Nightsisters

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The Nightsister Charal in Ewoks: The Battle for Endor.

The Nightsisters were an organization of Dark side users in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Natives of Dathomir, the nightsisters were outcasts from the Dathamiri witches. They made their first appearance in the 1985 made-for TV film Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, where the nightsister Charal assisted in an attempt at capturing the Endor moon.

[edit] History

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

About 600 BBY (600 years before the Battle of Yavin), a Jedi named Allya fell to the Dark side. She was defeated, captured alive, and sentenced to exile on the remote planet and penal colony of Dathomir. She organized the inmates, and aided by her Force powers, led a successful uprising against the guards. She then learned how to tame the rancors and became ruler on the prison planet (classified in this way by the Jedi Order of the Old Republic). Allya, who had apparently repented the Dark side, taught her daughters (her direct descendants, and thus Force-sensitive) how to call on the Force by rituals and chanting. Years later, all of the females in Dathomir continued practicing Allya's teachings, following a tome Allya had penned in her old age, called The Book of the Law. Many clans were formed on Dathomir and they fought against each other to rule the planet. The anger and violence that permeated Dathomiran society inevitably turned a number of the Force-witches to the Dark side; such witches were invariably exiled to the wilderness from their clan. Equally inevitably, they congregated, studying how to warp their environment to their whim, summoning storms, lightning, or how to strengthen themselves so they could climb sheer rock walls, or to simply reach into someone's mind and twist them to be the Night-sister's puppet. These manipulations of the Dark side damaged the Nightsisters physically; rarely was one seen without many bloodshot eyes, or burst vessels. They often shrouded themselves in capes to hide the physical deterioration.

Around 3 ABY, one of these Nightsisters, Charal, who was in league with King Terak of the Sanyassan Marauders, attacked the Ewoks, in an attempt to take over the forest moon of Endor. Her attempt was foiled, and she was turned into a bird by Terak, due to her failures.

[edit] The Nightsisters and the Empire

Gethzerion was the first witch that learned how to call the Force without singing or chanting or doing rituals, just like a Force-user (Jedi and Sith). Gethzerion fought against her mother and she was exiled from her clan, in this way she formed her own clan, practicing the darkest spells. The clan that Gethzerion formed was called the Nightsisters. When the Emperor discovered the Nightsisters, he interdicted the planet of Dathomir, because he feared the Nightsisters' power and did not want them leaving the planet. He realized the immense potential reservoir of Force-sensitivity that Allya and centuries of selective breeding had bequeathed the Dathomirans, and the formidable enemy that the Nightsisters would be should they tap into that reservoir. The Nightsisters disagreed with Palpatine, desirous of spreading their influence. But as Palpatine and Warlord Zsinj had destroyed all space-worthy vessels on the planet, and ensured that the tech-base of Dathomir was insufficient to build their own vessel, the Nightsisters could not hope to build or operate any vessel. Nor could they hope to capture or steal one, as Dathomir was well-guarded, and Zsinj had his warships vaporize any vessel that attempted to land on the planet. The Nightsisters could only wait. But when Han Solo, Leia Organa, Luke Skywalker and Prince Isolder landed there, the Nightsisters, having seized the Imperial garrison, attempted to seize the Millennium Falcon and attacked the Singing Mountain clan of Force-witches to get it. Simultaneously, the Battle of Dathomir was occurring. In it, Zsinj relented on the interdict, trading a hyperspace-capable transport shuttle to the Nightsisters if they captured Han Solo for him. The Sisters accepted. But in the resulting battle between the Hapan forces and Zsinj's, the transport containing most of the Nightsisters (including Gethzerion) was blown up. This dealt the Nightsisters a truly tremendous blow, and it would be at least another decade before they would again be heard of, aiding the Second Imperium in its attempts to train Dark-siders. Around 23 ABY, a new clan of Nightsisters was formed by Tamith Kai in the Great Canyon. This clan accepted males and treated them as equals instead of slaves. The best of the clan were sent to the Shadow Academy for more training, with the rest remaining in the Great Canyon. The fate of those left behind after the Shadow Academy fell is unknown.