Nightsisters

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Nightsisters

TheNightsisters, also known as theWitches of Dathomir or theNightsister acolytes, were aclan and ancient order ofmagick-wieldingwomen, most of whom wereDathomirianZabraks, who lived onDathomir, aplanet bathed indark energies. These dark side users were able to perform their arcane magicks by tapping into themagical ichor that flowed from the depths of their planet.

History[]

Life on Dathomir[]

According to a commonly told story, the first of^[6] the ancient^[14] Nightsisters were trained in the ways ofthe Force byAllya, afemaleJedi whom theJedi Council had sent intoexile on the mysteriousplanet ofDathomir. However, the Jedi Council had no records of an exile named Allya, and the Nightsisters themselves had other, contradicting tales about their origins. Even if she was not the founder of the sisters,^[6] it was true that Allya wrote theBook of Law, which taught the sisters to dislike the Jedi.^[7] However, the origins of theDathomirian people actually lied on theextragalactic planetPeridea,^[15] which was once the site of theWitch Kingdom of the Dathmiri. As their originalhomeworld, the ancient Dathomiri tamed thePurrgil, beings that could traversehyperspace and therefore bridge the gap betweenPeridea's galaxy andDathomir's galaxy. TheGreat Mothers,^[10] three Nightsisters^[16] who slumbered on Peridea, hated the Jedi as well.^[17]

When the Nightsisters eventually discovered the planet they would name Dathomir, done so in honor of their ancient Dathomiri origins, they crossed paths with its inhabitants, theFromprath,^[15] who were exploiting the natural resources of the planet. Opposing the technological society^[18] in order to claim the planet from the Fromprath,^[15] the Nightsisters formed a symbiotic alliance with therancors and mounted them in combat.^[18] In the end, the Nightsisters managed to kick the Fromprath off Dathomir,^[15] forcing them into exile.^[19] Knowing that technologically advanced aliens posed a threat tocovens, the Nightsisters modernized some of their weapons, such as theirenergy bows.^[18]

According to legend, the NightsisterZeldin went after theSithDarth Caldoth, after he stole aburial pod from Dathomir. Zeldin attempted to manipulate Caldoth into causing his own death out of revenge, but Caldoth was aware of Zeldin's presence, exploiting their connection before trapping her consciousness within his mind.^[20] Though a weapon used more commonly byJedi, the Nightsisters had adoptedlightwhips by theHigh Republic Era.^[21] In232 BBY,^[22]Jedi PadawanImri Cantaros thought about how the Nightsisters had less rules than the Jedi and their creative, more destructive values.^[21]

A period took place known as theGolden Age of the Nightsisters. The clan flourished and the separate Nightsister clans lived in harmony. However, the era nearly came to an end as the clans drifted apart. However, the iron will of newClan MotherTalzin kept the clans together,^[23] unifying them^[24] into asingle clan.^[2] During this time, Talzin worked alongsideSith LordDarth Sidious.^[25] While she became wary of such machinations, knowing there could only be two powerful dark side factions at one time due to theRule of Two,^[18] Sidious promised she would be his right hand. Both shared secret knowledge and worked to combine dark side powers and Nightsister magicks. Ultimately, however, he betrayed Talzin by taking her oldest sonMaul from her to train as hisSith apprentice.^[25] At the time of theClone Wars, Talzin began to sell her sisters' services asmercenaries tothe galaxy's wealthy citizens.^[26]

In50 BBY,^[27] the clan was forced to give up the youngAsajj Ventress to theSiniteen criminalHal'Sted as insurance for protection.^[8]

Other witch groups active on Dathomir included theSinging Mountain andBlue Coral Divers Clan. A couple years before theClone Wars, Talzin came to tell the witch of no clanFalta to give up her daughter,Yenna. After Falta declined, Yenna slowly became frustrated with her mother's teachings, and one day left to join the Nightsisters in hopes of different teaching.^[28] The Nightsisters became embroiled inArzo Suun'sattempt to steal from a Nightbrother village.^[6]

During the Clone Wars, some of the mysterious Nightsisters supportedCountDooku and theSeparatists, utilizing their "magick" to help their allies. However, the Nightsisters were always on their own side, and any such partnerships are inevitably temporary.^[4] At some point,Jedi KnightsObi-Wan Kenobi andAnakin Skywalkerinvestigated into the actions of somerogue Nightsisters onRodia.^[29]

Downfall and collapse[]

