Merrin is the focus for this week's Star Wars Character Spotlight, survivor of the Dathomir Massacre and ally of Jedi Cal Kestis.

This week’s _Star Wars_ Character Spotlight shines on Merrin, one of the last surviving Nightsisters of Dathomir. Merrin hasn’t appeared in many stories so far – so far she’s been limited to the _Star Wars Jedi_ series – but her tale is an important one, showing that those who lose their way in the darkness can always find a way back to the light. ## **Surviving on Dathomir** It is thought that Merrin was born around 32 BBY (close to the events of _The Phantom Menace_) and was still only a child when the Clone Wars began. She was born among the Great Mother’s Nightsister clan on Dathomir, becoming skilled in the Nightsisters’ magick. When General Grievous attacked Dathomir with his droid army, Merrin was one of the few known survivors (Asajj Ventress and Morgan Elsbeth also lived, but she had no idea). While Asajj and Morgan quickly found a way off-planet, Merrin stayed, alone among her slain sisters. She buried each and every one of their bodies and became consumed with vengeance. After Order 66, a Jedi Master named Taron Malicos crash landed on Dathomir. Merrin warned him to leave and the Zabrak Nightbrothers (who followed her orders at this point) wished to deal with him in their village. However, Malicious had no way to leave and didn’t wish to. Consumed by grief after the Jedi Purge, he quickly became corrupted by the dark side on Dathomir and wished to learn the Nightsister magick to gain more power. He concealed his true identity as a Jedi, but still told Merrin that it was the Jedi who orchestrated the massacre of her people, not the Separatists (perhaps it was easier to fuel her anger by saying the agents of the light side killed her people, rather than them being the victim of a war that had nothing to do with them). He further manipulated Merrin by telling her that he would help avenge her sisters, as long as she taught him her magick. She didn’t like the man but reluctantly agreed. The two formed an uneasy alliance. ## **Fallen Order** Merrin first appears in _Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order_ , when Jedi Cal Kestis arrives on Dathomir seeking knowledge of the ancient Zeffo tomb on the planet. After observing him cut his way through the local wildlife with his lightsaber, she demanded that he leave the planet immediately and ordered the Nightbrothers to kill him, strengthening them all with her spells. Realizing that his path to the temple was blocked, Cal left the planet. Some time later Cal returned to Dathomir, more powerful in the Force and was finally capable of reaching the temple. Merrin demanded that he leave once more, only for Cal to warn that he would cut her down if she continued to stand in his way. She responded by resurrecting some of her fallen Nightsisters and siccing the zombies on the Jedi. Cal cut swathes through her fallen sisters and the Nightbrothers as he eventually reached the Zeffo tomb. After a short time, he emerged with a damaged lightsaber. Both Merrin and Taron Malicos met him outside the temple. Malicos invited Cal to join him and become his apprentice, which enraged Merrin. She realized Malicos had been a Jedi himself and attacked them both, resurrecting countless more dead Nightsisters. The zombies overwhelmed them; lightsaberless Cal fled to his ship and left the planet, while Malicos hid inside the tomb. ## **Allying with Cal Kestis** A short time later, Cal returned to Dathomir with a new lightsaber and Merrin immediately confronted him. Cal managed to convince her that the Jedi were not her enemy and not responsible for the massacre of her people; that Malicos was no true Jedi and had become corrupted by the dark side. Merrin could relate to Cal’s own pain regarding the massacre of his own people, and realized they were more alike than she first thought. She agreed to accompany Cal to the Zeffo tomb and defeat Malicos once and for all. Cal dueled Malicos in the tomb. The fallen Jedi nearly crushed Cal with a boulder before Merrin intervened, using her magick to destroy it. She assisted Cal in the fight by distracting Malicos and periodically incapacitating him. Eventually, Cal defeated him but he would not surrender. Merrin used her magick to pull Malicos underground and kill him. After the fight, Cal explained that his goal was to find a list of Force-sensitive