“Maul is one of my favorite characters in theStar Warsuniverse,” says Roanhorse.
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If they do, what do they say of me?
Credit: Disney Books
That I was once a great Sith Lord, apprenticed to the most powerful being in the galaxy?
That I killed the legendary Jedi named Qui-Gon Jinn at the Battle of Naboo?
Do they remember my glory?
My distinctive black-and-red skin and horns?
My unmatched skill with the double-bladed lightsaber?
Or do they just remember how I died?
Ah, I can see your confusion.
If I am dead, then how am I here, telling you this tale?
You are perceptive, a good listener.
You would have made a promising Sith apprentice.
You are right, of course.
I am not dead.
But it is best you understand now what the Jedi are capable of.
No, no, not yet.
I get ahead of myself.
We will come to the true nature of the Jedi soon enough.
All you oughta know is that I lived.
I prefer to say only that I survived because it was not much of a life.
I survived in darkness, lost to madness, discarded and forgotten .
until my brother found me and set me on my path of revenge.
I do not remember how I came to be on the junk planet Lotho Minor.
I must assume that after the Battle of Naboo my body was dumped there like so much trash.
It suited my circumstances.
Creeping, creeping, small and broken, always waiting, I was.
Until the most unlikely day.
I found someone else in my cave.
A man, as I used to be.
With markings like mine and horns, bearing a lightsaber.
What could it mean?
Come to find me, to save me?
You must understand that my mind was very broken.
And now to be found?
To be given another chance at life?
Well, I am ashamed to say that at first I could not comprehend it.
Tried to kill him.
But he was too strong and drove me back.
He said his name was Savage Opress, but his name meant nothing to me.
I could not even remember my own.
Kenobi, Kenobi, Kenobi.
Savage Opress did not recognize the Jedis name, but he knew I needed help.
So he lured me to his ship and took me back to our home planet Dathomir.
Again, I do not remember much of our journey.
My mind, so broken.
But I remember what came next.
Mother Talzin was a witch, the most powerful of the Nightsisters.
She wielded great magicks and all the Dathomirians respected her as our leader.
She was there to greet our ship and take me to her altar.
There, she commanded me to sleep.
I lay back on the cold stone and let her work.
First came the green smoke.
It enveloped me, entering my eyes and ears and mouth, filling my senses.
And slowly, as she worked her magicks on me, my mind began to return.
And then my brothers name.
I was whole in mind but was still attached to my spider body.
I can see now that it was a grotesquerie, but it had served me well on Lotho Minor.
Nevertheless, Mother Talzin knew it would not do.
And in the end.
Brother, Savage said, and this time I could answer him.
I sat up, grabbing his jaw.
I pulled his face to mine to stare into his eyes.
The same golden eyes as mine.
The eyes of the man who had saved me.
Brother, I growled.
