No one knows exactly what happened in those ancient times before the rise of the Sith Empire. The fledgling Old Republic had established the new order of Jedi Knights as a police force to protect and nourish its growth. The Jedi were the guardians of peace, a beacon of pure flame to the galaxy.

But somehow, things turned. A band of Jedi, discovering the power of the dark side of the Force, forsook the Jedi Code and sought to destroy all the Jedi had worked so hard to build. Seeing its strength crumbling under the teachings of these rogue Jedi, the Republic took action. With the help of the light-side Jedi, it rounded up these renegades and exiled them, giving them a spacecraft and sending them into the unknown. The idea was that out in the vast undiscovered galaxy, with no place to call home, the dark Jedi would die but the Republic would not be held responsible for their deaths.

Except that it didn't happen quite like the Republic wanted it to. The exiled Jedi emerged on the other side of the galaxy to a system previously unknown to the Republic. This system was inhabited by a race called the Sith, aliens with red skin, cranial horns, bony chins, and insectile features. The Sith were black magicians, practicing magic arts but without the aid of the dark side of the Force. Their society was divided into three classes or castes: slaves, warriors, and nobles, and the different nobles of Sith clans often engaged in feuds and wars to show their power. It was a violent society, ripe for conquest.

Here the dark Jedi saw their chance. As they landed in their spacecraft, the Sith saw them as having fallen from the sky and worshipped them as gods. The dark Jedi then proceeded to enslave all the Sith, from nobles on down to slaves. Seeing that the Sith were so powerful in the black arts, the Jedi then interbred with the most powerful of them, forming a new breed of magicians both strong in the Sith arts and in the dark side of the Force.

Out of this new breed of Sith came the Dark Lords of the Sith, men who claimed the right to rule over all of the Sith and dark Jedi. Only one could rule at a time, and this led to more feuds and wars as the Sith lords struggled to gain the high position.