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The video games Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003) and Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (2004) features a large cast of characters noted for its diversity and is the subject of significant discussion from gaming magazines and websites.
The main and player character of the first game is Revan, and the main and player character of the second game is the Jedi Exile. Both can be either a human male or a human female. Various other characters join the player's party and become controllable, with a maximum of three characters at a time.[1]
Chris Avellone, the lead designer of The Sith Lords, has said that "a core part of what made KOTOR I so great was the story and your companions, and that was our intention in the sequel as well",[2] and has also said that he thought that the characters and voice-acting were some of the key strengths of The Sith Lords, and said that they got a lot of help and support from LucasArts in the voice-acting and sound department. Avellone stated that in some cases, the characters turned out "better than we thought they would be". According to Avellone, while "there was some stuff we wanted to add", overall they "got almost everything we wanted in there". Avellone has said he has been surprised by the positive feedback of some of the characters.[3]
The main protagonist and player character of the first game is Revan, an amnesiac Sith Lord who is reassigned a new identity as a member of the Republic army. Revan's true identity is not revealed until a predetermined point in the narrative where the player is confronted by the game's central antagonist Darth Malak for the first time. Revan's gender, class, and facial appearance are chosen and customised by the player, with Rino Romano providing the voice for the male Revan, and Charity James voicing the female Revan. Since the player can choose the gender of Revan, much of the dialogue revolving around the character is gender-neutral with only a few exceptions.
Revan is depicted as a former Jedi who, along with their best friend Alek (later Darth Malak), left the Order to lead the fight in the Mandalorian Wars. One year after the end of the Mandalorian Wars, Darth Revan and Malak returned to Republic space at the head of a massive invasion fleet. Calling themselves the Sith, they declared war on the Republic. Since their intention was to unite the galaxy under one ruler so they could attack the ancient Sith Empire, they avoided attacking key places such as Coruscant, Onderon, and Dantooine. In one battle with the Republic, a Jedi strike team led by Bastila Shan boarded Revan's flagship, intending to capture the Sith Lord. The Sith won the battle, but as Revan prepared to duel with the Jedi who boarded the flagship, Malak, in the hopes of destroying both Revan and the Jedi, betrayed his Master, ordering the ships under his command to fire on Revan's flagship's bridge. Though Malak believed himself to have been successful in killing Revan, the latter survived. Revan, severely injured from the turbolaser blasts, was then taken by Bastila Shan and her Jedi strike team to the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine, where the Jedi Council chose to wipe Revan's memory and imprint them with a false identity that the player creates at the beginning of the game, choosing the character's gender and appearance.
Knights of the Old Republic begins with Revan awaking on a starship under attack. Throughout the game, Revan learns of their forgotten history and assembles a band of followers as they search for "Star Maps" to lead them back to the Star Forge, which Revan used to make their armada. Revan eventually encounters Malak, who reveals their former identity as a Sith Lord. Malak later captures Bastila and turns her to the dark side. Her ultimate fate depends on the player's choice to follow the light side or the dark side throughout the game. In the continuity of Star Wars Legends, Revan remains loyal to the light side, defeats Malak, and destroys the Star Forge. The last scene of this ending shows the main characters, including Revan, being honored by the Republic at the site of the temple on Rakata Prime; a picture of later events has emerged from subsequent games and novels.
The sequel Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords reveals that a year after the defeat of Malak, Revan recalled a threat from their time as a Sith Lord, and left known space to deal with it. Clues to the nature of the threat emerge from in-game dialogue with non-player characters (including Canderous and Kreia); this varies according to the player character's alignment and gender.
