A brief summary of how I feel the Sith should be portrayed more often. Perhaps useful for those who either play Sith in various Star Wars games, or fanfic writers. A similar discussion on the Jedi may be forthcoming.No, I don’t have a life. Below is the proof.
Peace is a Lie; There is only Passion.
Through Passion, I gain Strength.
Through Strength, I gain Power.
Through Power, I gain Victory.
Throuhg Victory, my chains are Broken.
The Force shall free me.
Those that presume to take up the mantle of the dark side do so for trivial reasons. Some, consumed by their impotent rage at their own weakness, seek to shroud themselves in darkness to futilely mask their inferiority. Others simply seek an outlet for their frivolous hedonisms, abounding in debauchery simply to spite the sensibilities of other beings.
Those beings have no understanding of what it means to be Sith.
Those that do not understand will never be Sith.
To be Sith, in the very end, is to be fully autonomous in will and power. A Sith Lord and his ambitions are inextricable; it is what defines him, and what forms the central aspect of his identity. And identity is the source of a Sith’s power. One’s will and ambition is what defines him as a being, and in turn the fulfillment of one’s ambition leads to a further actualization of one’s identity. The Jedi erroneously claim that all beings are interconnected, and that the place of the Jedi and indeed all those sensitive to the Force, is in service and stewardship to the greater galaxy. Sith reject this. Every being is separate and distinct, and the idea of interconnectivity and interdependence is a construct formed by the weak to justify controlling the strong. Those who can bend the Force to its will are more free than others, yet the Jedi would willingly chain themselves under these paltry lies and so limit their potential. In doing so, the Jedi lose their indentity, and so establish the foundations of their decay and eventual destruction. A Sith who loses his identity, that single point of distinction, becomes nothing– less than an insect. The true end of any Sith is to fulfill his identity, his ambition, to the point where he fears no ramifications of his actions. A perfect Sith can enact his will upon anything, from midichlorians to entire governments overtly and with impunity. Jedi notions of right and wrong are nothing but words, and ethics are whatever the Sith decides them to be.
- Peace is a Lie; There is only Passion.
Peace is a lie because of the lie of interdependence. The galaxy is a chaotic mass of individual beings enforcing their will upon nature and upon each other. Harmony is a falsehood gained from willful ignorance of the true processes of the galaxy. Alliances may be formed between beings, factions, even entire systems, but all serve at the benefit of the will. Passion is the only reality in that passion is the force governing ambition. Pretenders who chafe at the ideals of the Jedi equate passion with liberated emotion or erotic love. What errant nonsense! If anything, Sith are even more incapable than Jedi to “love.” Jedi love. Sith possess. To love, as most beings understand it, is to sacrifice oneself to possess the affections of another.
This is a paramount danger, and anathema of the highest order. A Sith never sacrifices anything which forms his identity. A Sith never relinquishes any power. Passions are meant to be harnessed and propelled towards one’s end; never succumbed to. Jedi who submit to their passions for other individuals often turn to the dark side, but they are not Sith– they lack the will and the force to achieve perfection of identity that all true Sith strive for. Passion to a Sith is only that which fuels his efforts to attain whatever he has determined to possess.
- Through Passion, I gain Strength.
Strength here can be described as the tangible resources that a Sith uses to achieve his ambitions. Our passions fuel the acquisition of strength and the tools with which they exhibit strength. The Dark Side is our strength. Our Empire, from the lowliest infantryman to the greatest battlecruiser, is our strength. It is the method through which we project our will, to be opposed by the Republic and the Jedi. History is conflict between opposing ideas. Our thesis, Empire and Sith, is opposed by Republic and Jedi. The strength in our thesis will crush the weak-willed Republic and the shackled Jedi, and usher in the next stage of our apotheosis.
- Through Strength, I gain Power.
If strength is described as the tangible instrument of our will, then power is defined as the subsequent justification after the use of strength– the ripples in the pool, the ash after a firestorm. With every system we conquer, we ensure that our rule is unchallenged. Once we have successfully applied strength to a conflict, power is the resulting favorable circumstance. After our fleet has destroyed an enemy, their resources are turned to our benefit– that is power. Our rule, when unchallenged, is power. With the resources of conquests supplementing (but never fueling) our strength, we advance closer to true autonomy. Attacks on our power are attacks on our identity, and must be eviscerated with extreme prejudice. Fear is the most powerful method of sustaining power, for we draw upon it and feed it into our inferiors, creating a self-replenishing pool for the dark side.
- Through Power, I gain Victory.
Victory is the final step towards the perfect realization of our identity. Victory is the galaxy bound in service to the Sith. Victory is the Jedi Order erased from the face of the galaxy. Victory is Coruscant as the glittering seat of the Empire, built upon the smoldering wreckage of the decrepit Republic. Victory is the complete and total end of resistance to the Sith way. Victory is an inevitability.
- Through Victory, my chains are Broken.
Only with the eradication of resistance to the Sith way, can true Sith finally focus the totality of their efforts into achieveing self-perfection. There shall be no dams or barriers to our access to the Force. Even though we are all Sith, we are united by nothing. If the ambitions of another Sith interfere with my own self-perfection, then his ambitions and by extension his identity must be rendered moot– he must be destroyed. In victory, we are free to enact any methods to achieve our goals. If an entire planet must be incinerated, or an entire population of beings immolated, so be it. There will be no resistance.
- The Force shall free me.
This is the sum of all Sith teaching. Through mastery of the dark side of the Force, we attain perfect, autonomous free will and identity. We are the sources of our own power– we depend on nothing. That is why the apprentice slays the master– he severs the last link of weakness before beginning his journey to true power. To call Sith superior to other beings is to insult the Sith. To be superior still inplies a connection to lesser beings– a connection that will prove dangerous and fatal. A true Sith is so utterly apart from the other beings of the galaxy, that a sentient Force-blind is no different to him than a rotworm. All that matters in the galaxy is the Sith and the propogation and expansion of his identity.
To be Sith is to simply be. Through any means necessary.
From the records of Darth Necris, a Sith Lord during the Cold War between the Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic ca. 3,653 BBY.
From the Dragon's Desk... 