Celestials
Celestial
"The identity of the architects remains a mystery…"
―Historical Council
The Celestials, also known as the Architects, were an ancient civilization who were present long before the dawn of the galactic community and even the Rakatan Infinite Empire. Believed to be responsible for a number of large artifacts and anomalous planetary formations and species placements throughout the galaxy, what little was known of the Celestials came from xenoarchaeology. It was theorized by both the Jedi and the Sith alike that the balance between the light and dark sides of the Force was actually under the guidance of the Celestials.
History
Origin
"We are sorry. We do not know how to explain the Celestials any better. They are beyond the understanding of mortals."
―Thuruht
What little was known of the Celestials owed to the permanence of their cosmological constructions.They were considered one of the earliest and most potent cultures of their time that were identified by the colossal objects they had left behind. Their identities were considered largely a mystery due to lack of information on them. Evidence of their works led many to determine that the galaxy was once visited by these stunningly powerful alien architects.Even their appearance was something of a mystery: the Celestials were said to have malleable form, and another theory held that they were a group of discorporate entities who had perhaps merged themselves with the Force thousands of generations earlier and continued to guide the fate of the galaxy ever since. Doctor Insmot Bowen, a pre-Republic specialist, identified a common motif of sinuous patterns - perhaps serpents, tentacles or vines - in the art of ancient civilizations thought to have had contact with the Celestials, ranging from the Ophidian grotesques of Coruscant to similar patterns found on Caulus Tertius and Shatuun.
Some held that the Celestials were a higher order of intermediaries whose powers were beyond the understanding of mortal beings.
The origin of the Celestials was unknown: Thuruht, the oldest of the Killik hives, claimed to remember seeing the Ones, a group of Force wielders apparently related to the Celestials, coalescing out of a geyser on an unnamed tropical planet more than a million years before the events of the Clone Wars. It should be noted that the collective memory of a Killik hive does not make distinctions between fact and fiction like the human mind—any individual memory joined to that of the collective, be it mythology, incontestable fact, or the plot of a holodrama, is history to the Killiks. Nevertheless, by 100,000 BBY, this spectacularly powerful species had dominated the stars and had made contact with a number of other species in various states of advancement. These included the Gree, Kwa, Sharu, Columi, Killiks, Humans, and Taung. The Columi retreated from the stars in fear of the Celestials, while the Sharu sought refuge in primitivism: a brief expansion period by the Sharu saw their race push Coreward as far as Aargau. This was believed to have attracted the notice of the Celestials.
Their presence was believed to have frightened the Sharu into adopting a forced culture of primitivism, and it was further speculated that the frightened Sharu buried their cities beneath immense plastic pyramids and drained their intellects in a last-ditch effort at escaping Celestial attention. Similar pyramid designs would later be identified among the Kwa. The Celestials are known to have conscripted the insectoid Killiks of Alderaan to serve as laborers, and the Killiks were seeded up and down the Perlemian. According to the Killiks, a connection was present between the Celestials and the group of Force wielders known as The Ones it was believed that the Force wielders were descendants of the Celestials.
Similarly, the Gree, Kwa, and the Rakata acted as servant races to the Celestials alongside the Killiks. Together, they worked to build astonishing technological projects that ranged from the assembly of star systems to the engineering of hyperspace anomalies.
Architects
"He said no mortal mind could know everything, and the last thing he wanted was to become a Celestial."
―Feryl, on Jacen Solo.
The Celestials were known to have created a number of projects that took place near Corellia, Kessel, and other sites in the eastern galactic disc. Notable achievements of this race included assembling the Corellian system, the Vultar system, the Hapes Cluster, the Kathol Rift, and the Maw black-hole cluster. The Corellian system was highly anomalous: chemical composition of the Corellian planets matched no known model of the formation of stars or planetary discs. Mathematical analysis of the system's planetary orbits indicated they had decayed into near-ellipses from perfectly circular orbits, something that was extremely rare. A further 17 star systems had been identified with similar signatures by 1 BBY Thus it was generally accepted by researchers that the Corellian system been assembled at some point from pre-existing planets that were brought together by a combination of buried planetary repulsors and hyperspace tractor engines like Centerpoint Station or the Cosmic Turbine. It was believed that the Architects were responsible for seeding the Core Worlds with life and in particular with Humans, though some claimed this was the result of the Rakatan empire. These Architects were held to be responsible for populating the worlds in the Corellian system with Drall, Selonians, and Humans. While the Drall and Selonians were believed to be native to their worlds, it was possible that the Human Corellians were transplanted to their world by the Celestials.
Killiks were believed to have had a hand in the construction of Centerpoint Station, which they called Qolaraloq. In addition, they witnessed the creation of other Celestial wonders such as the Maw and the Vultar system. Killik slaves were also present on Sinkhole Station where they created a pressure seal that was adapted from their own construction techniques that used technology of the station. A suspected Celestial sensory operations complex on Kessel contained planetwide underground machinery tended to by the Bogeys and contained a type of gigantic astronomical observatory detailing the location of gravity wells across the entire galaxy. Pre-Republic specialists believed the Celestials to also be responsible for the hyperspace disturbance beyond the edge of the galaxy, possibly as a defense against outside interference. They were also believed to be responsible for the chain of hyperspace anomalies west of the Core that bisected the galaxy and prevented travel into the Unknown Regions.
The ancient creature known as the Mnggal-Mnggal claimed to have witnessed the golden age of the Celestials. Speculation holds that the Celestials had crafted the hyperspace anomalies that bisected the galaxy in order to separate and isolate the influence of the predatory creature. Other academic speculation held that this barrier had been created to contain the Rakata.Such was the scale of the Celestials' achievements that Doctor Insmot Bowen was prepared to contemplate the possibility of the entire universe being a Celestial construct.
Disappearance
Around 35,000 BBY, the domain of the Celestials was usurped when the Rakata slave race revolted. Stealing technology from the Kwa, another Celestial client race, they waged a war against the other servant races. Some hypotheses over the hyperspace turbulence in the Unknown Regions claimed that it was created to serve as a barrier between the Celestials and the upstart Rakata. Despite the Celestials' efforts, the Rakata broke through the barrier and waged a war of extermination upon them. The ancient grimoires of the Gree Enclave, which referred to the Celestials as the "Ancient Masters", recorded that they were undone by curses unleashed by the Rakata, or the "Soul Hunters", which they called the "Gray Swallowing" and the "Hollowers of Beings", and further referred to them as the "Faceless Mouths" and "Eaters of Worlds".
Information discovered from the Thuruht hive in 44 ABY suggested that the Celestials' decline may have been associated with the rise of the being Abeloth: The Killiks believed that the Force was the dominion of the Celestials and then their power was usurped when the "Bringer of Chaos" emerged. It is known that the Son and the Daughter, two of the Ones that the Killiks claimed were what the Celestials became, approached the Killiks to gain their assistance in the construction of the Maw cluster of black holes. Using Centerpoint Station, the Killiks moved numerous black holes to form a prison for Abeloth, lest she throw the galaxy into chaos and disorder. The Son and the Daughter joined the hive mind and lent the hives their knowledge and their enormous power in the Force. It is believed that after they completed their labors, the siblings left the hive mind and somehow removed the Force powers that they had shared with the hive. The eventual fate of the Celestials was unclear. They may have been trapped inside the galaxy by their barrier and destroyed by the Rakatan revolt, or they may have escaped through the barrier. Insmot Bowen suggested that they may have withdrawn from this dimension completely.
The Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Plagueis mused on the possibility that the Celestials were the ones who, according to Jedi and Sith legend, merged into the Force to control its path.By 30,000 BBY, the Celestials were nowhere to be found. and the Rakatan Infinite Empire had taken center stage.
Similarly, the Killiks vanished from the galaxy and relocated beyond the veil of the Unknown Regions, which was an act presumed to be attributed to the Celestials. After the construction of Centerpoint Station, it was claimed by the Killiks that the Celestials had grown angry with their Kind and had emptied them from their homeworld of Alderaan. It was theorized that the Celestials drove the Killiks into the Unknown Regions after they devoured their own homeworld and attempted to lay claim to another planet. The Mnggal-Mnggal similarly claimed that it had witnessed the sudden withdrawal of the Celestials from the galaxy in this era.
Legacy
"Could this be from the same makers? The so-called Celestials? It doesn't look that old."
―Han Solo, on the machinery at Kessel.