Prior to the events of the sequel, Revan bade farewell to the nine comrades who had accompanied them on their quest, knowing that none of them could safely accompany them in the places they had to go to; the only NPC with a certain knowledge of where and why Revan left (their navigation droid, T3-M4) won't divulge the information. Also, at the ancient tomb of Ludo Kressh in Korriban, the Jedi Exile fights a silent vision of Darth Revan, in which they appear to wield two lightsabers, one red and one violet. The game lists the color crystal of the lightsaber the player obtains from them as a unique red color. This is Revan's only physical appearance in the entire game. Additionally, the Jedi Exile can speak with several companions and non-player characters within the game to learn more about the history of Revan, and their journey into the Unknown Regions; during these conversations, players have the opportunity to set Revan's gender. If they choose to engage in these conversations, Revan's default gender is female, and the player must choose to say Revan is male if they wish Revan not to be a woman: if they choose to dismiss these conversations, Revan's default gender is reset to male.
Revan appears as the primary focus of Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan, a tie-in book to Star Wars: The Old Republic that was released by Bioware and EA on December 20, 2011. Revan re-emerges in Star Wars: The Old Republic after a team of Republic heroes manages to rescue him from the Emperor's Maelstrom Prison with the help of the ghost of the Jedi Exile. It is revealed that Revan was kept alive for centuries as a prisoner by the Emperor to channel Revan's strength in the Force. Revan's link with the Emperor was two-way, however, allowing them to keep the Emperor's darker urges in check, thereby preventing the Emperor from unleashing his full power upon the galaxy before the Republic and Jedi Order had grown enough again to be able to stand a chance against the Sith Empire. Though thankful to the Republic for rescuing them, having fallen the Dark side again, Revan decides to fight the Emperor on their own terms and takes control of a Rakatan installation called "The Foundry", engineering a droid army (led by HK-47) programmed to identify and eliminate any target with Sith DNA, which not only included Dark Lords of the Sith but also the majority of citizens of the Empire. Revan's plan is thwarted when a group of Imperials manages to infiltrate the Foundry and destroy the droid army and HK-47 before confronting Revan. After a vicious battle, Revan is defeated but disappears before a killing blow can be delivered.
Revan appears again in the "Legacy of Rakata Prime" flashpoint as the mastermind behind the conspiracy in the "Forged Alliances" plotline, and as the primary antagonist of the fourth digital expansion to The Old Republic, entitled Shadow of Revan, in which they return to destroy both the Republic and Empire, leading a group of followers known as the Order of Revan or "Revanites", into infiltrating both galactic powers and influencing them into annihilating each other. Some Republic and Imperial forces also declare themselves loyal to Revan. Revan then draws the Empire and Republic into a battle with the Revanite ships over the planet Rishi, so that neither the Republic nor the Empire can interfere when he confronts the Emperor. However, this plan is thwarted when the player character sends a communication to Republic and Imperial ships informing them of Revan's plan and telling them to cease all fire.
Revan is later cornered on Yavin 4 where they try to raise the Emperor but is confronted and defeated by the player and an alliance of Republic and Imperial characters. After the Emperor makes his presence known and leaves Yavin 4, an apparition of Revan appears and reveals that when they were defeated in the Foundry, only their light side became one with the Force, while their dark side, fueled by hate for the Emperor, survived, setting off the "Forged Alliances" plotline. The two sides of Revan, one Jedi, the other Sith, then reunite, with the now-whole spirit warning the player and their allies that they must undo what has been done, lest otherwise the Emperor will see his evil plans through and everything will be lost. In the Echoes of Oblivion story, Revan's spirit returns to aid the player character in defeating the duplicate spirit of the Sith Emperor before it can possess Satele Shan.
Revan was originally slated to appear in the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. In the third-season episode "Ghosts of Mortis," Revan would have appeared as a Sith Lord alongside Darth Bane as advisors to the Son, a dark side embodiment. Revan was cut from the episode in late production since their presence would conflict with Lucas' view of the Force at the time.[4][5][6] In the continuity of Star Wars Legends, rendered non-canonical in 2014, Revan is male and follows the light-side path,[7] while the character has no confirmed gender in Star Wars canon.
