Darth Nihilus

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

- Visas Marr

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.

Biography
"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



Little 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. After the war, he was found by Darth Traya to be Force-sensitive, and 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 Followers, 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.

"Why did he spare the Miraluka? It may have been the last shred of humanity in 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.



Nihilus was informed of hundreds of Jedi on the planet Telos IV. Setting his fleet out to the planet, Nihilus was surprised when he found out that no "Jedi" were on the planet. His ship was subsequently invaded, and the Exile, together with Canderous Ordo and Visas, confronted the Sith Lord on board the bridge of the Ravager. When Nihilus tried to feed on the Exile, he exhausted himself, leaving himself temporarily vulnerable. Since the Exile had previously lost her connection to the Force, she was shielded from the leeching hunger of Nihilus. After a short but brutal fight, the Exile finally slew Darth Nihilus. After his death, his body dissolved in an aura of dark side energies. At his defeat, Visas looked on his face and said that she saw "just a man, nothing more".

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 summoned his spirit (along with those of Darth Andeddu and Darth Bane) on Korriban, seeking his 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
"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' plans for the Galaxy, that once he had consumed the last of the Jedi, he would begin consuming the Sith entirely. There is no future in the galaxy he sees. 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 the Lord of Hunger. Darth Traya thought that he had no power, merely that his hunger was an instinct that was in control of him rather than him being in control. It was for this reason that Traya wished to stop Darth Nihilus.

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

- Kreia

Darth Nihilus 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 he consumed thousands of worlds. In fact, 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.

"Power? Do you think so? There is no strength in the hunger he possesses&hellip;"

- Kreia

Nihilus's all-consuming nature may have been related to the thought bomb technique used by Kaan and the Brotherhood of Darkness three thousand years later and/or to Palpatine's consuming Force Storms. His hunger was an insatiable appetite for all things living; indeed, it consumed him to the point where he ceased being a man of flesh. His flesh remained, but only in the form of a shell encasing the dark gaping void that swallowed all life it came into contact with. Nihilus viewed the Galaxy as simply a platter to feed his insatiable appetite.

Although Nihilus was a slave to his hunger, he showed more power in the force than any other Force-sensitive being. 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 all Sith Lords, Nihilus's name has a second meaning, as do all Sith (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 related term is 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 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 hooded Sith Lord 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 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.

Appearances

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