Battle of Peridea
The Peridea conflict unfolded during the New Republic Era, marking Grand Admiral Thrawn's determined bid for liberation from the desolate planet of Peridea. [Ahsoka Tano](/article/ahsoka_tano], the former Jedi, alongside Ezra Bridger, a Bokken Jedi, and Sabine Wren, the Mandalorian Padawan Jedi, made their way into the Great Mothers' Fortress, aiming to thwart Thrawn's escape. However, they encountered a formidable force of Night Troopers, subsequently reanimated through the dark Magick of the Nightsister.
The trio eventually faced Morgan Elsbeth, a Nightsister empowered by the Blade of Talzin, which she wielded against Tano, while Bridger and Wren pressed on to stop Thrawn. As the clash intensified, two death troopers impeded Bridger and Wren's progress, preventing them from reaching the Chimaera before its departure. Despite this, Bridger, aided by Wren, managed to board the ship. Wren, however, opted to remain behind, assisting Tano in her battle against Elsbeth and the growing horde of reanimated Night Troopers.
Despite successfully killing Elsbeth and escaping the fortress before Thrawn bombarded it from above, the Grand Admiral successfully fled to the main galaxy with his forces. This left Tano and Wren stranded on Peridea. Unbeknownst to them, Bridger had also managed to sneak aboard, disguising himself as a Night Trooper. He ultimately escaped the Chimaera and journeyed to the New Republic, eager to reunite with his friends.
Lead-Up
The shadows' offering
Not long after [Ahsoka Tano](/article/ahsoka_tano], once a Jedi, was reunited with Ezra Bridger, a Bokken Jedi and Sabine Wren, a Mandalorian Jedi Padawan on the planet Peridea, Grand Admiral Thrawn received word from Captain Enoch that they might have pinpointed the location of Tano's shuttle. The Grand Admiral instructed him to deploy two TIE fighters, and also to bring the Eye of Sion so they could begin the interlocking process. While the Nightsister Morgan Elsbeth assured Thrawn that the Jedi could do little to hinder them, the Grand Admiral acknowledged that he had previously been defeated by a single Jedi's heroism and would not allow it to happen again.
Thrawn's Nightsister allies, known as the Great Mothers, expressed gratitude to both Thrawn and Elsbeth for their assistance. They summoned Morgan forward to bestow upon her a "gift of shadows." Following Elsbeth's vow of allegiance and devotion to the sisterhood and the "old ways," the Great Mothers imbued her eyes with a mystical glow and presented her with the "Blade of Talzin."
Preparing for the impending conflict
In the meantime, Bridger began constructing a new lightsaber with the assistance of the droid Huyang aboard Tano's shuttle. He clarified that he had entrusted his previous lightsaber to Wren during their earlier confrontation with Thrawn's forces. Amidst Bridger and Huyang's discussion, Wren mentioned Bridger's former mentor, Kanan Jarrus. Bridger confirmed that Jarrus was indeed his master. Recognizing the significance of this for Ezra, Huyang provided Bridger with the same type of blade emitter that Jarrus's lightsaber had, explaining that he had kept it as a spare for Jarrus. Bridger activated his newly assembled blue-bladed lightsaber, preparing for the approaching battle.
The Great Escape
A planned assault
Shortly after Bridger completed his new lightsaber, two Imperial TIE fighters approached the Jedi shuttle and fired upon the ship's hull, causing it to plummet. While Bridger and Tano used the Force to stabilize the falling ship, Wren urged Huyang to activate the engines as the TIE fighters returned for a second attack. The shuttle collided with the two starfighters, resulting in their destruction.
While Huyang remained behind to repair the damaged shuttle, Tano, accompanied by Wren and Bridger, rode on howlers to confront Thrawn and his allies. Thrawn was informed that the TIE fighters were lost, but he expressed satisfaction that their attack had potentially hindered the enemy's ability to attack or escape Peridea.
Breaching the fortress
Choosing to enter the fortress through its main entrance, Thrawn's forces were soon alerted to the approaching targets. The Grand Admiral ordered a bombardment of the Jedi and Wren as they neared the hyperspace ring. The Chimaera's turbolasers unleashed a barrage of laser fire upon them, but the Jedi and Wren skillfully evaded the attacks. Amidst the chaos, they used the Force to open the fortress's round stony gate and enter, much to Thrawn's dismay.
With their adversaries now inside the fortress, Thrawn instructed Morgan to deploy the Night Troopers to delay them while he informed the Great Mothers that the ritual was to begin. As the Night Troopers descended the stairs and attacked the intruders, the Jedi and Wren deflected their blaster fire with their lightsabers before Wren switched to her blaster, as instructed by Ahsoka. By drawing out the Night Troopers, the trio managed to defeat them all. However, the Great Mothers initiated their ritual and used their magick to reanimate the fallen Night Troopers.
Despite Tano, Wren, and Bridger deflecting their attacks and striking them repeatedly, the undead Night Troopers continued to advance, forcing them to seal the blast doors to halt their progress. As the Eye of Sion connected clamps onto the Chimaera, Thrawn informed Elsbeth that the Jedi were advancing and might board their ship during their escape from Peridea, instructing her to delay them to buy more time. Meanwhile, the undead Night Troopers breached the blast doors and charged at their targets, prompting Bridger to close another blast door with his lightsaber as the trio continued their ascent.
