The Rule of Two vs. Sith Groupings:

[Empress Palpatine]

The theme of the recent Darth Bane book is mostly about the reason why the Sith reasserted the "rule of two." It is a fiction book and therefore does not have to be taken literally, but it does raise some interesting points.

If you were there in that universe at that time, would you agree with Bane; or do you think it a shame that all those other Sith were wiped out? Does any of it apply to our world today?

[Darth Opacus]

Bane was completely correct. Why? Having so many Sith makes them weak. With legions of Sith, only the "leaders" hold the power.
"Two there should be; no more, no less. One to embody the power, the other to crave it." Truely something to live by. The Sith Order became much like the Jedi Order, to large for it's own good. This can have real world implications. At work, if you crave the power or posistion that your boss has, plot and move other employees around like pawns. When you have accomplished your goal of subverting your bosses "power," the posistion is yours for the taking.

[Master Thompson]

Yeah but do you think if you, at that time, under those conditions would have seen his logic? Githany was the smartest and strongest of the Sith Apprenti and she didn't even get the bottom line. Just when you thought she was going to come to understand and see the light...she would retreat to Lord Kaan's theocracy of Sithism.

[Mrs. Darth Vader]

I finished the Darth Bane book. I agree with his reason for the rule of two for the most part. The Sith acadamy under Kaan had alot lacking. In that universe Bane was essentally correct. The acadamy did serve the purpose of getting Bane so it had a temporary value. Next to Bane I liked Kopecz because he had the wisdome above all the others to choose Bane. He also did not fall to the Jedi belief that they have to be young to be an apprentice. Kopecz took on an adult of some age.

The area I disagreed with Bane was the part that the apprentice must only crave the power but never recieve it. Haveing read about many ancient religions where the power and the knowledge was lost forever, I think as a Sith you have to take the necessary risk of teaching your apprentice well so as not to weaken the chain of Sith to come after you. Posterity has to be consitered. In the book "Morals and Dogma" by Albert Pike, Pike mentions all that was lost because the secrets died with the old masters. Today we grope in the "dark" in this case ignorance, trying to find the key lost by time and history to be able to weild the magical power of the ancients. The tradgody of this power wasted is shown by the fact that today's Sith can not do the spectacular feats documented in history of the ancients. The ancient Egyptians, the ancient Persians magically were second to none. This knowledge(Holocrone) would be a gold mine to a searching Sith today.

I loved Darth Bane's defense of the Darth title. To many "real life" Sith condemn the Darth out of hand like that Qordis. There is power in a name or title this is stated in many tradidtions. So do not let someone take away your power by not allowing the Darth.

I do fallow the rule of two on earth but with one modification. In my town there is only two Empress Palpatine and myself. But if we took it to mean not to talk to other Sith on the message boards that would be boaring. Due to the distances between fellow Sith it is wiser at this time to share knowledge since no one has yet had the chain reaction that Bane got in his quest on the dark side. It might be good to start with the meny to whittle it down to the two.

The Darth Bane book did make me want to read about the two Sith mentioned in Holocron and that is Exar Kun and Darth Revan. Is there books on these two Master Sith? If so what is the title and name of the author?

[Empress Palpatine]

My thoughts, well....

It is an observation I have had over time concerning various groups and causes. I have been in so many groups that were dysfunctional or impotent. When it comes down to it, you may be lucky to just get one other person who will fight wholeheartedly for your cause, be it noble or ulterior. I wouldn't go so far as to say lets not have any more groups, especially with this wonderful medium called internet where all people in the English speaking world that have online access can get together and discuss many subjects. What I think this book is saying is that there is a limit to what one can expect from any group. It is also inevitable that in any group, the people in it start competing with each other sometimes even zinging it to each other. In the story, they are Sith after all. Such a competitive dynamic would be expected because of the Sith ideology. It is really weird when it happens at a church or some dippy hippy peace group.

What I think is that ultimately, it may be the individual and one other as far as Sith at any given location. I can envision many pairings accross the globe, none crashing into the other. The only group activity of Sith is going to boards such as this on the net.

[Darth Opacus]

I see the part about "craving" the power a little differently. The implication of craving something is to want it so bad that you will do pretty much anything to get it. For the Sith, this means becoming more powerful than your master. Thus, the rule of two makes the Sith Order stronger. The stronger Sith will always be the master, the weaker will only strive to become stronger.

[Empress Palpatine]

Would there be a tendency for masters to withhold information from their apprentices for fear that their apprentice may overtake them? If a master did this, how would the one who craves deal with that?

Would it be the Bane bee-to-many-flowers approach? He picks the brains of many (the swordsman and Githany and the writings he read and the holocron he found).

[Darth Opacus]

I think there would always be information that a master holds from a student. However, if a Sith wants it enough, they will find a way. I agree that Bane picked the brains of several people in order to increase his power. Training in private, studying holocrons and even, dare I say, learning from a Jedi would be ways a student could and probably would take the power of his master.