Darth Maul

Origin

Maul was a Nightbrother of Darthomir, who was taken by the Sith Lord Darth Sidious when he was a baby. The tattoos in his skin were the markings of a warrior amongst the Nightbrother clan. He has two brothers named Savage and Feral, one of which he would later meet in his adulthood.

Maul from his early years has trained in the ways of the dark side. He does not have any memories of his home world of Iridonia or of his birth family. He is incapable of normal emotion, only experiencing blood lust and rage.

During his training, any show of fear was severely punished by Sidious. Also, if he even hinted at the thought of mercy he would be treated with cruelty. By the time Maul reached adolescence, his master forged him into a weapon of pure hatred. Marked by Sith tattoos that cover his entire body, Maul is the ultimate tool of the dark side. Despite this rather traumatic childhood, Maul adores his Master, and has never once contemplated killing him.

Sidious abandoned Maul on an isolated Outer Rim world, forcing him to survive alone while being hunted by hordes of assassin droids. After a month’s time, his master returned and challenged him to a duel, one which the already severely weakened Maul quickly loses. Sidious then tells Maul that he has failed and is soon to be replaced. Overwhelmed by hatred, Maul nearly defeats his master. When Maul’s emotions are finally spent, he prepares to die, yet his master laughs instead. By wanting to kill his own master, Maul has, in fact, passed the final test. His master proclaims him Darth Maul, Dark Lord of the Sith, and gives him a new home on Coruscant.

Major Story Arcs

Black Sun

After becoming a Sith Lord, Maul completed numerous covert missions and assassinations for his Master, Darth Sidious. One of the most infamous of these was when Maul single-handedly took on the galaxy-spanning crime syndicate known as The Black Sun.

Piloting his Sith Infiltrator ship, Maul began travelling from system to system, tearing the Black Sun apart from the inside, killing numerous second-in-command Black Sun Vigos and leaving nothing but destruction in his wake. He easily infiltrated their bases, slaughtered their security forces (which included Force users) and assassinated their leaders.

After throwing the organization into complete disarray, he targeted their main stronghold, which housed the Black Sun’s leader Alexi Garyn. Maul slaughtered the entire Black Sun security Force. He then went on to kill seven of the galaxy’s most deadly mercenaries in less time than it takes to say it. A telepath among the Black Sun’s ranks attempted to probe Maul’s thoughts in an attempt to find out who he was and why he was attacking the Black Sun, but due to the magnitude of darkness lingering in Maul’s mind, the telepath fell into a coma almost immediately.

Alexi Garyn’s last line of defence was a Dathomirian Nightsister named Mighella. Despite her skill in the Dark Side she proved to be no match for the Sith Lord, and was defeated even after attempting to destroy Maul with Force Lightning.

Maul caught up with Garyn soon after, and after a brief conversation followed by an attempt at resistance on Garyn’s part, Maul choked him to death with his bare hands. He returned to Sidious, his mission complete.

Lockdown

Maul was next assigned a mission by his Master to hunt down an infamous black market weapons dealer named Iram Radique, who was believed to be operating inside the prison colony Cog Hive Seven. Maul successfully infiltrated the prison under the fake persona of a mercenary called Jagganath.

Maul soon discovered that Cog Hive Seven was not just a prison. It also hosted gladiatorial bouts between inmates as well as various fierce and famous predatory creatures from around the galaxy. He was subsequently thrown into such match ups where despite vastly unfavourable circumstances, he was able to defeat all of his opponents, inmates and creatures alike.

These death matches were a part of an underground gambling operation, which the prison’s Warden Sadiki Blirr made millions of credits of profit from due to an algorithm created by her brother, that would predict the outcome of every match with a 100% success rate, allowing her to set odds on contestants that would yield the most profit.

While inside Cog Hive Seven, Maul soon discovered that his real objective was to buy a nuclear weapon from Radique, who had secretly been doing his black weapon weapons manufacturing in Cog Hive Seven itself under the nose of Blirr. He would then sell this weapon to the Bando Gora, which, due to the fact Radique hates the Banda Gora, made it all the more difficult to do so.

Meanwhile, during Maul’s investiagations, Blirr found out that a Hutt had assigned a security force which had infiltrated her guards to protect Radique. After losing her brother, the prisoners escaping and a mass riot ensuing throughout the prison, she detonates the prison’s self-destruct sequence.

