Charal Charal was a Force - wielding Nightsister who turned her back on the sister hood and left her homeworld of Dathomir . Before getting off the planet for good , she stole the Talisman of the Raven , a prized artifact that allowed her to metamorphose into a bird known as a raven . The other witches called Charal a traitor and sought to feed her to their rancors , a species of ferocious predators . Charal spent decades trying to escape her pursuers and ultimately joined a band of Sanyassan Marauders , who were themselves being hunted down by law enforcement agencies . Their vessel crashed on the uncharted Forest Moon of Endor , where a Sanyassan warlord known as Terak set himself up as King , appointing Charal as his second - in - command . Over roughly the next century , the long - lived Marauders established themselves as pillagers and raiders on Endor ; Charal matched the Sanyassans ' natural longevity through her affinity with the Force . Meanwhile , she enhanced her authority over the Marauders thanks to the powers of the Talisman she had stolen from Dathomir before her desertion . Charal hated being stuck on the Forest Moon , but she came to regard herself as the Witch - Queen of Endor . When the Towani family of Humans crash - landed on the moon in 3 ABY , Charal and the Marauders saw the newcomers ' still - functional Star Cruiser as an opportunity to escape . However , the chance was foiled by the youngest Towani , Cindel , her Ewok friend Wicket Wystri Warrick , the Human scout Noa Briqualon , and his Teek companion . When Warrick destroyed her Talisman in the heat of battle , Charal became trapped in the form of a raven forever . Biography . Early life . A Human female from Dathomir , Charal was born a witch to a Nightsister clan , well over a standard century before the Galactic Civil War . As she learned to master the spells of her coven , she came to be highly regarded by her Sister s for her outstanding talents in Shadow Magic , especially the mysterious art of shapeshifting . During her life on her homeworld , Charal was also taught horsemanship — unlike many Nightsisters , she rode a black horse instead of a carnivorous rancor . At some point , Charal decided to leave her homeworld . She abandoned her clan and stole the Talisman of the Raven , a ring that allowed the wearer to physically change shape to become a bird known as a raven . Her desertion was not well received , and Charal earned a death mark from the other witches , who wanted to return her to Dathomir so that she might be fed to the rancors . Hunted , Charal spent decades moving from star system to star system across the galaxy , trying to avoid both her former Sisters and those Jedi Knights who hounded runaway darksiders . She eventually joined a band of Sanyassan pirates known as the Marauders , who were on the run from law enforcement agencies . Terak , leader of the Sanyassan pirates , agreed to forge an alliance with Charal . The witch intended to stay with the raiders on their starship only long enough to secure herself passage with a different vessel — but a shipwreck ruined her plans . The pirates were barely able to pilot their stolen Star Cruiser , and their navigator could not handle the complex gravity patterns of the Endor system . In 96 BBY , their vessel crashed on the Sanctuary Moon of Endor , a protected nature reserve located in the Moddell sector . Like many other unfortunate travelers , the castaway witch found herself stranded due to the stellar anomalies surrounding Endor . Life on Endor . While on Endor , Charal stayed with the Marauders . Their leader , Terak , set himself up as King , occupying a primitive castle in the plains of the Dragon ' s Pelt savanna . Using her Talisman to great effect , the Nightsister intimidated the Sanyassan pirates with displays of its power , and she eventually came to rule over them as Terak ' s cohort . There was a delicate balance of power between Terak and Charal , and each of them used every opportunity they could to overcome the other . Driven by delusions of grandeur , Charal styled herself as the Witch - Queen of Endor . Together with the Sanyassans , Charal constantly preyed on the more peaceful inhabitants of the Forest Moon , most notably the diminutive Ewoks . She was notably at odds with Logray , the Ewok shaman of Bright Tree Village , who was admittedly wary of her power . Around 26 BBY , Charal and the Marauders captured Salak Weet , a stranded humanoid scout . Weet spoke of his Star Cruiser hidden in the forests , and he told the Marauders of how the vessel traveled through realspace , capable of doing so by the " power . " In much of the galactic community , what the scout