Ventress later returned to her people after being betrayed byCount Dooku, seeking their help for revenge against her former Master.^[8] After the failure of their first attempt, the Nightsisters used theNightbrother and Talzin’s younger son and Maul’s brotherSavage Opress as an instrument to destroy Dooku. They used their magic to increase his size, rage, and power.^[30] However, their scheme would earn them the ire of Dooku, who would later dispatchGeneralGrievous to Dathomir in retaliation.^[2] The witches also posed a threat to Sidious' new evilEmpire^[31] and thus were a target he wanted destroyed.^[32] Grievous then destroyed their fortress and killed off the majority of the Nightsisters during thebattle,^[2] marking the end of the Nightsisters as a civilization.^[13] The few survivors included Ventress, Talzin,^[2]Merrin,^[13]Yenna,^[28]Jerserra,^[4]Shelish, her daughterDeathstick^[9] andMorgan Elsbeth.^[33]

While Ventress pursued a path as abounty hunter,^[34] Mother Talzin continued to live in seclusion in the Nightsisters' ruinedfortress, where she helped heal the broken body and mind of her oldest son, Darth Maul.^[35] She orchestrated thekidnapping ofBardottanQueenJulia to make her more powerful than theJedi and theSith. However, she failed whenJedi MasterMace Windu andRepresentativeJar Jar Binks foiled her plans and she disappeared back to the spirit world.^[36] Maul and Talzin conspired to eliminateDarth Sidious and Count Dooku, but Talzin got killed in the eventual confrontation.^[37] Meanwhile, Ventress joined Jedi MasterQuinlan Vos in one final assassination attempt against Dooku, but was^[38] seemingly^[39] killed by the Count while protecting Vos, her newfound lover.^[38] However, Ventress was alive and continued her bounty hunter life into theImperial Era.^[40]

As the Clone Wars came to an end, all Nightsisters were believed to have perished, and no one knew what happened to them except that they faded into obscurity. The few lessons they wrote down were either rotting in their now-decaying marsh villages or lost among the destroyed temples andcaverns of Dathomir. Few people, like Maul, would try to find and use their dark traditions.^[41]

Survival and adapting[]

Following theend of the Clone Wars, the Nightsisters' massacre at the hands of Grievous and Dooku became known, with very few Nightsisters remaining, like Merrin. However, as the Nightbrothers weren't wiped out. Merrin would take them as her servants, and they took control of Dathomir during theage of the Empire.^[13]

Although Grievous's attack marked the end of the Nightsisters,^[38][31] there existed clans of Force users on Dathomir by the time of the Imperial Era who continued to use the name, such as the sect known as theNardithi Nightsisters. These groups remained a concern for Sidious, who ordered a smallgarrison of theImperial Military to report if any tried to make it off world. At some point, a femaleInquisitor foundJerserra, a member of the Nardithi Nightsisters, and took her as an apprentice. However, years later, Jerserra betrayed her master, covered up her death, and took herdouble-bladed spinning lightsaber.^[4] In time, the Nardithi Nightsisters and other such groups would no longer be found on Dathomir.^[42] Legends claim that the spirits of the slaughtered Nightsisters still haunt the swamps of their miserable world.^[43]

Elsbeth was enraged by the massacre of her people during the Clone Wars. In her rage, she built up theImperial Navy by plundering worlds of their resources in order to get power to secure her future to take revenge on her enemies.^[44] In9 ABY,^[45] formerJediPadawanAhsoka Tano recounted the story of Elsbeth's people to theMandalorianbounty hunterDin Djarin in9 ABY.^[44]

In14 BBY,^[46] Merrinjoined thecrew of theStinger Mantis, made up ofJedi KnightCal Kestis, former KnightCere Junda, thelatero pilot CaptainGreez Dritus, and the droidBD-1, with whom she left Dathomir to explore the galaxy.^[13]

In2 BBY,^[47] two spirits of the Nightsisters were summoned by Maul andEzra Bridger in order to swap information they received when the fused aSith andJedi holocron. However, the spirits demanded their flesh andblood as payment. The Nightsister spiritsattacked and possessed Bridger’s MasterKanan Jarrus andSabine Wren. Together they fought Maul and Bridger. Maul abandoned the fight, but Bridger continued fighting. Bridger spoke with the Nightsister that possessed Kanan. The Nightsister told Bridger that Maul promised flesh and blood to rebuild the Nightsister clan. However, Bridger was able to destroy the source of the Nightsisters' powers, the altar, and the spirits disappeared.^[31] By that time,^[41] with Maul's own death soon to come,^[48] Dathomir was regarded as a dead world in terms of sentient life, with no Nightsisters nor any other civilization remaining.^[41]

