Final Occultation

The Final Occultation was a cult which operated during the Republic Era and sought to bring chaos to the galaxy through the use of the chaotic and anarchic aspects of the Force which flowed from the Netherworld. Led by the three priests Heldi Cerebron, Vasik Aldritch, and an "emissary of chaos," most of the members of the cult were detained by the Sith Lord Darth Sidious for attempting to expose him. Placed on a prison ship en route to prison planet, the ship's officers were quickly overrun by the cultists aboard, who began a ritual to open a rift to madness and echo screams across the galaxy. Sent by his master Sidious, the Sith apprentice Darth Maul travelled to the ship and killed at least two of the leaders, before crashing the ship into an ice planet below.
==Description==
The Final Occultation was a Force-based cult which sought to bring chaos, anarchy, and pain to the galaxy. In this task they were aided by forces originating from the Netherworld of the Force, an afterlife where the souls of every being were believed to go after the death of their physical bodies in Force-based societies. The cult rejected the binary approach of the light and dark sides of the Force as promoted by the Sith Order and the Jedi Order, instead believing both sides to be the same thing. They viewed the light side and dark side as ways of order, which they sought to replace with chaos as a superior system of universal rule, though they still drew the power from dark side channels.
The cult was led by a trinity of priests including Heldi Cerebron, Vasik Aldritch, and a third leader. Cereberon had the ability to release spores from her exposed brain, capable of inflicting visions on others' minds. Aldritch was a fighter who centered his disorderly combat style around his strong physical attributes amd the third leader considered themselves to be a "emissary of chaos".
==History==
===Opposition to the Sith and imprisonment===
During the Republic Era and height of the Jedi Order, the Sith Lords Darth Sidious and Darth Maul operated in hiding from the Jedi and hoped to eventually inflict revenge upon the Order, following the Sith's defeat and apparent destruction years prior during the Jedi-Sith War.Star Wars Propaganda: A History of Persuasive Art in the Galaxy During this time frame, Sidious operated in secret as Senator Palpatine of his homeworld Naboo. Between 40 BBY and 32 BBY, the Final Occultation discovered the existence of the two Sith Lords and sought to expose them. The cult coveted the Sith's power and hoped that the Sith would be extinguished before they could take over the galaxy. Before they were able to expose Sidious and Maul, the Sidious' efforts resulted in the detainment of all three leaders as well as dozens of members. The cult members were placed aboard a prison ship en route to a prison planet.
===Prison ship overrun===
While traveling over an ice planet, the Final Occultation members aboard the ship took overran and took over the ship, causing it to exit hyperspace. At this point, the third Final Occultation member congregated with many of the cult's followers to use the ship's hypermatter in order to open a rift to madness. After noticing that the ship had gone dark, Sidious attempted to establish contact, but he merely received a transmission of a humanoid creature. Sidious described to Maul that the audio sounded like thousands crying out in pain, and described the imagery as that of disorder. He continued to state that such was the stuff of nightmares and unstable dark magic, and instructed Maul to venture to the prison transport to arrest and detain the cult once more.
Upon arrival, Maul entered a hallway which had become overrun with Cerebron's spores. The Sith Lord encountered an afflicted officer who informed him that the spores were Heldi's doing. Behind Maul, Heldi appeared and the spores began to affect Maul as well. Having terrifying visions featuring Sidious, Cerebron, and a large beast, Maul called upon his training and fought through the chaos in his mind. He used his lightsaber to slice the cultist in half. Continuing to the detention block, where corpses of stationed officers were left scattered along the floor. Maul then encountered Aldritch, who began to shoot at him with his blaster cannon. Maul attempted to utilize precision to counteract Aldritch's bigger weight and slowness, but he was overwhelmed by the cultist's disorderly approach to combat. Eventually, as Aldritch grabbed Maul, the latter was able to use the Force to pull his lightsaber from afar and cut the former's forearms. Before plunging his weapon into Aldritch's chest, Maul inquired the location of the final priest, to which Aldritch informed him to follow the screams.
===Boiling red planet===
Following the screams Maul arrived in a massive open area, filled with cultists led by the third and final priest. The priest explained to Maul of the cult's beliefs, explaining that after they had finished opening the rift to madness, screams would echo across the galaxy and that all would live on a boiling red planet. Maul was offered a position as a high priest by the leader given he had decided to stop his assault of the cultists, but Maul instead decided to throw his lightsaber into the rift's origin point, destroying the ceremony. After the Final Occultation leader sent the remaining followers after Maul, the Sith Lord decided to run for the ship's control room, using the controls to manuever the ship into the ice planet below. Despite knowing that his master requested to maintain the cult as prisoners, Maul deliberately decided to crash land the ship to kill all the cultists inside, believing that it was not worth the interrogation or enlistment of the Final Occultation. Maul himself cut a whole in the ship so that he could escape, leaving the ship to crash land into the snow. Establishing communications with his master, he questioned why his master did not wipe them out immediately instead of detain them. Sidious stated that he sensed much confusion in Maul and believed that the Final Occultation had broke Maul, with Maul replying that they nearly broke the galaxy.
==Behind the scenes==
The Final Occultation first appeared in Darth Maul – Black, White & Red 1, a comic book written by Benjamin Percy, illustrated by Stefano Raffaele, and published by Marvel Comics on April 24, 2024. Prior to the comic's release, the cult was mentioned in a This Week! in Star Wars episode on the official Star Wars YouTube channel, released on January 24, 2024. Afterwards, the Final Occultation was first pictured in a preview of the issue released on March 20, 2024.
==Appearances==
*Darth Maul – Black, White & Red 1 
==Sources==
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==Notes and references==
Category:Force-based organizations