Darth Nihilus

Darth Nihilus was a Force-sensitive Human male who lived during the Dark Wars. He lost everything during the Mandalorian Wars, surviving the activation of the Mass Shadow Generator at the Battle of Malachor V. The experience of the mass shadows made him "hunger" for Force energy, and the affliction began to ravage his body. In his pain he became a wound in the Force and was found by a seeker of such things, Darth Traya, who told him that she could teach him to feed his hunger. He accepted her offer and came under her apprenticeship at her Dark Jedi academy, choosing to wield the dark side of the Force as his weapon, and over time became one of three concurrent Dark Lords of the Sith.

Together, the three formed a triumvirate with Traya at its head and her other apprentice, Darth Sion, as the third. The trio chose individual names for themselves, and Nihilus became the Lord of Hunger. The apprentices grew in strength during their training and eventually overpowered their Master. Sion beat Traya, with Nihilus right behind him, before they exiled her and the two combined their powers to sever her ties to the Force. Nihilus's affliction developed to the point where he was forced to call upon his dark powers and encase his spirit within his mask and armor to stay alive. Nihilus and Sion then became the main perpetrators of the First Jedi Purge, causing the virtual extinction of the Jedi Order.

Darth Nihilus was responsible for the Devastation of Katarr, killing and absorbing the Force energy of the Jedi at the Conclave on Katarr, along with every other living thing on the planet, save one Miraluka woman named Visas Marr. Having survived, Marr was taken by Nihilus, and became his apprentice. About one year later, the duo felt a growing presence in the Force and he sent his apprentice to investigate. The presence was a woman, known only as the Exile, who was on a quest to find the remaining Jedi Masters who had survived the Purge.

The Exile defeated and spared Visas Marr, convincing her to turn to the light side of the Force in the process. Although Nihilus returned to lurking the fringes of known space, he eventually fell in the Battle of Telos IV at the hands of Marr, the Jedi Exile, and Mandalore the Preserver in 3,951 BBY.

Origins
Nihilus survived the Mandalorian Wars where he was said to have lost everything, including his friends, family, and his will to live. In his grief, the man assumed a dark persona on Malachor V after the Battle of Malachor V, the concluding battle of the wars, in part as a means of survival. During the battle, the Jedi Exile, a Jedi General who followed Revan and Malak into the war against the wishes of the Jedi Council, gave the order to activate the Mass Shadow Generator. The Mass Shadow Generator, a superweapon conceived by Military engineer Bao-Dur, killed almost everyone both on the planet's surface and in orbit nearby. Nihilus was trapped on the planet by the artificially-created mass shadows along with most of the two fleets that filled space around the planet, where the Mandalorians had committed all of their forces in a last attempt at defeating the Galactic Republic. He survived the activation of the superweapon but became ill. An emptiness swept over his idle body and it soon began to "hunger" intensely. Without meaning to, he drained the life-force of another survivor; it was an unpleasant experience, but for a brief moment the hunger ceased. The emptiness, however, came back more relentless and intense than before. He indulged in absorbing the energy of other survivors, but the more he fed, the shorter the hunger was appeased and the more relentless it became.

Nihilus was eventually discovered by Darth Traya, who had sensed him as a wound in the Force. After locating him, she explained that it was the Force that fueled his hunger, and that she could teach him to devour entire worlds to appease it at her Academy. He followed her to the Trayus Academy and learned the ways of the Sith. After Darth Malak's defeat at the end of the Jedi Civil War, the Sith Empire became divided and its followers turned on each other, with many factions rising to stake claim to what little power could be garnered. Nihilus was named a Sith Lord at some point, still apprenticed under Traya along with Darth Sion. Nihilus and Sion each honed different aspects and skills of the dark side of the Force, until the three joined in the creation of a Sith Triumvirate, styling themselves with unique titles. It was then that Nihilus became known as the "Lord of Hunger."

