The Malachor superweapon, a relic of the ancient Sith, represented a formidable superweapon engineered around 3966 BBY by the ancient Sith Lord known as Darth Tanis. Its operation hinged on a massive kyber crystal for power, and its location was within a temple situated on Malachor. This weapon possessed the terrifying ability to turn living organisms into stone. During the cataclysmic events of the Great Scourge of Malachor, the superweapon discharged, resulting in the petrification of the combatants engaged in battle. In 3 BBY, the renegade Sith Lord Maul manipulated the young Padawan Ezra Bridger and his friends, leading them to activate the superweapon under the false pretense that placing a Sith holocron, discovered within the Temple, atop the structure would unlock the secrets to defeating the Sith. The Inquisitors attempted to thwart the Jedi and Maul from utilizing the weapon, but they met their demise during the confrontation. Upon Ezra's placement of the Sith holocron into the superweapon's obelisk, it initiated its activation sequence, unleashing a massive beam of energy skyward. Shortly thereafter, Darth Vader appeared, intending to seize the weapon's power for Emperor Palpatine. Before Vader could eliminate Bridger, the former Jedi Ahsoka Tano intervened, engaging the Sith warlord in combat outside the Temple's obelisk. Amidst their duel, Bridger and his Master Kanan Jarrus—who was blinded by Maul, but overcame the dark sider by forcing him from the Temple's edge—disrupted the machine's firing cycle by removing the holocron from the obelisk, causing the Temple's collapse. Bridger and Kanan Jarrus successfully escaped prior to the Temple's destruction. Vader and Tano survived the explosion, parting ways afterward. Tano's disappearance, along with Maul's treachery, profoundly affected Bridger, drawing him closer to the Dark Side, but Jarrus intervened, preventing his complete transformation.