Separation during the fray
As the Jedi and Wren continued their ascent through the fortress, they encountered Elsbeth in a large chamber, armed with the Blade of Talzin and prepared for battle. Tano decided to confront the Nightsister alone, instructing Wren and Bridger to proceed to stop Thrawn. After Wren and Bridger cautiously moved around Elsbeth, she and Tano engaged in a duel, proving to be evenly matched as Tano's lightsabers clashed with Morgan's sword.
Upon reaching the fortress's summit, Bridger and Wren encountered two reanimated Death Troopers, remnants of Thrawn's old guard, who immediately opened fire upon them. As they sought cover, Bridger and Wren attempted to engage the Death Troopers, but the reanimated soldiers gained the advantage. Having lost their lightsabers, Bridger and Wren were unable to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the troopers, prompting Wren to use the Force to retrieve her lightsaber. She succeeded, using it to kill one of the Death Troopers and then distracting the second one, allowing Bridger to behead it with his lightsaber.
On the bridge of the Eye of Sion with the Great Mothers, Thrawn gave the order to depart. Despite their efforts, Bridger and Wren were unable to reach the Chimaera's hangar in time and witnessed the ship's departure. Meanwhile, Tano, who heard the Chimaera leave, struggled during her duel with Elsbeth, as the undead Night Troopers joined the fight, forcing Tano to slowly retreat into the fortress's stairs and ascend to the top.
Thrawn's triumph
As two Night Troopers reached the Chimaera's hangar and aimed their blasters at Bridger and Wren, Bridger performed a Force jump and Wren successfully used her latent Force powers to push him, allowing him to reach the ship's hangar. Bridger threw one of the troopers off the Chimaera while Wren shot the other. While Bridger urged Wren to use a Force jump so he could help her onto the ship, Wren was distracted by the sight of her master, who had reached the top of the fortress during her duel with Elsbeth as the undead Night Troopers converged around them.
The Nightsister managed to damage one of Tano's white lightsabers and knock her to the ground, proclaiming that her friends were dead and that she would now die alone. However, Tano was rescued by Wren, who chose to remain behind to assist her master. They engaged in a shootout with the Night Troopers while Tano resumed her duel with Morgan. While Sabine sliced and shot the legion of Night Troopers, a reinvigorated Tano gained the upper hand on Elsbeth, seizing her blade, parrying, and ultimately slicing the Nightsister across the waist with the blade and her remaining lightsaber, killing her.
Meanwhile, aboard the Chimaera, Bridger stole the armor of the fallen Night Trooper LS-757 to impersonate him. The Great Mothers sensed the death of their sister, and Thrawn remarked that she had fulfilled her duty. The Grand Admiral subsequently ordered the bombardment of the fortress as Tano and Wren leaped from the edge of a cliff to evade the Night Troopers, being rescued by Huyang in Tano's Jedi shuttle. Hoping to intercept Thrawn's ship, the three pursued the Eye of Sion as it fled the crumbling fortress.
Thrawn opened a communication channel to Tano, commending her efforts during their battle, acknowledging her as a worthy opponent, and revealing that he knew her late Master, Anakin Skywalker. He explained that he anticipated her strategies would mirror those of Skywalker and questioned the extent of their similarities. Bidding farewell to Tano, Thrawn declared that victory was his and that Peridea might be the appropriate place for a Ronin like her. He then proclaimed, "Long live the Empire," before the Eye of Sion jumped with the Chimaera into the pathway back to the main galaxy, finally ending his exile after nearly a decade.
The Fallout
Abandoned
Disappointed by their failure to prevent Thrawn's escape, Tano and Wren could only witness the immense energy surge left in the wake of the hyperspace jump. Tano, Wren, and Huyang later returned to the Noti convoy, where Tano saw a Morai in the distance. Later that night, Tano and Wren discussed that while they had failed to stop Thrawn, they had succeeded in getting Ezra where he needed to be, with the Force spirit of Anakin Skywalker watching over them.
Elsewhere, Shin Hati traveled to the camp of the Bandits of Peridea and ignited her lightsaber to attract their attention. Far from her former apprentice, Baylan Skoll reached the statues of the Mortis gods, gazing at the mountains toward the source of the power that was calling to him.
Arrival at Dathomir
Back in the main galaxy, Thrawn and the Great Mothers observed from a balcony as Enoch informed the Grand Admiral that the Eye of Sion and the Chimaera were approaching the planet Dathomir. Inside the Star Destroyer's hangar, troopers were storing various coffins from the catacombs of Peridea.
A family's reunion
By disguising himself as a Night Trooper, Bridger managed to steal the Eta-class shuttle used by Skoll and Hati and escape the Chimaera undetected shortly after its return to the main galaxy, landing in the hangar of Home One. General Hera Syndulla, Chopper, and several armed members of the New Republic surrounded the mysterious shuttle. Emerging from the shuttle with his hands raised, Bridger removed his helmet after being recognized by Chopper, telling a surprised Hera that he was home.
Behind the scenes
The Peridea conflict was initially depicted in "Part Eight: The Jedi, the Witch, and the Warlord", the concluding episode of the first season of the 2023 television series Ahsoka. The episode premiered on October 3, 2023. The event was first identified as the battle of Peridea in the video game Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, where the name was provided as part of the resurrected death trooper's description.