Sith Empire (Jedi Renaissance)

"We rule the Sith. Here we will build a sovereignty of the dark side to overcome millennia of injustice. But I am the rightful ruler, for I alone possess the curiosity to translate their secrets and apply them to larger patterns of conquest. I foresee what will become a magnificent Sith Empire."

- Sorzus Syn, Dark Lord of the Sith

The Sith Empire was a rich and powerful empire established by eleven Jedi Masters who were banished from the Galactic Republic after a schism within the Jedi Order plunged the galaxy into a Hundred-Year Darkness. The lone survivors of their group of Jedi outcasts, these eleven exiles were loaded onto a colony ship and cast into the darkness of the Unknown Regions where they were able to navigate themselves to a remote desert world in the Stygian Caldera. Called Korriban by the local red-skinned Sith, the Jedi discovered that the natives were highly-attuned to the Force and had advanced the science of alchemy far beyond what was known to the Jedi Order. Playing on the naivety of the Sith, the eleven exiles declared themselves gods and their leader, Ajunta Pall, declared himself Dark Lord of the Sith after executing Sith King Hakagram Graush with his own sword.

After a few short years, the first Sith Lords had conquered the Stygian Caldera and established their throne world on the planet Ziost. While Lords Dreypa, Long and Klusto abandoned the Caldera to take revenge on the Republic and the Jedi, their mission ended in failure and they became lost on the planet Kesh without revealing the location of the fledgling Empire. For two thousand years the Empire grew and expanded and developed, with Dark Lords rising and falling as new aspirants vied for the throne. It wasn't until the rise of Dark Lord Naga Sadow that the Empire invaded the Republic in 4,965 BrS in hopes of enacting revenge against the Jedi and the government which exiled them. Despite their planning, the Sith were swiftly rebuffed and the Stygian Caldera attacked by Republic forces. Through orbital bombardment, Korriban was purged of the Sith and the Empire collapsed in on itself. While the Republic appeared victorious, a Sith Lord called Vitiate survived along with a great host of Sith Lords, slaves, and acolytes. Leading a great exodus across the stars, Vitiate laid claim to Dromund Kaas and the Sith swiftly established the metropolitan Kaas City around the new Imperial Palace. Under the care of the Emperor and his Dark Council of Sith Lords, the Empire began building a mighty war machine, with the intent of eventually returning to combat the Galactic Republic once more. The Empire worked towards that goal for over one thousand years, gradually expanding and gaining more power and influence. During that time, the Sith were discovered by Jedi Knights Revan and Malak, who were forcibly turned to the dark side of the Force by the Emperor and became Sith. Although they were sent back to serve as the vanguards of the Empire's eventual invasion, they broke free from his conditioning and formed concurrently their own Sith Empire. The Empire of Revan and Malak appeared to the Republic to be another group of schismatics, attacking the weakened Republic on the heels of the costly Mandalorian War. Despite this, the Republic defeated the two and their remnant, and knowledge of the Empire remained hidden. In the immediate afterwards of Revan's Empire, a group of three Sith Lords formed a Triumvirate that would lead an army of Sith in a great purge of the Jedi, nearly wiping out the fabled Order. Despite their attempts, the Triumvirate was stamped out and the Order began to flourish once more in the centuries afterward.

Around three hundred years later, the Sith Empire—still under the command of Vitiate —was ready to return to the greater galaxy. After covertly installing puppet governments on Republic worlds across the Outer Rim Territories, the Sith invaded Republic space in an onslaught of unrivaled proportions. After capturing and securing much of the Outer Rim in the early stages of what would become known as the Great Galactic War, the Sith Emperor began preparing for the push towards the Republic's bastion in the Galactic Core. Despite several setbacks in its campaign towards the core, the Empire surged forward once more, crippling the Republic economy through an alliance with the Mandalorian warrior clans. On the verge of victory, the Empire surprised the galaxy when the Dark Council extended an offer of peace to the Republic. Desperate, the Republic senate accepted, but during peace talks on Alderaan, the Empire launched a sneak attack on the Republic capital of Coruscant. The attack was a rousing success for the Empire, allowing the Sith to force the Republic to sign their draft of the document that would end the war, the Treaty of Coruscant. With the war at an end and the Empire stronger than ever, the Emperor retreated from the public view and passed responsibilities of the day-to-day maintenance of the Empire to the Dark Council. As a result of the Empire's co-existence with the Republic, an interstellar Cold War emerged in the immediate aftermath of the Great War, during which time the Empire engaged in proxy battles and small conflicts with the Republic and its allies. When war did start up again, the Empire started to suffer catastrophic defeats that ranged from losing members of its leadership, to infighting and internal struggles between power-crazed Sith Lords. It soon became just as vulnerable and desperate as the Republic it was fighting, leading to its near collapse when the attacked the galaxy.

Over a millennium later, Darth Ruin led a revival of the Sith ways, reconstituting the Sith Empire and raising a new army of Sith warriors. Forcing a weak Republic to withdrawal back to the Galactic Core, Ruin's Empire successfully conquered great swathes of the galaxy, with only a handful of Jedi standing up to the Empire's might. Jedi fiefdoms appeared across the galaxy while Sith declared themselves Lords of entire sectors. Many Sith Emperors appeared simultaneously and the Empire quickly became fractured and broken. After a millennium of infighting, Jedi Master Skere Kaan formed the Brotherhood of the Sith and espoused a fraternity of Lords, declaring all Sith Lords equal under one banner. Swiftly conquering the Empire, Kaan's reign was short-lived as the young upstart Darth Bane tricked the Sith Lords into wiping themselves out using a Thought Bomb. With the Sith leadership destroyed, Darth Bane hid away in darkness, establishing the Rule of Two. This new code demanded that only a single Sith Master and their apprentice could exist at one time in order to keep the power balanced. For a thousand years the Sith persisted in this way, remaining hidden from the Jedi. It wasn't until the rise of Darth Sidious that the Sith revealed themselves again, only to be struck down by Jedi Master |Mace Windu at the end of the Clone Wars. With the stroke of Windu's lightsaber, the Sith were eradicated forever, and the Empire never rose again.