How many darth in star wars

While he wasn't the best duelist out there, he did learn to harness the powers of the Force, even creating life from it. His extensive research into the Force gave him the ability to guide future Sith including Sidious in the ways of surviving a definite demise.

Darth Plagueis was skilled in combat and could defeat anyone who tried to subdue him. Despite doing away with him in cold blood, Darth Sidious realized later on just how amazing a Master Darth Plagueis had been.

With all his knowledge of the world and the Force, Plagueis could be the dark horse to take down Vader. Under his father's tutelage, A'Sharad Hett learned all about the Force and lightsabers.

He once slayed a krayt dragon, and after his father's passing, he inherited his father's lightsaber, which led to the beginning of his formal Jedi training. Although he became a great Jedi, he soon drifted to the Dark Side after he was defeated in battle.

A while later, he became Darth Krayt and abolished the Rule of Two, instead making only one in charge. He had great control over his abilities and could channel Force rage, Force lightning, and telekinesis.

He could even predict the future and use Force healing and drain. This doesn't cover his great skills as a fighter, but combining all his abilities, he would definitely best Vader. Darth Vitiate is considered to be one of the most powerful Sith Lords of all time. Vitiate was able to end his father's life with a single thought, and then raised an army that decimated an entire village, all while he was a child. He was strong enough to destroy planets and powerful enough to absorb the energy of many Sith Lords.

His link with the Force was so good, that he could break people's bones and destroy without moving a muscle. He became immortal which only added to his success. He was able to defeat Revan without much help and was indeed the longest reigning Sith Lord, with his reign spanning millenniums.

Naturally, he was respected and feared by all and even after his passing, he is still very much a presence in the Star Wars universe. Darth Vader must be shaking in his boots right now. Darth Nihilus is a great Dark Lord of the Sith known for his feeding powers. He had the amazing ability to suck the life out of Force users, which made him a terrifying opponent. He was strong enough to lift entire spaceships with the Force, and could use Force lightning, Force resistance, Force scream, as well as Dark healing, and Dark rage.

He could drain entire planets by using their connection to the Force, and could encase his soul in an armor, making him extremely hard to defeat. His voice alone would bring most to their knees and cause immense pain. He was also adept at Sith alchemy, and once even bent animals to his will - Darth Vader wouldn't be able to deal with that kind of power.

Like Plagueis, Sidious had no intention of being killed by an apprentice and replaced. However, while Plagueis had envisioned a system where master and apprentice worked in concert with loyalty and trust, Sidious desired to rule completely alone.

He therefore created a Sith doctrine which he called the Rule of One. The new doctrine paid lip service to Bane's Rule of Two in that only two beings could have the Darth title bestowed upon them at any given time. In all other ways however, it deviated substantially from Bane's philosophy. Where Bane's doctrine dictated that the master should train an apprentice earnestly and with the intention of making the apprentice as powerful as possible, Sidious's doctrine detailed the need for an apprentice to function solely as an instrument of the master's will, not as a potential usurper.

As such, Sidious never passed on teachings to any of his apprentices that might have enabled them to contest his power. In addition, while the Rule of Two dictated that the dark side should be concentrated into just two beings, Sidious planned to eventually create a cadre of lesser darksiders in addition to a Sith apprentice to help enforce the rule of his Empire.

While these beings would receive no Sith training, and were technically not Sith as a result, they were nonetheless darksiders who answered to the authority of Sidious. Shortly after pledging his allegiance to the Sith, Tyranus was tasked by his new Master with selecting an ideal candidate to become the template of the clone army.

Tyranus's choice fell on a bounty hunter named Jango Fett. In 22 BBY , Supreme Chancellor Palpatine was entrusted with near dictatorial authority —reserved only for moments of crisis—by the Senate in order to effectively counter the insurrection of the newly-created Confederacy of Independent Systems. Furthermore, the members of the Jedi Order became high-ranking officers in the new military. After the first battle of the Clone Wars concluded in a victory for the Republic, Sidious assured Tyranus that everything proceeded on schedule, according to the Grand Plan.