As this is happening the Banda Gora arrive, with their leader Komari Vosa. Radique is killed by an inmate assisting Maul, and Maul has a brief fight with Vosa in which he gets the upper hand. Soon realizing that their goal is a common one, they team up to defeat the Syrox, a massive worm that had killed Blirr as well as many inmates and guards. They are then able to escape from the soon-exploding prison ship, Maul’s mission complete to a suitable enough standard for his Master all circumstances considered.

The Phantom Menace

After landing on Naboo he came in contact with two Jedi and the Queen of Naboo. Maul went straight at the two Jedi, ignoring the queen and allowing her to escape. In a vicious duel Maul fended off both of his Jedi opponents with the help of his double-bladed lightsaber. After separating the Jedi Master from his Padawan, Maul finally succeeded in slaying Jinn. He then challenged Kenobi. The young Padawan, enraged at his master’s death, struck out at Maul with a furious assault. Maul eventually Force-pushed Kenobi into a pit. He then taunted the Padawan, who dangled helplessly by a ledge, watching his lightsaber fall down into the abyss. However, Kenobi instantly calmed down and connected with the Force. He makes a spectacular leap out of the shaft and Force-guides Jinn’s lightsaber into his own hands. Wasting no time in striking as he landed from his jump, Kenobi cuts the astounded Maul in two before he can react. Maul barely has time to grimace as his body tumbles down the shaft in two pieces.

Return and Revenge

Maul survived his near death by using Sidious’ training and managed to end up on the junk planet of Lotho Minor in the Outer Rim. With the power of the Force, he turned himself into a cyborg with an arachnid-like lower half, and managed to survive for over a decade. During the following years Maul’s mind sank into a insanity until he was found by his brother, Savage Opress. Brought back to Dathomir, Savage brings to Mother Talzin, who purges of his mind of madness and is given a new pair of robotic legs crafted by Talzin’s magic. With his mind restored, Maul learns from his brother that the Clone Wars have started without him. Then, with the help of Opress, proceeds to extract revenge on Obi-Wan by luring him to a trap. Due to an unexpected appearance by Asajj Ventress however, Kenobi manages to escape. But realizing that the Jedi are now aware of his return, Maul and his brother decide remain in hiding all while secretly plotting their revenge.

Death Sentence

Darth Maul and his brother Savage Opress hide out on the planet Paklan when they are attacked by bounty hunters. They brutally take down their assailants and force a name from their leader, Ja’Boag. Ja’Boag runs a mining operation on the plant Moorjhone. The brothers arrive on the planet and scope out Ja’Boag’s security detail. Maul commands one of the soldiers to walk back to his unit with a thermal detonator. Maul and Opress tear through the soldiers and toss Ja’Boag into the mine. He is saved by three Jedi who have come to stop Darth Maul. Salmara attempts to negotiate with Maul but fails as Judd steps in to battle the brothers. A barrel containing carbonite is thrown at Opress who unknowingly slices it in half, encasing himself with its contents. Enraged over his brothers demise, Maul breaks Judd’s arm with his foot claw and is about to finish him when the Padwan Dray stabs him in the side. Maul slices off Dray’s hands and escapes into the desert. He wanders until he passes out but is found and saved by the planets native inhabitants. They believe Darth Maul will be their saviour.

Rise and Fall

Darth Maul and Savage later decide to form their own army to challenge the Republic and the Separatists by aligning with several pirate crews and later the Mandalorian Death Watch. With the aid of Pre Vizla, Maul and Savage succeed in conquering Mandalore and overthrowing Duchess Satine. However, they were betrayed by Vizla and the Death Watch who decided to capture the brothers and lock them up. Maul would later break free and defeat Pre Vizla in combat becoming both the new leader of the Death Watch criminal empire. He ruled from the shadows, with Prime Minister Almec as his puppet ruler. He would also enact his revenge on Obi-Wan Kenobi by murdering Satine right in front of Kenobi to make him suffer. Eventually his actions would catch the attention of his former master, Darth Sidious.

