Witches of Dathomir The Witches of Dathomir ( also referred to as either Dathomirians or Dathomiri ) were a group of Human Force - sensitives native to the planet Dathomir . They were also known as the Daughters of Allya in honor of the wayward Jedi Knight Allya , who was banished to the planet around 600 BBY , and who they regarded as their ancestress . By the time of the Galactic Empire , Allya ' s descendants had divided into female - dominated clans that were named after regional landmarks . Each clan had a unique set of rules regarding Force usage , but all the clans held one rule above all others : " Never concede to evil " . Origins . Around 600 BBY , a Jedi Knight named Allya arrived on the wilderness planet Dathomir , apparently a rogue exiled by the Jedi Council to meditate on the Force in enforced solitude . On her arrival , however , she encountered other Human exiles . Linguistic evidence suggests that elements of the planet ' s Human population had been largely isolated from the wider Galaxy since the days of the Paecian Empire , in 3000 BBY or earlier , while later Dathomiri tradition claimed that the inhabitants Allya found had been exiled for producing illegal battle droids ; what is not clear from available evidence is whether the earlier settlers had arrived in a single group long before Allya ' s time , or if in fact Dathomir had been used more continuously as a penal colony over the millennia . However , it is known that a few Humans shamans already inhabited Dathomir by the fortieth century before the Galactic Civil War , some of which boarded a Tho Yor ship in 36 , 453 BBY and joined the founders of the Je ' daii Order . One other factor in Dathomir ' s past that may be relevant , but seems to have been forgotten to future generations , is the existence of a Sith academy on the planet in the final years of the New Sith Wars , shortly before 1000 BBY . This was one of the more prestigious training establishments of the Brotherhood of Darkness , ranked with the Iridonia Academy second only to the newly - founded center on the ancient capital of Korriban , and trained the Sith equivalent of Jedi Knights : but it is not known how long it lasted for , or if it left any permanent legacy on the planet . What is clear is that by the time of Allya ' s arrival , the Human population had become prey for the dominant sentients at the apex of Dathomir ' s native food - chain : the rancors . But when Allya assumed leadership of the population , events were set in motion that would lead to the development of a unique Human culture on Dathomir , founded on the enslavement of the male population to Force - sensitive female warriors , the transformation of the rancors from predators to allies , and the authorship of the Book of Law . Native accounts sometimes attributed the shaping of Dathomiri society entirely to Allya , presenting her as a lone woman among a rabble of helpless men , mere snacks for herds of hungry rancors until they became her willing slaves . These traditions insinuated that Allya reduced the population to willing subjugation in a single lifetime , with the few who did not follow her becoming food for the rancors ; among her followers , favored slaves were offered the chance to become mates , in the knowledge that if they fathered sons , they would be fed to the rancors . The boys were raised by other slaves to become slaves themselves , whereas the daughters of Allya were raised by her and trained in the ways of the Force . This account claims that Dathomiri society was forged in a single generation , and traces the ancestry of every Human on the planet to a single mother and her daughters — the eldest of whom was said to have been just sixteen local years old ( about twenty standard years ) when her Jedi mother died . But while this version was largely accepted as accurate by the New Republic , it is likely to be at least partially legendary . The linguistic influence of Paecian in the Dathomiri language shows that the Human population had been established for rather more than two millennia when Allya arrived , indicating the existence of a viable breeding population ; and even under the New Republic , the Singing Mountain Clan remembered others who had not been " daughters of Allya " , and who had gradually faded as distinct groups over subsequent generations . Nevertheless , it is likely that the key event in the forging of Dathomiri society was Allya ' s discovery that she could tame the rancors using the Force , with the resulting symbiosis between female rider and mount dictating subsequent social patterns . The attribution of the Book of Law to Allya is probably also correct : a codification of the moral and ethical laws that she wished for her daughters to follow , written down shortly before her death . The final entry of the Book of Law was the same as Allya ' s last words to her daughters : " Never concede to evil " . Culture . Over time , the Dathomiri divided into a number of distinct clans , a process sometimes framed in retrospect as a power struggle between Allya ' s elder daughters . These clans were named after regional landmarks , and although they shared a common tradition , each clan eventually developed their own set of laws about Force usage around the common core of inherited teachings , with the text of the Book of Law diverging into several distinct clan versions . The clans raided each other for mates , with low - level conflict being entered into cheerfully by the warrior women . The number of clans fluctuated somewhat over time : in 8 ABY there were more than a dozen clans , but by 12 ABY , the number had been reduced to nine . Perhaps the most prominent of these groups was the Singing Mountain Clan , due to the contacts it established with the New Republic and Hapes Consortium , while others were located at the Frenzied River , Misty Falls , Red Hills , Dreaming River and Great Canyon . Each Dathomiri clan was based in a fortified village at or near its eponymous landmark . Women served as warriors and leaders , with leadership typically held by the eldest in a clan . Matriarchs aged a century or more were not uncommon , and in