Darth Traya perceived Nihilus's hunger for the Force as detrimental to the goals of the Sith. Nevertheless, she taught him how to harness it to make him stronger for a time, as she had promised. He consumed entire planets on several occasions, caring only to appease his hunger. The dark side consumed him more and more each time, causing his hunger and power to grow dramatically. His power and desire for more power grew beyond what Traya could match. The views on how to destroy the Jedi also became divided, with Nihilus and Sion wanting to destroy them outright and Traya wanting a more subtle and time consuming approach. This strained the Triumvirate's already fragile alliance to the breaking point. Nihilus allied himself with Darth Sion to challenge Traya, defeating the woman at the center of her own Academy, within the very heart of Malachor V itself. Sion and Nihilus entered the core from two separate doors and closed in on Kreia while igniting their lightsabers, Kreia followed suit by igniting hers. Nihilus Force Pushed her into a tooth-like feature of the platform, causing her to drop her lightsaber, and she slumped against it. She meekly attempted to reach her lightsaber, which was only a few feet away from her, through the Force and failed after Sion stooped over her, grabbed her face, and stood, Traya still within his grip. He proceeded to slam her head into the tooth then punched and kneed her before slamming her to the ground. Sion combined his power with Nihilus in order to sap Traya's Force energy. In the process, they also cut her off from the Force and cast her out into exile.

With Traya gone, the Sith were left with no defined leadership and her followers fractured, once again, into many factions, all seeking to take what little remained of Revan's Sith Empire. Nihilus and Sion, having been the ones who defeated Traya, took control of the fractured Sith. The two united the many Dark Jedi who had followed Traya and had vied for her power themselves. The Dark Lords took control of these groups and focused them on a single common goal: the elimination of the Jedi Order. Both Sith Lords had different vehicles for achieving this, however. On the one hand, Sion hunted and killed as many Jedi he could find, dying many times along the way, only to be resurrected by his own will to live. On the other hand, Nihilus flew through the galaxy with a large fleet of ships that he ripped from the mass shadows surrounding Malachor V. He made one, the Ravager, his flagship and flew through the galaxy stealthily and on the fringes of known space, feeding on the largest deposits of Force energies he could find to make himself more powerful and to sate the ever-growing hunger within him.

Eventually Nihilus became so absorbed by the dark side of the Force and his hunger that his physical body began to erode. Knowing that he would succumb to death if he did not act soon, Nihilus ripped his spirit from his body and encased it in the armor he wore, thus allowing the dark side to consume his useless body which dissolved completely. Using the Force, he was able to keep his robes, armor and mask together, giving him some form and allowing him to use his Force powers as well as a lightsaber. Apart from that, however, he no longer had a physical form and he became simple primitive intent.

Encounter with Visas Marr
The Trayus Academy continued producing legions of Sith Lords, Assassins and Marauders, with Sion and Nihilus at its head. They spread death throughout the galaxy and turned many other Force-sensitives to their dark cause. What his followers experienced first hand, while around Nihilus, allowed them to leech off other Force-sensitives' Force energy making them more powerful. He also taught them how to feel their prey across the vastness of space.

In 3,952 BBY, Atris, a Jedi Master, organized a large gathering of Jedi on the Miraluka colony world Katarr at which most of the remaining Jedi were expected to attend. After organizing the event, she then leaked the location as a ploy to lure a dark presence that she had sensed through the Force. Her plan worked, drawing Nihilus toward Katarr. Nihilus neared the planet, however, he spoke, his voice a great hunger that the Miraluka could see and feel through the Force. The great hunger overwhelmed them and obliterated the surface of Katarr, wiping out the entire colony and anything else touched by the Force. Nihilus killed much of what remained of the Jedi Order, including the Jedi Masters Zhar Lestin, Dorak and Vandar Tokare; Atris, herself, did not actually attend the conclave though she was expected to and was reported to have done so. As he walked on the surface, Darth Nihilus found only a single living thing, an injured woman named Visas Marr. He put her in a deep sleep, and brought her aboard his ship. Days later, Marr awoke, completely healed aboard the Ravager, and approached the Dark Lord. When she asked him why the wave of death had spared her, he didn't speak. Instead, he showed her a vision of the galaxy as he saw it through his senses: beings on other planets unable to feel the Force, disconnected from one another and lost in the crush of humanity, a chaos to which he brought order. The vision crippled her ability to see through the Force and carved out the flesh of her vestigial eye sockets. She became his trusted sole apprentice and developed a powerful Force bond with her Master that strengthened both and allowed them to support or weaken each other in battle.

