The Mandalorian's Magistrate Is One of the Last Survivors From a Classic Star Wars Planet

The Mandalorian's latest antagonist, Magistrate Morgan Elsbeth of Corvus, was one of the last survivors of a classic Star Wars planet devastated by the Clone Wars. Ahsoka Tano -- making her live-action debut -- tells most of this to Din Djarin during the episode "Chapter 13: The Jedi." Elsbeth's rage over what happened to her people drove her towards power. She began a business of stealing resources from entire planets and selling them to the Empire to use in arming its military forces. Thanks to The Mandalorian's head hairstylist, Maria Sandoval, we now know that Elsbeth's homeworld is Dathomir, a planet visited in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

Dathomir was home to several tribes, but most notable were the Nightbrothers and the Nightsisters. The Nightsisters were witches that could manipulate the dark side of the Force. Mother Talzin was their leader and she gave up her son, Maul, to become Darth Sidious' Sith apprentice. She and Sidious soon became bitter rivals, with Maul, his brother Savage Opress, Count Dooku, and Dooku's Nightsister apprentice Asajj Ventress becoming caught in their games against each other. Eventually, Sidious sent his forces to eradicate the Nightsisters entirely. Only Talzin and a handful of others survived the onslaught. It wasn't long before a similar assault nearly wiped out all of the Nightbrothers.

Thanks to Jedi: Fallen Order, we already knew that at least some of the Nightbrothers survived, though only one Nightsister lived, Merrin. The others became zombie-like, undead beings. During the period between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, Jedi survivor Cal Kestis visited Dathomir and helped Merrin defeat Malicos, a fallen Jedi who had been manipulating the Nightbrothers on the planet. Cal and Merrin became friends, and the Nightsister joined the Stinger Mantis' crew.

We don't know what became of Dathomir during the Galactic Civil War. It may have suffered a purge similar to the one the Empire unleashed on Mandalore. We don't know if Elsbeth was descended from the Nightsisters or another Dathomirian tribe. She doesn't display any Force abilities in the episode, but she is capable of holding her own in combat against an experience Jedi like Ahsoka Tano.

This is the latest tie to the previous Star Wars television series to pop in The Mandalorian's second season. The live-action debuts of Bo-Katan Kryze and Ahsoka Tano are the biggest, but the Darksaber and Grand Admiral Thrawn also loom large of the show's story.

New The Mandalorian episodes debut on Fridays on Disney+.