Darth Nihilus

"He is a wound in the Force, more presence than flesh, and in his wake life dies&hellip; sacrificing itself to his hunger."

- Visas Marr

Darth Nihilus, the Lord of Hunger, was a Dark Lord of the Sith in the time after the Jedi Civil War. He was a shadowy figure who chose to wear a red and white mask, and who preferred to wear long black Sith robes to cover his body.

An apprentice of Darth Traya, he was one of the few survivors of the Battle of Malachor V and one of the three leaders of the Sith Triumvirate. Nihilus and Darth Sion would eventually cast Traya out of the Triumvirate and strip her of her powers. Following this, Nihilus was instrumental in helping lead a devastating purge against the Jedi Order, nearly hunting them to point of extinction. He eventually took the Miraluka Visas Marr as his apprentice, after he found her on the devastated world of Katarr.

He was defeated by the Jedi Exile in the Battle of Telos IV in 3,951 BBY during the battle for Citadel Station.

Biography
"You&hellip; you are the darkness in which all life dies, milord&hellip;"

- Visas Marr

Almost nothing is known of the true beginnings of Darth Nihilus, other than the fact that he was a survivor of the Mandalorian Wars. Although his role in the wars is a mystery, it is very likely that he may have been one of the Jedi that defied the Jedi Council and followed Revan to war. Regardless of who he was, he was found by Darth Traya to be Force-sensitive, and after the war she began training him in the ways of the Sith at the Trayus Academy on Malachor V.

Disagreeing with his mentor's teaching methods, Nihilus, along with his fellow apprentice Darth Sion, plotted and turned against their dark mistress. They cast Traya down, stripped her of her power, and expelled her from the Sith Order, becoming Dark Lords of the Sith, and they, with their combined armies of Sith Assassins and Sith Marauders, allied with other Sith Lords some time after. Darth Nihilus, Darth Sion, and their combined Sith armies then begun their shadow war against the remnants of the Jedi, hunting the Jedi to the brink of extinction.

Darth Nihilus ravaged and consumed whole worlds from his flagship, the Ravager, in order to feed his insatiable appetite for power. Nihilus's powers were so all-consuming that all those who came into contact with the Sith Lord became slaves, mindless servants to his will. He slowly drained the Force from these formerly living beings as he enslaved them.

When the remaining Jedi in the Galaxy joined in a meeting on Katarr called by Atris, Darth Nihilus was immediately drawn to the planet to feed his hunger. As the Ravager neared Katarr, Nihilus spoke. In speaking, Nihilus killed every living thing on Katarr. Including the Jedi that had joined there and the Miraluka population. However, Nihilus journeyed to the surface of Katarr and claimed the only survivor as his apprentice&mdash;Visas Marr, a female Miraluka. Nihilus discovered he shared a powerful bond with the young Miraluka and brought aboard his ship. While she was kept in a deep sleep, Nihilus carved out the flesh where her eyes would be had she been a human. When Visas awoke, she confronted Darth Nihilus. At that moment, he made her see the Galaxy as he sees it though his senses&mdash;however, when he did this he crippled her ability to see through the Force.

As he and Darth Sion continued their war against the Jedi, Darth Nihilus created an alliance with the Onderon Separatists led by General Vaklu, the cousin of the monarch of Onderon, Queen Talia. Nihilus provided his legions of Troops and dark Jedi to their cause in an effort to lure out any potential Jedi.

Soon afterwards, he felt a great disturbance in the Force. The last remaining Jedi was made known to him and his servant, Visas, as the Jedi grew reestablished a lost connection to the Force. The Jedi was known only as the Jedi Exile. Visas was sent as a scout to defeat the Exile and bring her before Darth Nihilus so that he could consume her power and essence. What Nihilus did not realize was that the Exile created bonds with whomever she encountered. When the Exile defeated Visas, she broke her free of Nihilus' bonds and served the Exile instead.

Attack on Telos IV
"What did you see when you looked at him?" "A man, nothing more."

