would seek to destroy their master and claim the title. By joining forces and combining their lesser powers, they would attack and defeat their master.

With no true master strong enough to keep the other students in line however, they would eventually turn on each other and quarrel for the power they had joined to take. In the end no matter what the outcome, the new master would still not be as strong as the last one. This process would then continue, leaving an even weaker master than the previous one at the end of each cycle.

Though Revan's Sith Empire did indeed include a Sith academy and the training of multiple Warriors, Acolytes, and other practitioners, there were only two true Sith Lords—Darth Revan and Darth Malak. In that regard, Revan and Malak somewhat mirrored Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma, though the latter two were more equals rather than master and apprentice; Kun also trained multiple apprentices simultaneously as well. With this lesson from Darth Revan's Sith Holocron in mind, Bane surmised that he could avoid further intra-Sith conflict by applying Revan's philosophy to the Sith Order as a whole, limiting the Order to only one pairing of master and apprentice.

His course of action decided, Bane destroyed the old Sith Order, the Brotherhood of Darkness, by tricking Lord Kaan into using a Force technique known as the Thought bomb, killing every Sith Lord in the Order but Bane. Bane then hid from the Jedi and invoked the Rule of Two. Through these actions, Bane fulfilled the prophecy of the Sith'ari and ended the New Sith Wars.

Darth Plagueis, master of a young Darth Sidious.For nearly 1,000 years, the Sith watched and waited, doing their best to destabilize the Galactic Republic without revealing themselves. Around 188 BBY, during the Dark Jedi Conflict, Kibh Jeen told the Jedi that the Sith had survived and were operating under the Rule of Two, though his warnings were ignored or passed off as the rantings of a madman. Finally, one Sith Lord, Darth Sidious, under the guise of Senator Palpatine, was elected Supreme Chancellor and masterminded a devastating galactic war involving the Republic, and, as Emperor of the newly formed Galactic Empire, brought the Galaxy under the control of the Sith, bringing about their foretold revenge.

It is worth noting that Sidious broke the Rule of Two at least twice: once by training Darth Maul while still under the tutelage of Darth Plagueis; and secondly, by taking on two apprentices at once, and in the form of two Jedi: Count Dooku, dubbed Darth Tyranus, and the Fosh Jedi Vergere. However, Vergere was said to be merely a candidate and not a "true" apprentice. It should also be noted that this information derives from Lumiya's account to Jacen Solo, and is the only known source. In the latter case, Vergere left Palpatine's instruction, while in the former, Sidious corrected his violation true to Sith form: by murdering his Master. It also appears that Sidious approached Tyranus prior to Maul's death, although details on the timing are vague. However, these could be considered careful precautions to ensure the continuation of the Sith, even if they did, technically, violate the Rule in its strictest form.

Count Dooku also referred to Asajj Ventress as his apprentice on more than one occasion and she became more powerful than any of the other Dark Acolytes suggesting he trained her as a secret sith apprentice. Additionally, he stated to Savage Opress that he planned to use Savage to overthrow Sidious and rule the galaxy together.

Darth Sidious and his first apprentice, Darth Maul.Sidious, Tyranus, and Darth Vader trained and employed a number of Dark Jedi and other Force-sensitive agents such as the Dark Acolytes, the Inquisitorius and the Dark Side Elite. As these agents were not taught the secrets of the Sith and were considered merely acolytes, 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-called Fist of the Empire, indicated that he had envisioned the abolition of the Rule of Two once the Sith took over the galaxy.[1]

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. Due to the sustained injuries that severely diminished his Force potential, Vader was in no condition to successfully challenge his Master, much less kill him. 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, codenamed Starkiller, was trained in the ways of the Sith and the Dark side of the Force, thus becoming a merciless assassin who was devoted to the goal of destroying Sidious in order to become a true Sith Lord.[2]

But despite Marek's unanticipated redemption and subsequent death, Vader refused to lose an extremely powerful asset and resorted to relying on the cloning technology of Kamino, 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 a rogue clone who escaped from the Timira City Cloning Facility, Vader succeeded in achieving his goal by creating a perfect clone who wielded all of Marek's strengths, but none of his weaknesses.[3]

Darth Sidious and his third apprentice, Darth Vader.Darth Bane, however, overlooked one possibility—that one of the Sith Lords may be redeemed. When Anakin Skywalker killed Darth Sidious in a selfless act of sacrifice, he redeemed 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. Thus, it appeared that there were no others to carry on the Order's traditions and teachings, and the Rule of Two was veritably destroyed. Once again, the Sith had destroyed themselves—or so it seemed.

Lumiya, one of Vader's secret apprentices, declared herself Dark Lady of the Sith and established her own Sith Order. She remained faithful to Darth Bane's ancient diktat, the Rule of Two, by taking Flint as her first apprentice, and then Carnor Jax. Her third and final apprentice was Darth Caedus, the grandson of Darth Vader and formerly known as Jacen Solo. Before her death, she instructed Caedus to find an apprentice for himself. He fulfilled her last wish after finding a suitable apprentice in Tahiri Veila, a fallen Jedi Knight whose emotional attachment to Caedus's dead brother brought about her fall to the dark side.

However, Lumiya's Sith Order was not the only faction to succeed Bane's Order. In 14 ABY, the New Republic and New Jedi Order were opposed by the Disciples of Ragnos, which nearly resurrected the spirit of Marka Ragnos on Korriban in the Valley of the Dark Lords. The leader of the Disciples, Tavion Axmis, managed to summon Marka Ragnos, but was shortly destroyed by the young jedi Jaden Korr. As the followers of a Sith Lord who preceded Darth Bane, Ragnos's disciples did not incorporate the Rule of Two into their institution. Likewise, it had been broken by the Prophets of the Dark Side; its founder did not believe in the Rule of Two.

Darth Vader acknowledges Starkiller as his apprentice, thus breaking the Rule of Two.By the year 130 ABY a new Sith Order emerged under the leadership of Darth Krayt, thus taking the place of the former Order of the Sith Lords. Unlike Bane's Order, however, however, Krayt abolished the Rule of Two and replaced it with the Rule of One, with one Dark Lord of the Sith representing the Order itself while also commanding many Lords, acolytes and minions as well.

His revision of the Sith was met with extreme disapproval and outrage, particularly from the gatekeeper of Darth Bane's holocron. When Krayt sought the wisdom of the ancient Sith Lords, they rebuffed him as an offensive heretic and a false 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.