Abeloth

"She is ancient, and powerful, and dangerous. Very dangerous. But you're on to her now. She is never what she appears. Remember that."

- Mara Jade Skywalker

Abeloth was a being who was very powerful in the dark side of the Force. At some point in time, she was imprisoned by the Killik hive Thuruht on a planet in the Maw through the use of Sinkhole Station, also in the Maw. The destruction of Centerpoint Station in 40 ABY caused damage to Sinkhole Station's systems, opening a gap in her prison from which Abeloth was able to use her powers to call out to more Force-sensitives in the Maw than before, instilling in them a psychosis that caused violent paranoia and called them to her. The Force-sensitives at Sinkhole Station, known as Mind Walkers, traveled in a realm of the Force called beyond shadows while Abeloth fed off of their life energies. At some point, Abeloth met and consumed the life energy of the Jedi Callista Ming.

In 43 ABY, several Jedi Knights who had spent time in the Maw during the Yuuzhan Vong War began to feel the effects of her influence. Meanwhile, Abeloth exerted control over the Sith Meditation Sphere Ship, which was pursued by a Sith strike team. The team tracked Ship to Abeloth's planet, where Abeloth pretended to help them; but she actually forced the vessel to remain hidden and used her control over the world's plants to kill many of the Sith. Meanwhile, Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker and his son, Ben, found the Mind Walkers and learned how to travel beyond shadows. Abeloth let Ship return to the surviving Sith so that the strike team could continue on to their second objective&mdash;killing the Skywalkers. Their attack failed, however, leaving just one Sith survivor, Vestara Khai. Soon afterward, Abeloth managed to destroy Sinkhole Station, killing the Mind Walkers and freeing herself from confinement.

Luke later defeated her in combat, but she escaped through trickery and fled to the moon Pydyr, where she hid among the pacifistic Fallanassi and took over the body of their leader. The Jedi and Sith found and battled her once more, but after initially defeating the Jedi she was forced to retreat. Abeloth traveled to the planet Nam Chorios, where both Khai and Luke called in reinforcements. Upon confronting Abeloth again, Luke freed Ming's spirit, and Abeloth was further weakened during the ensuing combat, although she and Ship managed to escape once more. Abeloth briefly formed an alliance with the Sith Tribe, but she attacked their leader, devastated their capital, and fled with several Sith who defected from the Sith fleet. While those Sith led the Jedi hunting Abeloth astray, she took the form of Senator Rokari Kem and successfully got herself elected as Chief of State of the Galactic Alliance.

Imprisonment
"Once you were with me, here in the Maw. Once you were all with me. Now you are apart, but one by one, you are all awakening. And once awake, you can hear my call, and come to me."

- Abeloth

Abeloth was a being extremely powerful in the dark side of the Force. She was imprisoned on a planet in the Maw by the Thuruht Killik hive, although she also existed beyond shadows&mdash;a realm with locations that existed in reality on Abeloth's planet, and which Force-sensitives could access by separating their minds from their bodies. She was confined with the usage of the space station Sinkhole Station, which was inhabited by Mind Walkers, Force-sensitive beings whom she influenced with her powers, causing in them a paranoia and a desire to return to her; one which was only satisfied when they found her at Sinkhole Station, or on her homeworld. Abeloth fed off of the life energies of the Mind Walkers, giving her more strength. Sometime prior to 44 ABY, the former Jedi Knight Callista Ming came across Abeloth, who consumed and killed her.

In 43.5 ABY, several Jedi Knights who had spent time at Shelter in the Maw during the Yuuzhan Vong War began to feel the effects of her influence, causing them to believe that everyone except for other such psychotic beings had been replaced by an impostor. The insane Jedi caused a rift between the Jedi Order and the Galactic Alliance government, as the two factions disagreed on how to deal with the issue. Abeloth also sent out a call through the Force, forcing Ship, a Sith Meditation Sphere, to travel to her planet in the Maw. Ship had spent the past two years forming a Sith armada for the Lost Tribe of Sith on the planet Kesh, and the Tribe thus sent a strike team to track down Ship and kill Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker&mdash;whose presence they had felt in the Force after he came into contact with an Aing-Tii relic, the Codex. Meanwhile, Skywalker and his son, Jedi Knight Ben Skywalker, were attempting to retrace the steps that Jedi Knight-turned-Sith Lord Jacen Solo had taken on his five-year journey after the Yuuzhan Vong War. The Skywalkers found the Mind Walkers and learned how to go beyond shadows, where Skywalker saw Abeloth in the Mists of Forgetfulness across the Lake of Apparitions. Referred to by the Mind Walkers as the "Lady in the mists," Abeloth beckoned Skywalker to try to talk to her, but he refused.

