#first witch allya

[darth-maul-of-dathomir]

We played a game today. The nature of the game was 'This nightbrother has force visions at the slightest provocation, and touching the stone tablet in the ruins gave him one. We want to know what it was, but we do not want to share the rest of the cache that we stole from him'.

You can imagine how well the game is going.

One of the nightsisters attempted to pry it from my mind. She is a drooling vegetable for the foreseeable future. None else have been stupid enough to try.

They will allow me to peruse the cache at my leisure, or, they will never know what I saw. A sith does not compromise.

[mayxthexforce]

Magash & The Singing Mountain Clan

Since there are a few (three or four) iterations of this clan, I figured I'd make a post to specify which one I go with when it comes to writing Magash.

For starters, the singing mountain clan as depicted in Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff and Michael Reaves' The Last Jedi novel is an all-female, 99% human clan of witches that inhabit the Singing Mountain. They're sort of like the amazons in the way that —unlike other depictions of the same clan and unlike the Nightsisters— they do not have men in their territory. Due to Dathomir's past of sex trafficking and slavery, the witches of the Singing Mountain have stuck to a life away from men for generations, abandoning their mountain to find a mate whenever it is that they decide to have a child, then returning once the child is conceived.

Magash's clan doesn't follow the ways of the Jedi, nor do they follow the ways of Allya as they were first given to them by the former Jedi. They also do not worship neither the winged goddess nor the fanged god. Instead, they worship the Unformed: their own way of understanding the force; along with the spirits of nature. Magash also refers to the dark side of the force as The Dread.

The clan is led by Augwynne Djo– NOT related to Tenel Ka Djo's lineage. The daughter of Augwynne, Gethzerion, became the founder of what would later become the Nightsisters after being exiled from the Singing Mountain for attempting to kill her mother.

Magash is the only non-human member of the clan, as she was born from the union between a witch of the singing mountain and a nightbrother. Despite Augwynne Djo's opposition, Magash was given the tattoos that identify her as the child of a nightbrother by her mother not long after she reached adulthood and became an Adept, in hopes that if she ever encountered the nightbrothers, the markings would keep her from harm.

Because of this, however, Magash was othered by Augwynne Djo, who feared that she would follow a similar path as her daughter Gethzerion did all those centuries prior. And, as a result, many other members of the clan also avoided her.

[pinkykitten]

newbie ☕️

´･ᴗ･` atash-kil, milk

It was a night Atash-Kil could never forget.

Dathomir was a calm, spiritual planet that Atash-Kil grew up in. She favored her Nightsisters and the women that loved her and taught her the ways of magick. Learning traditional Allyan magic, how to call spirits, Atash-Kil was very strong in the dark side. She was born however naturally sensitive to the force.

But everything changed when General Grievous came and assassinated almost all the witches of Dathomir. Including Atash-Kil’s mother. Her mother hid the young child away and was killed in the battle, fighting hard and strong for her people. Atash-Kil vowed one day she would get revenge and make sure the empire doesn’t win.

As she grew she became more and more strong with the force and learned about the legends of her first people. She read about Allya, the female Jedi and that’s when Atash-Kil knew she wanted to be a jedi. She wanted to protect people of different planets and avenge them, she wanted peace and love around the whole galaxy. During one of her meditation nights she created a force bond with Jedi Luke Skywalker, he told her that she needed to come with him so he could teach her the ways and that she was to be trained by him to be a Jedi but first she must bring the child.

She kept everything she learned in her head and in her heart and the other nightsisters were pleased with her goals and her responsibilities now. She left Dathomir, the only planet she called home, with her green lightsaber and flew to Arvala-7, her new destination. The force brought her there and she knew in that moment she had to try her best and be as strong as can be.

Luke gave Atash-Kil her first mission and that was to return the child to him.

“How will I know who the child is?”

“You will feel it.”

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[space-hecate]

Wookiepedia on Nightsister Magick

(mixing canon and legends) Magick, also known as Shadow Magic, was a supernatural technique that allowed a practitioner to wield great powers connected to the dark side of the Force. The Nightsister witches of Dathomir were wielders of magick, of which Daka was the most powerful.

