Sunday, August 20, 2006

Darth Nihilus
Biographical information
Date of death

3,951 BBY

Physical description
Species

Unknown humanoid

Gender

Male

Height

2.02 meters

Chronological and political information
Era(s)

Old Republic era

Affiliation

Sith

  [Source]
"Power? Do you think so? There is no strength in the hunger he possesses..."
Kreia
"You... 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. Ally of Darth Traya, he was one of the few survivors of the Battle of Malachor V and a member of the Sith Triumvirate. He was a shadowy figure that wore a red and white mask and was dressed in a black cloak.

Darth Nihilus consumed the Force from Force-sensitives in order to stay alive. He even consumed entire Force-sensitive planets. Besides his terrible hunger, Darth Nihilus wielded a lightsaber, and fought in an aggressive one-handed style.

Contents
Biography
"He is a wound in the Force, more presence than flesh, and in his wake life dies... sacrificing itself to his hunger."
Visas Marr to the Jedi Exile
 
Enlarge
Nihilus walks the surface of Katarr, encountering Visas Marr.
Nihilus walks the surface of Katarr, encountering Visas Marr.

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 to follow Revan. 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 master's teaching methods, Nihilus, along with 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. Nihilus and Sion then begun their shadow war against the remnants of the Jedi, hunting Jedi to the brink of extinction.

Darth Nihilus ravaged and consumed numerous beings, several of those who were not consumed to death becoming mindless slaves aboard the bridge of his flagship, the Ravager. Nihilus's nature was all-consuming, which may be 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.

Nihilus in action.
Enlarge
Nihilus in action.

One servant of Nihilus was Visas Marr, a Miraluka female 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. During theBattle of Telos IV, along with the Exile and Mandalore, Visas defeated him on board the bridge of 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, thus eliminating one of the three reigning Sith Lords. After his death, his body dissolved in an aura of dark side energies.

Behind the scenes
Concept art for Darth Nihilus.
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Concept art for Darth Nihilus.
"One cannot hold a power of that magnitude and still perceive the universe as we do."
Kreia
  • Like all Sith Lords, Darth Nihilus's name has some 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 concepts of truth and purpose.
  • It maybe due to a time constraint on the part of Obsidian, Darth Nihilus seems to have the same animation as Darth Malak in terms of combat.
  • 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. It has been theorized that he speaks in the Sith language, for it is stated that Darth Nihilus is so corrupt, when he speaks, it causes death around him (the statement can be found in the Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords strategy guide, under Darth Nihilus).

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

He's one freaky looking dude. Love mommy