The Jedi Exile, also known simply as the Exile, is the main protagonist and player character of the second game. The player may choose the gender and decide what path to take.
According to continuity established by Star Wars: The Old Republic and its associated supplementary material, in Star Wars Legends, rendered non-canonical in 2014, the Jedi Exile is named Meetra Surik, who is female and aligned to the light-side of the Force.
Canderous Ordo, voiced by John Cygan, is a Mandalorian who appears in both the first game and in The Sith Lords. Ordo is a veteran Mandalorian warrior who joins the player's party in Knights of the Old Republic. After the game's conclusion, he becomes "Mandalore the Preserver", leader of the Mandalorians. Mandalore pledges himself and his warriors to the service of the Jedi Exile in The Sith Lords.
UGO Networks ranked Ordo among their list of top fifty Expanded Universe characters.[8]
T3-M4 is an astromech droid who appears in both games. It was constructed by a Twi'lek named Janice Nall of Taris for local crime lord, Davik Kang. The droid features code-breaking and computer "slicing" skills in addition to being able to mount armor and weapon upgrades. If the player attempts to talk to T3 it will simply communicate in a series of bleeps, similar to other astromech droids like R2-D2.
HK-47, voiced by Kristoffer Tabori, is an assassin droid owned by Revan, who appears in both of the games. In 2003 HK-47 won Computer Gaming World's "NPC of the Year" award,[9] and later won the category of "Original Game Character of the Year" in the 2004 Game Developers Choice Awards.[10]
Carth Onasi, voiced by Raphael Sbarge, is a Republic soldier and pilot. During the Mandalorian wars, Carth served under Admiral Saul Karath, who would become his mentor and, later, object of revenge. He met Revan while the two were fleeing the Endar Spire, following a Sith attack on the ship. He is the second character to become a party member in the first game, after Trask Ulgo sacrifices himself to fend off the Sith apprentice Darth Bandon. It is later revealed that Carth had a family on Telos who were killed by the Sith: his son Dustil later turns up as a Sith convert and the player has the option of killing him or opening his eyes. He is a romance option for the female Revan. Carth can appear briefly in the sequel, The Sith Lords, via recorded audio and video messages.
Carth is assigned to the cruiser Endar Spire during the Jedi Civil War when it was ambushed by a Sith fleet over the planet Taris. He narrowly escapes by taking an escape pod to the planet surface with an amnesiac Revan, who was memory wiped and given a new identity as a rank-and-file Republic soldier. The two searched for, and eventually rescued, the Jedi Bastila Shan from a swoop bike gang. Stealing the ship the Ebon Hawk from the crime lord Davik Kang, Carth and his companions escape Taris just as Darth Malak orders an orbital bombardment on its surface. After arriving at the Jedi Academy on Dantooine, he was tasked with searching for the Star Maps and the Star Forge along with Bastila and Revan. While searching for the Star Maps, Carth and his companions were captured by Admiral Karath and taken aboard his ship, the Leviathan. After breaking out, Bastila, Carth, and Revan managed to make it to the bridge of the ship, where Saul is defeated and killed. As he lay dying, Saul whispered Revan's true identity to Carth, to his dismay. Depending on Revan's alignment and relationship with Carth, Carth may accept that Revan is no longer a Sith Lord and had truly been redeemed. In the alternative, if Revan sides with Bastila later in the game and reassumes the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith, Carth flees from the party and disappears: if the dark-sided Revan is female, Carth will confront her and Bastila in the Star Forge's hangar after the defeat of Darth Malak, leading to a second boss fight.
Depending on dialogue options made by the player character during certain conversations about how the aftermath of the so-called Jedi Civil War in the first game affects the branching narrative for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, Carth may make a brief appearances in the game, or be referenced by other characters such as HK-47. According to the continuity established by the massively multiplayer online role-playing game sequel Star Wars: The Old Republic, Revan is male and remains loyal to the Jedi and the Republic.
