Hello Jedi, would you care to dance?
—Darth Maxah
Darth Maxah was a Sith Apprentice though she has sometimes erroneously been called a Dark Lady of the Sith. Maxah was apprenticed to Darth Sidious and was sent to monitor the Trade Federation's occupation of Naboo. During her life time she killed two Jedi, Shakya Devi and Qui-Gon Jinn before she met her end at the hands of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Maxah was a master of Juyo and used a red double-bladed lightsaber for combat.
Biography[]
Not much is known about the origins of Maxah, but presumably Sidious found her at an early age and trained her. In 32 BBY she was sent to Naboo by her Master to oversee the Trade Federation's occupation of the planet. When Supreme Chancellor Valorum secretly dispatched two Jedi, Shakya Devi and her Padawan learner Padmé Naberrie, Maxah went into action, killing Devi much to the shock of Viceroy Nute Gunray. For some unknown reason she spared the young Padmé, who was able to alert the Jedi Council of her Master's death.
When Queen Nalanda's ship managed to escape the planet, Maxah tracked them to Tatooine on Sidious' orders. She managed to fin the Queen's starship and engaged in combat with Qui-Gon Jinn who managed to escape her without injury. Sidious then sent her back to Naboo to await Nalanda's return.
Durring the Battle of Naboo Maxah was at first an observer, until she went in a fury to deal with the Jedi while Gunray did nothing. She fought Jinn and Kenobi--Padmé escaping to protect the Queen--down to the palace reactor room. Due to a laser-gated security hallway, Maxah managed to engage Jinn on his own and mortally wounded him. When the laser gates were down, Maxah dueled Kenobi, at first she had the advantage until the young Jedi sliced her blade in two. Maxah then attacked viciously and quickly, forcing Kenobi down a reactor shaft and depriving him of his lightsaber. Unfortunately for Maxah, Kenobi managed to grab onto an input nozzle, he was able to reach into the Force, jump out of the pit and summon his fallen Master's lightsaber. Caught completely by surprise, Kenobi sliced the Sith in two and her body tumbled into the pit.
Her death was an unfortunate setback for Darth Sidious, in the fact that he was forced to train a new apprentice. Within a year Maxah was replaced with Darth Tyranus.
Powers and Abilities[]
Darth Maxah was a skilled lightsaber duelist, trained by Darth Sidious in Form VII , which drew on emotions and the dark side. Unlike the traditional dueling techniques of most Jedi, Maxah combined her swordsmanship with martial arts and hand-to-hand combat skills—a combination which made her a nearly unstoppable dervish of destruction.
However, it should be noted that Maxahonly devoted herself to Form VII's physical focus, desiring pure physical victory, rather than the "higher" Sith tradition of Dun Möch, dominating the opponents spirit and exposing their inner doubts through taunts and psychological warfare.
When fighting multiple opponents, Maxah extended the second blade of her lightsaber to form a saberstaff, doubling her lethality as Jedi rarely faced such a weapon, or a skilled practitioner in its use. Maxah often used this to catch opponents by surprise.
Behind the scenes[]
Maxah's name is derived from the Irish war goddess Macha which is pronounced the same. She was to some extent inspired by the Sith witch which was an early version of Darth Maul.
Appearances[]
- The Phantom Menace (AU) (First appearance)