children and keep them hidden from the Empire while rebuilding the Jedi Order. Merrin quickly deduced that the Empire would eventually come for Dathomir as well and decided to join Cal’s cause. She helped him acquire the ancient Zeffo artifact from the tomb and left with him on his ship to reach the Zeffo vault on Bogano. Cal’s friends Greez and Cere Junda were initially hesitant to trust a Nightsister, but welcomed her regardless. On Bogano, Cal ventured off to the Zeffo vault, but not after Merrin spoke with him about the list of Force-sensitive children. She asked him if it was something he believed should be found, noting that training them as Jedi would surely only put them in more danger. Cal noted her concern but remained steadfast in his resolve. While he headed off, Merrin stayed behind with the others and presumably protected them from the Empire after stormtroopers arrived. Cal returned, revealing that the Second Sister had stolen the list and left the planet. They decided to head to Nur and infiltrate Fortress Inquisitorius to retrieve it. As they approached the planet, Merrin used Nightsister magick to make the ship invisible, allowing them to get close enough for Cal and Cere to reach the planet’s oceans in escape pods. Somehow, Merrin knew they were in trouble. When Cal and Cere escaped the fortress with the list and nearly drowned in Nur’s oceans, Merrin dove into the water and pulled them both to the surface. She lifted them back into the ship and they fled. Once safe, Cal decided to destroy the list once and for all, clearly persuaded by Merrin’s argument. ## **Battle Scars** The _Battle Scars_ novel explained that Merrin became great friends with Cal, Cere and Greez and stuck with them over the next few years as they carried out minor raiding operations against the Empire and fought off the occasional bounty hunter. However, despite their closeness, she suspected their time together wouldn’t last forever. While the others were concerned with defeating the Empire and rebuilding the Jedi Order, Merrin wanted to explore the galaxy, experiencing cultures different to the one she grew up in. She was also experiencing some difficulty with her magick. Normally her power was fuelled by anger, but surrounded by a loving found family, she didn’t often have cause to be too angry and her powers were suffering. During a mission infiltrating a Haxion Brood base, Merrin was approached by a woman wearing stormtrooper armor who asked to accompany them. The woman, nicknamed Fret, was a former Imperial analyst who had discovered work on a dangerous artifact called the Shroud, a cloaking device. She wanted the crew’s help in stealing the Shroud from the Empire. She’d already contacted a wealthy Omwati named Qeris Lar on Hosnian Prime for help extracting it, and after Lar briefed them on the job, they prepared to steal it from the Empire. During Fret’s time on the crew, Merrin developed strong feelings for her. They quickly became intimate with each other, and Merrin discovered her magick powers had fully returned. It turned out love could be as strong a fuel as hate. Unfortunately, the heist went badly. While they recovered the Shroud, they struggled to overcome the Imperial forces. Cal was locked in a duel with the Fifth Brother, who severed Greez’s arm. Cere nearly turned to the dark side in order to defeat him. Meanwhile, they discovered Fret’s old love in a prison, which devastated Merrin. They laid low on a nearby planet, where she and Fret agreed to remain friends while she returned to her former love. The gang decided what to do next; ultimately, they didn’t trust Qeris Lar to use the Shroud responsibly and planned to give him a fake prototype while they destroyed the real one. The meeting went poorly and after a fight broke out, Lar was killed. The Fifth Brother then arrived, having tracked them all the way from the facility. They struggled to defeat the inquisitor until Merrin distracted him with magick and the others used the fake prototype as an explosive. The prototype blew up, giving Merrin and the others time to escape. ## **Going her own way** After the events of _Battle Scars_ , the crew decided to split up. Though she did have some feelings for Cal (which were silently reciprocated), Merrin felt she needed to explore the galaxy to find herself, after the failed romance with Fret. She traveled to many places, realizing there was beauty in the galaxy despite