Sith

The Sith are the main antagonists of many works in the fictional universe of the Star Wars franchise. They are the antithesis and ancient enemies of the Jedi. The Sith Order is depicted as an ancient cult of warriors who draw strength from the dark side of the Force and use it to seize power by any means necessary, including terrorism and mass murder; their ultimate goals are to destroy the Jedi and rule the galaxy. The various antagonistic factions in the franchise, namely the Separatist Alliance, the Confederacy of Independent Systems, the First Galactic Empire, the Imperial Remnant and the First Order, all originated, either directly or indirectly, from the Sith. Sith, known individually as Sith Lords, are ruthless and totalitarian by design, in which supreme autocratic authority is concentrated in a single individual granted the honorific Dark Lord of the Sith. Sith culture is based on perpetual treachery and betrayal; Sith Lords are typically eventually murdered and replaced by their own apprentices. Sith teach their apprentices to revere the dark side of the Force, to give full reign to aggressive emotions such as rage and hatred, and to believe that others are expendable in the pursuit of power. Like the Jedi, the Sith use as their traditional weapon the lightsaber, a device that generates a blade-like plasma powered by a kyber crystal. In contrast to the Jedi, who primarily use blue and green lightsabers, among other colors, the usual color for a Sith lightsaber is red, born of an unnatural corruption of the kyber crystal through the dark side's malignancy, causing it to "bleed". This even affects the sound of ignition, with a harsher hiss. Etymology The word Sith is taken from the 1914 science fiction novel, The Warlord of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs in which it refers to a species of beetle. It was first used for Star Wars in the 1974 rough draft of Star Wars with the first published use being the 1976 novelization of Star Wars as a title for the villain Darth Vader, the "Dark Lord of the Sith". Sith characters had also been portrayed as such in some Star Wars Legends works prior to the release of The Phantom Menace (the first film to identify characters as Sith on-screen), and in deleted footage from the original film.