The Official Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

<center>STAR WARS: DARTH BANE: DYNASTY OF EVIL: A NOVEL OF THE OLD REPUBLIC
by Drew Karpyshyn
Release date December 8

<img src="http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/thumb/1/1c/Dynasty_of_Evil.jpg/394px-Dynasty_of_Evil.jpg"></center>

Twenty years have passed since Darth Bane, reigning Dark Lord of the Sith, demolished the ancient order devoted to the dark side and reinvented it as a circle of two: one Master to wield the power and pass on the wisdom, and one apprentice to learn, challenge, and ultimately usurp the Dark Lord in a duel to the death. But Bane's acolyte, Zannah, has yet to engage her Master in mortal combat and prove herself a worthy successor. Determined that the Sith dream of galactic domination will not die with him, Bane vows to learn the secret of a forgotten Dark Lord that will assure the Sith's immortality -- and his own.

A perfect opportunity arises when a Jedi emissary is assassinated on the troubled mining planet Doan, giving Bane an excuse to dispatch his apprentice on a fact-finding mission -- while he himself sets out in secret to capture the ancient holocron of Darth Andeddu and its precious knowledge.

But Zannah is no fool. She knows that her ruthless Master has begun to doubt her, and she senses that he is hiding something crucial to her future. If she is going to claim the power she craves, she must take action now. While Bane storms the remote stronghold of a fanatical Sith cult, Zannah prepares for her Master's downfall by choosing an apprentice of her own: a rogue Jedi cunning and cold-blooded enough to embrace the Sith way and to stand beside her when she at last wrests from Bane the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith.

But Zannah is not the only one with the desire and power to destroy Darth Bane. Princess Serra of the Doan royal family is haunted by memories of the monstrous Sith soldier who murdered her father and tortured her when she was a child. Bent on retribution, she hires a merciless assassin to find her tormentor -- and bring him back alive to taste her wrath.

Only a Sith who has taken down her own Master can become Dark Lord of the Sith. So when Bane suddenly vanishes, Zannah must find him -- possibly even rescue him -- before she can kill him. And so she pursues her quarry from the grim depths of a ravaged world on the brink of catastrophe to the barren reaches of a desert outpost, where the future of the dark side's most powerful disciples will be decided, once and for all, by the final, fatal stroke of a lightsaber.

 

How exciting.

 

I can't wait for this book. It sounds like it's going to have a lot of action too.

 

I'm hanging on for that opening post.

 

I wonder if Drew will go with the predictable "Zannah kills Bane" ending or if Bane will somehow live? Either way I hope their fight is a long and satisfying one.

Also, if Bane doesn't live what will his final words be(if any)?

 

I could see Zannah killing Bane and wouldn't have a problem with it. That is what the Rule of Two is all about. I can just see the closing scene of the book. Zannah walking, or limping away from Bane's dead body and the line "Such is the way if the Sith." I'm getting excited just thinking about it.

 

One of my sources who leaked me RoT spoilers claims that Zannah is possesed by Bane.

 

Have you been talking to DarthMRN again?

 

I have read the book three times over now....i liked it alot, i think Drew did a great job, if only it had been longer....

your sources are correct, there is a fierce battle, and Bane does indeed end up taking her body, but not without her trying to fight back. it just seems that bane was a bit stronger in the dark side i guess.
not posessed, her mind is obliterated it seems

 

looking forward to this one for a while

 

If that does end up being the case (which I still highly doubt), then it completely defeats the purpose of the Rule of Two. The point is for the apprentice to take out the master. Not for the apprentice to get just strong enough so the master can jump into their body. And since Bane created the Rule of Two (as we know it at that point) I really doubt he would actively go against it in such a way.

 

like i said i've read the book three times. It does happen. That's what you would think but the way Drew lays it out its clearly not defying the rule of two the actions of zannah are weak and prove throughout the book she isn't worthy of the sith throne. bane doesnt want to live forever, only live to train a worthy successor, he knew zannah was almost as powerful as him, yet she lacked certain qualities to carry on the sith legacy.


If you need more proof i can describe anything that happens since you seem to doubt me. i read the book the first time like three weeks ago ha.

 

Agreed, I'm not crazy about the idea but we'll wait and see how it turns out. I would much rather perfer the stronger one continuing on.

 

Isn't it obvious? I'm saying I don't believe you and that you're (to put it nicely) actively misleading those around you.

 

Exactly, and zannah turns out to not be strong enough, not in combat of course, but in ambition, and other things, like her choice of apprentice...terrible.