Despite their achievements, little evidence remained of where the Architects came from and what was their eventual fate. Many of their extraordinary works and machines were known to have survived the ages with some races claiming the engineering marvel that was Centerpoint Station was a product of their own civilization. The barren Tion Cluster world of Foran Tutha became famous following the discovery of the Foran Tutha star probe. Scholars debated for centuries on whether the fragments of this ancient starship were a remnant of Celestial, Rakata, or an example of early Core technology. This argument continued for five centuries with the true origin of the probe being unknown.
Other traces of the Celestials that remained ranged from the anomalous like the Quintarad star group and the Aur Diamonds, to the ruined like the Penegelen Shards and the Ianane Ring, to the obviously artificial like the Ciratu Spheres and the Diatian Clockwork.
In the years of Darth Plagueis, some believed that the Celestials were a higher order of Force beings that guided the events of the galaxy, though many Sith Lords dismissed this theory as such a theoretical line of thinking as to have no bearing on their desire to make the galaxy subservient to their will, since it meant that this was only in the realm of the enlightened elite.
At some point after the Yuuzhan Vong War, the Jedi Jacen Solo traveled the galaxy to learn from various Force sects. On these travels, he met with the Mind Walkers of Sinkhole Station who offered him to enter into the Pool of Knowledge, but he refused as he did not want to become like the Celestials and hold all the knowledge of the universe. In 35 ABY, the Unu Joiner Raynar Thul stated that the Celestials had emptied Oroboro on Alderaan, around ten thousand Killik generations ago, approximately twenty thousand years in Human time. He also claimed that the Killik Colony had built Centerpoint Station and shortly after the construction of Qolaraloq, the Celestials had become angry with them over an unspecified matter.
Later, in 41.5 ABY, Jaden Korr encountered debris from a large structure the creation of which he attributed to either the Celestials or the Rakata.
Two years later, ancient machinery was discovered on Kessel which prompted Han Solo to wonder if it was a creation of the Celestials. The lowest levels of the planet had massive amounts of this technology, and almost destroyed the entire planet.Afterwards, Grand Master Luke Skywalker and his son Ben Skywalker discovered Sinkhole Station within the Maw Cluster. Ben Skywalker theorized that the Celestials may have constructed Centerpoint Station and created the Maw in order to contain Abeloth, who was believed to have some connection to the Celestials. Sinkhole Station, a similar structure to Centerpoint, also had possible ties to the Celestials. Once there, they discovered the body of a dead Killik slave who was involved in the station's construction. The Mind Walkers would tell a transcended Luke Skywalker that they had invited Jacen Solo to bathe in the Pool of Knowledge, but that he declined, stating it would make him too much like the Celestials. After traveling to the Celestial Palace, the Thuruht hive explained what they knew from their hive mind of the Celestials. This led to Raynar Thul wondering whether Abeloth was a member of this mysterious race, though the Thuruht did not know the answer to that question. The Killiks debated on whether Abeloth was the Bringer of Chaos because of the Celestials desires or because she took such a role after defying the wishes of the Celestials. Ultimately, the Thuruht concluded that the true nature of the Celestials could not be comprehended or grasped by a mortal mind nor could one discern their will.
Celestial stations
"We failed to rap their heads — the arrival of the Corellian fleet prevented that — but we did take their giant blaster away."
―Cal Omas
Centerpoint Station
Centerpoint Station, known to the Killiks as Qolaraloq or the World Puller, was an ancient space station that was capable of moving entire planets with its tractor beams. It was created by the Thuruht hive c. 100,000 BBY; this would make it perhaps one of the oldest artifacts known to the Jedi in the Yuuzhan Vong War era
Description
Centerpoint Station contained within its colossal bulk an extremely intricate collection of ultra-high energy systems. The best minds in the galaxy had been studying, mapping, and pondering the workings of this mechanical leviathan for ages, but there were still gaping holes in the understanding of its key processes.
What had actually been discovered was that the system was capable of generating huge amounts of nuclear, magnetic, electric, tractor beam, and hyperspace power for use in a type of "hyperspace tractor beam." Centerpoint Station was able to project this powerful tractor beam through a hyperspace path at any target. It was capable of 'gripping' an object as large as a star and then just as easily able to move the target object anywhere within its considerable operational range. The station could also harness this power for the actual destruction of stars and planets, collapsing their cores through massive gravitational fluxes.
The powerful hyperspace tractor beam arrays consisted of huge conelike structures within the station surrounded by six smaller cones. During the system's operation, this specifically designed geometric array acted as the source of the beam's power.
With a width of 100 kilometers and length of 350 kilometers, it was larger than the first Death Star. From a distance, it appeared as a huge partially translucent sphere with two small cylindrical poles facing Talus and Tralus. The interior consisted of a hollowed area known as Hollowtown that was, at one point, inhabited, as well as the station's immensely powerful tractor beam arrays. The station was built before the invention of artificial gravity, so it rotated to simulate gravity.
In actuality, Hollowtown and the Glowpoint, an artificial sun-like spot at its center, was the power source for the station and its mysterious one-time inhabitants and builders.
A smaller station of similar design existed within the The Maw, dubbed Sinkhole Station by its inhabitants.
History
Origins and re-discovery
In the year 44 ABY, the Jedi Raynar Thul, Lowbacca, and Tekli met with the Thuruht Killik hive. Thuruht allowed them to see the hive's Histories, which revealed that the Killiks had in fact created Centerpoint—which they called "Qolaraloq"—with the power of the Force. The Thuruht hive, along with dozens of other hives, created Centerpoint under the instruction of the Son and the Daughter, whom the Killiks knew as the Architects. By joining the hive mind, the siblings gave the Killiks the strength in the Force to construct the station. Using the Force, the Killiks extracted and smelted ore from asteroids, as well as moved themselves throughout space without any other means of propulsion. According to the Thuruht, Centerpoint was built, along with Sinkhole Station, the inner workings of Kessel, and the Maw itself, to contain their "Mother", the being known as Abeloth—whom the Killiks would come to call the Bringer of Chaos.
This revelation disproved the previous speculation by many species that the Killiks had simply absorbed one of Centerpoint's designers into their collective mind and brought the memory of the creation of Centerpoint into the fold of the hive-minded species. In fact, this theory was partially right - the Son and the Daughter had become Joiners in order to direct the construction, and to give the Killiks the Force abilities necessary to create it. Once their task was complete, the Ones left the hivemind and took their power in the Force with them.Eons before the establishment of the Republic, Centerpoint Station was used to move the planets of the Corellian system—Corellia, Selonia, Drall, Talus, and Tralus—to their current locations. After that job, the structure remained at a lagrangian point between the two worlds of Talus and Tralus, and it generated power from their gravity well projectors.
When Corellians explored space and their system, they also discovered the Centerpoint Station being there from the dawn of time. Although they studied and inhabited it, the Station remained a mystery to them with an unknown purpose. It was never determined that the Station was made to be inhabited, however the Glowpoint provided light and warm environment to the interior and made it acceptable as any fertile planet. For generations, colonists inhabited the Station with homes, parks, lakes, orchards, and farmland, creating the Hollowtown.
Later history
Sometime following the Battle of Yavin in 0 BBY, the librarian at the Theed library on Naboo asked a spacer a number of questions, and Centerpoint Station was the subject of one of them. Around this time, the Galactic Empire also stole a Rebel blockade runner, packed it with explosives, and set it on a collision course with Centerpoint Station. In doing so, they hoped the Rebel Alliance would be viewed as both foolish and dangerous, and that it would force the hands of Rebel sympathizers. However, Rebel spies learned of the plan, and Master Sergeant Crowley oversaw a group of Rebel agents who successfully destroyed the corvette before it could reach its destination.
During the Corellian Crisis in 18 ABY, it was discovered that the unique tractor beam system could be used as a weapon; a weapon capable of destroying entire stars, making it at least as powerful as the Sun Crusher. In this crisis, Thrackan Sal-Solo intended to use the station to force entire star systems into submission and restore the Imperial system. After a gripping battle that rocked the Corellian system and very nearly dragged the New Republic down, the "Starbuster Plot" was averted. Hollowtown was incinerated by the Glowpoint when the Sacorrian Triad used the Station to supernova their first star. The few survivors returned to their planets.
A few years later during the Yuuzhan Vong War, Anakin Solo refused to use Centerpoint Station to destroy an entire Yuuzhan Vong fleet in the Battle of Fondor, so Thrackan Sal-Solo did instead; however, his aim was off, resulting in the destruction of not only half of the Yuuzhan Vong fleet, but nearly three quarters of the allied Hapan fleet as well.
