Thousands of years before the first Star Wars film took place, during the time that would be later called Hundred-Year Darkness, a battle between good and evil emerged when a rogue Jedi decided he would gain more knowledge about the dark side of the Force. This rogue Jedi believed that the only way for a Jedi to reach his, or her, full potential was to tap into the dark side.
When he approached the Jedi High Council, they rejected the movement and kicked him out the Jedi Order. But before he was casted out, he managed to grow a big enough following that he was able to form a new order, the Sith.
It wasn’t long before the Sith wielded enough strength and power to go up against the Jedi, which became their mortal enemies and has cost the lives of millions of innocent people throughout the galaxies.
But even an order built to oppose everything the Jedi stood for needed some kind of code in order to prevail. If not, they would not have been able to organize such a large order in a short period of time and would have fallen apart long before they were big enough to take out the Jedi.
Here are 25 rules all Sith must follow:
Love Must Be Recognized As The Weakness It Is
One of the first, of many, unwritten rules just about every Sith follows is not to love. Love is seen as a weakness by the Sith and can led to a member of the Sith making decisions that no longer help promote the Sith Order but rather the Sith himself. By preventing themselves from loving someone, they are freeing themselves from the strain that love can put on a person’s heart, and soul.
However, seeing that Sith thrive on making decisions with their emotions, one would think that love should be allowed by the Sith. It is already not allowed by the Jedi Order and is one of the few rules that both sides must follow in order to maintain credibility within their order.
Sith Students Must Be Taught In Isolation
Long before the Clone Wars, on the planet of Korriban, the Sith built an academy that they intended on using to teach young students the ways of the dark side of the Force. It was a large towering structure in the shape of a pyramid made of stone, steel, and had a reflector at the apex of the building for the sun.
The inside of The Sith Academy was built like any other college or university and was designed to be a symbol of a Sith’s climb to power. One of the many things they did inside the academy was teach their students separately from one another instead of in a group environment. Which was the complete opposite of how the Jedi raised their younglings.
They Build Their Lightsabers Using Artificial Kyber Crystals
Aside from the countless differences between the Sith and Jedi Orders, one of the biggest ones that everyone misses is the easiest to see. It has to do with the crystal they use in their lightsabers. The Jedi only use lightsaber crystals that were naturally formed by geological processes.
The Sith, on the other hand, only use Synthetic lightsaber crystals, which have been artificially created to enhance the powers of the dark side of the Force. The Sith discovered that they could modify these crystals to help create a more powerful, and red, lightsaber.
This was just one of many modifications the Sith would use in order to be different than the Jedi, and more powerful.
Gleefully Withhold Information From Apprentice
One of the main rules of the Sith is that, eventually, an apprentice is going to destroy their master. The apprentice spends their life learning about the dark side of the Force and gaining knowledge from their master until there is nothing left for him to learn. At that point, the apprentice will attempt to execute their master in order to overtake them as the Sith’s newest master.
Because of this, Sith Masters do not share information easily. They do not offer it unless the apprentice asks for it. They will hold onto it as long as they can because they know that the moment they run out of information, their apprentice is going to try and destroy them.
The Force Shouldn’t Be Abused
The Jedi saw the Force as a powerful energy that could be used by many different members of the Jedi Order at once, without losing any of its’ power. The number of users had no effect on it which is why they have so many Jedi.
But Darth Bane saw it differently. He compared the Force to venom by saying, “If it is poured into too many cups, it loses its potency and becomes diluted. Yet pour those cups back into a single vessel, and you’ll have power.”
His idea makes sense to the Sith, just look at their Rule of Two. But it honestly does not work like that.
The Sith Get No Formal Combat Training
Since the Sith focus on using their emotions to control the dark side of the Force, one of the biggest areas they fail to focus on is actually learning how to fight using lightsabers and in close combat situations. They were never trained to do it.
The Sith place an emphasis on strength and power, and decided that the only things a Sith needs to know about combat training is to hit them hard and hit them fast. There is no need to strategize when involved in a lightsaber fight, just hit them as hard as you can and be quicker than them. This does not seem like a great idea when fighting a Jedi but it can work from time to time and that is all that matters to the Sith.
Leave The Morals To The Jedi
The Sith do not believe in the same system of morality that the Jedi follow. For example, a Jedi cannot execute an unarmed person while the Sith do not care to check for weapons when attacking someone. The Jedi Order also teaches that they must avoid violence as a first tactic.
The Sith tend to use their power and strength to gain more of it and if they need to use violence as a tactic, even if it is a first tactic, then so be it. There are no morals that prevent a Sith from doing what they please. They have the ability to make their own choices and it does not matter how moral those choices are.
To Endure Is To Be Strong
In Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, we learn just how strong this rule is in the Sith Order as we watch Anakin Skywalker slowly turn into Darth Vader after making a series of choices that lead to a dark place he cannot come back from.
Yoda foreshadowed this during The Phantom Menace when he says, “Fear is the path to the dark side…fear leads to anger…anger leads to hate… hate leads to [it].” This line was about Anakin Skywalker being allowed into the Jedi Order. It would come true in the final film in the trilogy when Anakin finds out that Padme has lost her life. All of his pain pushed him towards making a decision that would change the course of history.
The Concept Of Peace Will Not Be Humored
The Jedi Order believe in peace throughout the galaxy. So it comes as no surprise that the Sith Order would counter this ideal and focus on disrupting the peace in the universe. This does not mean the Sith go around executing innocent civilians, or planets, just to start a war. But it does mean that peacetime is only something that the Jedi can obtain. If the Sith Order achieves peace, then there is nothing left for them to concur, or control. It means they are also abandoning the Sith Code by not trying to become the newest Master. It is ironic but it is the truth.
