Darth Maul

"At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi. At last we will have revenge!"

- Darth Maul

Darth Maul was a Sith warrior and former apprentice of Darth Sidious in the Star Wars franchise. Darth Maul is also the main antagonist of the movie Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and a recurring major antagonist in the later seasons of Star Wars the Clone Wars.

Early Life and Training
The Zabrak who would become Darth Maul was born on Iridonia to Kycina, a member of the Nightsisters, and his father was killed after his birth as per tradition. Maul was subjected to the coven’s initiation ritual, covering him in black and red tattoos. He would become a blood brother of Feral and Savage Opress and less than a year after he was born, Kycina met Darth Sidious, at the time the apprentice of Darth Plagueis. She managed to persuade the reluctant Sith to take and train Maul, so as to prevent him from becoming a Nightbrother, thanks to his natural connection to the Force. The Zabrak was cared for during the first few years of his life by droids on Mustafar and after a year, Sidious gained permission to train him.

However Plagueis commanded his apprentice not to teach Maul the most secret arts of the Sith, to mold him into an assassin, not a Sith Lord. As the Zabrak was trained, he never knew anything about his master other than his name, not that he was a Dark Lord of the Sith. Maul’s training was hard, with him receiving harsh punishment for any mistake or act of mercy. On one occasion, the Zabrak was brought to an icy planet for his exercise, where he ran up and down a mountain with great skill. But instead of being praised, Maul was tossed into a huge, freezing lake by Sidious, who watched and ignored his cries for help. Finally, he learned to turn his fear into rage, using this to give him the energy to swim to shore. When he turned 10, Maul was sent to the Orsis Academy to be trained as an assassin, ordered by Sidious not to use any Force abilities outside of his enhanced senses.

Upon arriving at Orsis, the Sith Lord pretended to be a blind businessman, wanting to make Maul his future bodyguard. Trezza, the headmaster of the Academy who could identify Force users, showed Maul around. Upon being introduced to the other students, the Zabrak challenged Dalok, a top student, to a fight and brutally won, even biting Dalok on the nose. After around three years, Maul befriended Kilindi Matako, who showed him great compassion for the first time in his life and told him how to fight some of Trezza’s chargwrecks, which he would soon fight. Maul then lied to Trezza about how he’d managed it. Two years later, the Zabrak gained a rivalry with Fretch and Hubnutz, a pair of Rodians, during a sniping class.

Afterwards, Maul and Kilindi were put under the tutelage of Meltch Krakko, a Mandalorian Jedi hunter. During the training, the Zabrak was forced to continually be hit with blaster shots to avoid being suspected of being a Force-user. Later, Maul was being prepared for the Orsis’ rite of passage with Fretch and Hubnutz under Krakko. At first, he tried to win their respect, but decided that they were attempting to kill him. Enraged, Maul forgot Sidious’ orders and attacked Krakko and the Rodians by launching himself through the air with the Force. He wounded Fretch and Hubnutz, before trying to tear Krakko to shreds, only to be stopped by Trezza. Sidious was enraged at Maul’s failure to follow his commands, but said that it was not totally his fault as the dark side could push the Sith to use their abilities at inopportune times.

Maul asked how long it would take for him to control these impulses and what the plan was now. Sidious said he might make the Zabrak his apprentice eventually, before giving him a lightsaber, igniting his own, and sparring and wounding with him. Soon afterwards, Maul was ordered by Sidious to destroy the Orsis Academy and everyone in it, which he did. Soon all of the teachers and cadets were dead, including Kilindi. By 17, Maul was a being of hatred, loyal to his master and with a sense of honor towards worthy opponents.

However the time came for his ultimate test, where Maul was left on the isolated planet of Hypori, forced to survive and be hunted by assassin droids. After a month, Sidious returned to challenge the Zabrak to a duel and Maul quickly lost in his weakened state. The Sith Lord told him that he’d lost and that he’d been training a replacement apprentice. Enraged, Maul attacked Sidious, biting his hand and spitting the blood into his face, before preparing himself to die. However the Sith Lord didn’t kill the Zabrak, revealing that he’d passed his final test by showing the desire to kill his master and there hadn’t been any other apprentice. Sidious named his apprentice Darth Maul, Sith Lord, and brought him to Coruscant for medical attention.

