This article contains spoilers for Star Wars: Tales of the Empire.Star Wars: Tales of the Empire has brought back a Legends Force cult, subtly rewriting intergalactic history after Ahsoka. Releasing as part of Lucasfilm’s Star Wars Day 2024 celebrations, Tales of the Empire is a six-episode series of animated shorts exploring the Dark Times of the Empire’s reign. Three episodes focus on the Nightsister Morgan Elsbeth, and three on former Jedi Barriss Offee, who betrayed the order during the Clone Wars.
Morgan’s story is a tragic one, beginning with the Nightsister Purge conducted by General Grievous toward the end of the Clone Wars; Darth Sidious feared the Nightsister leader Mother Talzin was a potential rival, and wanted her killed and her forces annihilated. But Tales of the Empire swiftly moves on from this tragedy, revealing Morgan was taken in by a rival faction of Dathomiri, the Mountain Clan. It seems the Nightsisters aren’t the only inhabitants of Dathomir after all.
A wild and untamed planet steeped in the dark side of the Force, Dathomir was created by author Dave Wolverton back in 1994 when he wrote the novel The Courtship of Princess Leia. This introduced the Nightsisters of Dathomir, a coven of witches whose power terrified even the Empire. But they were not the only inhabitants of Dathomir; the Star Wars heroes forged an alliance with their rivals, the light side group known as the Mountain Clan, or sometimes the Singing Mountain Clan.
The Courtship of Princess Leia is now considered non-canon, but it remains highly influential and has even recently been reprinted. George Lucas loved the idea of the Nightsisters, drawing them into Star Wars: The Clone Wars and reinterpreting them for a new medium. The Mountain Clan has been mentioned a few times in canon before now, but Tales of the Empirie marks the first time the group has been explored in detail.
Nightsisters are bound to the dark side of the Force, but the Mountain Clan serve the light. In Legends, they are relatively few in number – 25 or 30 compared to the hundreds of Nightsisters – because the Dathomiri do not truly understand the nature of the Force, and so are not wary enough of the dark side. Tales of the Empire seems to show the Mountain Clan in a stronger, more confident position, perhaps suggesting they are more numerous.
Like the Nightsisters, the Mountain Clan is a matriachal civilization who use magick and incantation to access the Force. Where the Nightsisters wear red and black, the Mountain Clan wear beautiful white robes, symbolically representing their focus on purity. Although powerful in the Force, the Mountain Clan use it only to defend, not to attack – perhaps signifying a more well-developed philosophy of the Force than in Legends.
There are subtle hints that the Mountain Clan and the Nightsisters have an antagonistic relationship. Certainly the Mother of the Mountain Clan believes their home to be impregnable, and there’s no reason for them to base themselves in such a hostile environment if they aren’t protecting themselves from enemies. Still, the Mother is willing to take in a Nightsister after the Purge, although she clearly resents Morgan’s influence.
In Legends, the Mountain Clan had ties to a rogue Jedi. In canon, the history of the Dathomiri is much more exciting; Ahsoka saw its heroes and villains travel the pathway to Peridea, a planet in another galaxy, the ancestral homeworld of the Dathomiri. According to Morgan Elsbeth, the ancient Dathomiri traveled through the intergalactic void on Star Wars‘ space whales, the purrgil, and settled on many worlds. It had generally been assumed these were Nightsisters – but it’s more likely they were beings similar to the Mountain Clan.
In truth, the ability to empathize with and connect to animals has always been more of a light side Force power than a dark side one. Meanwhile, it’s always seemed odd that the Dathomiri originated from Peridea, when the planet is described as a purrgil graveyard – the place purrgil go to die. The existence of light side Dathomiri raises the possibility the original travelers were of the light side, and something went wrong; Peridea was corrupted, becoming a dark side nexus, a place of death. Intergalactic migration from Peridea was cut off as a result.
This fits well with the claims of Dark Jedi Baylan Skoll in Ahsoka. He believed Peridea was the place where everything went wrong millennia ago, long before recorded history in the Star Wars galaxy – the place where the balance of the Force was lost. The mere existence of the Mountain Clan seems to hint that he was right. If that’s the case, then Baylan is investigating whatever twisted light side witches into Nightsisters.
The end of Ahsoka saw Grand Admiral Thrawn claim Dathomiri as his new base of operations in the main galaxy. Most viewers had assumed the planet was entirely uninhabited after the Nightsister Purge, but now it’s clear that isn’t the case; the Mountain Clan still exists. There could be other clans too, ones who serve the light side and thus did not capture General Grievous’ attention. If that is the case, the Mountain Clan could soon appear in live-action, an incredible transition only made possible because of Star Wars: Tales of the Empire.