We all love the Sith and their never-ending quest for power over the Jedi, which we saw culminate in ROTS. However, the Sith have had great and horrible rulers. I have outlined (from Wookieepedia) the top four the Sith Order ever had.

1. Marka Ragnos-was an ancient half-breed Sith Lord of tremendous physical power as well as a frightening grasp of the dark side. He also looks really cool and evil. Interestingly, he never had a lightsaber, as the Sith had yet to use them. He ruled for a 100 years and his reign marked the peak of the Sith Empire, and after his death his followers quarreled among themselves and instigated their first conflict with the Old Republic. His spirit later trained another great Sith Lord, Naga Sadow. Check out him here.

2. Naga Sadow- He took the reign of Dark Lord of the Sith after Ragnos and was the mastermind that began the Great Hyperspace War in an attempt to expand the borders of the Sith Empire at the expense of the Old Republic. He looks a lot like the Egyptian Pharaohs of old, and looks quite frightening. He was a military genius and came very close to destroying the Old Republic. He was able to form great illusions on the planets he attacked, scaring enemy forces into submission. The Massassi warriors were his servants and fearsome warriors. However, as often would occur, he was defeated and fled to the Yavin 4 system, where he performed curel experiments on his warriors, mutating them into hunchbacked predators. They built him the great temples on the moon. Sometime thereafter, he encased himself in a sarcophagus (how appropriate) and went into a comatose state where he would wait for someone to awaken him. Check out him here.

3. Darth Bane-one of the most pivotal Dark Lords of the Sith. He reinvented the order after its defeat in the New Sith Wars, founding the Rule of Two that would allow his eventual successor, Darth Sidious to finally triumph over the Jedi. He was the mastermind behind the rule of two that led to the eventual triumph of the Sith. (Interestingly, there is a novel coming out in the next year or so that will detail his dark life). He lived during the conflict of the Army of Light and Brotherhood of Darkness. When the Sith Lord Kaan detonated a "thought bomb" on Ruusan, all force users on the planet died. Except for Darth Bane. He lived and realized that the Sith could never defeat the Republic in open battle, as had been tried for the past couple thousand years. The "Rule of Two" was born, and the Jedi believed, for the next thousand years, that the Sith were extinct. Check out him here.

4. Darth Sidious- The only one of the above to actually be featured in the movie saga. It was during his reign that the Republic fell, the Jedi Order was extinguished, and the Sith controlled the galaxy. He killed his master, Darth Plagueis, in his sleep and took a Zabrak, Darth Maul, as his apprentice. He operated under the guise of Senator Palpatine from Naboo. Sidious orchestrated the Blockade of Naboo and later, the Clone Wars. Maul, and his later apprentice Tyrannus, both were slain, Tyrannus by his own command. This act was one of the final blows in enticing the greatest hope for the Jedi, one named Anakin Skywalker, to the dark side. When four Jedi Masters attacked him, he slew three with great ease. The last, a Haruun Kal Jedi named Mace Windu, fought bravely and seemed to defeat the great Sith Lord. However, Anakin Skywalker rushed to Palpatine's defence, and asked Mace to spare the Sith. Sidious/Palpatine then unleashed a flurry of force lightning, holding Mace at bay. Mace reflected this back onto Sidious, greatly disfiguring his face. However, as Palpatine "begged" for mercy, Anakin Skywalker chopped off Mace's hand, which was then thrown out of the window of Palpatine's office. Sidious immediately ordered Skywalker, now Darth Vader, to the Temple in which he slaughtered the Jedi. Order 66 was called, and Jedi around the galaxy perished. Sidious transformed the Republic into the Galactic Empire. The great master Yoda confronted him, but Sidious was victorious. Years went by and his rule seemed to have no end. However, when the Rebel Alliance attacked his superweapon, the Death Star II, he was busy trying to convert a young Jedi, Luke Skywalker, the son of Anakin, to the dark side. However, when Darth Vader saw his son being tortured by Force Lightning, he picked up Sidious, and threw him down the Death Star's reactor pit, killing him and destroying the Sith Order. Check out an exhaustive look of him here.


These four Sith Lords defined the Order, and brought massive chaos, death, and terror to the galaxy and the Jedi Order.