As a small militia of the Death Watch (which included Kenobi and Satine’s sister, Bo Katan) were starting to overthrow Maul’s rule, Darth Sidious arrived amongst the skirmish to confront his former apprentice. Maul immediately requested to return to his side, but Sidious refused, seeing that Maul had his brother have become a rival and the potential threat to his plans. Maul and Savage battles Sidious with all their skill but they prove to be no match as the Sith Lord kills Savage and subdues Maul. Defeated, Maul begs for mercy which Sidious accepts, believing that he may be of use to him…

Son of Dathomir

After his defeat at Darth Sidious’ hands, Maul was captured and taken to a secret prison on the planet Stygeon. There, he was repeatedly questioned and tortured by his former Master and later Count Dooku as to give up the names of his Shadow Collective companions’ and the location of their secret bases. As he was being questioned by the Count, two of Maul’s Death Watch commando allies invaded the prison and set up explosives on a lower level to try and draw attention away from Maul’s cell and floor level. Despite Dooku seeing through the scheme, the commandos were able to rescue Maul, blow a hole in the side of the prison, and lead him to their ship, escaping the prison and the planet, though this was actually part of Sidious’ scheme all along. After leaving the planet, Maul is taken to a Shadow Collective base on the swamp moon Zanbar. There he is greeted by Prime Minister Almec, who gives Maul his Darksaber and informs him that the Pykes and Black Sun are still loyal to the Sith Lord. Immediately after, Maul is informed that Separatist ships had followed his ship to the moon, and have started sending in their drop ships. Leading the defense of his base, Maul jumps into the battle only to be confronted by General Grievous and his Magnaguard bodyguards. Maul engages the Magnaguards, easily defeating a group of four of the droids, before jumping to fight Grievous. After a short skirmish, Maul realizes that his forces have been overrun and are on the verge of losing. Maul calls in an airstrike to further damage Grievous’ forces before jumping into another ship to be taken away off planet. As soon as the ship made orbit, Maul contacted his Mother the Nightsister Mother Talzin, as to what his next move should be.

Heeding her advice, he makes his way to a Black Sun stronghold on Ord Mantell and prepares the forces there to combat the Separatist forces he knew would follow him. Not soon afterwards, Grievous and Dooku would lead a Separatist attack on the stronghold. Due to his strategic planning, Maul was able to board the Separatist flagship, capture General Grievous, deactivate the droids attacking the city, and subsequently capture Count Dooku. Maul takes both the Count and the General to a near Mandalorian supply outpost and contacts his former Master, letting him know his armies would be crushed without his generals and that both him and Mother Talzin seek their revenge on him. Asking Dooku to join him against Sidious in order to take him down, Maul’s base is suddenly attacked by Republic forces led by Masters Obi-Wan Kenobi and Tiplee. Realizing he had better chances teaming up with Maul than dying at his hands as a prisoner, Dooku and Maul attempt to engage the Jedi, only to be interrupted by Jedi reinforcements in the form of Mace Windu and Aayla Secura. After a brief duel between Windu, Secura, Maul, and Kenobi, Tiplee, and Dooku, Death Watch commandos intervene, shooting a jetpack missile at Maul’s opponents, allowing Maul and Dooku to escape once again.

Now finally ready to implement his Mother’s plan, Maul takes Dooku to Dathomir in hopes of drawing out his former Master for a final confrontation. Sidious arrives shortly afterwards, with the now escaped Grievous, and attempts to subdue Maul yet again. At this point, Mother Talzin enters Dooku’s body via a dark side technique, and uses his body to duel Sidious as Maul engages Grievous. The four engage in a quick duel, which sees Sidious disarm Talzin-controlled-Dooku, before shocking the possessed Dooku with lightning to force Talzin to let go of Dooku’s body and Maul Force-push Grievous out of a large hole in the wall. Talzin and Sidious enter in a Force Lightning match with neither gaining the advantage over the other, which allows Maul the chance to escape and make sure the Shadow Collective would still have a strong leader. Maul, although resisting at first, allows himself to leave Dathomir with his Death Watch allies, as Talzin is struck down by Grievous and Separatists forces launch a full-on assault on Dathomir.

Capture

During the last days of the clone wars, former Death Watch member Bo-Katan is able to appeal to the former Jedi Ahsoka Tano to help her retake Mandalore and capture Maul. Although reluctant at first, the Republic sends a faction of the 501st legion to help assist with the attack on Mandalore. The Republic and Bo-Katan’s forces are able lay a siege on the capital of Mandalore trapping Maul inside. Maul however, had planned this as he had thought Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker were leading the attack, and wanted to kill the pair to exact his revenge on both Kenobi and Sidious (who wanted Anakin as his apprentice).

