The Rule of Two predates Bane?

From Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader-

There would be no need to fear Vader. No real reason to have an apprentice, except to honor the tradition Darth Bane had resurrected a millennium earlier.

Interesting choice of words is it not?

It also gets me thinking that, perhaps, the Rule of Two is more *description* than *doctrine* - and in times past referred purely to Sith Lords, rather than "the Sith" as a whole. Darth Bane of course put his own "secrecy" spin on it, but have we seen examples of its pre-existance already?

Perhaps Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma could have been said to be followers of the "Rule of Two", likewise Revan and Malak. As, while they had Sith followers, they certainly didn't truly share power with them - it was instead very much a ruling pair, Master and Apprentice. The pair that *truly* held the power of the dark side...

As Bane thinks himself: "Minions and servants could be drawn in to the service of the dark side by the temptation of power. They could be given small tastes of what it offered, as an owner might share morsels from teh table with his faithful curs. In the end, however, there could be only one treu Sith master. And to serve this Master, there could be only one true apprentice."

I mean, aren't the Krath and Exar Kun's Jedi 'converts' nothing more than "minions and servants"? Ultimately, isn't even the entire 'Sith Order' beneath Revan and Malak nothing but the same?

Perhaps the problem Krayt has, and the reason Bane refuses to acknowledge him as a Sith - ISN'T because he has a mass of Sith followers, but because he does not have a SINGLE "true apprentice"... and when he dies, the Sith will tear themselves apart to see who should succeed him.

I mean, if Andeddu precedes Bane, then one would think that there was a reason he referred to Krayt as a heretic...

 

Makes sense. I always saw Malak and Revan as semi-Rule of Two. It probably was around long before Bane, he just took it to an extreme. Revan and Malak are referred to as Master and Apprentice multiple times in KOTOR, but then again, KOTOR has the Jedi not forming attatchments long before the Ruusan reformations.

I'm not really familiar with the TotJ comics, though, so I can't comment on Ulic or Kun.

 

Interesting. Although I think that Revan/Malek and Kun/Qel-Droma's rule of two was a little different. Two "Leaders" and any number of underlings. Of course, this is much different than the "Brotherhood of Darkness" as I highly doubt we would ever see Revan telling some red shirted Sith Lord that they were equals. Bane just took it to the extreme and cut out the underlings.

The other way to think about it is that perhaps it was somewhat of an "Unwritten Rule"....sort of like a President of The United States following George Washington's lead and serving only two terms in office prior to Roosevelt. Once Kaan came and was really messing things up, it was time to solidify the rule of two.

Carnage

 

The Darths seem to be an old segment of the Order, a certain denomination of the Sith.

 

Darth Revan's holocron, which was Bane's primary influence in creating the Rule of Two, said that only a foolish Sith Lord would have more than one apprentice. Because doing so invites the apprentices join forces against you.

If one apprentice by himself can overthrow you, on the other hand...well, you deserve it, because the way of the Sith is that the strong rule over the weak. Being eliminated by your apprentice proves that the apprentice is stronger than you.

 

Exactly; Revan's words imply it was considered 'conventional wisdom', but not yet a rule.

 

Certainly. And they didn't really "share power" with their followers any more than Bane thought Sith Lords should.

I'd argue that there were *no* Sith Lords in Revan's Sith faction outside of Revan and Malak themselves. People who stylised themselves as "Sith masters", certainly, but no-one but Revan and Malak are ever referred to as Sith Lords. So there are still "only two, no more, no less."

It also leads me to wonder if perhaps the ancient Sith that Palpatine outright dismisses as fools are the Brotherhood of Darkness, rather than their predecessors...

Bane saw no problem with underlings in principle... it's just that a huge number of them would attract attention that he didn't want. I think his greatest contribution to the Sith was perhaps the secrecy aspect...

Quite probable. Malak refers to it as "the ancient Sith tradition"... (of course, it seems to have filtered down in part to every one of the Sith minions, who all acted out their own version of it... but there still remained only two true Sith Lords, master and apprentice)

I generally get this feeling as well.

Which I always found very interesting, since the opening crawl of KotOR referred to Malak as the "last surviving apprentice of Darth Revan"...

Maybe Revan learnt this lesson firsthand?


Basically, my suggestion is that the "Rule of Two" already existed in the form of "a master and apprentice team of two ruling Sith above all others", whilst Bane took this and reinterpretted "rule" to mean "law".

So, "two ruling Sith Lords" becomes "only two Sith in total"... but it's quite easily bendable by Banite Sith - such as Palpatine and Vader, who can choose to interpret it in the former way whenever it suits them better.

 

Now that you mention it, seeing Revan pwn a few wannabe userpers would be pretty sweet.

 

Agreed.

I'm slowly piecing together a fanfic dealing with such a situation during moments of boredom ... or when I should be essay writing, for example.

 

I don't know how Canon ALL aspects of KoToR are, but there were certainly "Sith Lords" in the game. These would be the red shirted Lords I was speaking of. It is possible that they were all given the type after Revan was thought dead, but that seems a little odd.

Carnage

 

Were there?

I know there were some in KotOR II, but as far as I know, no character barring Revan and Malak was ever referred to as a "Sith Lord"... or even entitled as such in KotOR I.

I butchered plenty of "Sith Apprentices" and "Sith Masters" as well as "Dark Jedi"... but no "Sith Lords"... not until the Trayus Academy anyway...

 

It's a gameplay class, a mechanic.

 

The Krath really weren't true Sith IMHO, not like Exar Kun and Ulic in that ear. I only saw them as two crazed teenagers doing whatever the hell they liked with the dark side.

No discipline, no purpose even, just random evilness.