Second Galactic Civil War
In 40 ABY, Centerpoint Station was once again used as a weapon, but this time it was the Corellian people who took up arms within its massive walls. But their way would not be easy, as the station was controlled by a droid that Thrackan Sal-Solo had programmed to make itself believe it was Anakin Solo. Ben Skywalker was able to disable the station by making the droid, who then referred to itself as "Anakin Sal-Solo," realize the truth of its existence. It was damaged by Galactic Alliance forces at the end of the Blockade of Corellia, giving hope that this weapon would never again be used to obliterate neighboring worlds.
Despite the desire for peace, images of Centerpoint Station would be displayed on clothing items worn by Corellians to show their dedication to their homeworld's cause.
It took little time for Centerpoint to be again operational after being damaged by the Galactic Alliance. The weapon was fired under Five World Prime Minister Sadras Koyan's initiative in order to wipe out Jacen Solo and the Galactic Alliance Second Fleet. Solo managed to survive the assault, although the Second Fleet was not to be so fortunate. He later returned to Centerpoint at the head of a task force to capture the station for use against the Confederation.
Seeing that the balance of power would tip greatly in favor of anyone who possessed its enormous destructive force, Grand Master Luke Skywalker and the New Jedi Order carried out a raid upon the station in order to finally destroy it. Jedi Master Kyp Durron led the raid, with Toval Seyah, a Galactic Alliance scientist and former spy who had worked on the station in the past. Seyah was able to modify Centerpoint's galactic data reserves in such a way that all coordinates in the galaxy were altered to become those of the station.
During the pitched battle between Confederation and Galactic Alliance forces, a technician named Rikel, who had lost his wife on the galactic capital of Coruscant to the Galactic Alliance Guard, was left in charge of the station's fire-control chamber. He tried to set the coordinates to target Coruscant itself, and therefore set the targeting coordinates to [0, 0, 0]. But Centerpoint's aim coordinates were relative to itself, and when he fired Centerpoint, the massive construction targeted itself. The resulting gravitic pulse detonated the station, wiping all traces of the enigmatic structure from the system, killing all on board, and destroying countless vessels in its blast radius.
As a result of Centerpoint's destruction, Sinkhole Station in the Maw began to malfunction. This caused the shell of black holes that composed the Maw to begin to slide apart, creating a "crack" in the otherwise complete shell of black holes. This then allowed Abeloth to reach out from the Maw, which seemed to have blocked her influence when it was intact (as Abeloth was previously only able to influence those within the Maw, such as the Jedi younglings at Shelter). According to Thuruht, the destruction of Centerpoint was a direct result of Jacen Solo's attempt to change what he saw in his vision at the Pool of Knowledge. By trying to change the future, Jacen apparently altered the Current of the Force and unleashed Abeloth—the Celestial embodiment of Chaos.
"Only a complete idiot would go into a place like that."
―Lando Calrissian
The Maw
The Maw Cluster, or simply The Maw as it was sometimes called, was an unstable and mostly unnavigable cluster of black holes located near the planet Kessel. The only reason the Maw was visible was due to the ionizing gases being drawn into it.
The stability of the cluster itself was something of a mystery, with some believing that an advanced civilization might have constructed it, rather than it merging together like a normal cluster would. In 44 ABY, the Jedi Order learned from the Thuruht hive that the Maw was created by Thuruht and other Killik hives to serve as a prison for the dark side entity Abeloth. Under the direction of the Son and Daughter who had joined the hivemind, the Killiks created Centerpoint Station and Sinkhole Station. Centerpoint was used by The Ones to create the Maw itself, while Sinkhole Station was built to maintain the prison from within.
Description
The Maw was a cluster of black holes located in the Kessel sector of the Outer Rim Territories at the center of the Maw Nebulae. The ionizing gases being drawn into it made the cluster visible and made it one of the Wonders of the Galaxy. Because of the intense gravity of the black holes, the entire Kessel system was slowly drawn into the Maw. The stability of the cluster itself was something of a mystery, with some believing that an advanced civilization might have constructed it, rather than it merging together like a normal cluster would.
Most of the area of the Maw was saturated in radiation, plasma, and strong gravitational forces. Any ship's captains that neared the edge of the Maw would notice pieces of their ships being pulled apart, and some smugglers and criminals used it as a shortcut past the Kessel Run
History
Millennia before the Battle of Yavin, The Ones used Centerpoint Station to create the Maw black hole cluster, while Sinkhole Station was built to maintain Abeloth's prison from within. During the Hutt–Xim conflict, a number of warships from Xim's empire were forced back to Kessel where several of them were lost in the Maw.
Imperial Period
The Maw was the site of Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin's Maw Installation, where the Death Star prototype and most of the first Death Star was built, although it was completed at Despayre. Tarkin knew that the Maw's near-inaccessibility and remoteness made it easy for him to hide the project. The installation was actually located within a safe zone inside the cluster discovered just prior to the start of the project.
A planetoid near the Maw was also the site of an Imperial detention base which was attacked by the Rebel Alliance flight group Rogue Squadron[4] after the Battle of Hoth in the year 3 ABY. During the battle, numerous prisoners escaped and the prison was destroyed. The Maw was also the location of the creation and destruction of the Sun Crusher; it was constructed at the Maw Installation and destroyed when it was sent into one of the black holes within the Maw. Other superweapons designed and built there include the World Devastators, the Tarkin, the Ion Ring, and the Galaxy Gun.
Post-Galactic Civil War.
During the Yuuzhan Vong War, Lando Calrissian sponsored the construction of a space station called Shelter, which was built with the remains of Maw Installation as a refuge for fugitive Jedi Knights. Shelter was located at the very heart of the Maw and at one point housed the wartime generation of Jedi apprentices and surviving Jedi Praxeum students. In 43 ABY, Luke Skywalker and his son Ben visited the Maw during their journey to discover the reasons for Jacen Solo's fall to the dark side. Within The Maw, they discovered Sinkhole Station and the Mind Walkers. During the New Jedi Order's conflict with the entity Abeloth, in 44 ABY, the Jedi Order learned from the Thuruht hive that the Maw was created by Thuruht and other Killik hives to serve as a prison for Abeloth.
"Old Republic records chronicle the Vultar Cataclysm, an event in which the activation of an artifact known as the Cosmic Turbine destroyed that system. I suspect this Turbine was of Celestial origin."
―Insmot Bowen.
Cosmic Turbine
The Cosmic Turbine was part of an ancient artifact of possible Celestial origin located in the Vultar system.The structure was so large, it was mistaken for a planet until 4250 BBY. Following the Third Great Schism, the Dark Jedi were driven off Coruscant. Retreating to the system, they discovered the artifact and attempted to harness its power, inadvertently destroying themselves and the entire solar system.
Doctor Insmot Bowen later speculated that the Turbines were tractor-repulsors that were built to move entire planets and stars through hyperspace.
Sinkhole Station
Sinkhole Station was a space station located in the Maw. It was similar in appearance to Centerpoint Station, but much smaller. Sinkhole Station was home to the Mind Walkers, a group of Force-sensitives who were able to separate their minds from their bodies in order to travel in the realm of the Force known as beyond shadows.
In 43.5 ABY, Luke Skywalker and his son Ben visited the station during their quest to discover more about Darth Caedus' fall to the dark side of the Force. Soon after the Skywalkers arrived, a Sith strike team traveled to the station to confront the Grand Master. The station was later destroyed by the dark side being known as Abeloth.
History
It was believed by Luke Skywalker that the Celestials were responsible for the creation of the Maw, including Sinkhole Station. After the Yuuzhan Vong War, Jedi Knight Jacen Solo traveled throughout the galaxy for five years to train with several Force sects in hopes of gaining a greater understanding of the Force. During this sojourn, he traveled to this station, where he met with the Mind Walkers, a group of Force-sensitives inhabiting the station who were able to separate their minds from their physical bodies in order to travel to a realm of the Force known as beyond shadows. During his time at Sinkhole Station, Solo traveled beyond shadows with the Mind Walkers.
In 43.5 ABY, two years after Solo's fall to the dark side of the Force and transformation into the Sith Lord Darth Caedus, Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker and his son, Ben Skywalker, embarked on a quest to discover more about Solo's fall to the dark side. Their journey led them to Sinkhole Station, where they met with the Mind Walkers. They also found Qwallo Mode, a Jedi Knight who had disappeared in the Maw two years earlier and had been presumed dead. The Skywalkers learned from the Mind Walkers how to travel beyond shadows. While in the realm, Luke encountered a being called Abeloth, who wished to speak with him, but Luke declined. Later, the Grand Master and his son also spoke with the spirits of Anakin Solo, Mara Jade Skywalker, and Jacen Solo.
