This blog concerns what I view to be one of the most deadly, and one of the most underrated Force attacks in the Star Wars mythos; Darth Zannah’s spell of madness.

First, a brief overview of how Zannah’s spell of madness functions. Darth Zannah’s spell of madness as a whole bears elements of three different psychic attacks outlined in Darth Bane’s manuscript The Rule of Two, featured in the Book of Sith, namely Mind Shard, Memory Walk, and Horror.

While Zannah’s spell bears resemblance to and elements of these three psychic attacks, her spell is ultimately much more complex and takes these elements to a much further degree than those individual attacks themselves.

In a way similar to mind shard, Zannah’s spell of madness begins with an immense psychic pain to the head/mind, however unlike mind shard which doesn’t seem to be more than a single sliver of psychic pain, the psychic pain of Zannah’s spell is ultimately more extensive and complex, starting off as the pain of a hot knife stabbing and slicing through the victim’s brain before exploding into millions of burning shards, rather than one.

Zannah's assault began as a sharp pain in his skull, like a hot knife stabbing directly into his brain before carving down to slice the two hemispheres in half. Then the knife exploded, sending a million burning shards in every direction.

Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil

It should be noted that this component of Zannah’s spell does not feature in Rule of Two, thus it is almost certainly among her advancements in sorcery in the decade between Rule of Two and Dynasty of Evil. This makes it both inapplicable to her ROT incarnation, and it means no evidence can be used from prior to Dynasty of Evil against its effectiveness. Likewise it also doesn’t feature in the watered down version of her spell she used against Set Harth on Nal Hutta.

In a way similar to Horror, Zannah’s spell preys on the fear of her enemies by turning their thoughts and emotions against them, but does so in a far more complex and profound manner. While Bane regarded Horror to be a simple mental manipulation, he regards Zannah’s sorcery as complex and difficult to explain.

Dark side sorcery was complex; it attacked the psyche in ways that were difficult to explain and even more difficult to defend against.

Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil

Even a watered down version of her spell enveloped Set Harth in enough despair and hopelessness to instantly render him comatose, and her attacks are repeatedly stated to cause insanity and destroy the minds of her opponents with fear.

From ancient texts she had learned to twist and torment the thoughts of her enemies. She could make them see nightmares as reality; she could cause their deepest fears to manifest as demons of the psyche. She could, and had, rip the minds of her enemies apart with a simple thought and a gesture.

With Set, however, she did not intend to destroy him completely. Instead she enveloped him in a cloud of utter despair and hopelessness. She reached into the innermost recesses of his mind and wrapped it in the nothingness of the void.

Set's eyes went blank, his jaw hung slack, and his lightsaber slipped from nerveless fingers. He slowly slumped to the ground, his eyes closing and his body trembling slightly as he curled up into a fetal position.

Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil

"I can use my powers to conjure up your worst nightmares and bring them to life before your eyes. I can drive you mad with fear, shred your sanity, and leave you a raving lunatic for the rest of your life."

Darth Bane: Rule of Two

Cyndra's cries of terror became animal howls as her sanity was ripped apart by the ghastly visions. Her hands scratched and clawed at her own eyes, tearing them out. Blood poured down her cheeks, but even blindness couldn't save her from the nightmares crawling through what was left of her mind.

Her howls stopped as her body went into seizure; her mouth foamed as her limbs convulsed wildly on the floor. Then, with a final bloodcurdling shriek, she fell suddenly limp and lay still. Her conscious mind completely and irrevocably obliterated, her catatonic body was now nothing more than an empty shell.

The body shivered once, and Zannah knew that somewhere in the deepest core of Cyndra's subconscious a small part of her still existed, silently screaming, trapped forever with the horrors inside her own mind.

Darth Bane: Rule of Two

Then of course, like Memory Walk, Zannah’s spell sifts through the victim’s mind to wield it as a weapon against them, but does so again in a more complex and profound manner. While Bane has demonstrated an understanding of memory walk and even successfully used it before, he considers Zannah’s sorcery difficult to comprehend.

He laid his palm on one of its massive legs, feeling the trembling muscles beneath the skin as he probed deeper into its animal brain.

He found no awareness, concept, or understanding of the Masters who had once tamed such beasts for use as guardians and mounts. He wasn't surprised: the Rakata had vanished many centuries before this rancor had been born. But Bane was looking for something else.