In The Sith Lords, following the destruction of the Star Forge and the end of the Jedi Civil War and if Revan returns to the Jedi, Carth is promoted to Admiral. Revan tasked Carth with protecting the Republic and left in search for the true Sith Empire in the Unknown Regions prior to the events of the game. When the Sith Lord Darth Nihilus attacks Telos five years after the end of the Jedi Civil War, Carth leads the Republic fleet in defense of the planet and the space station orbiting above it. He also requests to speak with the Jedi Exile about Revan's whereabouts, where his dialogue content will differ depending on Revan's gender and the nature of his relationship with Revan. If Revan is female and if the player completes T3-M4's repairs, the droid will play a holovid recording of Carth discussing Revan, which again differs in content based on her final moral alignment.
Carth first appears in Issue No. 8 of the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic comic series as the helmsman serving aboard the Inexpugnable-class tactical command ship Courageous. He is often referred to by the nickname "Fleet" during this time period. Carth participates in several battles, where he eventually met the fugitive Padawan Zayne Carrick, who is disguised as a janitor. Carth later appears in a more prominent role for several of the series' story arcs.
Mission Vao, voiced by Catherine Taber, appears in Knights of the Old Republic. She is a fourteen-year-old Twi'lek and the best friend of Zaalbar. Mission joins the player's party after encountering her in the Undercity on Taris. Mission is first seen in a Lower City bar on the planet Taris, and is later encountered in its Undercity. She is distraught that her Wookiee companion Zaalbar has been captured by the Gamorrean slavers during a trip into the sewers of the Undercity, and seeks help to rescue Zaalbar. Zaalbar swears fealty to the player character upon his rescue, and both he and Mission join the player character's party as companions for the remainder of the game. Optional conversations with Mission will reveal details about her past and how she and Zaalbar met, and eventually unlocks a subplot side quest involving her brother Griff. Towards the end of the game, if the player character embraces their identity as Darth Revan, Dark Lord of the Sith and sides with a fallen Bastila Shan, Mission and Zaalbar will attempt to defect from the party. The player will have to either kill them, or in the alternative, exploit Zaalbar's life debt and force him to murder Mission on their behalf. If Zaalbar is forced to kill Mission, he will turn on Revan if he is brought along as a companion to the Star Forge.
Mission's past is explored in the twenty-second issue in the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic series of comics. Mission has been mentioned in the massively multiplayer online game Star Wars: The Old Republic as well as Star Wars reference books, such as the second volume of The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia.
Zaalbar is a character from Knights of the Old Republic. He is a Wookiee who is friends with Mission Vao and joins the player's party, swearing a life-debt to the player for helping Mission rescue him from a group of Gammorrean slavers in the Undercity of Taris. Zaalbar is the brother to Chuundar, the leader of a tribe on their home planet Kashyyyk. When the player's party first lands on Kashyyyk, Zaalbar is referred to as "mad-claw". Through Zaalbar's and Chuundar's father, Freyyr, Revan learns why Zaalbar was banished from the tribe: Zaalbar learned that Chuundar was selling Wookiee slaves to Czerka Corporation, and in a fit of rage attacked him with his bare claws, breaking a major Wookiee taboo; this led Freyyr to side with Chuundar and thus Zaalbar was exiled. When Revan and Freyyr confront Chuundar, Zaalbar sides with Freyyr and Revan and in turn kills Chuundar, freeing the Wookiees and driving Czerka off the planet. A dark-side alternative has Revan kill Freyyr, allowing Czerka's slave trade on Kashyyyk to continue: a dark-sided Revan can also order Zaalbar to kill Mission in order to fulfill his life-debt – this may cause Zaalbar to turn against Revan as well.
