history.

A shorter, sweeter history (note that the BBY dating system counts backwards!):

▶She grew up a Nightsister of Dathomir. The Nightsisters were a matriarchal coven of witches who ruled Dathomir and taught their daughters to use magick, an aspect of the Force that often draws on the dark side.

▶In 20 BBY, when she was around twelve or thirteen years old, the Nightsisters were massacred under orders from the Separatist leader, Count Dooku (long story); Merrin was one of the few survivors of this genocide, and still believes herself to be the only survivor.

▶A year or so later, shortly after the Jedi Purge, a Jedi named Taron Malicos crash-landed on Dathomir and manipulated Merrin into believing that the Jedi were to blame for the massacre of her sisters. In exchange for teaching him Nightsister magick (a big no-no according to her culture), Malicos promised to help Merrin exact revenge on the Jedi.

▶In 14 BBY, another Jedi named Cal Kestis arrived on Dathomir in search of an astrium (another long story) hidden there. Their first meeting did not go well; Merrin demanded he leave her planet and he refused, which led to her siccing the Nightbrothers and, later, the reanimated corpses of the Nightsisters on him.

▶In an effort to win Cal over to his side, Malicos tried to turn on her, showing his true colors as a lying liar who lied. This led to an "enemy of my enemy is my friend" situation with Merrin and Cal teaming up to defeat Malicos. Notably, for how few qualms she had about trying to kill him literal days ago, she was quick to warm up to Cal after learning they're both survivors of terrible tragedies and the only reason he'd trespassed on Dathomir was to save the next generation of Jedi.

▶With the Power of Friendship invoked, she decided to join Cal, BD-1, Cere, and Greez on the Mantis and, after helping them keep those Jedi kids safe from the Empire, spent the next couple of years with them making trouble for the Empire. Over time, she began to think of the Mantis crew as her family.

▶Around 12 or 11 BBY, she had become increasingly angry over her stymied vengeance for her dead sisters, which she took out on the Empire. Because of this, she began to lose her connection with her magick, but, after a short-lived (and very ill-advised) relationship of an Imperial deserter named Fret, who reflected her own anger back at her, Merrin was able to restore that connection, finding the "spark" of power inside herself rather than from Dathomir, as Nightsisters traditionally do.

▶At some point after this (it's not really specified when), she and the rest of the Mantis crew, each wanting different things, went their separate ways, with Merrin forging on alone to explore the galaxy she'd never seen before due to her sheltered upbringing on Dathomir. While traveling on her own, she often assisted others in need and righted what wrongs she could. She also returned to Dathomir to commune with the spirits of her dead sisters, who taught her more of their magick.

▶Also at some point in this time frame, she stumbled upon the Hidden Path, a secret network of rebels that provided safe passage and sanctuary to Jedi survivors and Force-sensitive children, keeping them out of the Empire's hands. As it turned out that Cere was the one who ran the Hidden Path, Merrin spent a lot of time with her on Jedha as well as on various missions to help the Path.

▶Also also at this time, she finally figured out that she was down pretty bad for Cal, though she didn't say anything to him about it just yet.

▶In 9 BBY, while acting as Cere's contact, she reunited with Cal for the first time in years after he'd traveled to Jedha for Cere's help in researching Tanalorr, a planet hidden behind the dangerous Koboh Abyss that could serve as an escape from the ever-present Empire. Their UST was off the charts.

▶After a little sidequest with Cal to help the Path, she joined the new Mantis crew (consisting of Cal, BD-1, Greez, and Bode) in their mission to reach Tanalorr, where she provided assistance protecting the Koboh locals from raiders and using her magick to cloak the Mantis from detection.

▶Once they obtained the compass that allowed navigation through the Koboh Abyss to Tanalorr, the crew returned to Jedha to pick up Cere and the Hidden Path. There, Cal finally gave up the ghost of the Jedi Order's hit-it-and-quit-it policy and they became, to quote Ryan Gosling as Ken, girlfren-boyfren.

▶Things went terribly wrong from there: Cere and her Master, Eno Cordova, were killed, the Path was all but destroyed by the Empire, and Bode stole the compass to keep Tanalorr for himself. Merrin, Cal, BD-1, and Greez gave chase, but along the way, Cal gave into his anger and tapped into the dark side (oopsie); Merrin had to drag him back from the edge.

▶They finally tracked down Bode to Tanalorr, where Merrin and Cal fought side-by-side and defeated him. After giving Bode multiple opportunities to surrender (that he didn't take), Cal put him down.

▶Where we last left off at her canon point, she and the rest of the crew have taken in Bode's now-orphaned daughter, Kata; laid Cere, Cordova, and Bode to rest; and just started the journey of rebuilding the Hidden Path and creating an Empire-free sanctuary on Tanalorr.