Really I mean no one trusts anyone,everyone is out to get everyone, muder is rampant and secretly encouraged, the proudest moment of a Teachers life is when their student tries to kill them, and even when surrounded by hundreds of other Sith each one stands alone.

Really how could any Society not only Exist but at some points in time Thrive? Not to mention the fact that they some how achieve Cities and galaxy wide space travel and super technology.

Just seems a bit far fetched for me i've read every book from The Dark Nest trilogy to Apocalypse and it still dosen't possible to me that they have ever managed to bring their society out of the dark ages lol.

P.S. Im a bad spell but I dont care

Darth 1: Hey what's up man?

Darth 2: Nothing much. Just killed my master and training a new apprentice who may or may not one day kill me. You?

Darth 1: I'm already dead! *Looks down to hole in chest* *falls down*

During the times when there were actually Sith Empires, there were laws forbidding murder that if broken were met with swift and harsh punishment. Don't forget, people in general prefer order to chaos. EDIT: That did not stop people from using subversion and lack of witnesses to kill their opponents.

However, this way of life allowed for the power of the Sith to become diluted over time. The weak would band together to kill the strong, hence the Rule of Two. You absolutely had to be stronger in some way shape or form than your Master to kill him. This system begat some of the most powerful Sith in the entire history of the Order.

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It's called survival of the wickedest. Worked pretty well the past few thousand years. And as most of the EU has shown us, it's still works even after Palpatine got defenestrated.

So yeah, it works. Quite well.

The Sith survive, because of constant warfare.

The mistrust and selfishness hones a Sith's skill.

two points on this,

1) its the empire, made up of millions/billions/trillions (alot anyway) of citizens, of which very few are sith. the internal power struggles of some hokey religion probably goes un-noticed by most. all they know is the emperor is in charge, and the rest come and go

2) never let facts get in the way of a good story. it probably wouldn't work in the real world, but then again neither would building a deathstar

The Venetian Court at the time of Niccolo Macchiavelli was in many ways similar to the Sith Empire, and I would not be too surprised to find that it was an inspiration for the political behaviour of the Sith.

The day-to-day running of the Sith Empire is mostly/entirely handled by the Imperial Army (in the case of occupied or contested planets), or by the Bureaucrats (in the case of a settled/undisputed planet). They tend to keep things ticking along with a minimum of overt corruption or fuss, and lose their jobs and lives when a Sith comes along and finds a reason to kill them.

The Sith (not the race per se, but the Force users who are members of the Sith religion) engage in some internecine fighting within their own power structure, either to gain promotion or influence, or to protect themselves from the machinations of other Sith. There are some notable exceptions - the academic types who are more interested in scrabbling around in the dirt trying to find out if Marka Ragnos really DID have syphillis or if it was just a vicious rumour - and these are typically left alone by the other Sith because they have no power base to take over and therefore represent neither a threat or an opportunity.

When faced with an external enemy that is capable of threatening the Empire, the Sith infighting will tend to take a back seat to the idea of working together to overcome the external threat (i.e. the Galactic Republic) while still looking for ways to advance their own cause against rivals without badly damaging the overall organism. The problem is that before the "Rule of 2", you have very few absolute leaders (the Emperor basically, plus the Dark Council... which itself is internally subject to the same internecine fighting and self-serving machinations), and a large group of followers-who-would-be-leaders in all the Darths, Lords, and apprentices (look to the manoevering and conversations by Zash after the death of the Darth, and the subsequent conversations with Darth Thanaton as an example).

As an external enemy increases in threat, the Sith will unite further to preserve the overall power base. But as the external enemy becomes weaker or nears defeat, the Sith will gradually revert to normal and look out more for their own interests. As a result, it may be impossible for the Empire to ever totally defeat the Republic without the Rule of 2 and the machinations of Palpatine - in the time of SWTOR, if the Empire every looked like it might be subduing the Republic, then the Sith would probably start manoevering, plotting, murdering, doing whatever they can to climb a few rungs of the Sith ladder, thus negatively impacting the Sith religion and its ability to prosecute their elements of the war against the Republic.

1) its the empire, made up of millions/billions/trillions (alot anyway) of citizens, of which very few are sith. the internal power struggles of some hokey religion probably goes un-noticed by most. all they know is the emperor is in charge, and the rest come and go

The Sith are the ruling class and as such are very much in the spotlight. You better believe that any power struggles between any middle to high ranking Sith are well known. If only for the fact the citizens will want to know which one wins the struggle. You definitely don't want to make the mistake of saying you are a supporter of Lord/Darth X after Lord/Darth Y killed him, it would be very detrimental to your survival. Especially if a Kaggath is called, those who were loyal to the losing Sith were summarily executed.

Just because the Sith are fewer in numbers than the mundanes and the Emperor is the HSIC, that does not mean each Sith doesn't have authority and some measure of power over the citizens. If even a Sith Apprentice were to say jump to an Imperial, the only suitable response is to jump until that Sith is satisfied.

So, to say the affairs of the Sith go unnoticed by the Imperials is far from accurate. The Imperials just don't go looking to get in the middle of said affairs.

Really I mean no one trusts anyone,everyone is out to get everyone, muder is rampant and secretly encouraged, the proudest moment of a Teachers life is when their student tries to kill them, and even when surrounded by hundreds of other Sith each one stands alone.

 

Really how could any Society not only Exist but at some points in time Thrive? Not to mention the fact that they some how achieve Cities and galaxy wide space travel and super technology.

 

Just seems a bit far fetched for me i've read every book from The Dark Nest trilogy to Apocalypse and it still dosen't possible to me that they have ever managed to bring their society out of the dark ages lol.

 

P.S. Im a bad spell but I dont care

The Emporer. He's the only thing keeping the Empire together. Without him, the Dark Council would dissolve and each Darth stake their own claim on the throne and fight to the death for it, or even retreat and take over entire star systems and declare their own empires. He's the most powerful Sith alive and as a result, the one Sith every other Sith is piss-pants afraid of.

Really I mean no one trusts anyone,everyone is out to get everyone, muder is rampant and secretly encouraged, the proudest moment of a Teachers life is when their student tries to kill them, and even when surrounded by hundreds of other Sith each one stands alone.

 

Really how could any Society not only Exist but at some points in time Thrive? Not to mention the fact that they some how achieve Cities and galaxy wide space travel and super technology.

 

Just seems a bit far fetched for me i've read every book from The Dark Nest trilogy to Apocalypse and it still dosen't possible to me that they have ever managed to bring their society out of the dark ages lol.

 

P.S. Im a bad spell but I dont care

Based on what I've seen in this game (not necessarily the extended universe), I agree with you 100%

The game makes it seem that every single Sith is deceiving someone else for greater gain. Surely, that isn't the case... but even if it was, you're right: there is no way such a society could continue to function.

I feel that the game tried a little too hard to force Sith to be "bad guys." Even "bad guys" have reasons for their actions - it seems most of the Sith characters I came accross on my Sith alt are evil just to be evil.

Based on what I've seen in this game (not necessarily the extended universe), I agree with you 100%

 

The game makes it seem that every single Sith is deceiving someone else for greater gain. Surely, that isn't the case... but even if it was, you're right: there is no way such a society could continue to function.

 

I feel that the game tried a little too hard to force Sith to be "bad guys." Even "bad guys" have reasons for their actions - it seems most of the Sith characters I came accross on my Sith alt are evil just to be evil.

Sith do scheme and plot against one another constantly. There are constant power plays as the Sith Culture is driven by the Dark Side which naturally fosters an innate sense of competition. You have to be strong to stay in power, once someone thinks himself stronger he will go after your position, if you are not able to defend this position, you were not worthy of this position.

I think the main problem with Empire is that its hard to see connection between Siths, Emperor and rest of the population. In the original Star Wars Emperor looked more like scheming power player that tried to rule with fear, greed and bribery.

The TOR version is more like a Nazi Germany where whole society is mobilized for war. Problem is that while its easy to understand what Siths and Emperor believe its hard to understand what the general population believes in them.

Dark Side should obscure and twist things I think. Its about betrayal and dark deeds but when Siths are ruling class it bounds them to some morals or ideas. If it wouldn't population would not believe anything in them. I see that being truly evil would require Siths and Emperor not to reveal their true nature clearly. Instead they should work through others and only come forward publicly when needed. This way they could betray and twist much as possible.

Infact I'd expect Siths even hide true nature of war and twist in a way Republic would have started it. For evil bastards the Siths are bit too straightforward.

Just my observations about Sith Society and interpretation:

It seems to be a pseudo-Darwinian "Survival of the Fittest" type of social structure. Murder isn't murder if you can prove the victim deserved it through either incompetence or weakness. Now, as far as advancement, it's VERY cutthroat. You COULD advance through competence and hard work, OR you can advance through manipulation and subterfuge, Or even a combination of both. It differs from the Darwinian model in that Sith Lords take apprentices that they EXPECT to at least make an attempt on the Master's life.

Historically speaking, as in right here on planet Earth, this kind of cutthroat political backstabbing and power plays existed during some of the most famous portions of Western history. In particular I'll refer you to some pop culture based on historical fact. The television shows "Rome" and "Borgia." Both about periods of history in which the rich and powerful held immense power and tools such as assassination, bribery and political corruption were bywords. Yet some of the greatest artistic, architectural, and literary achievements of Western society were created during each of these times. The person who referenced Niccolo Machiavelli was right on the money.

As for BW creating a game in which everyone playing a Sith is forced to be EVIL with a capital E, my Sith Inquisitor is decidedly amoral rather than immoral. She makes her decisions based entirely on practicality, and rarely kills unless it gets her something. She's a selfish creature, and if it's in her best interests to foster loyalty rather than simply killing, she'll do it. And the text is there in the game for her to do so if you wish.

It's entirely on the player to decide if they want to be bad for the sake of being bad, and boy, do a bunch of my guildies do that. You aren't required to, and I tend to think that there's probably quite a few Sith bright enough to realize you can achieve a greater power base when you selectively shelter your minions rather than brutalizing them. And that's what made the societies above successful for many years.....they offered things like coliseums and gladiatorial combat for the masses to watch in the heyday of the Roman Empire and public festivals and religious spectacles during the height of the Italian city states. I bet the vast majority of the Empire is, if not happy, then quite content with the status quo.

I always thought the Sith could come and go, but the Imperial bureaucracy (Navy, Intelligence) kept the show going on. Without them, the Empire would have fallen long ago.

In Sith Society, the Imperials are the peasants to working class. Some may even hold high enough rank to equate to Middle-Class. The Sith are the top 1%. They are the Ruling Class. The Imperials are the infrastructure. While it may be true the Imperials monitor themselves, the Sith do not just "Come and Go" they are an ever present, work-at-home parent. While the lower ranking Sith are off fighting wars and such, the upper echelons of the Sith ensure the laws of the Emperor are conveyed to the Imperials.