‘Ahsoka’: What Is Baylan Looking For on Peridea? Is It Abeloth?

The most mysterious aspect of the entire ‘Ahsoka’ series is in relation to Baylan Skoll’s goals. Even after the end of the season 1 finale, we still don’t know what Baylan wants or what he is looking for. The only thing that we know is that he is searching for a power that could allow him to “return to the beginning” to end the cycle of death and destruction associated with the Jedi Order. But who or what is Baylan looking for?
The statues of the Mortis Gods on Peridea
The previous ‘Ahsoka episodes let us understand that Baylan Skoll wasn’t actually looking to help Thrawn or the Empire. Instead, he only wanted to get to Peridea because he had a different goal in mind. This was to seek a great power to return to the beginning and end the cycle of death and destruction that he thought was always associated with the Jedi Order.
Of course, it was never revealed what this power was, as some fans thought the season finale would allow us to see some powerful entity. Instead, the season 1 finale focused more on Ahsoka and her allies as they sought to stop Thrawn from leaving Peridea. Meanwhile, Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati weren’t even included in the events of the episode.
But near the end, we did see what Baylan Skoll was up to, as this was quite possibly the final scene involving Ray Stevenson as the fallen Jedi. He was standing on a rock, looking at the landscape of his destination in Peridea. And the statue behind him was clearly the Father.
As the camera panned out, more statues were shown. Right next to the Father was a statue of the Son. The other statue was likely the Daughter, but the head had been destroyed, as this was probably symbolic of how the light side of the Force had no place on Peridea. So, if the Mortis trio had statues on Peridea, it is clear that they were also associated with this planet.
Of course, we know that the Mortis trio, sometimes called the Mortis Gods, is composed of three powerful godlike beings who are stronger in the Force than anything else in the universe. The Daughter represents the light side, the Son represents the dark side, and the Father is there to balance the Daughter and the Son. And we know that these beings reside on a planet called Mortis.
But in the Legends storyline, it was mentioned that the Mortis gods were never from Mortis but were from a different planet. They fled from this planet for a good reason (more on that later). As such, it is likely that the trio once resided in Peridea and were gods to those living on that planet long ago. If that’s the case, the power that Baylan is seeking could be related to the Mortis trio.
The Mortis trio lacked a mother
We mentioned that the Mortis trio comprises the Father, the Daughter, and the Son. But what about the Mother? Why is it that there’s no Mother in this supposed family? There is no canon answer for that, but the Legends storyline can shed some light.
In Legends, the Mother used to live with the other Mortis gods on a different planet. She was there to help the Father keep the peace between the Daughter and the Son, who often warred. She was a loving matriarch but realized that she had one big weakness—her mortality.
While the Father, the Daughter, and the Son were immortal, the Mother was not. She feared she would lose her family if she died, and that was when she became so attached to them that she drank from the Font of Power and the Pool of Knowledge.
Her actions corrupted her and turned her into a twisted and grotesque immortal being called Abeloth. After the Father discovered what the Mother had done, he decided to leave the planet with his children. As such, they ended up living on Mortis, where the Father spent the rest of his life balancing his children.
However, the Daughter and the Son often returned to where the Mother was imprisoned whenever she could break out. This repeated for thousands of years until the deaths of the Mortis trio. Because there was no longer anyone to stop the Mother from escaping, she rampaged in the Legend storyline, as this required Luke Skywalker to team up with a Sith tribe to try to defeat Abeloth.
Baylan wants to use Abeloth’s power
In ‘Ahsoka,’ we could see statues of the Mortis trio in Peridea, which could mean that the Mortis Gods once lived on this planet before they left it and went to live the rest of their lives on Mortis. As Shin Hati said, there was an evil presence on this planet, which could be why the Nightsisters left for Dathomir and why the Great Mothers wanted to leave Peridea.
The power residing in Peridea may be the same Mother whom the Mortis Gods left after she became a corrupted and twisted entity. This will make sense because the only godlike figure (other than the Bendu) left in the universe is Abeloth if she is a canon character.
Baylan is seeking a power that’s so great that he could basically turn back the hands of time. While the World Between Worlds (WBW) is theoretically capable of doing that, Baylan may be looking for something else almost entirely because he wouldn’t have made the journey to another galaxy to look for a WBW doorway, which can be found in Lothal and in Malachor. As such, he is likely looking for an entity that’s associated with the Mortis trio, and the Mother is the most likely candidate.
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