Soon after the Skywalkers returned from beyond shadows, a strike team of Sith arrived on the station, determined to kill Luke. The Sith ambushed the Jedi, and in the resulting battle all but one of the Sith were killed. The strike team's sole survivor, apprentice Vestara Khai, fled the station for Dathomir, and the Skywalkers left Sinkhole in pursuit.
As Abeloth gained power, she managed to break free of her prison, obliterating the Station. Soon after, a joint Jedi and Sith strike team under the command of Skywalker and Sith High Lord Sarasu Taalon embarked on a mission to eliminate Abeloth. However, they found the station completely destroyed. Deciding to go straight to homeworld, they noticed that the black holes surrounding the planet were moving away, and they speculated that the station may have been built by the Celestials to contain Abeloth.
The Ones
"My children and I can manipulate the Force like no other. Therefore, it was necessary to withdraw from the temporal world and live here as anchorites."
"As a sanctuary?"
"And a prison. You cannot imagine what pain it is to have such love for your children… and realize that they could tear the very fabric of our universe."
―The Father and Anakin Skywalker.
The Ones were a family of exceptionally powerful Force wielders who lived on the planet Mortis during the Clone Wars. Led by the Father, the Son and Daughter were embodiments of the dark and light sides of the Force, respectively. The Son and the Daughter were worshiped as the Twin Deities or simply as the spirits in the Nightsisters' religion.
History
"It is only here that I can control them. A family in balance—the light and the dark. Day with night. Destruction replaced by creation."
―The Father
The beginning
Originally, more than a million years prior to the Clone Wars, the Celestials, mysterious beings who were thought to be capable of restructuring space on a massive scale, lived in the galaxy. According to Thuruht, the oldest of the Killik hives, "the Ones are what the Celestials become." Thuruht distinctly "remembers" the Ones coalescing out of a geyser on an unnamed tropical planet; there were three of them—the Father, the Son and the Daughter.
They gained these memories from the Son and Daughter themselves, who joined the hive mind briefly to help coordinate the construction of Centerpoint Station. It should be noted that the collective memory of a Killik hive does not make distinctions between fact and fiction like the human mind—any individual memory joined to that of the collective, be it mythology, incontestable fact, or the plot of a holodrama, is history to the Killiks.
The Ones initially lived in peace and harmony in the home they made for themselves near the site of the geyser. The Father warned his children to never drink from the Font of Power, or bathe in the Pool of Knowledge; however, they eventually disobeyed his orders, with the Son drinking from the Font, giving him the power of the dark side, while the Daughter bathed in the Pool, bestowing on her the power of the light side. The siblings then claimed areas of the jungle for themselves and started to fight each other, while the Father tried to keep the peace between them.
The coming of Abeloth
One day, a young woman somehow came to their world. She initially became the Servant, serving and catering to the Ones' needs; however, she eventually became the Mother, doting on the Father and succeeding in mending the relationship between the Daughter and Son. She also managed to persuade the Son to use his destructive nature for a constructive purpose by using his Force lightning to carve new rooms in the walls of the gorge where they lived. However, she was still mortal and as a result she grew old, and was no longer able to keep the peace between the siblings. The ageless children started to resume their fighting, and neither the Mother nor the Father were able to prevent it. One day, while the three were fighting in the courtyard of their home, the Mother snuck a drink from the Font like the Son did, and quickly bathed in the Pool like the Daughter. The Father pulled her out with the Force, but it was too late. She ceased to be the Mother and became Abeloth, the Bringer of Chaos. Abeloth attacked both the Son and Daughter, forcing them to bow down to her. The Father then stepped in to save his children, afterwards taking them and leaving the planet, stranding Abeloth behind.
The Daughter and Son then obtained the help of the Killiks, such as the Thuruht hive, by joining with their hive mind and lending them their power in the Force. Sharing their knowledge with the hives, the siblings directed the creation of Centerpoint Station, Sinkhole Station, and other devices to help create and maintain The Maw, which imprisoned Abeloth.
Afterwards, the Father moved his family to the monolith-gated planet known as Mortis so that he might control them and keep the Force in balance. Thuruht stated that when the Current of the Force was altered and the flow of time changed (the Current forced "where it could not be taken") Abeloth was able to escape. She would stir up conflict and destruction each time, sending the galaxy into chaos and disorder, thriving on fear, death, and havoc, until the Son and Daughter returned to the Killiks, and together they would re-imprison her. This cycle would repeat itself periodically for hundreds of thousands of years.
Xendor's visit
Approximately 24,500 BBY, the Darksider Xendor journeyed to Mortis and met the Ones. However, he believed their claims on the nature of the Force had no more or less legitimacy than the teachings of any other Force group.
The arrival of the Chosen One
When the Father brought Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano so that he might verify if Skywalker was the foretold Chosen One as prophecy held it, the Son attempted to kill his father with the Dagger of Mortis and remove him as an obstacle to escape from Mortis. However, the Daughter sacrificed herself, taking the blade for her father and causing the balance of the Force to come undone.
The Son made another attempt to kill the Father shortly afterward, but was shocked when the Father suddenly stole the Dagger and stabbed himself with it, weakening the Son so that he could be killed by Skywalker. Moments after the Son's death, the Father himself died, disappearing into the Force. With this, the Ones were destroyed, and Mortis itself disappeared in a flash of light, leaving the Jedi returned to mere moments after they encountered the monolith, with no evidence that the planet or its inhabitants had ever existed.
Legacy
During the return of Abeloth in 44 ABY, Grand Master Luke Skywalker—the son of the Chosen One—read the mission report in the Jedi Archives about his father and his mentor's experiences on Mortis. Combined with the information gathered from the Thuruht hive, Luke realized that his father's refusal to become the new Keeper of Balance had in fact set off a disastrous chain of events. With the death of the Ones, the galaxy began to slide into chaos; the number of conflicts in the last 65 years were evidence enough of that.
When Jacen Solo fell to the dark side and became the Sith Lord Darth Caedus in an effort to change the course of the future, he inadvertently set in motion another chain of events which culminated in the destruction of Centerpoint Station and the release of Abeloth. With the Ones dead, Abeloth was free to continue her rampage of chaos and destruction. After Abeloth's defeat at the hands of Luke and Darth Krayt, Luke believed that the Jedi and the Sith must become the new Ones: they must keep the Balance themselves.
"It is only here that I can control them. A family in balance. The light and the dark. Day with night. Destruction, replaced by creation."
"Then why reveal yourselves to us?"
"There are some who would like to exploit our power. The Sith are but one. Too much light or dark would be the undoing of life as you understand it. When news reached me that the Chosen One had been found, I needed to see for myself."
"The Chosen One is a myth."
"Is it? I should very much like to know. Why don't we find out together? Pass one test and I shall know the truth. Then you and your friends may leave."
―The Father and Anakin Skywalker.
The Father
The Father was a being who was the head of a powerful family of Force wielders, known as The Ones. The Father maintained the balance between his Daughter and his Son who expressed affinity toward the light and dark sides of the Force, respectively, in order to keep the universe safe from unpredictable consequences. At some point, the Father was forced to withdraw from the temporal world with his children to a realm known as Mortis after his mortal wife, the Mother, became the infamous dark side user known as Abeloth. During the time of the Clone Wars, the Father received word that the Chosen One had been found, and decided to meet him in person. When the Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, and Ahsoka Tano visited the planet Mortis, Skywalker encountered the Father on his monastery, and was tasked by him to pass one test, in order to find out whether he really was the Chosen One. After he successfully passed the test, the Father asked Skywalker to take his place on Mortis to keep the balance of the Force, because he was dying.
However, his Son had his own plans, as he tried to turn the Chosen One to his side to unleash the dark side of the Force in the galaxy. As the Father tried to stop him, he was betrayed by his Son, who tried to kill him with the Dagger of Mortis, a weapon with enough power to kill a Force wielder, but was saved by his Daughter, who sacrificed herself in an act of selflessness. With the balance tipped toward the dark side, the Father warned the Jedi to leave the planet, before his Son could use their ship, but unknown to him, his child turned Skywalker to his side, after showing him a vision of his future self. Upon discovering this, the Father decided that if there was going to be balance, Skywalker needed to forget what he saw, and then proceeded to take him back to his monastery, but once there, his Son arrived, and claimed that Mortis was not his destiny.
The Father tried to convince him to stay, but to no avail; the Jedi proceeded to restrain the Son, but they proved no match for him. The Father, seeing that the only way to stop his child was to commit suicide, impaled himself with the Dagger of Mortis, and as a result, his Son's powers weakened, and was then killed by the Chosen One. Dying, the Father was confident that Skywalker would bring balance to the Force and warned him about his heart; after that, he died, vanishing from existence, sending the Jedi back to their world.
