| “ | Such a generous offer, Count. But our loyalty is reserved for only each other. | „ |
| ~ Mother Talzin turning down Count Dooku's offer to join the Separatists. |
| “ | Do you pledge yourself to the sisterhood, to the Magicks, and the old ways? [...] Do you abandon your old life for this new one? [...] Your loyalty, your life. | „ |
| ~ The Nightsister mantra during a baptism. |
The Nightsisters of Dathomir are supporting antagonists in the Star Wars franchise.
They were both a clan and an ancient order of Dathomirian Force-wielding witches and mistresses of the dark side of the Force by connecting to the misty, emerald, magical ichor that emanated from below Dathomir's surface, they were able to harness a power they called "magic".
Religion and Philosophy[]
The Nightsisters originally hail from Peridea, a planet from an entirely different galaxy and were not indigenous to Dathomir. Peridea, like Dathomir, is steeped in death. The planet is surrounded by a ring of bones from the Force-sensitive, dimension-traveling Purrgil. Force-sensitive beings born on ancient Peridea likely would have felt the Force emanating from the dying Purrgil as well as any residual power left in the millions of bones in the floating graveyard all around them.
The Great Mothers on Peridea.
In the specific circumstances of Force energy coming from the decaying bone marrow of dead and dying purrgil, it's unsurprising that the original Nightsisters of Peridea discovered a way to use Force powers found in organic physicality as well as in psychic abilities.
The Nightsisters lived on Dathomir, a strange planet bathed in dark arcane energies and a vergence that is strong in the dark side of the Force. Its nearby star covers the misty world in an unsettling dark red light. The world also features many swamps and weird vegetation, including forests of twisted, bent trees. When the Nightsisters used the Force, they called it "magick".
Unlike the Jedi or Sith, the Dathomir Witches wielded the Force by using hand gestures, spells and chants. The witches who have unusual Force powers that rely on magical fetishism and were able to, more or less, cheat death. They view their connection as something to be studied and see it as a living entity. They lean toward the dark side while never specifically siding entirely with the Jedi or Sith.
Their powers were more overtly supernatural than Jedi or Sith techniques and achieves different effects, including teleportation, energy shields, and even resurrection. By tapping into the magical ichor that flowed from Dathomir's depths, the witches could harness a power they referred to as "Magicks", a mysterious green energy that flows through the planet of Dathomir.
This appears to be an exotic manifestation of the Force, and it is known as magical ichor, or sometimes Magickal ichor. Their magic manifests in swirling green light. They formed a matriarchal society of warriors known for their ability to cast spells, brew potions, carry out rituals, and peer into the future. Nightsister Magicks is also said to come from blood, tree sap and mists, all of which are life-giving liquids.
The most powerful of them could use that ichor to summon objects out of the thin air, transform people into ghostly versions of their true forms, or even reanimate the dead. These witches adopted a shamanistic culture that rejected the notion of "good" and "evil", and instead chose to call upon the twin energies of the Winged Goddess and the Fanged God in order to utilize their Magicks and communicate with the spirit realm.
Their power resided in the dark side, though their Magick remained unattainable. They manipulate the Force more than the Jedi would approve of, so they are still associated with the dark side. The Nightsisters have a complicated relationship with the Jedi, rooted in differences in their views on the Force, but have also formed alliances and friendships with Jedi characters in some instances. The coven view the Force differently, which is more than enough for the Jedi to see them as evil. But the Nightsisters also emphasize control over fear and emotion, unlike the Sith.
Training female adepts as well as male warriors in its dark ways, Dathomir Witches used their sorcery to imbue their creations with enormous power. Aspiring Nightsisters had to undergo a trial before they could fully dive into its powers. The trial tested their will and control of the dark side of the Force.
They had to subdue an ancient aquatic creature called the Sleeper through the dark side without killing it and to only bring a piece of its body back for a ritual that would then be converted into the Water of Life. Those who failed and succumbed to the dark side were killed by this creature, such as Talia's twin sister. Those who passed were made into official Nightsisters within the clan and were taught the dark side Magicks from their elders. The witches draw power to create powerful spells and blasts of energy.
The Nightsisters considered the dark side as a tool to be used, rather than a dominant power. They relied on totems to augment their Magicks. Similar to energy produced in fission or radioactive decay, Nightsisters siphon the energy from decaying bodies for fuel, which is why their Force powers were dependent upon not only psychic prowess but physical components formed into magical fetishes. The use of life, death and decay as sources of Force power is also why Dathomir played a large role in the Magicks of the Nightsisters.
Society and Culture[]
| “ | These contain the bodies of my sisters. When one dies, so I was told, we perform a ritual to honor her. We bathe her in a sacred pool, then enclose her in this pod. In this way, a sister never truly leaves us. She is dead, but she is nestled inside something vibrant and alive. She is suspended between sky and soil, because she is truly of neither. She is always near, always part of the clan. I was taught that our dead sisters can share our celebrations of joy, and our ceremonies of grief. And that one night - they shared our fight. | „ |
| ~ Asajj Ventress explains her culture to Quinlan Vos. |
The Nightsisters lived in the seclusion of a stone fortress adorned with female figure statues that bordered dense swamplands. The interior of this domain boiled and roiled with dark side magic, and concealed some of the clan's greatest and most powerful secrets. Inside, the coven of sisters studied dark Magicks, using strange rituals to tap into the power of the Force. Their hidden villages were built on cavern lakes, and the Water of Life is one of their main catalysts for using the Force. The glowing, green magical ichor Nightsisters drawn upon is said to emanate from the very depths of Dathomir itself.
The Nightsisters lived in the seclusion of a stone fortress adorned with female figures that bordered dense swamplands. The interior of this domain boiled and roiled with dark side magic, and concealed some of the clan's greatest and most powerful secrets. Inside, the coven of sisters studied dark Magicks, using strange rituals to tap into the power of the Force. This strange twisting of the Force draws upon the dark side, but not in the direct sense that the Sith wielded it. Rather, Nightsister Magicks is a power all its own, offering up abilities not known to either Sith or Jedi.
