Sith troopers, otherwise known as Sith soldiers or Sith assault troopers, were the foot soldiers of the Sith Empire during the Jedi Civil War, and later they were the main infantry of the Sith Triumvirate during the First Jedi Purge, who fought and chased the remaining Jedi who were sentenced to death. (However by this time everyone else were chasing the Jedi, including the Sith Assassins, the neutral bounty hunters, the Dark Jedi, and of course the Sith knights themselves, too.) Their distinctive armor and skills set them apart from other military forces of the time, as did their often sadistic natures. The Sith armor and the helmet obscured their faces, this dehumanization struck fear into the heart of their enemies. Also, the faceless appearance symbolized the soldier becoming another faceless extension of the Sith, this uniformed army were the blunt instrument and the extended arm of the Sith everywhere. The majority of Sith troopers were once Darth Revan's returning armada, who were traitorous to the Republic forces. There were no need to recruit rookies into the
Sith Army for long, since later many idealistic volunteers joined them from conquered worlds. The weak were soon siphoned out through the merciless Sith training schemes, resulting in an efficient and powerful fighting force. The implemented fear in each trooper not only spurred them on in battle, but also prevented them from turning traitor for a second time.
Some
Sith troopers used the fear they imposed in people and the influence they gained from the suit for their own gain, threatening people and bullying citizens into giving them what they wanted. (Even in the streets of Ahto City (in the Manaan capitol city) they bullying the citizens and Revan, despite the armed and aggressive atrocities were punished often with a death sentence!) Others, however, saw themselves as simply doing their job, or believed that the Sith would be better at ruling the galaxy. And if they will rule the galaxy one day, that is better to serve them, and to stick with them right now.
Following the Jedi Civil War and the First Sith Civil War, many of the now-masterless Sith troopers came under the command of the newly formed Sith Triumvirate ruled by Darth Traya, Darth Nihilus, and Darth Sion. Later on that reorganized and reformed new Sith Army participated in the Second Battle of Onderon and the Battle of Telos IV, including many of the Sith troopers.
Sith Troopers were often seen as expendable and useless soldiers by their superiors, much like battle droids. For example, when Darth Malak was warned by Saul Karath that bombarding the planet of Taris in order to kill Bastila Shan would result in the deaths of thousands of the Sith's own soldiers, he merely warned Karath against the perils of questioning his orders, and ordered him to start bombing at once, no matter how many Sith troopers will die, too.
The standard
armor of the Sith trooper was either reflective silver or white with a black visor mask hiding the soldier's face. There appeared to be no indication of rank upon the uniform, the officers and the elite forces wore crimson and copper variations of the armor, or just the same, as the foot soldiers. For example this one is an elite Sith trooper, but you won't notice that until you click on him, as he
wears the same armor, and his fellow troopers.
The
armor, while bearing the same level of protection and functionality as that belonging to the Republic forces of the same time period, was designed specifically to induce fear in the opponent. The armor casing was emphasized, while the trooper was completely obscured from view by a one-way visor, creating the impression of a faceless enemy. A similarity would be seen thousands of years later in the Republic clone troopers, who wore a similar armor and would later serve as the stormtroopers of the Galactic Empire, which was also ruled by a Sith.
The
Sith troopers were not only
fighting on the battle fronts, but
they were sort of policemen and guards at the occupied planets. They had to protect those locations, that had strategic importance, such as the Sith
complexes, (tarisian, and manaanian Sith base), and they were guarding the very important lift, which connected Lower-Taris and Upper-Taris. You couldn't even enter the elevator without the appropriate documents or a fake Sith garment. Also, these troopers were patrolling at the occupied worlds, for example you will meet this
Sith patrol leader in red armor at Lower-Taris with your Revan. We'll meet patrolling Sith troopers in the streets of Upper Taris too, but somehow the
Sith troopers won't be suspicious at you when you'll appear in some kind of battle armor, and armed heavily with several kinds of weapons among those unarmed civilians. :-) First I hid my weaponry after arriving at Taris, but after I realized they won't even care with us, I tried to be
cheeky, I approached a Sith guard with my weapons in hand, and tried to talk with him, but he just took a look at me, then told me "move along citizen". :-)
We can also wear such a Sith armor in the game, while stranded on Taris during the Sith occupation, your mind-wiped Revan and Carth Onasi had to steal a suit of Sith armor, in order to enter the Lower City and continue their search for Bastila Shan's escape pod.