- The Exile and Visas Marr



Nihilus' plans for luring out any Jedi on Onderon failed when the Exile stopped the Onderon Civil War. Soon afterwards, Nihilus learned from Colonel Tobin of many Jedi being on Telos IV, he set his fleet out to the planet, only to fall into a trap. He realized that he had been betrayed by Kreia who had lied to Tobin in the hopes of luring Nihilus there. Following this, his ship was assaulted by Mandalorian warriors led by Mandalore, who accompanied the Exile and Visas into a confrontation with the Sith Lord on board the bridge of the Ravager. The Exile, whose tie to the Force had again been severed&mdash;was basically of the same nature as himself&mdash;so when Nihilus tried to feed on the Jedi, he exhausted himself and was made vulnerable. After a short but brutal fight, the trio managed to defeat Darth Nihilus and his mask was removed by his Visas, as she wanted to the face of the one who had wounded her.

After that, his body dissolved in an aura of dark side energies, his ship was destroyed, and the Sith fleet decimated by the Republic.

Legacy


"Lord Nihilus, you escaped death by containing your consciousness within your armor. How?!"

- Darth Krayt

At some point before the Battle of Telos IV, Darth Nihilus made a holocron that eventually fell into the hands of Darth Krayt millennia later. In 137 ABY, Krayt accessed this holocron (along with those of Darth Andeddu and Darth Bane) on Korriban, seeking Nihilus's advice on how to stop the Yuuzhan Vong creatures from consuming his body. The only response he got from Nihilus was a statement in the Sith Lord's peculiar language, which his comrades didn't bother to translate.

Personality and Traits
"He cares nothing for the Sith or its teachings&hellip; or the Jedi. And when the Jedi are dead, he will feed on the galaxy, the Republic, and eventually, consume the Sith as well."

- Kreia

Darth Nihilus always craved greater power, a trait typical of many Sith such as Naga Sadow and Palpatine. Unlike most Sith Lords, however, he cared very little for the Sith as an organization&mdash;once he had consumed the last of the Jedi, it is likely that he would have turned on the Sith. He saw death as the sole purpose of life, and power as the means to achieve it. The cause of such nihilism remains unknown, possibly the horrors of the Mandalorian Wars were a determinant factor, or perhaps its roots ran even deeper, involving the Jedi and his disillusionment on their beliefs. He was cautious, as his actions during the campaign against the Jedi showed, and was known as an aggressive, dominant figure who would not abide a threat to his power. Nihilus, however, was still Human enough to have feelings, as his bond with Visas persisted until their confrontation on the Ravager. She was his only apprentice, and her betrayal was met with much anger.

Powers and Abilities
"One cannot have power of that magnitude and still think and perceive the universe as we do."

- Kreia

Darth Nihilus wielded a red-bladed lightsaber and fought in a one-handed aggressive style; however, he rarely had to use it. He had learned the greatest of the Sith teachings but such practices took the form of dependence. The hunger he possessed was a means of severing connections between life, the Force, and feeding upon the death it caused the closer he came to it. It would make him stronger, but only for a time. Force-sensitives and worlds rich in the Force would draw him &mdash; the Miraluka colony of Katarr was one such place. His reach in the Force eventually extended to a point where he could feel Force users throughout the Galaxy, cleanse entire planets, killing everything that was touched by the Force. Prolonged use of this power made him a threat to all life, as his hunger grew as well. He was a wound in the Force, his mere presence casting echoes that would slowly kill all around him, feeding him. His very speech caused pain and death to all who heard it. The ones who served him, in time, like his crew on the Ravager, became utter slaves.

He used his dark variant of the Sever Force ability to strip the Force from Darth Traya and, together with Darth Sion, betrayed her and cast her out. Nihilus could also use the Force to lift starships, as he did on Malachor V with the Ravager, he tore it from the mass shadows that surrounded the planet and kept it together even though it had suffered extensive structural damage.

Supposedly his knowledge included Sith alchemy, as during the Second Battle of Onderon his sect of Sith followers used techniques that would bend tame beasts to their will.

