Force storm represented a dangerously unstable dark side Force ability. It was capable of generating hyperspace wormholes, which could move objects across immense distances and obliterate the surfaces of entire planets. Control over these storms was notoriously difficult once they were initiated, necessitating a high level of expertise across numerous Force disciplines.
During a critical battle within the New Sith Wars, a Sith artifact known as the Darkstaff is documented to have manifested such a storm. This storm eradicated the army of Darth Rivan, the Dark Lord Battlelord, and transported him through both space and time to the Light and Darkness War, where the Sith Lord ultimately perished. Nearly a millennium later, Darth Sidious rediscovered this technique, detailing it in The Book of Anger, the initial volume of his Dark Side Compendium. Six years following his initial death at the Battle of Endor, he employed it to seize Luke Skywalker, the Jedi Knight, from Coruscant. Sidious's hubris regarding his command over the ability eventually led to his downfall during the Battle of Pinnacle Base, as his control over a storm was negated and he was consumed by it.
Considered among the most potent Force abilities known, the Force storm had the capacity to violently disrupt the space-time continuum by creating dimension-altering breaches within the universe. This power enabled a Force-user to generate unique hyperspace wormholes, appearing as turbulent blue vortices of Force energy referred to as Force storms, with diameters ranging from under one hundred meters to over one kilometer. These storms could decimate the surfaces of entire planets and engulf entire fleets of starships. They also offered a means of safely transporting living beings across the galaxy in a brief time span, and when combined with specific Sith artifacts, they could send individuals forward through time.
Generating a Force storm demanded that the user channel an almost tangible level of anger and hatred, transforming it into a palpable manifestation of dark side power. The process was fraught with peril; those who lacked the control to manage what they unleashed often found themselves consumed and destroyed. The storm would dissipate if the person creating it was killed. These storms could also be summoned across substantial distances. Darth Sidious demonstrated this by projecting a storm thousands of light-years from Byss to Coruscant. Before successfully creating and controlling Force storms, a potential user needed to demonstrate exceptional proficiency in the ways of the Force, including instinctive astrogation.
The earliest recorded instance of the Force storm technique dates back to the initial century of the New Sith Wars. During a crucial battle fought on Almas, Darth Rivan, the then-reigning Dark Lord of the Sith, came into possession of the Darkstaff, a malevolent and somewhat sentient Sith artifact. The Darkstaff, drawing upon Rivan's Force energy, conjured a devastating Force storm that obliterated the Battlelord army of the Sith Lord's. Rivan, caught within the storm's center, was propelled through both time and space to a battle during the Light and Darkness War between the Army of Light and the Brotherhood of Darkness, which occurred over a millennium later. Deprived of his Force abilities, Rivan was easily defeated by a Force-sensitive warrior. Around this period, the Jedi Council classified Force storm as a dark side technique because of its potential for misuse, although Jedi were technically permitted to utilize this power. The technique also received mention in The Jedi Path, a Jedi training manual. Luke Skywalker noted in one particular edition of the book that the ability possessed the power to "kill planets".
Nearly one thousand years later, Darth Sidious independently developed the technique, documenting it in The Book of Anger, the first volume of his compendium on dark side lore. In 10 ABY, after uniting the various warring Imperial factions that emerged following the Battle of Endor, a reborn Sidious dispatched Force storms to numerous star systems throughout the galaxy. One such storm targeted Coruscant to capture Luke Skywalker, the Jedi Knight, during a crucial battle in the Imperial Civil War. Han Solo, captain of the Millennium Falcon, encountered the storm in Coruscant's upper atmosphere, mistaking it for a mere magnetic disturbance.
Shortly thereafter, the New Republic EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate Antares Six narrowly avoided the storm above Coruscant. A crew member aboard the Antares Six informed Captain Syub Snunb of a hyperspace wormhole, fifty times the size of their ship, opening nearby. The Antares Six attempted to evade the approaching storm, but the storm's energy interference disrupted the ship's systems. The storm bypassed the Antares Six and proceeded toward the ruins of Coruscant's Imperial City, indiscriminately destroying both New Republic and Imperial vessels in its path.