Masters Must Obey The Code
If the Sith were to survive, they must follow a code. Their code is a little different than the Jedi’s code because of how they feed off the energy from the dark side of the Force. It is almost as if the Sith were born to keep the Jedi in check by creating a set of rules that oppose the Jedi Order’s code.
However, within these rules lies another phenomenon. The Sith Order try not to be like the Jedi since most of their members are former Jedi, but they still honor some of the same things. All masters must obey the code is something that both sides of the battle follow. It keeps the Sith in order.
They Must Use Their Rage To Draw On The Force
As we got to see in Star Wars Episode III, an angry Sith is a dangerous Sith. The moment Anakin Skywalker destroys an entire village of Tusken Raiders following the loss of his mother, Shmi, he became a Sith. That was his defining moment that led to the dark side of the Force.
It was because Anakin used the anger he felt from watching his mother pass on, in his arms, and knowing it was from the nearby Tusken Raiders who had camped out where he found her. He was lost and was no longer a follower of the Jedi Code. His anger had turned him into a darker version of himself that was not yet ready to be a Sith but had already broken every rule he was taught as a Jedi.
Selflessness Weakens Your Power
An easier way to say this would be no charity. A member of the Sith must not waste their time trying to help everyone out, one by one. It would make them weaker each time they help out. So they tend to keep to themselves and ignore those calling for assistance.
Many of the Sith Lords have stuck to this rule and even teach their students that the strong can prove their strength by taking it from the weak. Instead of helping out someone in need of help, they destroy them to grow stronger and more powerful, which is still a Sith’s ultimate goal.
Controlling Emotions Increases Command Of The Force
Although the Sith Masters encourage their apprentices to use their emotions, they also help them to understand that they can become that being calm and controlling these emotions can go a very long way as they train to become a Sith Master. Being patient and controlling their emotions to manipulate the Force is one of the Sith rules that they tend to follow to a fault.
It’s because a Sith must be disciplined and by controlling their emotions, they are in complete control of how to use their emotions to their benefit. The Jedi are patient and calm, but they do not focus on the use of their emotions.
Treason Between Sith Must Not Be Allowed
As evil and menacing as the Sith Order is, they have rules that they must all follow. One of those rules is that there shall be no treachery between the members of the Sith. That can lead to chaos and eventually wipe them off the face of the earth. Darth Bane knows all about this as he was there when the Sith were nearly wiped away from the galaxy.
In the novel, Star Wars Lords of the Sith, there was a famous line spoken by the Emperor, to Darth Vader, where he said, “Treachery never goes unpunished.” But before Darth Vader had a chance to ask him what that meant, he sensed something in the Force, danger. That left him moving on without asking any more questions.
They Must Break Past Their Natural Limits
To limit a Sith is to turn them into an obedient dog to the Force, a belief that the Sith Order oppose because it makes them nothing more than their biggest enemies, the Jedi. By allowing themselves the ability to go as far as they choose, they can control it unlike the Jedi.
This is another ideal, in a very long list of them, that completely contradicts the Jedi’s code of conduct. It seems as if the Sith would rather oppose the Jedi’s code than to focus on growing their own. This is how their code has grown over the years.
Break Free From Your Chains
The second to last line in the Sith Code states, “Through Victory, My chains will be broken.” This means that if you continue to use the dark side of the Force to make your dreams come true, then eventually, the Force will come through for you. It will pay off in the end and turn you into the Sith Master you have always desired to be.
This has been the ultimate goal for all members of the Sith Order. They want to become the most powerful being in the galaxy who answers to no one. Darth Sidious came incredibly close to becoming this, but even he fell short because the Sith Code is flawed, very flawed. Everything they follow in the Sith Code can lead them close to that goal but it will n
Their Identity Must Remain A Secret
The Sith once believed that if they operate in the darkness then they have an advantage over their enemies. It allows them a chance to strengthen their forces and grow their knowledge of the Force without being hunted down by the Jedi. Darth Bane was there when all the Sith were destroyed by the Jedi, except for him. So he knows what it means to operate in the shadows.
But much like the rest of our list, the rules that the Sith must obey tends to change, or evolve, over the years. Some of them are even completely changed to better suit the future of the order. Operating in darkness kept the Sith from actually becoming as powerful as they could be. We got to see an example of this in Episodes I, II, and III of the original Star Wars movies.
Power Leads To Order
One of the most famous rules that all Sith must obey is that power, or strength, leads to order. If a Sith wants to lead, they must be more powerful, and stronger, than anyone else that follows them. In other words, the strongest Sith will establish order by controlling the weak and forcing them to follow.
But the idea is much bigger than simply leading a group of soldiers. They believe that using the power of the dark side of the Force can build an Empire that can rule the world and keep all the planets, and citizens, in order. It’s the same as a dictatorship when compared to modern politics.
No Jedi Allowed (By Any Means Necessary)
As if this was not the most obvious thing you will read, it was actually something that many Sith made formal through doctrines and codes of conduct among their men. The elimination of all members of the Jedi Order was a must for the Sith if they were to continue to exist.
The Jedi represented everything that the Sith believed to be wrong and were the biggest threat for the Sith’s ultimate goal, complete power across the universe. So it led to the Sith’s hatred towards the Jedi, destroying them anytime they would come across them. There was no letting them go.
Rule Of Two
Darth Bane became the last living survivor of the war against the Jedi Order, which happened a few thousand years before the Clone Wars. After he survived the war, he came to the realization that it was the Sith that caused their own downfall. Between all the greed and internal fighting, the Sith slowly began to phase themselves out.
So he created the Rule of Two, which became a part of Sith philosophy, and meant that only two Sith Lords could exist at any given time. The master, who embodies the dark side of the Force, and the apprentice, who would learn and grow a desire for it.
