Jon Solo Sebastian 09/28/2024:

“I am Abeloth the Bringer of Chaos, the Queen of the Stars, the Destructor, and the most terrifying villain of Star Wars: The Expanded Universe.” That last part may or may not be true, but Abeloth is a force to be reckoned with, and she almost killed Luke Skywalker in the nine-book series titled: Fate of the Jedi. The Fate of the Jedi series is some of the absolute best storytelling in Star Wars. It has everything I’ve grown to love about Star Wars blended beautifully throughout the nine books.

The Jedi once again have enemies all around them including power hungry politicians, war mongering Mandalorians hired to fight against the Jedi for the New Republic, which is essentially no different from the old Empire; especially considering a former Imperial is in charge of the New Republic. If that wasn’t enough, the Jedi also have a lost tribe of the Sith hunting for them, and lastly, Abeloth—who is an evil corrupted immortal, hellbent on destroying everything in her path as she seeks out potential replacements for her long dead family members.

Since we’re approaching the Halloween spooky creepy time of the year, I thought I’d kick things off by mixing one of my loves (Star Wars Expanded Universe) with another—Halloween. Abeloth and her story isn’t necessarily in the realm of horror, but she’s terrifying to look at, she’s evil, and she possesses the souls of others to do her bidding, so that fits rather nicely; oh and she’s nearly impossible to defeat!

Who is Abeloth?

Hundreds of thousands of years before she became Abeloth, she was a mortal woman who served The Ones, also known as the Mortis Gods. The Ones, in simplest terms, were a family of three; the father, the son, and the daughter. The Son was the embodiment of the dark side of the force. The Daughter represented the light side of the force, and the Father was the keeper of the balance between them; he was in a way, the balance of the force. The woman who became Abeloth first became the mother in this group. The Father thought she was a good fit to keep the children in line. One of the downsides to the arrangement was they were all immortal, and she was not. Loving her family and wanting to stay with them, she was determined to find a way.

She discovered a way to achieve immortality, but it cost her everything. She drank from a spring called the Font of Power which granted the drinker unlimited power. After that, she bathed in the Pool of Knowledge. Bathing in the pool provides all knowledge of the galaxy including past and future events. Neither of these tasks were harmless or simple and while she was granted immortality in the process, it came with a dark price. She was no longer the person she had been before. Her hands and fingers became long tentacles, her mouth stretched out from ear to ear revealing a grotesque smile accompanied by sharp pointed teeth, and her eyes were black holes. Another side effect of the transformation is that she became tainted with the essence of the dark side of the force. There was no light left within her. She was once a mother to the Son and Daughter tasked with keeping them in line. Now, it was her who needed to be contained by the family she wanted to be with so badly. All she wanted was to be with them forever, but the path she chose destroyed her and nearly destroyed the galaxy.

Her fear of dying turned her into an evil monster that will be alone forever. Sounds a little like Anakin Skywalker, don’t you think?

Her origin story has many of the ingredients needed for a horror story, and it gets worse. As you can imagine, the Father wasn’t ok with her transformation. He took his children off planet and they made their way to Mortis. Abeloth was stranded and alone on the planet. To ensure this evil monster could cause no harm to the galaxy, the Son and Daughter tasked a race of beings called the Killiks to imprison her. They accomplished this by building large Deathstar-like space stations to contain her. She was so powerful that she was able to escape any time there was a future-altering disturbance in the force. The Son and Daughter were always able to capture her. The problem is, around the time of the Clone Wars in 21 BBY, The Ones all died on Mortis. Anakin was supposed to take the place of the dying Father, but chose not to and everything fell apart there leaving all three of them dead. With the only beings in the galaxy able to keep her in check, dead, it was only a matter of time before she escaped again.

Jump ahead to 40 ABY or so and we have Jacen Solo, son of Han and Leia, turning to the dark side and waging war against the Jedi. During his reign as a Sith, Jacen altered future events in the timeline which was enough to throw the current of the force off its trajectory and allowed Abeloth to escape. She began her escape by invading the minds of young Jedi causing them to go crazy and attack other Jedi, and other people as well. Things got worse for the Jedi and a new purge was nearly underway, which was set in motion by Admiral Natasi Daala. Luke was on a pilgrimage-like journey with his son, Ben, looking for answers as to why his nephew Jacen turned to the dark side. In this time, Luke learns who Abeloth is, and even works with the Sith to try to stop her… of course the Sith betray him. Abeloth finally breaks herself free by destroying the remaining space station that imprisoned her.

Now that Abeloth is on the loose, everything Luke and his friends have built since defeating Emperor Palpatine is at risk of being destroyed. Unlike any other enemy the heroes in the story have faced, Abeloth requires a lot of trial and error in order to be defeated. She’s able to take over bodies of other people and can be in multiple places at once, which makes it difficult to defeat her; especially since a part of her is stretched across multiple people. The heroes have to devise a plan that must go flawlessly in order to stop her.

If any of this sounds interesting to you, and you’re a Star Wars fan, I highly recommend you read the Fate of the Jedi books. They’re really well written and exciting. I must also mention there are rumors of Abeloth making her way to being on screen in season two of Ahoska. There were subtle hints that could lead to her being a villain in season two. We already know by the finale of season one that the Mortis Gods will be involved in some way, so it only makes sense to bring the Mother into it all.

What is the statue of the Father pointing at? Who or what is calling to Baylan Skoll?

While her origin story is a tragic one, lets not forget she is pure evil; likely the most evil character in Star Wars… certainly one of the most powerful ones.