In three years, the Clone Wars virtually engulfed the galaxy in conflict as Jedi-led clone forces fought against the Separatist Droid Army on countless fronts. At the same time, the Chancellor's political authority and public support increased along with the Republic's desperation to bring end to the war.

During this conflict, Darth Maul re-appeared, having survived his bifurcation by Kenobi on Naboo. Learning that he had been replaced by Dooku, Maul attempted to take his revenge against Kenobi for injuring him, and took his brutish sibling Savage Opress as his apprentice. With his brother, Maul even contemplated overthrowing Sidious and ruling the galaxy as the Dark Lord of the Sith.

Unfortunately for the two brothers, Sidious eventually decided that Maul had become enough of an irritant to attend to him personally.

He easily bested the two nascent Sith Lords, killing Oppress and kidnapping Maul for some unknown purpose. It began when Palpatine orchestrated his own kidnapping during a Separatist surprise attack on Coruscant itself.

With Darth Tyranus dead and the Separatists on the verge of defeat, Palpatine subtly guided Anakin Skywalker further into the dark side of the Force. He eventually revealed his secret identity as Darth Sidious to Skywalker, knowing that the young Jedi would report the revelation to the Jedi High Council. Their failure not only cost them their lives, but also led to Anakin Skywalker's fall to the dark side. Shortly after his anointment as a Sith Lord, Darth Vader returned to the Jedi Temple at the head of the st Legion , a famed unit noted for its elite clone troopers.

While Sidious's new apprentice carried out Operation: Knightfall , the mission to exterminate all Jedi inside of the Temple, the Dark Lord issued Order 66 —a contingency directive issued in the event of a Jedi Rebellion—to the clone commanders. Failing to foresee imminent betrayal, countless Jedi officers were ruthlessly gunned down by the clone troopers.

Although a few Jedi survived, including Grand Master Yoda and General Kenobi, much of the rest of the Order was destroyed on Coruscant and various other locations throughout the galaxy. By sunrise on Coruscant, Darth Sidious called for a special session of congress. Inside the Grand Convocation Chamber of the Senate Building , the Chancellor accused the Jedi Order of committing acts of rebellion, including an attempt on his own life.

Hence, he labeled the Order's surviving members as enemies of the state, subject to summary execution upon discovery. What followed next was the Declaration of a New Order , which outlined the Republic's transition into the first Galactic Empire ; a New Order ruled by the self-appointed Emperor Palpatine.

After a thousand years of plots and patience, the Order of the Sith Lords achieved its two primary goals: the systematic purge of the Jedi Order and the rebirth of Sith galactic hegemony. Though the Sith exacted their vengeance on the Jedi, the victory was somewhat hollow for Darth Sidious due to the near death of his apprentice.

Blinded by overconfidence in his own abilities, Vader had been dismembered by his former master and left to burn to death on the shores of Mustafar's lava flows. The injuries, combined with the psychological damage his transformation and recent choices had inflicted upon him diminished his potential power in the Force.

The Emperor retrieved Vader and rebuilt his body, but the process ultimately turned Vader into a cyborg ; a being more machine than man. Furthermore, he was forced to spend the rest of his life encased within a fully-concealing suit of armor —outfitted with life support technology—just to stay alive.

In spite of Darth Vader's weakened potential, he still became the Emperor's chief enforcer and a much feared symbol throughout the Galactic Empire. However, Sidious also realized that finding another apprentice as powerful as Vader was extremely unlikely, and, despite Sidious's sociopathic tendencies, he had even developed a degree of affection for Vader.

In fact, it appears to be very likely that Sidious actively sabotaged his apprentice's recovery and training, purposely limiting Vader's abilities so that his apprentice would not rebel against him. Through the Galactic Empire, the Order of the Sith Lords controlled the known galaxy through military force and state-sponsored terror.

Planets that resisted the New Order's policies were swiftly made examples of by the Empire's clone soldiers, newly dubbed Imperial stormtroopers. However, trouble was brewing beneath the superficially stable surface of the Empire. As the brutality of the Sith regime became ever clearer, civil unrest grew accordingly throughout the fledgling Empire.

