The Complete Timeline Of The Sith In The 'Star Wars' Universe

All great evil organizations have to get their start somewhere, and the Sith's organizational genesis is a bit more mysterious than it used to be. Before Disney splashed the cash and bought all things Star Wars, the Sith were formed by a Jedi Master turned baddie named Ajunta Pall.

Of course, the Mouse House wiped the vast majority of Star Wars stories outside of the films away and turned them into "Legends." In the new Star Wars canon timeline, the Sith were still formed by a rogue Jedi sometime during the Hundred-Year Darkness, but the masterminds running the show at Lucasfilm have yet to name this Jedi. Is it still Ajunta Pall? Is it someone else? Will we ever find out? It's hard to say. Just know it is officially canon that the Sith spawned from the Jedi Order sometime before 6000 BBY.

Unsurprisingly, the Jedi Order did not react well to the formation of the Sith. The rogue Jedi that formed the Sith must have been quite charismatic, as the upstart crew would eventually have the numbers necessary to initiate a civil war between themselves and the Jedi. The Sith would end up losing this first war with the Jedi quite handily, fleeing known space and finding their way to Moraband (also known as Korriban in Legends).

With Moraband as their home planet, the Sith would regroup and grow in strength. The Sith would spend the majority of the next millennium growing their order and taking on the Jedi in various skirmishes across the universe.

The Jedi Order's greatest flaw throughout the millennia has to be their naivete. At each and every turn, the Jedi never seem to be able to get inside the minds of the Sith. Sure, they manage to beat them in battle numerous times, but the Sith always make a comeback due to their ability to thrive in the shadows. For a group obsessed with the light side of the Force, you'd think they'd be able to shine a bit of light on the darkness, no?

For example, the "Shrine in the Depths." The Sith built this shrine on top of a light side vergence on Coruscant after taking complete control of the planet in order to corrupt it with the dark side of the Force. They ultimately succeeded in doing so. Thousands of years later, the Shrine in the Depths would have great consequences on the Jedi's fall during the Clone Wars, contributing to the ever-looming cloud of the dark side that Yoda alludes to over the course of the prequel trilogy.

The Jedi would beat down on the Sith yet again sometime around 5000 BBY. And, yeah, it is disappointing for the Star Wars baddies to lose once more to the light side of the Force, but all was not lost for those worshippers of the dark side. The Jedi, hoping to undo the corruption of the vergence under the Shrine in the Depths, built their infamous Jedi Temple atop it. Not a bad plan to convert the vergence back to its original state and deal a fatal blow to the morale of the Sith in the process.

Alas, the Jedi failed to completely eradicate the dark energies emanating from the Shrine in the Depths, and the dark side would slowly but surely corrupt the Jedi's link to the Force over the many centuries that followed. If you've ever wondered why all the Jedi seem to make lackluster decisions and fail to see the Sith coming throughout the prequel trilogy, here is your answer. 

It seems the Sith were always obsessed with kyber crystal-powered mega-weapons. Thousands of years before the Death Star was a glint in Darth Sidious's eye, Darth Tanis created a superweapon of her own on Malachor. While the Malachor superweapon was clearly much less powerful than the Death Star, that doesn't mean it wasn't deadly in its own way. Instead of blowing up entire planets, this weapon would merely petrify its victims, similar to the horrific realities of chemical warfare: You can wipe out an entire civilization while keeping pretty much everything around them intact.

This superweapon would lead to the Great Scourge of Malachor, in which a whole bunch of Jedi and Sith (including Darth Tanis herself) would end up petrified and preserved for centuries.

After thousands of years of trying and failing to wipe out the Jedi and take over control of the galaxy, they were at it again. The Sith Order's Brotherhood of Darkness would take on the Jedi Order's Army of Light in the final great battle of the two groups. This Jedi-Sith War, as it would come to be known, served as the final event of the "Old Republic" and led straight into the formation of the Galactic Republic that fans are so familiar with from the prequel trilogy.

In case you were wondering just how the Jedi always managed to bring the Sith down to their knees, it all comes down to one simple thing that kept the Sith from achieving their desired greatness: infighting. When you're too busy fighting amongst yourselves, you become easy prey for your enemies. Say what you want about the Jedi Order, but they generally were on the same page most of the time.