Perhaps what makes it most attractive to the Nightsisters is the combination of Force energy released by the slowly decaying life in the swamps and the dampness of the swaps themselves.
The matriarchal society had the men of Dathomir, the Nightbrothers, living apart from them, dwelling on the snowy, other side of the planet. They live and train in a small village on the far side of the planet, living separately from the Nightsisters until called upon. These males were only kept as servants and breeders. They ruled over the male Zabrak warrior population. The powerful, ancient matriarchal ruling coven of Force-using witches — capable of incredible spells, curses, possessing others, and more — controlling the planet and their brothers with dark Magicks.
Deceased Nightsisters were still considered part of the clan, as they used to mummify their dead before placing them in pods of animal skin decorated with tassels. Those pods were hung to structures made of branches, bones, animal skins and shells, all parts of once-living creatures that can help channel Force Magick.
Their graveyards mimicked the configuration of the plant life seen on Dathomir, with its crooked trees burdened by large, cocoon-like fruits. During times of great peril, these mummified sisters could be revived by the witches' mightiest spells, fighting on behalf of the clan.
These bodies could be then called upon in a time of dire need, an antithesis to the help provided by light side Force ghosts. Although powerful, they were always rather closed-off, remaining mostly on Dathomir because of the planet's magical ichor, a permanent green mist that was the source of their power. During the Clone Wars, though, they did have a brief expansionist period, even establishing a stronghold on the planet Arcana.
The Nightsisters kept their world neutral from outside politics and galactic matters. The Jedi let the Nightsisters govern themselves and generally stayed out of Dathomir’s business. That worked both ways, as denizens of the planet rarely left their strange world and rarely allowed any outsiders to visit, viewing them as trespassers.
History[]
Early Years[]
Asajj and the Nightsisters.
Tens of thousands of years before they called Dathomir home, the Nightsisters resided on Peridea, their native planet in a distant galaxy where they were ruled by a Zeffo sage named Lord Kujet and was once the site of the Witch Kingdom of the Dathmiri. A massive fortress was constructed on Peridea with an inscription that blessed the rule of the Zeffo Sage Kujet and his everlasting reign. They had traveled to the known galaxy thanks to “the travelers,” their term for Purrgil.
This timeline seems to place their arrival around the same time as the Jedi founding. The Sith adopted some elements of this long-forgotten, intergalactic dark side civilization into their own culture and philosophy. According to old history records, the first Nightsisters were trained by the Jedi Allya in the ways of the Force when she was sent into exile by the Order on the mysterious world of Dathomir.
The Dathomir Witches were originally warring covens that all battled each other for dominance until 31 BBY when a Clan Mother named Zalem united the covens together and appointed herself Queen of Dathomir. She had plans of galactic destruction and Nightsister domination until she was defeated by the Jedi Quinlan Vos and killed by her own daughter, Ros Lai.
The Nightsisters gathered.
Following Zalem's failure, the Nightsisters' clan still continued development on the mysterious planet of Dathomir. Since they were most powerful on their home planet, they rarely ventured off-world during the height of the Galactic Republic. However, that situation soon changed when a Sister named Talzin became the new clan's Mother. The powerful Talzin could speak to the Spirits and conjure objects from another realm.
As Senator Palpatine began plotting his rise to power and orchestrating the Clone Wars, it was basically inevitable that he would come into conflict with Mother Talzin and the Nightsisters. The Sith didn't believe in sharing power outside of their rigid Rule of Two, and the Nightsisters represented an entire civilization of dark side adepts and potential rivals to a Sith Emperor.
Palpatine first came into conflict with the Nightsisters when he visited Dathomir in search of an apprentice. He manipulated Talzin, with the promise of power and traded secrets of dark side and Magicks before betraying her.
Rather than recruit Talzin herself, he chose to kidnap her son young Maul, leaving Talzin to begin a long, quiet campaign of vengeance against the Sith Lord. Even as Palpatine moved toward a complete takeover of the galaxy, Talzin herself plotted to destroy him and rule the galaxy in his place instead.
By the time of the Clone Wars, Talzin started to sell her Sisters' services as mercenaries to the galaxy's wealthiest citizens, also fulfilling Zalem's dream of spreading the Nightsisters' ways across the universe. At some point prior to the Clone Wars, the clan was forced to give up the young Nightsister Asajj Ventress to the Siniteen criminal Hal'Sted as payment for protection of the coven.
A couple years before the Clone Wars, Talzin came to tell the witch of no clan Falta 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 and learning magicks.
Making a Monster[]
The Nightsisters summon a mist.
After her betrayal by Count Dooku, Ventress returned to her people and sought their help for revenge against her former master. The Sisters at first thought she was a stranger but Mother Talzin recognized her and healed Ventress in a ritual with her magic which caused her to sleep and remember past events.
The Sisters held bowls of Waters of Life and began chanting causing the water to turn into green steam that surrounded Ventress who recalled earlier memories while being healed. Upon awakening rejuvenated, she swore an oath of vengeance against her former master. Mother Talzin agreed and loaned two of the finest warriors of the clan; Naa’leth and Karis to Ventress in her mission to destroy Dooku and her true, hidden goal, the destruction of his master, Darth Sidious.
Nightsister Magicks.
The Nightsisters performed another chanting ritual around a basin of Life Water and it bubbled emitting fog as all the witches started floating. Ventress and her two warriors approached the potion walking through the mist.
As Ventress and her compatriots walked through the green fumes, they became spectral and invisible. Talzin then gave Ventress a poisoned dart, to help dull Dooku’s senses. The matriarch then handed them each a lightsaber because if Dooku was to engage them, he must believe that they were Jedi and left for Serenno to carry out their mission.
The assassination attempt failed with Ventress and the other two assassins returning to Dathomir in defeat. Mother Talzin was content, with this attempt on his life, she foresaw that Dooku would now be more anxious to get himself a new assassin and bodyguard to protect him. Talzin later contacted the Count and told him how she heard he had lost his former apprentice and reminded him that Ventress was once part of her people. She then suggested a replacement – a male Zabrak warrior from the Nightbrothers – an offer Dooku decided to take.
