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survivalthroughhate
survivalthroughhateFor anyone curious for the big milestones that have shaped Maul, this is a summary of most of the big events that happened to him in Deerington and Deer Country.
Maul went through three years of long character development in both games. When he arrived in Deerington, he'd just lost pretty much everything. His brother was dead, his mother was dead, his power base shattered, and he'd just watched his home planet get bombed from orbit. He was an angry, embittered mess who was still clinging to the idea of revenge on all those who had wronged him, an idea that helped him cope at first with the monthly horrors visited upon the small town and all its residents. As a LCW for about the first six months of the game, he had to learn how to function in a setting where people weren't used to the way things were done in his home galaxy. He also learned his first valuable lesson in that he couldn't just sow chaos and hurt people and then run away from his problems by fleeing to another planet as he was used to.
He began to slowly and cautiously make friends, though he insisted they were merely allies. Several good friends he made during this time who would last through both iterations of the game would be Usagi Tsukino aka Sailor Moon, Luz Noceda, Vira-Lorr, and Ruby Rose. He opened up a little as the months went by. His first big test came when a boy named Ben Hanscom he'd grown fond of was injured during a series of events that were partially Maul's fault. Ben was more hurt than scared but that didn't matter to the Sith Lord. Enraged, Maul sought to Force Choke the person he held responsible, but Ben begged him to stop. Surprising even himself, he did, the first sign of mercy he ever showed in the game. He tentatively entered a relationship with a man named Reaper (Gabriel Reyes). He also experienced a fair amount of body horror when he was blinded for an extended period of time thanks to evil faeries physically ripping his eyeballs out. Eventually, this handicap would be healed by Sailor Moon. His tough shell completely broke open when his little brother Savage Opress arrived, allowing him to acknowledge their family relationship in a way he'd never been able to back in their own galaxy. After a incident where everyone was stranded in a hotel for an extended period of time, where his relationship with Reaper deepened, he saved the life of a friend (Raleigh Becket) without even thinking about it. That was a first, the instincts that usually made him want to take a life instead allowing him to save one instead.
Alas, any progress he made was halted as he became brainwashed by a specter of his master and went on a killing spree, murdering many Sleepers, maiming others, and shattering the trust he'd built up in a lot of the community. The consequences of this would have repercussions that lasted through the rest of both games. Maul attempted to make some ham-handed efforts at apologies and atonements as the town began to collapse in on itself with limited results. The fact things were starting to get as bad as they could be in their surroundings only exacerbated the echoes hid actions had on everyone. Part of this was because of the cumulative effects dying three times had on him, including leaving him with amnesia, which caused him to miss many key memories. During this time, he further polarized the Sleepers against him as he maimed a young boy, Glitch, taking off his arm and setting a Sleeper who had set himself up as something of a leader, James Ironwood, against him in a public post on the network. This caused everyone to take sides and Maul to stubbornly dig his heels in, lashing out at anyone he felt was persecuting him in what he saw as a witch hunt. The one positive is that he saw those who loyally stuck by him despite the backlash they received as his true friends, allowing him to open up in a more productive fashion than he had up to that point.
Realizing how dangerous he was without his memories, several Jedi including Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, and Ahsoka Tano convinced him to go into a Mandalorian sarcophagus, basically a holding cell that allowed him to sense the Force but not use it until a sacrifice was made by them to help get his memories back. This was done by him partially as an act of penance and partially to protect the other Sleepers from any more acts of violence he might have wanted to commit against those he saw who were still on Glitch's and Ironwood's side. Once he was able to get his memories back, it returned him to a far less dangerous state.
He left the game magically cursed to feel the pain of anyone he hurt by three witches, John Constantine, Willow, and Luna Lovegood, so that he would cause no more harm by having a restraining bolt on him until he broke it. He was still managed to beat up John for a bit in a temper tantrum when he found out until Obi-Wan stopped that nonsense. He also learned to let go to an extent, as some of his friends opted to return to their universes rather than move onto the next universe. This included Reaper, who confessed he loved Maul before returning to his own universe to take revenge on those who had wronged him, something Maul could more than understand. Fortunately, Reaper would come back when the next game opened.
