The Sith Covenant

The Order of the Sith Lords, also known as Bane's Sith Order, Banite Sith, or simply the Sith, was an ancient organization of Force-sensitives who utilized the dark side of the Force. Founded approximately one thousand years before the Battle of Yavin by the Sith Lord Darth Bane, it was intended to replace the Brotherhood of Darkness and institute a rebirth of the Sith. The guiding principle of the Order was the Rule of Two, which was developed by Bane through the teachings of Darth Revan's Holocron.

Under this new tenet, only two Sith Lords were allowed to exist at any given time; a master and an apprentice. The Rule stipulated that after learning everything the master had to teach, the apprentice would attempt to kill the master and take an apprentice of their own. The intended effect of this rule was to ensure that each successive master would be stronger than the last. Ultimately, Bane intended that his successors would be able to amass enough power in secret to engineer the fall of the Republic and the destruction of the Jedi Order.

By 300 ABY the idea of only two Sith had become an antique, and the Sith explored a better way to expand their power, deciding instead to become a legitimate religion, and through this become a force of their own. Now having become powerful in their own right they trained their own to become strong enough to confront the Jedi in the shadows, and possibly wage all out war if the possibility became profitable once more. However in 330 ABY this plan came under fire when the Jedi Grand Master was killed by an unknown Assassin. The first people to come under fire, were of course the Sith Covenant. The Sith, and all of the systems following them must now cope with the impending threat of unknown Assassins powerful enough to kill Jedi Masters, as well as a Galaxy biased against them.