Nightsisters transformation ceremony.
Count Dooku later traveled to Dathomir and spoke with Mother Talzin about their old alliance, where she stated she would provide him with a warrior of great strength and fierceness and Dooku agreed before leaving the planet. In reality, the Nightsisters conceived the plan to give Dooku a new apprentice from the Nightbrothers, and his loyalty would belong only to the witches. Asajj went to the far side of the planet and held a test of selection from the Nightbrothers to see who was worthy of being her champion.
After a long brutal test and wiping out most of the selection of men, Ventress chose the Zabrak Nightbrother called Savage Opress and brought him back to the Nightsister fortress. Back in their abbey, Mother Talzin examined Savage and said he was strong, a perfect male specimen filled with hate and sheer power then she rendered him unconscious through magic and placed him on a altar.
The Nightsisters used their mystical powers in a chanting ceremony with green smoke surrounding him. His body began to float and warp increasing Savage's strength and ferocity, lengthening his horns, turning him into a hulking brute, and putting him under Ventress' complete control. The Nightsisters later traveled to Serenno and presented Savage to a very pleased Count Dooku.
The Nightsisters performing the ceremony.
The Jedi later traveled to Dathomir after Savage killed two Jedi, discovering he was a Nightbrother of the planet, sending Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker to investigate.
They landed at the Nightsister village only for them to be disarmed by the witches and were brought inside the fortress to speak with Mother Talzin. Talzin initially denied she had any knowledge of Savage's whereabouts, but relented after prodding by Kenobi, using her crystal ball to find and inform the Jedi he was on Toydaria through divination.
Mother Talzin tells Savage of his brother.
After the Jedi left in earnest, Talzin met with Ventress and told her that the time to put her plot in motion had come — she would have to confront the Count herself with Savage's aid. While Ventress believed Opress was not ready, needing more training, Talzin assured her that he was indeed ready and they could not keep him secret for much longer. Ventress agreed, and left for her mission.
Later a battle-weary Savage returned to Dathomir, having broken away from his loyalty to Ventress and having escaped from both her, Dooku and the Jedi. He collapsed on the chamber floor exhausted with Talzin helping him to his feet and told him she would help him obtain the power he needed. She showed him an image of his lost brother in her crystal ball and sent him on a quest to find him who was hiding in exile in the Outer Rim. Talzin then gave Savage a special talisman that would aid him along his journey and he left.
Slaughter on Dathomir[]
Nightsister baptism of Asajj Ventress.
After spending sometime in hiding, Ventress returned to Dathomir seeking sanctuary. Mother Talzin and the Nightsisters welcomed her back with opened arms. Talzin recommended that Ventress cast off her ambitions of the Sith and fully reintegrate herself with the Nightsisters.
Ventress agreed and underwent the initiation ritual, a baptism of dark Magicks where she was bathed in waters of life then shimmering green mist becoming a true Nightsister of Dathomir once again. Unknown to them, Dooku had harbored vengeance against the magic-wielding witches for their betrayal and ordered General Grievous to Dathomir to eradicate the Nightsisters.
The Dathomir Witches held a celebration for Ventress' return when the droid forces descended upon the initiation festivity in full force, vulture droids and hyena bombers strafed the temple, causing a statue to fall on Karis, killing her and the Nightsisters prepared for battle.
Nightsisters fighting the droids.
After the bombings, the Separatist droid forces landed on Dathomir with tanks and rows of battle droids marching into the twisted jungles. The Nightsisters began to mount a counterattack under Ventress’ leadership and used the fallen statues outside their temple as cover. The witches used their energy bows and vibro swords against the droid invaders while Talzin used her Magicks to summon a green protective bubble as a shield and unleashed lightning against the droids.
Ventress stated to the clan mother that they needed an army to counter the droids and Talzin agreed to get reinforcements. Ventress left her side and charged into battle with the Nightsisters using the gnarled trees to rain energy arrows upon the droids from above. As soon as Ventress appeared on the battlefield, Grievous sent out a group of defoliator tanks to wipe out their opponents with one stroke, burning the protective trees the witches were using as cover.
Nightsister Zombies summoned.
During the battle, Mother Talzin retreated to the inner chambers of her lair and called upon her order’s venerable elder, Old Daka, to resurrect the Nightsisters of the past with their dark magic, creating an army of the dead that would repel the Separatist invaders.
Old Daka began an incantation over a glowing orb calling forth green smoke that flew into the jungle and the remains of the dead rose from their hanging burial pods as howling, charging undead warriors and joined their living Sisters in battle. The undead sisters mindlessly ripped through the Separatists' ranks, smashing through everything in their path. The Nightsister zombies were certainly formidable in numbers but were only reanimated corpses, seemingly devoid of any thoughts, wills or powers of their own. Their arrival gave Ventress the opportunity to press her attack against Grievous and his invading droid army and pushed forward.
Nightsisters with a special orb.
While Daka concentrated on her resurrection spell, Talzin prepared her own spell by using a lock of Dooku’s hair she had kept in a silver orb, that two Sisters brought to her and the Mother melted the orb to get the hair.
Tossing the hair into a cauldron full of green bubbling liquid, Talzin waved her hand over it casting a charm that created a magical voodoo waxen statue of Dooku. She conducted the tiny totem to her magic, stabbing it with needles and boiling it, through and tormented Dooku into rescinding his attack or else suffer an agonizing death.
Ventress meanwhile managed to destroy the defoliator tanks and arrived outside the command ship where Grievous descended a ramp to meet her. Ventress challenged Grievous dictating that the victor of their lightsaber duel would triumph over the loser's faction — if she wins, Grievous’ army leaves, but if Grievous wins, the Nightsisters would surrender. Grievous agreed and produced four arms, with a lightsaber in each hand, and the two began the duel, surrounded by an army of droids, witches and zombies.
Nightsisters lead into battle by Asajj.
