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Star Wars character
Darth Bane
Position	Dark Lord of the Sith
Homeworld	Apatros
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Height	2.00 m (6 ft 7 in)
Affiliation	Sith
Portrayed by	Not applicable

Darth Bane is a fictional character in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. He is first mentioned in the novelisation of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, and is the main character of the novel Darth Bane: Path of Destruction.

Contents 1 History 2 In Path of Destruction 3 Appearances 4 References 5 External link

In the Star Wars universe, Darth Bane was a powerful Sith Lord who lived a thousand years before the Battle of Yavin. He resurrected the Sith Order after it was nearly destroyed in the Great Sith War, and instituted the rules and dogma that would aid it in taking over the galaxy a millennium later.

As revealed in Path of Destruction, he was born Dessel on the planet Apatros, the son of a miner named Hurst. Dessel's father blamed him for the death of his wife, and often mocked him as his "Bane". His father took him into the mines at a young age, and the boy was bullied and abused well into his early-mid twenties. As he grew, Des (Dessel) became stronger and more agile, finding an ability inside of him. This ability gave him the power to sense things before they ever happened, making him a skilled gambler and fighter.

After he killed a Republic Navy ensign in self defense after a game of sabacc in which both players drew identical winning hands, he was forced to flee Apatros and join the armies of the Brotherhood of Darkness, a band of Sith Lords. His instinctive use of the Force (which he initially believed to be a myth) brought him to the attention of the Sith Lord Kopecz. He was sent to the Brotherhood's Academy on Korriban to be trained in the ways of the dark side. Dessel (now renamed Bane) never completed his formal training, however. Bane killed another Sith apprentice after being mocked for losing a lightsaber duel. Following this incident, the instructors, particularly the Blademaster, Ka'sim, took an interest in Bane, as did Sirak, the top student at the Korriban Academy.

After Bane realized that the death of the student he was fighting was not the first time he had murdered with the Force - his father had been killed by him in what he had earlier considered coincidence- he subconsciously retreated from the force, losing his power. The now pathetic Bane fell out of favor in the academy, and eventually he was refused any training at all. Many months later, in a vain attempt to reestablish himself as a prominent student, Bane challenged Sirak to a fight and was thoroughly trounced by Sirak's superior swordsmanship.

Humiliated, Bane immersed himself in the old tomes in the academy archives, but had little progress until he met another apprentice named Githany. Githany planned to use Bane to bring down Sirak, who she recognized was too formidable for herself. With a newfound motivation, Bane convinced Ka'Sim to train him in private. Under this tutelage, Bane's swordsmanship improved exponentially. Just as importantly, Githany began tutoring him in the Force and re-establishing his connection to the darkside by showing him in secret what the Sith Lords were teaching her. Most importantly, Bane studied tomes from the golden age of the Sith, and realized that the new teachings of the Brotherhood of Darkness were incomplete.

Githany realized that she was losing control of the situation - Bane was beginning to outstrip her command of the Force by leaps and bounds - and decided that the time had come for her plan to use Bane against Sirak to come to fruition. She stated that the next morning she was going to attempt to defeat Sirak in the dueling ring, a hopeless proposition. Instead of suggesting an underhanded assassination of Sirak, as she had expected, Bane surprised her by revealing his intentions to destroy Sirak in the dueling ring personally. Additionally, he made it clear that he had understood her machinations and knew what she had been trying to make him do.

In the dueling ring the next morning, he prolonged the duel until Sirak was exhausted, ignoring many opportunities to best him. Finally, Bane attacked Sirak. However, he hesitated, stopping just short of the killing blow.

Bane left the academy, hoping to find the secrets of ancient Sith masters in the Valley of the Dark Lords on Korriban. He found nothing but dust and emptiness. Bane declared that the Brotherhood of Darkness was just as responsible for the desolation as the Jedi, as their perversion of the Sith had caused the power of the ancient Sith to waste away.

