Once Darth Bane established the rule of two that signaled the end of the old Sith order's way, meaning that there should at any time be only two Sith in the entire galaxy, the master and the apprentice. What it doesn't stop is both the master and apprentice both having bunches of secret apprentices of their own. It also doesn't stop the training of other force users not meant to succeed either the master, or apprentice. In the rule of two "Dark Lord of the Sith" is generally applied as a title to both master and apprentice, because they command territory, government, police, military, and everything else. The problem with Darth Bane's idea of the Sith, post instituting the rule of two, is that the method is based on extreme paranoia between the master and the apprentice. This is actually meant to highlight the fact that Bane himself is both a sociopath and mentally unstable.
Exar Kun's Sith order is in contrast actually a much more stable organization politically speaking, being for one it's not limited to two well trained force users. For the other the earlier incarnations of the Sith order allowed for Sith Dark Jedi and lords to form bonds of trust and alliance, without a direct threat of ascension via murdering those higher positions to one's self. While seen as a valid method of ascension, it's generally understood killing a superior ranked Dark Jedi, or officer, is going to demonstrate exactly how much you can be trusted by others generally. That is unless you have a good reason for toppling someone whose in a higher position in the hierarchy, like say, they were prone to mistreating their juniors. This is why Malak allowed Revan to fall in an attack from the Republic and Jedi order, he wasn't directly usurping Revan, he just refused to assist and rescue Revan. Allowing the Jedi to do his work for him, which was understandable, because Malak hated being second banana, being bitter from the very beginning about having to bow to Revan, the stronger of the two.
Another interesting thing about the Sith Order as Exar Kun formed it, is that it existed as a more loose ideology. This means the entire Sith order, working in such a manner, could easily fall to obscurity and survive, or be destroyed entirely outright, then revived later at any point. This is due to the fact that the Sith are more or less an order of dark side followers united on the principal that the Jedi are exactly wrong, with out a direct line of succession. The Rule of Two Sith basically exist as a chain of unbroken master over thrown by apprentice manner of succession until the deaths of Palpatine and Vader during the battle of Endor. Meaning that any revival of the Sith order would have to be carried out by a secret apprentice. Keeping of secret apprentices though isn't an odd practice for Rule of Two Sith, because of the mistrust that is inherent between the master and apprentice. Either of whom could strike the other down on a whim, if they feel they're in a position of suitable advantage. Also with the Rule of Two, the master could coax another to the dark side, then have that person strike down their own apprentice, if they feel the new comer is sufficiently more powerful than their current apprentice.
That's what I got from the reading of both situations anyways.
kurupt87 said:
There can be many "pairs", it just means that if there is one then there is at least another. That's is what I got from the games at any rate, haven't read any of the books. Though, the games don't count as EU, they're canon. It was all the books that were EU and are now no longer canon.
I think :/
Unfortunately that's not true, the games, basically all of them, are considered to be EU, or Legends now. So they're not canon. The only canon materials in
Star Wars are the seven current movies,
The Clone Wars animated movie/series of shorts, along with both
The Clone Wars and
Rebels animated series.
