Sith wayfinder

A Sith wayfinder was a type of pyramidal wayfinder created by the Sith to guide the way to Exegol. By the time of the First Order-Resistance War, at least two such artifacts existed. One, belonging to Sith Lord Darth Vader after the Eye of Webbish Bog gifted it to him, was located on Mustafar in the possession of the Alazmec of Winsit and under the protection of the Eye. The other, which belonged to the deposed Galactic Emperor Darth Sidious, was located in the wreckage of the second Death Star on the oceanic moon of Kef Bir in the Endor system.
==Description==
Sith wayfinders were shaped like Sith holocrons, but were a four-sided pyramid rather than a three-sided tetrahedral like the holocronShadow of the Sith and made from Kathol resin as well as Cybotaro waxen glass. The wayfinders were also the technological ancestors of the holocrons. Like other wayfinders and Luke Skywalker's compass, Sith wayfinders acted as hyperspatial lodestones, allowing safe passage through the Unknown Regions to Exegol, the hidden world of the Sith.
The astrogational systems of starships could be adapted to accept the binary signals emitted by the wayfinders and interpret them as hyperspace jump coordinates. Kylo Ren adapted his TIE whisper in this way to locate Exegol, and Rey later did the same to Luke Skywalker's X-wing for the same purpose.
==History==
Two wayfinders were created by the ancient Sith, pointing the way to their secret redoubt of Exegol via the Red Honeycomb Zone in the Unknown Regions.Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Expanded Edition Each wayfinder was entrusted to a Sith Lord, a title which, under Darth Bane's Rule of Two, was limited to a Sith Master and a Sith apprentice.Star Wars: The Last Jedi: The Visual Dictionary
As the last Dark Lords of the Sith, Darth Sidious and Darth Vader were each holders of the Sith wayfinders that revealed the path to Exegol. Vader received his wayfinder from the Eye of Webbish Bog after it tested him. Sidious, who ruled the Galactic Empire as Emperor Palpatine, stored his wayfinder in a secret chamber adjacent to his throne room on the DS-2 Death Star II Mobile Battle Station at the time of the Battle of Endor. Vader's wayfinder was located within Vader's castle on the volcanic world of Mustafar, and he entrusted the Eye with guarding the device. After their deaths and the end of the Galactic Civil War, both wayfinders remained hidden for decades.
During the rise of the New Republic, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker searched for the Emperor's wayfinder. He chronicled his efforts to find it in the Sacred Jedi texts, while tracking down fleeting rumors of Exegol during his explorations of the galaxy. The Jedi texts contained pages of information about wayfinders, particularly in the red-covered Rammahgon, which had been annotated by Skywalker. Troves of Sith artifacts and Jedi artifacts were hoarded by the Emperor and stored in his various vaults across the galaxy. Skywalker did not want these artifacts to fall into the possession of treasure hunters, and was especially fearful someone would acquire a Sith wayfinder before he could find it. Skywalker never finished his quest, despite the aid of Landonis Balthazar Calrissian, which ultimately ended on the desert planet Pasaana.
During the war between the First Order and the Resistance, Vader's wayfinder was found by his grandson, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, in the ruins of his castle. Before his death, Vader had entrusted his wayfinder to the Eye of Webbish Bog. In accordance with Vader's wishes, the guardian was to surrender the artifact to whomever defeated its protectors. It therefore deemed Ren worthy of claiming his inheritance after killing a group of Sith cultists. Attaching the device to his TIE/wi modified interceptor, the master of the Knights of Ren charted a safe course through the chaotic space of the Unknown Regions, discovering Exegol at the end of his journey.
The Jedi apprentice Rey learned about the Sith wayfinders while studying the Jedi texts with the help of the historian Captain Beaumont Kin. Knowing that Ren used one of the wayfinders to locate Exegol, Rey sought to acquire the one that belonged to the reborn Emperor. She therefore embarked on a journey to finish what Skywalker began, traveling to Pasaana, which, in turn, ultimately led her to the Death Star ruins on the oceanic moon of Kef Bir. She found the Emperor's wayfinder while exploring the wreckage, only to lose it to Ren. The dark warrior noted that only two Sith wayfinders existed, with one belonging to him as Vader's grandson, while the other, which he had also taken, was Rey's inheritance as the Emperor's granddaughter.
Ren crushed the wayfinder in his grasp to prevent Rey from confronting her grandfather and destroying the Sith without him, destroying it and sending Rey into a rage, which resulted in a final lightsaber duel between the two halves of the Force dyad. Despite Ren's efforts to prevent Rey from finding Exegol without him, the scavenger was still able to accomplish her goal by utilizing the last remaining Sith wayfinder, which she acquired after taking possession of Ren's personal starfighter. With it, she was able to lead the Resistance fleet to Exegol where they fought against the Sith Eternal's fleet, the Final Order.
==Behind the scenes==
The wayfinders appeared in the 2019 saga film Star Wars: Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker. Several versions of the prop were used during production, including variants containing liquid to create the strange effect within the wayfinder.
==Appearances==
*Star Wars Battlefront II 
*Han Solo & Chewbacca 8
*Darth Vader (2020) 8
*Darth Vader (2020) 9
*Darth Vader (2020) 11 
*Shadow of the Sith 
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*Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Expanded Edition 
*Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: A Junior Novel 
===Non-canon appearances===
*LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga 
==Sources==
*Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: The Galactic Guide
*The Art of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
*Star Wars Day-at-a-Time Calendar 2021
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*Star Wars: Fascinating Facts
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*Star Wars: The Secrets of the Sith
*Star Wars 100 Objects
*Star Wars: The Dark Side Pocket Expert
*Star Wars: Timelines
*Star Wars Bestiary, Vol. 1: Creatures of the Galaxy
*Star Wars Encyclopedia: The Comprehensive Guide to the Star Wars Galaxy
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==Notes and references==
Category:Wayfinders