During the duel, Grievous delivered a kick to Ventress, but the Nightsister recovered and furiously attacked the cyborg general and managed to sever one of his robotic limbs defeating him but the general cheated and ordered his droids to attack forcing Ventress to direct her attention to deflecting enemy fire.
Ventress was hit in the shoulder, and Grievous prepared to cut her down, but was overrun by Nightsister zombies, saving Ventress but after having seen so many comrades fall that day, she retreated from the battleground and into the jungle mist, abandoning her coven.
Dooku, feeling the pain of the Nightsister magic, ordered Grievous through hologram to kill Talzin before she killed him. His clue to finding her was that the witches' magic manifested itself as a green mist. Grievous tracked down the origin of Talzin and Daka’s magic by following the magic mist and marched to the Nightsister fortress, pressing through the warriors and zombies guarding the village. While the remaining Nightsisters mounted a defense of their home, Grievous proceeded to the Hidden Cave with a squad of battle commando droids. One of his droids fired a bazooka through the cave's wall exposing Talzin and Daka inside.
The Nightsisters losing the battle.
Grievous first killed one of the Nightsisters who brought Talzin the orb then turned towards Daka. Old Daka, preoccupied with her spell, failed to defend herself and Grievous impaled her with his lightsaber disrupting the resurrection magic, causing the Nightsister zombies to fall, returning to their dead states again.
The few remaining Nightsisters that defended their village were massacred by the battle droids, who carried out the onslaught without hesitation. Grievous then turned on Talzin, who summoned her magic to teleport away to safety from his lightsaber attack and the droids' blaster fire. Grievous then knocked over the cauldron that had been maintaining her Voodoo magic breaking the spell, subsequently ending Dooku's torture who vomited the magic out.
Selena leads Morgan and a group of Nightsisters.
With Ventress on the run and the loss of their undead reinforcements, the remaining Nightsisters were scattered throughout the burning forests, pursued by hordes of battle droids. A Nightsister named Selena lead her daughter Morgan Elsbeth and several others to combat Grievous and his forces.
The Nightsisters aimed their bowcaster at the cyborg but come under fire from several BX-series droid commandos. Selena fights Grievous with two sickles that have been animated with Magick. Grievous chose to face Selena alone while commando droids faced down Morgan and the group of Nightsisters.
Morgan, Selena and Nightsisters prepare for battle.
During their duel, Selena hooked her sickles underneath his blades, but the lightsabers' energy heated them too much, slowly decimating her magick. Selena is unable to beat Grievous, who gained the upper hand and damages her sickles with his lightsabers.
Grievous followed Selena further into the forest, away from her daughter and the Nightsisters, and the two repeatedly attacked and blocked each other's blades. Selena hooked Grievous's blades beneath her sickles, but he released them and unleashed a powerful strike against her weapons, breaking her defense and forcing her to be pushed back.
Selena duels Grievous with magicked scythes.
Grievous moved forward, spinning two of the lightsabers toward Selena, as Morgan had her own battle, fighting one of the commando droids, leaving her defenseless and forcing her to withdraw into the woods. They engaged in blade-lock, and as Morgan turned to help her mother, Grievous activated a third blade from his left arm, stabbing Selena in the torso. In her final moments, Selena ordered her daughter to run. Grievous laughed, then struck Selena down with his three lightsabers.
After striking down Selena and mockingly yelling at Morgan to run, Grievous ordered his forces to annihilate the remaining Nightsisters, leaving the landscape a burning wasteland. Elsbeth barely managed to escape the battle after destroying a BX-series droid commando pursuing her, but fell unconscious soon after.
After Grievous' forces left the Nightsister territories, a group of Mountain Clan people wandered into the villages and discovered Elsbeth, carrying her back to their village to recover. After she recovered, their Matron showed her the burned down remnants of the Nightsister lands and informed her of what had transpired there. Devastated, Elsbeth dropped to her knees and mourned the loss of her sisters, believing herself to be the last of her kind.
The genocide she witnessed embittered Elsbeth and she vowed to protect the Mountain Clan from a similar fate. However her blind rage, caused a few members of the Mountain Clan to die. Realizing what had happened, the Matron told Elsbeth that she saw the Nightsister's intentions and the dark path they led to piting her, and she and her Mountain Clan people left her alone in the burning forest.
Ruination[]
Mother Talzin conjuring.
The resulting battle ended with a CIS victory that essentially amounted to genocide, and the assault led to the extermination of almost every Dathomirian Nightsister. With their order ruined, Asajj Ventress was left alone and a defeated Talzin was forced to dissolve her physical form and sought refuge in the spirit world, these two being the sole surviving Nightsisters of the battle.
Unknown to either of them, a few Nightsisters remained named Merrin, another called Shelish, Jerrserra, Yenna and Morgan survived the carnage. Alone in the forest, Ventress spoke to a specter of Talzin and learned of their clan's slaughter, while also being told of a new destiny by the Clan Mother before leaving her alone. Ventress begged Talzin not to leave her, but the Nightsister mother does so. Mother Talzin was weakened but still lived on to continue on her Nightsister ways.
Talzin remained on-world living in solitude since the Separatist attack, staying in the ruins of the Nightsister fortress and watched Savage's journey of finding his brother from afar through magic globes made of spirit ichor. She foresaw that he would soon find his brother and she must make the necessary preparations for their arrival and left to do so.
While Grievous and the Separatist Droid Army departed from Dathomir, they left behind the remains of their droid forces, with the wreckage of Separatist troops and vehicles scattered amidst the corpses of the Nightsisters. It was in that state that Savage returned with his lost brother, the Sith Lord Darth Maul to Dathomir. Savage disembarked the ship and saw the carnage of the battle and the dead Nightsisters laying around the derelict fortress until Mother Talzin appeared to him from wisps of green mist.
Savage questioned what happened to the Sisters and Talzin responded that Dooku sent his minions to destroy them, but she assured him that she and her culture would survive as they always have. Mother Talzin then lured Maul out with her magic and then led them to her ruined village.
