Darth Maul/Legends

"Fear. Fear attracts the fearful&hellip; the strong&hellip; the weak&hellip; the innocent&hellip; the corrupt. Fear. Fear is my ally."

- Darth Maul

Darth Maul was a Zabrak Dark Lord of the Sith and the first known apprentice of Darth Sidious. As a young child, Maul was taken by Sidious from Iridonia, when he was in a jedi training facility to be secretly tutored in the ways of the dark side of the Force. Growing up under this dark side tutelage of Darth Sidious, Maul became a very useful tool for his ambitious Master.

Maul was a master of Juyo, Jar'Kai, and Teräs Käsi, and chose to use a red double-bladed lightsaber for combat. In the years leading up to the Invasion of Naboo, Sidious had sent Maul on several political assassination missions, most notably against Black Sun, but Maul longed to fight and kill Jedi.

In 32 BBY, Maul was dispatched by Sidious to kill Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi. After tracking them to Tatooine and then to Naboo, he engaged both Jedi during the Second Battle of Theed. Maul slew Jinn, but made a fatal mistake in underestimating Kenobi. After a brief but furious battle, Kenobi killed the Sith Lord by slicing him in half.

In 0 BBY, Darth Vader encountered and defeated a clone or dopplegänger of Maul created by the Secret Order of the Empire, possibly under orders from Palpatine.

Early life (54 BBY to 32 BBY)
"It was a man&hellip; But like no other man&hellip;"

- Asa Naga

Darth Maul was a Zabrak born on Iridonia, the home planet of his species. Much of his early life is unknown, including his real name, but it is known that his master, Darth Sidious, took him from his family at a very early age.



Maul began training with Sidious at an early age. Indoctrinated in the ways of the dark side of the Force from youth, Maul grew to have no emotions aside from bloodlust and rage. Maul killed living beings mercilessly. During his training, any show of fear was severely punished by Sidious, and any hint of mercy rewarded with cruelty.

While fanatically devoted, Maul did maintain a bit of vanity: in the upper curvature of his left ear, a small, silver stud was positioned. It is unknown whether this was part of his master's indoctrination, but as few other successive Sith Lords possessed piercings, it can be assumed that this was merely personal preference. He also had his own sense of honor, respecting those he deemed worthy opponents and granting them quick deaths.

By the time Maul was an adolescent, his master had already forged him into a weapon of pure hatred. Marked by Sith tattoos that covered his entire muscular body, the young Zabrak was now the ultimate tool of the dark side. Despite this rather traumatic childhood (if it could be called that), Maul had filial feelings toward his master, and never once contemplated killing him&mdash;until his final test.

Silus
"You have been well trained, my young apprentice. They will be no match for you."

- Darth Sidious

At some point in 33 BBY, Sidious pitted Maul against the Force-sensitive Drovian Silus, sending Maul to an unknown planet in the Outer Rim. Sidious claimed Silus to be a threat to his plans, due to the surge in the dark side created by the Drovian. Should the Jedi feel it through the Force too, Sidious's presence could be threatened; that, however, could just have been used to persuade Maul into doing his master's bidding. Silus was a hulking, savage brute using the Force for financial gain by pitting himself against other lesser opponents in a dueling ring. Sidious offered to take Silus on as his new apprentice should he be able to kill Maul. He found the Drovian, and after showing him a holo-message of his master containing Sidious's proposal of replacing Maul with Silus the two began to fight. A nullifier field surrounding the dueling ring prevented use of energy weapons, rendering Maul's lightsaber useless and forcing the pair into fighting using only the Force and unarmed combat tactics. Sidious's proposal of replacing Maul with Silus alarmed and unnerved his apprentice, causing a near-fatal lack of focus that allowed Silus to gain the upper hand. Calling upon his rage Maul prevailed in the end, using the Force to overload the field and using his lightsaber to end Silus's wretched life. Darth Sidious then revealed to Maul that the ordeal had only been a test.

