#Dathomir Lore

[o-wise-corvid]

No.

On Dathomir, adoption was rare before Talzin’s rule was severed. But afterward, as clans began interacting more with one another, intermingling of culture and customs because more prevalent. There are many families with open marriages that are compromised of many children belonging to several sets of parents. Most of these adopt the children who are not biologically theirs, solidifying the familial bonds across all levels.

Adopting off-world children is pretty rare. Dathomiri aren’t xenophobic; they’re simply protective of what they’ve built. In a universe where the Republic exists, one turn away from becoming the Empire, you can’t blame them.

Adoptions are performed the same way, regardless of the nature of the adoption (parental, sibling, avuncular, etc.). The adopter/adoptee slice their thumbs on their horns or teeth and press them together, literally mixing the blood of the adoptee with their new family. This can take place with just the main adopter or all the family. Another way of officiating this was devised for infants being adopted; the parent or guardian would slice the baby’s thumb for them, the little cut soothed immediately after with a kiss. It’s also common in these ceremonies for the child, if they’re old enough to understand instruction, to bite the parent hard enough to draw blood, usually on the shoulder muscle, marking them as their parent. In cases of adopting children without horns, this is also performed. Dathomiri understand suffering at the hands of time. Not all joys must be hindered with waiting.

Are there any legal differences between biological and adopted children in your setting?

[cjvarte]

General Grievous (Canon)

Source: "Star Wars Encyclopedia: The Comprehensive Guide to the Star Wars Galaxy" is a Canon reference book published by Dorling Kindersley on November 7, 2024, in the United Kingdom and on November 19, 2024, in the United States. The book is an updated version of the previous reference books Ultimate Star Wars (2015) and Ultimate Star Wars, New Edition (2019).

Not much, but a bit of new information.

[isagrimorie]

Sabine and Shin's Distrust of Nightsister Witches | Star Wars Rebels 3x11 | Star Wars Ahsoka 1x01 | Ahsoka 1x06

[aka-lambda]

Ugly and old sketch but this is how friendship looks like for Huji, well she would be easily considered as a traitor.

Also I should draw Ventress more.

[o-wise-corvid]

Dathomir Daily

Feral peeked out of his hiding spot, careful not to strain his neck. He was still so sore and he feared his voice would never be the same. Feral had always been soft spoken. But he’d not been able to get louder than a whisper since… well, he’d rather not dwell on it. He’d been in a selection before but… that one was much, much different.

The ship that thrummed across the horizon toward him wasn’t like anything he’d seen before. It was all angles, like a blade cutting through the air. It was Savage. Feral knew that. But why had it been so long? Months had gone by, an entire season. What might’ve kept him? Was it the Nightsister? He couldn’t remember her name. Maybe she’d decided to produce a child. Thank the goddess Savage was still alive after that…

The ship landed, the wings to either side of pointed helm folding upward, blasting Feral’s cliffside hideaway with coarse sand and hot wind. He tucked his head behind his arm, shielding his eyes from the debris. And then it was quiet again.

“Brother!”

Feral grinned. He darted out from behind the outcropping that shielded his simple little living space from eyes and weather… and froze. There were two.

Feral’s hearts clenched in his chest and he swallowed painfully, one hand reaching to rub the red band tattooed about his left bicep. Datho. Red. Like this other brother. Savage could see his confusion and possibly his hurt. The bigger Zabrak lumbered over to him and bent low, locking horns with Feral. They stood there for a moment, the stranger watching with curiously sharp eyes.

“Feral. This is Maul.” Savage turned to his smaller much smaller companion. “Maul… you have two brothers.”

The red Zabrak’s eyes widened and then seemed to appraise Feral with a new respect. He didn’t speak. Only inclined his head, shifting one foot that wined peculiarly when he moved it.

“Come,” Savage said excitedly. He clapped Feral’s shoulder and then Maul’s, who jumped under the hearty touch. “We shall hunt. And eat before the fire. It is time you lived as one of Dathomr, vīn go’ro. No more Sith. No more Jedi. Just us… your family… I’u’no. Cān dē’u’kin’ī.”

