The gloomy planet Dathomir was ruled by the Nightsisters, an ancient order of witches who drew on the Force for their eldritch powers, but were neither Jedi nor Sith.

The Nightsisters dwelled in stone fortresses adorned with female figures. Inside, the clans studied dark magicks, using strange rituals to tap into the power of the Force.

The Nightsisters were skilled warriors and assassins, and confronted any visitors foolish enough to land on Dathomir without an invitation.

To become a Nightsister, a Dathomirian woman had to prove her worth in a number of tests, then be baptized with powerful magic as part of a ritual performed by her sisters.

Dathomir’s Nightbrothers dwelled on the other side of the planet, and served the Nightsisters as both muscle and breeding stock.

During the Clone Wars, Dathomir’s leader was Mother Talzin, who had been betrayed by Darth Sidious years before. Talzin took in Asajj Ventress after Count Dooku betrayed Asajj, and agreed to help this prodigal Nightsister avenge herself.

After an assassination attempt against Dooku failed, Talzin offered the count a new apprentice -- the Nightbrother Savage Opress. She didn’t tell Dooku that she and Ventress had selected Opress to serve them, or that they’d transformed him into a hulking warrior using Nightsister spells. Savage was secretly their creature, engineered to betray Dooku.

Dooku tested Savage by using him to attack the Separatists’ foes. That brought Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi to Dathomir in search of the monstrous assassin.

Savage joined Ventress to fight Dooku, but then turned against both of them and fled into the Outer Rim. Infuriated by the Nightsisters’ treachery, Dooku sent General Grievous to Dathomir with a droid army to wipe them out. The witches fought back by animating the corpses of their dead sisters.

Ventress led the defense of Dathomir, but to no avail -- the Nightsisters were overwhelmed and massacred.

Defeated, Talzin dissolved her physical form, seeking refuge in the spirit world. The Nightsisters’ rule of Dathomir was over.

Talzin sought a number of paths back to power, placing particular hope in her lost son Darth Maul, stolen from her as an infant by Sidious. When Savage Opress brought Maul back to Dathomir, Talzin healed the madness that had afflicted him and created magical artificial legs to replace the ones Obi-Wan Kenobi had severed.

When Maul faced off against Dooku and Grievous at Ord Mantell, Talzin sent Nightbrothers led by Brother Viscus to her son’s aid. By entrapping Dooku, Talzin hoped to restore her physical form and claim far greater power than she’d lost.

Maul brought a captive Dooku back to Dathomir, but Talzin’s last gambit failed. Sidious confronted her, and General Grievous impaled her with his lightsabers. The Nightsister matriarch was no more.

With Talzin dead, Maul’s Mandalorian lieutenants fled with him, leaving Dathomir to its conquerors.

The Nightsisters’ rule was but a memory, but Dathomir remained steeped in dark-side powers. Ventress returned to her homeworld with Quinlan Vos to train her lover in Nightsister magic. After she died, Vos laid her to rest on Dathomir alongside her sisters.