Meanwhile, Ship, who was under Abeloth's complete control, led the Sith strike team to the planet which Abeloth inhabited. Abeloth took the form of a humanoid female of indeterminate species and befriended the Sith strike team, claiming to be a refugee who had been stranded on the planet for the last thirty years. However, all the while she secretly sabotaging the Sith's efforts to escape. Abeloth had complete control over all of the planet's native flora, and she used them to attack the Sith, including the team's leader, Lady Olaris Rhea, who survived with the help of her apprentice, Vestara Khai. After the attack on Rhea, Khai was able to see Abeloth in her true form, just as the Skywalkers saw her beyond shadows&mdash;a woman with an overly large mouth, stubby arms, and hands with long, writhing tentacles instead of fingers. The rest of the strike team, however, still saw Abeloth as a normal humanoid female.

Battling Jedi and Sith
"Abeloth. Abeloth, I'm here.''" "''So am I."

- Luke Skywalker and Abeloth

After Abeloth encountered Skywalker beyond shadows, she allowed Ship to return to the Sith and transport them to Sinkhole Station to ambush the Skywalkers. Abeloth ordered the Sith to capture them rather than kill them, but Rhea later changed the mission's objective back to kill. The ambush, however, proved to be a failure&mdash;both Jedi escaped, and Khai was the only Sith survivor. Later, the Skywalkers speculated that Abeloth was the one causing the psychosis that afflicted Force-sensitives who had spent an extended amount of time in the Maw. Abeloth, meanwhile, continued to inflict her will upon more and more Jedi, in the hopes of luring those victims back to the Maw where she could consume their life energy. Around that time, Ben also suggested that the Celestials might have built the Maw and the space station Centerpoint to contain Abeloth and her power; but once Centerpoint was destroyed, Sinkhole Station had begun to fall into disrepair and Abeloth's powers had grown.

A short time later, Abeloth managed to free herself from the containment of Sinkhole Station, destroying the station and killing the Mind Walkers. The Skywalkers, meanwhile, allied with a group of Sith from the Lost Tribe and ventured into the Maw to eliminate Abeloth. After finding Sinkhole Station destroyed, they traveled to Abeloth's planet. There, the Skywalkers' Force-sensitive friend Dyon Stadd, who had fallen prey to Abeloth's influence, was planted with a homing beacon and set free by Khai to find Abeloth. Stadd found her in a cave on the side of a volcano, and Abeloth entranced him before touching him and beginning to consume his life energy. However, she suddenly sensed the approach of the Jedi and Sith allies&mdash;who were tracking Stadd&mdash;and left him for dead, fleeing deeper into the cave. When her foes found her in a courtyard at the end of the cave, Abeloth took on Ming's appearance in an attempt to make Skywalker believe that she was, in fact, his long-lost lover. Skywalker eventually saw through her charade, however, realizing that Abeloth had actually consumed and killed Ming, and attacked her.

In the ensuing battle, the Sith betrayed the Jedi and created a control web, a trick they had learned from the dark side Nightsisters, in an attempt to capture Abeloth and force her to serve them, but she broke free and repulsed all of her assailants with a massive Force wave. She fled back up the cave and consumed and killed the Sith who had been left to stand guard with a recuperating Stadd, before turning to Stadd to finish consuming his life energy. However, her enemies had recovered from her attack and pursued her back up the cave, and Skywalker suddenly arrived on the scene. She took on the appearance of Stadd while projecting an image of Ming in an attempt to trick Skywalker, but he saw through it and stabbed his lightsaber into what appeared to be Stadd's chest. She morphed back into her true form, then, and prepared to unleash a wave of dark side energy, but appeared to die halfway through. All of the beings who had been affected by her influence were instantly freed, and the Skywalkers and three Sith&mdash;Khai, Khai's father, Gavar, and High Lord Sarasu Taalon&mdash;remained behind to investigate more into Abeloth. However, they soon discovered that she had somehow switched bodies with Stadd, and was thus not dead.

On the run
"Luke&hellip; Join with me. Save me&hellip;''" "''I will. I will save you."

