Editing Witches of Dathomir (section)

==='''Culture'''===

Over time, the Dathomiri divided into a number of distinct clans, a process sometimes framed in retrospect as a power struggle between Allya's elder daughters. These clans were named after regional landmarks, and although they shared a common tradition, each clan eventually developed their own set of laws about Force usage around the common core of inherited teachings, with the text of the Book of Law diverging into several distinct clan versions. The clans raided each other for mates, with low-level conflict being entered into cheerfully by the warrior women.

The number of clans fluctuated somewhat over time: in 8 ABY there were more than a dozen clans, but by 12 ABY, the number had been reduced to nine. Perhaps the most prominent of these groups was the Singing Mountain Clan, due to the contacts it established with the New Republic and Hapes Consortium, while others were located at the Frenzied River, Misty Falls, Red Hills, Dreaming River and Great Canyon.

Each Dathomiri clan was based in a fortified village at or near its eponymous landmark. Women served as warriors and leaders, with leadership typically held by the eldest in a clan. Matriarchs aged a century or more were not uncommon, and in exceptional circumstances (as with Rell) they could be to close to 300 local years old (four centuries standard). Men were used only for breeding and slave labor, clad in nothing more than leather aprons or scanty tunics, and neither they nor the women seem to have realized that they retained latent Force potential. Typically, warriors were expected to find mates by capturing runaways or slaves from other clans, but the leading clan sisters could purchase men from each other, and if a mate could not be persuaded to love his owner, the equivalent of an amicable divorce could be enacted by selling him to another woman. The only way a man could go free was if he saved the life of a woman in his clan.

As a warrior society, the Dathomiri Witches trained daily in the art of war, and used both their muscles and the Force to aid them in combat. They wore their hair in elaborate braids (sometimes with a helmet decorated with mementos) and lizard skin armor. Over time, the Force powers of the Witches came to be largely defined in the form of "spells", where they chanted a specific set of words and the desired effect was produced.

Crimes were punished by exile, particularly the use of the dark side; this was often thought of in terms of "night spells", but punishment was also applied when a sister used anger to fuel an otherwise permissible Force power. If a warrior wished to return to the clan, she had to undergo a period of exile for purification purposes before she would be allowed back, often extending to several years; but some, known as Nightsisters, remained in exile, and these exiles sometimes banded together to form a clan of their own, or occasionally took over an existing clan, although no more than one Nightsister clan is known at any one time, and they were always opposed by the rest of Dathomir.

The Witches lacked space technology but off-worlders would visit Dathomir in order to select suitable individuals as assassins or enforcers. Even during the planet's membership in the New Republic, the Witches selected to maintain their natural lifestyle