Downfall
In another part of the galaxy, the Jedi Exile returned to Republic space after being banished from the Jedi Order for following Revan to the Mandalorian Wars. She had begun to reestablish her connection to the Force which had been severed during the Battle of Malachor V. The Exile became a factor in Republic politics when Atris, intent on using her as bait for the Dark Lord, arranged for her return in 3,951 BBY aboard the Republic warship Harbinger, and broadcast knowledge of her presence through the core ward databases. When the Peragus Mining Facility was destroyed, as a result of Darth Sion's pursuit of the Exile there, the Telosian Restoration Project, a pilot program for all restorative efforts in the wake of the Mandalorian Wars, lost its main supply of fuel and Republic secessionist movements on planets such as Onderon increased. The Exile came under the tutelage of Nihilus's former master, who had forsaken her Sith identity of Darth Traya and taken the name Kreia following her exile. Kreia now planned to use the Exile against the Lords of the Sith to achieve her revenge.

Nihilus allied himself with General Vaklu, the leader of the Onderonian separatists and cousin of Queen Talia of Onderon, just before the Exile's return to Republic space. He wanted to aid Vaklu in breaking away from the Republic so the planet would fall under his influence and become a staging ground for the Sith. Colonel Tobin, Vaklu's second in command, became his contact. Nihilus also established a base on Onderon's moon, Dxun, inside the Tomb of Freedon Nadd, which was filled with dark energy Force nexus that he hoped to feed upon and where his underlings were to perform a dark side ritual and influence the coming events.

Nihilus felt a disturbance in the Force that only his apprentice could identify. As a result, Marr was sent to defeat the Exile and bring her before Nihilus so that he could consume her. When the Exile defeated Marr instead, the Miraluka began to question her conclusions of what her Master once showed her. She was swayed to serve the Exile against the slayer of her people.

Nihilus's plans for Onderon failed when the Exile intervened in the Onderon Civil War. Having been attacked at the start of the First Battle of Onderon, the Exile joined forces with the Mandalorians led by Canderous Ordo, the first Mandalore since the Mandalorian Wars, and his followers living on the planet. When a detachment of Sith were dispatched to Iziz from the nearby moon of Dxun, the Mandalorians were still unaware of the presence of Nihilus's base. The Sith had stayed clear of Mandalorian patrols even though they were very close to the Mandalorian Camp. When Kreia sensed a greater threat within what seemed to be merely a staging base, the Exile took action against it. A member of the Jedi Exile's team, was put in charge of an expedition through the jungle, aimed at the eradicating the Sith from it. Two more of the Exiles companions accompanied the leader, as well a squadron of Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders provided by Mandalore. After battling their way inside the tomb, the ceremony was interrupted by the strike team and stopped upon their defeating the Sith Lords stationed inside the tomb.

Meanwhile, the Exile, Kreia, and a third companion headed to Iziz to support Queen Talia and keep Onderon in the Republic. There, Sith Lords and Dark Jedi had joined the separatists and were marching to the Iziz Royal Palace, accompanied by Sith wranglers and their huge beasts. The Exile fought to the Iziz Royal Palace throne room where she walked in on a battle between the Vakluists and Royalists. After killing his followers, the Exile defeated Vaklu and allowed Queen Talia to decide his fate. Talia decided to have Vaklu executed by firing squad right there, without a trial. Afterwards, Nihilus was informed by Colonel Tobin that there was a Jedi Academy on the planet Telos IV. This was actually a ruse by Kreia in an attempt to draw her former pupil there while she traveled to reclaim her academy on Malachor. When Nihilus and his fleet arrived near the planet, the Republic Navy was there to meet him, working with Canderous Ordo's Mandalorians who were there to assist the Exile and their Mandalore, starting the Battle of Telos IV. Though Nihilus realized too late that there were no Force-sensitives in the Academy, his hunger drove him to still try to absorb Telos anyway or it would consume the Sith Lord.

Nihilus's ship was assaulted and boarded by the Mandalorians in a coordinated final strike against Nihilus. The Mandalore led his troops to and aboard the Ravager, while covered by the Republic forces, to assist the Exile and Visas Marr in their fight to the bridge of the ship and in the final confrontation with Nihilus. Four proton bombs were set in strategic locations throughout the ship along their way, the fourth being obtained from the missile bay after a premature detonation risked putting the entire plan in jeopardy. Colonel Tobin, however, met the Exile one last time though his body was twisted by the dark side from exposure to Nihilus's dark powers in the time since Kreia saved him. Though at first he was hostile towards the Exile, he agreed to help the Mandalorians detonate the charges after the Exile informed him that it would only be a matter of time until Onderon would meet the same fate as Telos if Nihilus was to succeed.

