You may already know about Darth Bane and his unshakeable Rule of Two, which has guided the Sith Order. But before this rule came into existence, there was the event of the Thought Bomb, which played a crucial role in helping Bane shape the new Sith Order. How did it all unfold?
Come along, and I’ll take you through the scenario of how Bane established his new Sith Order.
Table of Contents
The Brotherhood of Darkness – A Doomed Sith Order
Before Darth Bane reshaped the Sith, we saw the Order fall into chaos under Lord Kaan and the Brotherhood of Darkness. Unlike the Sith of old, who followed a strict hierarchy with one Dark Lord ruling over apprentices, the Brotherhood abandoned that structure. Instead, Kaan pushed the idea that all Sith Lords were equals, making decisions together rather than through strength and dominance.
That might sound like unity, but in reality, it was a disaster. The Sith had always thrived on power and ambition, yet under Kaan’s leadership, that drive was suppressed. No one Sith could rise above the others, and rather than becoming stronger, they constantly schemed and undermined one another. We can see how this weakened them—rather than focusing on crushing the Jedi, they were too busy maintaining their fragile “balance” within the Brotherhood.
Darth Bane immediately recognized this as a fatal flaw. While studying the ancient Sith teachings, he saw that the Brotherhood had lost sight of what it truly meant to be Sith. Their obsession with equality didn’t make them stronger—it made them weak. Instead of a powerful Sith Order, they had become a group of bickering warlords pretending to work together.
The Sith Had to Be Reborn
When we look at the Sith under the Brotherhood of Darkness, it’s clear why Darth Bane saw them as a failure. They had abandoned the very thing that made the Sith strong—power through dominance. Instead of a single Dark Lord ruling over apprentices, they clung to a flawed sense of equality, weakening themselves through endless infighting. Bane knew that if the Sith were ever going to truly destroy the Jedi, the Order had to be reborn.
Through his studies of ancient Sith teachings, Bane realized that the Sith were at their strongest when only the most powerful survived. He believed that there should be only two Sith at any given time—one to embody the power of the dark side and one to crave it. This would ensure that each generation of Sith would grow stronger, with the apprentice constantly challenging the master until they were powerful enough to take their place.
We can see why this idea made sense to Bane. The Brotherhood’s way led to weakness, while the Rule of Two would ensure that only the strongest Sith would survive. There would be no more infighting among countless Lords, no more sharing power with unworthy Sith. Instead, the Sith would operate from the shadows, building strength in secret until the time was right to strike.
Bane didn’t just believe the Sith needed change—he knew it was the only way for them to endure. But for his vision to become reality, he needed to do more than just reject the Brotherhood’s ways. He had to destroy them completely.
The Thought Bomb That Erased the Sith
If we look at how Darth Bane wiped out the Brotherhood of Darkness, it wasn’t through brute force—it was pure manipulation. Instead of fighting them directly, he tricked them into destroying themselves using one of the most terrifying Sith rituals ever created: the Thought Bomb.
From the book Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, we learn that by the time the war on Ruusan reached its final battle, Lord Kaan was desperate. He had already led the Sith into disaster, and rather than admitting his mistakes, he clung to the idea that he could still win. That’s where Bane saw his opportunity. Bane fed into Kaan’s arrogance, convincing him that the only way to wipe out the Jedi was to use the Thought Bomb—a ritual so powerful it could consume the life force of every Force-sensitive caught in its blast.
Kaan took the bait. As the Jedi launched their final assault, he gathered the remaining Sith Lords in a cave deep beneath Ruusan and activated the ritual. But instead of securing victory, the Thought Bomb turned on them. The explosion didn’t just kill the Jedi—it wiped out every Sith in the Brotherhood, ripping their spirits from their bodies and trapping them in an endless state of torment.
Bane, of course, had no intention of joining them. He watched from a safe distance as the Brotherhood of Darkness was erased in an instant. In that moment, the old Sith Order was gone, and Bane was the last Sith Lord standing.
The Birth of the Rule of Two
So, after the Thought Bomb event, only Bane—the final Dark Lord—survived, and no one even knew he existed. From the book Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, we get to learn exactly how things stood at that moment:
“As far as the Jedi knew, the Sith were now extinct. Bane intended to keep it that way. He was the only Dark Lord of the Sith, the last of his kind. The burden of rebuilding the order would fall to him. But this time he would do it right.”
With that, Bane began rebuilding the Sith Order, but this wasn’t just another version of what came before—it was something completely new.
“Instead of many there would be only two: one Master and one apprentice. One to embody the power, and one to crave it. To survive, the Sith had to vanish, becoming creatures of myth, legend, and nightmares.”
This is where the Rule of Two was born. We can see why Bane believed the Sith had failed—when power was shared, it only led to betrayal, infighting, and weakness. Instead, he created a system where there would always be two Sith at a time—a master to wield power and an apprentice to learn from them, growing stronger until they were ready to take their place. This way, only the strongest would survive, ensuring that the Sith became more powerful with each generation.