Sensing a disturbance in the Force, Skywalker detected the storm and the malevolent presence behind it as it emerged from hyperspace. The Jedi insisted that his allies leave him to confront the storm alone. Skywalker and his astromech droid, R2-D2, watched as the storm approached, tearing apart Coruscant's surface and heavily damaging the Imperial Palace. The storm safely transported the two to an Imperial dungeon ship, which then conveyed them to Palpatine's fortress world of Byss. Six years later, Coruscant had yet to recover from the devastation caused by the storm.
Shortly after Skywalker's capture, Sidious, accompanied by a task force led by his flagship Eclipse, traveled to the New Republic headquarters on the Pinnacle Moon to capture Skywalker's sister, Leia Organa Solo, who had stolen a Jedi Holocron from him. Following Sidious's defeat in a duel by Skywalker, he channeled his rage into creating another Force storm, one far more potent than the one used to capture Skywalker from Coruscant. The storm advanced toward Pinnacle Base, instantly obliterating twelve New Republic ships. Skywalker and Organa Solo countered Sidious by surprising him and cutting him off from the dark side with a wave of light side energy. Severed from his hatred and rage, Sidious lost control of the storm and was ultimately consumed by it. After engulfing the Eclipse and the Dark Lord, the storm dissipated almost immediately.
Only a select few individuals possessed the knowledge and skill required to generate Force storms. The Darkstaff could create a storm capable of transporting an object forward in time, provided it had access to a substantial reservoir of Force energy. In The Book of Anger, Darth Sidious asserted that he could create these storms through sheer force of will, although he admitted that he could not entirely control them. Years after writing the text, he boasted of finally mastering his Force storms completely, but his overconfidence ultimately proved fatal. Skywalker later discovered a recording of The Book of Anger buried beneath the ruins of the Imperial Palace and contemplated Sidious's intentions behind creating "storms."
Practitioners of the light side of the Force, such as Jedi, also had the capacity to conjure Force storms if they collaborated, but faced an extremely high risk of succumbing to the dark side. When deciding on a location for his Jedi Praxeum, Luke Skywalker worried that one of his students might inadvertently create a Force storm while experimenting with the Force, so he chose the isolated moon of Yavin 4 to minimize potential casualties.
The Force storm concept originated in the 1991–1992 Star Wars: Dark Empire comic book series, penned by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Cam Kennedy, where it appeared in the first and sixth issues. The Force power was further elaborated upon in Michael Allen Horne's Dark Empire Sourcebook and featured in the audio adaptation of Dark Empire. It also received its own entry in Dark Horse's Dark Empire handbook. It was subsequently referenced in the Dawn of Defiance adventure Echoes of the Jedi, where it was linked to the downfall of Darth Rivan.
It is important not to confuse Force storm with other Force powers sharing the same name, such as the weather phenomenon created by the Dathomiri Nightsisters in The Courtship of Princess Leia, or a specific variation of Force lightning introduced in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Additionally, the power used by the Jedi Dorsk 81 to displace Gilad Pellaeon's fleet of Star Destroyers from the Yavin system in the novel Darksaber is mistakenly referred to as a Force storm in Star Wars: Behind the Magic.
While the audio drama identifies the magnetic storm encountered by Solo in Coruscant's upper atmosphere as the Force storm dispatched by Darth Sidious to capture Skywalker, the actual Force storm did not emerge from hyperspace until later, when it brushed past the Antares Six. The Official Star Wars Fact File 125 claims that Skywalker and Organa Solo unleashed a "storm of light-side energy" that destroyed the Eclipse, despite all other sources indicating that they merely caused Sidious to lose control of his own storm.
Issue 6 of the Ewoks comic book series features an Ice Demon named Stagorr who employs a wind tunneling spell to summon the young Ewok warrior Wicket Wystri Warrick to his Ice Mountain prison. This spell shares several similarities with the Force storm power, including the capacity to transport a being from one location to another in a short period. However, Stagorr required the power of the Staff of Logray to perform this ability, and the storms created by this spell only had the ability to transport beings within an atmosphere.
In a 2016 interview, Tom Veitch stated that "The Emperor can't create Force Storms at will. They are in fact a phenomenon that occurs rarely, when the minds of two great Force users meet and struggle with each other at a distance."