His progress continued once in the city of Trench as Deer Country started. He was canon-updated to the end of The Clone Wars Season Seven, allowing him to witness what happened next with him in the galaxy. Much to his delight, many of his friends, family, and allies had migrated to the new city. Much to his ire and annoyance, several enemies such as the three aforementioned witches and Anakin Skywalker also did. He continued to work on himself, becoming the longest-running character from his canon to have been in both games, which meant he had a hand in introducing all new ones to the city. He learned there was two distinct timelines that his galaxy was capable of going through in the future, (in meta terms, the canon timeline and the discontinued Legends timeline) not that he would live to see either come to full fruition. He also started a cult, as several native Trenchians saw him as fulfilling a prophecy that someone of great power with one heart of darkness and one heart of light would eventually come to Trench, leading them all into an era of great prosperity and giving them immense power as well. Maul, of course, took to his role as cult leader like a duck to water once his suspicions they weren't going to immediately betray him were confirmed, pleased to have devoted followers who would live and die at his command.
He also learned of his future going all the way up to his death, cementing his choice never to return to his galaxy. All the positives of his life were wrapped up in Trench now, and unlike some, he decided there was no future for him back in his original home. His attempts to do better weren't without backsliding, as he still killed three people during his time there, and the rampage he'd caused in Deerington still continued to have consequences. He broke his curse and caused a bit more chaos. Maul formed deep relationships during this time, with Usagi being cemented as his best friend, finding an adoptive brother in Albert Wesker, marrying Reaper, and acknowledging Obi-Wan Kenobi was not the sole cause of all his misery, allowing him to eventually apologizing to the Jedi for all the pain he'd caused him in his quest for revenge. He also formed close relationships with others from his canon like Luke Skywalker (his favorite Jedi of all time now) and Ezra Bridger, the memories of their future relationship eventually coming to him.
His past deeds eventually caught up to him when Willow became corrupted and turned into her Dark Willow persona. She hunted down Maul as revenge, for he had killed her in a previously brainwashed state. Savage refused to leave his brother's side and was killed. Maul completely lost it and attacked Willow in an insane rage. She zapped him with lightning attacks to torture him until Faith put him out of his misery. He felt immense guilt, shame, and grief at having to watch his little brother die again while he was helpless to stop it. Because of this, when he was revived, he was in a corrupted form; his "Spider Maul" persona that had developed on Lotho Minor. He was insane and his only desire to eat meat. After several people discovered what had happened to him, he was talked down and purified in a ritual to return him to his normal form.
Eventually, he was canon updated one last time to after the short story "The Ghosts of Maul" was set. This meant he learned a very important lesson in his galaxy about how he had to give up on his quest for revenge and let go of some of his pain and anger if he ever wanted to become the most powerful version of himself. Being all but promised this by the Dark Side gave him some good motivation. When he returned to Trench, he'd finally found some chill, and became a much calmer version of himself. This was cemented by his eye color finally changing back to the grey-brown he'd been born with instead of permanently having Sith yellow eyes. He acknowledged that all those who had stuck by him for so long, insisting they could see the good in him, had been right all along. He truly did have the potential to be a better person than he'd been in his own galaxy. No longer was he a Sith Lord who wanted to cause pain and destruction when he lashed out in anger. While he was still on the Dark Side and always would be, for it was a familiar place to him ever since he'd been born, he now used his powers mainly to protect those he loved from the monthly horrors.
When the game ended, he'd become a version of himself that could take responsibility for his actions and mistakes instead of always blaming others. He'd found out he had a knack for teaching and became a mentor to many younger characters in the game, especially those with extraordinary powers of their own. He was someone who could finally acknowledge that what he'd always wanted wasn't power and control but a family who loved him for who he was. Maul finally shook off the ghost of his master in a literal fashion when the specter of Sidious returned, only able to be permanently banished once Maul acknowledged he was no longer afraid of him and that he wasn't the unfeeling assassin he'd been molded into by his master's teachings. He had thoughts, wants, and feelings of his own that he now allowed himself to acknowledge. To symbolically show that he'd forever broken away from being his master's old apprentice, one of his last acts before the game ended was to purify the kyber crystals in his saberstaff. It turned them from the red color that they'd been forcibly bled into by focusing his pain, rage, and hate in them so long ago and left them instead an orange color. When Deer Country ended, he still had a long way to go on the emotional journey of healing himself but the most important steps have already been taken.