Once there, Talzin used her Magicks to restore Maul's fractured mind and rejuvenate his frail body, replacing his crudely-formed arachnid-like appendages with sleek mechanical legs. Her work finished, Talzin vanished into mist once more into mist leaving the Nightbrothers to begin forming an army with which they could rival Talzin's enemy Darth Sidious.
When Maul successfully conquered the neutral world of Mandalore, Obi-Wan tried to reason with him by stating that he had been to his village in the snowy hills of Dathomir. The Jedi also said that it wasn't Maul's decision to join the dark side and that the Nightsisters had made that choice for him, but Maul refused to listen. After Savage Opress was killed by Sidious, the Nightsister Magicks used to alter him bleeds out of his body, and he returned to his original form.
Near Extinction[]
Mother Talzin with the Living Sphere.
Asajj distanced herself from both the Nightsisters and the Sith over time and Asajj has been known to help Jedi like Obi-Wan and Ahsoka in the past. While Asajj Ventress' path led her to becoming a bounty hunter, Mother Talzin sought far greater powers than she'd ever possess. Scheming to survive, she orchestrated a plot to kidnap the Dagoyan Masters of Bardotta to absorb their raw Force energy into a containment sphere through use of the Cult of Malmourral, the Demon of War.
The Cult of Malmorra seemed to be specific to the Bardottans and it looked like Mother Talzin may have usurped their practices for her own gain. All of the cult's practices included Nightsister Magicks, or something that looked nearly identical too it as their magic was green as well. The bloodthirsty Frangawl Cult revered her as the Great Mother, and successfully drained all of the Dagoyan Masters.
They later rendezvoused with Talzin on Zardossa Stix where she undertook a ritual to drain the Bardottan Queen's life force and absorb it, gaining her powerful connection to the Living Force, making her even more powerful than the Jedi or Sith combined. But was thwarted when Jedi Master Mace Windu and Jar Jar Binks arrived and disrupted the Frangawl ritual foiling her plans after which she vanished once more into the spirit world in a shrieking cloud of green mist.
After Darth Maul, her lost son, escaped captivity on Stygeon Prime, Talzin sensed the endgame of her feud with Sidious and his minions were approaching fast. Maul called out to her through the Force for guidance. Appearing to her son from across the galaxy as green mist, Talzin told Maul to lead his forces to Ord Mantell, where she'd sent Nightbrothers to assist the Sith renegade. Victory, she promised, was at hand. Maul asked her if she would be joining them and she responded she wouldn't because it was a trap.
Maul's forces managed to capture Dooku and Grievous, to Talzin's satisfaction — now Sidious would come, and her revenge would be at hand. In preparation, she offered Dooku an alliance and told him her great secret: Maul was her son, stolen from her by Sidious and later betrayed — as Talzin had been, and as Dooku would eventually be. By entrapping the Count, Talzin hoped to restore her physical form and claim far greater power than she had lost.
Mother Talzin's stoned corpse.
Though she was heavily wounded, Talzin still had hope as Maul returned to Dathomir with a captive Count Dooku where they performed a ritual with the Nightsister unleashing her Magicks upon the Count from a monolith stealing his living energies that would allow her to return to the physical world. As the ritual continued, an explosion ripped through the area, as Grievous and Sidious appeared who had come to end Talzin's threat once and for all. She briefly possessed the Count's body when she and Maul engaged in lightsaber combat against Sidious and Grievous.
Sidious bombarded Talzin with Force lightning causing her to release Dooku's body, leaving his body in the form of swirling green mist as the Nightsister had enough strength to regain her bodily form. The Dathomir witch confronted Darth Sidious for the first time in years exchanging blasts of Force and Magick lightning against the Sith Lord who had betrayed her.
The Nightsister conjured a protective bubble shielding herself and son from Sidious and now Dooku's lightning attacks. Talzin sacrificed herself using her magic to telekinetically throw Maul to safety and was eventually defeated and impaled through the chest by General Grievous, slaying the Nightsister matriarch. Her death marked the fall of Dathomir and the end of the Nightsister's coven. With his mother gone, Maul fled back to Mandalore.
Asajj duels Vos on Dathomir for training.
Asajj Ventress still remained after her sisters and now clan mother were massacred traveling around the galaxy as a bounty hunter. Ventress briefly worked with Ahsoka Tano herself after she left the Jedi Order after being framed. Near the end of the war, she encountered Quinlan Vos a maverick Jedi tasked with assassinating Count Dooku.
Ventress joined Vos in hopes of destroying Dooku, but grew to love him as he helped her feel love and compassion again. She returned to a desolate Dathomir to train Quinlan Vos in the ways of Nightsister magicks, opening himself to the powers of the dark side to prepare for a strike against Dooku, but their attempt to kill the Count failed on Raxus Prime.
The three later crash-landed on the planet Christophsis and were attacked by Republic forces. Pursued by the Jedi, Dooku attacked Vos with Force lightning but Ventress shoved Quinlan out of the way and took the brunt of the attack. Asajj was mortally wounded and died in Quinlan's arms while Dooku escaped, grateful that her love had found his way back to the light.
A grieving Quinlan later laid Ventress to rest in the waters on her homeworld of Dathomir alongside her sisters. However, despite their incredible abilities even in death, ultimately the Nightsister order was now lost and forgotten, all but disappearing from the galaxy far, far away, its rule was but a memory but Dathomir still remained steeped in dark side powers.
Merrin was among the last of the Nightsister survivors.
Years later, following the end of the Clone Wars, the Nightsisters' massacre at the hands of Grievous and Dooku became known, with very few Nightsisters remaining, like Merrin. Merrin survived a great massacre but was alone, and afraid as her sisters were gone.
The Nightbrothers were not wiped out because they managed to survive the massacre and Merrin took them as servants. A stranger crash-landed on Dathomir and Merrin confronted him who turned out to be a Jedi survivor of Order 66 named Taron Malicos. Malicos told Merrin lies that the Jedi were responsible for her people's extinction in order to manipulate her into learning the secrets of Nightsister magicks. This manipulation led to Merrin being especially hostile towards former Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis when he arrived on Dathomir to explore the legacy of an ancient Force cult called the Zeffo.
