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I hope fellow fans enjoy this labor of love and get to use it in future games. May those games be many, and your fun be abundant!
Fondly,
- Rob "RobShanti" Petrone
Introduction[]
Main Article: Introduction
Dathomir! A mysterious and obscure world in the Quelii sector of the Outer Rim, this planet represented a vergence in the Force, centered around a place, if there ever was one. A temperate and beautiful planet by Human standards, nine-tenths of the world remained unexplored and uninhabited, with the population limited to a relatively small area along the edge of one of the three main continents. Many events of galactic significance have occurred on or at Dathomir, and this guide is intended to help the Gamemaster devise adventures surrounding this lush, dangerous world and its inhabitants. Inside you will find a wealth of knowledge pertaining to all aspects of Dathomiri society, including the Force tradition of the Witches of Dathomir and their villainous splinter sect, the Nightsisters.
There is more to the Force than just the ways of the Jedi and Sith. On Dathomir, light and dark engage in eternal battle, but the philosophies and cosmologies of the Witches of Dathomir and Nightsisters of Dathomir have a very different, if familiar, flavor. Throughout this document, players and Gamemasters are encouraged to look beyond the surface and discover the motivations that make these characters such memorable and iconic parts of the Star Wars saga.
The Dathomir Field Guide is intended as a companion supplement to the Star Wars Saga Edition Roleplaying Game, and includes a host of characters and creatures you can use to populate your Dathomir- based adventures. This writing is an invaluable reference for Gamemasters. GMs can pull statistics for allies, antagonists, creatures and minions straight out of its pages for use at a gaming table without having to generate characters for themselves. There’s also plenty of information in this document for players, such as new talents, feats, weapons and equipment.
Species[]
Main Article: Species
Heroic Traits[]
Main Article: Heroic Traits
The Force[]
Main Article: The Force
The Witches of Dathomir personified the Force in the form of spirits, primarily the Twin Deities—the Fanged God and the Winged Goddess. According to their beliefs another realm existed, a parallel plane to the physical world that was inhabited by these spirits. This spiritual realm was thought to be governed in balance by the Twin Deities, the Winged Goddess and the Fanged God, which were depictions of the Light and dark side of the Force.
Equipment and Artifacts[]
Main Article: Equipment and Artifacts
Vehicles[]
Main Article: Vehicles
Dathomir[]
Main Article: Dathomir
Dathomir was once home, in pre-Republic times, to the now extinct Kwa, a sapient species of wise and intelligent reptilian spacefarers who built the Infinity Gate and lived side by side with the native, near sapient rancor. After the Kwa’s disappearance – or perhaps degeneration into the brutish Kwi – Dathomir later came to be ruled by the Rakata before they retreated to Lehon, and is now an isolated world sparsely populated by matriarchal tribes of Humans and Zabrak Human hybrids. The original Human inhabitants are believed to have been exiles from an ancient, Outer Rim hegemony known as the Paecian Empire whose hold over Dathomir was stolen away by Drackmarian warlords. Around 1,002 BBY, the Brotherhood of Darkness operated a Sith academy on the world that trained Sith Acolytes and apprentices, though little, if any, trace of it is left.
In approximately 600 BBY, a rogue Jedi Knight named Allya was banished to Dathomir by the Jedi Council and took the leadership of the surviving Human denizens, teaching them, and eventually her own children, her own matriarchal brand of the Force, enslaving the entire male population, domesticating the rancors and codifying her teachings, thereby single-handedly transforming Dathomiri society forever after.
During her leadership of the Dathomiri, Allya eventually wrote a treatise called The Book of Law, a grimoire of "magic" and “spells" originally meant to be moral a guide to teach Allya's female descendants in responsible use of their magic. As a former Jedi Knight, Allya based some of the text on the Jedi Code:
Daughters of Allya. Learn these words and learn them well, for they are the foundations that will increase your strength and keep you safe from harm.
Those who suffer emotion will never enjoy peace.
Those who choose ignorance will never know their own greatness.
Those who yield to passion will fail to dominate.
Those who fear death will never achieve pure power.
Never forget that your magic must always be used wisely.
Never concede to evil, lest you be consumed by it.
Allya's descendants eventually dispersed themselves across Dathomir creating new clans of Dathomiri Witches, each of which had their own copy of the book. Although the message in each book was based on Allya's original message, each clan added its own discoveries and spells to their copy. Some clans even took Allya’s original message and replaced it with various interpretations. One such example of this would be the Nightsisters' Book of Shadows.
Generations prior to the Clone Wars, a small group of Iridonian Zabraks originating from Rattatak, where their ancestors had crashed in a starcruiser, were brought to Dathomir during pirate raids. When the Force Witches of Dathomir discovered that they could interbreed with Zabraks, they isolated them to a small part of the planet where they could draw from their population for mates and servants. The Nightsisters, a dark side splinter group of which Asajj Ventress was a member, created from these populations of male castaways the Zabrak Nightbrothers, from whom Darth Maul was selected by the Sith Lord Darth Sidious for apprenticeship. At some point during the Imperial Era, Dathomir served as a penal colony for the Empire.
Eight years after the Battle of Yavin, Han Solo won the deed to Dathomir from Drackmarian Warlord Omogg in a game of sabacc and destroyed the Nightsisters, freeing Dathomir to ally with the New Republic. In 19 ABY, an agent of a faction known as the Second Imperium reestablished the Nightsisters and engineered a social revolution, so that the new Nightsisters came to treat males as equals, adding escaped slaves from the other clans to their ranks. By 22 ABY, some Great Canyon Clan warriors, like Captain Garowyn, had already undergone thorough training at Brakiss’s Shadow Academy battlestation, and received commissions in the Imperial military. Later that year, however, Tenel Ka and Luke Skywalker infiltrated the Great Canyon and from there were able to reach the Shadow Academy. The clan's strength would be subsequently slashed by their defeat in the Second Imperium's attack on Yavin 4.
By the beginning of the Yuuzhan Vong War, Dathomir was once again under New Republic protection, and although the planet fell during the Yuuzhan Vong’s initial attack in 27 ABY, the invaders soon realized that the native "Jeedai" were going to be harder to subdue. Dathomir was never fully conquered, and after the war's end, Jedi Master Streen and Dathomiri Jedi Kirana Ti and Damaya founded a Praxeum on Dathomir in 30 ABY to train the local witches as Jedi. In the following years, Jacen Solo came to the planet and trained in the arts of the indigenous witches. Later, Luke Skywalker and his son Ben tracked Vestara Khai to the planet and were rejoined by Han, Leia, and Allana Solo. The Jedi became involved in some affairs on the world, including a resurgent clan of Nightsisters and a proposed Sith-Nightsister alliance.
Allies and Opponents[]
Main Article: Allies and Opponents
Dathomir is host to many dangerous creatures and mystically sorcerers. Included are several of the most prevalent, and the personalities that shape the societies of The Witches of Dathomir.
Credits and Disclaimer[]
The generous contributors to this project include:
- Zach "Batshido" Cullimore
- "richterbelmont10"
- "MERC_1"
- Gregg "ZehnWaters" Hammerquist
- Chandra "arupa‖" Ruchira
- Garrett "barefoottourguide" Crowe
- Ben "Eli_the_Tanner" Szulecki
- Chris "GMChris" Witt
- "MajesticMoose"
- The crew of Fandom Comics
- The contributors of Wookieepedia
The Dathomir Field Guide has been compiled by Rob "RobShanti" Petrone from the work of the dedicated fans at the Wizards.com bulletin boards and from all corners of the internet, including, but not limited to, Matt Lee's wonderful www.saga-edition.com and Wookieepedia. The contents of the document are the sole possession and property of the author, Rob "RobShanti" Petrone (henceforth referred to as "the Author") and collective creators unless otherwise noted. Distribution, reproduction, or display of this compilation is forbidden- permission granted upon request and contingent on the author's approval. Reproduction with the intent of sale, or actual sale is, according to United States Copyright Law, an infringement on George Lucas et al., being a challenge to the commercial viability of Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game by Wizards of the Coast.
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