Escape from the Spire During the Clone Wars , the renegade Sith Lord Darth Maul led a criminal army known as the Shadow Collective to take control of the planet Mandalore . During a battle in the city of Sundari , Maul was captured by his former Sith Master , Darth Sidious , who imprisoned Maul in the Spire , a Separatist prison on Stygeon Prime . Sidious ' vessel was followed by Mandalorian super commando s Rook Kast and Gar Saxon of Death Watch , part of the Shadow Collective , on orders from Prime Minister Almec of Mandalore . It was their mission to ensure that Maul escaped from the Spire . Sidious and his apprentice , Count Dooku , intended for Maul to escape , hoping he would lead them to the Nightsister witch Mother Talzin , Maul ' s mother and an old enemy of Darth Sidious . Dooku briefly interrogated and tortured Maul for information about the Shadow Collective , causing the renegade Sith Lord to believe that his enemies were only interested in destroying his base of power . Following the interrogation , the Mandalorians assaulted the prison and rescued their captive leader , where they rendezvoused with the remainder of their forces on the moon Zanbar . Maul ' s escape led to a battle between Death Watch and the Separatists on Zanbar , sparking a chain of events that culminated in Talzin ' s death and the destruction of Maul ' s army . Prelude . During the Clone Wars , and over ten years after being presumed dead during the Battle of Naboo , the Sith Lord Darth Maul returned to galactic prominence by creating a criminal army known as the Shadow Collective . The army — made up of Death Watch , a Mandalorian splinter faction ; the Pyke Syndicate , the galaxy ' s primary spice dealers ; and the Hutt Clan — launched a coup against Duchess Satine Kryze and her pacifist government on the planet Mandalore . This fulfilled a years - long goal of Death Watch to take over the planet and restore Mandalore ’ s ancient warrior culture , which had been replaced by the pacifistic ideals of Duchess Kryze and the New Mandalorians . With Death Watch in control of Mandalore , Maul seized power from the Death Watch leader , Pre Viszla . Numerous Death Watch loyalists turned against Maul , who formed his own Mandalorian super commando s . The fighting that resulted from Maul ’ s power grab led to a battle in the capital city of Sundari , where Darth Sidious — Maul ’ s former Sith Master — arrived and captured Maul during a lightsaber duel . Sidious revealed to Maul that he did not intend to kill his former apprentice , as he still had use for Maul ; it was Sidious ' hope that Maul would lead the Sith to Mother Talzin , Maul ' s mother and the leader of the Nightsisters , so she could be eliminated as a potential threat to the eventual Sith rule of the galaxy . Sidious brought Maul to the Spire , a prison fortress controlled by the Confederacy of Independent Systems on Stygeon Prime . It was there that Sidious briefly interrogated Maul , and told Count Dooku , Sidious ' apprentice , to find out information about who and where the Shadow Collective leaders were . The goal was to make Maul believe that the Sith wanted to destroy the Shadow Collective , so he would seek out Mother Talzin . Meanwhile , Sidious was followed to Stygeon Prime by two Death Watch warriors , Rook Kast and Gar Saxon , under orders from Mandalore ' s Prime Minister , Almec , to free Maul from the Spire . The escape . Once inside the Spire , and while Dooku interrogated Maul for information about the Shadow Collective , Kast and Saxon contacted Almec , with Saxon telling the Prime Minister that they had located Maul on the seventh level of the prison . Almec gave them the order to proceed , and the two set off explosive charges on the third level of the prison as a diversion . Battle droid s were sent to the third level to investigate the explosion , though Dooku suspected that the true target of the attack was Darth Maul . Droideka s were sent to the seventh level , where the two Mandalorians disabled super battle droids with electromagnetic explosives . As they approached Maul ' s cell , Kast and Saxon took out the droidekas with a rocket , destroying them and clearing the approach to the cell . Once they had Maul , they freed him from his restraints and informed him that they had arrived to rescue him . They shot another rocket through the walls of the prison , and all three escapees repelled via zipline out of the fortress and through the mountains to the surface , where a group of battle droids opted against pursuing them . With little resistance , designed to deliberately allow Maul to escape , the three boarded a Death Watch Gauntlet fighter and lifted off . Before leaving Stygeon Prime , the fighter fired back into the prison , destroying the battle droids who had decided against chasing them . Aftermath . Kast and Saxon took Maul to Zanbar as ordered , where the Death Watch leader reunited with his forces . They were followed by the Separatists , led by General Grievous — who was under strict orders to weaken , but not destroy Maul , which would force him to seek out Mother Talzin for help against the Sith . The two armies collided on Zanbar and , by the battle ' s end , Maul ordered his forces to retreat . As Sidious and Dooku suspected , Maul contacted Mother Talzin , who told him to meet the Separatists in combat again on Ord Mantell . During the next battle , Maul captured Dooku and Grievous , leading to a temporary alliance between Maul and Dooku when confronted by the Grand Army of the Republic . Behind the scenes . Darth Maul ' s escape from the Spire appeared in the comic book " Darth Maul — Son of Dathomir , Part One " , written by Jeremy Barlow and published by Dark Horse Comics on May 21 , 2014 . At the time , the prison did not have a name , but was later named the " Spire " in " " .