Marka Ragnos (5,100-5,00 bby)

Marka Ragnos was the Dark Lord of the Sith. Ruled approximately 5,200 years before the birth of Darth Vader. Ragnos was a hafl-breed Sith, a warlord of tremendous physical power and frightening grasp of the Dark Side of the Force. He rose to prominence through a series of short, ruthless campaigns against his enemies. Once he gained control of the Sith Empire, he maintained dominance by pitting his detractors against one another, manipulating them into challening him, or simply assassinating them.

Among the Sith, Marka Ragnos was feared, obeyed, and admired. Marka Ragnos retained power for over a century, crushing all resistance - but he expanded the Sith Empire only slightly in all that time. Ragnos was one of the few Sith alive who had researched the history of his people and knew of the Old Republic and its defenders, the Jedi Order. Ragnos knew that if the Sith Empire were to expand too far toward their ancestral home, they would encounter the Republic. He believed the Sith were not yet ready to enter into a protracted war with the forces of the Republic, especially if the Jedi were still as strong as they had been when they defeated his ancestors. Obviously, his views were not shared by all the Sith. Many was his lack of expansion as a sign of weakness and took it as an opportunity - a justification, even - to unseat the Dark Lord of the Sith.

At fist irate that the other Sith would so blindly endanger his empire with their ambition, over time Ragnos came to realize that while they were focusing their efforts on him, they were not actually expanding the borders of the Sith Empire, and thus, not precipitating contact with the Republic. Marka Ragnos elected to play to the aggression of the other Sith, to distract them from making a mistake that could bring the Sith Empire to ruin.

Signing off...