Darth Maul

Darth Maul was a Force-sensitive male Dathomirian Zabrak Dark Lord of the Sith who lived during the waning years of the Galactic Republic and during the early years of the reign of the Empire. He was originally a Dathomiri Nightbrother born on Dathomir, named by his mother Maul. The infant Maul was given by his Nightsister mother to the Sith Lord, Darth Sidious, who trained him in the ways of the dark side of the Force as his secret apprentice on a secret Mustafar training facility, along with the help of a split personality droid. Maul became a master of lightsaber combat and Teräs Käsi, wielding a red-bladed saberstaff against any adversary. Though well trained in the ways of the Sith and a Sith assassin rather than a full apprentice, Maul was technically a violation of the Rule of Two because his own Master was at the time apprenticed to another, the Muun Sith Lord Darth Plagueis. Plagueis, however, was fully aware of Maul's existence, and supported Sidious's decision to train him. The primary reason for Plagueis's support, despite the violation of the Rule of Two, was that Maul was trained to be expendable. As an assassin, he could perform high priority, boots-on-the-ground missions for the Sith without running the risk of exposing either Plagueis or Sidious should he fail.

In 33 BBY, Sidious gave Maul his first mission: to put the criminal organization Black Sun in disarray. Maul carried out this task perfectly, dealing the group a grievous blow. Maul played an instrumental role in the invasion of the planet Naboo in 32 BBY. The crisis was engineered by Darth Sidious, who lived a double life as Senator Palpatine of Naboo, to have Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum removed from office, allowing Sidious to take his place and set the stages for a government ruled by the Sith. After Padmé Amidala, queen of the Naboo, escaped the blockade, Maul was dispatched to follow her. He found her on Tatooine, where he had a short but intense duel with Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, revealing the existence of the Order of the Sith Lords to the Jedi, who had thought the Sith extinct. Later, Maul was sent to Naboo, where he fought Jinn and his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Though he killed the Jedi Master, Maul underestimated Kenobi's skill and was severed in half at the waist by the Padawan. Sidious would quickly replace Maul with another powerful apprentice: the late Jinn's former Master, Dooku, who had fallen to the dark side, and whom Sidious dubbed Darth Tyranus.

Through his intense rage, Maul was able to survive and escape to the junk fields of Lotho Minor, where he spent the next twelve years of his life with little to no memory of his former self. Maul kept himself mobile by manifesting a spider-like lower half, feeding off of rodents while his mental equilibrium slowly became undone, eventually reducing him to screaming madness. Although Darth Sidious and the Jedi Order were unaware of Maul's continued existence, the Nightsister Mother Talzin continued to keep an eye on Maul. In 20 BBY, three years into the Clone Wars, Talzin sent Maul's brother, Savage Opress, the ousted apprentice of Maul's Sith successor, on a quest to find the fractured man who dwelled in the depths of Lotho Minor. Savage successfully brought his brother back to Dathomir to undergo physical and mental reconstitution by Talzin's dark magic. Rehabilitated mentally and physically through prosthetic legs, Maul swore to re-establish his place in galactic history, starting with taking vengeance on Kenobi. Maul and Opress caught the attention of the Jedi Order by slaughtering innocents on the planet Raydonia in a successful attempt to lure Kenobi out. Maul tortured Kenobi, though the arrival of an unexpected ally, the Nightsister Asajj Ventress, gave Kenobi the time he needed to escape.

Maul and Opress soon cut a bloody swath across the Outer Rim, catching the attention of the Republic and the Jedi. On one occasion, Maul rallied the Moorjhoni clans against the Rim Mining Company. Maul and his brother then unsuccessfully tried to recruit a group of Weequay pirates from the Ohnaka Gang to their cause, a plan which was thwarted and nearly ended in the Nightbrothers' deaths following the arrival of Kenobi and Adi Gallia. Maul and his brother were found unconscious by the Mandalorian Death Watch leader Pre Vizsla and his lieutenant Bo-Katan after having their ship damaged by Kenobi. The two conspired to conquer Mandalore and establish a criminal empire, enlisting the aid of the Hutt Cartel, Black Sun and the Pyke Syndicate. When the New Mandalorian state on Mandalore was conquered by the new Shadow Collective, Vizsla imprisoned Maul and Opress, no longer having any use for them. After escaping imprisonment, Maul retaliated by dueling and finally decapitating Vizsla, declaring himself ruler of the Death Watch. Maul finished his revenge on Kenobi by killing his former lover, ousted Mandalorian Duchess Satine Kryze. However, his actions drew the attention of his former master, Darth Sidious, who killed Opress and kidnapped Maul for his own purposes. However, Maul managed to escape from Sidious with the aid of his followers.

However, unbeknownest to Maul, Sidious and Count Dooku had let Maul escape as they believed that Maul could lead them to Mother Talzin. Shortly after escaping Maul's Shadow Collective engaged in a series of battles against the Separatists. After several defeats, Maul with the aid of the Nightbrothers and Mother Talzin was able to capture both Count Dooku and General Grievous on Ord Mandell. After escaping from a Jedi strike Force, Maul sets off to Dathomir, where he would sacrifice Dooku to Mother Talzin, thus bringing the Dathomirian witch back to her full power. However, Dooku had released Grievous, who would bring Darth Sidious to Dathomir.

While Talzin was using her magic to attack Dooku, Sidious and Grievous arrived. Talzin and Maul were overwhelmed and Maul was dragged away from the battle by his Mandalorians while Grievous stabbed Talzin with his lightsabers, killing her. Maul would go onto have a final confrontation with Kenobi that ended with the Sith warrior killed at Kenobi's hands. However, he was supposedly resurrected in 0 BBY by three Prophets of the Dark Side for the purpose of presenting a worthier successor to Darth Sidious than his current apprentice, Darth Vader. A showdown was staged on Kalakar Six, and the two Sith Lords fought to see who would rule the galaxy alongside the Emperor. Maul came close to victory, only to be slain by Vader, whose destiny was not yet fulfilled.

Some years after the Battle of Endor, Maul's remains were discovered by the Iridonian scientist Drell Kahmf, who maintained the former Sith Lord's brain within a bacta tank. Kahmf was able to connect Maul's consciousness to a solid-state hologram program that developed an apparition of the Zabrak warrior. Upon the intervention of Luke Skywalker, however, Maul was removed from the galaxy for good.

Text and facts from the “Darth Maul/Legends” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.