Ultimate test


The ultimate test came when Maul was abandoned by his master on an isolated Outer Rim Territories world, forced to survive alone while being hunted by hordes of assassin droids. After a month's time, Sidious returned and challenged his apprentice to a lightsaber duel, one which Maul quickly lost. Sidious then tossed Maul's lightsaber aside and told Maul that he had failed, and revealed that he had been secretly training another apprentice to replace Maul the entire time. Rage and hatred overwhelmed Maul and, in one final act of defiance, he lunged forward and sunk his teeth into his master's hand. As he spat the blood back into his master's face in contempt, Maul realized he was no match for the Dark Lord of the Sith, and when Maul's emotions were finally spent, he prepared himself for death. Sidious struck his lightsaber down on Maul, but without killing him since it had only been a training lightsaber. Sidious then laughed. By wanting to kill his own master, Maul had in fact passed the final test. There had been no other apprentice. Sidious proclaimed him Darth Maul, a Lord of the Sith and took him to a new home on Coruscant.

Other missions
"Stealth is the greatest tool of the Sith assassin."

- Darth Sidious

Maul originally went on countless missions of terror for his master, killing politicians, crime bosses, merchants, and warlords. Maul's very appearance had been carefully conceived to inject fear into the heart of the Sith's enemies and even their unwitting allies. Despite his untold successes, Maul longed for victory over Jedi. Victims of his included Lorn Pavan, Jedi Master Anoon Bondara, the Black Sun leader Alexi Garyn and his Nightsister guard Mighella, and all of the Black Sun vigos of 33 BBY, including Darnada and Morn. In addition, he killed the assassin Sinya.



One of Maul's more notable missions was to unite Lommite Limited and InterGalactic Ore, two companies operating on Dorvalla, a planet in the Outer Rim, in order for the Trade Federation to move in and control all shipping of the ore. Lommite ore was an important component of transparisteel, a durable metal alloy used in many construction projects. Wilhuff Tarkin issued a challenge to the two companies for a major contract and both companies looked to the Toom clan to sabotage the other. This led to the loss of the majority of each company's ore transportation ships, and because of this the two companies made a joint effort to destroy the Toom Clan. Maul followed the small army to the battlefield and, once they destroyed the Toom clan, killed the survivors, including high-ranking members of Lommite Limited such as Patch Bruit and the Falleen Caba'Zan, who was the leader of the InterGalactic Ore portion of the army. The mission was a success since the two companies' leaders came together and the Trade Federation received its prize.

Another notable mission was to kill Hath Monchar, the Neimoidian Vice-Viceroy of the Trade Federation, and anyone he may have talked to about the trade embargo of Naboo. Maul learned that Monchar intended to sell a holocron that contained details of the embargo to Lorn Pavan, an information broker on Coruscant. Maul had to face both Jedi Padawan Darsha Assant and her Master Anoon Bondara. Maul dueled Bondara in a lightsaber fight on top of a building and nearly lost his life in the ensuing explosion when Bondara destroyed Maul's speeder bike. Darsha and Pavan escaped into the sewer system where they encountered and killed subterranean lifeforms. They make it to a cavern where they fight and escape a T'zan (a force resistant monster). Later Darsha Assant blew up the warehouse that they were fighting in, in an attempt to prevail where her Master had failed, claiming her life in the process. Maul escaped the inferno and continued to hunt for Pavan. Pavan followed Maul into space, and had a chance to kill Maul when he was hibernating on board a space station. However, Pavan's blaster only had enough power for a single kill shot or three stun shots, and he was worried about missing. He planned to hit Maul in the back with a stun bolt, and then try to steal his lightsaber and kill him. Maul was seemingly unaffected by the shot and woke up. He then pursued Pavan through the station and Pavan escaped. The mission ended when Maul ambushed Pavan outside of his room in a hotel on Coruscant and decapitated him.

The Invasion of Naboo (32 BBY)
"At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi. At last we will have revenge."

- Darth Maul

Duel on Tatooine


"This is my apprentice, Darth Maul. He will find your lost ship."

- Darth Sidious to Nute Gunray

Prior to the Invasion of Naboo, Maul was dispatched to eliminate the Jedi who had been sent by the Republic to settle the conflict. After tracking them to the planet of Tatooine using the Force&mdash;and killing Aneesa Dym, a Pa'lowick smuggler who got in the way&mdash;Maul engaged the Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn. Following a brief but intense duel Qui-Gon escaped, but with the fear of what would become the eventual revenge of the Sith. Maul, having failed in his task to prevent Queen Amidala and the Chosen One from reaching Coruscant, was eager to exact revenge on the Jedi Knights.

