Dathomir

A world shrouded in secrecy and myth, **Dathomir** is considered one of the most terrifying planets in the galaxy. Once a vibrant and beautiful world of lush fens and forests, it over time became a world of terrifying murky swamps and inhospitable wasteland. The planet is home to various clans of witches, the most prominent being the Nightsisters. These witches use dark magicks and potions to execute their insidious plans, claiming dominance over the world. It also is home to the Nightbrothers, a Zabrak offshoot that has spawned powerful warriors such as the Sith Lord Maul, Dark Acolyte Asajj Ventress, Savage Oppress, and Jedi Knight Valo Sindar. Due to its nefarious inhabitants, hostile wildlife, and treacherous terrain, Dathomir is largely avoided by the larger galaxy, considered a planet of ghosts and evil. This has not stopped the galaxy's heroes from travelling here however, as the planet's history is riddled with secrets and artifacts from time long since past.

## **Description**

In the remote Quelii sector, there burns a blood-red star at the center of the Dathomir system, which plays host to a planet of the same name. The world of Dathomir might once have been a place of vibrant life and overflowing beauty-but that time has long since passed. However, it is by no means a dead world. Jagged mountain peaks rise like the teeth of a carnivore eager to consume its prey. Once-rich fens and forests have given was to putrid swamps and ivy-choked thickets now filled with a miasma of fog. The planet's surface is perpetually cloaked in a crimson pallor from the slowly dying star, which provides some mockery of daylight.

Dathomir's landscape is deeply shadowed, making it all the more treacherous as predators slink from their lairs. In the evening, overland navigation becomes all but impossible. Though some stars pierce the darkness, they offer little light, serving only to accentuate the murk. Low howls and feral grunts issue forth as predators too terrible to travel even under the blood-red light of day stalk whatever prey they might find in the embrace of the stygian gloom. The planet still thrives, though it has been twisted by the passage of time, the scars of war, and other, darker things.

## **History**

Settled centuries, if not millennia, before the rise of the Galactic Empire, Dathomir has been host to terrible events of catastrophic physical and spiritual scale. Aside from the proverbial cloak of the dark side having fallen across the world, it has been host to terrible battles and horrendous dark rituals. Much of the planet's history is kept secret by its inhabitants, with offworld researchers daring not to enter the system without some heavy level of protection.

Before the Clone Wars the planet gave birth to Maul and Asajj Ventress. After the Zabrak male was taken as an apprentice by the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious, the man hardly returned until after the Clone Wars beginning, vowing revenge against both the Jedi Order, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and his former Sith Master Sidious. In similar fashion the future Dark Acolyte Asajj Ventress was taken by the Siniteen slaver Halsted, raised on Rattatak and trained in the ways of the Force by the Jedi Master Ky Narec after her former master was killed. Once her new master, the Sith Lord Darth Tyranus betrayed her, she returned to Dathomir and the Nightsisters, also vowing revenge against her former Sith Master.

Due to Ventress' continual plotting against Dooku, the Sith Lord and leader of the Confederacy of Independent Systems ordered his droid armies to the planet. Leading the crusade against the Nightsisters was General Grievous, who slaughtered the Nightsisters during a pitched battle, causing Ventress to flee the carnage and enter a life as a bounty hunter. Merrin, a Nightsister, was only a child when the horrific event occured, remembering Grievous and his ruthless genocide of her sisters.

After the rise of the Galactic Empire and the end of the Clone Wars, Emperor Palpatine, otherwise known as the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, ordered a planetwide investigation into the world's secret history. During this time, the fugitive Jedi padawan Cal Kestis travelled to Dathomir,