A collage of images and sensations assailed him. Countless hunts through the forest, most ending in successful slaughter. The rending of sinew and bone. Feasting on the quarry's still-warm flesh. The search for a mate. Battling with another rancor for dominance. And then, finally, he found what he was searching for.

Buried deep in the creature's memories was the image of a great four-sided stone pyramid hidden deep within the jungle's heart. The rancor had seen it only once, back when it was still a youngling in the care of the herd mothers. Yet the structure had left an indelible mark on the brutish mind.

Darth Bane: Path of Destruction

Dark side sorcery was complex; it attacked the psyche in ways that were difficult to explain and even more difficult to defend against.

Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil

Practicing in secret, she had progressed far beyond Bane's expectations, learning new spells to unleash the dark side in ways he had never even imagined.

Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil

This far greater depth and complexity inherent in Zannah’s spell when compared with Memory Walk is not only corroborated by Bane’s understanding, but by the specifics of her spell as well. While Memory Walk merely uses the actual traumatic experiences and memories of the victim against them, Zannah’s spell goes further than that, transforming those experiences into something more hellish and weaponizing them as an imminent threat attacking the victim. Furthermore her attacks are not only limited to using actual experiences and fears the victim has consciously pondered before, but also fears buried in the victim’s subconscious which they have never even pondered or faced before. As of her peak, her spell has been shown dredging up and weaponizing a million fears at once in the forms of illusions.

Weaving her fingers in a complex pattern in the air, she reached out with the Force and plunged deep inside the Chiss woman's mind to find her secret, most primal fears. Buried in her subconscious were nameless horrors: abominations and creatures of nightmare never meant to see the light of day. Drawing on the power of Sith sorcery, Zannah plucked them out and brought them to life one by one.

Darth Bane: Rule of Two

On some level he was aware the nightmares had nearly driven him mad. They had been on the verge of destroying him, but Set had refused to succumb. Bit by bit he had managed to shove them back down into the hidden recesses of his mind where they belonged, separating fantasy from reality one small piece at a time.

Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil

Her words caused his mind to momentarily flash back to the terrors he was still struggling to suppress, and he shuddered involuntarily.

Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil

Then the knife exploded, sending a million burning shards in every direction. Each one burrowed into his subconscious, seeking out buried fears and nightmares only to rip them free and haul them to the surface.

Bane let out a scream and dropped to his knees. When he stood up the sky was thick with a swarm of flying horrors. Their wings were torn and ragged, leather flaps of skin hanging from exposed bone. Their bodies were small and malformed, their twisted legs ending in long, sharp talons. Their flesh was a sickly yellow: the same color as the faces of the miners who had died on Apatros after being trapped in a gas-filled chamber.

Their features were inhuman, but their burning eyes were unmistakable: each creature was staring at him with the hate-filled gaze of his abusive father. As one, they swooped down on him, their mouths screeching out a cry that sounded like his father's name: hurst, hurst, hurst!

Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil

So with the quite impressive technical description of Zannah’s complex spell out of the way, it’s time to delve into their potency and extremely high levels of effectiveness against most opponents in the mythos.

First to be addressed is the importance of willpower. As Darth Bane states upon studying Zannah’s application of Sith Sorcery, the only true counter for them is willpower.

Dark side sorcery was complex; it attacked the psyche in ways that were difficult to explain and even more difficult to defend against. Bane had no talent for it, yet he had done his best to study the techniques. What he learned was that the only real counter was the victim's strength of will.

Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil

Some misconstrue this quote as a weakness for Zannah’s illusions, suggesting that anyone with a semblance or countenance of calm and control or anyone with decent willpower can overcome them no problem. This is a flawed way of thinking, as this quote merely asserts the quality needed to defend against Zannah’s sorcery, not the degree of the quality required to do so. Indeed the notion that anyone with a strong will can shrug off Zannah’s illusions is fallacious as demonstrated by Set Harth.

With Set, however, she did not intend to destroy him completely. Instead she enveloped him in a cloud of utter despair and hopelessness. She reached into the innermost recesses of his mind and wrapped it in the nothingness of the void.

Set's eyes went blank, his jaw hung slack, and his lightsaber slipped from nerveless fingers. He slowly slumped to the ground, his eyes closing and his body trembling slightly as he curled up into a fetal position.