Duel on Naboo
"Wipe them out. All of them"

- Darth Sidious

In a second, vicious duel on Naboo&mdash;this time against both the Master and the apprentice&mdash;Maul showed his true mastery of the lightsaber arts.

A long and intense battle ensued, with Maul seemingly on the defensive but in actuality, steering the battle to a location of his choice. Drawing the Jedi out of the hangar and into the Palace reactor room, he engaged them on the high catwalks. Kicking Obi-Wan Kenobi off the platform onto one of the lower catwalks, he turned to Qui-Gon, only to be kicked down himself. As Qui-Gon leapt down to deliver the killing blow, Maul kicked him in the gut and quickly righted himself.

However, Jinn delivered a flurry of attacks and drove Maul along the catwalk into the laser-walled security hallway protecting one of the exhaust shafts. Suddenly, the walls activated, separating Qui-Gon and Maul, but also Obi-Wan from Qui-Gon. With the battle momentarily halted, the three took a moment to recover, with Maul pacing like a caged animal.



When the wall deactivated, Qui-Gon immediately attacked, driving Maul to the edge of the shaft. However, Maul managed to regain the offensive. In the confined space around the shaft, Jinn was unable to adequately counter-attack, and Maul quickly finished him, smacking the Jedi in the face with his hilt, and impaling him on one of his blades.

Turning to Kenobi, Maul again awaited the laser-walls deactivation. As soon as it did, Kenobi viciously attacked, momentarily catching Maul off guard, even managing to sever Maul's weapon in two. Discarding the nonfunctional lesser half of his weapon, Maul unleashed a flurry of his own attacks, driving Kenobi back. Eventually, Maul pushed Kenobi into the shaft. As Kenobi grasped hold of a (mercifully inactive) input nozzle, Maul kicked the Padawan's lightsaber into the pit.

Death
As Darth Maul taunted Obi-Wan with lightsaber strikes on the edge of the pit, the Jedi managed to calm himself. Although Maul disposed of his lightsaber, Obi-Wan remembered his fallen master's weapon still lay at Qui-Gon's side. Using the Force, Kenobi leaped out of the melting pit and summoned the lightsaber to his hand. The Padawan landed after a mid-air turn, executing a blindingly fast horizontal slash that bisected Maul.



Flinching in shock and pain, Maul fell backwards into the melting pit with a vague and muted yell, his two halves separating. It was an unfortunate setback for Darth Sidious, but for a calculating man with foreknowledge of the future, it was not a disaster. Perhaps it was even deliberate. Within a year Maul would be replaced with the late Qui-Gon's former Master, Darth Tyranus, who was not only a fully capable warrior and duelist, but also a charismatic idealist, exactly the traits Palpatine needed to instigate the Clone Wars.

Echo in the Force
An apparition of Maul would later appear to the Jedi Anakin Skywalker in a crystal cave on Ilum, only a few years after his death. Anakin was to enter a cave (similar to one which Luke Skywalker would later have to enter on Dagobah). When Anakin went into a trance-like state, Darth Maul appeared and Anakin immediately attacked him. After a furious battle in which Maul taunted Anakin about his training lightsaber, Anakin won, but as real as he might have looked, this time Maul was a creation of the dark side.

It was not the last time the two would do battle.

Dopplegänger on Kalakar VI


"What could you hate enough to destroy me?" "Myself."

- Darth Maul and Darth Vader

Shortly before the Battle of Yavin, a dark side splinter group called the Prophets of the Dark Side managed to resurrect Darth Maul. It is unknown whether this Maul was created through cloning techniques, by using some form of Sith Alchemy to restore and reanimate Maul's actual corpse (which was destroyed in the Naboo Reactor Core Room), or through other means. The Prophets themselves stated that "there are techniques to mold a being in every way." As an example to the lesser vassals of Palpatine's Galactic Empire and to put an end to the tainted Sith Apprentice, Darth Vader, was chosen as the first target for the dark warrior. These dark side worshipers believed Vader to be too much of a Jedi to be a worthy Sith Lord.

