The one who would become the dreaded Sith Lord Darth Maul was originally a Zabrak born
on the planet Dathomir.
In Canon we don’t have much information of Maul’s childhood aside from the fact
that he was the son of Mother Talzin and that he had two brothers, Feral and Opress.
Maul and his brothers were given their full body tattoos when they were mere babies, as
was nightbrother tradition.
They grew up in the poverty ridden village along with all the other nightbrothers where
they were treated pretty much as slaves by the dominant nightsisters.
When he was a few years old, Maul was kidnapped by Palpatine after he betrayed Mother Talzin
in the promise of making her his apprentice.
Now the apprentice of a Sith Lord, Maul underwent brutal training both physically and mentally,
which forged him into a merciless killing machine whose only purpose was to serve his
master.
In Legends we are given a far wider and more detailed view on Maul’s childhood and teenage
years.
In this timeline Maul was instead the son to the nightsister Kycina and an unknown Zabrak
nightbrother.
The father was killed shortly after Maul was conceived, as was tradition in the nightsister
dominated society.
Not wanting her son to grow up as a slave, Kycina sought ways to get Maul off the planet
and away from the other nightsisters.
She eventually got this opportunity when she came into contact with Palpatine, a secret
Sith Lord who was exploring the planet Dathomir for secrets.
She begged him to take her son with him, to which Palpatine accepted after discovering
that the young Zabrak was exceptionally gifted in the force.
Ironically, Maul being given to Palpatine actually subjected him to a life far worse
than that of a nightbrother.
For the first few years of his new life, the young Maul was kept hidden on Mustafar in
an isolated location where he was taken care of by droids.
The Zabrak’s presence was soon found out by Plagueis, who gave his own apprentice Palpatine
permission to train him as a Sith Assassin, a position that was supposed to be treated
as nothing more but a disposable tool for the two Sith Lords.
But Plagueis was too trusting of his own apprentice, as Palpatine had other plans for the boy.
Initially Maul didn’t know he was being taught by a Dark Lord of the Sith, but none
the less the training was still brutal.
Any mistake or sign of mercy was met with severe punishment.
His early training consisted of him being beaten with a wooden stick by combat droids
until he would succumb to absolute rage and unlock his abilities to use the force to defend
himself.
Once he successfully used the force to disarm the combat droid, Maul was then taken to an
uninhabited planet to start his formal training with the force.
This consisted of Palpatine telekinetically hurling rocks at Maul, hurting the boy and
making him angrier and angrier, until he finally tapped into his rage and threw rocks back
at his master with the force.
Then came the history lessons, but with a twist.
Palpatine had Maul chained upside down over a tank of acid, and he had his young apprentice
slowly descend towards the acid with the goal of freeing himself before it was too late.
During this exercise, Palpatine explained to Maul the full history of the Jedi, the
galactic republic, and the sith.
He explained how the Jedi were brainwashed servants of the corrupt republic, and that
the past Sith failed in fully destroying the Jedi and that the rule of two was the answer
that will finally lead them to victory.
And right when he finished giving the history lesson, Maul freed himself from his chains
at the very last second and escaped the acid tank underneath him.
Impressed with his student’s successes, Palpatine finally gifted Maul his first lightsaber,
to which he initially practiced with by cutting down trees and getting a feel of its raw power.
Feeling secured that his student was completely obedient to him, Palpatine took Maul on a
trip to Coruscant, where the two cloaked dark siders stood right in front of the Jedi Temple
and watched their enemies.
Maul was excited to see his soon to be prey in front of his very eyes, eager at the thought
of confronting them once he has finished his training.
Another trip was later taken to Mygeeto, where the two of them traveled through the snowy
landscapes.
Wishing to impress his master, Maul sprinted as fast as he could up and down a mountain
at record speed.
When he came back to his master, he expected praise, but instead got picked up with the
force and was tossed into a huge icy lake by Palpatine.
Struggling to get out and fearing for his life, Maul cried out for Palpatine to come
save him.
He got no response.
Then it hit him.
Fear.
He had to turn his fear into anger, anger for his master never showing any compassion
for him ever in his life.
This anger fueled the young boy into swimming through the icy water and allowed him to make
it to the shore.
As the freezing boy approached his master, Palpatine just looked at him with a stone
cold face and turned away.
And they then just continued to walk together as if nothing had happened.
This was a naive mistake on Maul’s part.
He wasn’t supposed to like his master nor want to make his master like him.
That wasn’t the Sith way.
The only emotions a Sith was supposed to have, at least in Palpatine’s opinion, were fear,
anger, hate, and pure rage.
At the age of 10, Maul was sent to train at the Orsis academy, a school that trained highly
skilled assassins.
It was made clear that he couldn’t use any of his force abilities other than his heightened
senses, as a means of keeping Maul’s presence low key and to not attract any Jedi as they
forbid the academy to teach force sensitives.
This even met that he had to endure getting hit by low impact blaster bolts, even though
he could have dodged most of them through the force.
For the next 5 years, Maul became one of the top students at the academy, and he even made
a friend, a female Nautolan named Kilindi.
She was another student there and also a former slave who ended up murdering her entire slave
family before escaping and coming to the academy.
She seemed to have a crush on him, and she even once invited him to go swimming with
her.
But this relationship didn’t last, as after Maul finished his training there, he was ordered
by Palpatine to go back and kill everyone at the academy, even the students.
And Maul did as he was told, going to the academy and slaughtering everyone with ease,
even his friend Kilindi, showing her no mercy.
Eventually the signature sith tattoos were slowly and tortuously applied to Maul’s
skin.
The way Palpatine applied the tattoos was so painful that he had to be restrained.
2 years pass, and the seventeen year old Maul was at the last stage of his training.
His final test was to survive on a remote planet for a month, or at least that was what
it seemed.
A month passed, and Palpatine arrived to his apprentice’s camp.
He looked upon his weakened student who had been starving for a long time now, as there
was nothing to really eat on the planet they were on.
He then told Maul to get up and that they were going to duel and that the test was to
defeat him.
The weakened Maul of course lost.
Showing clear scenes of disappointment, Palpatine told Maul that he had failed the final test
and that he was going to be replaced by another apprentice he had been training secretly.
This sheer act of betrayal enraged Maul and caused him to leap at his master and bite
at his hand, sucking in the blood and spitting it at Palpatine's face before finally falling
back down.
Knowing he had no way of defeating his master, Maul braced for his demise.
But Palpatine didn’t kill him, but rather he began laughing.
Laughing as if he were told the funniest joke in the galaxy.
He then revealed to his confused apprentice that the final test was not to defeat him,
but to want to kill him.
The test was to have the courage into wanting to kill your master.
And Maul passed.
There was no other secret apprentice, that was all a lie to get him enraged.
And at that very moment Palpatine proclaimed Maul a Sith Lord and gave him the title of
Darth.
From then on he was to be known only as Darth Maul, Dark Lord of the Sith.