Star Wars officially confirmed how the Sith Wars ended, completely abandoning Darth Bane’s story in Legends. A thousand years before the Skywalker saga, the last Sith War came to an end – and the Sith were believed to be extinct. The history of the Sith remains a mystery in Star Wars canon, although it was explored in detail in the ancient Star Wars Expanded Universe. There, the legendary Darth Bane recognized that the Sith were inadvertently working against each other and orchestrated their downfall so that he could reestablish them under the Rule of Two.
There have already been hints that events played out differently in canon. Now the new Star Wars EncyclopediaDarth Bane’s profile confirms that only the Jedi were responsible for the destruction of the Sith in canon. He notes:
“Darth Bane is the only survivor when the Jedi Order destroys the Sith a thousand years before the Clone Wars. Recognizing that infighting has weakened the Sith, Bane creates the Rule of Two when he reforms the Sith Order, determining that there can only be one master and apprentice.”
Note that there is no indication that Darth Bane planned the downfall of the Sith, as in Legends, where he tricked the Dark Brotherhood into using a destructive Force power that would eliminate both the Jedi and the Sith. The history of the Sith seems to be being simplified in canon.
What Darth Bane’s Canon Story Means for Sith History
Little by little, we gradually get a sense of how the last great Sith War ended in the canon. Star Wars #20, by Charles Soule and Marco Castiello, saw a High Republic Era Jedi drop a huge hint. “This is what the Order was for me,” an echo of the temporally displaced Elzar Mann said to Luke Skywalker. “A golden age, some eight centuries after we ended the rule of the Sith Lord Darth Bane.” Elzar Mann’s statement implies that Darth Bane was the ruler of the Sith at the time of his final defeatbut he survived to reform them.
Darth Bane would recruit Darth Zannah as his apprentice, a powerful Sith sorceress who would eventually kill him according to the Rule of Two. In Legends, the final battle between Darth Bane and Darth Zannah took place on the planet Amblin. In canon, though, Darth Bane’s spirit appears to be tied to the Sith homeworld of Moraband – strongly suggesting he died there. It’s fitting that a ruler of the Sith would be killed on the Sith planet.
Our Take on Darth Bane’s Star Wars Story
Modern Star Wars has been reluctant to reveal too much about the history of the Sith, although there have been tantalizing hints. Putting the pieces together, the image looks very different from the Legends version. Recent Star Wars The stories have finally started to move away from the Skywalker saga, and it’s certainly time to reveal the full history of the Sith.