Bastila Shan, voiced by Jennifer Hale, is first mentioned as the commanding officer of the doomed Republic ship the Endar Spire, which has been boarded by Sith forces who are in pursuit of her. She is later rescued by the player character from a criminal gang known as the Black Vulkars on the planet Taris. She escapes the destruction of Taris with the player character's party by stealing a crime lord's ship, the Ebon Hawk, prior to an orbital bombardment by Malak's forces. She then becomes the player's Jedi Master (despite technically being only a Padawan learner herself) and shares with him/her the visions of the mysterious Star Forge which must be found in order to stop the Sith. If the player character is male, Bastila can also become his lover.
Eventually, the Ebon Hawk and its crew is captured by the Sith flagship, the Leviathan. Imprisoned along with the rest of the crew, Bastila later escapes captivity along with Carth Onasi and the player character. On their way to freedom, however, they are intercepted by Darth Malak who reveals the player character's true identity as Revan. Bastila admits that she was part of a Jedi strike team sent to capture Revan, and when they managed to corner the Dark Lord, Malak chose that moment to betray his Master by opening fire on Revan's ship. Though Revan was severely injured and almost killed in the attack, Bastila managed to save Revan's life, thus forging a powerful Force bond between the two. Revan was brought to the Jedi Council, and was given a new identity and assigned to serve under Bastila on the Endar Spire.
Although Revan escapes with Carth, Bastila is held by Malak as his prisoner. After weeks of torture, Malak eventually succeeds in forcing Bastila to give in to her hate and she becomes his new apprentice. Bastila later confronts Revan atop an ancient temple on the Rakatan world of Lehon, where she gives the former Dark Lord of the Sith an ultimatum to join forces with her. She is confronted again on the Star Forge, where she is defeated by Revan in a lightsaber duel; the player may choose either to kill her upon her request, or to spare her which leads to her projecting Battle Meditation in the Republic fleet's favor. With Bastila dead or in support of the Republic, the Sith fleet loses the advantage of Bastila's powers. The Republic destroys the Star Forge after Revan defeats Malak and the Sith starships fell into disarray. The Jedi reconvened following the battle, while Revan and the surviving crew of the Ebon Hawk were honored as the saviors of the galaxy.
If the player chooses to return to the dark side, Revan and Bastila turn on and kill the remaining Jedi party companions on top of the Rakatan Temple on the Unknown World. Before approaching the Star Forge, Bastila persuades the Republic to attack the Sith fleet stationed there. The Republic is under the impression that she would use her Battle Meditation against the Sith, but she uses it to turn the tide against them prior to Revan's final battle with Malak. Revan kills Malak, reclaims the title of Dark Lord of the Sith and takes Bastila as an apprentice.
Depending on dialogue options made by the player character during certain conversations about how the aftermath of the so-called Jedi Civil War in the first game affects the branching narrative for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, Bastila may make cameo appearances in the game, or be referenced by other characters such as HK-47.
According to the continuity established by the massively multiplayer online role-playing game sequel Star Wars: The Old Republic, Bastila is redeemed by a male Revan and survives the destruction of the Star Forge: continuing on the original game's romance subplot arc, the two fall in love, marry and go on to have a son. A year after the Star Forge's destruction, Revan, having remembered a great threat to the galaxy he discovered as leader of the Sith, sets out into the Unknown Regions, leaving most of his companions behind, including Bastila, who is at this point pregnant with their son, who she names Vaner in memory of his father. Two of her descendants, Satele Shan and her son Theron Shan appear in The Old Republic, which takes place 300 years after the first game.
Juhani, voiced by Courtenay Taylor, is a Cathar padawan who incorrectly believed she killed her master. She turned to the dark side and tainted the grove on Dantooine where she lived. Depending on which path the conversation is steered in by the player, Revan may either fight (and kill) her, or redeem her, where she joins the party to discover the location of the Star Forge and returns to the Order as a Jedi Knight. Juhani is the first explicitly LGBTQ character in Star Wars media.
