whats the difference between sith and dark jedi

Darth

Arent they the same in some cases, for instance people like Darth Maul, and Darth Vader???

SO CONFUSED

Dont get murked...

The path of the Jedi is tough and challenging. Few can even realize the power of the force... can you?

Enigma

Around 5000 years before the destruction of the Death Star, a band of dark Jedi left the confines of Republic Space to escape from the Jedi and to find their own "base of operations"

They stumbled upon a Planet called Korriban, where they discovered a race of people known as the Sith.  The Sith were a race of people that were unique as they practive their own brand of magic.  Eventually the Sith began to look upon the Dark Jedi as gods because the little trinket magic of the Sith was no comparison to the Dark side of the Force.  The sith's magic was the Force...but nowhere near the potential of Jedi.

The Dark Jedi began to interbreed with the Sith and in about 4 generations or so, created a unique brand of species.  Sith (all Sith had the abilitiy of the Force) coupled with the power of the Dark Force from the Dark Jedi exiles formed an almost perfect race of pure power. 

About 2000 years before the destruction of the Death Star, a rogue Republic vessel crash landed on Korriban and the Sith tracted the vessel backed into Republic space...hence, the first Battle between the Sith and the Jedi

However, there own greed and selfishness pretty much wiped them out as they destroyed each other.  Eventually a new custom was ordained where there would be only one master and one apprentice so that the destruction of their species wouldnt slip into extinction.

So, you could pretty much call Maul a Sith Wannabe as he is clearly not from Korriban (he is Zabrak).  However, I am not certain if Darth Sidious (Palpitine) is a true Sith or not...if he is a native to Naboo then he is only Sith by title and not by race.

But to summon up your question....it really depends on how  you look at it.  Its almost like an Apostolic Succession (where one Bishop would lay hands on a person to ordain him to priest hood...then he becomes a Bishop and does the same to another person and so forth and so on.  While the Priest in 2004 is not directly related to the Bishop biologically who first laid hands on the first Priest in 320 AD, he shares a uniqueness with him as a straight line of ordination leads back to the first Bishop.  While, Palpatine isn't a true Sith by the strictest meaning of the word Sith (Biologically), he is recognize as a Sith because Palptine was once an apprentice to an unknown Master and that unknown Master was a apprentice to an earlier Master ...all the way back to the original, biological Sith.

And its been that line of succession for over 2000 years; Now its Palptine and Vader....er until Luke went and screwed things up