Kycina was a female Human Nightsister who lived on the planet Dathomir and was the mother of the Sith Lord Darth Maul, as well as his brothers Savage Opress and Feral. She was affiliated with the Witches of Dathomir, a cult of Force-sensitive beings led by Mother Talzin. Shortly after Maul's birth, Kycina persuaded Darth Sidious to take her son away from Dathomir, thus sparing him from a life of slavery as a Nightbrother.
Darth Maul, son of Kycina, was a powerful asset to the Order of the Sith Lords.
By the year 54 BBY, the Nightsister Kycina was the mother of two Dathomirian Zabrak infants, one of whom was named Maul. By tradition on the planet Dathomir, the father was killed shortly after Maul's conception. Kycina believed that Mother Talzin, the leader of the Witches of Dathomir, only knew of one of the two brothers. Thus she kept Maul's existence a secret while waiting for a chance to spirit him away from Dathomir. By doing so, she hoped to save Maul from becoming one of the Nightbrothers, a clan of Zabraks trained to serve the Nightsisters as warriors and slaves.
Kycina's opportunity came less than a year after young Maul's birth. Darth Sidious, the Sith persona of Naboo Ambassador Palpatine, visited Dathomir out of interest in its relation to Sith history. While exploring Blue Desert City, Sidious was approached by Maul's mother. Kycina implored the Sith Lord to take her son from her and raise him away from Dathomir, far from Talzin's reach. Though initially reluctant to accept her offer, Sidious was ultimately persuaded by Maul's strong sensitivity to the Force.
Unsure of what to do with his new charge, Sidious approached his Master, Darth Plagueis, with an offer: to train Maul in the ways of the dark side of the Force. Although such an action technically violated the Rule of Two, which allowed for only two Sith Lords to exist at any given time, Plagueis granted his apprentice permission to proceed with Maul's indoctrination. However, the Dark Lord was also clear that the Zabrak was to be an assassin rather than a fully trained Sith Lord. Although Darth Sidious agreed, he did begin Maul's training in secret when his own master was absent and healing from an assassination attempt. Under Sidious' tutelage—and Plagueis' observation—Kycina's son grew up to become Darth Maul, a Sith apprentice deeply immersed in the dark side.
In 39 BBY, Mother Talzin learned of Kycina's betrayal, and in turn had her locked away and later punished. During the Clone Wars in 21 BBY, her other son Savage Opress became secretly apprenticed to the Nightsister Asajj Ventress, who sought to use the powerful Dathomirian pawn to exact revenge on her former master and betrayer, Darth Tyranus. As a sign of his immersion in the dark side of the Force at the behest of Ventress, Opress committed fratricide by murdering his brother Feral. After reuniting with Darth Maul in 20 BBY, the two surviving sons of Kycina quickly established themselves as a threat to the Jedi Order.
By 20 BBY, her son Savage Opress would die on Mandalore at the hands of Darth Sidious, the very man who she gave Maul to.
The Nightsister who gave birth to Darth Maul deeply cared for her son. While Kycina's other offspring was fated to serve Mother Talzin as a Nightbrother, she desperately wanted to give Maul a chance to live a different life; a life of freedom from an entire clan that was bred and raised for slavery to the Witches of Dathomir. Hence, she was willing to be forever parted from her son, so long as it meant that he would be taken away from Dathomir.
Kycina was first introduced as the mother of Darth Maul in the Legends novel Darth Plagueis. She was first identified as "Kycina" in the short story Restraint, which also confirms her status as the mother of Savage Opress and Feral.
The 2014 comic Darth Maul—Son of Dathomir 3, part of the new Star Wars canon reboot and based on unproduced scripts from Star Wars: The Clone Wars, revealed that Mother Talzin is Maul's mother.