Powers
The Father was a Force wielder, a species of god-like beings capable of using the Force in ways no other mortals could. The Father was the most powerful of his family, and was the most powerful Force-user in history. The shapes he and his children embodied were merely a reflection of the life force around them. As the head of The Ones, the Father had a direct control over his children during many years; however, age was weakening him. When the Jedi attended the distress call he sent, he was able to hide the Jedi's shuttle from their Star Destroyer although both vessels were on the same coordinates. Once the Jedi had set foot on Mortis, the Chosen One came to the Father's monastery in search of answers. Upon his arrival, the Father offered Anakin a place to stay the night, but during the Jedi's stay, the Son appeared to Anakin in the form of his former mother. Anakin Skywalker, enraged, accused the Father of being a Sith Lord, and pointed his lightsaber toward his forehead. The Father touched the lightsaber by its blade, and forced it back to its hilt, much to Anakin's surprise. The Father also demonstrated an ability to teleport himself from one location to another in a matter of seconds, during Anakin's test.
While Daughter and Son could transform, into a Griffin and a Gargoyle respectively, the Father also possessed the ability to fly, as he could make a pair of wings appear from his back on a whim. During his children's fight, although he had been electrified and had been unconscious before, the Father was able to stop both his children from fighting by pushing them with the Force, throwing them out of a window in the process. His Son, enraged, unleashed a wave of Force lightning on him, and though he was able to stop it at first, the Father was quickly overwhelmed by his Son's mastery of the dark side. The Father was also capable of using Force lightning himself, hurling it at both his children, when they began to quarrel.
When his Son showed the Chosen One a vision of his horrific future, the Father was able to erase the specific set of memories Anakin had regarding with those events. After his death, the Father literally vanished from existence, leaving only his clothing behind, and the planet on which he died began to shatter, creating a bright light that teleported Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka Tano back to their ship. In addition, when the Jedi returned to their world, time had not elapsed, as only a few moments had passed since the Jedi went to Mortis.
"It is in my nature to do what is selfless. My brother's will always be to do what is selfish."
―The Daughter
The Daughter
The Daughter, also known as the Winged Goddess, was a shapeshifting depiction of the Light side of the Force who was part of The Ones, a family of powerful Force wielders on Mortis during the Clone Wars.
Powers
Although she rarely expressed her powers in the Force, the Daughter was a very powerful being. Like the rest of the Ones, she had no fixed material form, and displayed the ability to change her shape at will, particularly by assuming the form of a large griffin. She also possessed telekinetic abilities, being able to throw the Son around the room where they were fighting. She also had healing abilities, which she used to try to heal her injured father. During her fight with the Son, the Daughter showed the ability to deflect and absorb Force lightning, deflecting every blast the Son shot at her, and even redirecting a bolt back at the Son. At the conclusion of their duel, the Daughter was able to match the Son's lightning with an equally powerful Force Push, and, while she never managed to overcome him, the Son also failed to penetrate his sister's defense, proving that they were evenly matched.
Only four beings were known to be strong enough to challenge the Daughter: the Father, the Son, the Mother (Abeloth), and the Chosen One, Anakin Skywalker.
"Join me, and together we will destroy this Emperor you see in your visions. Then, we shall end war, corruption, and suffering throughout the galaxy."
―The Son and Anakin Skywalker.
The Son
The Son, also known as the Fanged God, was the incarnation of the dark side of the Force who resided in the realm of Mortis with his family—a dynasty of immortal Force-sensitive beings who transcended the physical plane of existence. Like the other members of his family, the Son was a shapeshifter who possessed the power to transform into a winged creature that personified his connection to the Force.
Together with the Daughter, the embodiment of the light side of the Force, the two siblings shared a mutual enmity for each other and a rivalry that mirrored the two opposing sides of the Force. The Son longed to escape into the galaxy, but his ambitions were hindered by the Father, who sought to permanently bind his children to Mortis where he could maintain balance between the two. During the Clone Wars, a civil war fought between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, the Son saw an opportunity to undermine the Father's rule with the arrival of Anakin Skywalker, the prophesied Chosen One. In his desire to escape Mortis, the Son masterminded a plot to turn Skywalker to the dark side as he believed that only the Chosen One could release him from the confines of Mortis. As a result of the Son's actions, Ahsoka Tano was briefly corrupted but the Padawan learner's fall to the dark side failed to turn Skywalker as he and Obi-Wan Kenobi refused to harm the young learner. Instead, the Son fatally wounded his sister when he attempted to kill the Father with the Dagger of Mortis, an unintentional act that he came to regret.
Despite the loss of his sibling, the Son proceeded with his plan to leave Mortis. Through the Son's ability to see the future, Skywalker foresaw a series of events—all directly connected to his imminent future, joining forces with the Son in order to end the war. When the Father erased the young Jedi's memories of the visions so that the future would proceed without alteration, the Son, once again denied of the chance to leave Mortis, fought with his father and the Jedi in a final confrontation. Much to his horror, the Father's suicide robbed the Son of his immortality, allowing the Chosen One to kill the dark one.
Powers
While the Son's powers were directly from the dark side of the Force, much like the Sith Lords themselves, his connection to the Force existed on a level beyond the domain of the Sith. Given his existence as a manifestation of the dark side, and combined with experience that stretched over eons of time, the Son's proficiency with the power of the dark side was virtually unmatched by any other Force-user with the exception of his family members. The Son was highly skilled in Force lightning which he held as his primary form of attack; unlike most wielders, the Son's Force lightning was red. He also proved himself to be a skilled practitioner in several variations of telekinesis, an area that only the Daughter and the Father rivaled him in.
An immortal and indestructible being, the Son was immune to the attacks of mortal individuals; only a handful of individuals, such as the Father, the Daughter, Abeloth, and the Chosen One were capable of being a challenge to the Son in battle. Like the rest of the Ones, the Son wielded the ability to transform his appearance into virtually anything he wanted. Aside from his primary humanoid form, the Son favored the appearance of a large, winged gargoyle which he utilized for purposes of combat and travel. He also took on the forms of Shmi Skywalker, Anakin Skywalker, and a diminutive creature during the Jedi's stay on Mortis.
His ability to use the offensive applications of the dark side notwithstanding, the Son was also able to channel the Force in less combative ways. The range of his more passive uses of power included his self-manifestation within one of Skywalker's dreams, the ability to appear and disappear at will without alerting others to his presence and a unique capacity to literally infect an individual with the dark side's influence—a power which gave him an enhanced measure of control over Ahsoka Tano's mind.
In the Son's form as the Fanged God, he was so powerful that channeling his power could burst minor blood vessels in the physical bodies of his followers and pawns, raising telltale bruises on their cheeks and around their eyes. It was also said that he was the one who conjured up the Wild Hunt each year on Dathomir for the Nightsisters. It was said that he could also seep through the borders that separated his realm from the physical realm though it does not take much of his effort to do so.
"She is ancient, and powerful, and dangerous. Very dangerous. But you're on to her now. She is never what she appears. Remember that."
―Mara Jade Skywalker
Abeloth, also known as the Bringer of Chaos and Beloved Queen of the Stars, was a being very powerful in the dark side of the Force. She first lived as the Servant, a mortal woman who served the powerful Ones on an unknown jungle planet over a hundred thousand years before the Battle of Yavin. Over the course of her life, she became the Mother: she kept the peace between the Father's warring Son and Daughter and became a loving part of the family. But she was still mortal—she grew old while her ageless family lived on—and she feared she would lose her precious family. In a desperate attempt to hold onto the life she so loved, she drank from the Font of Power and bathed in the Pool of Knowledge. Her actions corrupted her, transforming the Mother into the twisted, immortal entity known as Abeloth.
When the Father discovered her crime, he departed the planet with his children and left Abeloth stranded. The Son and the Daughter enlisted the help of the Killik hives from Alderaan, using them as workers to create massive technological artifacts, such as Centerpoint Station and Sinkhole Station to imprison Abeloth. According to the Killik Thuruht hive, Abeloth managed to escape her prison whenever the Current of the Force was altered and the flow of time changed. Each time she escaped, the Son and the Daughter would return to the Killiks and defeat Abeloth, locking her back in her prison. This cycle repeated itself for thousands of years, until the death of the Ones in 21 BBY.
