The Clone Wars is George Lucas’s Silmarillion. While it may be a cartoon, it was also the perfect medium for Lucas to expand a mythological background narrative that the Sequel Trilogy could be built on. One of the more under-appreciated elements of Lucas’s expanded world is the group of force users known as the Nightsisters. In this article we will take a fresh look at who they are, and what implications the mythology surrounding them has for the Sequel Trilogy.

In a recent article, we discussed how the 2012 book, The Book of Sith, sits at a very important, transitional period for Star Wars (published while TFA was in development, but before the EU purge). This book stands as part of a roadmap of how Lucasfilm had viewed the Force and the mythology surrounding it. The timing of this book makes it technically non-canon, but it stands as a book that was written in collaboration with Lucasfilm, and summarizes the last works of Lucasfilm with George Lucas at the helm. This point suggests this book represents a summary of Lucas’ vision for Star Wars and was part of the initial planning for the Sequel Trilogy. For this reason, we have been exploring its pages, digging for clues to how they might craft the new canon.

It’s here that we get quite some interesting information about the Nightsisters, and while you may remember this fringe group of Force users as the more villainous characters of the show, their beliefs are a little more forgiving—and intriguing. And it’s this information that may offer us some important connections to the Sequel Trilogy.

The Spectrum: Light, Dark, and… Both?

So before we start getting into some of the Sequel Trilogy connections, let’s take a look at their core beliefs.

The Nightsisters, also known as the “Witches of Dathomir”, believe that there is a spirt realm, and that our world is just a physical shadow of it. The group is led by someone called a shaman: a person that can see both worlds, and communicate with the spirts. Dathomir is their home planet, and has a unique connection to the spirit realm and helps them communicate with it.

The Clone Wars TV show would have you believe that the Nightsisters are darksiders, but that is not the case. They actually look down upon both the Jedi and the Sith and their compartmentalization of the Force. To them, the use of terms such as light side and dark side (or the Cosmic Force and the Living Force) as moral opposites is misguided. Is it evil to kill in self-defense? What about killing an animal for food? Are there not moments where you must be aggressive, and others where you can live in peace? The answer to this is what the Nightsisters call the Twin Deity.

Now I know what you’re thinking: Whatever the twin deity is, it’s probably not relevant to the “real” religions of Star Wars. It’s probably akin to what the Green party is to Democrats and Republicans, right? Not quite.

The thing is, you’ve learned of this twin deity before—but not from a Jedi (and not from a Sith, either). They are, at this point, probably the most mystifying and puzzling part of the Star Wars universe, and the Jedi and Sith don’t even talk about them. Where have you already seen them, you ask?

On Mortis.

The Winged Goddess and the Fanged God

The Son and Daughter of Mortis take two forms in The Clone Wars: A griffin, and a gargoyle. These are also the forms of the Twin Deity the Nightsister believe in.

According to the Nightsisters, the Winged Goddess represents fertility and growth, and acts as a mediator to reconcile wounded parties. Her counterpart, the Fanged God, represents strength, energy, dominance, and the more animal, hunt-like nature of human beings. The Nightsisters draw from both of these spirits in order to keep balance, who come out of the spirit realm when they are summoned.

The appearance of these beasts in the Mortis arc is extremely important, because it suggests, one, that the Nightsisters are right about something, and two, that the Jedi and the Sith seem to have a blind spot. Both groups take a lopsided approach to “balance” and don’t seem to acknowledge the existence of these beasts. Because Anakin encounters both of these on Mortis and is asked to balance them, it suggests that both the Jedi and the Sith are not completely correct, and that a third option that combines both is probably closer to the truth. In terms of the direction of the Sequel trilogy, this is huge. There is a swirling debate online about what “balance” really means. This assessment seems to suggest a mix between dark and light.

Another more obvious comparison between the two deities is that Rey and Kylo Ren seem to represent these two pretty accurately. Rey very much plays the role of mediator between two wounded parties—Kylo Ren and Luke. Kylo Ren constantly projects power and dominance. Between them, there seems to be a special connection, and it’s not far off to think that this connection resembles some type of balance.