After Prime Minister Almec was captured, Maul tells his loyal Mandalorian follower Gar Saxon to assassinate the Almec so that the former Prime Minister doesn’t reveal any of Maul’s plans to the Republic and Jedi. Towards the end of the siege, Maul is confronted by Ahsoka Tano. Although disappointed that Obi-Wan and Anakin didn’t come to try and capture him like he had expected, he offers Ahsoka to join him to take down Sidious, and tells the former Togrutan Jedi that the galaxy was about to fall into darkness. Ahsoka nearly joins him, but is enraged when Maul tells her that her former master Anakin Skywalker would fall to the dark side, believing that Anakin wouldn’t do such a thing.

The 2 begin fighting, with Ahsoka managing to kick Maul out a window. Maul then attempts to escape as his forces were being overrun by the Republic and Bo-Katan’s men. As Saxon asks him for reinforcements, Maul declines and tells him to die well, infuriating Saxon and making him swear to kill Maul. Maul is soon confronted by Ahsoka again. He manages to disarm Tano, but loses his footing while attacking her and falls down towards the ground below. She is saved by Ahsoka, who chooses to capture him and loads him onto a Republic Gunship as the battle was winding down.

Order 66

As the Republic forces were returning towards Coruscant, Chancellor Palpatine, now revealed to be the Sith Lord Darth Sidious executed Order 66 after the death of Mace Windu. Ahsoka is able to survive her clones turning against her and escapes, releasing Maul to use him as a distraction on the clones. Maul makes his way towards the hangar bay, and despite not having his lightsaber, makes innovative use of the force, and is able to reach the hangar. As Maul runs towards a ship to escape, Ahsoka attacks him but he avoids her strikes, before force pushing Tano away. Maul then enters the ship and attempts to escape, but Ahsoka uses the force to lock it into place and starts trying to pull it back down. However, she is forced to release her hold on the ship as clones starts attacking her, which allows Maul to escape.

Facing Vader

During the time of the Galactic Empire Maul returned, Maul was resurrected by the prophets of the Dark Side to prove that Maul was a better candidate for the Emperor than Vader. The prophets brought Maul back to destroy Darth Vader because they had doubts about his commitment to the Dark Side of the Force. Although Maul proved a formidable opponent for Vader and demonstrated better skill with a lightsaber, Maul underestimated Vader’s committment to the Dark Side. Vader proved that he was a fully committed Sith by stabbing through his own body to kill the Zabrak.

Skills

Lightsaber and Martial Arts Mastery

Darth Sidious trained Darth Maul mercilessly in all forms of the Sith arts, becoming the living embodiment of evil. Maul became a master of the seventh lightsaber form Juyo. Juyo was a form that allowed the user to harness their most volatile emotions into powerful, aggressive strikes intended to overwhelm an opponents defence and unbalance them. Because of this, the teaching of this form was banned by the Jedi order, as it opened doors to the dark side. Needless to say, Maul was able to maximize the effectiveness of Juyo by channelling his inner darkness, anger and hatred into the form, which, coupled with Maul’s astonishing physical strength, and blinding speed, made him an overwhelmingly powerful opponent for even the strongest or most experienced Jedi.

Darth Maul formerly wielded a Saberstaff, or double-bladed lightsaber, which he crafted personally after his Sith Lord trials using four red synthetic focusing crystals. In order to use such a weapon the user had to be a true master combatant, and was required to be in perfect attunement with their blade, otherwise they had as much chance of cutting themselves in half as their opponent. Maul no doubt fit this description, as he knew his weapon intimately. The hilt was specifically fitted and weighted to his personal preference. He wielded it with true mastery. He would often only ignite one of the blades when facing a single opponent, but when faced with multiple opponents, ignited both blades. Sometimes, however, he ignited both blades purely to confuse opponents who were not familiar with the weapon’s archaic design.

As a direct replacement for Dun Moch, Maul became a master practitioner of Teräs Käsi. Teräs Käsi was an unarmed combat form originally designed by non-force sensitives in order for them to effectively combat Jedi. It’s techniques are based on the movements and attacks of various predatory creatures from around the galaxy, such as Rancor Rising, Charging Wampa and Riding Bantha. As a result of Maul’s mastery of Teras Kasi, he was able to constantly chain devastating leg, elbow and even head-horn strikes into his lightsaber combat, occasionally killing opponents on impact. Teras Kasi also allowed the practitioner to have full control over their body, which allowed Maul to adjust his body position during falls of up to 30 meters in order to dodge otherwise fatal obstacles. Maul had also mastered numerous other physical martial arts at around the age of thirteen during his training at Orsis Academy.