Missions for Darth Sidious
Maul was sent on numerous assassination missions for Sidious until his very appearance brought fear to the Sith’s enemies. But despite this, the Sith Lord sought to crush the Jedi completely. One of Maul’s earliest targets was Siolo’urmanka, one of the greatest Jedi warriors, who’d retired into seclusion on Jentares. The Sith Lord managed to find Manka as he was meditating and went for an easy kill. However the Jedi counterattacked with his wooden staff and Maul was overwhelmed and disarmed. Manka let the Sith Lord retreat, but he refused to give up, knowing that he would face death for his failure. Thus, Maul created a new double bladed lightsaber for himself, inspired by the Zabrak’s Zhaboka weapon.

When he challenged Manka for a second time, Maul kept the second blade hidden at first, but when he was disarmed, he caught his lightsaber and rushed Manka, pressing the other end against the Jedi’s back and activated it, impaling him. On another mission, Maul went to Chryya so as to make the spice merchants there sign an agreement with the Trade Federation. While things went well at first, one merchant formed a protest, which led to a rebellion that destroyed all the spices. Not able to take on the entire population of Chryya, Maul was forced to tell Sidious he had failed, earning him a force choke until he was unconscious. Later, during the Yinchorri uprising instigated by Plagueis and Sidious, Maul was sent to secure Vilmarh “Villie” Grahk, a petty smuggler who could be useful in instigating the crisis.

The Sith Lord found him in the slums of Coruscant and activated a holocomm that transmitted an image of Sidious, who made Grahrk his offer to lead the Yinchorri. The smuggler was skeptical and asked why Maul couldn't do the job, calling a “bad boy,” which made the Sith force choke him briefly. Grahrk agreed to do as Sidious asked and went to Tinchorri while the Sith secretly kept an eye on him. Maul asked his master what the Jedi would do in response to the uprising and Sidious told him they would have to fight the Yinchorri, meaning they would either be defeated or some of the Jedi would be killed.

As the Yinchorri attacked the Jedi Temple, Maul, having wanted to attack it himself, joined in on the attack. He then received an order from Sidious to bring Grahrk to him and he did so, though he asked his master to reconsider putting him in command of the Yinchorri. Sidious agreed with Maul, as leaving it to Grahrk was a poor choice, but told him to wait and bide his time, since they had to make sure their underlings were truly under their control. Secretly, Sidious was observing Maul watching his pride and desire to prove himself grow. Much later, Maul was sent to Dorvalla to unite the Lommite Limited and InterGalactic Ore companies so the Trade Federation could control all the ore shipments. Maul arrive as they were fighting the Toom clan, killing the survivors of the battle, and leading to the two company leaders joining together.

Soon afterwards, Maul was ordered to throw the Black Sun into chaos by killing its leaders so Sidious could use it for his own goals. The Sith Lord was given a specific order to kill them in, warned of what challenges he might face, and provided with a Sith Infiltrator, the Scimitar. Maul arrived at Vigo Darnada’s hideout, where he pretended to be an assassin looking to join the Black Sun. He was allowed in, before slaying everyone in Darnada’s private chamber, except Asa Naga, who Maul wanted to use to spread word that the Black Sun was fighting with itself.

The Sith Lord’s next target was Vigo Morn, who tried to beg for his life by revealing all the Black Sun leaders would be meeting on Raaltiir, but Maul slew him. He headed to Raaltiir, where he sent his Dark Eye probe droids to investigate the Black Sun Fortress, while he watched via electrobinoculars. Maul found that all the remaining leaders of the Black Sun were inside, along with their bodyguards and a large number of the Black Sun’s best soldiers. Sidious ordered Maul to attack and kill everyone inside and he cut a blood swath through all of the Black Sun soldiers, before heading to the grand chamber. He killed most of their bodyguards when theu engaged him, before one of them managed to train a blaster on him and demanded to know who sent him. Maul said nothing and the bodyguard, an Iktotchi, tried to telepathically extract answers from him.

However he saw only images of horror and darkness, killing him instantly and Maul headed into the grand chamber of the Black Sun leaders, slaying them all. Later, Maul was sent to deal with Silus, a Force-Sensitive Drovian, who Sidious said was a threat to their plans. Maul found him and showed him a holo-message of Sidious offering Silus to chance to replace Maul as his apprentice if he could defeat him. The two battled each other and Maul was forced to fight without his lightsaber due to a nullifier field around the arena they were in.