Merrin put Cal through the ringer, pitting Nightbrothers against him and raised several of her fallen sisters through Magicks in an attempt to stop him from trespassing. Merrin threatened Kestis as he made his way through Dathomir. Eventually, though, Merrin learned the truth and turned against Malicos. She and Cal defeated him in battle and Merrin decides to join the Stinger Mantis crew — marking a new start for herself.
Merrin let go of her generational hatred toward the Jedi, and the fact she blamed them for her family's death, to join forces with Cal Kestis in the name of ensuring nobody else in the galaxy ever had to suffer the same fate she did. She became one of the strongest fighters for good during the early years of action against the Empire.
Resurrection Attempt[]
Nightsister Spirit appearing.
During the reign of the Galactic Empire, Maul had returned to Dathomir and took up residence in the abandoned Nightsister lair. Maul ultimately sought to discover the location of his old nemesis Obi-Wan Kenobi by recovering the last fragments of the Holocron's visions from Ezra Bridger's mind and brought him to his lair. While showing the young Jedi Ezra the ruins of the Nightsister lair, Maul stated that the Nighsisters were powerful and would have been a threat to the Galactic Empire and that was why they were destroyed.
In a ritual to complete their shared vision, Maul and Ezra drank a Magick potion prepared by the Nightbrother that caused their eyes to turn bright green and shoot beams of light into a combined cloud. Maul demanded to know a location while Ezra wanted to know how to destroy the Sith. As a result, Maul learned that Kenobi was hiding on a planet with twin suns. Ezra learned that Kenobi held the key to destroying the Sith.
Following the ritual, the cave descended into darkness when the altar suddenly glowed green and the spirits of two fallen Nightsisters emerged swarming around them demanding that Maul and Ezra pay the price for using their Magicks through flesh and blood. Maul warned Ezra not to let the spirits touch them.
Nightsister Spirit possesses Kanan Jarrus.
Following a gunfight, the spirits possessed Kanan Jarrus and Sabine Wren's bodies when they entered the lair. Under the influence of the Nightsister Spirits, the possessed Kanan and Sabine then attacked Maul and Ezra with the former engaging the Darksider in a brief lightsaber duel. Since the spirits were unable to leave the cave due to the altar being their source of power, Ezra and Maul were able to escape outside.
Maul then abandoned the fight, but Ezra refused to leave behind his friends and re-entered the cave encountering Sabine and managed to exorcise her by Force pushing her outside the lair, causing the spirit to leave her body. The spirit taunted him stating that he will not defeat them as it flew away. Ezra found Kanan kneeling on top of the altar, which was bathed in a green light that was covered with spirits and Ezra spoke to the spirit inside his Master.
Nightsister Spirits' altar destroyed vanquishing them.
The Nightsister told Ezra that Maul promised them flesh and blood to rebuild the Great Clan of the Nightsisters. Ezra offered himself to trade his body in return for the Nightsister spirits releasing Kanan's body. The spirit agreed provided he bested Kanan in combat. Following a brief lightsaber fight, Ezra managed to beat Kanan and the Nightsister spirit left his body.
More spirits then arose from the altar demanding Ezra honor his pledge to surrender his body and blood but instead Ezra used the Darksaber and his green lightsaber to strike the altar destroying the source of the Nightsisters' powers sending a shock-wave throughout the lair vanquishing the spirits as they disappeared screaming into the ether. The Nightsister Clan was again ruined and lost with the sole surviving members still being Shelish a witch of Dathomir, Merrin, Yenna and Morgan.
Rebirth and Return[]
Morgan Elsbeth, a cunning and ruthless survivor of the Massacre of the Nightsisters, let her rage fuelled the engine that helped create the Imperial Starfleet by plundering entire worlds of their resources, making her useful and became a servant of Grand Admiral Thrawn. She expressed much loyalty towards Thrawn, with their relationship once described as that of a master and pupil. Though she showed an aptitude for Magick, Morgan was not a full Nightsister.
Morgan hired the Mandalorian to kill a Jedi.
During the New Republic Era, Elsbeth had obtained the position of magistrate of the city of Calodan, a walled-in city located on the forest planet of Corvus but was a cruel and unjust ruler. She also operated several factories on the planet Corellia, including a shipyard that refurbished Imperial capital ship hyperdrives. She allowed the torture of townsfolk in the town square in front of her castle, with others watching on helplessly and were not able to speak up or fight against her for fear of reprisal.
She maintained her iron rule with an army of scout guards led by a hired gunslinger, Captain Lang, and was guarded by two HK-87 assassin droids. Her tyrannical reign brought the attention of former Jedi Ahsoka Tano who had begun a search for her Jedi friend Ezra Bridger as well as Thrawn.
Wanting to destroy the Jedi, Elsbeth hired the Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin to eliminate her. As payment she offered the Mandalorian a precious item, a spear made of Beskar, to Din Djarin in exchange for killing Ahsoka. Instead the Mandalorian assisted Tano with liberating the city of Calodan from Elsbeth.
Morgan fought Ahsoka using a Beskar spear in battle.
Ahsoka ended up going head-to-head with Morgan in a duel. Ahsoka wielded her double white lightsabers while Morgan used the Beskar spear. When Ahsoka bested Morgan in their duel, the former Jedi demanded to know the location of Grand Admiral Thrawn.
When Ahsoka captured Morgan, she used non-Jedi methods to get information out of her prisoner, who otherwise would not have betrayed Thrawn. That led Ahsoka to an ancient temple on the planet Arcana built by the Nightsisters of Dathomir. There Ahsoka found an encoded star map that Sabine Wren ultimately unlocked and decoded.
Elsbeth didn’t actually know where Thrawn was when Ahsoka captured her or how to even find that map among the ruins on Arcana. What she did know, thanks to her magical connection with the Force and her far away brethren, is that it would point the way to Thrawn, who had called out to her from across space and time.