Maul had also mastered the dual blade sword technique Jar’Kai, and became adept in the sixth lightsaber form, Niman. He demonstrated this knowledge during his lightsaber duel against his former master, Darth Sidious, on Mandalore.

Maul showed proficiency in Dun Moch despite never being formally trained in the traditional Sith martial art. He used it against Obi-Wan Kenobi in their first duel since his return from his apparent death, allowing him to unbalance the Jedi and force him to retreat.

Maul at the age of three knew how to pinpoint the vulnerabilities of nearly every native species on Mustafar.

Force Powers

Maul became a powerful and well refined telekinetic after his return from Lotho Minor, and was stated as being more powerful in the Force than ever before. He is able to perform astonishing telekinetic feats such as collapsing massive amounts of debris from a cliff face, and blowing away a large company of soldiers with the aid of his brother, Savage. He was also able to carry out less destructive but far more intricate telekinetic manoeuvres, such as engineering the heart attack of an elderly man, and crushing his heart from the inside. Maul has also shown the ability to use telekinesis in order to perform supernatural feats of engineering, such as carrying out the equivalent of a mind trick on a droid, and constructing fully functioning spider-like legs for himself in seconds using various junked droid parts.

Maul was very proficient in the technique Force Choke, which he utilized numerous times against non-force sensitives as well as force sensitives, such as Obi-Wan Kenobi, with relative ease. He also showed great accuracy with the technique Saber Throw.

Maul has demonstrated an exceptionally advanced knowledge in mind tricks, being able to whisper commands into a soldier’s ear, forcing him to walk up to his fellow soldier’s and detonate a thermal detonator, killing himself and everyone around him. Maul has also used mind tricks in order to force people to lose interest in him, making him essentially invisible to the weak minded.

Force Powers

• Force Choke
• Force Lightning
• Force Grip
• Force Repulse
• Force Leap
• Force Push
• Force Saber Throw
• Force Dash
• Force Pull
• Force Fire
• Force Mind Trick
• Force Freeze
• Force Sense
• Force Scream
• Mechu-deru
• Force Sight

Projectile Weaponry

Maul, during his training at the Orsis Academy as well as with Sidious, learned how to use ranged weapons such as blasters and throwing knives with extraordinary accuracy, being able to hit targets blindfolded with ease, and having to deliberately miss during certain training exercises in order to avoid giving up his hidden identity as a Sith.

Acrobatics

Maul was trained to be a superb acrobat from as young as three years old. When he was this young he was already capable of running along walls, and was trained to run up walls and do somersaults. Soon he managed to master this exercise. He was further trained in advanced acrobatics on a variety of different planets with gravitational fields ranging from half, to twice as much as Maul was accustomed to on Coruscant normally. Nearer the end of his formal training he was capable of pulling off a triple backward flip, and willingly jumped fifty-five meters from a cruiser into the ocean. He also constantly chained acrobatic kicks into his fights.

Stealth

Because of the Sith Grand Plan, Maul had to be trained in the arts of stealth and espionage, to uphold the secrecy of the Sith’s return from the Jedi. Maul was no doubt a master in these fields. He was able to move noiselessly as he assassinated opponents, and used the Force to cloak himself invisible in order to bypass enemies he could not afford to engage.

Computer Hacking

Maul was trained in advanced computer hacking, which has allowed him to access otherwise restricted files and databases on computers, on numerous occasions.

Other Media

Film

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

Darth Maul made his first appearance Star Wars: TPM in 1999 and was played by Scottish Martial Artist and Stunt-Man Ray Park. His voice was provided by Peter Serafinowicz.

Television

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Maul is set to make his debut appearance in The Clone Wars in the 4-part series finale he’ll be voiced by Sam Witwer. Maul appearance will also be his first cannon appearance since his death in The Phantom Menace.

Video Games

Lego Star Wars 1

Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga

Darth Maul appears as a boss, and can be unlocked as a playable character.

Lego Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars

Darth Maul appears as a playable character.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Galen Marek’s training droid (Proxy) took on the appearance and fighting style of Darth Maul when fighting on Raxus Prime.

A Darth Maul “Skin” is also available for download as part of the “Jedi Temple” DLC pack.