The Sith Lord had also been unnerved by Sidious’ offer to Silus, unfocusing him to the point that the Drovian took the advantage. However Maul channeled his rage to overload the nullifier field and cut down Silus with his lightsaber. Afterwards, Sidious told him it had simply been a test for him. Maul was also sent to kill Hath Monchar and anyone he may have told of the trade embargo about to put on Naboo. He found out that Monchar was going to sell a holocron with the information to a Corellian information broker. Maul was forced to fight Jedi master, Anoon Bondara, and his Padawan, Darsha Assant, who came across and chose to protect Pavan. Maul slew Bondara, barely surviving his speeder bike being destroyed by the Jedi before following Assant and Pavan. He dueled the Padawan, until she blew up the warehouse they were in, but Maul escaped so he could track down Pavan later.

The Corellian followed him to the space station he was sleeping on and found himself with an opportunity to shoot him. Only able to fire one kill shot or three stun shots from his blaster and worried about missing, Pavan tried shooting Maul with a stun shot, before taking his lightsaber to kill him. However the shot didn’t affect the Sith Lord and he cut off the Corellian’s hand, before chasing him until he escaped. Maul finally managed to ambush Pavan outside his hotel room, granting him a quick death for his ability to survive.

Invasion of Naboo
Maul waited in secrecy next to his master, as Sidious spoke about the trade embargo on Naboo with the Neimoidians. He was excited when he learned two Jedi had been sent to bring peace and Sidious ordered the Neimoidians to deal with them. Maul asked if they had any chance of actually killing the Jedi, knowing it was impossible for them to succeed. Sidious said they didn’t have the skill to do so, but they might get lucky. After learning that Queen Amidala had escaped the blockade, Maul was introduced to the Neimoidians and was sent to retrieve her. Darth Maul discovered the Queen was hiding on Tatooine, the home planet of Anakin Skywalker. He encountered and ambushed Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn when he and Anakin were on their way back to the Naboo Starship. He made Qui-Gon fight him in the lightsaber duel, launching quick attacks after swings.

After all the people on the starship had arrived at Coruscant, the Jedi were surpised that the Sith had returned, believed to be nonexistent for more than 2,000 years. Shortly after the Queen had planned and started an attack on the droid armies of the Trade Federation, Qui-Gon and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi entered the ship hangar of where Nute Gunray was hiding. After the Jedi, Queen, and Republic officers had taken out the droids, Darth Maul stood behind the blast door and drew out his double-bladed lightsaber. Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon fought him in a long battle. He chased them into the reactor room, and after Obi-Wan was separated from his master by one of the laser walls in the security hallway, he quickly killed Qui-Gon. Obi-Wan was overwhelmed with despair and anger by the loss of his master, and let anger grew inside him. He delivered several vicious attacks on Maul, catching him off guard and slicing his saber in two.

With only one functional lightsaber blade, Darth Maul fought back and knocked Obi-Wan into the shaft, and kicked Obi-Wan's weapon into the pit. While Obi-Wan was hanging on for his life, he remembered what his master had told him: "Be mindful of the living Force." At that moment, the Force flowed within Obi-Wan, and he jumped up, called his master's lightsaber to his hand, and struck Maul. Maul stood still, groaned weakly, and fell backwards into the pit, splitting in two at the waist as he fell.

However Maul survived, using his hatred and will to survive to grab onto an air vent, landing in water. He ended up in a container that brought him to Lotho Minor and he managed to use the Force to get together a six-legged cybernetic attachment to replace his missing lower body. Maul spent the next 12 years in the caves of Lotho Minor, where he deteriorated into a state of near-madness, losing all of his memories except Obi-Wan taking his legs. Maul’s only companion was an Anacondan named Morley, who helped him find shelter and food.

Reunion with a Brother and Quest for Revenge
"Your master, Qui-Gon Jinn; I gutted him while you stood helpless and watched. How did that make you feel, Obi-Wan?"

- Maul taunting Kenobi

However Savage Opress was eventually guided to Maul, who attacked him and at first, the fallen Sith Lord didn’t recognize him, not knowing of his having a brother. When Opress showed him a talisman from Mother Talzin, Maul started to regain some of his memories. He was brought to Dathomir and treated by Talzin, who restored his mind to normal and made his spider-like replacement legs more humanoid. Maul awoke and felt the Force was out of balance, before Opress told him of the Clone Wars. The Sith Lord expressed his regret that the war had started without him and told his brother of his life and his hatred for Obi-Wan. Opress gave Maul a half of his severed lightsaber and he said they would “start” with vengeance.

Maul and Opress killed people on Raydonia so they would gain Obi-Wan’s attention, before Maul contacted the Jedi Council as he did so, demanding that the Jedi come to him. With his brother’s help, the Sith Lord knocked out Obi-Wan, but didn’t kill him right then, wanting to draw out his demise. However Asajj Ventress arrived, so as to collect the bounty on Opress, and she teamed up with Obi-Wan to fight the two brothers.

