Presence

"The power to destroy life is at your command!"

- The Presence to Ezra Bridger

The Presence was a female voice heard by Ezra Bridger on the planet Malachor when he used a Sith holocron to inadvertently activate the superweapon at the top of the planet's subterranean Sith temple. Bridger was led by the former Sith Lord once known as Darth Maul that using the holocron would grant him the knowledge he needed to destroy the Sith. Once he activated the temple, however, the Presence told him that the knowledge was the power of the temple's battle station and that it had the power to destroy life.

Biography
In the third year before the Battle of Yavin, Padawan Ezra Bridger and his master, Jedi Knight Kanan Jarrus, traveled with former Jedi Ahsoka Tano to the planet Malachor to find ancient Sith knowledge, which they hoped to use to defeat the Sith Lord Darth Vader and his Inquisitors. On Malachor, Bridger encountered the former Sith Lord once known as Darth Maul, who also sought the secrets of the Sith temple. The two worked together to enter the temple and ultimately retrieved a Sith holocron, which Maul said would unlock the temple's secret knowledge. Bridger was sent to the top of the temple alone, where Maul told him to activate the temple.

Bridger reached the top of the temple, where the holocron levitated out of his hand and entered an obelisk. Its activation set off currents of electricity, and the female voice of the Presence asked Bridger who he was. Bridger explained that he sought the knowledge of the temple to defeat his enemies, and the Presence told him that knowledge is power. The temple, which in truth was an ancient battle station, activated its superweapon and the Presence told Bridger that the power to destroy life was at his command. Bridger said he did not want that power, so the Presence said the other who had arrived at the temple might&mdash;Darth Vader. As Vader fought a lightsaber duel with Tano, Bridger and Jarrus worked together to remove the holocron from the obelisk and deactivate the weapon.

In the second year before the Battle of Yavin, the Presence kept seducing Bridger to the dark side making him crave more power. Jarrus worried about the influence of the holocron on Ezra, took it away from him. He later gave it to Bendu as a gift after their encounter.

Behind the scenes
The Presence appeared as a voice in "Twilight of the Apprentice," the second season finale of the animated television series Star Wars Rebels. She was voiced by Nika Futterman. In an interview with IGN that was posted after the episode aired, series executive producer Dave Filoni provided some insight into what he saw as the backstory of the Presence. In his mind, the voice of the Presence is the voice of the ancient Sith Lord who built the Malachor temple. Filoni said that he liked the idea of an ancient and powerful woman, who had domination that the audience has not yet heard of, who was creating the weapon when it was attacked by the Jedi Order and everyone is turned to stone. Filoni further said that he has a name for the character, but he could not yet reveal it. The episode's credits identify her only as "Presence."

Appearances

 * Star Wars Rebels: Steps Into Shadow
 * Star Wars Rebels: Steps Into Shadow