Numerous Imperial Senators began to consider the possibility of open rebellion, and some of them even began funding anti-Imperial extremist groups like Rahm Kota 's militia.

These Senators had long been suspected by Sidious of treason , but the Emperor could find no proof of their rebel affiliations. Additionally, many of the suspected Senators were among the most respected members of the Senate, so he could not simply have them executed without massive public backlash. As such, Sidious had no viable means of eliminating these insurrectionist Senators, and simply had to put up with their actions.

Even worse, although seemingly loyal to the Emperor, Darth Vader harbored a great deal of anger at his master and sought to overthrow his rule. For years, the Dark Lord personally trained a young Human orphan as his own Sith apprentice.

The apprentice, codenamed Starkiller , was kidnapped by Vader shortly after his Jedi father was killed on Kashyyyk. Afterward, Starkiller spent years preparing for the day when he and his Master would overthrow Darth Sidious, thus allowing him to become a true Sith Lord.

However, Sidious eventually discovered the young human and, instead of having him executed, decided to use him to gather the rebellious members of the Senate under the pretense of forming an armed insurrection against the Empire.

For some unknown reason, Darth Vader apparently changed his mind about attempting to overthrow his master with Starkiller at his side. Once the apprentice fulfilled his purpose by bringing rebellious senators together in one location on Corellia , Vader betrayed Starkiller, nearly killing him, and apprehended the rebel leaders.

In act of redemption for his former life as a Sith assassin, Starkiller defeated Darth Vader and rescued the senators, but ultimately fell during a struggle with Darth Sidious in the process. The apprentice's sacrifice resulted in the formation of the Alliance to Restore the Republic , a galactic insurrection aimed at the overthrow of Palpatine and the restoration of democracy.

Sidious, frustrated by the setback of Starkiller's demise, was also concerned that the Rebel Alliance—secretly created by himself and Vader through Starkiller's actions—would eventually destroy the Order of the Sith Lords unless every rebel was exterminated first.

The Galactic Civil War was the result of Darth Sidious's failure to prevent the creation of the Rebel Alliance, which partially owed its existence to the Emperor's schemes.

Under the pretense of increased security, Sidious announced the Dissolution of the Imperial Senate ; the legislative body that originated from the Senate of the former Republic ceased to exist as Imperial governors gained direct control over their star systems. The removal of the last symbol of the Old Republic was followed by the Battle of Yavin where the Galactic Empire experienced an unexpected defeat against the Rebel Alliance.

The Empire's loss at Yavin 4 was further magnified in scale by the destruction of the Death Star , an immense battlestation designed to inspire submission through fear of its ability to destroy entire planets.

Luke Skywalker, a young Rebel pilot and the son of Anakin Skywalker, became a priority target of the Emperor and his apprentice. Both Sidious and Vader agreed that Skywalker had the potential to be a powerful asset to the Order of the Sith Lords, so long as he could be turned to the dark side first.

Likewise, the Emperor intended to claim the Jedi aspirant as his new apprentice, thus releasing him from the necessity of relying on Vader's services any longer. It was only after her assassination attempt failed, and Sidious was left with no other options, that he decided to try turning Skywalker to the dark side. Four years after the Battle of Yavin , Darth Sidious decided to accomplish two goals—Luke Skywalker's fall to the dark side and the end of the Rebellion—at the same time.

Hence, he allowed the Alliance's Bothan spies to discern the location of the second Death Star , as well as the shield generator that protected the station during its construction period.

Furthermore, he also chose to oversee its production in person, knowing that the Rebels could not afford to miss the opportunity to assassinate their main target. Neither Sith Lord succeeded in their objective. While Skywalker came close to embracing the dark side, in the end he refused to murder Darth Vader in hatred, hence declaring himself a Jedi as his father once was.

Realizing that Skywalker was lost to the Sith and would not turn, the Emperor unleashed his own anger through the use of Force lightning, which he used to slowly torture the Jedi. But while doing so, the Emperor's apprentice experienced another metamorphosis, caused by the sight of his son in excruciating agony.