spoke of was considered everyday technology , but Charal and the Sanyassans were stuck in primitive thinking . They took Weet ' s words literally , and Terak became obsessed with finding the " power " of the stars that the scout mentioned . While Charal held a position of authority , not all of the Marauders feared the witch . During their life on Endor , Charal and the Sanyassan scholar Szingo developed a bitter rivalry . One day , after Marauder scouts shot down a pirate ship , Szingo asked a passing spacer to disintegrate the survivors and to bring their leader ' s weapon to him . Once Charal heard of the discovery , she raided the crashed ship with a few Sanyassan henchmen and destroyed the wreckage to ensure that the scholar would find nothing else . Szingo , intent on revenge , ordered the spacer to kill the Marauders who had performed this act of treachery . When the offworlder did so , Terak was displeased by the deaths of his men , so Szingo intended to place the blame on Charal . However , the Nightsister used her sorcery to prove she had nothing to do with the attack , shielding herself from the King ' s wrath . Charal ' s poultice . At some point between 0 ABY and 3 ABY , Charal was working on a poultice that would help her divine the future . A passing - by spacer approached her and offered to be of service . Charal took advantage of the offer and had the spacer venture into the woods to retrieve the spleen of a healthy Ewok . When the spacer returned with the spleen , Charal added it to her poultice . To retrieve the next ingredient , the Witch - Queen dispatched " Lizardman , " a dimwitted Trandoshan slave she used as her personal assistant , as he had a keen sense of smell for the type of herb she required . When he did not return , Charal decided to enlist the spacer once again , this time to retrieve Lizardman . The spacer did so , and returned with Lizardman in tow . Fortunately for Charal , the Trandoshan had the herbs required . For her final ingredient , the Witch - Queen required Ewok spittle . The spacer assisted her once again , retrieving a whole , live Ewok and returning it to Terak ' s Keep . Pleased , Charal extracted the required saliva from the captive and completed her poultice . With it , she saw a vision of many ships landing on the Forest Moon , ships she planned to steal . She also discovered that a ship had crashed on Endor recently , and that survivors of the crash possessed a comlink — a communication device that would allow her to steal the ships that would be landing in the future . Once more enlisting the spacer , whom she now regarded as a slave , Charal bade her servant steal the comlink from the survivors of the crash . The spacer ventured forth , killed the survivors , and returned with the device . The Witch - Queen was overjoyed ; with the comlink in her possession , she believed she would be able to control the universe . Satisfied , Charal dismissed her servant ; by following the spacer ' s own destiny , Charal reasoned , the spacer would serve the witch ' s as well . The Witch and the Imperials . When the Galactic Empire first explored the Sanctuary Moon , the Marauders captured the Imperial scouting party , including a Human Sergeant named Pfilbee Jhorn . Charal relished the hope that she could escape at last with the Imperials . Nevertheless , the Marauders merely took the intruders down into their gritty cellblocks , deprived them of their possessions , and tortured one of them to death . Unbeknownst to Terak , the Force witch sneaked into the dungeons to parley with Jhorn and his men . Charal promised to help the survey team escape as long as they vowed to take her with them . The prisoners agreed to the deal , but Terak learned of Charal ' s treachery before she could escape . He grew angry and had the Sister tossed into a cage even as the Imperials ran to their freedom . The woman stayed in prison until the King finally agreed to forgive her betrayal and let her become his second - in - command again . Run - in with Logray . By 3 ABY , the Imperials had come back to Endor and started building a deflector shield generator and a bunker on the Dulok Swamp . Their presence on the green moon had awakened the Griagh , a monstrous beast that had long been considered mythical . In the midst of these events , Charal had a showdown with the shaman Logray . He had come along with his apprentice Paploo to discuss the recent events with her . When the old Ewok allowed her to touch the Sunstar , Charal experienced a powerful vision that gave her a glimpse of the perils to come . Enticed by the might of the Sunstar , she demanded that Logray let her have it . Faced with the Ewoks ' refusal , Charal went on the offensive . Using her magic to summon a group of Dulok skeletons , she prevented Paploo from defending the shaman , whom she ensnared by making giant brambles grow and twist around him . The witch ' s plans almost succeeded , until Paploo got rid of the undead Duloks and used his slingshot to knock the Sunstar away from her hands . The shot not only hit Charal ' s hand , but it also struck her talisman , turning the witch into her raven form on the spot . Finding herself in the midst of a temporary defeat , the Witch - Queen of Endor retreated . As an act of revenge , she later had Logray and Paploo ambushed by a group of Imperial stormtroopers . While still in raven form , the Dathomiri woman scratched one of the stormtroopers ' helmets with her claws , causing the trooper to chase her into the woods . This allowed Charal to lead the Imperials directly to the Ewoks . The Battle for Endor . In 3 . 5 ABY , Charal accompanied the Marauders during an attack on Bright Tree Village , an Ewok settlement where the Human Towani family had sought refuge after crashing on Endor in their Star Cruiser . Terak still sought what he called the " power " — actually the crystal oscillator from the family ' s spacecraft — which he believed the Towanis possessed . As such , during the attack , the Witch - Queen ventured to the location of the downed vessel . There , Charal found the family patriarch , Jeremitt Towani , working on the ship ; she ordered the Marauders to beat him in an attempt to discover the location of the " power " . In due course , Terak himself arrived and began interrogating the man . Towani claimed ignorance , but Terak strongly believed that the man was the " Guardian of the power . " Terak removed the ship ' s crystal oscillator and triumphantly declared to his men that he had the " power " . At that moment , Towani lunged for a blaster pistol and shot down one of the Marauders before attempting to escape . Terak , satisfied with his find , sent his men after the Human . Using her ring , Charal shifted into her raven form and tracked down Jeremitt Towani , who was hiding with his daughter , Cindel . The Witch - Queen alerted the Marauders to their location , but the girl escaped into the woods . As Charal gave chase , the Marauders found and killed the elder Towani . The Human girl was not able to run far , however — the Witch - Queen returned to her normal form and stopped the young Towani in her tracks . With the rest of her family killed by then , the young girl was taken as a captive by Terak ' s Marauders . However , she escaped from their custody with the aid of the captured Ewoks while they were on the road to Terak ' s Keep . Back at the castle , Charal attempted to use her Force - witch magic to activate the crystal oscillator , but without success . She suggested to Terak that the Towani girl might be able to help activate the device , but her remark only incensed the King . He immediately ordered Charal and the Marauders to locate and recapture the young Human . As a raven , Charal set out into the woods . She was able to ascertain that Towani was staying with another Human living on Endor , an older man named Noa Briqualon . The day after she had made her discovery , Charal distanced herself from Briqualon ' s residence and began calling Cindel Towani ' s name , replicating the voice of Catarine Towani , the young girl ' s mother . As the child grew nearer , Charal began singing " My Star , " one of the young Towani ' s favorite songs . To further entice her prey , the Witch - Queen took on the appearance of a much younger Human with golden hair and white robes . Nearby , she had a white horse waiting . When Towani entered her presence , the disguised witch had the young girl bring a nearby robe to her . Taking the garment , Charal quickly transformed into her normal self and seized Towani . Her new captive in tow , Charal mounted her horse , which was now black , and rode for Terak ' s Keep . The witch brought Cindel Towani before the Marauder king , and both ordered the girl to release " the power " of the crystal oscillator . Towani confessed that she did not know how to use the crystal , sending Terak into a fit of anger . The Sanyassan imprisoned both Charal and the girl in his stronghold ' s dungeon . Behind the bars , the Nightsister scolded Towani for not giving Terak what he had demanded . The witch also revealed that it was Briqualon ' s friend Salak Weet — now lying dead in one of the cells — who had first told them of " the power " contained in the energy cells . Meanwhile , Towani ' s friends sneaked into the stronghold to free the girl , as well as the Marauders ' Ewok