Originally, the rogue Jedi Allya, who was exiled to Dathomir, taught the powers of the Force to her children there, giving them an evolutionary advantage over the planet's other inhabitants. After Gethzerion founded the Nightsisters, she developed her own brand of magic that her coven coined Shadow Magic, or more colloquially as magicks. As a result, the other witch clans took to calling their own practices Allyan Magic, believing that the Nightsisters had corrupted the beauty of Allya's original magic.

The supernatural technique known as magick, which offered great powers from the dark side of the Force, was known for being used by the Nightsisters of Dathomir. Unlike the Jedi, who used the Force to serve the galaxy, the powers of the Nightsisters' magick focused on deception, illusion, and manipulation, serving only themselves. They regarded magick as a living thing which arose from blood, trees, and mist and flowed through their veins as well.

There were two schools of Dathomir Magic. The first, traditional Allyan Magic, followed rules put forth in the Book of Law, a tome of moral and ethical teachings kept and modified by each clan based on an original created by Allya for her daughters. The other, called "Shadow Magic" by its originator, Gethzerion, was the provenance of the Nightsisters that did not require chanting or other primitive rituals. The Nightsisters' book, the Book of Shadows, told of future glories that they would gather in the heavens.

The practitioners of Dathomir Magic believed themselves to be casting spells rather than making use of the Force, and often were unable to make use of a "spell" without speaking its assigned name or performing the ritualized singing, dancing, chanting, and/or writing associated with it. The Nightsisters often attributed the work of the Force to the Spirits instead.

The skills in the Force that the Witches of Dathomir possessed changed the many generations since Allya's arrival on Dathomir, as knowledge was shaped by traditions and time from what Allya originally taught. It seemed that the Witches were only gifted in certain aspects of Force use, some in healing, others in Force Whirlwind, and so forth.

According to the Nightsisters, a shaman could channel the Spirits to create green spirit ichor, which—by the time of the Clone Wars—served as the primary basis of their magicks. The Water of Life was one such use of spirit ichor.

"Magick is a living thing. It arises from blood and trees and mist. It flows through your veins already, but we will reshape you to channel it." ―Shelish, to the Smuggler

[acenerdsbian]

OKAY SO

I have been hit by a sudden surge of feelings about how Disney Canon did Dathomir dirty in the otherwise pretty stellar Clone Wars and then continued the same trend onwards from there and now I must rant a bit.

So if you don’t want to deal with that or don’t care then scroll on past cause I’m about to get into it big time.

(got long so here’s a cut)

Dathomir was first introduced in the Star Wars: Expanded Universe novel ‘The Courtship of Princess Leia’ by David Wolverton.  Now, looked at through a modern lense the book is full of huge issues regarding consent, agency, and feminism in general.  But it still gave us two matriarchal ruling styles in the forms of the Force Witches of Dathomir and the Queen Mother of Hapes (Ta’a Chume is a bitch, but I’m not here to talk about her today).  Now both of those human-ish races have their own issues stemming from masculine fear of how women would rule the world or whatever I guess.  That’s my read on it even though like, god there’s no binary there in the first place but it was 1995 so like...different time different subtext I guess.

ANYWAY.  My point isn’t all the bullshit in there like Han kidnapping Leia cause he’s threatened by this prince guy showing up and basically offering the rulership of 64 planets to her in order to get the Hapes Consortium to join the Republic (tho can we say YIKES?).  I’m here today to talk about what Disney could have done with Dathomir when they brought it back in Clone Wars verses what they did do.

So Dathomir, a ‘primitive’ planet that in original canon was kind of the place people sent people to never be seen again.  Specifically, the Jedi of the Old Republic banished a rogue Jedi named Allya there who gathered survivors of those exiled peoples and began to teach them about the Force.  This is where the Force Witch traditions originated.  In Wolverton’s introduction the witches have enslaved the male populations, likely supposed to be a mirror of certain older patriarchal civilizations in the real world.  It wasn’t great, but there was still gold to be dug out of it all if you were willing to look.  The Force Witches of Dathomir were intensely connected with nature, especially the Rancors who were their mounts and companions.  The Witches weren’t evil, they served a certain balance and goodness within the bounds of their own society.  So they were opposed by the Night Sisters, members of their own tribes who had pursued power above all else and were disfigured from it and so cast out from their communities.

