Sith

Sith were strong users of the dark side of the force driven by more and more power. They worked under The Rule of Two, meaning there could never be more than two sith at a time. The sith went to hiding after they had been around for a specific amount of time but during The invasion of Naboo, in 32 BBY, they showed themselves again after a thousand years. They went extinct in 4 ABY following The Chosen One, Anakin Skywalker, killing his sith master while killing himself in the process.

The Naboo Crisis (32 BBY)
After have been hiding for a thousand years, the sith lord Darth Sidious came in contact with the separatistic Trade Federation, led by Nute Gunray, that started an invasion in the capital of Naboo. In time Sidious would send his first sith apprentice, Darth Maul, to eliminate the jedi Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi which had been sent by the Republic to get more information about the Federation to later inform the jedi council with. After Maul had tracked the jedi to Tatooine, he began his search for them on the planet. He found them but failed in killing them, and they later went to Coruscant where they would inform the jedi council of the mysterious warrior suspected to be a sith, to the councils surprise.

Meanwhile Darth Sidious, disguising himself as a senator of the Republic where he was known as Senator Palpatine, later turned into being known as Chancellor Palpatine, as he during The Naboo Crisis replaced Finis Valorum as chancellor of the Republic and from there would crave more and more power, without anyone knowing of his true origin.

Battle of Naboo
After Darth Maul had failed in assassinating the jedi he would be sent to Naboo to join the separatists, that would soon be met by force from troops of the queen and as well from Gungans, inhabitants of Naboo. Maul would later fight Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon again and after a long and intense fight he would succeed in killing Qui-Gon in front of his apprentice. Kenobi would later finally be able to kill Maul, cutting him in half. The Trade Federation eventually lost the battle, with the jedi now knowing that the sith had indeed returned. The jedi were aware of the Sith Rule of Two, but didn't know whether it was the Sith Master or the apprentice that were destroyed by Kenobi.

32 - 22 BBY
Sometime after The Naboo Crisis, Darth Sidious would go ahead and get himself a second apprentice known as Count Dooku (Darth Tyranus), which was formerly a jedi and Qui-Gons old master. Dooku would help Sidious in expanding the Separatist movement, known as the CIS, led by several separatist leaders from several worlds.

Count Dooku would also hire bounty hunter Jango Fett as a template for the clone army that would be used by The Republic during the Clone Wars to fight The Separatists, which was all a plan by the sith itself to gain more control over the galaxy.

Battle of Geonosis (22 BBY)
After Dooku had captured jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi on the planet of Geonosis for spionage on him he would also later get his hands on Obi-Wans apprentice Anakin Skywalker and senator Padmé Amidala attempting to rescue Kenobi. This would lead to a planned execution on the jedi and the senator which would be disturbed by hundreds of other jedi, led by Mace Windu, coming to rescue them. As Dooku and his droid army got the upper hand, forcing the jedi to surrender, Clone Troopers lead by Grand Master Yoda came to the jedis recue, which made the Battle of Geonosis the first battle of The Clone Wars. Dooku fled the scene, although being followed by Kenobi and Skywalker which would later lead to a lightsaber fight between him and the 2 jedi. As Dooku got the upper hand master Yoda would later join the fight as well which in the end had Dooku flee the planet to meet his master on Coruscant, informing him that everything is going as planned.

22 BBY-19 BBY
Some time during the Clone Wars, Dooku would get a non-force user as an apprentice known as General Grievous which he would train in the jedi arts making Grievous a skilled lightsaber fighter.

Battle over Coruscant (19 BBY)
3 years after the beginning of the Clone Wars, Count Dooku would have Chancellor Palpatine captured onboard General Grievous flagship The invisible hand. Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi and his former apprentice Anakin Skywalker were sent to rescue the chancellor, leading to a lightsaber fight between Anakin and Dooku onboard the ship. Anakin won the fight, killing Dooku on the spot in the will of Palpatine, which would later plan to get Anakin over to the dark side, replacing Dooku as his new apprentice.

Darth Sidious reveals himself
After the chancellor showing suspicious behaviour, the jedi council would send Anakin to spy on him while Kenobi were sent to Utapau where he would later kill Grievous. During Anakins spionage on the chancellor he told Anakin about the sith legend Darth Plagueis, which could save others from dying which according to Palpatine was something not possible to achieve as a jedi. He also told about how Plagueis was killed by his own apprentice in his sleep after his apprentice finding out about his work. This story was used by Palpatine to seduce Anakin closer to the dark side. After some time Palpatine would reveal himself to Anakin as Darth Sidious, the sith lord that the jedi had been looking for since The Invasion of Naboo. Sidious knew about Anakins will to save his loved one, Padmé Amidala, from dying and he explained to Anakin that this is only achievable through the dark side. Although, Anakin would later inform the council about Palpatine actually being a sith lord. Mace Windu, together with 3 other jedi, would later attempt to arrest the sith lord but Mace companions would be struck down fast by Sidious leaving Windu alone against the sith. Windu would later get the upper hand, but it wouldn't take long until Anakin joined them to rescue Sidious and killing Windu. Sidious would then make Anakin his third apprentice, dubbing him into Darth Vader.

The Clone Wars ends
Sidious would send Vader and the 501st legion of Clone Troopers to the jedi temple to eliminate all the jedi inside. Meanwhile Sidious would activate order 66 which would turn all clone troopers against their jedi generals. This tragedy would wipe out many jedi throughout the galaxy.

After Vader and his troops had slaughtered the jedi inside the temple Sidious would send him to Mustafar to eliminate the remaining separatist leaders and stop the production of battle droids, marking the end of the CIS and the Clone Wars.

The rise of the empire
Sidious would later reorganize the Galactic Republic into the Galactic Empire, which saw all jedi as an enemy, and declare himself emperor. After killing the separatists, Vader would fight his old friend Obi-Wan on Mustafar while Sidious battled Yoda on Coruscant. This led to Obi-Wan injuring Vader, putting him in a life-sustaining suit where he would remain for the rest of his life after being found by Sidious that earlier had won the fight over Yoda, forcing Yoda into exile on Dagobah. Vader would later be informed by Sidious that his loved one Padmé Amidala had died because of Vader's anger.

Vader and Sidious would later overlook the construction of the Empire's future superweapon, the Death Star.

The stealing of The Death Star plans (0 BBY)
19 years after his rise, Vader, onboard an Imperial Star Destroyer, was chasing the rebel ship known as Tantive IV where he and several Stormtroopers (the successors of Clone Troopers) managed to get themselves onboard the rebel ship where they captured a leader for the Rebel Alliance: Leia Organa after the Rebel Alliance (which primary goal was to destroy the Galactic Empire) had successed in stealing the plans for the Death Star. Leia was still able to protect the plans as she gave them to the astromech droid R2-D2 and sending the droid to Tatooine where he would later be found by a young farm boy named Luke and now much older jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi which now called himself Ben Kenobi.

Darth Vader later sent Leia to the Death Star where he, together with his seemingly close friend Grand Moff Tarkin, an important leader in the Empire, tried to make Leia locate the base of the rebels so they could destroy the planet with the rebels with the Death Stars superlaser, which was capable of destroying whole planets. To make Leia confess the location of the rebel base they threatened to destroy her home planet Alderaan. She lied to them by telling them that the rebel base is located on Dantooine but after hearing this Tarkin decided to destroy Alderaan anyways to test the Death Stars laser.

Meanwhile The Emperor (Darth Sidious) had dissolved the imperial senate to regain full power in the Empire.

After some time the ship Millenium Falcon landed inside the death star after being dragged in by it's tractor beams, containing Luke, Obi-Wan, R2-D2 and several others who helped them get away from Tatooine. They disguised themselves as Stormtroopers and because of this they were able to rescue Leia at the cell block while Obi-Wan went alone to disable the tractor beams and to later fight Vader, which was their first meeting since their fight on Mustafar. Obi-Wan told Vader that if Vader were to struck him down he would become more powerful than Vader could ever imagine. After a short lightsaber fight Obi-Wan let Vader strike him down while his friends escaped the death star with Leia. After Vader had killed Obi-Wan his body just dissappeared to Vaders confusion. Obi-Wan became one with the force after his death, and continued his legacy as a force ghost.

The destruction of the Death Star
After getting Leia back the rebels proceeded with attacking the Death Star with the help of X-Wings and Y-Wings. Vader was part of the battle as he was piloting his TIE Defender, but the rebels, Luke specifically, succeeded in destroying The Death Star killing everyone onboard. Vader managed to escape though with the help of his TIE Defender.

Battle of Hoth (3 ABY)
In 3 ABY The Empire suspected that the Rebels had built another base at the snow planet Hoth and later found out that this was the truth. Vader and other imperial officers led the Battle of Hoth, consisting of the Empire trying to destroy the rebel base while the rebels defended it. The battle ended with imperial victory and Vader also recognised The Millenium Falcon that was located in the rebel base but Vader didn't get his hands on the ship as it managed to escape for Bespin.

Afterwards, Vader was contanced by Sidious that told him that he had felt a great disturbance in the force and that Luke, the rebel onboard the Millenium Falcon and also the one who destroyed the Death Star, was the offspring of Anakin Skywalker, obviously much to Vaders surprise. He hired several bounty hunters to catch the Millenium Falcon which later succeeded after bounty hunter Boba Fett located the Millenium Falcon heading to Bespin. There Vader captured the ones onboard The Millenium Falcon to use them as bait to get Luke Skywalker to him.

Later, as planned, Luke arrived in Bespin after having found and been trained by Yoda on Dagobah. Luke soon confronted Vader and after a lightsaber fight Vader told Luke that he is his father, to Lukes denial. Luke later escaped Vader and was afterwards picked up by his friends on The Millenium Falcon which had also escaped being held hostage.

3 ABY - 4 ABY
Somewhere between 3 and 4 ABY the Empire started building on their new superweapon: the second Death Star, which was more powerful than the first one.

4 ABY
In 4 ABY Vader arrived on the second Death Star and later Sidious did as well to overlook the progress. The Rebel Alliance had started planning on destroying this new Death Star as they did with the first one and to do that they first had to destroy the power generator located on Endor which worked as a shield to protect Death Star II from incoming attacks. Vaders son Luke, who had learned by Yoda that Leia is his sister, was part of the crew to be given the mission of disabling the shield and Sidious wanted Vader to go get him so that he might be turned to the dark side.

Vader later arrived on Endor to capture Luke and took him to Sidious on Death Star II where the sith tried turning Luke over to the dark side. This led to a lightsaber duel between Vader and Luke leading Luke to injure his father. Luke refused to turn to the dark side which angered Sidious. The sith master started torturing Luke with his force lightning while Luke begged for his father to help him. Vader finally made the decision to help his son and killed Sidious by throwing him down a ledge which led to Vader being badly exposed and injured by Sidious lightning. After having redeemed himself Vader later died because of his injuries, leading him to furfill his prophecy as The Chosen One as he finally put an end to the Sith. Soon the Rebels also managed to take down the shield and destroy Death Star II, which meant the end of the Empire and the rebels winning the war. Afterwards Luke cremated Vaders body as the Rebels celebrated on Endor and the force ghosts of Anakin, Yoda and Obi-Wan would soon be seen by him.

Legacy
After 4 ABY the sith were no more but there were still those who practiced the usage of the Dark side, famous examples being Snoke and Kylo Ren, leaders of The First Order which were the successor of The Empire.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
 * Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
 * Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
 * Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope
 * Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
 * Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi