Darth Bane, founder of the Rule of Two, killed more Sith than any Jedi in the history of the Star Wars galaxy. Thousands of years ago, a schism among the Jedi Order led to the creation of a new faction - one devoted to the dark side of the Force. Ever since, the Jedi and the Sith have waged war for the fate of the galaxy. At times, the galaxy has tilted towards the light; at times the darkness has ascended, with the Sith conducting purges of the Jedi.

The greatest Jedi have stood as a light that shines against the darkness. Some have been scholars, some have been soldiers; a few have earned a reputation as essentially being Sith Kryptonite. A good example is Obi-Wan Kenobi, who first seems to have sensed the shadow of the Sith when he was just a Youngling, detecting darkness trying to draw one of his fellow would-be Jedi away from the Order. Obi-Wan cut Darth Maul in half when they clashed on Naboo, and survived several clashes with Count Dooku. He is the only one known to have defeated Darth Vader twice. Surprisingly, though, as impressive as Obi-Wan's resume may be, he is not the Star Wars character with the greatest record for killing Sith. That honor lies with one of the Sith themselves.

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As told in the 2001 Jedi vs. Sith comic miniseries, by Darko Macan and Ramón F. Bachs, Darth Bane lived at a time when the Sith were almost as numerous as the Jedi. He concluded the dark side was spread too thinly, however, when it needed to be concentrated within just a couple of Sith – the initial justification for the Rule of Two. Bane manipulated the leader of the Sith’s Brotherhood of Darkness, Lord Kaan, into performing a dark side ritual called the Force Bomb that destroyed both the Sith and Jedi on the planet Ruusan. With a simple stroke, Darth Bane orchestrated the deaths of more Sith than any Jedi.

Jedi vs. Sith Isn’t Canon – But Bane’s Story May (Mostly) Be

Star Wars Jedi Vs Sith

Disney effectively rebooted Star Wars canon after acquiring Lucasfilm back in 2012, and Jedi vs. Sith was branded non-canon (or "Legends") along with the rest of the old Expanded Universe. Oddly enough, though, there have since been enough references to Darth Bane to suggest something very similar still happened in the new Disney era canon. There have ever been out-of-universe reference books indicating he was the one who engineered the Brotherhood of Darkness' defeat, just as in Jedi vs. Sith. This likely means that, just as in the Expanded Universe, Darth Bane is the one who killed the most Sith. The dark side is rooted in competitiveness and aggression, so this is perfectly appropriate.

There is, however, one crucial difference; a throwaway line of dialogue about the end of Darth Bane’s life suggested the Sith Lord then claimed command of the entire Sith Empire, only to be defeated by the Jedi. This explains why the Jedi knew about the Rule of Two; Bane had presumably chosen an apprentice, who either faked their own death or escaped into the shadows, allowing Star Wars’ greatest villains a chance to retreat into the darkness for a thousand years. Darth Bane did not just slaughter the Sith; he reformed them, establishing the patterns that would ensure they eventually overthrew the Jedi.

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