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 to the Jedi Exile

Darth Nihilus, the Lord of Hunger, was a Dark Lord of the Sith in the time after the Jedi Civil War. 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. He was a shadowy figure that wore a red and white mask and was dressed in long black Sith robes that covered his body.

Darth Nihilus, a living vacuum, consumed the Force from Force-sensitives in order to stay alive. He even consumed entire Force-sensitive planets. In addition to his terrible hunger, Nihilus wielded a lightsaber, and fought in a one-handed aggressive style. He was defeated by the Jedi Exile.

Biography
"You&hellip; you are the darkness in which all life dies, my lord&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. It is possible that he drained the Force from these formerly living beings to enslave them.

"He spared the Miraluka, and that may have been the last shred of feeling that exists within him."

- Kreia to the Jedi Exile



One servant of Nihilus was Visas Marr, a female Miraluka from Katarr, a planet consumed and destroyed by Nihilus. The Sith Lord sent Visas on a mission to find and bring the last of the Jedi before him, so that he could consume her power and essence. However, this would be the Sith Lord's undoing, for the Jedi Exile broke Visas free from Nihilus's bonds, and she turned against her former master.

Attack on Telos IV
When 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 had been betrayed by Kreia who had lied to Tobin in the hopes of luring his master there. 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. Since the Exile had severed her tie to the Force she was basically of his same nature, so when Nihilus tried to feed on her, he exhausted himself and became vulnerable. After a short but brutal fight, the trio managed to defeat Darth Nihilus and his mask was removed by his former apprentice, she wanted to see for herself the face of the one who 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. "What did you see when you looked at him?" "A man, nothing more."

- The Exile and Visas Marr

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.

Traits and abilities
"One cannot hold a power of that magnitude and still perceive the universe as we do."

- Kreia

Darth Nihilus was extremely powerful. He was known as a cold, calculating figure. He was cautious, as his actions during the campaign against the Jedi showed. He was also a wound in the Force, and as such created Force echoes. Nihilus had the ability to drain the life out of entire planets and individuals. His hunger was insatiable and his very speech caused pain and death to all who heard it. The unlucky few who survived contact with the Dark Lord became little more than mindless slaves. Though his lightsaber skills were not as advanced as his Force powers, they were still formidable. It is strange that Nihilus even bothered himself with a weapon such as a lightsaber, considering his incredible power to wield the Force—perhaps he was wary of other individuals who were wounds in the Force (like the Jedi exile) and who would therefore be largely resistant to his mind-crushing abilities

Nihilus always craved greater power: a trait typical of many Sith such as Naga Sadow and Palpatine. Unlike most other Sith lords, however, he cared very little for the Sith as an organization or legacy - after he consumed the last of the Jedi, it is likely that he would have turned on the other Sith to feed his hunger for Force sensitives. Like Darth Sion, Nihilus never took an apprentice—it is almost as if he was not a true Sith towards the end, but simply an unthinking force of unimaginable hunger and destruction.

Darth Nihilus's Force sense was so great he could sense Jedi from lightyears away. Darth Nihilus was powerful enough to sever the force from someone as powerful as Darth Traya. He also was skilled in Sith alchemy, as evidenced by an Onderonian soldier. Darth Nihilus power was even able to escape death by containing his consciousness in his armor - an ability that Darth Krayt would inquire of Nihilus' holocron many millenia later.

"He cares nothing for the Sith, or its teachings, and once he has destroyed the Jedi, he will turn on the Sith and consume them."

- Kreia to the Jedi Exile

In fact, it was an inevitable factor in Nihilus's plans for the Galaxy, that once he had consumed the last of the Jedi, he would begin consuming the Sith entirely. There was no future in the galaxy he saw. All he saw were planets and systems to be consumed. In such an empty life as Nihilus had, it seemed appropriate to give him the title of the Lord of Hunger. Darth Traya thought that he had no conscious control over his power – merely that his hunger was a primal instinct that was in control of him, rather than him being in control of it. It was for this reason that Traya wished to stop Darth Nihilus&mdash;his hunger could not be stopped or sated. Visas Marr was even afraid that he would become so powerful his very presence would kill all life.

Although Nihilus was a slave to his hunger, he showed more power in the Force than most other Force-sensitive beings. A measure of this power would be the fact that he used the Force to lift his flagship from its orbit around the planet of Malachor V, and kept it together even though it was not space-worthy.

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.
 * It should also be noted that the same style of lightsaber combat used by Nihilus during the player's encounter with him is used by another main villain of the Knights of the Old Republic series, Darth Malak. This is due to Nihilus's model using Malak's model from the first game as a base.
 * Darth Nihilus was going to face off with Darth Sion at some point in the original uncut game on the Ravager, after the Exile supposedly dies.
 * Another possible outcome to the battle 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, but gives 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. It could also refer to his death at the hands of the Exile, though the latter seems unlikely because his armor and robes were seen to be destroyed in dark side Force energies. Yet his mask remains, and could hold his life energy.

Appearances

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