captives . Briqualon , Wicket Wystri Warrick , and Briqualon ' s Teek companion made it to the cellblocks and set their friends free . For a moment , Charal hoped she would be able to escape too , and she asked Warrick to open her cage . Towani , however , took the keys from her Ewok companion before he could comply . The party left the castle , taking the crystal oscillator with them . When Terak learned of the jailbreak , he decided to lead a punitive expedition to retrieve the crystal . He turned to Charal and commanded her to go after the fugitives . He allowed the Force witch to use her Talisman to change into a raven again , but this time , Terak grabbed the bird by the leg and seized the ring . The Sanyassan wanted to keep Charal in bird form so she would track the group without betraying him and running away . The Nightsister flew off with the full Marauder army close behind . When they finally reached their targets at Briqualon ' s Star Cruiser , a battle ensued between the Marauders and the Ewoks . Charal observed the fighting in bird form , flying around the battlefield . During Terak ' s final duel with Briqualon , Warrick intervened and used his sling to hit the Sanyassan warlord . However , the Ewok ' s aim was low : instead of hitting Terak between the eyes , the rock struck Charal ' s ring , which was around his neck . The Talisman of the Raven shattered , unleashing its powers on the Marauder leader and burning him to a crisp , as well as trapping Charal in her animal form forever . She swooped down to the ground to try to reclaim the remains of her ring , circled frantically overhead and then flew away into the forest , shrieking . What became of her subsequently remained a mystery . Legacy . Against the advice of Sergeant Jhorn , who had been tortured by the Marauders , Galactic Emperor Palpatine chose to build the shield generator for his second Death Star battlestation on Endor ' s forest moon , and the satellite found itself in the Empire ' s grasp . A few months after the defeat of Charal and the Sanyassans , members of the Rebel Alliance sought to destroy the Death Star , so they came to Endor in order to disable the shield generator . When Wicket Warrick first met Alliance heroine Princess Leia Organa , he remembered his previous encounters with Humans , and the memory of Charal still made him shudder in fear . The Death Star was finally destroyed from within by the Alliance Fleet , and Endor regained its freedom . When agents of the New Republic — the democratic government established by the Alliance — scouted the forests , they found no trace of the Marauders or Charal . As the agents had no knowledge of the conflict between the Sanyassans and the Ewoks , they had not heard of what happened to the witch . In their reports , they erroneously postulated that Palpatine had killed Charal , as he would not have tolerated another dangerous Force - user dwelling on the moon he was planning to use . Personality and traits . Charal was an imposing Human , standing 1 . 77 meters tall , with a slender shape , angular features , raven - black hair , and green eyes . She wore a black - and - red grafiform robe with octopus - like tendrils , a cloak of black feathers , and a tight - fitting Nightsister breastplate . Although she was a supercentenarian at the time of the Galactic Civil War , her appearance remained that of a person of indeterminate age . She would sometimes enhance her appearance by wearing bright red lipstick and nail polish as well as green eyeshadow . After her crash - landing on Endor , the Force witch came to hate the Forest Moon and constantly sought to venture offworld . She was highly derisive of her ally , the Sanyassan King Terak , and one day hoped to put an end to her alliance with him . Charal seized every opportunity to gain the upper hand on the warlord and to increase her personal influence on the Marauders , but generally kept a low profile in front of the king , avoiding direct confrontation . The witch also developed feelings of rivalry toward scholar Szingo , another minor figure of authority at the Marauders ' Stronghold . The Witch - Queen also had a very low opinion of her slave , Lizardman , and wished that she possessed a more intelligent assistant . She reacted to any insubordination or lack of respect from those she regarded to be her inferiors with great chagrin . Charal had a habit of referring to those in her service as " slave " or " servant , " although she immediately corrected herself upon doing so . Despite being inherently evil and an active supporter of slavery , she tended to be vain and opportunistic rather than actively malevolent toward those around her . She