Recently, I began watching the Star Wars Saga with a friend who had never seen the movies. She had been caught up in the hype and wanted to see Episode III: Revenge of the Sith in the theater. After watching the original trilogy she goes, “so um, what is sith?”
Being a relative Star Wars newbie myself, most of my understanding of the universe came from the original trilogy and the KOTOR games. I simply answered, “they’re the bad guys; the dark side guys.”
So, how are we supposed to know who the sith are? I think maybe they are referred to in Ep. I, but if so, only in passing. And how do you guys all know that Darth means Dark Lord of the Sith ? Is this all Expanded Universe stuff?
Please help.
Rearrange the letters. 
This comes from the novelization of Ep. I.
Years ago, several members of the Jedi succumbed to the Dark Side ™ and created the Sith. This led to a war with the Jedi, but infighting undermined the Sith effort. One secretly survived and ever since then, there has only ever been two. One master, one student. The line has continued to Darth Sideous and his various disciples.
I know there’s more to the story, but that’s all I know.
Almost, but not quite. The Sith were an alien race that was naturally strong in the dark side of the Force. When the original Jedi Order first fractured into light and dark sides, the dark Jedi found the Sith, enslaved them, and used them as shocktroops in their war against the Jedi. Hence, they became Sith Lords. Over the course of the war, the Sith were eventually wiped out, and the Sith Lords themselves were ultimatly defeated because of the constant infighting and backstabbing among their order. Eventually, only one Sith Lord remained: Exar Kun. He determined that the Jedi could never be defeated by a Sith empire, but could be undermined and destroyed by a single Sith master working in secret, with the help of an apprentice. Hence, the “there are only two” thing Yoda says in Phantom Menace.
From Knights of the old republic, it seems the Sith was an alien race that was at war with the ‘good guys’ many millenia before Star Wars films took place. The Dark Jedi somehow follow the ways of that ancient race (or maybe that ancient race was controlled by ancient dark Jedi who were thus Sith Lords).
Still want to know any info about the Race called Sith.
Just when you thought it was safe to date Darth Vader
Just when you thought it was safe to date Darth Vader
Just when you thought it was safe to date Darth Vader
That’s when he slips you a massive dose of the sith!
Sith, Sith. What is Sith?
Sorry I couldn’t help myself.
I thought it came right after fith.
Don’t feel bad. If you hadn’t done it, I would’ve…
Though I’m sure the link contains this information, it was Darth bane (the first to take the name Darth as well), not Exar Kun.
And anyway, Kun was just somebodies fan-wank gone into comics.
From that site
Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.
—The Sith Code
That’s that song “Epic” by Faith No More, right?
“What is Sith? It’s Sith!”
More on the point, though:
If memory serves, in one of the Timothy Zahn novels, there was a race of cat-like creatures that were used as assassins. Zahn had orginally wanted these to be the Sith, but Lucas nixed that idea, so he changed the name of the race. I can’t remember to what, though.
Noghri.
Noghri weren’t particularly cat-like.
Been a while since I read that series of books.
Wasn’t Darth Maul an Ethnic Sith?
The simplest way to view the Sith is as the antithesis of the Jedi.
Jedi Knights : Sith Lords.
It’s all about the balance.
Yeah, they were reptilian, IIRC.