Maul went through three years of long character development in both games. When he arrived in Deerington, he'd just lost pretty much everything. His brother was dead, his mother was dead, his power base shattered, and he'd just watched his home planet get bombed from orbit. He was an angry, embittered mess who was still clinging to the idea of revenge on all those who had wronged him, an idea that helped him cope at first with the monthly horrors visited upon the small town and all its residents. As a LCW for about the first six months of the game, he had to learn how to function in a setting where people weren't used to the way things were done in his home galaxy. He also learned his first valuable lesson in that he couldn't just sow chaos and hurt people and then run away from his problems by fleeing to another planet as he was used to.
He began to slowly and cautiously make friends, though he insisted they were merely allies. Several good friends he made during this time who would last through both iterations of the game would be Usagi Tsukino aka Sailor Moon, Luz Noceda, Vira-Lorr, and Ruby Rose. He opened up a little as the months went by. His first big test came when a boy named Ben Hanscom he'd grown fond of was injured during a series of events that were partially Maul's fault. Ben was more hurt than scared but that didn't matter to the Sith Lord. Enraged, Maul sought to Force Choke the person he held responsible, but Ben begged him to stop. Surprising even himself, he did, the first sign of mercy he ever showed in the game. He tentatively entered a relationship with a man named Reaper (Gabriel Reyes). He also experienced a fair amount of body horror when he was blinded for an extended period of time thanks to evil faeries physically ripping his eyeballs out. Eventually, this handicap would be healed by Sailor Moon. His tough shell completely broke open when his little brother Savage Opress arrived, allowing him to acknowledge their family relationship in a way he'd never been able to back in their own galaxy. After a incident where everyone was stranded in a hotel for an extended period of time, where his relationship with Reaper deepened, he saved the life of a friend (Raleigh Becket) without even thinking about it. That was a first, the instincts that usually made him want to take a life instead allowing him to save one instead.
Alas, any progress he made was halted as he became brainwashed by a specter of his master and went on a killing spree, murdering many Sleepers, maiming others, and shattering the trust he'd built up in a lot of the community. The consequences of this would have repercussions that lasted through the rest of both games. Maul attempted to make some ham-handed efforts at apologies and atonements as the town began to collapse in on itself with limited results. The fact things were starting to get as bad as they could be in their surroundings only exacerbated the echoes hid actions had on everyone. Part of this was because of the cumulative effects dying three times had on him, including leaving him with amnesia, which caused him to miss many key memories. During this time, he further polarized the Sleepers against him as he maimed a young boy, Glitch, taking off his arm and setting a Sleeper who had set himself up as something of a leader, James Ironwood, against him in a public post on the network. This caused everyone to take sides and Maul to stubbornly dig his heels in, lashing out at anyone he felt was persecuting him in what he saw as a witch hunt. The one positive is that he saw those who loyally stuck by him despite the backlash they received as his true friends, allowing him to open up in a more productive fashion than he had up to that point.
Realizing how dangerous he was without his memories, several Jedi including Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, and Ahsoka Tano convinced him to go into a Mandalorian sarcophagus, basically a holding cell that allowed him to sense the Force but not use it until a sacrifice was made by them to help get his memories back. This was done by him partially as an act of penance and partially to protect the other Sleepers from any more acts of violence he might have wanted to commit against those he saw who were still on Glitch's and Ironwood's side. Once he was able to get his memories back, it returned him to a far less dangerous state.
He left the game magically cursed to feel the pain of anyone he hurt by three witches, John Constantine, Willow, and Luna Lovegood, so that he would cause no more harm by having a restraining bolt on him until he broke it. He was still managed to beat up John for a bit in a temper tantrum when he found out until Obi-Wan stopped that nonsense. He also learned to let go to an extent, as some of his friends opted to return to their universes rather than move onto the next universe. This included Reaper, who confessed he loved Maul before returning to his own universe to take revenge on those who had wronged him, something Maul could more than understand. Fortunately, Reaper would come back when the next game opened.