addressed her subservients with a patronizing yet often endearing tone , and she never attempted to hurt or kill them . The Witch - Queen placed great stock in the power of a standard item such as a comlink , believing it could grant her all manner of power . Her original culture , the Witches of Dathomir , were half - primitivists , having consciously rejected technology on philosophical grounds . Even after Dathomir joined the New Republic in 8 ABY , the Witches still preferred to maintain their natural lifestyle . Powers and abilities . When she still lived on Dathomir , Charal was regarded by others as a highly skilled witch . With the use of her ring , Charal had the power to transform into a raven . Following the traditions of the Nightsisters ' magic , she used most of her powers through singing . Like many other witches , she was gifted with Force powers such as Animal Affinity , Summon Storm , and Force Whirlwind . She was also able to locate other beings and compel them to do her bidding . She could channel spirit ichor in the form of green smoke and use it as extensions of her arms to physically hit her opponents or raise them off the ground . Additionally , she had the ability to animate corpses , a feat that she shared with other powerful sorceresses like Old Daka . Through a power known to the Nightsisters as Surge of the Brier , she could trigger the growth of a plant and shape it into a form of her choosing . Charal possessed useful , non - magical abilities . She was a capable martial artist and was also proficient with all kinds of weapons , including blaster pistols . She was skilled at horseback riding too — she possessed a black stallion she could turn into a white steed through magic . In addition to her other skills , Charal could speak at least four languages — Galactic Basic Standard , Ewokese , Sanyassan and Dathomiri . Behind the scenes . Charal was created for the 1985 made - for - TV film " " . Her name came about when pushed the movie ' s co - directors Jim and Ken Wheat to hire to play the witch ' s part . In the actual movie , Charal was portrayed by Siân Phillips in her true form and Marianne Horine in her young witch form . The character was designed by the American director and artist Joe Johnston , who first envisioned her as a greenish - skinned humanoid . Charal ' s exact origins and background remained a mystery until 1995 , when Kevin J . Anderson retcon ned her into a Witch of Dathomir in " The Illustrated Star Wars Universe " . The Force witches had been created a year earlier in Dave Wolverton ' s novel " The Courtship of Princess Leia " . In the 2000s , Charal was featured as a non - player character in the " Star Wars " - themed " Star Wars Galaxies " , in which she acted as a quest giver to the player characters , who had the ability to travel from planet to planet in spacecraft . Charal did not try to barter passage offworld with the spacers with whom she interacted , despite being shown as eager to leave Endor for good in the game . Charal was indirectly mentioned in Daniel Wallace ' s " " , in the " Wild Power " section . In it , Clan Mother Talzin mentions that " " One of our sisters has yet to return the Talisman of the Raven . " " In his endnotes for the " Book of Sith " , Wallace revealed that the Talisman of the Raven was specifically created as a reference to Charal and her magic . In " Who ' s Who in Star Wars Galaxies , " an article published in 2003 in the " Star Wars Insider 65 " , it was claimed that Terak ' s quest for the " power " is what caused him to forge his alliance with Charal . However , both Charal ' s Databank entry on StarWars . com and " The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia " , published in 2008 , stated that the Nightsister joined the Marauders before the crash on Endor , which happened decades before Terak first heard of the " power " from Salak Weet . This article follows the version of the facts featured in the " Complete Encyclopedia " , as it is the newer source . In October 2013 , Charal was featured as a minor antagonist in " " , a trade paperback published by Dark Horse Comics . The comic ' s author Zack Giallongo commented that his version of the character was designed to look a bit more like the Nightsisters shown in the animated series . Charal notably summons corpses to fight in her stead , as did the Nightsister Daka in " Massacre , " the nineteenth episode of the the animated series ' . Giallongo added that Charal , however , did not have enough power to resurrect an entire army . As the " Witch of Endor , " Charal has a namesake in the who was consulted by King and who conjured the ghost of from the dead — as told in the .