Aniseya, referred to as Mother Aniseya, was a human female alive during the age of the High Republic. She was the leader of a coven of witches that had been exiled. Following a period of persecution, she eventually led the group to establish a settlement on the planet of Brendok. Around the year 156 BBY, Aniseya brought into existence the twin children Mae-ho and Verosha Aniseya, who were carried to birth by Mother Koril. Aniseya and Koril jointly raised the sisters as their mothers, although they frequently disagreed on the best way to bring up the twins.
In 148 BBY, Aniseya organized a Rite of Ascension for her daughters, a ceremony to initiate them as witches. This event was interrupted by visiting Jedi, and at the insistence of Jedi Master [Indara](/article/indara], Aniseya consented to have the twins tested. Shortly thereafter, Aniseya met her death when she attempted to de-escalate a conflict with Master Sol and his Padawan, Torbin. The Jedi were questioning her about the circumstances of her daughters' birth. As a transformation began within both herself and Mae-ho, Sol, misinterpreting her actions as an attack, struck out with his lightsaber, fatally wounding her. With her final words, the witch explained that she had intended to allow Verosha to leave and join the Jedi Order.
Her demise ignited a battle between the Brendok coven and the Jedi, resulting in the deaths of most of the witches. Verosha and Mae-ho survived, with Verosha becoming Sol's Padawan and Mae-ho becoming a Sith assassin under a Sith known as "the Stranger." Both sisters mourned their mother's death for years to come. Verosha's persistent grief eventually led her to accept training under the Stranger after Mae-ho left the Sith's service.
Mother Aniseya was a female human who existed during the High Republic Era. She was the leader of a coven of witches that was ultimately forced into exile. During this period of exile, the coven faced persecution and was unable to perform their customary rituals, such as the Rite of Ascension. Aniseya eventually established the witches in a fortress located on the planet of Brendok, assuring a fellow witch, Mother Koril, that the world would offer safety. When Aniseya created Mae-ho and Verosha Aniseya around 156 BBY, Koril carried them in her womb. Following their birth, both women became the twins' mothers. While Mother Aniseya often took a more relaxed approach to parenting, Koril's intense protectiveness of the twins made her a comparatively stricter and more intimidating caregiver.
When Aniseya and Koril disagreed on parenting matters, Koril deferred to Aniseya's judgment because of her position as the coven's leader. By 148 BBY, Aniseya had assembled a group of advisors to help her make decisions, with some having varying degrees of authority. Around this time, Verosha began secretly leaving the fortress to explore, which was against the coven's rules for the twins. Mother Aniseya believed that her daughter's rebelliousness was a natural part of childhood, but Koril strongly disagreed and often reprimanded Verosha—and sometimes Mae-ho—for sneaking out. During their childhood, Mother Aniseya taught her daughters how to use the Thread—also known as the Force—to train them to become witches.
In 148 BBY, several Jedi—Jedi Masters Indara and Kelnacca, the Jedi Knight Sol, and the Padawan Torbin—visited Brendok on a mission. They soon discovered the witches after initially believing the planet was uninhabited. One day, Koril brought the twins back to the fortress after finding them wandering in Brendok's forests. Although Koril did not want to allow the girls to have spice creams, Aniseya disagreed, insisting that her girls deserved treats. She sent the pair away to prepare for their training session, while Koril deferred to her authority.
Afterward, Mother Aniseya and Koril discussed their daughters' repeated departures from the fortress, as well as the presence of the Jedi on Brendok and the location of their ship. When Aniseya encouraged Koril to speak freely, Koril expressed her disapproval of Aniseya's lenient parenting style but acknowledged that she respected Aniseya's judgment due to her authority in the coven. Aniseya expressed her belief that the fortress would keep them safe, but Koril argued that it would not remain so if Verosha continued to leave its protection.
In the fortress's common room, Aniseya then conducted a training session to teach Mae-ho and Verosha how to wield the Thread. She explained what she was doing as she floated a fruit through the air and fought off the attacks of one, and then later two, witches. However, the twins began arguing with each other and stopped paying attention to their mother. Aniseya threw both to the ground using the Thread, warning them that their enemies would not give warning before striking. When Mae-ho successfully blocked one of Aniseya's attacks, Verosha hid behind her sister, causing Koril to scold her for not doing better. When a noise sounded in the training room, Koril exchanged a glance with Aniseya and got up to investigate, intently surveying a nearby corridor leading to the coven's electricity generator.
The coven's witches put on ceremonial purple robes and gathered in the fortress's courtyard for Mae-ho and Verosha Aniseya's Rite of Ascension ceremony to become witches. Aniseya wore an elaborate version of the robes worn by her coven members. The gathered witches parted to allow Aniseya to move through them, with Koril stepping aside to let her take the lead position. Aniseya proclaimed the significance of the ceremony—which they had not performed since before the group's exile—and spoke of the suffering their group had endured, until now, when they could rejoice in the gift of life.
After Mae-ho vowed to keep the coven's secrets, even after Aniseya's death, Aniseya completed a ritual that left a white, spiraling mark on the girl's forehead. Although Verosha made the same vow, albeit more reluctantly, two witches rushed into the courtyard and informed Aniseya that the Jedi were approaching before she could complete the second Rite of Ascension. At Aniseya's command, the witches quickly crowded around the children to hide them. Aniseya stepped forward and told her coven to lower their weapons. Indara introduced her colleagues to the witches, assuring the skeptical women that the Jedi did not intend to intrude or cause harm, as they had believed the world was uninhabited. However, Aniseya mocked these claims and reminded the Jedi that they were armed. The witches also rejected the Jedi's claim that children were present on Brendok, taking offense at the visitors breaching their sacred inner circle.
After Verosha caught Indara's eye, Indara encouraged her to come out of the crowd of witches, disappointing Aniseya. Aniseya agreed to Indara's request to meet Mae-ho as well, informing her that the children had no father. When Sol proposed that Verosha be tested as a Jedi, the child asked her mother for permission. However, Aniseya used a Thread ability to incapacitate Torbin, threatening Indara that they needed to leave or she would not undo the effects. Indara insisted that she could not deny the Jedi's right to test potential Padawans, prompting Aniseya to reluctantly agree to allow the twins to be brought to the Jedi's camp the following day. Indara thanked them for cooperating and left the courtyard with her colleagues.
In a meeting of adult witches afterward, Koril proposed killing the visiting Jedi, but other witches disagreed, as the Republic would be angered if any Jedi blood was spilled. However, Aniseya pointed out that it was her decision to make and reminded Koril that she had created the twins. Koril countered that she had carried the twins and did not want to lose them to "deranged monks." The elder witch Naasa, however, advised that the two children would be forcibly taken away if they passed the test, which Aniseya considered.
The following day, the girls were scheduled to be tested by the Jedi and sat with Aniseya beforehand. Aniseya encouraged them to lie, although Verosha was hesitant. Aniseya told her that her desires might change, even if she wanted to be a Jedi now, and that she and her sister were powerful, special girls. Following this, Mae-ho failed the test by lying, while Verosha chose to tell the truth and passed the test. Aniseya and Koril sat with the other witches in the coven's common room afterward, as the girls explained what happened. When Mae-ho began to argue with her sister over their differing viewpoints, Koril forcibly dragged her away for a walk at Aniseya's suggestion. When Verosha continued to insist that she had not wanted to lie and did want to be a Jedi, Aniseya accepted her answer and promised to consider her wishes as the witches discussed, but indicated that such things were rarely simple.
Afterward, Verosha began packing to leave with the Jedi. However, Sol and Torbin soon arrived, intending to take the twins because they believed they were a vergence in the Force. Aniseya, along with Koril, confronted the Jedi again for trespassing. Meanwhile, Mae-ho had started a fire in an attempt to prevent her sister's departure. Shortly thereafter, Mae-ho arrived to warn her mother, only for Koril to suddenly attack Torbin. In an attempt to prevent violence, Aniseya began to act, dissipating into a black smoke and triggering a similar transformation for Mae-ho. Before she could fully dissipate, however, Sol stabbed her with his lightsaber. Sol grabbed Aniseya, who confessed that she was going to let Verosha leave. Just after, she died. The witches then tried to shoot and mind-control the Jedi to death, but their revenge efforts were unsuccessful.