His progress continued once in the city of Trench as Deer Country started. He was canon-updated to the end of The Clone Wars Season Seven, allowing him to witness what happened next with him in the galaxy. Much to his delight, many of his friends, family, and allies had migrated to the new city. Much to his ire and annoyance, several enemies such as the three aforementioned witches and Anakin Skywalker also did. He continued to work on himself, becoming the longest-running character from his canon to have been in both games, which meant he had a hand in introducing all new ones to the city. He learned there was two distinct timelines that his galaxy was capable of going through in the future, (in meta terms, the canon timeline and the discontinued Legends timeline) not that he would live to see either come to full fruition. He also started a cult, as several native Trenchians saw him as fulfilling a prophecy that someone of great power with one heart of darkness and one heart of light would eventually come to Trench, leading them all into an era of great prosperity and giving them immense power as well. Maul, of course, took to his role as cult leader like a duck to water once his suspicions they weren't going to immediately betray him were confirmed, pleased to have devoted followers who would live and die at his command.
He also learned of his future going all the way up to his death, cementing his choice never to return to his galaxy. All the positives of his life were wrapped up in Trench now, and unlike some, he decided there was no future for him back in his original home. His attempts to do better weren't without backsliding, as he still killed three people during his time there, and the rampage he'd caused in Deerington still continued to have consequences. He broke his curse and caused a bit more chaos. Maul formed deep relationships during this time, with Usagi being cemented as his best friend, finding an adoptive brother in Albert Wesker, marrying Reaper, and acknowledging Obi-Wan Kenobi was not the sole cause of all his misery, allowing him to eventually apologizing to the Jedi for all the pain he'd caused him in his quest for revenge. He also formed close relationships with others from his canon like Luke Skywalker (his favorite Jedi of all time now) and Ezra Bridger, the memories of their future relationship eventually coming to him.
His past deeds eventually caught up to him when Willow became corrupted and turned into her Dark Willow persona. She hunted down Maul as revenge, for he had killed her in a previously brainwashed state. Savage refused to leave his brother's side and was killed. Maul completely lost it and attacked Willow in an insane rage. She zapped him with lightning attacks to torture him until Faith put him out of his misery. He felt immense guilt, shame, and grief at having to watch his little brother die again while he was helpless to stop it. Because of this, when he was revived, he was in a corrupted form; his "Spider Maul" persona that had developed on Lotho Minor. He was insane and his only desire to eat meat. After several people discovered what had happened to him, he was talked down and purified in a ritual to return him to his normal form.
Eventually, he was canon updated one last time to after the short story "The Ghosts of Maul" was set. This meant he learned a very important lesson in his galaxy about how he had to give up on his quest for revenge and let go of some of his pain and anger if he ever wanted to become the most powerful version of himself. Being all but promised this by the Dark Side gave him some good motivation. When he returned to Trench, he'd finally found some chill, and became a much calmer version of himself. This was cemented by his eye color finally changing back to the grey-brown he'd been born with instead of permanently having Sith yellow eyes. He acknowledged that all those who had stuck by him for so long, insisting they could see the good in him, had been right all along. He truly did have the potential to be a better person than he'd been in his own galaxy. No longer was he a Sith Lord who wanted to cause pain and destruction when he lashed out in anger. While he was still on the Dark Side and always would be, for it was a familiar place to him ever since he'd been born, he now used his powers mainly to protect those he loved from the monthly horrors.
When the game ended, he'd become a version of himself that could take responsibility for his actions and mistakes instead of always blaming others. He'd found out he had a knack for teaching and became a mentor to many younger characters in the game, especially those with extraordinary powers of their own. He was someone who could finally acknowledge that what he'd always wanted wasn't power and control but a family who loved him for who he was. Maul finally shook off the ghost of his master in a literal fashion when the specter of Sidious returned, only able to be permanently banished once Maul acknowledged he was no longer afraid of him and that he wasn't the unfeeling assassin he'd been molded into by his master's teachings. He had thoughts, wants, and feelings of his own that he now allowed himself to acknowledge. To symbolically show that he'd forever broken away from being his master's old apprentice, one of his last acts before the game ended was to purify the kyber crystals in his saberstaff. It turned them from the red color that they'd been forcibly bled into by focusing his pain, rage, and hate in them so long ago and left them instead an orange color. When Deer Country ended, he still had a long way to go on the emotional journey of healing himself but the most important steps have already been taken.