- Ming's presence within Abeloth and Luke Skywalker

By the time the Sith and Jedi returned to the Skywalkers' ship, the Jade Shadow, Abeloth had already broken free from the vessel. She summoned Ship to return to the world, although the three Sith claimed to the Jedi that they were the ones to have called Ship back. Ship then convinced the Sith that they could find Abeloth by using the Force nexus known as the Pool of Knowledge, and took the five allies to find it. Abeloth, meanwhile, returned to the Jade Shadow and fled the planet. After seeing a vision in the Pool of a Jedi queen whom he believed could stop the Sith invasion, Taalon jumped into the Pool and a duel broke out between the Jedi and Sith. The Jedi escaped, and, following his immersion in the Pool, Taalon began to slowly transform into the same kind of entity as Abeloth.

Abeloth, meanwhile, traveled to the pacifistic Force-sensitive Fallanassi on the moon Pydyr and took over the body of their leader, Akanah Norand Goss Pell. The Jedi, accompanied by Vestara Khai&mdash;whom they allowed to accompany them despite the fact that they knew she was working as a spy for her Tribe&mdash;tracked Abeloth to Pydyr. Khai sent out a message to the Sith fleet, and the Sith sent shuttles of reinforcements, including Taalon and Gavar Khai. They agreed to work once more with the Jedi, and Luke Skywalker led the tenuous allies to the Fallanassi village where Abeloth was hiding. After they broke through Abeloth's defenses of illusions in the White Current, she came to meet them in the form of Pell. Taalon began to interrogate her about Abeloth, and she revealed that she had come to Pydyr because she was a Fallanassi. However, when she refused to answer Luke Skywalker's question of whether that meant Abeloth had always been Fallanassi, or whether she had only recently joined, Taalon ordered Gavar to kill one of the Fallanassi. In response, Abeloth used the White Current to induce visions that drove all of the Sith&mdash;save Khai and Taalon&mdash;insane, giving up her cover. She then took Taalon into a gathering hall in the Fallanassi village to speak with him, but the Jedi and Vestara followed.

Luke Skywalker engaged Abeloth in battle once more, and he again defeated her, killing Pell's body. However, Abeloth deserted that body and returned soon after in the form of Callista Ming. She incapacitated Skywalker, while Taalon&mdash;who desired to learn from Abeloth what exactly he was becoming&mdash;captured Ben in a Force net. As Taalon and Abeloth conversed, Abeloth revealed that she knew he could not eat mortal food, and then began to feed him dark energy from her tentacles. However, Luke returned to consciousness and brought the ceiling of the hall they were in down upon them, distracting Abeloth while Vestara Khai stepped forward and killed Taalon to prevent him from becoming another being like Abeloth. In the ensuing fight, Abeloth was severely injured by the Jedi, and she fled in Ship, escaping the system. The Skywalkers, now with Khai as their ally, were reinforced by a flight of Jedi in StealthXs sent from Coruscant, who helped them fight off the remaining Sith so that they could continue to hunt her down.

Abeloth stopped first at Meliflar Station, where she forcibly imbued the girl Fala with some of her own energy to use her as bait, and forced the space station's crew to set up an ambush for the Skywalkers, so that when they arrived the Jade Shadow would be destroyed instantly. Abeloth then continued on to the planet Nam Chorios. Her planned ambush for the Jedi failed, however, as the station's inhabitants decided instead to try and capture the vessel. Meanwhile, on Nam Chorios, Abeloth recovered and gained control of the Theran Listeners by consuming and possessing their leader, Nenn. As her influence over the Theran Listeners steadily grew stronger, Jedi Knights Valin and Jysella Horn&mdash;two of the first Knights of the New Jedi Order to fall prey to her influence&mdash;were drawn by her to the world.

However, Khai and the Skywalkers eventually caught up to Abeloth in the pumping station in the city of Crystal Valley. There, Abeloth again appeared to them in the form of Callista in an yet another attempt to sway Luke Skywalker to join with her. However, in doing so she revealed that Callista's spirit was more intact than those of the other beings she had consumed, and thus had more influence over her. Luke allowed Callista's spirit to engage him with her mind and with the Force, expanding both of their Force presences as they relived her memories of the past; he felt her love for him, as well as the pain and loneliness she felt after being consumed by Abeloth. Meanwhile, a strike team of Sith led by Saber Tola Annax arrived and began battling Abeloth as well. Abeloth tried to hide her presence behind Callista, hoping to make it appear that the being confronting Luke was Callista herself&mdash;but Luke again saw through her guise. He used the mnemotherapy technique he had learned from the Listeners to tear Callista's spirit away from Abeloth, saving her and weakening Abeloth greatly in the process. As Callista's spirit, finally freed, faded into the Force, Abeloth reverted to using the body of Nenn. However, the Listener-Master refused to be controlled by her and stabbed himself with a lightsaber, further weakening Abeloth. Horn, who had been in combat with Ben and Khai, was knocked unconscious.

Rise to power
While the Sith and Jedi battled each other, Abeloth attempted to flee in Ship. However, a Jedi fleet was already in orbit, battling a Sith flotilla under the command of Gavar Khai. Luke joined the Jedi in fighter combat in the pursuit of Ship, who was heavily damaged and weakened. Ship suffered multiple hits, but managed to escape with Abeloth alive. Abeloth soon afterward contacted Gavar Khai, whose fleet was regrouping after their defeat. She told him that the Jedi, their mutual enemy, were too powerful for either of them to overcome separately, and they discussed an alliance. He then took Abeloth to the Tribe's homeworld, Kesh, where a meeting of the Tribe was called by Grand Lord Darish Vol. Vol decided to accept the alliance, and Abeloth was brought to the surface for a large celebration.

That evening, however, Abeloth appeared to Vol in his sleep and attempted to kill him. He allowed her into his mind, and she was too reckless in her approach, letting him in turn enter her mind. He discovered the pain of her loneliness and her need for adoration, and dueled her mentally, telling her that she was unloved. Abeloth's assassination attempt turned into an attempt to fight free from Vol's grasp, and she finally broke free. Infuriated and in agony, Abeloth unleashed waves of dark side power onto the Sith capital city of Tahv, killing thousands and leaving the city in ruins. As she fled in Ship, she used the mental hold she had begun to develop over several of the Sith to influence them to defect from the Tribe's armada and join her. Leading those forces was Gavar Khai in the ChaseMaster frigate Black Wave. They successfully escaped Kesh, and upon their rendezvous, Abeloth ordered Khai to lead the Jedi and Sith who would inevitably attempt to find her astray.

As Vestara Khai and the Skywalkers continued to hunt for Abeloth, she took the form of the Jessar Rokari Kem, a highly popular resistance leader who was due to become a Senator in the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances. When Gavar Khai and a team of nine other Sabers were killed by Abeloth's pursuers, she granted command of the Black Wave to Saber Tola Annax. However, she soon afterward stripped Annax of her powers, filled her with dark energy and left her as bait on the planet Upekzar, where she laid a trap for the Jedi. Meanwhile, in the guise of Kem, Abeloth traveled to the galactic capital Coruscant, where she found that several Sith, including High Lord Ivaar Workan, had already infiltrated the Galactic Alliance government.

Without revealing her true identity as Abeloth, she threatened Workan&mdash;who was masquerading as Senator Kameron Suldar&mdash;to stay out of her way, and suggested that she knew his secret. Meanwhile, the Jedi Order left all operations on Coruscant under the pretense of needing to distance itself from the Galactic Alliance and act as its own authority, rather than as an official branch of the government&mdash;however, unbeknownst to Abeloth and the Sith, Luke Skywalker knew of the Sith's infiltration and was hoping to lure the Sith into making a move on Coruscant. Soon afterward, Vol arrived on Coruscant and attempted to assassinate Kem&mdash;Workan had told him that Kem was the only thing standing in the way of the Sith taking control of the government. However, Abeloth defeated Vol and subsequently called Workan, showing him Vol's decapitated head and ordering that he meet with her the next day.

Still in Kem's guise, Abeloth met with Workan and ordered that he initiate a vote to replace the current interim Chief of State, Padnel Ovin, with herself, and then help her achieve the title of "Beloved Queen of the Stars" and then goddess. During the Senate session, Workan called for the vote, but Ovin came forward to make a speech&mdash;unbeknownst to Abeloth and the Sith, he was stalling to give his Chief of Staff, Wynn Dorvan, time to assist in the rescue of Jedi Leia Organa Solo, whose arrest Workan had arranged. Abeloth finally grew tired of Ovin's speech and caused him to collapse; he was soon after pronounced dead. Workan then insisted that the vote be held immediately, and with the help of the Force to influence some of the Senators, Kem won with four-fifths of the Senate's vote, thus making Abeloth Chief of State.

Personality and traits
"Silly Jedi. No one can explain Abeloth."

- Akanah

Abeloth was antagonized by loneliness; she felt an absolute need to be loved and adored, and was nearly overcome when Vol attacked her with the idea that she was hideous and despised. She fed her craving for adulation by instilling in Force-sensitives a desire to be with her. Abeloth also showed interest in beings who were loved by the public, such as the freedom fighter Rokari Kem. She thus decided to consume Kem and make her move on the seat of the government on Coruscant.

Abeloth had the ability to change her appearance at will, often taking on the appearance of Callista Ming, whom she had consumed. However, Abeloth's true form was that of a humanoid and barely-female being with deeply-sunken black eye sockets and tiny silver eyes reminiscent of tiny stars at the bottom of a deep well. She had a long cascade of straw-like, honey-blond hair that reached to the ground and a large, full-lipped mouth that stretched from ear-to-ear and contained needle-like teeth. Her arms were stubby, protruding no more than ten centimeters from her shoulders, with hands that had long, writhing tentacles for fingers with suction cup tips. Her body was rigid and straight, and when she walked or ran, her legs rippled forward more than they swung. In addition, her body was enshrouded in mist, giving her an ethereal aspect to her already frightening appearance.

Powers and abilities
"I am programmed to obey a strong will. The girl is strong. You are stronger, Sword of the Jedi. But neither of you can break the hold she has on me. She is older, and more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

- Ship, to Jaina Solo

While Abeloth appeared as a humanoid female of indeterminate species to most, Luke Skywalker saw her true form beyond shadows and Vestara Khai was able to see her true appearance after Khai discovered Abeloth's treachery against the Sith. Abeloth could command the native flora of her planet to do her bidding and also had the ability to influence the minds of Force-sensitive beings who had spent an extended period of time in the Maw, causing in them a psychosis which made them believe that everyone&mdash;except for other such psychotic beings&mdash;had been replaced by impostors and instilling in them a desire to find her. Once the influenced being found her, she consumed their life energy, killing them and making herself stronger. The strength of her influence was formidable&mdash;even when the Jedi learned what symptoms to look for, upon the onset of the psychosis they still believed that everyone they knew was an impostor. She was also able to control the Meditation Sphere Ship which was programmed to obey the strongest will; her powers overwhelming those of the Sith's and of the Jedi's attempts to control the Sphere. Abeloth's strength in the Force was a dozen times that of Luke Skywalker, who was widely recognized as the most powerful Force user in the galaxy. However, Skywalker was able to defeat her despite this.

Abeloth wielded exceptional telekinetic powers, using the Force to blast everyone away from her during her battle with the Sith and Jedi. She was able to resist the powers of a control web, and was also able to teleport herself from one place to another, a power which she also used during her battle with the Sith and Jedi. Abeloth was able to take on the physical appearances of beings that she had consumed, including Callista Ming and Dyon Stadd, and she was also able to project images of other beings, as she did when projecting an image of Callista while she herself took on the form of Stadd in an attempt to trick Luke Skywalker. Abeloth's sheer strength was extensive&mdash;after her mental duel with Vol, she released waves of Force energy on Tahv that caused the beings in her vicinity to implode, those farther away to be ripped to pieces, the buildings to melt to the ground, and glass and weaponry to fly through the city, looking for someone to hurt so that they could feel the pain she felt.

Abeloth was also able to switch bodies&mdash;before Skywalker could kill her, she switched bodies with Stadd and took on Stadd's appearance, tricking the Jedi and Sith for several days into believing that she was dead. Later, she took over the body of the Fallanassi Akanah Norand Goss Pell, although Pell fought back. When she was again defeated by Skywalker, she left Pell's body and returned in the form of Callista soon after, and told Skywalker that she had more bodies than he could destroy. She was also capable of absorbing the consciousness of beings in order to further enhance her power, as Callista Ming's mind dwelled within Abeloth. However, Luke was able to use mnemotherapy to rip Callista Ming's soul free from Abeloth and allow her to rest in peace, severely weakening Abeloth in the process.

After her attempt to kill Darish Vol backfired Abeloth, infuriated and in agony, unleashed waves of dark side power onto the Sith capital city of Tahv, killing thousands and leaving the city in ruins. As she fled in Ship, she used the mental hold she had begun to develop over several of the Sith to influence them to defect from the Tribe's armada and join her.

Behind the scenes
Abeloth was introduced in the nine-part Fate of the Jedi series, which began in 2009. She was first identified in Abyss, the third novel of the series.

Appearances

 * Outcast
 * Abyss
 * Allies
 * Vortex
 * Conviction
 * Ascension