Charal

"His companion, Charal, is a female shape-shifter, a Force-wielding witch who apparently escaped from her exile on a planet called Dathomir."

- Pfilbee Jhorn

Charal was a Force-wielding Nightsister who turned her back on the sisterhood and left her homeworld of Dathomir. The other witches pursued her for decades, so to escape them, she joined a band of Sanyassan Marauders, who were themselves being hunted down by law enforcement agencies. Their vessel crashed on the uncharted forest moon of Endor, where a Sanyassan warlord known as Terak set himself up as King. He appointed Charal as his second-in-command.

Over roughly the next century, the long-lived Marauders established themselves as pillagers and raiders on Endor; Charal matched the Sanyassan's longevity through her affinity with the Force. Meanwhile, she enhanced her authority over the Marauders thanks to the powers of the Talisman of the Raven, a prized artifact she had stolen from Dathomir before her desertion.

When the a family of Humans known as the Towanis crash-landed on the moon in 3 ABY, Charal and the Marauders saw the newcomers' still-functional starcruiser as an opportunity to escape. However, the chance was foiled by the youngest Towani, Cindel, her Ewok friend Wicket Wystri Warrick, the Human scout Noa Briqualon, and his Teek companion. With the untimely destruction of her talisman, Charal became trapped in the form of a raven forever.

Early life
"One of our sisters has yet to return the Talisman of the Raven."

- Talzin

A Human female from Dathomir, Charal was born a witch to a Nightsister clan, well over a standard century before the Galactic Civil War. As she learned to master the spells of her coven, she came to be highly regarded by her Sisters for her outstanding talents in Shadow Magic, especially the mysterious art of shapeshifting. During her life on her homeworld, Charal was also taught horsemanship&mdash;unlike many Nightsisters, she rode a black stallion instead of a carnivorous rancor.

At some point, Charal decided to leave her homeworld. She abandoned her clan and stole the Talisman of the Raven, a ring that allowed the wearer to physically change shape in to become a bird known as a raven. Her desertion was not well received, and Charal earned a death mark from the other witches, who wanted to return her to Dathomir so that she might be fed to the rancors. Hunted like an animal, Charal spent decades moving from star system to star system across the galaxy, trying to avoid both her former Sisters and those Jedi Knights who hounded runaway darksiders. She eventually joined a band of Sanyassan pirates known as the Marauders. The witch intended to stay with these brutish raiders on their starship only long enough to secure herself passage with a different vessel&mdash;but a shipwreck ruined her plans.

The pirates were barely able to pilot their stolen starcruiser, and their navigator could not handle the complex gravity patterns of the Endor system. A century before the Battle of Endor, their vessel eventually crashed on the Sanctuary Moon of Endor, a protected nature reserve located in the Moddell sector. Like many other unfortunate travelers, the castaway witch found herself stranded due to the stellar anomalies surrounding Endor.

Life on Endor
"You have the distinct honor of being spoken to by Charal, Witch-Queen of this god-forsaken moon. You have come to serve my desires, have you not?"

- Charal on Endor

While on Endor, Charal stayed with the Marauders. Their leader, Terak, set himself up as King, occupying a primitive castle in the plains of the Dragon's Pelt. Using her Talisman to great effect, the Nightsister intimidated the Sanyassan pirates with displays of its power, and she eventually came to rule over them as Terak's cohort. She styled herself as the Witch-Queen of Endor and made use of a dimwitted Trandoshan slave named "Lizardman" to assist her. Together with the Sanyassans, Charal constantly preyed on the more peaceful inhabitants of the forest moon, most notably the diminutive Ewoks.

Not all the Marauders feared the witch, though. During their life on Endor, Charal and the Sanyassan scholar Szingo developed a bitter rivalry. One day, a pirate ship was shot down by Marauder scouts, and Szingo asked a passing spacer to disintegrate the survivors and to bring their leader's weapon to him. Once Charal heard of the discovery, she raided the crashed ship and destroyed the wreckage to insure the scholar would find nothing else. Szingo, intent on revenge, ordered the spacer to kill the Marauders who had performed this act of treachery. When the offworlder did so, Terak was displeased by the deaths of his men, so Szingo intended to place the blame on Charal. Yet the Nightsister used her sorcery to prove she had nothing to do with the attack, shielding herself from the king's wrath.

Charal's poultice
"I have need of your services once again, my dearest. My poultice that will allow me to divine the future now needs the next ingredient. I will be pleased if you find my slave whom [sic] hasn't returned with it yet. Will you, my pretty?"

- Charal

In 1.5 ABY, Charal was working on a poultice that would help her divine the future. That year, a spacer approached her and offered to be of service. Charal took advantage of the offer and had the spacer venture into the woods to retrieve the spleen of a healthy Ewok. The spacer later returned with the spleen, which Charal added to her poultice.