Feral didn’t think Maul looked too enthused. No. He looked almost ill. When Savage spoke Mēr’lā’blīn, Feral knew it was supposed to comfort this stranger. But it didn’t. It made the sound of his ē louder, less steady. Feral was reminded of one winter in his boyhood where famine had gripped the land. He’d hungered constantly. Exhausted and ravenous enough that he had once tried to eat soil. That was what Maul’s presence felt like.

Starvation.

“I will rest,” Maul said. Feral marveled at this new brother’s voice. It was silky. Polished. Kingly. “If…” The next words seemed to be as forced as the smile that the red skinned Zabrak tried to twist his chiseled features into. “If that is alright.”

Savage’s brow furrowed. He was concerned. Even worried. “We… have provisions on the ship. We may hunt another time. Yes brother… rest. You are home. Mr.”

Feral locked eyes with Maul. It was purely accidental. But the chill that crept through him was definitely not. It was like looking into the face of death and the dead, all at once. Burning fury and bone-deep weariness. This “brother” wasn’t home. Such a place didn’t exist for this one.

Maul blinked, eyes shifting down. And the moment of understanding was gone. Feral shivered as the shorter Zabrak trudged past him. If this was his brother…

Feral glanced at his bicep again. Datho.

If this was his brother… where had he been all this time?

Tag list: @alexeithegoat @thesitharts @crc-jedi-knight-serushna @hotshot9 @smoooothbrain @gran-maul-seizure @foreverchangingfandomsao3 @herbalinz-of-yesteryear @justalittletomato @stardustbee @storm89 @by-the-primes @ohboi @and-claudia @eloquentmoon

[fromdathomirwithlove]

Scuff marks on Dathomir's gnarled trees indicate areas where young Nightbrothers rubbed their sprouting horns. Bark rubbed off the trunks have no particular patterns, but the placement and regular occurrence of those marks suggest discomfort from rapid horn growth at an early age.

The marks are often found three to five feet off the ground.

[peachviz]

i didnt realize there was an issue with episode 3 of the acolyte i just thought everyone was weak asf

[aymethyst]

How you gonna have a mandalorian as your main character but have zero mando lore except “all dead”

[clearlyaginger]

so mad bc the one time I wrote a fan fiction I named a character something that idk sounded cool I was literally just grasping for anything that sounded unique and old and mildly intimidating.

You fucking know what happened several months AFTER I wrote it??? Do you????

I found out that that character's name is also the name of a fucking planet in the star wars universe.

[skungus]

listen i KNOW that it works that way for video game reasons, but i am obsessed with how little Dathomir makes sense from what they show you in fallen order. I haven’t gotten up to the dathomir stuff in my clone wars rewatching and I don’t count legends, so caveat that there may be bountiful lore there about dathomir (and I hope so) that I am just not aware of, but holy shit

how do these dathomirian villages function? Where are their domesticated animals for fibre, meat, milk etc? where are the families and kids?? As I understand it Cal landed in an area formerly under nightsister control so it make sense they’d be prepared for and focused on combat, but like. People gotta live lives when they’re not fighting. Where were they making things??

What kinds of indigenous plants have been domesticated/semi-domesticated for food production? Do they have things that can work well with their mystifying rocky mesa biomes that are interspersed with swamps? I know they have the mushblooms and spiders, and the big fruit on the trees, but it just seems unrealistic to me that that’s the whole scope of what they subsist off of.

Can a star wars media please take us on a tour of the whole of Dathomir, I want to know how this society even remotely functions from what we’ve been shown thus far

[twin-sun-archives]

It is said the winged goddess rules the plants and fanged god the animals. Have you ever thought about why?

Beautiful gardens would form at her feet only to be turned to rot as he neared. So the goddess crafted life from clay because she saw how lonely her brother was from being surrounded by death. She made beautiful beasts that could not be killed by his touch. He finally had a pack of his own. Darkness began to rule Dathomir, the sunlight losing its hours more and more. To the point even all 4 moon had no light. Her flames were turning to ice as she drained so much of her energy to keep all of this life alive. The dark night threatens to claim her, all because she wanted to help him. In the desperate hopes to keep his sister alive, he goes on a slaughter. Soaking Dathomir in blood. Only keeping 7 beasts alive, the zodiacs. By balancing the scales she was able to bring light back on the solstice. This was what started the great Hunt, for her… because after all it was all for him to begin with. So every year when the moons turn cold, all of Dathomir commences in the great Hunt. In hopes to keep the cycle of life going. For if they fail to do so, they know the cold dark night would be one of eternity. The winged goddess must rise again with the sun.

