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Main Article: Dark Side of the Force
- "The strength of the dark side lies with the power of the individual. The Force comes from within. You must learn to draw on it yourself. I will not always be there to teach you."
- ―Darth Bane to his apprentice
The dark side of the Force was considered by the Jedi as the element aligned with fear, hatred, aggression, and malice towards all living things. Practitioners and adherents of the dark side of the Force sought to increase their own personal power and destroy or rule those who opposed them. Followers of the dark side usually acted only for themselves. The negative emotions of the dark side increased the strength and abilities of a user, and as a result use of the dark side of the Force was extremely addictive. Galactic history tends to suggest that every time followers of the dark side called on its power, they became more and more attached to the corruption it brought.
The Dark Lord Darth Bane considered the Force to be finite, and thus ideally restricted to the use of the Dark Lord of the Sith. He eliminated the practice of having vast numbers of Sith at the same time and concentrated the dark side of the Force into two individuals: a Sith Master and an apprentice. This tradition, or "Rule of Two," was in practice with the Sith Order, which underwent a small reformation by Dark Lady Lumiya after the deaths of Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine (the Sith Lords at the time) above Endor . The Rule of Two was later ratified by Darth Krayt, who instituted the Rule of One—that One being the Sith Order itself, under which there would be many minions, acolytes/adepts and lords with only one Dark Lord of the Sith (or Dread Lord). Darth Krayt believed he gave the Sith and their power a purpose, unlike Darth Bane who believed that power was its own purpose.
The Rule of One called for cooperation—and even some level of loyalty—between the Sith, an outlook and tactical view assumed resulting from Darth Krayt's Tusken Raider upbringing. It must be noted, however, that the Rule of One does not represent the Sith as a whole, and Krayt was even labeled a heretic by the holocron of Darth Bane, along with holocrons of Darth Nihilus and Darth Andeddu. It can be assumed that other pre-Legacy Sith Lords would share such disapproving sentiments.
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