Maul and Opress engaged them and Obi-Wan and Ventress managed to escaped, but Maul said he could wait a little longer for his revenge because he had already waited for a decade. Opress said that the Jedi would soon be pursuing them, but the Sith Lord said he was counting on that fact. Maul and Opress went to Yellow blade’s Landing, where they went to a cantina full of thugs, which the Sith Lord tried to recruit. When they refused, the brothers slaughtered all the cantina patrons, after Maul reminded Opress that to survive by hiding, they needed to make sure there were no witnesses.

Terrorizing the Galaxy
After this, Maul and Opress launched a number of raids throughout the galaxy, before stopping at a space station above Cybloc. They sparred with Maul showing himself to be the superior fight and declaring himself Opress’ master. The two then headed to Florrum, where they recruited a group of Weequay pirates. They engaged Obi-Wan and another Jedi, Adi Gallia, who’d joined forces with Hondo Ohnaka, former leader of the pirates the two had recruited. Maul and Opress managed to kill Gallia, before pursuing Obi-Wan, but in the fight, the Jedi managed to sever Opress’ arm, prompting Maul to decide to retreat.

The two were also forced to deal with their former minions, who’d rejoined Ohanaka, with Maul getting one of his legs shot off. They managed to get onto their ship, but its engine was shot with a rocket launcher, causing it to crash. Maul and Opress managed to escape and the Jedi Council declared them dead, but Obi-Wan felt otherwise. Maul and Opress were found by Death Watch, a Mandalorian terrorist organization, who tended to their wounds. They joined forces and headed to Mustafar to recruit the Black Sun group. Though Maul and his allies’ offer was laughed off at first by the group, the Black Sun captain of the guard, Ziton Moj, decided to joined after seeing Opress kill all of the other Black Sun leaders. Maul and the others returned to their camp where the Pykes and Lom Pyke arrived to join his alliance. The Sith Lord’s next stop was the Hutt Grand Council to ask for the Hutt’s allegiance.

When met with refusal, Maul and his allies killed Oruba the Hutt and Jabba the Hutt declared that the Hutts’ would join the Sith’s coalition. Thus, Maul named his new organization the Shadow Collective. He began making plans to make the Duchess Santine Kryze of Mandalore seem weak by having the Death Watch attack Sundari, then the rest of the Shadow Collective could drive them off. Maul was also counting on treachery from Death Watch’s leaders, Pre Vizsla and Bo Katan]] as part of their own plans. The Sith brothers managed to enact their plan, capturing Vizsla and Katan during this and Maul killed Vizla in a duel, also freeing Almec and Satine, before making his getaway. The Sith Lord was joined by half of the Death Watch while the rest remained under Bo Katan. Maul also instilled Almec as Prime Minister and a puppet ruler though which he could control Mandalore.

Facing his Old Master
Obi-Wan joined forces with Bo Katan’s Death Watch faction, the Night Owls, to take down Maul. However he ended up captured and watched Maul slay Satine, but eventually the Sith Lord was forced to allow Obi-Wan to escape his clutches. Soon afterwards, Darth Sidious arrived to confront Maul, having learned of what his former apprentice had been up to after his actions on Florrum. Sidious engaged Maul and Opress, who briefly managed to gain the advantage until Sidious managed to finally beat them, killing Opress and blasting Maul with Force lightning, but the Dark Lord stated that he would not kill Maul, suggesting that there were other uses for him...

Rebirths
At some point, the Prophets of the Dark Side created a double of Maul through some unknown means. They sent him against Darth Vader, who they believed had too much Jedi in him to ever be a true Sith Lord. Thus, Maul would become Sidious’ apprentice once again and the Empire would remain intact with the unworthy Vader gone. Vader arrived on Kalakar Six, thinking he’d come to take down a Rebel with plans to the Death Star and was instead confronted by Maul and the dark Prophets. The Zabrak Sith Lord killed Vader’s stormtroopers and engaged Vader himself in combat.

At one point, Vader managed to cut Maul’s lightsaber in half, but the two ends kept functioning and the Zabrak just changed his style. Vader had a hard time dealing this different style and Maul started to take the advantage until Vader made the surprising maneuver of stabbing and killing the Zabrak by impaling himself, almost dying as well.