During the final showdown with Nihilus, he attempted to absorb the Exile's Force energy, he exhausted himself and was made more vulnerable. This was due to the Exile's leech-like nature, mirroring Nihilus's, as a result of her tie to the Force being cut at the end of the Battle of Malachor V. They engaged in a quick fight, with the Dark Lord seeming too strong to defeat. Then, the Exile learned of his aversion to her Force energy signature and turned the tide against him. Marr entered a trance and tried to disrupt the link with her former Master, undermining his connection to the Force through their Force bond. The three of them defeated Nihilus and escaped the Ravager's destruction. However, before making for the orbital shuttle they used to board the ship, his mask was removed by Marr, who wanted to see the face of the one who had wounded her. When asked by the Exile what she saw, she simply replied, "a man, nothing more." His body then dissolved in an aura of dark side energies as the trio walked out of the bridge. Shortly thereafter, the bombs aboard the Ravager exploded, and the rest of the Sith fleet was decimated by the Republic.

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

- Darth Krayt

After the death of Nihilus, the Jedi Exile traveled to Malachor V to find Kreia, who had taken back her former name along with the Academy. The Exile walked into the Academy and was attacked when Darth Sion went against Traya's orders, that the Exile was not to be harmed, and told all the students in the academy to attack the Jedi. She fought through the halls and found Darth Sion defending the door to the Trayus Core. The two dueled, the Exile having the advantage but Sion regenerating when injured. The Exile convinced Sion to let go of fighting and anger which, fueled by the dark side energies and his will to live, kept him alive despite whatever the Exile threw at him. She succeeded and he died peacefully from his lifetime of injuries.

The Exile proceeded into the Core and found Traya meditating. She revealed her plans to the Exile. Traya intended to destroy the Force itself by using her, as the Exile was a Wound in the Force because she cut herself off from the Force at the end of the Battle of Malachor V. After the Exile reluctantly dueled her former teacher, cutting off her left hand, she refused to strike Traya down. Traya revealed her ability to control three floating lightsabers in tandem and attacked the Exile once again. After being defeated a second time, Traya died of her injuries, after telling the Exile about glimpses of the future such as the end of the Republic and her companions' futures.

The Sith lived on after the fall of the Sith Triumvirate. At least one Dark Lord of the Sith rose and succeeded Nihilus, quietly ruling as the Republic began to thrive anew.

At some point during his life, Darth Nihilus created a holocron that eventually fell into the hands of Darth Krayt. Several millennia after Nihilus's death, the Sith had reclaimed the galaxy for the first time since the fall of Palpatine's Galactic Empire. Around 137 ABY, Krayt traveled to Korriban and accessed this holocron along with those of Darth Andeddu and Darth Bane, seeking their advice on how to stop the Yuuzhan Vong creatures from consuming his body. The only response he received from Nihilus was a statement in the Sith Lord's language, which his comrades didn't translate.

Personality and traits


Darth Nihilus was a figure of the shadows. He always craved greater power. Unlike most Sith Lords, however, he cared very little for the Sith as an organization. Nihilus saw death as the sole purpose of life, and power as the means to achieve it. 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. After he was forced to shed his physical being, he ceased to feel fear and other emotions; he became an entity of pure intent. Nihilus, however, was still human enough to have some feelings, as his bond with Marr persisted until their confrontation on the Ravager. She was his only apprentice, and her betrayal was met with much anger.

Powers and abilities


Darth Nihilus wielded a self-made red-bladed lightsaber and fought in a one-handed aggressive style. He had learned some the greatest of the Sith teachings but such practices took the form of dependence. 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. The hunger controlled him, not the other way around. 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.

Darth Nihilus was adept in many aspects of the Force. 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. 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's holocron millennia later. He was also proficient in Dark rage, Farseeing, Force lightning, Force Resistance, Force Scream, Force Whirlwind, among others such as a dark variant of Force Healing called Dark Healing. Nihilus was aware of some secret powers of the dark side such as devastating power, used to increase the power of an offensive Force technique either by half of its power or to double its power, and distant power, which gave him the ability to increase the range of a Force power to anywhere in the star system from which it originated.