This was to be his final test. A weak mind would collapse upon itself to wither and die, leaving the victim forever comatose. If Set was strong, however, his will would fight back against the horror. Little by little it would tear away at the emptiness, refusing to die, clawing its way back to the surface until consciousness finally returned.

If Set was truly worthy of being her apprentice, he would recover from his current condition in a day or two. If not, she would simply have to begin her search anew.

Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil

As demonstrated by the above quote, Set Harth is confirmed as having a strong will by his ability to emerge from a sorcery induced coma after a few days of struggling in his own mind, yet despite being confirmed as having a strong will, he was still instantly rendered comatose by a watered down version of Zannah’s spell intended to afford him a chance at recuperation.

That out of the way, it now stands to question what level of willpower is required to overcome Darth Zannah’s spell of madness. In all of her applications of sorcery, the only person whose mind Zannah was unable to destroy was that of her master, Darth Bane. Even then however, Bane struggled to overcome her spell of madness, falling to his knees, shrieking, screaming, and flailing his lightsaber wildly at the illusions before doing so, and both Bane and Zannah believed her spell of madness posed a credible threat to Bane’s mind, despite Bane actually underestimating their full potency.

Bane didn't fear her blades. There was only one thing she possessed that he was wary of: Sith sorcery. Zannah could do things with the Force that Bane couldn't even attempt. She could attack the minds of her opponents, turning their own thoughts and dreams against them.

During her apprenticeship, Bane had encouraged her in her studies of the magical arts. He had given her ancient texts filled with arcane rituals, urging her to expand her knowledge and push the boundaries of her talent. He had directed her training so that she could achieve her full potential. But he did not realize just how far she had come.

Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil

She had to give him the illusion he was controlling the action, when in fact she was only a few seconds away from unleashing a burst of dark side sorcery that would rip his mind apart.

Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil

Zannah's assault began as a sharp pain in his skull, like a hot knife stabbing directly into his brain before carving down to slice the two hemispheres in half. Then the knife exploded, sending a million burning shards in every direction. Each one burrowed into his subconscious, seeking out buried fears and nightmares only to rip them free and haul them to the surface.

Bane let out a scream and dropped to his knees. When he stood up the sky was thick with a swarm of flying horrors. Their wings were torn and ragged, leather flaps of skin hanging from exposed bone. Their bodies were small and malformed, their twisted legs ending in long, sharp talons. Their flesh was a sickly yellow: the same color as the faces of the miners who had died on Apatros after being trapped in a gas-filled chamber.

Their features were inhuman, but their burning eyes were unmistakable: each creature was staring at him with the hate-filled gaze of his abusive father. As one, they swooped down on him, their mouths screeching out a cry that sounded like his father's name: hurst, hurst, hurst!

Swinging his lightsaber wildly at the demon flock, Bane crouched low to the ground, his free hand coming up to cover his face and ward off the talons clawing at his eyes. As the swarm enveloped him, he caught a glimpse of Zannah standing a few meters away, her face frozen in a mask of intense concentration.

Bane knew it was a trick; the beasts weren't real. They were just figments of his imagination born from the repressed memories of his childhood, his greatest fears manifested in physical form. But he had conquered these fears long ago. He had turned his fear of his abusive father into anger and hate-the tools that had given him the strength to endure and eventually escape his life on Apatros.

He knew how to defeat these demons, and he struck back. Unleashing a primal scream, he channeled his terror into pure rage and lashed out with the dark side. It tore through the swarm in a burst of searing violet light, utterly obliterating them.

* * *

Zannah watched as Bane huddled against the ground, his lightsaber flailing wildly at invisible ghosts, but she didn't let her concentration falter. Bane's mind was strong; if she let up even for an instant he might break free of the spell.

For a second she thought she had won as Bane let out a shriek, but the burst of energy that followed sent her reeling backward.

Regaining her balance she saw that Bane was on his feet again, and she knew he had resisted the spell.

Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil

Though Bane ultimately overcame Zannah’s spell of madness, he had difficulty doing so and both he and Zannah held the conviction that her spell of madness posed a threat to him. Now to put Darth Bane’s insane levels of willpower into perspective, you can read the willpower section of my Darth Bane respect thread, but if you don’t feel up to that, here’s a summary of Bane’s willpower.

