Darth Bane is one of the most important characters in the entire Star Wars timeline, but what do we know about him in canon? Most of Bane’s history originates in the Star Wars Continuity of the legends, with many of the details of his origin story coming from the legendary Drew Karpyshyn Darth Bane trilogy of novels. Bane, however, actually originates from George Lucas’s sketches for Star Wars: Episode I – The phantom menace.
Darth Bane’s name was first mentioned in The phantom menace‘s novelization, written by Terry Brooks, based on a story provided by George Lucas. The point of Bane’s mention is to describe the history of the Sith and why the Jedi think they are extinct. A lot of it is similar to canon, but a lot of it is also quite different. Here’s everything we know about Darth Bane in Star Wars canon.
Darth Bane lived a thousand years before the Skywalker saga
More than 1000 BBY
Darth Bane was a Sith Lord from the planet Moraband, also known as Korriban. He became part of the Dark Sith Brotherhood, a group that led the fight against the Jedi during the dark ages of the Republic. This occurred firmly in the Old Republic era, just before the reforms that marked the formal shift between the Old Republic and the Republic seen during the Clone Wars and the High Republic eras.
This was the era of the last war between the Jedi and the Sith, making it an incredibly tumultuous time. Bane served the Sith Empire and realized that the Sith’s greed and desire for power led to infighting, which made Bane realize a new path forward for the Sith.. This realization was what eventually led to Bane’s most influential gift to the Star Wars myth: the rule of two.
Darth Bane established the rule of two
There are always two, no more, no less
To combat the Sith’s infighting, Bane created the Rule of Two. This was a philosophy based on the ancient philosophy of a theoretical Dyad in the Force, where a single master and a single apprentice could channel the dark side far more effectively than an entire Sith Empire. The apprentice would eventually need to slaughter his master to keep the chain running.
The Rule of Two became incredibly prolific, with two Sith alone being a small enough group to fly under the radar of the Jedi Order and the Republic’s radar.. This led the Jedi to believe they had defeated Bane for good, while in reality the Rule of Two continued. It continued to Darth Sidious and Darth Vader, a master and apprentice duo that, interestingly enough, also ended with the apprentice killing the master – but for a reason that ended the Sith rather than continuing their Order.
Darth Bane had two different lightsabers
A lightsaber and a lightsaber pike
As with many other Sith, Darth Bane wielded a lightsaber in combat. With his distinctive silver and gold canon armor, he had a silver and gold lightsaber, with a pure gold emitter and a classic crimson-colored blade. This was a normal lightsaber, relatively simple for Bane’s ferocity of a Sith Lord. As with the Rule of Two, however, there was another.
Bane also had a lightsaber spear, a weapon with a much longer handle. Much like the Darksaber, this weapon had a distinctly knife-shaped blade, extending from an incredibly unique hilt. This could be wielded much more easily with two hands, and the blade was orange and red. This weapon was modeled for its ghostly appearance in Star Wars: The Clone Warsbut it was never actually shown.
The Jedi exterminated the Sith and ended the “reign of Darth Bane”
Elzar Mann explains the Sith to Luke Skywalker
After the events of The Empire Strikes BackLuke Skywalker visits a place called the Gazian Living Sea, where he communes with the consciousnesses of past Jedi. A Jedi named Elzar Mann from the High Republic era tells Luke about the history of the Jedi and the defeat of the Sith Lord Darth Bane. In fact, Mann describes the Jedi as having “ended the rule of Sith Lord Darth Bane.”
This confirms that, at least for some time, Darth Bane was in power. The specifics of the situation are not known, and this is yet another case of divergence from Legends. In canon, Darth Bane and his apprentice were likely in power over some sort of military force that was defeated by the Jedileading them to consider Bane and the Sith as extinct, with Bane being the “last” Sith Lord.
Darth Bane was killed by his apprentice, Darth Zannah
The Heir of the Sith
A key element of Bane’s Legends story is his young apprentice Darth Zannah, who he recruits on the planet Somov Rit in the Darth Bane trilogy. This has also been carried over into canon, but Zannah’s origins are not established in canon. We only know that she was in fact his apprentice and killed Bane to assume his title as Lord of the Sith.
Zannah’s survival was not known to the Jedi after her wars with the Sith, and she managed to gain an apprentice to continue Bane’s legacy. She was indirectly mentioned by Bane’s Sith spirit in The Clone Warssolidifying his place in Bane’s history. While Zannah’s name has been mentioned in some more dubious sourcebooks, he is never mentioned directly in canon. So, this could change.
Darth Bane appears to have died in Moraband, and his spirit lived there
The Clone Wars Season 6, Episode 13, “Sacrifice”
Bane’s main Star Wars canonical appearance is as a Sith spirit in Moraband in The Clone Wars season 6. Yoda, on a vision quest given to him by the specter of Qui-Gon Jinn, visits the ancient Sith capital, where he finds a tomb and the ghost of Bane. Bane tries to scare and threaten Yoda, but the Jedi Master resists the spirit expressed by Mark Hamill himself.
Based on how other Sith spirits function, it is possible that Bane was killed in Moraband by Zannah.. Sith spirits will often be cursed to haunt areas where they were killed or objects that were significant to them. Bane was placed in the tomb that Yoda visited in Moraband, which means there had to be someone to do it. Possibly Zannah, possibly other Sith cultists like Star Wars‘latest addition, the Sith Eternal.