 

hahaha alright well lets see, ill throw out a few key points

when bane is captured, he is captured by a team of twenty one including the huntress, who is an assasin hired by serra of the doan royal famaily. they attack bane when arrives home on ciutric IV. the only reason they catch him off guard is because he's returning from prakith, where he gets darth andeddu's holocron, and he tore the information of the essence transfer out it, therefore he's exhausted. they capture him by slicing him with a blade tipped with a neurotoxin that is hardly noticable and will render you paralyzed and take him to stone prison where a character from the past comes up. remember the sniper from path of destruction that bane helped out when he blindly shot down the half dozen or so Republic warriors? well she's back, with the name lucia, and get this son of skywalker, she's serra's bodyguard! yeah, crazy. Drew pulls stuff all the way from POT. When lucia recognizes bane, she betrays serra and gives bane and antidote to the neurotoxin serra was administering him. bane escapes and meets Zannah, who was coming to rescue him. GET THIS they fight a crazy fight but bane is recovering from drugs and he has no lightsaber, yet zannah doesn't lay one blow on him, its ridiculous. Serra eventually finds out bane escapes and sets the stone prison for self destruct, so bane and zannah call off the fight after rubble starts falling, and escape with their lives. Zannah finds out her apprentice, Set harth has left her, and bane finds a new apprentice waiting for him at a escape ship, the huntress, the assasin, Darth cognus.

theres a good chunk, but i'm not done. when bane raids andeddu's temple, its amazing, he holds his ground at first and emit a cloud of dark side energy twenty meters in radius, and as the dozens of enemies charge him he lets them come and as they enter the field, they are aged thousands of years and their life energy is absorbed into bane. one of the most spectacular uses of the dark side i've seen, without the use of amulets or anythin. When bane aquires andeddu's holocron, which doesn't take long at all, he finds that the gatekeeper doesn't plan on giving him the secret of immortality. bane uses a tricky technique where he lets his soul and will power sink into the holocron, battling andeddu until he is screaming in pain, which takes no time at all. bane then rips the information out for himself. Drew relates to willpower alot throughout the book, because in the end, when bane and zannah are battling over her body, its a battle of wills. you'll see. one more thing. in the blurbs it says bane's body is corruptinh from using the dark side. the main side effect of it that drew details the most(it happens about five times) is a tremor in his left hand. he deals with the tremor by clenching and unclenching his fingers. at the end of the book it says darth cognus couldnt help but notice that while zannah was speaking she was clenching and unclenching the fingers of her left hand.

Yeah, i know my stuff, i would have no reason to mislead.

 

it would be a nice twist if in the nextbook with Darth Zannah & Darth Cognus we'd get hints at Zannah winning without confirming it. Or that they merged instead of one winning. or the next or the book thereafter then revealing who really won and the technique ends there with future Sith like Cognus never employing it. rule of two style

 

The point of the rule of two is the master should be replaced by the apprentice but only if they're strong enough to do so.

If the apprentice makes their move too soon (before they're powerful enough) then they're stupid, and not worthy.

 

in the book it actually says zannah does win, or when cognus asks "lord bane?" she says im darth zannah. i think he was just keeping it from her at the time, because the hand clenching thing, and the fact that drew said in his latest blog that he did in fact decide who lived, i say its bane. If its zannah, i feel for cognusl.

 

Thanks man.

OR if they wait too long, get too comfortable with life, lack ambition. if they are content with being the apprentice, so long as they have a 2 meter giant as their protector, and enemy.

 

While I doubt they'd ever do it. I wouldn't be surprised if the books will imply the reason Darth Plagueis "taught Palpatine everything he knew" was that he's Darth Bane. Also, that the bond between Master and Apprentice is what allows the Emperor to take over the bodies of his previous selves. That's also why there's only two. Because the whole thing is a scheme of Darth Bane for immortality.

When Anakin is redeemed and kills Palpatine, it totally screws Bane's plan up. It also explains why Palpatine is so ticked off about Anakin getting crippled, his body is now useless for the reason that Palpatine wants it for.

Of course, the irony of this is that Bane's entire story depends on Dark Empire.

 

that'd be really interesting actually. i've thought about it a couple of times, but never seriously.

 

While there's now the possibility that Bane is Plagueis, and everyone in between, I like the idea that he created Palpatine through midichlorian manipulation, and it was Palpatine who was finally the apprentice strong enough to defeat and kill Bane.

 

It would appear so, now wouldn't it? I swear to God, if this does turn out to be true, I'm done with Star Wars publishing. I'm done. It's the worst idea I've ever heard. It craps on both Bane and Palpatine. As well as the Rule of Two. I can't stress enough how much I hate it.