The Emperor failed to realize that Darth Vader no longer stood beside him; the fallen Jedi Knight re-embraced the former persona of Anakin Skywalker. In a single act of redemption for all of his deeds as a Sith Lord, Anakin Skywalker suddenly seized Darth Sidious in order to save his son. Shrieking in utter surprise and terror, the Dark Lord turned the full power of his lightning against his now former apprentice.

Despite sustaining critical damage to his armor's life support systems, Skywalker withstood the attack and threw his former Master into the Death Star's reactor shaft. At some point before his death, Darth Sidious became obsessed with achieving immortality, much like his Master who also hoped to avoid the tradition of the Rule of Two.

After rediscovering the lost ability to move his soul into another vessel, the Emperor secretly commissioned the creation of a series of clones with himself as their genetic template. With the destruction of his original body on the Death Star II, the fallen autocrat used his new technique for the first time, thus preventing his spirit's banishment into the Void. Upon claiming one of his clones as a host for his essence, Darth Sidious was alive once more. He then hid on Byss for several years while plotting to reestablish his hold over the galaxy.

The use of a cloned body was only a temporary solution. The fact that a clone was created beyond the natural process made it more vulnerable to the harmful effects of the dark side. As a result, the clones that Sidious inhabited were subjected to rapid age acceleration and decay, thus leading young clones to extreme old age in a short matter of time.

Even still, however, Sidious regarded this dilemma as an acceptable price to pay for immortality. Although he found the dying painful and the transition uncomfortable, the Dark Lord believed that he would live forever as long as there was always a fresh supply of clones for him to possess. Without Sidious's presence, the Galactic Empire was fractured into various factions controlled by ambitious Moffs and Imperial officers who desired to seize opportunity in the wake of the massive power vacuum left behind by the fall of the Sith Lords.

The discord that engulfed the Empire worked to the advantage of the New Republic —the successor state to the Rebel Alliance—and its objective to liberate the galaxy from Imperial control.

Convinced that the Emperor's defeat could only be achieved through the dark side, Skywalker accepted his father's former position at Sidious's side. With the help of both Leia and her unborn son Anakin , Skywalker managed to disrupt Sidious's link to the dark side. This action caused Sidious to lose control over the Force storm he had been using to destroy the Rebel fleet at Pinnacle Moon.

Although Skywalker returned to his role as a Jedi, the Emperor cheated death once more by taking possession of another clone. As Sidious concentrated his full attention on destroying the New Republic and Luke Skywalker's new Jedi Order, [3] a plot was orchestrated by a group of Imperial conspirators, led by Imperial Sovereign Protector Carnor Jax , who wanted to end the Emperor's reign permanently.

They poisoned the last remaining supplies of clone bodies, thus diminishing the Emperor's ability to avoid his final death. The dying Emperor journeyed to Onderon where he destroyed his last clone body, thus releasing his spirit in an attempt to gain control of Anakin Solo.

This is the chronology of the Sith Lords within the Legends universe. It is likely not to change much from this point forward since new Legends material is unlikely. You can see recent updates on my Star Wars Update page here. In the early days of the Sith, before the rule of two, there were many Sith at any one time.

This list chronicles the Dark Lords as well as some notable exceptions. There are times though when multiple Dark Lords were in power at the same time. This site is presented for entertainment purposes only. When Darth Sidious and Darth Maul were revealed in The Phantom Menace , the title took on its distinct association with the Sith, and it has appeared throughout of all eras of the Star Wars saga.

As a result of the popularity of Star Wars , the term "Darth" has entered the popular lexicon as a term for evil.

Most references are still associated with the Star Wars universe. It is possible that at this point in the development of the saga "Darth" was intended to be the character's name, not a title; in-universe, possibly Obi-Wan was deliberately emphasizing the title as a way of taunting Vader and driving home what he had become. Wookieepedia Explore. Star Wars. Clone Wars Droids Ewoks. Administrators' noticeboard IRC Discord.

Tutorials Editing sandbox Things to do Status article nominations Featured article nominations Good article nominations Comprehensive article nominations. Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account? Edit source History Talk Do you like this video? Play Sound. It was used by those Dark Lords who have sought to enforce their will on the other Masters.

It was a challenge — a warning to bow down or be destroyed.