#sith code

[lorddovah]

The Force Shall Free Me

[scrying-mind]

There exist some members of the Jedi Order who are bad or unhealthy people. Exar Kun, Lucien Draay, Jorus C'baoth, etc.. So, clearly, we can't assume that "Jedi" implies "good force user".

Maybe, though, that means that we can't suppose that "Sith" means "evil force user". Maybe there are followers of the religious order known as the Sith who, despite it all, are decent, well-meaning individuals. I think that's pretty likely, especially for Sith adherents who aren't very connected to a large, formal temple. Strictly construed, I don't think there's anything wrong with the Qotsisajak. I think it lends itself to unhealthy and maladaptive behaviors, but a religious adherent could follow it and still be a decent person.

Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall free me.

I'm imagining what such a Sith adherent would be like. Surely she exists somewhere.

Interestingly, or at least interesting to me, the Qotsisajak was written as a response to the rigid Jedi Code, which goes as such:

There is no emotion; there is peace. There is no ignorance; there is knowledge. There is no passion; there is serenity. There is no chaos; there is harmony. There is no death; there is the Force.

(The Sixth Line heresy added "There is no contemplation, there is only duty," but I think we can consider that line as not part of the "proper" Jedi Code. I think the Sixth Liners made the Code much more sinister with that addition.)

The Qotsisajak's first precept directly references precepts 1 and 3 of the Jedi Code, obviously upset that the Code (when strictly construed) instructs the adherent to completely squash their emotion and their passion. This is a fair complaint. So fair, in fact, that during the Old Sith Wars, some Jedi altered the Jedi Code to soften the absolutism found in the traditional Jedi Code and produced a modified Code.

Emotion, yet peace. Ignorance, yet knowledge. Passion, yet serenity. Chaos, yet harmony. Death, yet the Force.

I think this is the best version of the Jedi Code or the Qotsisajak. It learns from the Sith complaints regarding how harsh the Jedi Code is, but unlike the Qotsisajak it continues to caution for restraint and balance. While the criticisms of the Jedi Code found in the core Sith teachings are valid, the religion goes about making solutions to those problems in very egocentric and unhealthy ways.

It's a shame the Jedi Code from the Old Sith Wars didn't stick. I think that maybe history would have played out better if the Jedi had remained more flexible and more amenable to the experience of being a person.

[mostthingskenobi]

Did the Sith Code Get it Right?

[deceptiveblessings]

The Sith Code

The Sith Code was created millennia ago by the founders of the original Sith Order. It survived through the many incarnations of the Sith, from the galaxy-spanning Sith Empire, through the secrecy of the Rule of Two, and into the modern Order. Preserved on the ancient Sith Holocrons for future Sith, it remains the foundation of the Order. There is no peace, there is anger. There is no fear, there is power. There is no death, there is immortality. There is no weakness, there is the Dark Side. Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain Victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall free me. I am the Heart of Darkness. I know no fear, but rather I instill it in my enemies. I am the destroyer of worlds. I know the power of the Dark Side. I am the fire of hate. All the Universe bows before me. I pledge myself to the Darkness. For I have found true life, in the death of the light.

[cutestcouch]

Peace is a lie. There is only passion.

Through passion I gain strength.

Through strength I gain power.

Through power I gain victory.

Through victory my chains are broken.

The Force shall set me free.

[askganon]

Do you know of the 'Sith Code'? I would like your take on it, especially the 'Peace is a lie, there is only passion' bit.

I do indeed know of this code.

Peace is a lie to those who understand it's true purpose.

Peace is but complacency, a settlement, between those in power and those without.

For a King to say there is peace, it would mean he is accepting of the status quo and the situation of his people.

For me as a Gerudo King, peace is most certainly a lie.

[shadowsofdread]

very quick post i will hopefully expand upon when i’m not supposed to be sleeping but i’m always very fascinated by how power is structured and plays out in the empire, particularly for sith. the sith code is overwhelmingly interpreted on a very individual level. power is for sith (“the force shall free me”) and is gained by strength — strength of might, of will, of wit, it’s left ambiguous.

like, in all respects, sith are the highest ranking class in the empire. regardless of their respective ranks, when you put a sith and an imperial in the room together, the sith tends to have more social, institutional, and literal martial power.

but by nature of their founding doctrine and its individual locus of power (after all, it isn’t “the force shall free us” - the code is all in the singular, not the plural), there is hierarchy among the sith. to be sith means to pursue power for one’s own gain - to break their chains and be bound by no masters. but, again, not every sith can actually achieve this. the sith are a cannibalizing system. they consume themselves and each other for power. often metaphorically. occasionally literally.

and all of this is simultaneously supported by and at odds with an authoritarian, fascist empire that often suffers at the expense of its ruling class. explicitly so. that there is resentment and bitterness threaded through the imperial government and military about their sith overlords.

i’m losing my train of thought but like. gestures. something something picking apart the fictional fascist hellhole so i can take a break worrying about the actual one i’m living in.

[today-tastes-like-honey]

I mostly like the Jedi. I can make a number of criticisms against their code being anthropocentric (or, within the framework of the setting, I suppose "sapiocentric" is more accurate, but translated to the real world, these are the same thing, I think), but there's at least a focus on compassion there. It's ironic to me when people call them hypocritical for such things as "not being nice enough to Anakin", or their supposed influence over the Republic, none of which are remotely valid criticisms. What I would call them hypocritical for (or, since I generally prefer exegetic criticisms, accuse their writers of not thinking things through) is e.g. how they're fine with eating meat even when other options are available. They're supposedly based on Buddhist monks; vegetarianism is not a hard tenet of Buddhism, in that Bhikshus may accept meat if offered to them as alms, provided certain conditions were met, but vegetarianism was so important to Mahayana Buddhism that in the Meiji restauration a group of monks broke into the Emperor's palace, half of them losing their life in the process, because they heard he had eaten beef and wanted to beg him not to normalize the practice. In reality, I'd call them closer to Daoism in this and other respects, but then again, many Daoist sects have sexual rituals, and the Jedi didn't.

The Sith are way funnier in that a) their beliefs are partially based on Mein Kampf,* b) if you take them out of both this and the setting's context, you can actually make some valid criticisms with the isolated statements, but they never do that bc again these are Nazi wizards, and also c) they are so stupid.

Like "there is no peace" is a correct statement where it refers to the world at large rather than your own mind, because to live is to kill, and anything we call "peace" is really the result of declaring the victims of the unimaginable violence and death we inflict casually and methodically on billions of sentient beings every year "non-sapient" and thus worthless of further consideration. Furthermore, all peace is built on violence - past violence, threat of violence, covert violence, and so on.

But those funny little morons follow it up immediately with "there is only passion", which is about the dumbest thing you can say to that. I mean, of course they do. They are nazi wizards. Obviously their entire ideology is about "every little grievance you have is an atrocity committed against you and you should kill anyone involved in it. This somehow makes you free."

*direct quote bc the post is a bit longer:

That’s where the Code of the Sith came from (reverse the Jedi Code— done!). And the Sith philosophy (at least what I wrote of it for Korriban) was inspired by Mein Kampf at least in parts (which made the forumites who talked about how awesome it was, and how it made sense, one part hilarious and one part frightening).