all the suffering. She even returned to Dathomir to reconnect with her old coven, strengthening her powers. At this point, she began helping the Hidden Path smuggle Force users across the galaxy, which helped her reunite with Cere, who also helped the Hidden Path. She stayed with her at the Anchorite base on Jedha for a while. ## **Survivor** Merrin’s latest appearance comes in _Star Wars Jedi: Survivor_. When Cal arrived on Jedha, she helped him fight stormtroopers in some old ruins. While en route to the Anchorite base, the two got lost in a sandstorm and had to hide out in a cavern overnight. It gave the two time to reconnect, and Merrin was glad that they had found each other again. The following day, Merrin brought Cal to the base and he told them of his plans to reach Tanalorr, a remote planet that could act as a haven for Force sensitives from the Empire. When Cere got a distress call from an Anchorite operative, Cal agreed to help rescue him from nearby ruins and Merrin accompanied him. While they were unable to save the Anchorite, they obtained his intel and managed to flee the temple as Merrin created magic wind tunnels of sorts that enabled them to fly through the air. Before they jumped, she gave Cal a deep kiss. When the mission was over, she agreed to accompany Cal, Greez and Bode Akuna on their mission to find Tanalorr, though she mostly stayed at the settlement on Koboh to protect the locals and remained on the ship whenever they traveled offworld. Eventually, Cal recovered a compass to Tanalorr that Eno Cordova would be able to fix back at the base on Jedha. That night, Merrin sat around the fire with their friends until it was just she and Cal left. Cal told her that he wanted to be with her, regardless of what his Jedi teachings said. The two shared another kiss and Merrin was happy. The following day, everything went badly. Once Cordova announced he had finished the compass, Bode killed him and took it for himself, with the base’s alarms announcing that the Empire was on its way. While Cal chased Bode, Merrin stayed with Cere to defend the base from the Empire. At the end of the battle, Cere was killed by Darth Vader and Merrin mourned her loss with Cal and Greez. ## **Saving Cal from darkness** Merrin traveled to an ISB base on Nova Garon with Cal and Greez in search of Bode, to retrieve the compass and get justice for Cere’s death. Cal left on his own while Merrin stayed with the ship, though she left to find him when alarms started blaring and they rendezvoused in a nearby hangar. The two fought off Imperial troops, though when Bode’s handler Lieutenant Denvik attacked, Cal choked him through the Force. He would have killed him in anger had Merrin not talked him down. They were too slow to find Bode, but they managed to find an alternative way to reach Tanalorr and flew there themselves. Merrin accompanied Cal as they went to bring Bode to justice. Cal and Bode fought inside a Jedi Temple, while Merrin teleported Bode’s daughter Kata to safety and periodically assisted Cal with her magick. At one point, she teleported down to them with Kata to convince Bode to stand down, but he refused and Cal killed him. After the fight, Merrin remained at Cal’s side. They held a funeral for Cere and Bode, agreeing to raise his daughter and seemingly deciding to enter a relationship. ## **What next?** Merrin will next appear in the third _Star Wars Jedi_ game. It’s not known what awaits Merrin and her friends, but it seems likely that she and Cal will continue to aid the Hidden Path while raising Kata and teaching her the ways of the Force. We’ll have to wait and see how their story ends. Thanks to _Wookieepedia_ , who give a much more detailed version of Merrin’s story than I can do here. ##### Josh Atkins + posts Josh is a huge Star Wars fan, who has spent far too much time wondering if any Star Wars character could defeat Thanos with all the Infinity Stones. * Josh Atkins https://www.starwarsnewsnet.com/author/josh-atkins __ Oppo Rancisis - 'Star Wars' Character Spotlight * Josh Atkins https://www.starwarsnewsnet.com/author/josh-atkins __ 'Star Wars: Starfighter' Will Have a Lightsaber Duel Shot by Tom Cruise * Josh Atkins https://www.starwarsnewsnet.com/author/josh-atkins __ Latts Razzi - 'Star Wars' Character Spotlight * Josh Atkins https://www.starwarsnewsnet.com/author/josh-atkins __ 'Star Wars' #8 Review - The Nagai Rebellion Is Underway, But Do We Care?