By theGalactic Civil War,Shelish was among the few known surviving Nightsisters. During thelockdown of theAnoat sector^[9] between4 and5 ABY,^[49] she taught the ways of the Force to asmuggler fromBurnin Konn who ultimately emerged as the leader of theUprising.^[9]

The Nightsisters' return[]

Before thetime of theNew Republic, Elsbeth, who became a servant ofGrand AdmiralThrawn when she joined the Empire, tookcontrol of thecity ofCalodan on theforestplanetCorvus and Djarin speculated she was plundering the planet like she did for the other systems in her control for the Empire. Working together, Djarin and Tanoliberated Calodan and Tano demanded her to reveal where Thrawn was.^[44] Elsbeth was then taken into the custody of the New Republic, where she revealed the location of an ancienttemple built by her people onArcana containing a map toPeridea,^[33] a planet in adistant galaxy which was the ancient homeworld of the Nightsisters,^[50] and the place of exile for Thrawn. The map was recovered by Tano and unlocked by Wren. Elsbeth was freed from New Republic imprisonment by former Jedi KnightBaylan Skoll and his apprenticeShin Hati, and the map was taken from Sabine in a duel with Shin.^[33] Using her influence with Imperial loyalists at her formershipyard onCorellia, Elsbeth had ordered the construction of a massivehyperspace transport ring called theEye of Sion, which was completed shortly after her escape from the New Republic.^[50]

Morgan and her allies used the Eye to jump to Peridea with coordinates gained from the map, using areflex point on the planetSeatos.^[51] At Peridea, Elsbeth and Thrawn were reunited at aNightsister fortress and it was revealed he allied himself with the DathomiriGreat Mothers. In preparation for the journey back, mysterious coffin-like, cargo was loaded onto theChimaera from the catacombs.^[5] Bridger, Wren, and Tano stormed the fortress in an attempt to stop Thrawn's return. A unit of resurrectedNight Troopers and Elsbeth, who was reinstated back into the Nightsisters wielding Talzin’ssword and empowered with themagick of the Great Mothers, were able to suppress the attack long enough for Thrawn to dock with the Eye of Sion and escape Peridea. In the process, Bridger stowed away on the Star Destroyer so he could join the New Republic to stop Thrawn for good and Elsbeth was slain by Tano. Upon their return to the galaxy, Thrawn and the Great Mothers traveled to Dathomir with their cargo.^[17]

Religion and philosophy[]

By tapping into themagical ichor that flowed from Dathomir's depths, the witches could harness a power^[52] they referred to as "magick."^[53] The most powerful of the Nightsisters could use that ichor to create objects out of thin air,^[30] transform people into ghostly versions of their true forms,^[8] or evenreanimate the dead.^[2] They were also known to domesticate benignrancors.^[54] Maul identified magick as an aspect of the Force.^[31]

Although the Jedi and Sith would view their powers as residing in thedark side of the force, the Nightsisters' study differed from the power hungry ambitions of the Sith or the seeking of knowledge of theJedi Order. In actuality, they made little distinction between thelight and the dark, though their techniques were frequently dark in nature. Nightsisters' viewed everything such as animals, weapons like the energy bows, and even theNightbrothers as tools to ensure their clan's ultimate survival and would bend or discard such tools without remorse, pity, and regret. Due to this mindset, they could avoid the passions and rage that swayed the Sith while wielding powers a Jedi withheld tapping into.^[6]

Some Nightsisters believed in theWinged Goddess, a deity of life, fertility, and divination, while some others believed in theFanged God, a deity of death and the hunt. The Nightsisters did not celebrate death, but did not fear it and saw it as a part of life, with the divide being a veil that they would all eventually pass through.^[6]

Society and culture[]

Overview[]

Most Nightsisters wereDathomirian,^[2] but members of other species, such as^[33] thehuman^[55]Morgan Elsbeth, could be part of the coven.^[33] Several studies indicated that the Nightsisters were a peaceful tribe who lived in harmony with their planet, but this was not true.^[18] The Nightsisters of Dathomir lived in the seclusion of a stone fortress that bordered dense swamplands.^[52] A matriarchal society, the coven of sisters lived apart from the men of Dathomir, theNightbrothers, whose only use was to serve the sisters as servants and breeders.^[53] Nightsisters were known to have less rules than Jedi.^[21]

