Bane Back Spiders were large spiders native to various regions of the planet Dathomir. They were able to project their poisonous saliva to ward off threats. Shortly before 14 BBY, the spiders were domesticated by the Nightbrothers, a group of warriors who were managed and led by the Nightsister clan of Dathomirian witches. During his secret mission to rebuild the Jedi Order in 14 BBY, the Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis encountered several Bane Back Spiders on Dathomir.
Native to the Outer Rim Territories planet Dathomir, Bane Back Spiders were large arachnids that lived in the holes of the swamps and cliffs of the planet. They possessed eight legs and a dark, armored exoskeleton, under which was a green body with bulbous protrusions. Each leg had two claws on its bottom, and four fangs were located below each of their four black eyes, which also had claws present at the ends. The spiders were known to skitter and climb with agility. Above their eyes, the spiders had a green sack with gray claws that held corrosive, poisonous saliva. Upon their death, the spiders secreted the saliva in the form of an acid. A group of Bane Back spiders was called a "swarm."
The spiders were hostile to most sentient lifeforms. When threatened, they were capable of quick, swift attacks and took control of their agility, jumping back short distances. They could spit their saliva from the green sack at enemies up to twelve meters. They could be domesticated, but the task was occasionally deadly. Bane Back Spiders could bond with an owner if it was raised from youth.
A dead Bane Back Spider and its Nightbrother owner
In 20 BBY, the Nightsisters, a clan of Dathomirian witches, were wiped out by General Grievous of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. This left the Nightbrothers, a group of Dathomirian male warriors under the leadership of the Nightsisters, without the magicks and abilities of the Nightsisters. Shortly before 14 BBY, the Nightbrothers begun efforts to domesticate the Bane Back Spider. Without the Nightsisters' magickal antivenoms, they occasionally ran into issues. During one accident located in the Halls of the Nydak region, a failure in domestication led to the death of both a Nightbrother and a Bane Back Spider. The spiders that were domesticated lived with their Nightbrother owners in their village. However, the Nightbrothers had numerous encounters with dangerous and non-domesticated swarms of Bane Back Spiders.
During a second visit to Dathomir, Kestis encountered the bodies of the dead Nightbrother and Bane Back Spider from the domestication accident in the Halls of the Nydak, which he had his droid BD-1 scan.
By 14 BBY, the Haxion Brood crime syndicate had numerous Bane Back Spiders from Dathomir kept within the holding cells of the asteroid space station Ordo Eris' Gelid Dungeon for use within the gladiatorial fights of the Haxion Fight Pit. In 14 BBY, during his secret mission to rebuild the Jedi Order, Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis traveled to Dathomir where he encountered many Bane Back Spiders. Not long afterward, Kestis was captured by the Haxion Brood and imprisoned within Ordo Eris. During his subsequent escape, he fought against several Bane Back Spiders in the Haxion Fight Pit.
Bane Back Spiders appeared in the current Star Wars canon in the 2019 video game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, developed by Respawn Entertainment. In early concept art drawn by Bruno Werneck, the animals to accompany the Nightbrothers were originally dog-like creatures with spikes on their backs. Bane Back spiders originated in the Star Wars Legends continuity, where they were created for the 2003 video game Star Wars Galaxies, developed by Sony Online Entertainment.