[cjvarte]

Dathomir (Canon)

Source: "Star Wars Encyclopedia: The Comprehensive Guide to the Star Wars Galaxy" is a Canon reference book published by Dorling Kindersley on November 7, 2024, in the United Kingdom and on November 19, 2024, in the United States. The book is an updated version of the previous reference books Ultimate Star Wars (2015) and Ultimate Star Wars, New Edition (2019)

[herblinz]

JEDI: FALLEN ORDER APPRECIATION WEEK Day 2: favourite planet

DATHOMIR was a remote planet in the Quelli sector of the Outer Rim. It was the home of the Nightsisters, a witch clan, and the Nightbrothers, who were Zabrak warriors. The planet was drenched in red light from its central star, and had continents overrun by swamplands and twisted vegetation, with forests of bent trees burdened by large, cocoon-like fruit. The dark side of the Force had a strong presence on Dathomir.

[stairset]

When I made that poll the fact that Maul’s criminal empire is officially called the Shadow Collective but they never actually refer to it by name in the show itself is actually the entire reason I bothered including the episode numbers in parentheses. Like just to make it clear which arc it’s referring to. I don’t think it worked though.

[o-wise-corvid]

Dathomir Daily

Blin’unic (pr: blin-uh-nick): literally “white”+ “foot”; the name of a nomadic clan of Dathomiri who travel between several others, trade, ply their skills there, and then move on.

They’re known for hardiness and stamina, being able to run for hours without stopping. They don’t wear foot coverings and their feet are very tough, and are almsot permanently stained white from dust (and callous).

They’re primarily projectile hunters and buy their vegetables and breads from the other clans. They’re one of the few clans the Nightsisters have never stolen a child from; they can’t catch them.

Tag list: @alexeithegoat @thesitharts @crc-jedi-knight-serushna @hotshot9 @smoooothbrain @gran-maul-seizure @foreverchangingfandomsao3 @herbalinz-of-yesteryear @justalittletomato @stardustbee @storm89 @by-the-primes @ohboi @and-claudia @eloquentmoon @dukeoftheblackstar

[gffa]

TALES OF THE EMPIRE wound up being a mixed bag for me, there was a lot I enjoyed but there was a lot that just felt really unfulfilled. Morgan's episodes were very pretty to look at but I couldn't help thinking--the entire time I was watching, even--that Filoni's not great at creating new characters that can carry entire episodes like this, none of this felt particularly necessary or like it was fulfilling a void that I wanted to know more about. It doesn't help that I still think her arc in live action was badly handled, that if she was meant to be a Nightsister from the beginning, her first episode should have dealt with that, instead of springing it on us later, so when filling in the background of her on Dathomir in TOTE, it brings all that up for me again.

Morgan's first episode was so pretty and it was interesting to potentially get more Dathomir lore (even if it's incredibly thin and I felt it was too close to the "we see others suffering in the galaxy, but we don't want to get our own hands dirty by fighting for other people or getting involved in helping others, btw we're morally better for that :)" trope for me personally) but everything on Corvus just felt superfluous to me and I spent time trying to figure out why I felt that way. If they had done her story this way or that way, would I have enjoyed it more? If they had included this or that, would I have thought it more necessary?

And ultimately I just kept coming back to that I don't really care about Morgan Elsbeth enough that I wanted three animated shorts dedicated to her, when I could have had so many other characters get fleshed out better. I appreciated that they were showing two characters on opposite journeys, that Morgan was falling into the dark step by step, while Barriss was slowly clawing her way out of it, but that's about all that I appreciated of Morgan's story (other than the beautiful animation).