Night Sisters were the only part of Dathomir that Disney seemed content to keep.  They could have reworked the Force Witch angle, gotten rid of some of the cringier 90s themes and really had an example of a powerful, good, matriarchal people.  Instead they decided all the people of Dathomir, indeed the planet and the creatures themselves, were steeped in the dark side.  They turned a beautiful, vibrant, natural world into one of dark fog and unforgiving wasteland.  They did Dathomir dirty, and I don’t think I’ll ever get over that.

[ircnwrought]

some s.tar w.ars oc stuff under the cut

allya zaldas’ first memory was being told the stories of her namesake, jedi allya, who wrote the book of law and taught the first nightsisters how to use magick. the legacy given to her always seemed crushing, even as a young witch in training. born in 40 BBY, allya’s childhood was spent in the final years of the galactic empire under nightsister talzin’s control of the coven. talzin’s political machinations during the clone wars led to members of her coven being hired as mercenaries and the start of a plot to assassinate count dooku. in 20 BBY, after several failed attempts on dooku’s life, general grievous led a separatist droid army to put down talzin’s coven. allya was 20 years old at the time of the coven’s annihilation.

initially, allya joined the battle of dathomir alongside her sisters, but the droid army’s force was overpowering. in order to survive, allya did the one thing the nightsisters were taught never to do: she abandoned her coven in a time of need. allya was able to use magick to teleport to a remote outpost on dathomir, where she hid until the sounds of battle eventually faded away. talzin’s spirit visited her, much as she did with asajj ventress, to tell allya she had a new path to take, but not before telling her that cowardice would be her downfall.

bucking against talzin’s final advice, allya fled from dathomir to become a mercenary, using her magick skills and talent with an energy bow to survive. she still runs from her past and from the great destiny talzin and her name hinted at.

[teagrl]

No shippiness this friday, since I’m working on worldbuilding. Have a snippet from my fluffernutter that I’m still trying to wrangle.

Context, this is ABY26, Mara is pregnant and going through some witchy purification rites to get some closure as a space cancer survivor and also deal with impending motherhood.

Dathomir is a matriarchal society where the gender roles are flipped and very unequal so this is something that I’m trying to work with.

This is after the first ritual is done and Mara, another witch, and the head witch are talking.

Mara as always is in recruitment mode in Dathomir (Jedi have a school there now that’s been open for a while).

Vila laughed while the other witch looked at Mara in bemusement.

“I forget that you went through our awakening rites, Jai” she said good naturedly. “The world is indeed different from when I was a girl. Back then no one thought they’d ever see one of the star people and now they walk among us.”

The young witch shook her head. “Your Jai never shared all that knowledge from your starship.”

Mara smiled. “But we are. Come to Singing Mountain, you will find more than you seek.”

The young witch’s face twisted. “Learn among men? Learn from them? Perverse.”

Mara folded her hands. “We believe its unwise to question who nature gave gifts to--”

“Perhaps you should,” Vila interrupted. “You remember what our lore says about Dathomir during the time of Allya?”

Mara nodded. “The wild rancors. Yes.”

“But also wild men. Men whose sins were so great the ancients saw fit to abandon them without weapons among the rancors. To die helplessly.” She stopped reflective. “They almost did...nearly all of them.”  

“That was until Allya saw into their hearts -- just as she saw into those of the rancors.” Vila leaned back slightly. “She granted them food when they were hungry, water when they were thirsty, a fire to keep warm, and sons to care for them in their twilight. Life. In return, she asked for their service and strong daughters to pass the lore.”

“Mother Vila,”  Mara said tightly after a moment. “Men are not rancors.”

“No.” Vila looked at Mara, her gaze sharpening. “We have heard your lore as well, Jai.”

She made a gesture and the hearth sparked up to a fire.

“We know they can be much worse.”