As such, Bane (who had taken up the title of 'Darth' that other Sith refused to take) left the Brotherhood and traveled to the Forgotten Planet of Rakata Prime, the site of the final battle between the Republic and Darth Malak's forces. There, he discovered a Sith Holocron left behind by Darth Revan. Bane completed his training, learning new Sith techniques, including the devastating "thought bomb."

Bane realized from the Holocron that any Sith order with multiple lords was doomed to failure. He then created the "Rule of Two": Only two Sith Lords, a master and an apprentice, were allowed to exist at one time ("One to embody the power and one to crave it.") He then resolved to destroy the Brotherhood and begin the Sith era.

At this time, Kaan's forces on Ruusan were spread thin. Kaan ordered that all of the students on Korriban be made into Lords and brought to the battle. Knowing Bane's incredible untapped power, he sent his former student's swordmaster to find him. Upon meeting his former master, Bane offered to take him as an apprentice. The swordmaster refused to listen, however, so Bane killed him.

Working to now destroy the "new Sith", Bane sent a message to Kaan begging to rejoin the brotherhood and offered the knowledge of how to use the thought bomb as leverage. Kaan, fearing Bane's power, sent Githany to kill Bane, knowing that Bane was attracted to her. During their meeting, she poisoned him with a kiss. Bane was stronger than either Githany or Kaan thought, however, and fought off the effects of the poison long enough to find a cure. He returned to Ruusan to observe the preparations for battle.

Shocked by Bane's return, Kaan agreed to follow his instructions to defeat the Jedi through the power of the dark side. The Sith joined together in meditation, and Bane unleashed a wave of destruction upon the unsuspecting enemy.

Sensing the smothering darkness and ambition in Bane's heart, however, the other Sith Lords broke the circle, intending to finish off the Jedi with more conventional tactics. During this strike, Bane went back to camp and ordered the commander of the space forces to engage the Jedi fleet. This allowed several gunships and transport craft to slip through the Sith blockade.

Realizing he was facing defeat, Kaan retreated to underground caves with the other Sith Lords to nullify the Jedi's air advantage. Fearful that Kaan would use the thought bomb on some other world if he was allowed to escape, Lord Hoth asked for volunteers to accompany him into the caverns. When the thought bomb detonated all of the Sith lords and the 99 Jedi plus Hoth were destroyed, their spirits trapped in limbo after the thought bomb's explosion and residual Force vacuum.

Shortly after this happened, Bane met a young girl called Zannah. She had been brought to Ruusan by the Jedi and had formed a friendship with a bouncer. When Zannah's friend was killed mistakenly by two Jedi troops, anger drew her to kill using the Force, snapping both of the Jedi's necks. Bane thought he had found his first apprentice, and took her under his wing.

Eventually, Bane inducted his new apprentice, giving her the name Darth Zannah, and set his new order in motion. Future Sith Lords were taught the virtues of patience, planning, and secrecy, and each was to take on the title of Darth, a tradition that had dated back to before the Jedi Civil War, nearly three millennia before.

• Path of Destruction
• Jedi vs. Sith
• Bane of the Sith

• Episode I: The Phantom Menace, 1st edition paperback, 1999. Terry Brooks, George Lucas, ISBN 0-345-43411-0
• The Dark Side sourcebook, Wizards of the Coast, 1st printing, 2001. Bill Slavicsek, J. D. Wiker, ISBN 0-7869-1849-7
• The New Essential Guide to Characters, 1st edition, 2002. Daniel Wallace, Michael Sutfin, ISBN 0-345-44900-2
• Episode III: Revenge of the Sith - Novelisation, 1st edition hardcover, 2005. Matthew Woodring Stover, George Lucas, ISBN 0-7126-8427-1
• The New Essential Star Wars Chronology
• Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, 1st edition hardcover, 2006. Drew Karpyshyn, ISBN 0-345-47736-7

• Darth Bane on Wookieepedia: The Star Wars Wiki