On the shadowy volcanic moon Kalakar Six, Vader thought he would intercept a Rebel courier with the stolen plans to the first Death Star. Instead, he was met by a reborn Darth Maul and the observing dark acolytes. Darth Maul then dueled Vader on equal terms, but gained the advantage later on. Yet, in the final moments of the battle, Vader surprised Maul by stabbing his lightsaber through his own body (and, through proximity, Maul as well), damaging his own circuits and almost losing his own life in the process. With Maul defeated, the observing acolytes were executed by the newly-arrived Palpatine himself for their "treacherous" act towards his rule. It is possible that this "resurrection" of his former apprentice was a test prepared by him for his new apprentice, although this has not been confirmed.

Abilities
"Maul had been an animal. A skilled animal, but a beast nonetheless."

- Darth Tyranus's thoughts on Darth Maul



Darth Maul was a skilled lightsaber duelist, trained by Darth Sidious in Form VII, which drew on emotions and the dark side. Maul also mastered the fighting style of Teräs Käsi, and was also skilled in the Jar'Kai style of duo-saber fighting. Unlike the traditional dueling techniques of most Jedi, Maul combined his swordsmanship with martial arts and hand-to-hand combat skills&mdash;a combination which made him a nearly unstoppable dervish of destruction. He also mastered the Sith lanvarok.

However, it should be noted that Maul only devoted himself to Form VII's physical focus, desiring pure physical victory, rather than the "higher" Sith tradition of Dun Möch, dominating the opponents spirit and exposing his inner doubts through taunts and psychological warfare.



When fighting multiple opponents, Maul extended the second blade of his lightsaber to form a saberstaff, doubling his lethality as Jedi rarely faced such a weapon, or a skilled practitioner in its use. Maul often used this to catch opponents by surprise. Maul had constructed the weapon himself, using ancient plans stored within one of the holocrons the Sith still possessed. He had based his lightsaber design upon that of Darth Zannah's weapon, which in turn had been a development on Exar Kun's original design. It is likely that this choice also came from his species' penchant for the zhaboka, a similar weapon.

Darth Maul was also skilled in combining Force talents with mechanics. Sidious gave Maul the funds and schematics he needed, and provided his apprentice with a secret facility on Coruscant in which to work. There Maul constructed his signature speeder bike Bloodfin and the Dark Eye seeker droids. Using the Force mechanical skill mechu-deru, Maul modified the protocol droid C-3PX into an assassin droid to guard his ship.

Sidious also gave Maul a powerful Sith Infiltrator called Scimitar which contained a cloaking shield generator. This vehicle was developed by Raith Sienar, the man whose company would later develop the TIE/ln starfighter for the Empire.



Behind the scenes
"You worms are no match for the dark side!"

- Darth Maul

Darth Maul was played by martial arts specialist Ray Park and voiced by British actor Peter Serafinowicz. Darth Maul's striking visual design, in addition to his limited role in the film, have left many fans wanting to know more about him.

George Lucas had described Darth Maul as "a figure from your worst nightmare". Designer Iain McCaig thus offered Lucas a design based on a nightmare of his, which was rejected, but later inspired the Nightsister Sith witch. One day McCaig was trying to make "Sith lord versions" of the art department crew, and drew David Dozoretz, head of the animatics group, with a circuit board on his face. Lucas got intrigued by the circuit board idea, and McCaig started producing similar caricatures. After getting frustrated with a drawing of production designer Gavin Bocquet, McCaig started covering it in tape. He liked the result, described as "a kind of Rorschach pattern", and so did Lucas. The final drawing had McCaig's own face, with a pattern based on three things: a concept of a "flayed flesh face", face-painting of African tribes and further Rorschach experimentation (dropping ink onto paper, folding it in half and opening).

Darth Maul's head originally had feathers, based on prayer totems, but the Creature Effects crew led by Nick Dudman interpreted those feathers as horns. Other changed design was his clothing, from a tight body suit with a muscle pattern to the Sith robe based on Samurai pleats, because the lightsaber battles involved much jumping and spinning.

