Darth Maul

Maul, also known as Darth Maul, was a Dathomirian Zabrak male who served as the Sith apprentice of Darth Sidious during the final years of the Galactic Republic. Trained from childhood as a weapon of the Sith, he was defined by his hatred of the Jedi and his fury at being cast aside. Cut down by Obi-Wan Kenobi on Naboo and presumed dead, he survived, rebuilt himself, and spent the rest of his life pursuing vengeance against the Sith who had discarded him and against Kenobi above all.

Sith apprentice#

Maul was given as an infant to Darth Sidious by his Nightsister mother on Dathomir and raised as a Sith assassin. His training was brutal, and Sidious deliberately cultivated his inability to control his anger, shaping his rage into a weapon. As he grew impatient for a confrontation with the Jedi, Maul stalked targets in the shadows and waited for his master's orders, on one occasion killing a Jedi Padawan as a secret test of his loyalty set by Sidious. He wielded a double-bladed lightsaber and became an acrobatic and formidable warrior.

The Invasion of Naboo#

When Sidious moved against Naboo, he dispatched Maul to find Queen Amidala and kill the Jedi protecting her. Tracking her ship to Tatooine, Maul rode across the desert on his speeder bike, the Bloodfin, and confronted Qui-Gon Jinn before the queen escaped. In the final battle on Naboo, Maul dueled Jinn and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi, striking down Jinn. Kenobi then cut Maul down, and both he and the Jedi believed the Zabrak had perished.

Survival and the Shadow Collective#

Maul did not die. He survived in exile and madness in the bowels of Lotho Minor, where he used discarded metal to fashion a six-limbed apparatus that allowed him to walk again. His brother Savage Opress eventually found him and restored his mind. Together they built a criminal power base, drawing the Pyke Syndicate, Black Sun, and Death Watch into a coalition known as the Shadow Collective.

Maul turned his ambitions to Mandalore. Allying with Pre Vizsla's Death Watch to make the ruling Duchess Satine appear weak, he then challenged Vizsla to single combat, beheaded him with his own weapon, and claimed the ancient Darksaber as his own. His victory split Death Watch, with Bo-Katan Kryze refusing to follow him, while the rest submitted to his rule.

Defeat and escape#

Maul's growing power drew the attention of his old master. Recognizing that the Zabrak had become too dangerous, Sidious traveled to Mandalore and confronted the brothers in person, killing Savage Opress and defeating Maul, whom he kept alive for his own purposes. Maul was later captured by Ahsoka Tano and imprisoned, but when Sidious enacted Order 66 he sensed the turning of the clones and escaped, fleeing into hyperspace to rebuild his empire.

Crime lord and final duel#

Through the Imperial Era, Maul became an elusive figure hunted by the Inquisitorius, who came to call him "The Shadow." He led the criminal syndicate Crimson Dawn from behind the figurehead of Dryden Vos, and trained others, including Qi'ra, in the ways of combat. His obsessions narrowed to two ends: the destruction of Sidious and revenge on Kenobi.

Using knowledge drawn from a Sith holocron, Maul manipulated the young Force-user Ezra Bridger and at last tracked Kenobi to Tatooine. There, in the desert wastes, the two old enemies fought a final, brief duel. Kenobi struck Maul down, and as a final mercy closed the eyes of his dying foe and laid him to rest. Crimson Dawn endured after his death under the leadership of Qi'ra.