Darth Bane Vs. Lord Voldemort

Darth Bane

Combat Skills

Darth Bane was trained in lightsaber combat by the Blademaster Kas'im. He became a deadly lightsaber duelist, and wielded a red-bladed, curved-hilt weapon presented by the Twi'lek Dark Lord in recognition of his skill. Bane developed a slightly altered style with his unique weapon, the subtleties of which were recognized by only the most experienced weapon handlers.^[1]

After Bane acquired his lightsaber-impervious orbalisk armor, he favored a furious, all-offensive style of Djem So, and capitalized on his tremendous physical strength to overwhelm opponents. His battle prowess was realized when he held his own against three battle meditation-invigorated Jedi in combat on Tython; a group which included Raskta Lsu, who was considered the greatest duelist in the Order. It should be noted however, that the Jedi managed to score numerous would-be lethal hits on Bane during this duel, and as such his impenetrable armor was of paramount importance to his victory. Additionally, his victory came only after the Jedi's battle meditation ceased, and Raskta Lsu was killed by a sneak attack from Zannah. During this duel, Zannah noted that Bane's lightsaber technique was somewhat unrefined. However, this lack of refinement was intentional, as Bane believed that eschewing technical sophistication for fury-driven, strength-oriented swordplay increased his effectiveness as a duelist. During combat, Darth Bane was likened by his enemies to a force of nature.^[5]

When he was no longer afforded the protection of orbalisk armor, Bane adapted a more complex and unpredictable style that incorporated feints and defensive maneuvers.^[2] He was also skilled in Soresu, and taught his apprentice Darth Zannah Form III to compliment her petite physical frame.^[5] In his later years, Darth Bane's speed was such that he was able to deflect torrents of rain with his lightsaber.^[2] Bane was also proficient in Juyo, and an excellent brawler and unarmed combatant.

Force Powers

Darth Bane was very talented in the Force. As a miner on Apatros, he was able to use the Force on occasion, though he had no understanding of it and his use was largely instinctive. However, after he received formal training at the Korriban Academy, Bane became one of the most skilled students there. He was highly dedicated to his training and spent hours reading ancient Sith texts, knowledge that was forsaken by the school's other attendees. In addition, he received private lessons in the ways of the dark side, and excelled. He desired to become a great and powerful Sith Lord, and spent a tremendous amount of time practicing, in hopes of perfecting his skills.^[1]

Bane was a very fast learner, and quickly passed many students at the Korriban Academy in just a few months. He possessed great telekinetic power, and could easily shatter his opponent's Force shield, as he did with Fohargh. The Dark Lord's Force telekinetic prowess was such that he caused the Temple of the Ancients on Lehon to collapse with a Force Wave, which resulted in the death of Kas'im. After just a single practice session with Githany, Bane exhibited a capacity with Force lightning that surpassed even Sirak.^[1]

By 990 BBY, Bane was able to cast electric voltage so strong that most opponents died instantly upon contact, the energy output leaving their bodies burned and charred. He was able to plunge deep into his hate and draw fully on the power of the dark side to unleash powerful Force waves, the strength of which devastated almost anything in their path.^[5] In collective focus with the other Sith Masters of the Brotherhood, Bane led the unleashing of a Force storm that consumed Ruusan's landscape with a flurry of flames and death.^[1] When he tapped into the dark side power that suffused Andeddu's Keep on Prakith, Darth Bane projected a death fieldthat instantaneously desiccated and killed the attacking Malevolence cultists who had been unable to avoid it. This technique was extremely taxing however, and would have rapidly exhausted Bane were it not for the sustaining power of the keep.^[2]

Bane owned and had access to a vast collection of Sith scrolls, tomes, and texts. With the help of individuals like Argel Tenn, he was able to obtain ancient Sith manuscripts and artifacts. Bane personally discovered the hidden lore of at least four legendary Sith Lords from their holocrons, those of Darth Revan, Freedon Nadd, Belia Darzu, and Darth Andeddu.^[1][2][5] From each he gleaned knowledge vital to the furtherance of his Sith agenda, from the thought bomb with which he destroyed Kaan's Brotherhood,^[1] to the instructions for the creation of a holocron of his own. The Sith sorcery he learned from Nadd's holocron was admittedly beyond the scope of Bane's abilities,^[5] although the stolen ritual of essence transfer from Andeddu's device was well within. Bane's own construction, created some point before 980 BBY, was a small, pyramid-shaped device that contained all of his knowledge, which he planned to pass down to future Dark Lords in his Sith Order. The gatekeeper for Bane's holocron was his own orbalisk-clad likeness.^[2] His initial attempts to create a holocron ended in failure, which Bane came to believe was due to his orbalisk armor; it provided him with great power in battle, but he believed that it robbed him of the ability to use his powers for more subtle tasks. He later discovered that he was simply skipping of a critical step in the holocron's creation out of ignorance, and later rectified his mistake.^[5]