But I'm not sure I feel like Morgan's motivations were all that well planned out. It's clear that she's looking for revenge and trying to find a new family at the same time, but it's not really clear why she's working with the Empire or how she thinks this leads her to her goals. Grievous is the one who murdered her village, how does working with the Empire (as the Separatists were folded into the Empire, too) achieve that goal? Who or what is her revenge focused on? Is it that she just wants the whole galaxy to burn, because if her village burned, so should everyone else? I feel like that's probably what they were going for, but that it could have been more coherently written.

Barriss' episodes hit a lot harder, where I'm glad that she at least got an arc, but I feel like it just missed so many marks, like why even have Vader there, I'm all for gratuitous Anakin cameos, he's my trash can man and I'm always excited to see him, but absolutely nothing was done with him, despite that he was looking Barriss right in the face there. Not even a moment of showing the audience, "Oh, his soul is so far into the dark of fear, hate, and rage that he doesn't even care about her anymore." Just nothing there, like there was no connection at all. How do you go to the lengths of putting Vader in a scene with Barriss and then treat it like there's no history between her and Anakin??? So completely unsatisfying!

And then it's another series where other guest appearances would have made sense--Barriss has a whole unfinished story with Ahsoka and you don't include her here? I'm as tired of Filoni putting Ahsoka in everything as anyone else, but here it would have made sense and would have brought that relationship full circle on-screen, Barriss' betrayal of her and her clawing her way back to the light after all the trauma and hurt, there's so much she and Ahsoka would have between them. And then nothing.

Or Barriss' relationship with Luminara, TCW never really got into how that must have felt for Luminara, to have her student betray the Jedi so profoundly, for her to fall to the dark, there's such a well of potential there and it's just entirely ignored. She mentions Luminara once and it was a lovely mention, but there's no sense of resolution or completion to that arc.

I did enjoy her story with Lyn and I try not to compare what the show wanted to do with what I wanted the show to do, but I couldn't help it. During all those scenes, all I could think was that this could have been so much more powerful and complete if it had focus on Barriss' established relationships and characters I already care about, because a new random Inquisitor is just not going to hold the same weight for me as my pre-investment in Ahsoka and Luminara. (On the other hand, with the way they butchered Luminara in the last season of TCW, maybe I dodged a bullet!)

For all that negativity, though, I really loved that Barriss found herself in being a healer again, that she found the light again. That's all I've wanted for my girl!!!! (That and put a headdress on her, ffs.) I legitimately took in a hard breath when she said, "Then you have one more Jedi to deal with." because Barriss is still working through too much to fully come back to clarity re: the Jedi at that point , but when it really came down to it, when she really saw what the dark side really was, part of her still was a Jedi. And the way she spoke of her time as a Jedi, once she had a clearer, lighter head again, was sweet, I was so surprised that we got that much from her, but I'm so glad because, if nothing else, Barriss herself deserves to be in the light again.

The way she was settled into her own skin by the time she confronted Lyn on the icy planet, the way she genuinely wanted to help her, but wouldn't let her hurt innocent children, the way she could sidestep Lyn's predictable moves and could stop the blade with just a hand held out, she found her path and what she wanted to do, and oh it was so lovely to see Barriss finding herself again. I loved so much that her unshakable compassion did reach Lyn, it was such a satisfying arc for Barriss to reach that place after all the people she'd hurt. I loved so much that Barriss getting back to this place does a lot to remind us that her foundation is a compassionate one, even if she was lost to the dark for awhile.

I just wish that there had been acknowledgement of those she hurt, the people that died because of her, the betrayal she stabbed people in the back with, rather than just "sees the dark side is bad, walks away, finds the light again", which goes back to that this feels like a generic story that's mostly impactful because I'm filling in the gaps myself because I already know Barriss as a character, rather than that it continues the story that was previously told about her.

At the end of the day, I enjoyed it and I recognize that I'm being a little unfair in how I'm saying I wanted this, this, and this, rather than digesting what the show itself wanted to do, but when you're crafting two stories that are specifically about showing us the journey of two characters that originate elsewhere, you're drawing on the stories from those other origins--except TOTE decided to only halfway do that. There's a lot to love in these shorts, the animation was incredible, the voice work was incredible, Barriss' emotional journey was incredible and I'm so thankful that they even gave her any kind of compassionate resolution. But the specter of how much the shorts ignored hangs over it too heavily for me to say that they were anywhere near what they could have been imo.