Darth Bane, the creator of the Rule of Two, which the Sith follow, is a well-known figure. But before he became the Darth Bane we know, he was just like any other Sith, learning from other Dark Lords.
Here are the four Dark Lords who influenced Darth Bane and helped to shape the future of the Sith Order.
Let’s begin!
Table of Contents
Qordis: The First Master of Darth Bane
Qordis, the principal of the Sith academy on Korriban, was one of the first teachers of Darth Bane. He saw Bane’s potential and took part in his training.
But their relationship wasn’t smooth. Qordis had a rivalry with another Sith Lord, Kopecz, who introduced Bane to the Academy. This rivalry might have caused Qordis to distance himself from Bane and even dislike him.
Their relationship took a turn when Bane won a lightsaber duel against Sirak, a strong Zabrak Sith whom Qordis had been training for about twenty years. This victory showed Bane’s increasing power, but it also created a divide between him and Qordis.
Possibly feeling threatened or envious of Bane’s skills, Qordis stopped Bane from studying privately with Githany and accessing the archives. This decision upset Bane, and he left for the Valley of the Dark Lords, hoping to learn about the ancient Sith’s power there.
Despite their differences, Qordis acknowledged Bane’s rising power and tried to control it.
He elevated Bane to the position of Dark Lord of the Sith following Kaan’s orders, hoping to bring Bane back to the Brotherhood. But Bane openly opposed Qordis, stating that the Brotherhood was weak and that Kaan was leading the Sith towards destruction.
In their last face-off, Qordis tried to convince Bane to topple Kaan and lead the Brotherhood, promising to gather the ex-students from the Korriban Academy to support him.
But Bane wasn’t fooled by Qordis’s trick. He used his powers to raise Qordis into the air and gradually tightened his fist, crushing Qordis’s body.
Kas’im: The Blademaster Who Elevated Darth Bane’s Combat Strategy
Kas’im, a Sith Blademaster at the Sith academy on Korriban, played a key role in developing Darth Bane’s fighting abilities and knowledge of the Sith arts.
Seeing Bane’s potential, Kas’im agreed to train Bane privately when he asked for help to get back at another student for a lost duel. This one-on-one training greatly improved Bane’s fighting skills.
Their training was halted when Qordis, the Academy’s Headmaster, told Kas’im to stop teaching Bane, thinking he was straying from the Dark Side.
Ignoring Qordis’s orders, Kas’im kept teaching Bane. This act of defiance might have inspired Bane’s own rebellious attitude against the Brotherhood of Darkness.
While at the Sith Academy, Bane started wondering about the Sith’s customs and titles. He noticed that the Brotherhood of Darkness, the current Sith group, had stopped using the title “Darth” before their names.
Bane asked Kas’im about this. Kas’im said that the Brotherhood dropped the title “Darth” to show unity among the Sith.
The Brotherhood thought that personal titles like “Darth” caused division and fights among the Sith, which had led to their defeat before.
But Bane didn’t agree with this belief. He thought that the Sith’s power came from conflict and that not using the title “Darth” showed the Brotherhood’s weakness.
After Bane quit the Academy, Lord Kaan told Kas’im to convince Bane to come back to the Brotherhood or eliminate him if he couldn’t. Kas’im tracked Bane down to Lehon and they had a fierce duel. Bane won the fight and Kas’im was killed.
Darth Revan: The Influence Behind Darth Bane’s Rule of Two
Darth Revan, a well-known Sith Lord, didn’t directly teach Darth Bane. But thanks to Revan’s legacy, Bane formed his ideas about the Sith based on Revan’s teachings.
In 3959 BBY, Revan, a former Jedi Knight, declared himself the new Dark Lord of the Sith. His friend and fellow former Jedi Knight, Malak, became Revan’s Sith apprentice.
Both of them took the title “Darth” and returned from the Unknown Regions leading a new Sith Empire. They declared war on the Jedi Council and the Galactic Republic, starting the Jedi Civil War.
During Revan’s reign, he made a holocron and recorded his thoughts on Sith philosophy and the dark side.
Revan hid the holocron behind a stone in a wall behind a Rakatan computer in the Temple of the Ancients on Rakata Prime. This was a planet Revan and Malak found while looking for the ancient Rakatan space station, the Star Forge.
For more details on Revan’s statements in the holocron, you can follow this link.
One of the great things Revan’s holocron mentioned was the idea about the famous Rule of Two created by Darth Bane.
Revan saids, “Any Master who instructs more than one apprentice in the ways of the dark side is a fool. In time, the apprentices will unite their strength and overthrow the Master. It is inevitable. Axiomatic. That is why each Master must have only one student.”
Almost three thousand years later, near the end of the New Sith Wars, Darth Bane went to Rakata Prime, now called Lehon.
Bane was looking for teachings to help him destroy the current Sith regime, the Brotherhood of Darkness.
Bane searched the lower levels of the Temple of the Ancients for any dark side artifacts and eventually found the room where the holocron was hidden.
In the room, he felt the power of the holocron, which was still hidden behind the stone in the wall behind the computer. He used the Force to remove the stone, got the holocron, and activated it, showing an image of Darth Revan.
As Revan’s image taught Bane, Bane wrote down the lessons on sheets of flimsi to study later. After a while, the holocron’s power crystal started to fail because Bane kept using the device.
After Revan’s image gave Bane the last lessons from the holocron, the device stopped working.
Bane used the Force to destroy the device, throwing it away as Revan had taught him.
Bane then got rid of the Brotherhood of Darkness and started his own Sith Order using the teachings from Revan’s holocron.
Belia Darzu: The Force Behind Darth Bane’s Holocron Wisdom
Belia Darzu, a Dark Lord of the Sith, played a big role in shaping Darth Bane’s understanding of how to create a Sith Holocron.
She was famous for her skill in Sith alchemy and the principles of mechu-deru, a Force technique that gave complete control over mechanical systems.
She used this knowledge to make technobeasts, hybrids of machines and organisms.
In 990 BBY, Darth Bane wanted to learn how to make a Sith Holocron, a device that could store knowledge and teachings.
Bane found out that the secrets to making such a device were in the fortress of the late Dark Lord Belia Darzu on the planet Tython. Bane set out on a mission to find Belia Darzu’s Holocron.
After sneaking into Darzu’s fortress and fighting off a group of leftover technobeasts, Bane got the Holocron and looked through its contents.
Inside Belia Darzu’s Holocron, Bane learned about a ritual that would finally let him make a Holocron of his own.
This knowledge had a big impact on Darth Bane and the future of the Sith Order.
Bane used the teachings from Darzu’s Holocron to get rid of the current Sith regime and start his own Sith Order. These teachings were later written down in the Telos Holocron, which was eventually studied by the Sith Lord Darth Sidious and later the New Jedi Order.