Darth Maul was born to Mother Talzin in 54 BBY, on the secluded world of Dathomir. As Zabrak males, he and his brother, Feral were Nightbrothers, and in accordance with Dathomiri tradition, the children were tattooed before their first birthdays. Maul revealed later in life that he once had a real name but had long since forgotten it.
Whilst Maul was still a child, his mother formed an alliance with Darth Sidious, the Dark Lord of the Sith, and the two exchanged Dark Side alchemy and Nightsister magicks, enhancing both their power. When Sidious would arrive to meet Talzin, Maul would hide away in his chamber, afraid of the mysterious man and anxious about Talzin's increasing connection to him. Maul grew up in the Nightbrother village with his brother Feral, having to care for his younger, weaker sibling due to Talzin’s constant absence from the community.
As a result of his Force-sensitivity, he always felt a connection to nature and the forest beyond their home. Had his circumstances been different, perhaps this connection might have been cultivated into something positive, and he could have one day become a formidable Jedi. However, his cruel upbringing would steer the young Zabrak onto a far darker path.
Sidious eventually forced Talzin to hand over Maul, threatening to back out of his pledge to make her his apprentice. Maul stormed into the jungle, enraged, after overhearing the exchange from behind his closed door. A Nightbrother kidnapped him the following morning when he returned home, throwing him into a pit and denying him the chance to say goodbye to his mother.
Maul was subjected to months of brutal abuse , all engineered by Sidious. His keeper’s two sons beat him until he was unable to stand and only fed him scraps, keeping him malnourished. Maul's perceptions were distorted as a result of this, and his affection for his mother morphed into bitterness and loathing for abandoning him. Mauls' rage began to manifest through the Dark Side, and he practised it whenever he had the chance. They ceased abusing him after noticing that their provocations no longer affected him. When rumours spread of a man arriving for the selection of a warrior apprentice, Ma Dathomir. Additionally, this restored Maul’s memories. Sidious eventually forced Talzin to hand over Maul, threatening to back out of his pledge to make her his apprentice. Maul stormed into the jungle, enraged, after overhearing the exchange from behind his closed door. A Nightbrother kidnapped him the following morning when he returned home, throwing him into a pit and denying him the chance to say goodbye to his mother.
Maul was subjected to months of brutal abuse , all engineered by Sidious. His keeper’s two sons beat him until he was unable to stand and only fed him scraps, keeping him malnourished. Maul's perceptions were distorted as a result of this, and his affection for his mother morphed into bitterness and loathing for abandoning him. Mauls' rage began to manifest through the Dark Side, and he practised it whenever he had the chance. They ceased abusing him after noticing that their provocations no longer affected him. When rumours spread of a man arriving for the selection of a warrior apprentice, Maul's keeper refused to let him join, but he broke down his sealed door using the Dark Side and followed anyway. Maul discovered, however, that the visitor to the Selection Arena was Sidious, the man he hated most.
A fit of uncontrollable rage led him to Force-choke the two brothers, then the keeper, all in front of Sidious and Talzin. To Talzin's dismay, Sidious named Maul the winner and his new apprentice. Sidious kidnapped Maul and fled Dathomir, leaving Talzin pledging to reclaim her kidnapped son and exact vengeance on Sidious. At some point following this, she had a third son, Savage, although he remained completely unaware of his eldest brother's existence. After inhaling the ashes of the long-dead Sith, Maul saw a force vision similar to the one he had years prior.
The vision showed Maul as a Jedi. He had protected a fellow Zabrak from a monster and to honour him, Maul was asked to dine with other Zabraks. However, after partially breaking free from the hallucinations, he felt disgusted by the Zabraks' worship of the Jedi and slaughtered all of them, proving that he truly did embrace the way of the sith.
After returning to reality, Maul was commended by his master and recognised that destroying the Jedi would require more than his fury and emotions; it would also take strategy, patience