Talisman of the Raven The Talisman of the Raven was a ring used by the Nightsisters of Dathomir as a Talisman of Transformation that allowed the user to assume the form of a raven . According to Mother Talzin , who led the united clans of Nightsisters during the Clone Wars , the Talisman would tap into the prime raven spirit in the spirit world and lend its powers to the user . Originally held under the custodianship of a Shaman of the Nightsisters , it was stolen by Sister Charal , one of the Dathomiri witches . She fled to the moon Endor and never returned the Talisman to the coven . Charal used it to great effect during her service to the Sanyassan Marauders , a band of Sanyassan pirates . However , the Talisman was later seized by the Marauders ' leader , King Terak , who wore it around his neck . Eventually , the ring was destroyed in an encounter with the moon ' s native Ewoks . The great power of the ring was unleashed upon Terak , burning him to death . As Charal was flying around in raven form during the fight , the untimely destruction of the Talisman trapped her in this shape with no hope of escape . Properties . The Talisman of the Raven allowed its user to assume the shape of a raven . Such pieces of arcane technology were created by the Witches of Dathomir , a society of all - female Force - users . Both Sith alchemists and Jedi scholars could not fully explain how the artifacts worked and unsuccessfully tried to replicate their effects . A Talisman of Transformation , the Talisman of the Raven consisted of a red gemstone set in a golden ring . On the planet Dathomir , a clan of dark side witches known as the Nightsisters would create such artifacts by empowering receptacles of various types with the power of what they called " the spirits " — their way of describing the work of the Force . According to Talzin , Clan Mother and Shaman of the united Nightsister covens during the time of the Clone Wars , the realm of the spirits was populated by the life - energies of beings that corresponded to real animals in the mundane realm , and was ruled by the universal manifestations of male and female energy . She believed every existing species to have a correspondent representative ur - spirit in the spirit realm — for example , all the ssurian s of the material plane would have a single corresponding " ur - ssurian " spirit in the immaterial realm . Talismans of Transformation were believed to allow the wearer to turn into a specific creature by tapping into its ur - spirit ' s energy . The Talisman of the Raven had been impregnated with the energy of the raven ' s ur - spirit , granting its wearer the power to take the shape of the black bird . In order to draw on the ur - raven ' s power , the wearer needed to give the stone a twist . That effect could also be achieved accidentally by the impact of a blow imparted to the ring . If the Talisman was lost or destroyed while the user was still subsumed by the ur - raven , the user would be trapped in raven form . As with all other magic al artifacts , the Talisman of the Raven belonged to the community of the Sister hood . According to Talzin , the keeping of the talismans was the responsibility of the Nightsister Shaman — an elder witch whose role was to interpret the will of the spirits . Any Sister who wanted to use the ring was required to borrow it from the Shaman , and was expected to return it to the coven afterward . In " Wild Power " , her main manifesto on Nightsister philosophy , practice , and role in the galaxy , Talzin complained about a Sister — Charal — never having returned the Talisman of the Raven . History . The earliest known owner of the Talisman was the Shaman of the Nightsisters who served during the first century before the Galactic Civil War . Sometime before 96 BBY , Sister Charal , a member of the clan , managed to escape Dathomir , taking the Talisman , on lease from the Shaman , with her . Pursued by her fellow witches , Charal traveled from star system to star system with the stolen ring . She joined with a band of space pirates , the Sanyassan Marauders from the nearby planet Sanyassa , led by King Terak . Together , they were eventually stranded on Endor , a distant moon untouched by galactic civilization , where many intergalactic travelers had found themselves marooned due to the stellar anomalies surrounding it , such as the Endor Gate black hole . Unlike many other castaways , the Sanyassan s were aggressive , and they desperately sought to escape the forest moon , scavenging whatever technology they could find . Charal used the ring to great effect during that time , intimidating the Marauders with displays of its power , and eventually becoming Terak ' s partner . In 3 ABY , Charal became a victim of her own magic ring during a showdown with Logray , the shaman of a tribe of Ewoks inhabiting in Bright Tree Village , and his young apprentice Paploo . While she was fighting the two Ewoks , Charal ' s talisman was struck by Paploo ' s slingshot , which activated the artifact ' s powers in the heat of battle . The witch then made a strategic retreat , electing to take her revenge another time . A little later , in 3 . 5 ABY , a Human youngling named Cindel Towani crashed on Endor with her family . Charal and the Marauders saw a chance to escape their place of forced exile in the family ' s starship . The Sanyassans believed that ship ' s crystal oscillator held the " power " that would allow them to return home . Cindel ' s parents and older brother were murdered by Terak and Charal , and the little girl was captured . When Charal was found unable to " conjure " the power of the crystal , she was put in jail along with Towani and had her ring confiscated . A young Ewok warrior named Wicket W . Warrick teamed up with his friends to rescue Towani from Terak ' s Keep , and they ran off with the crystal oscillator and headed to their own crashed ship . King Terak , intent on revenge , decided to carry out a punitive expedition . He ordered his minions to recapture the crystal oscillator . He allowed Charal to use the ring , but took it back immediately after her transformation — he wanted to keep Charal in bird form so she would track the group without betraying him and running away . When the Marauders found their targets , a pitched battle between the two groups ensued . Terak fought with the Talisman of the Raven in a pendant around his neck . During the melee , a rock slung from Wicket ' s slingshot hit the ring , breaking the Talisman and releasing its power . The ring shattered and pieces of the magic stone were driven into Terak ' s chest . Terak clutched at his heart , and he burned to death on exposure with the ring ' s " spirit " energy . According to the shamanistic Dathomiri beliefs , the raven ur - spirit that was trapped in the ring returned to the spirit realm at that moment . Because the transformation spell was still active when the ring was destroyed , Charal was doomed to remain a raven forever . The transformed witch was last seen dropping down to the ground in the hope of reclaiming her broken ring ; then she flew off into the woods . Behind the scenes . The Talisman of the Raven first appeared in the 1985 made - for - TV film " " . While often seen on - screen , it was never referred to in dialogue . While early sources implied Charal ' s ring could turn its wearer into virtually anything , Daniel Wallace ' s " " stated that Nightsister Talismans of Transformation have limited powers and can only transform people into one specific creature . In his endnotes for the " Book of Sith " , Wallace revealed that the Talismans of Transformations had been specifically created with Charal and her magic ring in mind . There is a conflict between several sources regarding the death of King Terak . While Terak ' s Databank entry on StarWars . com stated that he was burned by the power of the ring , other sources like the children ' s book " " stated the Sanyassan King was turned to stone . This article follows the Databank ' s version of the facts , as it was once the most official " Star Wars " database .