Take a brief look at the most important Sith trooper services!
Sith commando
The
Sith commandos were elite Sith soldiers. They wore copper colored armor and were traditionally issued blaster carbines. During the First Jedi Purge, the Sith Triumvirate deployed commandos to the Tomb of Freedon Nadd on Dxun, the Royal Palace on Onderon, Citadel Station in orbit above Telos IV, and at the Trayus Academy on Malachor V. Once they were Republic commandos!
Sith
elite gunner
Sith elite gunners wore copper colored battle suits. They were often armed with disruptor rifles which were capable of penetrating personal deflector shields. Once they were Republic elite gunners or Sith troopers who got promoted to the job due to their great blaster rifle skills.
Sith heavy trooper
Sith
heavy troopers were extremely rare heavy weapons specialists employed by the Sith. They wore crimson armor, and they were armed with some kind of repeater rifle. Heavy troopers were only stationed in areas of great importance to the Sith war machine, which seems to imply that their rank was higher than that of standard Sith troopers, or even Sith elite gunners. Revan fought such soldiers during his assault on the Star Forge during the Battle of Rakata Prime. Once they were Republic heavy troopers or Sith troopers who later got promoted to "heavy trooper".
Sith grenadier
Sith
grenadiers were known to use grenades. They tended to use a better selection of grenades, mostly fragmentation or concussion types. They always wielded blaster pistols, too, so to they can protect themselves if needed. Sometimes they use more powerful grenades against us or our team mates, like a thermal detonator or an adhesive grenade. These adhesive grenades formed a adhesive mass after detonation, which will force you or the attacked character to stay in the mass, leaving you stationary and almost unprotected, although you can use your Force abilities, or your lightsaber for defense, until the effect goes by. Anyway, even the Jedi can not escape this mass! Sith grenadiers were once Republic grenadiers, of course.
Sith wrangler
Sith
wranglers
used tame beasts in combat. They instigate their
beasts
on us. They were employed in battles where a significant strength was needed by
the raw strength of the aggressive beasts, and where they could be applied in
their advantage. In the Second Battle of Onderon the Jedi Exile and his/her team
faced a number of Bomas and a Drexl larva which were controlled by Sith
wranglers.
Sith technician
And for the last, here is a less military service, namely a
Sith technician. These soldiers are rather functioning as a system administrator, operating
consoles, terminal, machinery. These are the Leviathan's technicians, working at the prison, when our randomly selected team member escaped. Our was happened to be Mission Vao, the ultimate master of stealth, paralyzing shots, defusing mines, cracking computers and door/crate locks. These unarmed Sith technicians were no match for my talented Twi'lek companion, who easily
paralyzed them with her pistols, then beat them until they moved. :-)
The Sith troopers have appeared in the Expanded Star Wars Universe for a short time, but conquered it swiftly. The fans just love them, just take a look at my partner site's the Rebelscum's latest 2009 fans' choice poll, where the Sith troopers get in the top three. (Followed by Bastila Shan again, I don't really know when these awesome Kotor
characters will be released, no matter how badly the fans want them?) The Sith trooper armor is so great, that many fan made custom Sith trooper armors for them. Additionally, there is a new mod made with the Battlefront engine created by gamers pressure, where the forces of the Old Republic fight against the Sith Army! We can select many representatives from the menu, we can control them, we can use their weaponry, and we can have revenge at last on our ancient enemies. Darth Stryker alias Roland has focused our attention to this
superb BF2-KotOR mod which I gladly share with you. I have made a separate section for this in the Battlefront 2 main section!
Also, we can see
a
very similar trooper armor design in the Total recall remake movie, which was
very possibly inspired by the KotOR Sith trooper armor. Oh, and don't forget the Sith trooper miniatures neither, which are really nice this time, not that ugly that the average miniatures usually are! They made a great memory of this new Sith trooper project, and so I wanted to do with my custom Sith trooper figure and its article!
Sith trooper miniatures figures
Take a look at my custom Sith trooper!
custom Sith trooper figure with sniper scope rifle
custom Sith trooper figure with heavy carbine
custom Sith trooper figure - grenadier (the grenade was thrown)
Thanks for your interest, and come back soon to CustomStarWars!
written by: Norbert Rostas
2009.11.30. the figure was made years before
