Atris

Before the Mandalorian Wars, Atris was a Human Jedi Master and Jedi historian who saw the Jedi Order as the symbol of light, justice, and perfection. All that changed when the Jedi Exile defied the Order to participate in the Mandalorian Wars with Revan and Malak. Having one whom she cared about defy everything she believed in shook her to her very core.

Biography
"I am Atris, chronicler of the Jedi, last of the Jedi." "Those are titles, words you cling to as the darkness closes in around you." "You are that which attack the Jedi. You are Sith." "Sith is a title, yes. But like you the title is not what I am, it is not what I believe. For you it is different."

- Atris to Kreia



As a member of the Jedi Council, Atris was the first to declare that any Jedi who left for the Mandalorian Wars was no longer a Jedi, and feared being ostracized by the Council if she had followed the Exile to war. Part of her wanted to punish the Exile for bringing her perfect view on the Jedi to an end, while part of her wanted to understand why the Exile defied the Council yet felt justified in doing so. In the beginning, Atris naively wished to execute the Exile following her trial.

After the Jedi Civil War, Atris rallied a secret Jedi convocation on Katarr, a colony world of the Miraluka. However, only the Jedi themselves believed in the secrecy of this council, as Atris spread information about its location, hoping to draw the attention of the Sith and make them reveal themselves. However, the Sith threat, in the form of Darth Nihilus, surpassed all expectations of the Jedi, including Atris herself. Nihilus proved to be too powerful for the Jedi, who found their deaths on Katarr. Atris, having not attended the conclave, survived.

She took refuge under a polar ice cap on the planet Telos IV, where she had hidden most of the Jedi's valuable artifacts and resources, such as Sith holocrons. She sought to remedy what she saw as a fundamental flaw of the Jedi Order: the lack of any mechanism to prevent Jedi from falling to the dark side, and repeatedly wreaking havoc on the Galaxy. To that end, she trained a group of half-sisters, specially equipped and trained to resist Force powers and if necessary, use their Echani combat skills to subdue wayward Jedi. Atris planned to eventually rebuild the Jedi Order, but she (like Ulic Qel-Droma) greatly overestimated her own ability to resist the dark side, becoming corrupted by her own arrogance and by delving into the forbidden knowledge of her collection of Sith holocrons.



As she privately sought to understand the Exile's motivations (part of the reason for her keeping of the holocrons), she clung even more desperately to her perfect view of the Jedi to the point of fanaticism. It built up a pressure that finally exploded when Kreia coerced Atris into ceasing her self-denials and accept her new dark persona. Part of the reason why Atris hid on Telos is that she believed she could more easily maintain her perfect world in isolation. As Kreia once said, Atris had no one to blame but herself. No one forced her into the choices she made, not the Jedi, not Traya, and certainly not the Exile.

Kreia realized that Atris was walking down the path to the dark side. As such she informed her former student, Darth Nihilus, that there was a Jedi academy on Telos. Darth Nihilus attacked Telos believing that he could feed on the Force-users there. Since he would find only Atris, he would destroy her and then die of starvation. Kreia was especially proud of this plan because it would eliminate two major threats to the Galaxy in one stroke.

Atris would eventually clash with the Exile in a lightsaber duel, and be defeated. The Exile, however, spared her life, sealing her in a cell to await the judgment of the Council, and leading her down the path of redemption, something Atris believed the Exile would never have done.

Behind the scenes



 * Atris is voiced by Elizabeth Rider.
 * "Atris" is an anagram of "Taris", a planet from the first KOTOR game.
 * In the game, if the main character (the Jedi Exile) is set as a male, some discussion with the Last Handmaiden (Brianna) reveals that Atris may have harbored feelings for the Exile, and the Exile's decision to leave the Jedi for the Mandalorian Wars was in fact the trigger for her eventual fall to the dark side. This further justifies the bitterness of her attitude when she first meets the Exile earlier in the game.
 * There is some arguement that Atris could be a second Darth Traya. Though the ending where Atris completely becomes Darth Traya was cut (see below), the TSL Strategy Guide still has Atris as Darth Traya, though it follows the same plot that remains, with Kreia as the final opponent. Additionally, Kreia says this to Atris: "But there must always be a Darth Traya, one that holds the knowledge of betrayal. Who has been betrayed in their heart, and will betray in turn." This can be taken as Kreia giving the title of Darth Traya to Atris, who betrays the Handmaidens, the Exile, and the Republic, and has been betrayed by the Exile's past involvement in the Mandalorian Wars.
 * In addition to the ending mentioned above, the player has an opportunity to kill Atris during the final battle, or to leave her at the mercy of the Sith holocrons.
 * Originally, the light side and dark side endings differed from each other more significantly than in the final game. One possible ending featured Kreia's redemption and Atris's total shift to the dark side, which culminated in the scene where Atris attacked the player wearing a black robe and claimed that she, not Kreia, was Darth Traya. Her dark side model remained in the PC version of the game and can appear in the main menu if the CurSithLord option is set to 1 in swkotor2.ini. An Action Replay mod is needed to view it on the Xbox.
 * Later on, the dark side model of Atris (see above) was planned to be put in the final game for the confrontation with Atris, but it was removed a few weeks before the game was released, with the reason that the presence of the dark side model was confusing the game testers.
 * There is an error in the guide book for KOTOR II, which shows a picture of the Atris boss fight with Atris in the black robe pictured above.
 * There is some indication that Atris was originally planned to be the player's party member at some point, most probably after Kreia's departure for Malachor V. For example, the name of her appearance set is "Party_NPC_Atris". Also, if using a software such as KoToR Tool, you can change the portrait of characters to other available game portraits, Atris's being one of them. However, it might have remained from a prior version, which had Mira join the party on Peragus, rather then Nar Shaddaa. Atris was on the Jedi Council during the Mandalorian Wars before her fall to the dark side (and ironically is the only one of the five to even have a chance of surviving the First Jedi Purge).


 * It is presumed by many fans that judging by her physical appearance, Atris is a member of the Echani like her handmaidens.
 * Atris's Jedi historian robes are very similar in design to Jocasta Nu's, another Jedi librarian, the difference being that Atris wears white, while Jocasta wears yellow and black.
 * In promotional material for KotOR II, Atris is represented as the personification of the light side of the Force; an analogue to Darth Nihilus, although the two never interact within the game (this is ironic, as Atris is at various levels of dark side corruption throughout the narrative).
 * It is unknown if Atris was actually redeemed and rejoined the Order, or simply exiled herself. And there is a possibility that her own holocrons might have killed her, due to her failure.
 * In a misprint on the Star Wars: The Ultimate Visual Guide on page 27 (Ascension of the Dark Lords) it says the Handmaiden Brianna; the picture above is Atris and not Brianna.
 * In the Champions of the Force (Star Wars Miniatures) miniature set, the Jedi Guardian figure resembles Atris, though Atris is never identified as a Guardian at any time.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 9: Flashpoint Interlude: Homecoming
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords