Abeloth, the Unholy Final Enemy of Star Wars

The Absolute Menace of Star Wars that is Abeloth: An Abridged Biography

Who is the most evil entity in the Star Wars franchise? A lot of fans would reflexively say the title goes to Darth Sidious, and they’re not wrong. In both iterations of Star Wars, Darth Sidious was the embodiment of the Dark Side personified. The more savvy fans might cite the ancient Sith Emperor as a prime candidate, given how he cheated death for centuries. However, there’s something in Star Wars that’s even worse. Something that, if left unchecked, would make the Galaxy quake and the people cower in fear. Something so evil that even the Sith would resort to teaming up with their greatest enemy just to stop it. This entity we’re referring to is Abeloth.

Debuting in the Fate of the Jedi novel series just before Disney reset the canon, Abeloth was the last and most dangerous enemy the original heroes of the franchise would face. She’s an embodiment of chaos and destruction that made the Mortis Gods, the embodiments of the Force itself, afraid. With the recently-concluded Ahsoka series bringing the Mortis Family back to the forefront of the franchise, fans started to speculate over things. Was Ahsoka, through Baylan’s quest for this mysterious power, sewing the seeds for Abeloth’s eventual return to the canon? If it is, then Thrawn and the Great Mother’s desire to escape exile suddenly becomes much clearer. For those who don’t know, here’s a recap of Abeloth from the old Expanded Universe and why her return should terrify everyone.

Or, if this is wrong, then it will still be a cool story.

The Servant Became the Mother, then Became Abeloth

It was countless eons ago, long before the Jedi, Sith, or most of the galactic civilizations ever existed. The Ones, a Father, a Daughter, and a Son existed. All of them were extremely powerful in the Force. The Daughter was strong in the Light Side, while the Son was strong in the Dark Side, with the Father forced to keep balance. There was only so much he could do, though, and the siblings continued to clash for countless years. Then, one day, a young mortal woman arrived on their world.

This was the Servant, and she came to serve the Ones. She did much more than that, though. She managed to quell the arguments between the siblings. She even got the Son to use his powers for something constructive by carving out new rooms in the gorge their home was in. She also doted on the Father, filling his lonely heart. Thus, she became the Mother, and for a time, they were happy.

Unlike the Ones, though, the Mother was still mortal. And she couldn’t stop growing old. And as she aged, she wasn’t able to quell the children’s fights. She became desperate to regain her youth and keep her family. What she did next, though, only sealed her fate.

The Ones’ planet had a pair of Force nexuses on it, the Pool of Knowledge and Font of Power; the concentrated essence of the Light and Dark side, each. The Daughter and Son had gained their immense power from using their respective source, despite the Father telling his kids not to. The Mother ended up using both, and by the time the Father got there, it was too late. 

Abeloth Unleashed

The power of the Force Nexus’ had restored the Mother’s youth and granted her power equal to the Ones. However, it also drove her insane. She attacked her adoptive children in a crazed version of her previous attempts to stop their fighting. Horrified, the Father subdued the Mother and tended to his children before all three fled their home, never to return. Thus, the Mother was left all alone in her madness. Thus, she became Abeloth, the Bringer of Chaos.

Abeloth would not remain on that world for long. Eventually, she found a way off planet and did all sorts of damage to the Galaxy. The Son and Daughter, now living with their father on the planet Mortis, knew she had to be stopped before she destroyed the Galaxy. Working together, they drove her back to their former home and declared it her prison. Then, to make sure she couldn’t escape, they created a Galaxy-spanning prison to lock her up.

Using their knowledge (and help from alien laborers) they built a space station bigger than the Death Star that could use gravity as a weapon. Then they used the newly-made Centerpoint Station to create a cluster of black holes surrounding their former home. To top it off, they made a smaller station inside the black hole cluster to keep them in place. They would go out and throw her back in prison whenever she escaped, a cycle that continued for tens of thousands of years. 

Until it finally broke with the death of the Ones during the Clone Wars. 

Probing the Jedi

Even though she was locked up in the Maw, Abeloth still had some influence on the Galaxy at large. If any Force-Sensitives visited the Maw, she could sense their presence, probe their mind, and influence them if they stayed long enough. She could also flat-out absorb people if they somehow managed to find their way to her prison planet. Through this, she learned about what was going in the Galaxy.

Around the year 26 ABY, the Galaxy was engulfed by the Yuuzhan Vong War. The extragalactic Yuuzhan Vong and a group of collaborators called the Peace Brigade were hunting down Jedi. Luke Skywalker and his friends and allies had to hide the youngest members of their New Jedi Order where no one could find them, and the Maw seemed the perfect place. Thus, many of the Order’s younglings stayed on a secret space station, safe from the Vong and their traitorous minions. But not from Abeloth.

Abeloth used her proximity to these Jedi younglings to her advantage. She probed their minds and planted in them the seeds of something that would be felt decades later. Eventually, though, the war ended, and the Jedi left the Maw behind.

The Mortals Screw Up 

Then, in 40 ABY, the worst possible thing happened. During another war for the fate of the Galaxy, Centerpoint Station was destroyed. Without it in place, the forces holding the Maw together weakened. And while she still couldn’t escape, Abeloth had all the leg room she needed.

Abeloth reached out to those young Jedi who had been kept hidden in the Maw during the Yuuzhan Vong War. One by one, they all began to fall victim to a form of psychosis that convinced them all that imposters had replaced everyone they met. The only exceptions were other victims of this psychosis. In addition, it also left them with an instinctive desire to return to the Maw and reunite with Abeloth.

The Jedi’s already bad rep took an even more significant nose-dive thanks to this illness. Things got so bad that Luke opted to go into voluntary exile with his son Ben so they could find the cause of this evil. This would eventually lead them to the discovery of the smaller station in the Maw and the existence of Abeloth. 

At the same time, a society of Sith that had been stranded on a distant planet for millennia had managed to find a way back to the stars. This Lost Tribe eventually found its way to the Maw and Abeloth. All Hell broke loose, and that smaller station, the last thing keeping Abeloth locked up, was eventually destroyed. The prison had been unlocked, the prisoner set free. And an entire Galaxy that wasn’t ready or her madness.

Hunted by the Jedi and Sith

Things only got crazier from this point forward. Recognizing how dangerous Abeloth was, the Jedi and Sith called a truce in the hopes of destroying her. While they did manage to weaken her enough that most of her victims regained their sanity, they failed to take her down for good. Then, the Sith, being Sith, turned on the Jedi and tried to ally themselves with Abeloth. One of their leaders, though, realized how big a mistake this was, and tried to kill her. The mental battle that followed left Abeloth weaker than ever, so she took what Sith would follow her and fled their world. Knowing that she couldn’t risk another straight-up fight with the Jedi, she changed tactics.

The thing about Abeloth is that, for all her power, she didn’t care about ruling the Galaxy as a despot like Palpatine. All she ever wanted was to be loved. The whole reason she became who she is was out of a desperate desire to remain loved. So, after being chased by the Jedi across the Galaxy, she knew she had to lay low and regain her strength. Thus, she possessed the body of a popular Senator, and then used it to get herself elected as the new leader of the Galactic Alliance (the New Republic’s successor state.) Now controlling the largest galactic government and with the Sith to do her bidding, Abeloth was poised to get the love she wanted on a galactic scale. Worse, the Ones were no longer around to stop her, the entire family having died during the Clone Wars decades ago.

Yet the Jedi never gave up. They and their allies launched a counterattack to retake the capital planet of Coruscant and destroy her avatars. Realizing the situation was lost, Abeloth changed tactics yet again. Seeking to recreate the family she lost eons ago, Abeloth abducted Ben Skywalker, Luke’s son, and Vestara Khai, a young Sith apprentice. Bringing them to her world, she sought to force them to use the Font of Power and Pool Knowledge to become the new Ones. She never got the chance to do so. 

End of the Line

Pursuing Abeloth back into the Maw, Luke Skywalker used the Force to enter what was essentially a kind of astral plane to confront the monster once and for all. Gaining the aid of a Sith Lord not part of the Lost Tribe, the two pinnacles of darkness and light replaced the Son and Daughter. It was a brutal fight that Luke barely managed to survive, but the constant battles and the deaths of her other avatars had left Abeloth too weak to succeed. With the forces of light and darkness working as one, they overpowered Abeloth and ended her reign of terror…for a time. 

Abeloth may have been killed, but no one was convinced she was gone for good. She could return one day, and the whole Galaxy would be at risk when she did. And with the Ones gone, Luke realized it would be up to the Jedi and Sith to defeat this eldritch monster. 

Yes, you read that right. The Jedi and Sith, two groups at each other’s throats for thousands of years, would have to work together if Abeloth ever returned. 

As the Sith retreated into the shadows, waiting to plot their next move, Luke took action. 

Then, Disney reset everything, and while the Mortis Gods stayed, it looked as though Abeloth would remain confined to the old EU.

That is, until the Ahsoka series reached Peridea proper.

The Return of Abeloth?

From the moment the world of Peridea appeared, it was clear that there was something off about it. Between the sparse population and planetary rings made out of the bones of Purgill, Peridea seemed like a place that emanated death. Something was wrong with the planet, and whatever it was, it was enough to make Thrawn and his allies desperate to escape exile. In contrast, Baylan Skoll didn’t want to leave Peridea. He thought that something on the planet was calling to him. Sound familiar?

Since the introduction of Peridea, Star Wars fans started speculating that perhaps Dave Filoni was setting everything up for the eventual return of Abeloth. It might not happen right away, but the seeds are being planted. If Abeloth is going to rejoin the Star Wars canon, she would make for a logical step up from the likes of Emperor Palpatine. Whereas Palpatine sought to dominate and rule the Galaxy, Abeloth is an entity of chaos. She would allow the Galaxy to burn if it meant getting what she wanted. She’s the Star Wars equivalent to a Lovecraftian monster: all-powerful, dangerous, and a threat to all existence. In other words, an ideal antagonist for Star Wars ten or so years down the road. 

If you want to learn more about Abeloth, then I reccommend reading the Fate of the Jedi series. It’s available in E-Book form and in audiobook form on iTunes and Audible. It’s a pretty epic finale to the original Star Wars timeline.