exceptional circumstances ( as with Rell ) they could be to close to 300 local years old ( four centuries standard ) . Men were used only for breeding and slave labor , clad in nothing more than leather aprons or scanty tunics , and neither they nor the women seem to have realized that they retained latent Force potential . Typically , warriors were expected to find mates by capturing runaways or slaves from other clans , but the leading clan sisters could purchase men from each other , and if a mate could not be persuaded to love his owner , the equivalent of an amicable divorce could be enacted by selling him to another woman . The only way a man could go free was if he saved the life of a woman in his clan . As a warrior society , the Dathomiri Witches trained daily in the art of war , and used both their muscles and the Force to aid them in combat . They wore their hair in elaborate braids ( sometimes with a helmet decorated with mementos ) and lizard skin armor . Over time , the Force powers of the Witches came to be largely defined in the form of " spells " , where they chanted a specific set of words and the desired effect was produced . Crimes were punished by exile , particularly the use of the dark side ; this was often thought of in terms of " night spells " , but punishment was also applied when a sister used anger to fuel an otherwise permissible Force power . If a warrior wished to return to the clan , she had to undergo a period of exile for purification purposes before she would be allowed back , often extending to several years ; but some , known as Nightsisters , remained in exile , and these exiles sometimes banded together to form a clan of their own , or occasionally took over an existing clan , although no more than one Nightsister clan is known at any one time , and they were always opposed by the rest of Dathomir . The Witches lacked space technology but off - worlders would visit Dathomir in order to select suitable individuals as assassins or enforcers . Even during the planet ' s membership in the New Republic , the Witches still prefered to maintain their natural lifestyle Recorded history . In 340 BBY , the Jedi training vessel " Chu ' unthor " crashed on the surface of Dathomir . The now - numerous warrior - women attacked the vessel , and three Jedi Masters , Gra ' aton , Yoda and Vulatan , were dispatched to rescue the stranded passengers . The Jedi ' s attempts to rescue their comrades and recover the ship were repelled with the death of fourteen of their number , but Yoda made a return visit to negotiate a settlement with a young Witch named Rell . In exchange for releasing the stranded passengers , Yoda gave Rell a box full of information on Jedi teaching methods , and told her to safeguard it until a Jedi Knight and his apprentice arrive to save Dathomir from the dark side using Witch clan calling themselves the Nightsisters . In 54 BBY , the Sith Lord Darth Sidious came to Dathomir and was approached by a Nightsister named Kycina , who begged him to take her newborn child Maul away from the life of a Nightbrother . After sensing how powerful the child was , Sidious agreed and took him in as a tool to be used by both him and his master , Darth Plagueis . Thus , the infamous Darth Maul became the first known Sith Lord of Dathomirian heritage . However , Mother Talzin had plans for the young Zabrak in the future Clone Wars . A few years before the outbreak of the Clone Wars , a Nightsister clan which had gained access to some off - world technology attempted to activate the ancient Kwa construct known as the Infinity Gate , but this was foiled by Jedi Knight Quinlan Vos , and Dathomir subsequently remained dissociated from wider civilization until the Galactic Empire discovered the planet in the course of their war against the Drackmarian s . In 0 ABY , Palpatine ordered a new penal colony to be constructed on Dathomir , but when he discovered the power of the new Nightsisters leader Gethzerion , he ordered all the prison ' s starships destroyed , stranding the Imperial garrison and the convicts . The Nightsisters took the stranded Imperials as slaves and plotted ways to leave the planet , although a pair of Star Destroyers prevented the arrival or departure of any spaceships . After the Battle of Endor , the Dathomir system was seized by Warlord Zsinj , who established shipyards around its moon , Koratas . In 8 ABY , however , Luke Skywalker , Han Solo , Chewbacca , Leia Organa , and Prince Isolder of Hapes arrived on the planet and helped to liberate the clans of the tyranny of the Nightsisters and the Warlord . Augwynne Djo of the Singing Mountain Clan was given legal title to the planet as nominal Queen by Han Solo , enabling her granddaughter Teneniel Djo to marry Isolder as an equal . Luke Skywalker also received from Rell the discs Yoda had left with her years earlier , and several Dathomiri later joined Skywalker ' s Jedi Praxeum to learn the ways of the Jedi . Although Dathomir joined the New Republic , Imperial interests in the planet remained active . In 12 ABY an expedition under General Vit and Sigit Ranth was dispatched by the Imperial Remnant to investigate the Infinity Gate , and forged an alliance with a new Nightsister group , although they were foiled by the Jedi academy . In around 19 ABY , the Great Canyon Clan was infiltrated by an Imperial Intelligence operation led by Brakiss , designed to transform the clan into a recruiting pool for the Shadow Academy ; under Brakiss ' manipulation , the women of the Great Canyon Clan declared themselves Nightsisters and — more radically — accepted their men as equals . This latest threat was eventually ended with the defeat of the Second Imperium , but soon after , Dathomir was attacked by the invading Yuuzhan Vong , although the planet resisted the attackers , and after the Battle of Yuuzhan ' tar a permanent Jedi enclave was established under the leadership of Kirana Ti , Damaya , and Streen . Jacen Solo studied under the witches of Dathomir after the Yuuzhan Vong War , and the Solos and Skywalkers had adventures among the Witches after tracking Sith apprentice Vestara Khai to Dathomir .