The Nightsisters are a little one-sided about gender. They believe that females embody balance, while males give in too easily to their animal instincts. It’s for this reason that they keep all the males on Dathomir herded like animals and only encourage them to use the dark side—Darth Maul being the perfect example. From a PR standpoint, this is probably not the message we will get out of the Sequel Trilogy, and probably why the Nightsisters haven’t exactly brought balance to the Force themselves. However, if you consider the deleted Clone Wars prophecy scene about who controls Skywalker, it could be another possibility.

Curious Force Abilities

In the traditional fairy tale and Halloween sense, sorcery is something new to Star Wars lately. We were introduced to it in The Clone Wars with the witches of Dathomir, Maul, and Savage, and later saw Darth Sidious using his blue smoke over a cauldron in the World Between Worlds in Rebels (the smoke being eerily similar to that surrounding the Emperor’s death in ROTJ, if you’re interested in that theory).

The Book of Sith lays out some of these Force abilities (and yes, this is half of the same book series that Rian Johnson cited Luke’s Force projection ability from), so below is a list of some that may be relevant to recent Star Wars canon and the Sequel Trilogy:

Talking to Animals: Animals are physical embodiments of the fanged god. By tapping into the fanged god, one can communicate with animals. We’ve seen this used heavily in Star Wars Rebels, as well as in Attack of the Clones.

Animals are physical embodiments of the fanged god. By tapping into the fanged god, one can communicate with animals. We’ve seen this used heavily in Star Wars Rebels, as well as in Attack of the Clones. Talisman of Finding: A Talisman resembling a compass that will guide a user to any target that has been imprinted on it. Just like Luke’s compass in The Last Jedi?

A Talisman resembling a compass that will guide a user to any target that has been imprinted on it. Just like Luke’s compass in The Last Jedi? Talisman of Ressurection: A talisman that can bring the spirits of the dead back to their physical bodies. However, “if much time has passed, their forms may be little more than fetid skeletons.” Like Snoke’s body?

A talisman that can bring the spirits of the dead back to their physical bodies. However, “if much time has passed, their forms may be little more than fetid skeletons.” Like Snoke’s body? Healing Wounds and Restoring Memories : We have seen this with Maul—could we see this with Rey?

Last but not least, the Nightsister also have their own prophecy:

“It has been foretold by Allya that a perfect being will one day arise—one brought into existence by the spirts and one who will embody the balance between the Winged Goddess and the Fanged God.”

There are several prophecies in this book (take a look at our False Chosen One article if you’re interested) but this one certainly seems to be one of the only ones that spells out what balance really means—between light and dark.

What’s important to remember here is that while the subjects in this book may no longer be canon in the strictest sense, they have already been implemented in many areas of recent Star Wars mythology, suggesting its use as a foundation. In the effort of predicting what future canon is going to be (i.e. what happens in Episode IX), this book operates like a rough draft — the best roadmap we have.

Plot Implications

So with that said, how does all of this effect the story? I’m going to speculate now, and I invite you to share your own thoughts in the comments below.

First, this information solidifies some of the mystery surrounding the Mortis arc, and implies that Anakin was interacting with what the Nightsisters call the spirit world. This idea of visiting a spirit world isn’t isolated, and we’ve seen Vader visit a similar world in a recent comic. Could Lucas’s original idea of exploring the microscopic world of midi-chlorians be related to this? The key takeaway here his that two worlds live parallel to one another and interact with each other through the Force via emotions. It brings to mind an important word and theme from Episode I: Symbiosis. Will the final film in the episodic Star Wars saga involve a trip to a spiritual realm?

Second, what what about Allya? The foretold perfect being that will one day rise? Could this be someone we see in Episode IX, or is this being more of a metaphor? If you’re thinking about Rey, you might want to check out our article discussing the possibility that Rey is the Chosen one.

Third, if we are to believe that balancing the Force means equal parts light and dark, then it seems fairly reasonable to think that Kylo Ren and Rey represent that balance and are destined to team up in Episode IX (unless the story goes in some kind of mutual destruction direction, which I find hard to sell). Just like the image above, where Rey and Kylo Ren are in perfect balance, and the notion that they are “dual protagonists” of TLJ, they share a mysterious connection and seem to have some sort of balance or tension. At the end of this film, the Force needs to be balanced, and that means they can’t be enemies.

This naturally begs the question: They can team up, but against what? The Force at this point is unbalanced, and something HAS to be causing it. My money is on a familiar character, and that Talisman of Resurrection. Another possibility is the Knights of Ren, who are rumored to play a bigger role in this film.

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