Contains spoilers for Star Wars: Hidden Empire #1!In Star Wars lore, the iconic Sith Rule of Two states, "Two there should be. No more, no less. One to embody power, the other to crave it." The law is meant to ensure the survival and growth of the Sith Order, but it turns out that even this ironclad rule has a few exceptions.

Before the existence of the Rule of Two, the Sith were as numerous as the Jedi. The two orders of Force users waged war against one another for millennia, but the Sith were often fractured by disunity and ambition. Their greed and desire for power over even their fellow Sith often led to infighting and conflict. In this weakened state, the Jedi were able to gain an advantage, nearly wiping the Sith out during the ancient Battle of Ruusan. One of the few survivors was a Sith by the name of Darth Bane, who eliminated the other surviving lords and created the Rule of Two.

Related: Star Wars: How Did The Jedi Know Of The Rule Of Two?

However, in Star Wars: Hidden Empire #1, by Charles Soule and Steven Cummings, it is revealed that the long-lost Sith weapon known as the Fermata Cage can suspend people in time forever, and it is suggested that the current occupant of the cage is an ancient Sith lord. The leader of Crimson Dawn, Qi’ra, is attempting to free the trapped Force-user in hopes that they will seek out Emperor Palpatine and destroy him, because as she says, "There can only be two." However, the existence of a Sith lord being trapped in the cage means that the Rule of Two itself does have at least one loophole.

Sith Break the Rules

star wars hidden empire new sith lord

Darth Bane established the Rule Two as a way of keeping the Sith Order strong and flexible. A Sith master would train a Sith apprentice, and that apprentice was one day expected to rise up and attempt to kill their master and usurp their place. At the same time, a master could choose to train potential apprentices who might supplant or replace their current student before this happened, much as Palpatine did with Maul, Dooku, and Anakin. This ultimately means that there is no level of trust between master and apprentice, as each is motivated to kill the other, but before the revelation of the Fermata Cage it was always assumed that this rule was absolute.

Now it seems that more than two Sith can actually exist in the universe, so long as one of them is time locked in the cage. Death is no longer the only canonical means for advancing the Sith lineage. It is still unclear who or what is trapped within the cage - a master or apprentice - but they are still alive (though not conscious) and able to be brought back. This means that for the entirety of the Star Wars saga as fans have experienced it, there have never been only two Sith, and Qi'ra's plan hinges on using this loophole in the Rule of Two to bring deadly disunity back to the Sith Order.

It makes complete sense that once a Sith was locked away in the Fermata Cage, their position in the Rule of Two would be forfeit, but it breaks both the spirit and the letter of Bane's law to leave a potential Sith competitor still able to return to the galaxy. By rights, the Rule of Two should make it the remaining Sith's job to either destroy the Fermata Cage or else to free their 'ally,' but Sith philosophy runs counter to this kind of risk taken on someone else's behalf. In considering the Sith locked in the Fermata Cage to be 'dead,' the Sith discovered a loophole in a rule that defined Palpatine's greatest successes, thus allowing a new competitor to emerge in Star Wars' ongoing lore.

Next: Why Star Wars' Sith Have Such Unique Lightsabers

Star Wars: Hidden Empire #1 is on sale now from Marvel Comics!