Jolee Bindo, voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson, is a character in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Jolee is an old hermit living in the Shadowlands on the forest floor of Kashyyyk and a former Jedi Padawan. Bindo helps Revan bypass shield generators that lead deeper into the Shadowlands to find the Star Map and remains with Revan's party. After the main character gains experience, Jolee tells the tale of how he was once a smuggler, and through this met his wife. Against the wishes of the Jedi Council, he trained her in the way of the Force. She was then seduced to the dark side by Exar Kun, upon failing to convince Jolee to join Exar Kun as well, she drew her lightsaber on him. Jolee won the fight, but he was unable to bring himself to kill her. She escaped and went on to kill many Jedi. Jolee expected to be punished harshly for his mistakes, but the Council said he had learned his lesson the hard way, and even considered promoting him to knighthood. Disappointed with the Jedi’s decision, Jolee left the Order and started wandering the galaxy before crash landing on Kashyyyk, where he lived for 20 years until he met Revan.
Kimberley Wallace of Game Informer included Jolee Bindo in her list of best BioWare characters; she called him a "cranky old man who hacks the hell out of enemies is hard to top". According to Wallace, "he almost beats HK-47 for his power with sarcasm, as Jolee Bindo's self-ridicule is part of his charm", and claims that he will perhaps never live down his infamous line, "I did it all for the Wookiees!"[11]
Kreia, voiced by Sara Kestelman, is the teacher and mentor to the Jedi Exile in The Sith Lords.[12][13] Near the end of the game, she is revealed to have been Darth Traya, the Lord of Betrayal, all along. Her character received mixed reception since the game's publication, but is generally thought to be one of the most well developed backgrounds and characterizations in retrospective reviews.
Atton Rand, voiced by Nicky Katt, is a human pilot that the Jedi Exile meets on the asteroid mining station Peragus II. After the Exile frees him from a force cage at the facility and cooperates with him to escape, Atton reluctantly joins them in their travels. When Kreia discovers Atton’s past when they are imprisoned by the Jedi historian Atris on the planet Telos, she uses the information to blackmail him into remaining with the Exile's party as pilot of The Ebon Hawk. The Exile may also learn about Atton's proficiency in Echani combat techniques from speaking with Atris' Echani handmaidens, a fact which he attempts to cover up and feign ignorance about if questioned.
The Exile may later speak with a Twi'lek non-player character in the Refugee Sector in Nar Shadaa who reveals that he is an old acquaintance of Atton and knows about his secret. If the Exile accrues enough influence and successfully convinces Atton to reveal the truth about his past, he will reveal some incriminating details about himself, including the fact that he has fought in the Mandalorian Wars as well as the Jedi Civil War. Atton explains that he originally served with the Republic military forces under Revan's command, and when Revan fell to the dark side and turned on the government the Jedi had sworn to protect, Atton along with many other Republic military forces remained loyal to Revan, whom they consider to be their savior. During the Jedi Civil War, Atton was part of an elite Sith assassin unit, trained to resist Jedi Force powers and sent on missions to kill or capture Jedi to be broken and converted to the Sith. Later during the war, Atton was confronted by a female Jedi who informed him of his Force-sensitive nature and warned him that the Sith would undoubtedly compel him to train as a Dark Jedi if they find out about it. Atton struck her down, but before her death, she opened up her mind to his, giving him a glimpse of the Force as she saw it. Enraged, Atton killed her, though the impression she left caused him to become disillusioned, and he eventually deserted the Sith. The Exile has the option to forgive Atton, who is expecting to be punished for his crimes. At his request, he may be trained in the ways of the Jedi Sentinel, and he may be influenced to follow either the light or dark side of the Force.
Atton continues to travel with the Exile, participating in the defense of Telos against a Sith armada led by Darth Nihilus and, shortly after, taking the Exile to Malachor V where they went on to defeat Darth Sion and Darth Traya. Within the established Star Wars Legends continuity, Atton along several of the Exile's companions are supposed to survive the events of the game and help rebuild the Jedi Order; Kreia will prophesy their fates following her defeat if questioned by the Exile. If the Jedi Exile is female, as is the case with the canonical character Meetra Surik, the nature of Atton's relationship with her will be addressed through a few dialogue changes; however, the ending would be the same.