Nightsister positions included Nightsister Initiates, Nightsister Acolytes,^[56] and the ruling Clan Mother.^[30] The Nightsisters mummified their dead before placing them in pods of animal skin decorated with tassels, which were hung on structures made of branches,bones, animal skins, and shells. Their graveyards mimicked the configuration of the plant life seen on Dathomir, with its crookedtrees burdened by large, cocoon-likefruits.^[57]

Nightsister funerals[]

Before placingdead Nightsisters in burial pods, Nightsisters went through many steps to prepare afuneral. When using cloth for burial pods, the cloth was washed inmagickalwater. Then, the cloth was hand-braided together while Nightsisters recited aspell of protection. Finally, the bodies were cleansed with fragrantoils and placed in the newly created burial pod^[13] and mummified.^[57][6]

Skills and training[]

Considered formidable force-wielders, the Nightsisters are known to wield different powers compared to other force wielders derived from incantations and spells. While rumors persisted about them being powerful, only strong leaders within the Nightsisters had power that could contend with fully trainedJedi Masters orSith Lords.^[6]

As young initiates, Nightsister witches undergo training as children to master their power over magick.^[13] Young women aspiring to join the ranks of the Nightsisters first had to use the Dark side to subdue a powerful, strong-willed creature living in the depths of the pools in the village known asthe Sleeper, and bring back a part of its body. The harvested remains would then be converted into theWater of Life, a major component of Nightsister magicks. Any initiate who gave into their fear, such asTalia's twin sister, would be dragged down into the depths and killed.^[38] An important component of training was that a Nightsister had to master their power without losing control and giving into the dark side completely.^[13]

Years before they were wiped out, the Nightsisters practiced their magick inside theWitches Horn, a cliff high above the cave of thechirodactylGorgara. A Nightsister there made potions and elixirs. Some were medicine, while others werepoisons.^[13] The Nightsisters also used spells once intended to help plants and animals thrive, to create incantations of dark magic that gave supernatural strength to their best warriors, imbuing them with ichor.^[18]

Behind the scenes[]

TheNightsisters were created byDave Wolverton, and first appeared in hisStar Wars Legends1994 novelThe Courtship of Princess Leia.^[58] In Legends, they are depicted as a splinter faction of the nativeWitches of Dathomir; descendants of the fallen JediAllya and appeared in multiple Legends works. Wolverton himself noted in an interview that he sought to create a set of powerful female figures in theStar Wars universe that had been dominated by men at the time, and expressed delight that the concept was picked up byGeorge Lucas for his backstory of Darth Maul.^[59]

George Lucas later decided to integrate them in his TV seriesStar Wars: The Clone Wars after he sawLucasfilm Animation Singapore's use of the Nightsisters in the video gameStar Wars: The Clone Wars: Jedi Alliance (2008), and how they were inspired by a concept art byIain McCaig forThe Phantom Menace. They were first introduced in the current canon with the twelfth episode of thethird season, "Nightsisters," aired onJanuary 7,2011.^[60]Tricia Barr, author of the2018 reference bookStar Wars: The Dark Side, extrapolated from source material that the Nightsisters had enough magick and technology to reproduce without the necessity of the Nightbrothers.^[61]

Nightsisters—including the standard Nightsister, identified as a Nightsister acolyte—appeared as playable characters in the gameStar Wars: Galaxy of Heroes.^[56] Morgan Elsbeth first appeared in "Chapter 13: The Jedi," where she was played byDiana Lee Inosanto and it was stated her "people" were slaughtered in the Clone Wars.^[44] Inosanto's hairstylist,Maria Sandoval, claimed on her Instagram that Elsbeth's people were the Nightsisters.^[62] This was confirmed in "Part One: Master and Apprentice."^[33]

Appearances[]

Non-canon appearances[]

• LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales(In flashback(s))
• LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy - Pieces of the Past — "Part One"(as Daysisters)

Sources[]

Non-canon sources[]

• 20 Eerie Easter Eggs fromLEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales onStarWars.com(backup link)
• LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy's Most Outrageous Character Mashups onStarWars.com(backup link)
• Our Favorite Deep Cuts and Fun Facts fromLEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy - Pieces of the Past - Updated onStarWars.com(backup link)
• Behind the Scenes ofLEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy - Pieces of the Past onStarWars.com(backup link)(Picture only)

Notes and references[]