Darth Nihilus

Darth Nihilus was a Force-sensitive Human male who lived during the Dark Wars. After losing everything during the Mandalorian Wars, he turned to the dark side when he survived 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. He then came under the apprenticeship of Darth Traya, and after a while became one of the three 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. Eventually, his affliction developed to the point where he was forced to call upon his dark powers and encase his spirit within his mask and armor. The apprentices grew in strength during their training; eventually overpowering and exiled their Master, severing her ties to the Force. 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 then-Mandalore, Canderous Ordo, 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, in part as a means of survival. Nihilus was in the Battle of Malachor V, the concluding battle in the Mandalorian Wars, when the Jedi Exile, a Jedi General who followed Revan and Malak to into battle 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 on the planet's surface and in orbit near the planet. Nihilus was trapped on the planet by the artificially-created mass shadows along with most of the two fleets that filled the 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 of another survivor; it was an unpleasant experience, but for a brief moment the hunger ceased. The hunger, 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 there, to her school on the planet, and learned the ways of the Sith. Time passed and he was eventually named a Sith Lord 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 in the very heart of Malachor V itself. After beating her severely, Sion combined his power with Nihilus in order to sap her 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 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, those who followed Traya but now wanted her power for themselves, and focused the groups on a 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
With Traya overthrown, Nihilus had moved into a position of power. The Trayus Academy drew many people strong in the Force to its halls to be taught by former graduates passing on the legacy of the Academy. It continued producing legions of Sith Lords, Assassins and Marauders. They spread death throughout the galaxy and turned many Force-sensitives to their dark cause. What his followers experienced first hand, while around Nihilus, allowed them to become stronger near other Force-sensitives, and feel their targets through the Force across great distances.

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 she survived, 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
At this point, Nihilus's next move was to ally himself with General Vaklu, the leader of the Onderonian separatists and the cousin of Queen Talia, monarch of Onderon. 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.

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 was 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. In a turn of events, the Peragus Mining Facility was destroyed, restoration efforts throughout the Outer Rim were doomed, and secessionist movements on planets such as Onderon got out of hand. 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 her against the Lords of the Sith to achieve her revenge.

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



Nihilus's plans for Onderon failed when the Exile stopped the Onderon Civil War. Following being 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. When a detachment of Sith were dispatched to Iziz from the nearby moon of Dxun, they were still unaware of the presence of a base that Nihilus had established in Freedon Nadd's tomb; the Sith had stayed clear of Mandalorian patrols even though they were very close to the Mandalorian Outpost. Freedon Nadd's tomb was filled with dark energy, a Force nexus on which Nihilus hoped to feed, but when Kreia recognized a greater threat than what seemed to be merely a staging base, the Exile took action against it. The Dxun Force Adept, a follower of the Jedi Exile, was put in charge of an expedition through the jungle, aimed at the eradication of the Sith from it. Two more of her comrades accompanied the leader, as well a squadron of Mandalorian warriors provided by Mandalore. A ritual was being performed in the crypt to draw upon the power of the tomb and influence the outcome of the civil war, but it was broken by the strike team.

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. Vaklu was stopped, and Colonel Tobin became part of Kreia's deception to draw out Darth Nihilus. Confident that their Sith "associate" would be drawn to Telos IV, she told Tobin that it was there that the Jedi were hiding. When Nihilus set his fleet out to the planet, Republic Admiral Carth Onasi, aboard his flagship, the Sojourn, engaged them in conjunction a group of Mandalorians in the Battle of Telos IV. Realizing that he had been betrayed, Nihilus had no choice but to feed upon Telos anyway, or his hunger would have consumed him.

Nihilus's ship was assaulted and boarded by the Mandalorians, and the Mandalore accompanied both the Exile and Visas Marr on their fight to the bridge of the ship and to the final confrontation with Nihilus. Four proton bombs were set in strategic locations throughout the ship on 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. Twisted by the dark side from exposure to Nihilus's dark powers in the time since Kreia saved him, he agreed to help the Mandalorians detonate the charges after he realized that it would only be a matter of time until Onderon would meet the same fate as Telos if Nihilus was to succeed. On the vessel, Marr had a chance to visit her old meditation chamber, stopping to meditate for a moment and finally coming to terms with the destruction of her homeworld, forsaking vengeance and fully embracing the light side of the Force.

During the final showdown with Nihilus, the Exile, whose tie to the Force had previously been severed and whose leech-like nature was of the same nature as Nihilus's, could not be consumed by him, so when he tried, he exhausted himself and was made vulnerable. They engaged in a quick fight, with the Dark Lord seemingly too strong to defeat, then the Exile learned of his aversion to her and turned the tide. Marr entered a trance and tried to disrupt the link with her former Master, undermining his connection to the Force. The three of them managed to defeat him and escape the vessel's destruction, but 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

The Sith lived on after the fall of the Sith Triumvirate. At least one Dark Lord of the Sith rose and succeeded Nihilus and quietly ruled 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 later after the Sith had reclaimed the galaxy for the first time since the fall of the Galactic Empire. Around 137 ABY, Krayt traveled to Korriban and accessed this holocron along with those of Darths Andeddu and 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 peculiar language, which his comrades didn't bother to 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. The cause of such nihilism remains unknown. 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 of ships, 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 Wookieepedia 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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