Through the Force, Darth Nihilus was able to escape death by containing his consciousness in his armor&mdash;an ability that Darth Krayt would inquire of Nihilus' holocron millennia later.

Behind the scenes


Darth Nihilus first appeared as a major antagonist in the computer and video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. His story was later elaborated in the six-page comic Unseen, Unheard featured in Star Wars Tales 24.

Like many Sith Lords, Nihilus's name has a second meaning (nihil is Latin for nothing). He has no loyalties to anyone but himself, and will consume both Sith and Jedi with his hunger, which notes that his name fits his current personality quite well. Nihilus is also derived from the term "nihilism", or "belief in nothing", most notably denial of concepts of truth and purpose. Another latin-derived term from nihil is English annihilation which means total destruction or to become nothing.

It should be noted that Nihilus never speaks a clear word in the game, he simply emits patterns of sounds similar to the Sith holocrons found on Telos IV. It has been theorized that he speaks in the Sith language. On the other hand, alien languages such as Rodese were subtitled, while Nihilus's words were not (though this can be attributed to the fact that in the game, the Exile uses a sonic sensor to translate foreign languages, and it is unlikely that ancient Sith was included). Another possible explanation was Nihilus traded his ability of speech for power, just as Kar Vastor did. In addition, Visas stated in Unseen, Unheard that the Miralukans could hear Nihilus's voice when the Sith devastated Katarr: "When my Lord spoke, every living thing on Katarr died." It should be observed that Visas seems to understand at least some portions of what Nihilus says to her, although this communication might be telepathic rather than purely verbal.

A possible outcome to the final battle with Nihilus is to convince Visas to sacrifice herself, thus shattering the bond she had with Darth Nihilus. Severely wounded, he is no match for the Jedi Exile. This was originally thought to be cut content.

Darth Nihilus's mask can be obtained if the Exile asks Visas Marr to do so. It cannot be worn, however it does give the player a Force Point boost.



In promotional material for the game, Nihilus is seen as the personification of the dark side, an opposite to Atris (although she represented the light, Atris had been corrupted by the dark side all along). Concept art shows a confrontation between the two, but Atris never actually interacts with Nihilus during the game.

In a bug that might occur when Nihilus dies, his body is surrounded by dark side energies but the body itself does not disappear. A Sith lightsaber, a Dark Jedi Master Robe and a rare lightsaber crystal may then be found in his remains.

Depending upon the character path the player takes, at Nihilus's defeat Visas says either that she sees "a thousand graveyard planets and an eternity of hate and hunger" or "just a man, nothing more".

Some fans believe that Darth Nihilus is actually Alek from the Knights of the Old Republic comic series, due the fact that Alek was captured by Mandalorians, and some fans theorize that Nihilus was as well. Others suspect that Zayne Carrick and Darth Nihilus were actually the same person, because the Jedi Masters of Zayne believe that the boy was destined to be the Destroyer of Worlds, just like Nihilus. Yet another theory says that Nihilus is Zayne's master, Lucien Draay. However, none of this speculation has yet been confirmed.

In Star Wars: The Ultimate Visual Guide, it states that Darth Sion was the apprentice of Darth Nihilus, though they were both apprentices of Darth Traya.

In Star Wars: Legacy, Darth Krayt asks Nihilus's holocron how he was able to retain his consciousness in his armor. Speculation from this suggests that Krayt could be referring to a possible death at Malachor V at the end of the Mandalorian Wars when the Mass Shadow Generator was initiated, if not another death that has yet to be seen or referred to before the Battle of Telos IV.

On June 13, 2007, Howard Stern&mdash;an influencial radio shock jock, mentioned Darth Nihilus on his Sirius Satellite Radio radio show. Gary Garver interviewed a fan that had dressed up as the character, and the bit was played on Stern's show. A few days later on the June 19, 2007 episode of his show, Stern mentioned Wookieepedia, and proceeded to read from the Wookieepedia entry on Darth Nihilus.

Appearances

 * Unseen, Unheard
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
 * Star Wars Legacy 5: Broken, Part 4

Notes and references
Darth Nihilus Darth Nihilus Darth Nihilus