Even if you haven't seen Star Wars
you know who Darth Vader is
You likely know his master, Darth Sidious.
But who trained Sidious?
And who trained that guy?
Well today we're going to take a look at the Sith lineage
Please keep in mind that this is 90% Legends now
but that doesn't make it any less cool
We're going to start about 1,000 years before the events of The Phantom Menace with Darth Bane
We could technically go even farther but the lineage gets very muddled thanks to Lord Kaan and the Brotherhood of Darkness
Way to go guys, you nearly ruined the Sith
Darth Bane certainly did have masters at the Sith Academy
however I would argue that his true masters were the Sith Lords of old
most notably Darth Revan, who directly inspired the rule of two
Darth Bane destroyed the Brotherhood of Darkness, and truly began the legacy of Master and apprentice
that most Star Wars fans are familiar with
If you are unfamiliar with the Rule of Two
its basic purpose was to keep the Sith a small secret organisation that grew in power over time
One Master taught one apprentice everything they knew until the apprentice was stronger than the master
When there was no more use for the master, the apprentice would kill them
taking their place and training their own apprentice
By this philosophy only the strong survived
And each Sith was devoted to the dark side and the Sith Order itself over their own personal gain
Darth Bane found his apprentice in Darth Zannah
a girl he took under his wing when she was about 10 years old
After about 20 years of apprenticeship
he became worried that she did not have the strength or heart to challenge him
and began searching for a replacement
which he found in a mercenary called the Huntress
But Zanna had learned well and was
successful in defeating her master through the use of dark side sorcery
She took the Huntress as her own apprentice who was then known as Darth Cognus
From there the history is again very hazy
After Cognus' rise to Sith Master she took a three-eyed human named Darth Millennial as her apprentice
But she disowned him after he went against the Rule of Two
She presumably took another apprentice which may or may not have been this
unknown humanoid who in turn took on a Devaronian apprentice
Their exact history is currently unknown
But for the sake of this video we'll just assume Cognus was their predocessor
and the Devaronian's apprentice was named Darth Vectivus
the next Sith Lord we actually have a name for
Unfortunately there is yet another gap in the timeline until the time of Darth Gravid
about five hundred years before The Battle of Yavin
which is about halfway through the lineage at this point
Gravid felt the pull of the light side and eventually decided to betray the Sith
by destroying their holocrons and teachings
He was nearly successful until he was stopped and killed by his Twi'lek apprentice, Darth Gean
Who got things back on track
She took an unknown apprentice and surprise surprise there's another gap
Darth Ramage was the next known name on the list
followed by the last gap in the chain
A male Twi'lek master, whose name was lost, took on a Bith apprentice named Darth Tenebrous
Tenebrous manipulated the mating of two force-sensitive Muuns
To give birth to a son that he took as a young child and named Darth Plagueis
Plagueis seized an opportunity to murder his Master before having his own apprentice
But he soon found a young man named Palpatine on the planet of Naboo
who became known as Darth Sidious
Plagueis and Palpatine gained political power over the years
and Plagueis investigated eternal life through the manipulation of midi-chlorians
Their intent was to abolish the Rule of Two and instead rule the galaxy together for eternity
Palpatine, with Plagueis' blessing, took Darth Maul as a kind of fake apprentice
Maul was used as an assassin being strung along by the
promise of more power by Palpatine
until he was cut in half
Shortly thereafter Palpatine was elected Supreme Chancellor
Having no more use for his Master, he killed Plagueis in his sleep
By this point Plagueis and Sidious had inadvertently created a child born purely of the force
named Anakin Skywalker
After his discovery Palpatine planned to make him his apprentice
But in the meantime, he required an ally to help throw the galaxy into chaos
He recruited the disgruntled Jedi Dooku to become Darth Tyrannus
He was a powerful apprentice until Anakin came of age
Sidious had Anakin kill Tyrannus and then manipulated him into betraying the Jedi Order to become Darth Vader
After decades serving Sidious and his lies
Vader killed his master, ending his own life in the process
bringing about the end of the Sith and Darth Bane's lineage