Bane displayed a great tolerance for physical pain, such as that brought on by the orbalisk armor he was forced to wear. The Dark Lord was able to use the infestation to his benefit by taking the pain and fueling his dark side rage with it. Besides being impenetrable to lightsabers, the orbalisks also provided Bane with chemical enhancements to his senses, stamina, strength, and speed. Furthermore, it provided him with an enhanced healing factor; a knife wound that Bane once inflicted upon himself, for instance, healed virtually as he made it, and even a debilitating lightsaber strike to his arm from Johun Othone healed within seconds.^[5]Most importantly, the Bane could tap into the parasites' ability to draw on the dark side to greatly increase his own power while they remained attached to him. One drawback to being infested with the orbalisks was that, because they drew on Bane's power to feed themselves, he was only capable of performing delicate tasks with the Force for a somewhat limited period of time. This was due to the fact that, in order to precisely modulate his powers for subtle tasks, he had to cut the orbalisks completely off from the dark side. This in turn caused the parasites to pump increasingly greater amounts of mood-altering chemicals into Bane's body in an attempt to get him to draw more strongly on the dark side, and thus feed them. Bane was capable of resisting the effects of the chemicals, including ever-mounting levels of pain, for a significant period of time. However, he was not immune to them, and at one point considered ridding himself of the parasites due to this problem. Ultimately, he discovered that the orbalisks did not cause nearly as great an issue with his abilities as he had feared, and resolved to keep them.^[5] Bane was highly resistant to poison, and escaped death by its means on several occasions.^[1] Serra noted while torturing him that the drugs had surprisingly little impact on him.^[2]

The Dark Lord was also extremely adept at utilizing the Dun Moch technique, and was capable of drawing on the fear and anguish of other beings to increase his own power.^[1] He also possessed remarkable willpower and determination. He was able to force Andeddu's holocron to reveal to him knowledge that the holocron's gatekeeper was actively attempting to keep from him, and was skilled enough to attempt the deadly ritual of essence transfer.^[2]

In addition, Bane was able to easily resist Skere Kaan's mind tricks, while the other Dark Lords in the Brotherhood were unable to do so. Bane was a master of deception, and used his skills to fool others even before he received formal training. The Dark Lord was able to read his opponents and conceal his own feelings, talents which he used to become a talented sabacc player. He was also able to sense poisons in himself and could often cure himself by purging the toxins from his body.^[1]

Vs.

Voldemort was regarded to be the most powerful and dangerous Dark wizard of all time. Even Dumbledore had stated that he was the most brilliant student Hogwarts had ever seen.

• Magical Mastery: Even at a young age, Voldemort was able to utilise magic without the use of a wand or even knowing the very existence of magic itself: he had a power to move objects with his mind, to communicate with and control animals, and even inflict harm on those whose who opposed or annoyed him.^[11] This unnaturally high level of control marks him a prodigy even as a child, and as an adult, Voldemort was generally considered to be the most dangerous Dark Wizard who had ever existed, and proved himself capable of holding his own well even against an Elder Wand-wielding Albus Dumbledore. He claimed he had experimented and pushed the boundaries of magic farther than they had ever been pushed. Dumbledore himself also acknowledged that Voldemort's knowledge of magic was more extensive than any wizard alive, and that even his most powerful protective spells and charms were unlikely to be effective if Voldemort returned to full power. This degree of power coupled with his blatant lack of morals make him an extremely dangerous adversary indeed. In the films, Voldemort has shown the ability to contain spells and release them in a blast that resembles a shock wave.
• Dark Arts: Voldemort was considered to be the most powerful practitioner of the Dark Arts the world had ever known. Besides developing Dark spells, hexes, charms, and jinxes, he has a masterful knowledge of the most unknown and complex magic that a Dark wizard was capable of. Voldemort was also a masterful practitioner of all three Unforgivable Curses, with a special affinity for the Killing Curse, having murdered enough people to create an entire army of Inferi, and was known to have used this curse while still under-aged. He was capable of a variety of powerful curses, placing one on the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher after being refused the post by Albus Dumbledore. He also placed a powerful curse onMarvolo Gaunt's Ring to protect it after it had been made it into a Horcrux. On both counts not even Dumbledore could lift either the jinx nor curse completely.