During his second mission to Raxus Prime, Vader's secret apprentice Starkiller fought a hologram of Darth Maul, who was actually his holodroid PROXY in disguise, who was attempting to fulfill his primary directive of killing Starkiller, though Starkiller eventually overcame and defeated PROXY.

Much later, during the New Republic, Drell Kahmf obtained and revived Maul’s brain, believing he was the ideal Iridonian, despite being having Dathormirian descent. The Sith Lord’s brain was put into a chemical vat, wired to a solid-state holographic projector, which could project a wraith-like doppelganger of Maul that was immune to attack. After Luke Skywalker arrived on Iridonia for ambassadorial reasons, the holographic Sith Lord attacked him out of his hatred for the Jedi. Luke realized that this Maul was not real and found his brain using the Force, saying that keeping the Sith alive this way was a disturbance to the Force. He then turned off Maul’s life-support, finally killing him.

Personality
Darth Maul is driven by pure hatred for all things, particularly the Jedi, though he does have a sense of honor, granting worthy foes quick deaths. He also had respect and possibly even attachment for Sidious, despite his torturous upbringing at his hands. Maul focuses on complete victory at any cost and even his master finds it somewhat terrifying how much pain he will endure to succeed in his goals. Maul bravely takes on any challenge, but is also arrogant and gloating, best exemplified by one point, where he believed he could fight and defeat the entire Jedi Order. Sidious often had to warn Maul to watch his pride, saying that despite his fierce fighting skill, he is no one-man army.

Maul was once loyal to his master, but still wondered about his part in the Grand Plan of the Sith and knew he couldn't carry on the Sith’s legacy, having only been trained as an assassin. He feared what might happen if Sidious were to meet his end unexpectedly, and had no idea of how to carry out the Grand Plan alone. Maul also realizes he cannot maintain any secret identity like Sidious does because of his appearance. He lacks a complete understanding of the galaxy despite his knowledge in the world of politics and crime, though he realizes the Jedi are the true enemy, not the Republic. Maul has no patience for the useless, but can take notice of the more talented. He is determined to be the greatest warrior via any means of self-improvement and his near death at the hands of Obi-Wan has made him more bitter.

Maul is a cunning and ruthless killer and has no qualms with killing civilians or using taunting to unsettle his opponents in battle. His time in isolation had made more patient and able to function as a leader in his quest for revenge, not just a follower. Maul is determined to kill Sidious and his new apprentice, Count Dooku, who he considers a pretender Sith.

Powers and Abilities
Maul is a deadly and proficient at wielding lightsabers and focuses more on physical skill than using spiritual and psychological tactics to crush his foes, though he has used these more lately. Maul is best known for his double-ended saberstaff the second blade of which he often used to catch his opponent’s offguard. He also combines his lightsaber wielding with hand-to-hand combat, making him a much more dangerous opponent.

When Maul cannot win with pure martial skill, he uses tactics to win the day. He is skilled in using the Force, which grants him telekinetic abilities and the power to send out blasts of Force lightning, which he can also resist. Maul is also skilled with technology, building his speeder bike and Dark Eye probe droids and modifying a protocol droid to become an assassin droid to protect his ship. Maul also possesses an extreme endurance to physical pain.

Trivia

 * In Star Wars Episode I, Darth Maul was portrayed by Ray Park, a martial arts specialist and voiced by Peter Serafinowicz. Many fans wanted to know more about Maul after the movie, mostly due to his lack of lines, resulting in expansion on his character in books and comics.


 * It has been suggested that the Jedi never knew Maul’s name, though there have been times in the Expanded Universe when the Jedi referred to him by name, though these are considered errors.


 * Each villain in the Star Wars prequels foreshadows a different aspect of what Anakin will become. In Darth Maul's case, it's the apprentice who enforces Sidious's will.


 * His Lego Figure as well as his appearance in Lego Star Wars The Empire Strikes Out and Lego Star Wars Darth Maul's Mission, depicted his horns black.


 * Maul can be considered as the "evil counterpart" of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader:
 * Both were slaves as children, but then were passed off to learn the ways of the force.
 * Both were incredibly strong with the force at a young age, highlighted by Palpatine in Episodes I and III.
 * Both formed Teacher-Student/Brotherly relationships with an older warrior (Savage Oppress for Maul and Obi-Wan Kenobi for Anakin).
 * Both were bested by Obi-Wan Kenobi in battle by getting nearly killed and were restored to life with cybertics.
 * Both were eventually cast aside by Palpatine in the favor of another potential apprentice (Maul for Anakin and Anakin for Luke).

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