Mother Talzin

After Count Dooku betrayed her on orders from Darth Sidious, Ventress returned to Dathomir, the planet of her birth. The leader of the Nightsisters, Mother Talzin, welcomed her back, restoring her health with dark magic. The two then plotted to destroy Dooku.

The Nightsisters cloaked Asajj and two assassins with magic protections, then sent them to Serenno to kill Dooku. The plot failed and the three returned to Dathomir in dejection. But Talzin’s plotting against the Sith had only begun. She contacted Dooku – who had no idea the would-be assassins had been Nightsisters – and offered him a male from Dathomir as a new apprentice.

Dooku journeyed to Dathomir, where Talzin contemptuously dismissed his offer of an alliance. She said she would give him a new apprentice in return for having once helped her, but then never wanted to see him again.

On Talzin’s orders, Ventress traveled to the other side of Dathomir, where she ruthlessly tested a village of Nightbrothers to select a champion. Ventress chose Savage Opress, bringing him back to Talzin. The witches used their magicks to transform Savage into a massive warrior and gave him weapons imbued with dark-side sorcery. Talzin then brought Savage to Serenno and presented him to Dooku.

After Savage slaughtered Jedi and clones at a temple on Devaron, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker followed his trail to Dathomir and had a tense meeting with Talzin. The Nightsister leader at first claimed she had no knowledge of Savage, but relented and told the Jedi that Savage was on Toydaria, pursuing a mission for Dooku. She then told Ventress that their plan to kill Dooku had to be put into effect at once.

The plot failed – Dooku held off the combined attack by Ventress and Savage, and Savage rebelled, using the Force to choke both the Nightsister and the Sith Lord. He fled to Dathomir, where Talzin told him he had a brother living in exile in the Outer Rim. She gave Savage a magic talisman and sent him in search of Darth Maul.

Dooku’s revenge wasn’t long in coming – he sent General Grievous to Dathomir to wipe out the Nightsisters. Ventress and the Nightsisters battled the Separatist warlord and his droids, with Talzin unleashing her supernatural powers against the mechanical army and asking the matriarch Old Daka to resurrect the dead.

Talzin also launched a supernatural attack on Dooku, using a lock of his hair and a wax effigy to afflict him with terrible racking pains. Desperate, Dooku ordered Grievous to find Talzin and destroy her. The cyborg warlord killed Daka, eliminating the undead Nightsisters as a threat, and forced Talzin to break the spell tormenting Dooku.

Talzin escaped Grievous’s lightsabers, using her magic to dissolve into a green mist. She manifested to Ventress, who’d barely escaped the ruinous defeat, and told her that while her destiny would always be bound up with that Nightsisters, she now had her own path to follow.

Talzin had suffered a grievous defeat, but still plotted her vengeance. Savage Opress returned to Dathomir with the broken, insane Darth Maul, whom he’d found in the Outer Rim. Talzin cured Maul’s madness and created new cybernetic legs for him. The Sith warrior had been resurrected.

The planet Bardotta’s Frangawl Cult venerated Talzin as the Great Mother. Talzin used the cult in a bid to fulfill a sinister ancient prophecy and gain astonishing Force powers.

But Mace Windu and Jar Jar Binks arrived in hopes of rescuing Bardotta’s Queen Julia and preventing the prophecy from coming to pass. Talzin summoned a flaming green sword from the ether and dueled Windu with this supernatural blade.

The disruption of the Frangawl ritual ruined Talzin’s plans – as Windu watched, the Nightsister matriarch vanished into green mist than dissipated in the wind.

After Darth Maul escaped from captivity on Stygeon Prime, Talzin sensed the endgame of her feud with Sidious and his minions was approaching. She told Maul to lead his forces to Ord Mantell, where she’d sent Nightbrothers to assist the Sith renegade. Victory, she promised, was at hand.

Maul’s forces captured Dooku and Grievous, to Talzin’s satisfaction – now Sidious would come, and her revenge would be at hand. In preparation, she offered Dooku an alliance, and told him her great secret: Maul was her son, stolen from her by Sidious and later betrayed – as Talzin had been, and as Dooku would be.

The alliance was short-lived. Maul brought Dooku to Dathomir, where Talzin began to drain his life force, a ritual that would allow her to regain her own physical form. But Sidious arrived on Dathomir with General Grievous, determined to confront Talzin himself. The former allies clashed in a ferocious contest of dark-side magic, but Talzin couldn’t withstand the combined strength of Sidious and his minions. She urged Maul to flee and then fell to Grievous’s lightsabers.