• Duelling: Voldemort was an exceptionally skilful duellist and was able to hold his own against an Elder Wand-wielding Albus Dumbledore, and even duel evenly with Minerva McGonagall, Kingsley Shacklebolt andHorace Slughorn (who were masterful duellists themselves) all at once. During his duel with McGonagall, Slughorn, and Shacklebolt, the Elder Wand-wielding Voldemort almost defeated all three of them despite the fact that he had not unlocked the Elder Wand's full power, and they were all protected by Harry's loving sacrifice. Had Voldemort mastered the Elder Wand and had Harry not sacrificed himself in the Forbidden Forest, Voldemort would have defeated all three accomplished duellists effortlessly. He was also able to overpower many other prodigious witches and wizards, such as Amelia Bones, and was responsible for the death of the powerful ex-Auror, Alastor Moody. His duelling style was extremely aggressive, using powerful Dark magic to overwhelm his opponents. Apparently, he only chose to face opponents whom he saw as worthy adversaries. The only duellist who was shown to truly be Voldemort's equal was Albus Dumbledore and even he had to be aided by his mastery of the Elder Wand. Harry killed Voldemort but only because he had, by sheer luck, mastered the Elder Wand before the Dark Lord.
• Potions: Voldemort also invented his own potion,^{[citation needed]} known as the Drink of Despair, which he used to protect Salazar Slytherin's Locket within the Horcruxcave. He also guided Peter Pettigrew into concocting a Dark and complex Regeneration Potion which resurrected him to corporeal form and full power. He was also the likely inventor of the Rudimentary Body Potion, which Peter used to enable him to assume an extremely weak, barely-alive physical form.

• Charms: When Voldemort arrived at Hogwarts to steal Dumbledore's wand, he cast upon himself a Disillusionment Charm that was said to hide him from his own eyes. He also Summoned the Sorting Hat to punish Neville for opposing him.
• Fire spells: Like Albus Dumbledore, Voldemort had a proficiency for manipulation of the element of fire: he created an enormous serpent of fire to attack Dumbledore and Harry during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, and burned Neville with a flick of his wand when he defied him.
• Apparition: Voldemort was a master of Apparation, using this ability during his duel with Albus Dumbledore. However, there must have been a powerful Anti-Disapparation Jinx surrounding Nurmengardprison, because Voldemort had to fly far away from the prison to Apparate to Malfoy Manor. Voldemort is the only known wizard besides Dumbledore to be able to apparate silently.
• Underage magic control: Even before being told that he was a wizard, or having any knowledge ofmagic or the wizarding world at all, the young Voldemort displayed an exceptional degree of control over his usage of underage magic, which he used to torment many of the other children at the orphanage. He was able to move objects with his mind, control animals to do his bidding, and even make bad things happen to those who annoyed him. Even Dumbledore commented that his powers were surprisingly well-developed for his young age, and that his level of control over them had made him uneasy.

Harry: "You mean he can read my mind?"

Snape: "Read it, control it...unhinge it."

— Severus Snape tells Harry Potter of Voldemort's abilities as a Legilimens.^[src]