Elsbeth was freed from New Republic imprisonment by former Jedi now mercenaries Baylan Skoll and his apprentice Shin Hati, and the map was taken from Sabine in a duel with Shin. The former Inquisitor Marrok also came to serve Morgan and her forces.
Morgan standing in the ruins of the Arcana Nightsister stronghold.
Using her influence with Imperial loyalists at her former shipyard on Corellia, Elsbeth had ordered the construction of a massive hyperspace transport ring called the Eye of Sion, which was completed shortly after her escape from the New Republic.
She needed all that firepower to travel deep across the universe onto the Pathway to Peridea, an ancient planet in a spiral-shaped galaxy far, far away. It is where she believed Thrawn was. Elsbeth seemed to know that because of an ancient map the Nightsisters created long ago, but it was revealed she also had help from her own sisters.
Morgan accessed the map to Thrawn on Seatos with Magicks.
Morgan explained what the map meant to her Force-user mercenaries, Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati. They’d met at the reflex point on the planet Seatos where the map showed them a path created by “an ancient people from a distant galaxy.”
Baylan called it the “Pathway to Peridea,” a seemingly mythological place. But Peridea was nothing more than just a story told by the Children of the Jedi Temple. As Morgan Elsbeth had said, it was a tale “based on truth”, Morgan and her allies used the Eye to hyperspace jump to Peridea with coordinates gained from the relic map, using a reflex point on the planet Seatos.
Morgan met the 3 Great Mothers who were banished to Peridea.
Once they managed to arrive there and find Thrawn, Elsbeth also found the original home of the Dathomiri Nightsisters. Elsbeth met three ancient Great Mothers on Peridea. They had come to serve Thrawn, a man with nary the power they have. The Great Mothers had helped Thrawn call out to Lady Morgan. And their visions of the future had also helped both Elsbeth and Thrawn plan his return.
The trio also knew Ahsoka Tano was on her way. However, they did not foresee every “strand” of fate, as the Great Mothers did not anticipate Sabine Wren’s arrival on the Eye of Sion. As powerful as they are, the Great Mothers have blind spots and also know fear. Baylan said there is a power on Peridea so incredible the Great Mothers themselves fear it.
Great Mothers summoned by Thrawn to do his bidding.
Grand Admiral Thrawn has established an alliance with the Great Mothers. Thrawn was mysteriously away from Peridea when Morgan Elsbeth arrived in the Eye of Sion, perhaps implying he is fighting an unknown enemy with the help of their dark Magicks. There the two groups struck a bargain in which they would all escape Peridia together in exchange for transporting mysterious, coffin-like, containers from the fortress catacombs to the planet Dathomir.
During this time, the Great Mothers of Peridia made contact with Elsbeth through visions and dreams, entrusting her with the knowledge of their location, kicking off her effort to return Thrawn to the known galaxy. He held a certain amount of reverence for their magic as it had proven useful to him, especially when dealing with the Jedi. Thrawn had come to accept the aid and usefulness of their dark magicks and other esoteric abilities in order to further his own aims.
The Great Mothers perform a tracking spell to find Ahsoka.
Having been informed of her approach by the Great Mothers' magick, Thrawn had already ordered Captain Enoch to deploy an extensive field of space mines around the planet, which detonated upon the whales as soon as they arrived, severely injuring them and forcing them to abandon Ahsoka and her ship. Ahsoka was forced to hide her shuttle in the graveyard ring, where she was attacked by the Eye of Sion 's turbolasers after once again being detected by the Great Mothers' magicks.
Great Mothers reward Morgan with the Gift of Shadows.
The coven later rewarded Morgan for her services by blessing her with the Gift of Shadows. This “gift” takes on the form of a ritual in which the Great Mothers bestow some of their power upon Elsbeth, leaving markings on her face and turning her eyes black to signify her increased power and status. After she pledges to their sisterhood, and they infuse her with their magicks and alter her appearance to appear like their own, they present her with Talzin's sword, as a reward for hearing their call and coming to their aid.
The coven conjures the Blade of Talzin for Morgan.
When Morgan Elsbeth took this oath, she knew she was entering into a deeper level of commitment to the communal magick of the Nightsisters. By taking the oath, Morgan was essentially getting baptized as a stronger member of the Nightsister clan. Not only did she swear her allegiance to the Nightsisters, but she vowed to put the needs of the whole community above all else. She was no longer seen as an individual survivor, but part of a sisterhood.
They used their magick to make Elsbeth a fully powerful witch, granting her a weapon they summoned through that same magick. The weapon appears as a pillar of green flame, and eventually resembles a metal sword blade coming out of what looked like the hilt of a lightsaber. Morgan and the Great Mothers later gave a blessing of magicks to a group of Night Troopers volunteers that stayed to fight.
Powers and Abilities[]
Spirit Ichor[]
The homeworld of the Nightsisters is ancient and foreboding, with a powerful connection to the dark side of the Force. For reasons unknown, the entire planet is infused with a bright, sickly green substance. Known as "spirit ichor," the substance was manipulated by the Nightsisters in service of their gods: the Winged Goddess and the Fanged God. Their magick is part of the Force, though acolytes have far different powers than either the Jedi or the Sith.
The Nightsisters had strange traditions for tapping into the Force. Their magic was called Spirit ichor and was the base for all magic employed by the Nightsisters of Dathomir during the Clone Wars. According to Mother Talzin, it came from channeling the Winged Goddess and was manifested as green smoke. Spirit ichor could be manipulated in a large variety of ways by a shaman. A shaman could manipulate spirit ichor into physical objects such as a goblet of blackroot, as Mother Talzin did for Count Dooku when he visited Dathomir during the Clone Wars. Mother Talzin was also seen later to conjure a blade of green flame in order to combat Jedi Master Mace Windu.
Spirit ichor could also be used for divination; for mesmerism, to induce a victim into a trance-like state; for totem magic; or to conjure the Water of Life for healing purposes and other uses. Spirit ichor allowed the Nightsisters to create objects whole cloth from nothing.