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

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 and in the Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide. In an interview conducted by a Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic fan website, Chris Avellone is asked what his intentions for Darth Nihilus were. Though he did state that his origin story is non-canon, Avellone thinks of Nihilus as like the Jedi Exile's "other half," pursuing a different path after Malachor V was torn apart.

Nihilus never speaks a clear word in the game, he simply emits patterns of sounds similar to the Sith holocrons found on Telos IV. Alien languages such as Huttese were subtitled, while Nihilus's words were not. Marr seems to understand at least some portions of what Nihilus says to her, although this communication might be telepathic rather than purely verbal.

Like many Sith Lords, Nihilus's name has a second meaning (nihil is Latin for "nothing"). This may be a reference to the fact that he has no physical body, only his consciousness in his armor. Nihilus is also derived from the term "nihilism," or "belief in nothing," most notably the denial of concepts of truth and purpose. Another Latin-derived term from nihil is the English word, "annihilation" which means "to destroy completely" or "reduce to nonexistence."

In promotional material for the game, Nihilus is seen as an opposite to Atris. 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 lightsaber crystal may then be found in his remains.

Alternate stories
Though Nihilus's background and motives do not change based on the Force orientation of the Jedi Exile, there are some minor variations his story can take.

Suicide
A possible outcome to the final battle with Nihilus is to convince Marr to sacrifice herself, thus shattering the bond she shares with Darth Nihilus. Severely wounded, he is no match for the Jedi Exile. This was originally thought to be cut content but made it into the game. The option only works, however, if Marr is equipped with regular clothing and wielding a melee weapon or lightsaber.

Alternate dialogue
If the Exile chooses to follow the path of the dark side, instead of saying "I saw a man, nothing more" when the Exile asks Marr what she saw when she looked upon Nihilus's face, she replies "I saw a graveyard world, surrounded by a fleet of dead ships. I felt it through him... as I feel it through you."

If the Exile allows Marr to look upon Nihilus's face after his death, she can also have Marr bring his mask to her. It cannot be worn; however, it does give the player a Force Point boost. If the player does not ask for the mask, it disappears with his body.

Continuity inconsistency
Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force, being written from the in-universe point of view, features three conflicting records about the end of Darth Nihilus. According to the first, he was slain by Brianna, an attendant to Jedi Master Atris. Another record indicates that Visas Marr was involved in defeating Nihilus, while the third record suggests that Nihilus was able to kill the Miraluka before he died. It should be noted that while the second and the third records describe respectively the light side and the dark side options of the game, the first record contradicts the game directly: not only does Brianna only join the player's party if playing as a male Exile, but she is also unable to accompany him to the Ravager, since only Visas Marr and Mandalore are taken by the Jedi Exile on the mission to defeat Nihilus.

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.

Nihilus versus Sion
The Jekk'Jekk Tarr was originally going to be blown up by Dessicus with the Exile inside. Everyone believed her to be dead, which was not the case, and Sion approached Nihilus. He told Nihilus that their partnership was over and that he never needed him at all, then attacked him and was rebuffed by an unknown Force power that also killed several people around Sion. Sion limped away from this attack and left the Ravager.

A second apprentice
During the final battle versus Nihilus, the Exile was going to have the option of saying that she wanted to become Nihilus's apprentice (truth or lie). If truth, the Exile would have fought and killed Marr, weakening Nihilus through their bond and then she would turn on Nihilus, killing him as well. If lie, Nihilus would let his guard down and the Exile would attack him.

Hair
In Hasbro's Star Wars Evolutions action figure set, The Sith Legacy, Nihilus is featured with Darths Bane and Maul. He has a removable hood that reveals that Nihilus had black hair and styled it in dreadlocks.

Other media usage
On June 13, 2007, radio shock jock Howard Stern mentioned Darth Nihilus during his show on Sirius Satellite Radio. 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 wiki's entry on Darth Nihilus.

Nihilus was featured in a Penny Arcade strip along with a GE3-series protocol droid and Rohlan Dyre.

Appearances

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

Notes and references
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