When Jacen Solo fell to the dark side in 40 ABY and became the Sith Lord Darth Caedus in an attempt to change the future, he unintentionally awoke Abeloth. She later managed to escape from her prison due to the destruction of Centerpoint Station during Caedus' reign. Taking advantage of the chaos the galaxy was in, she immediately sought to maximize its effect, to totally wipe out civilization. However, she was discovered and hunted down by Luke Skywalker and his son, who constantly fought her and even destroyed some of her avatars. Ultimately Abeloth took the form of Senator Rokari Kem and successfully got herself elected as Chief of State of the Galactic Alliance. However, her remaining avatar bodies were killed and she was then destroyed by Luke Skywalker and Darth Krayt in the realm of Beyond shadows. Despite her death, Luke and the Jedi were not convinced Abeloth was dead for good and thus began searching for the planet Mortis. Luke intended to locate and obtain the same dagger used to kill The Ones decades earlier during his father's own encounter with them, to ensure that when Abeloth eventually returned, the Jedi would have a way to permanently kill her.
"Once you were with me, here in the Maw. Once you were all with me. Now you are apart, but one by one, you are all awakening. And once awake, you can hear my call, and come to me."
―Abeloth.
Biography
The woman who would become Abeloth was first known as the Servant, a mortal who appeared through unknown means on the unknown jungle planet where the Ones lived around 100,000 BBY. She served the Father and his Son and Daughter, catering to their every need. But it was not long before the Servant became part of the Ones' family, filling the role of the Mother. The Mother kept the peace between the warring siblings and doted on the Father, ensuring the family's happiness for many years. Under her guidance, the Son began to use his destructive powers for something useful—he carved out caves and passages in the walls of the valley where they lived—and the siblings restored their home to its former glory, repairing the damage and neglect caused by the conflict of their rivalry.
But as the years went by, the Mother began to age while her family remained ageless. In her old age, she could no longer control the Son and Daughter's rivalry, and she began to fear that her family would abandon her. So in order to hold onto the life she had, the Mother decided to commit the Forbidden. While the Father was distracted by his warring children, she snuck a drink from the Font of Power just as the Son had done long ago. She then completed her transgression by bathing in the Pool of Knowledge like the Daughter, but the Father discovered her. But unlike the Ones, she was mortal, and so the Font and the Pool corrupted and twisted her. They granted her power, but twisted her mind and her body, creating the dark side entity known as Abeloth.
Abeloth used her new powers to dominate her adopted children, subduing them and forcing them to bow to her before the Font of Power. But at this point the Father, horrified and disappointed in Abeloth, stepped in. He departed the planet with his children, leaving Abeloth stranded alone and fulfilling her deepest fear—her family had abandoned her. This drove her to madness, fueling her desire to be loved and adored. Knowing that Abeloth would be a danger to others, the Son and the Daughter took control of the Killik hives from Alderaan and used them as workers. By joining the hivemind, the Ones shared their immense power in the Force with the Killiks. Under the direction of the siblings, the Killiks built many technological wonders, such as Centerpoint Station, Sinkhole Station, and many others. Using Centerpoint, the Ones crafted the spherical shell of black holes around their homeworld that would later become known as the Maw, and placed the smaller Sinkhole Station within to maintain the prison. After their creations were completed, the Son and the Daughter removed their power from the hives, and retreated with the Father to Mortis. Abeloth's former family would remain there until their deaths, only emerging to defeat Abeloth whenever she escaped from her prison.
The Killik Thuruht hive referred to Abeloth as the Bringer of Chaos, whose escapes and re-imprisonments formed a cycle of chaos and destruction that occurred whenever the Current of the Force—the flow of time— was altered. Abeloth thrived on fear and destruction, fanning the flames of conflict every time she escaped and sending the galaxy into chaos and turmoil. Each time she escaped, the Son and the Daughter would return to the Killiks and defeat Abeloth, locking her back in her prison. This cycle would repeat itself for hundreds of thousands of years, until the death of the Ones in 21 BBY. According to the Thuruht Histories, the Gree species came to her planet during one of her escapes to sacrifice an unknown saurian species to Abeloth.
Abeloth also existed beyond shadows, a realm that seemed to be a copy of Abeloth and the Ones' homeworld and which Force-sensitives could access by separating their minds from their bodies. Sinkhole Station would come to be inhabited by Mind Walkers, Force-sensitive beings whom she influenced with her powers. Desperate for contact with anyone, Abeloth would reach out to any Force-sensitives who entered the Maw (as the prison seemed to trap her powers within) and instill in them her overwhelming desire for companionship. These individuals would be inexplicably drawn to the Maw, where they would find Sinkhole Station and ascend to beyond shadows. Abeloth fed off of the Mind Walkers' life essences, absorbing their strength. Sometime prior to 44 ABY, the former Jedi Knight Callista Ming came across Abeloth, who consumed and killed her.
In 43.5 ABY, several Jedi Knights who had spent time at Shelter in the Maw during the Yuuzhan Vong War began to feel the effects of her influence, causing them to believe that everyone except for their fellow psychotic beings had been replaced by an impostor. The insane Jedi caused a rift between the Jedi Order and the Galactic Alliance government, as the two factions disagreed on how to deal with the issue.Abeloth also sent out a call through the Force, forcing Ship, a Sith Meditation Sphere, to travel to her planet in the Maw. Ship had spent the past two years forming a Sith armada for the Lost Tribe of Sith on the planet Kesh, and the Tribe thus sent a strike team to track down Ship and kill Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker—whose presence they had felt in the Force after he came into contact with an Aing-Tii relic, the Codex. Meanwhile, Skywalker and his son, Jedi Knight Ben Skywalker, were attempting to retrace the steps that Jedi Knight-turned-Sith Lord Jacen Solo had taken on his five-year journey after the Yuuzhan Vong War. The Skywalkers found the Mind Walkers and learned how to go beyond shadows, where Skywalker saw Abeloth in the Mists of Forgetfulness across the Lake of Apparitions. Referred to by the Mind Walkers as the "Lady in the mists," Abeloth beckoned Skywalker to try to talk to her, but he refused.
Meanwhile, Ship, who was under Abeloth's complete control, led the Sith strike team to the planet which Abeloth inhabited. Abeloth took the form of a humanoid female of indetermined species and befriended the Sith strike team, claiming to be a refugee who had been stranded on the planet for the last thirty years. However, all the while she secretly sabotaged the Sith's efforts to escape. Abeloth had complete control over all of the planet's native flora, and she used them to attack the Sith, including the team's leader, Lady Olaris Rhea, who survived with the help of her apprentice, Vestara Khai. After the attack on Rhea, Khai was able to see Abeloth in her true form, just as the Skywalkers saw her beyond shadows—a woman with an overly large mouth, stubby arms, and hands with long, writhing tentacles instead of fingers. The rest of the strike team, however, still saw Abeloth as a normal humanoid female.
"Abeloth. Abeloth, I'm here."
"So am I."
―Luke Skywalker and Abeloth
Battling Jedi and Sith
After Abeloth encountered Skywalker beyond shadows, she allowed Ship to return to the Sith and transport them to Sinkhole Station to ambush the Skywalkers. Abeloth ordered the Sith to capture them rather than kill them, but Rhea later changed the mission's objective back to kill. The ambush, however, proved to be a failure—both Jedi escaped, and Khai was the only Sith survivor. Later, the Skywalkers speculated that Abeloth was the one causing the psychosis that afflicted Force-sensitives who had spent an extended amount of time in the Maw. Abeloth, meanwhile, continued to inflict her will upon more and more Jedi, in the hopes of luring those victims back to the Maw where she could consume their life energy. Around that time, Ben also suggested that the Celestials might have built the Maw and the space station Centerpoint to contain Abeloth and her power; but once Centerpoint was destroyed, Sinkhole Station had begun to fall into disrepair and Abeloth's powers had grown.
A short time later, Abeloth managed to free herself from the containment of Sinkhole Station, destroying the station and killing the Mind Walkers. The Skywalkers, meanwhile, allied with a group of Sith from the Lost Tribe and ventured into the Maw to eliminate Abeloth. After finding Sinkhole Station destroyed, they traveled to Abeloth's planet. There, the Skywalkers' Force-sensitive friend Dyon Stadd, who had fallen prey to Abeloth's influence, was planted with a homing beacon and set free by Khai to find Abeloth. Stadd found her in a cave on the side of a volcano, and Abeloth entranced him before touching him and beginning to consume his life energy. However, she suddenly sensed the approach of the Jedi and Sith allies—who were tracking Stadd—and left him for dead, fleeing deeper into the cave. When her foes found her in a courtyard at the end of the cave, Abeloth took on Ming's appearance in an attempt to make Skywalker believe that she was, in fact, his long-lost lover. Skywalker eventually saw through her charade, however, realizing that Abeloth had actually consumed and killed Ming, and attacked her.
