Rule of Two

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"Always two there are; no more, no less: a master and an apprentice." -Yoda ^[1]

"Two there should be; no more, no less. One to embody power, the other to crave it." -Darth Bane ^[2]

The Rule of Two is a principle in the fictional Star Wars universe used to describe the Sith practice of allowing only two Sith Lords to exist at a time: a Master and an apprentice.

It is somewhat curious that Sith Masters take apprentices despite knowing that eventually that apprentice will probably kill them. Perhaps the pride of knowing that the apprentice, the one the Master himself trained, managed to exceed him in mastery of the Force or in combat is reward enough. This proposed motivation is supported by Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, where Darth Sidious is quoted as saying to Yoda: "Darth Vader will become more powerful than either of us!" Two other possible motives are that mission of defeating the Jedi is sufficient to force the Sith Lord to overcome his natural caution to train his overthrower, or that they see an apprentice as a useful tool which they can (they believe) control.

For the Sith, like the Jedi, training is based on a unit of two people: one Master and one apprentice. The Master trains the apprentice in everything that he knows of the dark side of the Force. Unlike the Jedi, though, who graduate from Padawan to Jedi Knight and then Jedi Master based on merit or talent, the current Sith apprentice only becomes the Master once his own Master has died, either by accident, natural causes, or his apprentice's own hand ^[3]. At this point, the new Sith Master will eventually seek out his own apprentice, and the cycle begins again.

1 History
2 Notes and references

[edit] History

[edit] Origin

The Rule of Two was first instituted by Darth Bane approximately 1,000 years BBY, following the cataclysmic Battle of Ruusan ^[4]. Prior to the destruction of the latest incarnation of the Sith Order in that battle, the possible number of Sith was unrestricted, as it had been for almost 6,000 years, since the days of the ancient Sith Empire ^[5]. Bane, Ruusan's sole surviving apprentice, realized that the Order would have to be reformed if it was to survive and seek its revenge on the Jedi. After choosing an apprentice of his own, Darth Zannah, Bane fled to the tomb of ancient Dark Lord of the Sith Freedon Nadd on the Onderonian moon of Dxun. In the tomb, Bane studied an ancient Sith holocron extensively, until he underwent a transformation that would determine the future of the Sith Order.

In reforming the Sith, Darth Bane looked back on the Order's past incarnations, analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of each and determining where they went wrong. The most important thing he realized was that, the greater the Sith's numbers, the more self-destructive they became; this was in distinct contradistinction to the Jedi, who had no problems with civil war, possibly because each Master generally trained only one Padawan. The ancient Lords of the Sith Empire had warred for centuries, and the New Sith Order, prior to Lord Kaan's unification of the warring Lords into the Brotherhood of Darkness, had been similarly divided. At the final Battle of Ruusan, the Brotherhood had been utterly destroyed not by the Jedi, but by Kaan himself, via a suicidal thought bomb. Taking inspiration from the legendary Exar Kun/Ulic Qel-Droma and Darth Revan/Darth Malak Sith duos, Bane decided that the dark side of the Force should be concentrated in only two Sith Lords: a Master and an apprentice. And so the thousand-year tradition was born.

[edit] The Jedi versus the two Sith

The Jedi Order did not know of the continued existence of the Sith until the appearance of Darth Maul on Tatooine shortly before the Battle of Naboo. Nonetheless, Master Yoda was already aware of the Rule of Two at that time, something of which the Jedi had been informed by the Dark Jedi Kibh Jeen 156 years earlier ^[6]. Darth Maul was the apprentice of Darth Sidious, who had himself been the apprentice of Darth Plagueis. After Maul's death, Sidious took the former Jedi Count Dooku as his new apprentice, giving him the name "Darth Tyranus."

The continued danger to the life of one Sith from the other was demonstrated when Chancellor Palpatine (who was secretly one and the same person as Sidious) encouraged Anakin Skywalker to kill Dooku during the Battle of Coruscant during Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Sidious had apparently never regarded Tyranus as his true successor; his long-term plan had been to use Dooku as the victim of Anakin's fall to the dark side (in the words of the Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith novelization by Matthew Stover) and convince Anakin to join the Sith as his apprentice and heir apparent. When Anakin accepted the name Darth Vader, the most legendary example of the Rule of Two appeared this time in control of the galaxy: Emperor Palpatine, the Master, and Darth Vader, the apprentice.

Palpatine and Vader fit the archetype of a Sith master/apprentice relationship; Palpatine was at once Vader's tutor, ally, and adversary. Like all Sith apprentices, Vader both revered Palpatine's power and wanted to claim it for himself, while Palpatine both nurtured and distrusted Vader.

This partnership was itself not without internal tension. Within days of becoming a Sith, Vader suggested to his wife Padmé Amidala the possibility of his killing the Emperor and taking over from him. Years later, Vader proposed to his son, Luke Skywalker, that they kill the Emperor together^[7]; Luke would then have become Vader's apprentice, preserving the Rule of Two. Palpatine also hoped for Luke to kill Vader and become his own apprentice.

It is possible that with the Sith essentially dominating the galaxy, Palpatine had decided the time had come to discontinue the rule. Palpatine's heavy use of Force-sensitive agents such as the Emperor's Hands, Imperial Inquisitors, the Imperial Royal Guard, and the Prophets of the Dark Side may have been a first step in this process, as he had intimated years earlier to his second apprentice, Dooku.^[1]

[edit] After Palpatine

Even after Palpatine's and Vader's death over the forest moon of Endor ^[8], the Rule of Two continued. Though Bane's Sith Order was at an end, it wasn't long before a new order was formed by Lumiya, Dark Lady of the Sith and a former Emperor's Hand once known as Shira Brie. Though Sith tradition changed under Lumiya, she kept the Rule of Two intact for at least seven years after the Battle of Endor. Her first apprentice was a Force-sensitive stormtrooper named Flint, whom had received training from Darth Vader himself prior to the Dark Lord's death. When Lord Flint was returned to the light side by Luke Skywalker, Lumiya took a new apprentice: the treacherous Sovereign Protector Carnor Jax. After Jax's death at the hands of Kir Kanos^[9], Lumiya went into hiding with her loyal Imperial forces, appearing sporadically throughout the galaxy over the years.