It granted them the ability to transform a living creature from one form to another, teleport across great distances, create bladed weapons similar to a lightsaber, blast magick energy at their enemies, and turn themselves invisible. The most powerful witches could even raise the dead. Whispers could be heard emanating from the spirit ichor anytime the substance is manipulated.
As Mother Talzin did for Asajj Ventress, Naa'leth, and Karis, spirit ichor could be manipulated to produce a luminescent green mist that allowed assassins to operate "midway" between the physical and spirit realms, cloaking them with near-invisibility. Savage Opress was also transformed into an avatar of primal anger by Talzin and a coven of spellcasters via spirit ichor.
The Nightsister clan had used their magicks to enhance Savage Opress's features: gaining longer horns, taller, and larger physique, turning him into an avatar of primal anger. Talzin later used her magicks to cure Darth Maul of his insanity and grant him prosthetic legs. It is a reasonable deduction that the sheer amount of magick and life energy needed to reconstruct Maul left him with a unique and powerful connection to the dark side.
Water of Life[]
The Witches also used a magical potion called the Water of Life, or the waters of life, and it was an employment of spirit ichor that was used by the Nightsisters of Dathomir in their spells. It was used primarily for healing purposes but could also be used to render someone near-invisible. The Water of Life is a potion that requires water, minerals, tree sap and the flesh of a giant mollusk known as The Sleeper.
The ingredients included water from their village sacred pool and flesh removed from an ancient aquatic creature called the Sleeper. The piece was then boiled with the pool water and other items that created the magical substance. Brewing the potion was a rite of passage for aspiring Nightsisters.
The Water of Life is then used in a variety of ways, such as to increase Force powers for a time, heal wounds, summon spirits, resurrect the recently deceased or reanimate the dead. Rarely are such magical potions associated with the Force, except when it comes to the Nightsisters.
Mesmerism[]
The Nightisisters also used a type of hypnotic spell called Mesmerism and it was a Nightsister technique, provided by spirit ichor. This power allowed a shaman to override the thought of those weaker than oneself, particularly men and off-worlders. A tap of the fingertip to the victim's forehead would induce a trance-like state and make the victim powerless to refuse commands. With just a tap on the head, Talzin could render others unconscious, even those with strong enough minds to resist conventional Mind Tricks.
Nightsister Crystal Ball[]
The Sisters could do divination by using a Nightsister crystal ball created by Mother Talzin, and was owned by the Nightsisters who kept it in their village lair. Due to her unique connection to the Force, Talzin crafted the diving orb from magical ichor. The crystal ball could predict and give glimpses of the future and locate people and objects. Talzin used it to help Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker locate Savage Opress on another planet.
It was later used by Talzin to help Opress locate Darth Maul. When Talzin located the Nightbrothers, the crystal ball produced images of them. After the extinction of the Nightsister coven, the crystal ball came into the possession of the former Sith Lord and Talzin's son Maul. Returning to his homeworld of Dathomir, Maul took up residence in the now abandoned Nightsister lair where the crystal ball remained along with other items of the past that were important to him.
Resurrection Incantation[]
One final act of magic that could only be used by an experienced elder Nightsister was called the Chant of Resurrection. The Chant of Resurrection was a powerful dark spell of Dathomir Magic that could temporarily resurrect the dead, so long as the caster remained active. Old Daka, the oldest of the Nightsisters, used this spell to reanimate the mummified corpses of deceased Nightsisters to bolster Asajj Ventress's army during the Battle of Dathomir.
Old Daka drinks the Water of Life, then channels magical ichor through a crystal orb to reanimate the mummies to defend their still-living brethren. Once Daka was killed by General Grievous, the spell wore off immediately, and the dead returned to their natural state. Like all Nightsister magicks, the spell appeared as a green mist. The reanimation power requires Force magick, an arcane conduit and a physical being. Merrin later mastered this spell and first used it against Cal Ketsis. The Great Mothers of Peridea also used the spell to help Grand Admiral Thrawn with his soldiers against Ahsoka Tano.
Living Sphere[]
The Nightsister shaman Mother Talzin gained the allegiance of the blood-thirsty Frangawl Cult and under her orders, the cult abducted Dagoyan Masters from Bardotta and drained their Living Force placing it inside the living sphere. The living sphere was created by the Nightsisters and given to the Frangawl Cult who used it in their sacrificial ceremony murdering several Bardottans in the process.
Talzin later rendezvoused with the cult and attempted to use the living sphere and the Bardottan Queen Julia in a ritual that would increase the Nightsister's Magick powers. The attempt failed and the living sphere shattered releasing the Living Force and an explosion occurred killing the cultists and Talzin vanished. The living sphere was crystalline its color was milky glass and when containing the Force, it gave off a glowing green color.
Weaponry[]
The Nightsisters were not just trained in the art of spell-casting but also the form of sword fighting and warrior training.
The Nightsisters were trained in archery and used bows called Nightsister Energy Bows. Their bows were imbued with dark sorcery. They were ranged weapons used by the Nightsisters of Dathomir. The bowstrings and arrows of the weapon were made of pure plasma and emitted a bright pink glow.
In the middle of the bowstring was a grip, so that the weapon could be fired without harming the user. When running out of plasma arrows, the bowstring could be used as a bludgeon, to blind or burn the enemy. A special group of Nightsisters, known as the Hunters, used energy weapons to track down and eliminate enemies on orders of Mother Talzin.
The Nightsisters also used special blades. A Nightsister Dagger was a traditional, bladed weapon of the Nightsisters of Dathomir. It was commonly used by the clan led by Mother Talzin during the Clone Wars. More experienced and powerful Nightsisters could use Force sorcery to hide their movements.
Relationships[]
Allies[]
- Shadow Collective (formerly)
- Nightbrothers
- Darth Maul (formerly)
- Taron Malicos
Enemies[]
- Galactic Republic
- Galactic Empire
- Battle Droids
- Stormtroopers
- Darth Vader
- Count Dooku
- Darth Maul
- General Grievous
- Separatists
- Shadow Collective
- Black Sun
- Death Watch
- Pyke Syndicate
- Jedi Order