Even at his lowest point of willpower, Bane shrugged off the telepathy of Lord Kaan with laughable ease, and Kaan has some very high tier telepathy feats, such as calling out to every Sith Lord in the Galaxy (A feat only replicated by Krayt briefly, Kun briefly, and Luke for a prolonged period of time though it was noticeably taxing for him), forcibly ripping the other Sith Lords’ minds out of Bane’s ritual, controlling over a thousand highly mentally trained Sith Lords at once, and even affecting a certain degree of control over Kopecz (one of these highly mentally trained Sith Lords who has demonstrated the strength of will to keep fighting even with a dozen arrows in the back of his neck and two spears skewered through his chest). At this relative low point of willpower while simultaneously struggling with psychic pain from the effects of the thought bomb, Bane also plunged his arm in the thought bomb for several seconds casually resisted the efforts of the spirits in the thought bomb to drag his mind into their prison (extremely brief contact with the thought bomb almost drove Darovit insane, and one of these spirits sent Kyle on some sort of spiritual/illusory journey a thousand years later). And this is all as of POD/Early ROT. As of ROT, Bane’s will has been hardened by working through living in constant agony from the orbalisks for a decade. At this point, he also managed to maintain unwavering focus and concentration and a constant stream of force energy for three days straight with no food or rest, while simultaneously resisting the efforts of the orbalisks to break his concentration (and he wasn’t receiving a force boost from the orbalisks at the time because he wasn’t channeling any of his energy through them). He also managed to stay conscious through the intensified storm of his own force lightning, and the orbalisks burrowing through his muscles and bones while expanding inside of him, though the pain of the orbalisks exploding knocked him unconscious. In Dynasty of Evil, his willpower is even greater, as he was able to not only cope with a pain far greater than one that knocked him unconscious in ROT, but he was able to work through it to perform a very complex and delicate ritual. Then of course in DOE, he also overpowered Darth Andeddu’s spirit in his holocron for several hours with unwavering focus while simultaneously performing an extremely complex task (Just for reference, Andeddu’s spirit in his holocron was powerful enough at that point to collapse hyperlanes).

So yeah, Bane has some absolutely insane showings of willpower, and Zannah’s spell of madness posed a great challenge even to him. Thus to overcome Zannah’s illusions, one should at least have willpower at least remotely comparable to Bane’s, and the vast majority of combatants in the mythos simply don’t even begin to approach that level of willpower.

Another argument that needs to be struck down quickly is the “This character has no fear” argument that runs rampant on youtube. Nobody is without fear. The sentient mind is a complex thing and each sentient mind has countless fears buried in its subconscious. Even among the mightiest Jedi and Sith this rings true. The vast majority of Sith fear death, including the likes of Sith as mighty as Vitiate, Darth Tenebrous, Darth Plagueis, and even Darth Sidious. Likewise some of the greatest Jedi have been plagued by terrifying nightmares and visions before that have left them visibly shaken up, even including Obi-Wan Kenobi (sleep is plagued by nightmares in the Kenobi novel), Mace Windu (nightmares in Shatterpoint), Yoda (fears he had to face in TCW), Jacen Solo (vision of Krayt and Allana) and Luke Skywalker (nightmares of the dark man). Bluntly put, if a person cares about their own wellbeing or the wellbeing of others, then they absolutely have fears that can and will be exploited by Zannah’s illusions.

There are also three other factors at play here when considering Zannah’s spell of madness. The first of which is the fact that her spell grows more and more intense the longer it is allowed to propagate. As shown a decade before her prime on Serenno, Zannah’s spell of madness grew more intense even without Zannah continuing to support the spell after the initial casting of it, and she could make them grow more intense even quicker by actively reinforcing the spell.

Weaving her fingers in a complex pattern in the air, she reached out with the Force and plunged deep inside the Chiss woman's mind to find her secret, most primal fears. Buried in her subconscious were nameless horrors: abominations and creatures of nightmare never meant to see the light of day. Drawing on the power of Sith sorcery, Zannah plucked them out and brought them to life one by one.

The entire process took less than a second. In that time Cyndra had drawn her weapon, but instead of pointing it at Zannah she suddenly screamed and aimed it high in the air above her, firing wildly at demons conjured from her own mind that only she could see.

The illusions grew more real and more terrifying the longer the spell continued, but Zannah had no intention of ending it yet. The Chiss shrieked and threw her weapon to the ground. She flung her head wildly from side to side, covering it with her arms and screaming "No!" over and over before collapsing on the floor. Weeping and sobbing, she curled up into a tight little ball, still muttering "No, no, no..."