• Occlumency and Legilimency: Voldemort was adept in the use of both Occlumency and Legilimency, being able to shield his own mind and penetrate the minds of others. He was particularly skilled in Legilimency, and gained a reputation as one of the most accomplished Legilimens the world has ever seen. He was able to delve and peer deep into the minds of others, seeing their deepest thoughts. Hence, Voldemort could almost always tell when someone was lying, and was able to use Legilimency to place visions in his victims' minds, such as the one he sent to Harry Potter in 1996. However, when Narcissa Malfoy lied that Harry Potter was dead, Voldemort believed her.^[16] The most remarkable part about this skill was that he seemed to be working on it while he was still a child in the orphanage. Very few people were skilful enough to shield themselves from him, via Occlumency, like Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, and perhaps Narcissa Malfoy and Gellert Grindelwald.^[14]
• Flying: Voldemort was able to fly without support, defying the law of magic that states objects can only fly through use of a flying charm. He first exhibited this flying ability when in pursuit of Harry Potter over Little Whinging.^[14]
• Parseltongue: Voldemort was a Parselmouth, a trait he inherited from his ancestor, Salazar Slytherin.^[12]It seems that most of his Gaunt ancestors (even his mother, grandfather and uncle) inherited this highly unusual trait; such traits are commonly passed down through families through inbreeding, a practice employed by the Gaunt family.^[11]
• Horcruxes: Voldemort is the only wizard explicitly mentioned as having created more than one Horcrux. These Horcruxes were Salazar Slytherin's locket, Helga Hufflepuff's cup, Nagini, the Gaunt ring, Riddle Diary, Ravenclaw's diadem, and Harry Potter himself.^[11]
• Transfiguration: Voldemort transfigured Dumbledore's fire-rope into a black snake during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries.^[16] He tends to craft silver objects of reasonable durability through conjuration, as seen when he created an artificial silver forearm and hand for Peter Pettigrewnon-verbally.^[19] He later produced a silver shield against Dumbledore's spells.
• Spell creation: The spell Morsmordre, which summons the Dark Mark in the sky, was one of Voldemort's own inventions. He and his followers used it to summon a floating, green Dark Mark, usually over the houses of their victims.^[19]
• Inferi creation and control: Voldemort is the only wizard mentioned to have the ability to create and control Inferi, and an army at that, though it is implied that other Dark Wizards, such as Gellert Grindelwald, had used or intended to use them.
• Power of possession: Voldemort has the power to possess living creatures, and gain complete control over their actions by doing so. Once the possession is done, the victims will have no knowledge of what happened. When he lost his body from a rebounding Killing Curse, which left him in a spectral form, possession was the only power that remained with him. This possession shortens the lifespan of the small animals he inhabits, and in the terms of wizards, his face would appear on the back of their head. In this case, it would seem that his possession is partial, as Quirrell had some (albeit little) control over his actions.

• Wandless and Nonverbal magic: Voldemort was also capable of using spells wandlessly and non-verbally, and displayed a proficiency for telekinesis: he used his hand to telekinetically remove the masks from the Death Eaters who returned to him after his rebirth while he scolded them, disarmed Harry Potter with a simple wave of his arm during theBattle of the Department of Mysteries, and pushed a dead giant out of his way with a lazy wave of his hand during the Battle of Hogwarts. He was also able to cast simple charms, Dark spells and other more advanced forms of magic without requiring to speak, which include even Cruciatus and Killing Curses.
• Wand versatility: Voldemort has shown the ability to use wands other than his own with no handicap. In 1997, he used Lucius Malfoy's wand for a period of time, and could even effectively cast a Killing Curseon Charity Burbage. Later, during the same year, he intended on using Selwyn's wand, though this did not come to be. In the following year, he took ownership of the Elder Wand; despite not unlocking the wand's full power, he was still able to use his usual level of magic (which was described by himself and Snape to be extraordinary), being able to hold his own against threeskilledopponents all at once.
• Charisma: Even at a young age, Voldemort displayed a talent for the manipulation of others, being able to manipulate Horace Slughorn into telling him about Horcruxes and gain the trust of every teacher in Hogwarts, apart from Albus Dumbledore. He also surrounded himself with a group of friends who would become Death Eaters, though Voldemort felt no affection for any of them. Sirius Black noted that Voldemort also used tricks, jinxes, and blackmail to get people to join him.
• Leadership skills: Under his leadership, the forerunners of the Death Eaters were able to sneak past surveillance while acting under Tom's command, with several nasty incidences that were never connected to them, showing that even at a young age, Riddle was a very competent leader. As his repeated creation of Horcruxes increasingly compromised his soul and appearance, Tom's style of leadership presumably changed from the original charismatic rule of the Hogwarts gang to the tyrannical and completely ruthless - though no less effective - command of his Death Eaters demonstrated throughout both the First and Second Wizarding War. The best example of his efficiency as a leader would be the fact that he, with the help of less than fourty united Death Eaters, completely overwhelmed and came very close to dominating the entire population of magical Britain during the First Wizarding War.