[celinamarniss]

Luke was so involved in trying to break into the spaceship, that he almost did not feel her presence, but suddenly there was a power behind him, rushing toward him. He turned just in time to see a woman—long reddish brown hair flashing, tawny hides from some alien creature, strong bare legs. She spun and kicked at him with a leather boot, and Luke felt the force of her intent, ducked, swung with his lightsaber. He felt a ripple in the Force signifying an attack, but before he could respond the girl swung a club, smashing his artificial hand hard enough so that circuits shorted and the lightsaber spun away. She kicked at his belly and Luke dropped and rolled, used the Force to call his lightsaber back to his left hand. The girl stopped, and her mouth dropped in astonishment as she saw what he had done. Luke could feel her Force—powerful, wild, like that of no other woman he had ever met. Her brown eyes were flecked with orange, and she crouched on the hull of the Chu’unthor, panting, considering. She could not have been more than eighteen years old, perhaps twenty.” [...] “Wait!” Luke shouted. “You can’t just take men as slaves and mate with them any time you please!” Boulders thundered across the hull of the ship, hundreds of them, lunging toward Luke like a herd of living animals, and he realized that this woman could do just about anything she wanted. He raised an arm desperately, trying to turn the rocks aside with the Force, but his mind was a roiling sea and he could not gain his focus. Repulsed by the witches. A log whirled toward him, spinning, and he ducked, stones leaped at him in such numbers he could hardly see them whiz past, and suddenly she was before him, whirling and swinging a club. He hadn’t even felt her move toward him, yet her club smacked his skull, lights flashed in his head, and he reeled to the ground. Groggily, he heard the girl yelling at him, realized that she straddled his chest, locking his arms with her strong legs, but Luke was too weak to fight her off. She held his jaw and shouted triumphantly, “I am Teneniel Djo, a daughter of Allya, and you are my slave!”

The Courtship of Princess Leia, Dave Wolverton

The first appearance of Teneniel Djo in the EU

[darth-maul-of-dathomir]

My plan to escape the nightsister temple was a success. My intent to avoid pursuit, less so.

I escaped the magicked binding of stone and dirt, retrieved the singing stone and chest they had stored the contents of the cache in, and retreated to the wilds. There, I boarded my ship and took off into the atmosphere. I had assumed this would be sufficient distance. It was not. The Nightmother created herself a body from thin air, and possessed it. I am reluctantly impressed.

She is now on my ship, admiring my book collection.

I am being 'allowed' to review the contents of the cache, as a 'reward for my guile'. Hmph. More likely the witch just wants to read my books in peace. The coven's council is also not here to censure her choices. I suspect Talzin plans to give me more credit than I am due when she speaks of this, if only to shift the blame for my perusal away from herself.

But I digress. The cache has a number of artifacts which emanate with the force. I intend to take my time reviewing them.

[darth-maul-of-dathomir]

The nightsisters, in their infinite wisdom, have encased me in stone and magick, with the caveat that they will release me when I tell them my of my vision of Allya. I have been disallowed from inspecting the contents of my cache.

I am typing with the force. It is not as hard as one might expect, just... fiddly.

What they do not know is that I have been experimenting to figure out the finer points of mistwalking, as sisters do. When all is quiet tonight, I will simply leave this place, my due in hand.

Let us see them try and stop me.

[darth-maul-of-dathomir]

As predicted, it was the Nightmother herself on my trail. She is not one to give up the hunt easily it seems. Whatever treasures the stone leads to or does not must be worth the effort of coming here through the dangerous but expedient paths of the spirit realm. There is no other way she could have arrived in such a timely manner.

One moment I was fighting off intangible spiders-like creatures that could not be cut with my lightsaber, but were indeed susceptible to the force... the next, Talzin appeared and began laying waste to the creatures with luminous orbs that crackled as they flew.

I did not need her help, and she was obnoxiously smug about giving it. When I growled at her over it, she laughed like I had told a fine joke, and complemented my strength. As if I care what a nightsister -any nightsister- thinks of me. I said as much and her smile became saccharine. The woman begs to be strangled.

[darth-maul-of-dathomir]

The singing stone, it seems, is just a stone. Albeit one that has been enchanted into a beacon. If the... wild and conflicting rumors I gathered from eavesdropping have any merit, stones such as this were used by Allya, the first witch of Dathomir, and her direct descendants. The trick to the magic has been lost since.

More importantly, the beacon leads somewhere. The rumors were inconclusive on what, precisely, it could lead to.

My hunt begins.