In the ensuing battle, the Sith betrayed the Jedi and created a control web, a trick they had learned from the dark side Nightsisters, in an attempt to capture Abeloth and force her to serve them, but she broke free and repulsed all of her assailants with a massive Force wave. She fled back up the cave and consumed and killed the Sith who had been left to stand guard with a recuperating Stadd, before turning to Stadd to finish consuming his life energy. However, her enemies had recovered from her attack and pursued her back up the cave, and Skywalker suddenly arrived on the scene. She took on the appearance of Stadd while projecting an image of Ming in an attempt to trick Skywalker, but he saw through it and stabbed his lightsaber into what appeared to be Stadd's chest. She morphed back into her true form, then, and prepared to unleash a wave of dark side energy, but appeared to die halfway through. All of the beings who had been affected by her influence were instantly freed, and the Skywalkers and three Sith—Khai, Khai's father, Gavar, and High Lord Sarasu Taalon—remained behind to investigate more into Abeloth. However, they soon discovered that she had somehow switched bodies with Stadd, and was thus not dead.
"Luke… Join with me. Save me…"
"I will. I will save you."
―Ming's presence within Abeloth and Luke Skywalker.
On the run
By the time the Sith and Jedi returned to the Skywalkers' ship, the Jade Shadow, Abeloth had already broken free from the vessel. She summoned Ship to return to the world, although the three Sith claimed to the Jedi that they were the ones to have called Ship back. Ship then convinced the Sith that they could find Abeloth by using the Force nexus known as the Pool of Knowledge, and took the five allies to find it. Abeloth, meanwhile, returned to the Jade Shadow and fled the planet. After seeing a vision in the Pool of a Jedi queen whom he believed could stop the Sith invasion, Taalon jumped into the Pool and a duel broke out between the Jedi and Sith. The Jedi escaped, and, following his immersion in the Pool, Taalon began to slowly transform into the same kind of entity as Abeloth.
Abeloth, meanwhile, traveled to the pacifistic Force-sensitive Fallanassi on the moon Pydyr and took over the body of their leader, Akanah Norand Goss Pell. The Jedi, accompanied by Vestara Khai—whom they allowed to accompany them despite the fact that they knew she was working as a spy for her Tribe—tracked Abeloth to Pydyr. Khai sent out a message to the Sith fleet, and the Sith sent shuttles of reinforcements, including Taalon and Gavar Khai. They agreed to work once more with the Jedi, and Luke Skywalker led the tenuous allies to the Fallanassi village where Abeloth was hiding. After they broke through Abeloth's defenses of illusions in the White Current, she came to meet them in the form of Pell. Taalon began to interrogate her about Abeloth, and she revealed that she had come to Pydyr because she was a Fallanassi. However, when she refused to answer Luke Skywalker's question of whether that meant Abeloth had always been Fallanassi, or whether she had only recently joined, Taalon ordered Gavar to kill one of the Fallanassi. In response, Abeloth used the White Current to induce visions that drove all of the Sith—save Khai and Taalon—insane, giving up her cover. She then took Taalon into a gathering hall in the Fallanassi village to speak with him, but the Jedi and Vestara followed.
uke Skywalker engaged Abeloth in battle once more, and he again defeated her, killing Pell's body. However, Abeloth deserted that body and returned soon after in the form of Callista Ming. She incapacitated Skywalker, while Taalon—who desired to learn from Abeloth what exactly he was becoming—captured Ben in a Force net. As Taalon and Abeloth conversed, Abeloth revealed that she knew he could not eat mortal food, and then began to feed him dark energy from her tentacles. However, Luke returned to consciousness and brought the ceiling of the hall they were in down upon them, distracting Abeloth while Vestara Khai stepped forward and killed Taalon to prevent him from becoming another being like Abeloth. In the ensuing fight, Abeloth was severely injured by the Jedi, and she fled in Ship, escaping the system. The Skywalkers, now with Khai as their ally, were reinforced by a flight of Jedi in StealthXs sent from Coruscant, who helped them fight off the remaining Sith so that they could continue to hunt her down.
Abeloth stopped first at Meliflar Station, where she forcibly imbued the girl Fala with some of her own energy to use her as bait, and forced the space station's crew to set up an ambush for the Skywalkers, so that when they arrived the Jade Shadow would be destroyed instantly. Abeloth then continued on to the planet Nam Chorios. Her planned ambush for the Jedi failed, however, as the station's inhabitants decided instead to try and capture the vessel. Meanwhile, on Nam Chorios, Abeloth recovered and gained control of the Theran Listeners by consuming and possessing their leader, Nenn. As her influence over the Theran Listeners steadily grew stronger, Jedi Knights Valin and Jysella Horn—two of the first Knights of the New Jedi Order to fall prey to her influence—were drawn by her to the world.
However, Khai and the Skywalkers eventually caught up to Abeloth in the pumping station in the city of Crystal Valley. There, Abeloth again appeared to them in the form of Callista in an yet another attempt to sway Luke Skywalker to join with her. However, in doing so she revealed that Callista's spirit was more intact than those of the other beings she had consumed, and thus had more influence over her. Luke allowed Callista's spirit to engage him with her mind and with the Force, expanding both of their Force presences as they relived her memories of the past; he felt her love for him, as well as the pain and loneliness she felt after being consumed by Abeloth. Meanwhile, a strike team of Sith led by Saber Tola Annax arrived and began battling Abeloth as well. Abeloth tried to hide her presence behind Callista, hoping to make it appear that the being confronting Luke was Callista herself—but Luke again saw through her guise. He used the mnemotherapy technique he had learned from the Listeners to tear Callista's spirit away from Abeloth, saving her and weakening Abeloth greatly in the process. As Callista's spirit, finally freed, faded into the Force, Abeloth reverted to using the body of Nenn. However, the Listener-Master refused to be controlled by her and stabbed himself with a lightsaber, further weakening Abeloth. Horn, who had been in combat with Ben and Khai, was knocked unconscious.
"Nothing can hold her… Fool to think I could use her… What is she?… By the dark, the greatest mistake I have ever made…"
―Darish Vol, on Abeloth
Rise to power
While the Sith and Jedi battled each other, Abeloth attempted to flee in Ship. However, a Jedi fleet was already in orbit, battling a Sith flotilla under the command of Gavar Khai. Luke joined the Jedi in fighter combat in the pursuit of Ship, who was heavily damaged and weakened. Ship suffered multiple hits, but managed to escape with Abeloth alive. Abeloth soon afterward contacted Gavar Khai, whose fleet was regrouping after their defeat. She told him that the Jedi, their mutual enemy, were too powerful for either of them to overcome separately, and they discussed an alliance. He then took Abeloth to the Tribe's homeworld, Kesh, where a meeting of the Tribe was called by Grand Lord Darish Vol. Vol decided to accept the alliance, and Abeloth was brought to the surface for a large celebration.
That evening, however, Abeloth appeared to Vol in his sleep and attempted to kill him. He allowed her into his mind, and she was too reckless in her approach, letting him in turn enter her mind. He discovered the pain of her loneliness and her need for adoration, and dueled her mentally, telling her that she was unloved. Abeloth's assassination attempt turned into an attempt to fight free from Vol's grasp, and she finally broke free. Infuriated and in agony, Abeloth unleashed waves of dark side power onto the Sith capital city of Tahv, killing thousands and leaving the city in ruins. As she fled in Ship, she used the mental hold she had begun to develop over several of the Sith to influence them to defect from the Tribe's armada and join her. Leading those forces was Gavar Khai in the ChaseMaster frigate Black Wave. They successfully escaped Kesh, and upon their rendezvous, Abeloth ordered Khai to lead the Jedi and Sith who would inevitably attempt to find her astray.
As Vestara Khai and the Skywalkers continued to hunt for Abeloth, she took the form of the Jessar Rokari Kem, a highly popular resistance leader who was due to become a Senator in the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances. When Gavar Khai and a team of nine other Sabers were killed by Abeloth's pursuers, she granted command of the Black Wave to Saber Tola Annax. However, she soon afterward stripped Annax of her powers, filled her with dark energy and left her as bait on the planet Upekzar, where she laid a trap for the Jedi. Meanwhile, in the guise of Kem, Abeloth traveled to the galactic capital Coruscant, where she found that several Sith, including High Lord Ivaar Workan, had already infiltrated the Galactic Alliance government.