Darth Maul's name is likely a reference to his role as Palpatine's personal assassin. His pre-Sith name is unknown; some (including notorious fraud SuperShadow) cite Khameir Sarin as a possibility, as it allegedly appears in some foreign translations of the Episode I novelization, but this has not yet been proven.

The novelization of The Phantom Menace suggests that Darth Maul never dueled a Jedi before Qui-Gon Jinn. This is contradictory to Darth Maul's Expanded Universe duels with Anoon Bondara and Darsha Assant.

Darth Maul made an appearance in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3.



Shadday Potkin described Darth Vader as "Palpatine's mailed fist, Dooku's successor, Maul's inheritor." However, neither Shadday nor any Jedi should know Darth Maul's name and identity. It is possible that Nute Gunray or the Trade Federation may have leaked to the Federation about the name of the Sith or information on Maul's name could have been revealed to the Jedi through Gunray's mechno-chair, but this is unconfirmed. This is not the first time this mistake has been made; in Rogue Planet, Obi-Wan Kenobi mentions Maul by name, and Ferus Olin claims that every Padawan of his and Anakin's generation knew the story of Qui-Gon Jinn's death, and of how Obi-Wan had dueled Maul to the death. However, in the novelization of Revenge of the Sith, Anakin refers to Maul only as "the one Obi-Wan left in pieces on Naboo." Dooku then muses that "Maul had been an animal," but does not say his name.

In the planning stages of the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Darth Maul was considered to have his own game centered around him.

Non-canon appearances
Darth Maul is a favorite subject for non-canon, what-if stories. He was first "resurrected" in Star Wars Tales 9, where he fought Darth Vader in the short Infinities story Resurrection, though it was never made clear in the story how this Maul was resurrected. Leland Chee later declared the incident canon, without clarifying the origins of this doppelgänger.

Early Life


During Maul's early years, he was sent to the Happy Nerf Herder, a maximum security home for wayward boys on Coruscant. While there, he was involved in a breakout and, upon escaping, went on a hunt for a lollipop. After using a cable to get to the nearby Mon Calamari Fish Market, Maul stole a hoverboard from a bystander, accidentally causing an explosion by doing so. He used this hoverboard to get to RIB hutt, where he crashed into an unknown Hutt before stealing a lightsaber from a Jedi who was at the restaurant.

Maul used this lightsaber to jump off the side of the building and slow his landing by slicing the lightsaber down the building's side. Though the Jedi chased him, Maul eventually landed upon a granite slug which had attached itself to the building and dropped the lightsaber before landing on an airspeeder along with the slug. The airspeeder went along, out of control, before catapulting both Maul and the slug onto a nearby building which contained a lollipop shop. Before Maul was able to get his sought-after lollipop, however, he was taken captive by a Senate Guard who brought him before Senator Palpatine. Though the Guardsman wanted to take him back to the security home, Palpatine stated that Maul simply needed better guidance and that he would re-educate the boy personally. Maul finally got his lollipop as Palpatine put it in his mouth.

Hunting Obi-Wan


"There is no Palpatine. No Empire. No Jedi. There is no light, no dark&hellip; just you and I here now."

- Darth Maul to Obi-Wan Kenobi

As it turns out, Maul somehow survived his bisection and subsequent fall into the reactor shaft on Naboo. Fitted with cybernetic legs, he began a vicious hunt for the only person to have defeated him; Obi-Wan Kenobi. He hunted the Jedi for many years, always being but a step behind him until 16 BBY when he discovered Owen Lars and a toddler-age Luke Skywalker.

He attacked them menacingly while still staying in his hooded cloak, his triple-jointed droid legs (similar to Grievous's) the only part of him visible. He proceeded to call out through the Force to an unseen enemy he could nevertheless sense. The evil, psychic voice claimed to have been tracking this adversary for years, just missing him on Kamino, Geonosis, and Mustafar and to have killed many witnesses on Polis Massa before finally gaining crucial information in Mos Espa from an aged Toydarian junk dealer, who he then murdered. The dark creature declared that he knew threatening Luke Skywalker would bring his adversary out into the open.



At this point, a gray-haired Obi-Wan Kenobi bursts from the sand and confronts Maul, provoking the former Sith to cast aside his cloak and reveal his identity. With his severed lower body replaced by a pair of large cybernetic legs and abdomen, and his cranial horns having grown, crown-like, to over three times their original length, Maul was consumed with greater hatred than ever before and clearly never resumed contact with his former master, having dedicated his new life to avenging himself on the man who had bested him. Kenobi and Maul engaged in a furious rematch. Kenobi managed to gain the upper hand when he severed Maul's arm, cutting the Dark-sider's weapon in two in the process, as well as breaking some of Maul's horns with his bare hand. Mouth gaping in a silent scream, Maul summoned the remaining half of his weapon and turned to face Kenobi, only to find himself facing the Jedi's lightsaber emitter.

With his lightsaber hilt to Maul's forehead and his finger on the blade-ignition button, Kenobi hesitated to execute his helpless opponent, but had the decision taken out of his hands when the revived Owen literally blew the former Sith's head off with his damaged rifle. Obi-Wan said he would take the body and burn it in the Dune Sea, to which Owen replied, "I told you I'd keep him safe, and I will. Even if that means from YOU. You don't come back here. Understand?" Obi-Wan departed with Maul's corpse, speaking to Luke through the Force, assuring him "Don't worry. I'll be right here&hellip; even if you can't see me."

Old Wounds is not officially announced as a canon story yet. But two sources imply canonicity: The Story of General Grievous: Lord of War by Abel G. Peña has a sentence that reads"The Soulless One was eventually tracked down by a cyborg acquaintance of Obi-Wan's, an old enemy who anonymously reported the ship to the local Imperial authorities."; and Star Wars: Battlefront II has Darth Maul appearing as a hero character on Polis Massa and Mustafar, planets he only visits in Old Wounds.

Demolition games


"None shall survive."

- Darth Maul

Maul was somehow once more alive on Tatooine, sometime shortly after the Battle of Hoth. Before anyone had even seen him, the young Wade Vox felt his presence in the Force as a strange, prickling sense of fear as he was getting ready for combat in Jabba's demolition games; this feeling stayed with him throughout the combat, though Vox tried to shake off the feeling of impending dread after his narrow victory. It was soon after this that Jabba, floating over the Dune Sea and awaiting the next round of combat, spotted Maul's speeder bike on the horizon. Jabba lifted his arm to point at the object in the distance and his suspicions were soon confirmed by Bib Fortuna who informed his master that what he saw seemed to be a contraption favored by the Sith. Jabba let out a long, rumbling laugh and soon managed to convince Maul to take part in his demolition games so that Jabba could exploit his new "wild card" to gather even more ill-gotten gains. Maul fought against the other competitors on his Bloodfin, striking them down with its cannons as well as his double-bladed lightsaber though it is unknown what happened to him upon entering these games.

Holographic resurrection


"I will have my revenge&hellip;"

- Darth Maul

Later, during the reign of the New Republic, a mad Iridonian scientist named Drell Kahmf managed to retrieve and resuscitate Darth Maul's brain from where he was killed. This mad Iridonian scientist believed Maul to be a paragon of the Iridonian people.



To the end of giving Maul new life he placed his brain in a chemical vat, wired up to a device which utilized technology he called a "solid-state holographic projection" which could manifest anywhere in Iridonia's capital. As a hologram, this wraithlike version of Maul had the ability to strike, but could not be struck back.

When Jedi Master Luke Skywalker arrived on Iridonia in an ambassadorial capacity, he was attacked by the Jedi-hating holographic Maul. Not easily fooled by the dark warrior's ghostly appearance, Luke searched for the anomalous presence of Maul through the Force and stumbled upon Kahmf's hideout. Luke declared that "artificially keeping him alive was causing an unnatural disturbance in the Force" and scared Kahmf away before switching off the life-support system sustaining Maul's disembodied brain. Finally, Maul was brought to an end.

Non-canonical appearances

 * Hate Leads to Lollipops
 * Nameless
 * Star Wars: Racer Revenge
 * Tag & Bink: Revenge of the Clone Menace
 * Old Wounds
 * Star Wars: Battlefront II
 * Star Wars Infinities: A New Hope
 * Star Wars: Demolition
 * Phantom Menaces
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
 * Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron