Post by Astroruss on Sept 17, 2009 10:53:50 GMT -5
This scifi novel, written by Drew Karpyshyn, opens up a hitherto unexplored time period of the Star Wars epic and the Old Republic. I've found it to be fascinating. 
The story centers around the physically imposing Dessel, an orphaned miner and soldier of the Brotherhood of Darkness, an organization inherently opposed to the Jedi's Army of Light. Dessel, through his own strength of will and desire for power, rises from his humble, oppressed beginnings to become a powerful Dark Lord of the Sith in an era when the Sith were as numerous and prolific as the Jedi. The Sith gradually begin to lose the war, however, and the maverick Dessel searches for answers.
Once he accepts his identity as one of the Sith, he becomes Bane, one of the more powerful of the Brotherhood. Bane, however, grows disheartened by the Brotherhood. His investigations of the Old Sith accounts in ancient times leads him to believe that the Brotherhood of Darkness will lead to its own destruction. The Brotherhood, led by Lord Kaan, causes the Sith Order's own demise and Bane believes to be an obscenity and perversion.
In the end, Bane tricks the Brotherhood into destroying themselves, leading the Jedi to believe the Sith gone forever. Bane, acting on the advice of the ancient Sith lords, reinvents the Sith Order into the Rule of Two; one master, one apprentice.
The legacy of Darth Bane is this continued survival and secrecy of the Sith. Bane decries that the Jedi cannot be defeated by the strength of numbers and arms. The Sith must survive through the arts of secrecy, cunning, stealth, deception, and betrayal. In the end, Banes takes his own apprentice, Zannah, into his patronage, and trains her to be his heir of the Sith Lords.
As a character, Bane is a protagonist equal in terms of power and ambition to that of Darth Vader, and even Milton's own Satan. Bane, though evil and twisted, is portrayed as a heroic and domineering figure, one that cannot be controlled or limited by the other dark lords. He is indepedent, assertive, and dynamic. Even though he is physically large and imposing (two meters tall, and heavily muscled) Bane chooses to embody secrecy and cunning to be his main tools against the Jedi, and even the lesser Sith.
Code of the Sith:
"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."
Sounds a bit like the American Dream, doesn't it?
The story centers around the physically imposing Dessel, an orphaned miner and soldier of the Brotherhood of Darkness, an organization inherently opposed to the Jedi's Army of Light. Dessel, through his own strength of will and desire for power, rises from his humble, oppressed beginnings to become a powerful Dark Lord of the Sith in an era when the Sith were as numerous and prolific as the Jedi. The Sith gradually begin to lose the war, however, and the maverick Dessel searches for answers.
Once he accepts his identity as one of the Sith, he becomes Bane, one of the more powerful of the Brotherhood. Bane, however, grows disheartened by the Brotherhood. His investigations of the Old Sith accounts in ancient times leads him to believe that the Brotherhood of Darkness will lead to its own destruction. The Brotherhood, led by Lord Kaan, causes the Sith Order's own demise and Bane believes to be an obscenity and perversion.
In the end, Bane tricks the Brotherhood into destroying themselves, leading the Jedi to believe the Sith gone forever. Bane, acting on the advice of the ancient Sith lords, reinvents the Sith Order into the Rule of Two; one master, one apprentice.
The legacy of Darth Bane is this continued survival and secrecy of the Sith. Bane decries that the Jedi cannot be defeated by the strength of numbers and arms. The Sith must survive through the arts of secrecy, cunning, stealth, deception, and betrayal. In the end, Banes takes his own apprentice, Zannah, into his patronage, and trains her to be his heir of the Sith Lords.
As a character, Bane is a protagonist equal in terms of power and ambition to that of Darth Vader, and even Milton's own Satan. Bane, though evil and twisted, is portrayed as a heroic and domineering figure, one that cannot be controlled or limited by the other dark lords. He is indepedent, assertive, and dynamic. Even though he is physically large and imposing (two meters tall, and heavily muscled) Bane chooses to embody secrecy and cunning to be his main tools against the Jedi, and even the lesser Sith.
Code of the Sith:
"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."
Sounds a bit like the American Dream, doesn't it?
