Darth Vectivus - real Sith Lord or Dark Jedi?
"Strength that is never touched by ruthlessness is touchingly irresponsible."
―Darth Vectivus
"He was a hardheaded business man with a keenly balanced sense of profit and fairness, and when temptation whispered in his ear he could ignore it as easily as he could ignore the importunings of equally destructive softheartedness."
―Lumiya
"Never heard of him."
"That's because he did no evil. He didn't attempt to conquer the galaxy, try to wipe out the population of a star system, or start an all-out war with the Jedi. He just existed, learned. Died of old age, surrounded by family and friends."
―Lumiya discusses Darth Vectivus' character with Jacen Solo
So, there are three options here:
1. He isn't a Sith Lord(anymore) after he completed his training because he saw what happened to all Sith Lords throughout history and became more of a Dark Jedi.
"A Dark Jedi, on the other hand, has much smaller ambitions. He—or she—thinks only of himself. He acts alone. The ultimate goal is not galactic conquest, but personal wealth and importance. Like a common thug or criminal, he revels in cruelty and selfishness. He preys upon the weak and vulnerable, spreading misery and suffering wherever he goes."
―Jedi Master Obba
2. He is actually a Sith Lord, but Lumiya falsified his origins to seduce Jacen to the Dark Side.
3. Supposedly Darth Vectivus was benevolent, but keep in mind that this was Lumiya’s characterization of the Sith Lord. Darth Vectivus, by way of his holocrons, isn’t exactly a reliable narrator of his career either. After all, even Freedon Nadd and Exar Kun would likely think that the ends justified their means in their power struggles. Palpatine could even say that unifying the known galaxy under his iron fist was a necessary act to resist the Yuuzhan Vong invasion that he had foreseen. He truly believed that his Empire was just and that the murder and terror inherent to his regime were a fair price.
Realistically, I think all claims to benevolence via the dark side are bunk; nothing more than rationalization after the fact. Even Darth Vectivus’ claims regarding ethical behaviour always struck me as the recourse for a relatively weak Dark Lord. He could not take what he wanted directly and so settled for scheming loosely within the the rule of law.