To retrieve the next ingredient, the Witch-Queen dispatched Lizardman, as he had a keen sense of smell for the type of herb required. When he did not return, Charal decided to enlist the spacer once again, this time to retrieve Lizardman. The spacer did so, and returned with Lizardman in tow. Fortunately for Charal, the Trandoshan had the herbs required. For her final ingredient, the Witch-Queen required Ewok spittle. The spacer assisted her once again, retrieving a whole, live Ewok and returning it to Terak's Keep.

Pleased, Charal extracted the required saliva from the captive and completed her poultice. With it, she saw a vision of many ships landing on the Forest Moon, ships she planned to steal. She also discovered that a ship had crashed on Endor recently, and that survivors of the crash possessed a comlink&mdash;a communication device that would allow her to steal the ships that would be landing in the future. Once more enlisting the spacer, whom she now regarded as a slave, Charal bade her servant steal the comlink from the survivors of the crash. The spacer ventured forth, killed the survivors, and returned with the device. The Witch-Queen was overjoyed; with the comlink in her possession, she believed, she would be able to control the universe. Satisfied, Charal dismissed her servant; by following the spacer's own destiny, Charal reasoned, the spacer would serve the witch's as well.

The Witch and the Imperials
"The Force witch Charal, who called herself a Nightsister, freed us after promise to take her with us when the retrieval ship homed in our beacons."

- Pfilbee Jhorn

When the Galactic Empire first explored the Sanctuary Moon, the Marauders captured the Imperial scouting party, including a Human Sergeant named Pfilbee Jhorn. Charal relished the hope that she could escape at last with the Imperials. Nevertheless, the Marauders merely took the intruders down into their gritty cellblocks, deprived them of their possessions, and tortured one of them to death. Unbeknownst to Terak, the Force witch sneaked into the dungeons to parley with Jhorn and his men. Charal promised she would help the survey team escape, as long as they promised to take her with them. The prisoners agreed to the deal, but Terak learned of this treachery too soon. He grew angry and had the Sister tossed into a cage even as the Imperials were running to freedom. The woman stayed in prison for a time until the king finally agreed to forgive her betrayal and let her become his second-in-command again.

The Battle for Endor
"She's evil!"

- Cindel Towani

In 3.5 ABY, Charal accompanied the Marauders during an attack on Bright Tree Village, an Ewok settlement where the Human Towani family had sought refuge after crashing on Endor in their starcruiser. Terak sought what he called "the Power"&mdash;actually the Towani family spacecraft's crystal oscillator&mdash;which he believed the Towanis possessed. Thus, during the attack, the Witch-Queen ventured to the location of the downed spacecraft. Charal found the family patriarch, Jeremitt Towani, there working on the ship; she ordered the Marauders beat him in an attempt to divine the location of the Power. In due course, Terak himself arrived and began interrogating the man. Towani claimed ignorance, but Terak strongly believed that the man was the "Guardian of the Power." Terak removed the ship's crystal oscillator and triumphantly declared to his men that he had the Power. At that moment, Towani lunged for a blaster pistol and shot down one of the Marauders before attempting to escape. Terak, satisfied with his find, sent his men after the Human.

Using her ring, Charal shifted into her raven form and tracked down Jeremitt, who was hiding with his daughter, Cindel Towani. The Witch-Queen alerted the Marauders to their location, but Cindel escaped into the woods. As Charal gave chase, the elder Towani was killed by the Marauders. The young Human girl was not able to run far, however&mdash;the Witch-Queen returned to her normal form and stopped Cindel in her tracks. With the rest of her family killed by this point, the young girl was taken as a captive by Terak's Marauders. She later escaped from their custody with the aid of the Ewoks. Meanwhile, back at Terak's Keep, Charal attempted to activate the crystal oscillator, to little success. She suggested to Terak that the Towani girl might be able to help activate the device, but this remark only incensed the king. He immediately ordered Charal and the Marauders to locate and recapture the young Human.

As a raven, Charal set out into the woods. She was able to ascertain that Cindel was staying with another Human living on Endor, an older man named Noa Briqualon. The day after she had made her discovery, Charal distanced herself from Briqualon's residence and began calling Cindel Towani's name, replicating the voice of Catarine Towani, the young girl's mother. As the child grew nearer, Charal began singing "My Star," one of the young girl's favorite songs. To further entice her prey, the Witch-Queen took on the appearance of a much younger Human with golden hair and white robes. Nearby, she had a white horse waiting. When Towani entered her presence, the Witch-Queen had the young girl bring the disguised witche's robe to her. Taking the garment, Charal quickly transformed into her normal self and seized Cindel. Her new captive in tow, Charal mounted her horse, now black, and rode for Terak's Keep.