Without revealing her true identity as Abeloth, she then threatened Workan—who was masquerading as Senator Kameron Suldar—to stay out of her way, and suggested that she knew his secret. Meanwhile, the Jedi Order left all operations on Coruscant under the pretense of needing to distance itself from the Galactic Alliance and act as its own authority, rather than as an official branch of the government—however, unbeknownst to Abeloth and the Sith, Luke Skywalker knew of the Sith's infiltration and was hoping to lure the Sith into making a move on Coruscant. Soon afterward, Vol arrived on Coruscant and attempted to assassinate Kem—Workan had told him that Kem was the only thing standing in the way of the Sith taking control of the government. However, Abeloth defeated Vol and subsequently called Workan, showing him Vol's decapitated head and ordering that he meet with her the next day.
Still in Kem's guise, Abeloth met with Workan and ordered that he initiate a vote to replace the current interim Chief of State, Padnel Ovin, with herself, and then help her achieve the title of "Beloved Queen of the Stars" and then goddess. During the Senate session, Workan called for the vote, but Ovin came forward to make a speech—unbeknownst to Abeloth and the Sith, he was stalling to give his Chief of Staff, Wynn Dorvan, time to assist in the rescue of Jedi Leia Organa Solo, whose arrest Workan had arranged. Abeloth finally grew tired of Ovin's speech and caused him to collapse; he was soon after pronounced dead. Workan then insisted that the vote be held immediately, and with the help of the Force to influence some of the Senators, Kem won with four-fifths of the Senate's vote, thus making Abeloth Chief of State. Abeloth subsequently came to see Dorvan, who had been captured by three Sith, and shed her disguise as Kem to reveal her true form to him, to his horror
Death
Abeloth's reign eventually came to an end with the Liberation of Coruscant. Using Dorvan as her aide, she solidified her rule on the planet until the Jedi began striking at the Lost Tribe across the planet. Under Dorvan's advice, the Sith retreated into the Jedi Temple. Realizing that the Sith would be unable to maintain their hold on Coruscant, and also seeing the opportunity to recreate her family, she abducted Vestara Khai and Ben Skywalker.
To distract the Jedi, Abeloth caused cataclysmic seismic activities on Coruscant, ensuring the potential death of billions if they gave chase to her. Abeloth's Korelei-avatar brought Vestara and Ben to her planet with the intention of forcing them to drink from the Font of Power, which would transform them into - for lack of a better name - the new family of Ones who would reshape the galaxy to their liking. She also sent out Ship to attack Luke Skywalker, anticipating that he would attempt to stop her. Abeloth then mindwalked the majority of her essence into the Realm Beyond Shadows to duel with Luke Skywalker, as well as Darth Krayt, a Sith Lord that was not affiliated with the Lost Tribe of the Sith. It was a grueling duel, although they eventually succeeded when Abeloth's avatar bodies were being destroyed one-by-one across the galaxy, eventually sinking into the Lake of Apparitions afterwards. Although Abeloth was dead, the Jedi Order knew that she would end up returning sometime (after becoming strong enough to do so), with Luke knowing that such a force entity couldn't be "truly" killed. According to Luke, Abeloth might not even return during his and the other Masters' lifetime, but even a hundred years or a hundred thousand years later. As a precautionary measure, the Jedi intended to locate the Mortis Monolith in order to obtain the Mortis Dagger, ensuring they would have a way to kill her for good if she were to return.
"Silly Jedi. No one can explain Abeloth."
―Akanah
Personality and traits
Abeloth was antagonized by loneliness; she felt an absolute need to be loved and adored, and was nearly overcome when Vol attacked her with the idea that she was hideous and despised. She fed her craving for adulation by instilling in Force-sensitives a desire to be with her. This stemmed from her original fear of losing her family, who remained ageless while she became old and decrepit. In an attempt to hold on to the life she had, Abeloth drank from the Font of Power and bathed in the Pool of Knowledge, which corrupted her mind and twisted her love for her family into a craving for companionship. When her family abandoned her on their planet—the very reason she committed her crimes in the first place— she was driven insane by loneliness and despair. She fed on fear and destruction in an attempt to gain more power, as her ultimate goal was to recreate her lost family—she tried to force Ben Skywalker and Vestara Khai to drink from the Font of Power, intending them to be the replacements for the Son and Daughter.
Abeloth had the ability to change her appearance at will, often taking on the appearance of Callista Ming, whom she had consumed. However, Abeloth's true form was that of a humanoid and barely-female being with deeply-sunken black eye sockets and tiny silver eyes reminiscent of tiny stars at the bottom of a deep well. She had a long cascade of straw-like, honey-blond hair that reached to the ground and a large, full-lipped mouth that stretched from ear-to-ear and contained needle-like teeth. Her arms were stubby, protruding no more than ten centimeters from her shoulders, with hands that had long, writhing tentacles for fingers with suction cup tips.Her body was rigid and straight, and when she walked or ran, her legs rippled forward more than they swung. In addition, her body was enshrouded in mist, giving her an ethereal aspect to her already frightening appearance.
"I am programmed to obey a strong will. The girl is strong. You are stronger, Sword of the Jedi. But neither of you can break the hold she has on me. She is older, and more powerful than you can possibly imagine."
―Ship, to Jaina Solo.
Powers
While Abeloth appeared as a humanoid female of indeterminate species to most, Luke Skywalker saw her true form beyond shadows and Vestara Khai was able to see her true appearance after Khai discovered Abeloth's treachery against the Sith. Abeloth could command the native flora of her planet to do her bidding and also had the ability to influence the minds of Force-sensitive beings who had spent an extended period of time in the Maw, causing in them a psychosis which made them believe that everyone—except for other such psychotic beings—had been replaced by impostors and instilling in them a desire to find her. Once the influenced being found her, she consumed their life energy, killing them and making herself stronger. The strength of her influence was formidable—even when the Jedi learned what symptoms to look for, upon the onset of the psychosis they still believed that everyone they knew was an impostor. She was also able to control the Meditation Sphere Ship which was programmed to obey the strongest will; her powers overwhelming those of the Sith's and of the Jedi's attempts to control the Sphere.
Described by Tahiri Veila as a living Force volcano, Abeloth's strength in the Force was a dozen times that of Luke Skywalker, who was widely recognized as the most powerful Force user in the galaxy. However, Skywalker was able to defeat her despite this. Abeloth wielded exceptional telekinetic powers, using the Force to blast everyone away from her during her battle with the Sith and Jedi. She was able to resist the powers of a control web, and was also able to teleport herself from one place to another, a power which she also used during her battle with the Sith and Jedi. Abeloth was able to take on the physical appearances of beings that she had consumed, including Callista Ming and Dyon Stadd, and she was also able to project images of other beings, as she did when projecting an image of Callista while she herself took on the form of Stadd in an attempt to trick Luke Skywalker.
Abeloth was able to redirect Vestara Khai's Force lightning back at her. She was also more than capable of using Force lightning herself, using it in multiple fights with the Sith and Luke Skywalker. Abeloth's sheer strength was extensive—after her mental duel with Vol, she released waves of Force energy on Tahv that caused the beings in her vicinity to implode, those farther away to be ripped to pieces, the buildings to melt to the ground, and glass and weaponry to fly through the city, looking for someone to hurt so that they could feel the pain she felt.
Abeloth was capable of producing a Force-flash that could affect the visuals of ships in an entire star system.
Abeloth was also able to possess or switch bodies—before Skywalker could kill her, she switched bodies with Stadd and took on Stadd's appearance, tricking the Jedi and Sith for several days into believing that she was dead. Later, she took over the body of the Fallanassi Akanah Norand Goss Pell, although Pell fought back. When she was again defeated by Skywalker, she left Pell's body and returned in the form of Callista soon after, and told Skywalker that she had more bodies than he could destroy. She was also capable of absorbing the consciousness of beings in order to further enhance her power, as Callista Ming's mind dwelled within Abeloth. However, Luke was able to use mnemotherapy to rip Callista Ming's soul free from Abeloth and allow her to rest in peace, severely weakening Abeloth in the process. She was later able to use her abilities to impersonate Rokari Kem and gain prominence on Coruscant. When Vol attempted to assassinate Kem, she beheaded the Grand Lord and forced High Lord Ivaar Workan to aide her in becoming Chief of State of the Galactic Alliance.
Later, she also possessed Imperial Officer Lydea Pagorski, as part of a plan to help Natasi Daala gain power in the Imperial Remnant for her own purposes. However, her dependency on avatars was ultimately her greatest weakness: killing a significant amount of avatar bodies in her possession also resulting in her strength weakening rapidly to the point of death, which Luke ultimately utilized to deliver the finishing blow on Abeloth in their duel.Also, she preferred to inhabit the bodies of Force-sensitives, as non Force-sensitives' bodies failed to last for long before deteriorating.
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