Battle of Dathomir

The Battle of Dathomir was an engagement in 20 BBY, the third year of the Clone Wars, that resulted in the annihilation of the Nightsisters of Dathomir. Seeking revenge for a previous assassination attempt concocted by his former agent Asajj Ventress and Mother Talzin of the Nightsisters, Count Dooku sanctioned an invasion of Dathomir to eliminate the entire clan of witches. General Grievous led the Separatist Droid Army's assault, bringing a full fleet from the Confederate Navy to strike at Dathomir. After ordering a bombing run to dislodge the Nightsisters from their fortress, Grievous landed with his battle droid troops and dispatched them to besiege the witches' village. Undeterred, Ventress led her fellow warriors on an offensive against the droids, pushing through the jungles to Grievous's position. After the elder witch Daka resurrected the fallen sisters of the Army of the Dead, Ventress took her undead reinforcements to obliterate a Defoliator Deployment Tank sent in by Grievous, then headed directly for the droid landing site.

Arriving at the Separatist landing craft, Ventress challenged Grievous to single lightsaber combat, naming total victory in the battle as the prize. Although nearly defeated in the ensuing duel, Grievous had his battle droids attack Ventress and her army, with the Nightsister retreating from the battlefield after being injured by blaster fire. Meanwhile, Talzin used voodoo magic to set a plague upon Dooku, who was monitoring the battle from his palace on Serenno, to pressure him into calling off his attack. With Dooku unable to defend himself from Talzin's magic, Grievous was ordered to target Talzin instead of Ventress, and he personally led his troops to the Nightsister village's Hidden Cave. Talzin relinquished her magic before escaping, but Grievous's murder of Daka terminated the spell sustaining the Army of the Dead. Without the aid of their zombie sisters, the remaining Nightsisters were outnumbered and massacred. Only Talzin and Ventress evaded slaughter, with the latter leaving the ravaged Dathomir to pursue a newly foretold destiny.

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