The Nightsisters were an ancient, insular matriarchal society that ruled the planet Dathomir through their prowess at war and their command of dark magic. The Nightsisters used the Force differently than the Sith, seeing themselves as able to tap its power without being consumed by it.

The Nightsisters ruled from a great stone fortress carved with female figures. The interior of this domain boiled and roiled with dark-side magic, and concealed some of the clan’s greatest and most powerful secrets.

The Nightsisters were capable warriors, using bows and blades imbued with dark sorcery. More experienced and powerful Nightsisters could use Force sorcery to hide their movements.

To become a true Nightsister, a Dathomiri woman was baptized with powerful magic, a ritual performed by her sisters.

Dead Nightsisters were still considered part of the clan, and laid to rest in cocoons hanging from the trees.

During times of great peril, these mummified Nightsisters could be revived by the witches’ mightiest spells, fighting on behalf of the clan.

The leader of the Nightsisters during the Clone Wars was Mother Talzin. Talzin knew Darth Sidious and his Sith apprentice Count Dooku, though she refused to renew the old alliance between the Nightsisters and the Sith. Talzin had good reason to resent the Sith: Sidious had promised to make Talzin his right hand, but betrayed her and stolen her son, who became Darth Maul.

Talzin was a mighty witch, able to see the future and the past, spy on distant events and torture or even kill from a distance.

But for all her power, Talzin was not the mightiest of the witches -- even older Nightsisters dwelled deep within the fortress on Dathomir. During the Clone Wars, the eldest and most powerful witch was Old Daka.

The males of Dathomir – collectively known as Nightbrothers – lived apart from the Nightsisters, on the far side of the planet. The Nightsisters used them as servants and breeders.

After her betrayal by Count Dooku, Asajj Ventress returned to Dathomir, from which she’d been taken by slavers as an infant. Mother Talzin accepted her and vowed to help her take vengeance against Dooku.

Talzin sent Asajj, Naa’leth and Karis to kill Dooku, cloaking them with invisibility spells. When the attempt failed, Talzin and Asajj schemed to create an apprentice for Dooku who would secretly be loyal to the witches.

Asajj went to the Nightbrothers and engaged them in ritual combat, choosing Savage Opress as the most capable among them. Talzin and the Nightsisters then used their sorcery to transform Savage into a massive warrior, sending him to Dooku as his new apprentice.

When the plot failed, Talzin sent Savage deep into the Outer Rim in search of her lost son – Maul had survived his duel with Obi-Wan on Naboo and now dwelled, broken and insane, below the surface of the ruined world Lotho Minor.

Dooku took revenge on the Nightsisters for their betrayal, sending General Grievous and a droid army to wipe them out.

Ventress led the Nightsister defenses while Talzin and Old Daka called upon their greatest magicks, raising the Nightsister dead and afflicting Dooku with debilitating pain. But Grievous found and killed Daka, breaking the spells.

With the Nightsisters wiped out, Ventress was left alone and a defeated Talzin was forced to dissolve her physical form, seeking refuge in spirit form.

Talzin sought far greater powers than she’d ever possessed through the efforts of the Frangawl Cult, but was thwarted by Mace Windu and Jar Jar Binks, after which she vanished once more into the spirit world.

But hope remained for Talzin. Maul, her lost son, returned to Dathomir with a captive Dooku, whose living energies Talzin stole to return to the physical world. She confronted Sidious, exchanging blasts of Force lightning with the Sith Lord who had betrayed her, but was impaled by Grievous and slain. With his mother defeated, Maul fled.

After her sisters were massacred, Ventress sought her own path, becoming a bounty hunter. She returned to a desolate Dathomir to train Quinlan Vos in Nightsister magic, then died saving Vos from Dooku. A grieving Vos laid her to rest on her homeworld, alongside her sisters.