After Verosha was later saved from the fire by Sol, she saw Aniseya's body on the floor as they fled, traumatizing her. Afterward, Verosha became Sol's Padawan, although she continued to mourn her mothers' deaths for years and harbored resentment toward Mae-ho for destroying their family, having been told that the coven had perished as a result of the fire lit by her twin sister. Eventually, Verosha left the Jedi around 138 BBY, and by 132 BBY, she still mourned the loss of her family. Mae-ho, who the Jedi believed to have perished that night as well, eventually became apprenticed to a mysterious Sith Lord calling himself "the Stranger", who eventually tasked her with killing the four Jedi stationed on Brendok at the time of her mothers' deaths. Many years after her death, Aniseya was regarded by Sol as having been an unusually strong manipulator of the Force.
Aniseya and Koril shared a close and friendly relationship, which was strengthened by the matriarchal culture of their community. They often comforted each other emotionally, and Aniseya encouraged Koril to voice her opinions and concerns. However, Aniseya was also willing to assert her authority and directly defy Koril's strong desire for the Jedi not to test their daughters, insisting that it was her decision alone as their leader. Additionally, she was proud of her skill in using the Thread and was not bothered by the dark nature of her abilities. The witch believed that the continuation of her witch coven was of great importance. Aniseya was willing to let Verosha follow her wish and become a Jedi but did not reveal this until she was dying after a Jedi mistook her transformation into a mist form as an attack. Just before this incident, she tried to prevent Koril and the rest of her coven from engaging in violence with the Jedi. Aniseya had brown eyes and brown skin with white tattoos. She had black hair with brown highlights, styled in elaborate braids. Aniseya stood 1.75 meters tall.
Aniseya was a Force-sensitive witch who could wield the Thread—also known as the Force—to move objects and shove people around, and to block Force attacks. She did not care that her powers were dark. During the ritual to initiate her daughters into being witches, she branded Mae-ho with a mark of the coven but was interrupted before she could perform the rite on Verosha. She was also able to weaponize the Thread by using an ability that would render an individual incapacitated and put them out of their right mind, turning their eyes fully black. This psychic assault worked by creating a mindscape where she stood before her victim and preyed upon their fears. Additionally, she shifted into a smokey form and caused her daughter to seem disintegrate upon learning that her other child was in danger. In this form, she was still vulnerable to lightsabers and was killed by Sol when it seemed to him that she was unleashing another Force assault, this time on him and Mae-ho. Sol considered her ability to use the Force to fabricate life to be very powerful, and he wondered if these acts of spontaneous-seeming life were enhanced by a Force nexus at Aniseya's home.
Aniseya made her first appearance in "Destiny," the third episode of the live-action Disney+ series The Acolyte, which was broadcast on June 11, 2024. In "Destiny," the character was played by Jodie Turner-Smith. Before the episode's release, she was initially identified and visually depicted in both a StarWars.com article revealing information about some of the then-upcoming series's characters, which included Aniseya's coven of witches, and Aniseya's StarWars.com Databank entry, both of which were released on March 18, 2024. Her casting was also revealed in the article.
The robes worn by Aniseya—and the rest of the coven's witches—during the Rite of Ascension were designed by The Acolyte's costume designer, Jennifer Bryan. Bryan stated that the original color of the fabric was closer to a fuschia shade and had to be dyed to the royal purple seen in the finished episode. The color purple was chosen for the costumes because it evokes a feeling of royalty, and Bryan wanted to convey that the women in the episode were a group of elevated ladies. Aniseya's costumes, in particular, were intended to show her as a queen, even more elevated than the other witches in terms of fabric quality.
In "Destiny," Aniseya and Koril are depicted as a caring pair of mothers who share several affectionate physical interactions. The Acolyte's showrunner, Leslye Headland, later indicated that she knew the closeness between them seemed natural and plot-driven. The showrunner also stated that while she knew their relationship would be interpreted as queer, there were also no men in their community, and noted that it would be "really reductive to call them lesbians." However, the creator also felt that if any of her content was seen as queer, she was proud that elements viewed as such by fans could inspire people.