Everyone else in the room was staring at her in horror and bewilderment. Some of the guards took a step back, afraid they might somehow become infected by her madness.

Zannah could have ended it then, dispelling the illusion and allowing Cyndra to fall into unconsciousness. She would wake hours later with only the most basic recollection of what had happened, her mind instinctively recoiling from the memories of what it had witnessed. Or Zannah could push the illusion even farther, driving her victim to the edge of insanity and beyond. An image of the Chiss romantically entangled with Kel sprang unbidden to her mind-and Zannah pushed.

Cyndra's cries of terror became animal howls as her sanity was ripped apart by the ghastly visions. Her hands scratched and clawed at her own eyes, tearing them out. Blood poured down her cheeks, but even blindness couldn't save her from the nightmares crawling through what was left of her mind.

Darth Bane: Rule of Two

This is a very important aspect of her spell to remember, because it means the longer it takes the victim to overcome her sorcery, the more intense the spell becomes, making it even harder for the victim to overcome it. Thus, anyone with lesser willpower than Bane will inevitably experience the spell at an even greater intensity than that at which Bane overcame the spell, making the gap between enough willpower to overcome Zannah’s sorcery and Bane level willpower even smaller than it already was.

Then of course, there is the fact that most opponents, unlike Bane, don’t know to expect Zannah’s spell of madness and are completely unfamiliar with how they function, which would make it even more difficult for them to cope with the illusions, though this likely doesn’t hold true for the Sith Masters of the Banite lineage given their historical knowledge of their order’s past.

Then the initial pain of the attack also needs to be considered. While Bane didn’t struggle much with the initial psychic pain of the attack, Bane also has some of the absolute best feats of pain tolerance in the mythos addressed with his willpower feats, most notably performing the ritual of essence transfer after having his arm severed by one of Zannah’s dark side tendrils. Thus it is likely that a person who is less tolerant to pain might struggle more with the initial pain of the attack, and thus might be made more vulnerable to the following attack on their psyche by Zannah’s illusions of terror.

When all of this is considered, it grows increasingly apparent that Zannah’s spell of madness is an attack that very few in the mythos could successfully recover from were they to be subjected to it.

And lastly the ease with which Zannah can make use of her spell of madness also needs to be addressed. In Rule of Two, Zannah was shown needing to flick her fingers in strange intricate patterns, while in Dynasty of Evil she is described as only needing a much simpler thought and a gesture, or simply needing to reach out and touch the mind of her enemy. Even when she needed to flick her fingers in strange patterns however, it only took a very brief amount of time.

Weaving her fingers in a complex pattern in the air, she reached out with the Force and plunged deep inside the Chiss woman's mind to find her secret, most primal fears. Buried in her subconscious were nameless horrors: abominations and creatures of nightmare never meant to see the light of day. Drawing on the power of Sith sorcery, Zannah plucked them out and brought them to life one by one. The entire process took less than a second.

Darth Bane: Rule of Two

The big man hesitated, casting a quick glance over toward the others to see what had happened. Seizing the opportunity, Zannah's fingers flickered in strange patterns as she unleashed her Sith sorcery at her foe.

Darth Bane: Rule of Two

The only time she was unable to use her spell of madness when she wanted to was against Sarro Xaj on Tython when he was physically overpowering her, but that was largely circumstantial and doesn’t prevent her from using her spell in most situations. Three things need to be considered when thinking of that singular instance.

1. This was a decade before Zannah’s prime, and at her peak she demonstrated the ability and confidence to gather energy for and unleash her spell while facing Darth Bane, a far more physically dominating opponent than Sarro Xaj, in martial combat.

2. All Zannah needed to apply her illusions against Sarro was a break in the martial bout as brief as Sarro glancing in a different direction, and in most lightsaber duels I can find there is a break in the combat at least that long.

3. Zannah had no room to retreat. At the beginning of her 1v1 with Sarro, she was stuck in the corner of a room, preventing her from retreating to alleviate offensive pressure and free up her energy, and preventing her from leaping away from him to create a break in the martial bout, both of which she could very easily do when not trapped in a corner.

In conclusion, very few Star Wars characters have what it takes to overcome Zannah’s spell of madness, and it really doesn’t take that much for Zannah to be able to use it. It is thus, in my opinion, one of the most potent force attacks in the Star Wars mythos.