The witch brought Cindel Towani before the Marauder king, and both ordered the girl to release "the power" of the crystal oscillator. Towani confessed that she did not know how to use the crystal, sending Terak into a fit of anger. The Sanyassan imprisoned both Charal and the girl in his stronghold's dungeon. Behind the bars, the Nightsister scolded Cindel for not giving Terak what he had demanded. The witch also revealed that it was Noa's friend Salak Weet&mdash;now lying dead in one of the cells&mdash;who had first told them of "the power" contained in the energy cells. King Terak had killed him years ago for not turning over that power. Meanwhile, Towani's friends tried to sneak into the stronghold to free the girl as well as the Marauders' Ewok captives. Briqualon, Warrick and Teek finally made it to the cellblocks and set their friends free. For a moment, Charal hoped she would be able to escape too, and she asked the good-hearted Warrick to open her cage. Towani, however, took the keys from her Ewok companion before he could comply. The party left the castle, taking the crystal oscillator with them.

When Terak learned of the jailbreak, he decided to lead a punitive expedition to retrieve the crystal. He turned to Charal and commanded her to go after the fugitives. He allowed the Force witch to turn her Talisman and change into a raven again, but this time, Terak grabbed the bird by the leg and seized the ring. The Sanyassan wanted to keep Charal in bird form so she would track the group without betraying him and running away. The Nightsister flew off with the full Marauder army close behind. When they finally reached their targets, a battle ensued between the Marauders and the Ewoks around Briqualon's starcruiser. Charal participated in the fighting in bird form, flying around and croaking orders to the soldiers. During Terak's final duel with Briqualon, Warrick intervened and used his sling to hit the Sanyassan warlord. However, the Ewok's aim was low: instead of hitting Terak between the eyes, the rock destroyed Charal's ring, which was around his neck. The Talisman of the Raven shattered, unleashing its powers on the Marauder leader and burning him to a crisp. As a result, Charal was trapped in her animal form forever. She circled frantically overhead, then she flew away into the forest, shrieking.

Personality and traits
"This blighted excuse for a moon is not what I had in mind when I escaped my homeplanet of Dathomir. After my concoction has come to completion, I will know how much longer I must remain upon this nightmare of a world."

- Charal to a spacer

Charal was an imposing Human of indeterminate age, with a proud bearing and a slender shape, angular features, raven-black hair and green eyes. She wore a black and red grafiform robe with octopus-like tendrils, a cloak of black feathers, and a tight-fitting Nightsister breastplate.

After her crash-landing on Endor, the Force witch came to hate the Forest Moon and constantly sought to venture offworld. She was highly derisive of her ally, the Sanyassan King Terak, and one day hoped to put an end to her alliance with him. The Witch-Queen also had a very low opinion of her slave, Lizardman, and wished that she possessed a more intelligent assistant. She reacted to any insubordination or lack of respect from those she regarded to be her inferiors with great chagrin.

Charal had a habit of referring to those in her service as "slave" or "servant," although she immediately corrected herself upon doing so. Despite being a darksider and an active supporter of slavery, she was more vain and opportunistic than truly evil. She addressed her subservients with a patronizing yet often endearing tone, and she never attempted to hurt or kill them. The Witch-Queen placed great stock in the power of a standard item such as a comlink, believing it could grant her all manner of power. Her original culture, the Nightsisters, were half-primitivists, having consciously rejected technology on philosophical grounds.

Powers and abilities
"I'll give you to the count of five, then I shall begin singing... run, little rabbit, run..."

- Charal to a spacer

When she still lived on Dathomir, Charal was regarded by others as a highly skilled witch. With the use of her ring, Charal had the power to transform into a raven. Following the traditions of the Nightsister magic, she used most of her powers through singing. Like many other witches, she was gifted with Force powers such as Animal Affinity, Summon Storm, and Force Whirlwind. She was also able to locate other beings or compel them to do her bidding.

Charal also possessed useful, non-magical abilities. She was a martial artist proficient with all kinds of weapons, including blaster pistols. She was skilled at horseback riding too&mdash;she possessed a black stallion she could turn into a white steed through magic.

Behind the scenes
Charal was created for the 1985 made-for-TV film Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, wherein she was portrayed by Siân Phillips in her true form and Marianne Horine in her young witch form. The character was designed by the American director and artist Joe Johnston, who first envisioned her as a greenish-skinned humanoid.

Charal's exact origins and background remained a mystery until 1995, when Kevin J. Anderson retconned her into a Witch of Dathomir in The Illustrated Star Wars Universe. The Force witches had been created a year earlier in Dave Wolverton's novel The Courtship of Princess Leia.

In the 2000s, Charal was featured as a non-player character in the Star Wars-themed MMORPG Star Wars Galaxies, in which she acted as a quest giver. She was indirectly mentioned in Daniel Wallace's Book of Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side, in the Wild Power section. In it, Clan Mother Talzin mentions that "One of our sisters has yet to return the Talisman of the Raven."

Appearances

 * Ewoks: The Battle for Endor
 * Ewoks: The Battle for Endor book-and-record
 * The Ring, the Witch, and the Crystal: An Ewok Adventure
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi junior novelization
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi junior novelization