The resolution of Atton's character arc in Trayus Academy on the planet Malachor V was cut in its entirety in the final release of The Sith Lords. If a fan mod which restores the cut content is installed, Atton encounters Darth Sion after he flees from Kreia, who has reassumed her title as Darth Traya and incapacitates the Exile's other companions who have attempted to confront her. If Atton defeats Sion and survives the duel, he will escape with his life. Should Atton turn to the dark side and have a low influence rating with a player character who is female, he will attack fellow party member Mical out of jealousy for her affections.
Bao-Dur, voiced by Roger G. Smith, is a character in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords.[3][12] He is a Zabrak engineer from Iridonia, who fought under the command of the Jedi Exile during the Mandalorian Wars. Bao-Dur is the inventor of the Mass Shadow Generator that ended the battle on Malachor V by completely obliterating the Mandalorian Armada and inadvertently killing many Republic soldiers on his own side of the battle, leading to a great deal of guilt later in his life. The Exile, who did not know Bao-Dur on a personal level at the time, gave the command, which sent massive echoes in the Force throughout the galaxy. Bao-Dur is trainable as a Jedi Guardian.
Visas Marr, voiced by Kelly Hu, appears in The Sith Lords as an apprentice of Darth Nihilus. She is a Miraluka from the planet of Katarr where all living things except for her were consumed by Darth Nihilus. While she is considered blind, she is able to see through the Force which allowed her to find the Jedi Exile. When she confronts the Exile, she loses and in turn becomes part of the Exile's party. Eventually the player confronts Nihilus with Visas, and needs to kill him. The player may choose to have Visas sacrifice herself to weaken Nihilus.
Brian Menze designed the character, and drew on ninjas, the look of previous Sith Lords, and G.I. Joe character the Baroness in creating her concept art. As the character was mostly covered – only the lower half of her face is visible – Menze decided to make what was shown "as sexy as possible". Menze deviated from the usual black Sith Lords dressed in and instead added some color to soften her, based on the written description of the character.[14] Menze noted that the character has since become a fan favorite and a popular choice for cosplay activities at fan conventions.[14] Voice directors Will Beckman and Darragh O'Farrell wanted someone "special" and "maybe a little sexy" to voice the part.[15] It was Hu's first role as a voice-actress, and she has said she enjoyed the role.[16]
Brianna, voiced by Grey DeLisle, is the "Last Handmaiden" on a Jedi Academy located on Telos IV in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. She initially does not reveal her name to the Exile; until she mentions her name late in the game, she is referred to as the Handmaiden. Brianna joins the party after leaving Telos on the Ebon Hawk if the player's character is male. Her training before joining the Exile's party makes her a skilled close quarter combatant and, after fulfilling certain combat and conversation requirements, she can be trained to become a Jedi Guardian or a Dark Jedi Guardian. It is revealed by Kreia that Brianna takes up Atris' role as the historian of the Jedi.
Mical, also known as the Disciple, is a character in The Sith Lords voiced by Greg Ellis. He is a soldier and force-adept that was refused for training because of the Mandalorian Wars. He eventually tells the player character that he wishes the player to be his master. He is a playable character that joins the player's party on Dantooine if your character is female. The Disciple can be influenced by light side acts and can be trained as a Jedi Consular.
Mira, voiced by Emily Berry, appears in The Sith Lords. Mira lost her family during the Mandalorian Wars. By the end of the wars, the Galactic Republic was flooding with refugees, and many of them, including Mira, ended up in the refugee sector of Nar Shaddaa. To survive in the hostile environment, she became a bounty hunter with the sole purpose of earning credits. A rival bounty hunter, the Wookiee Hanharr, was employed to hunt her by an unknown person. Mira will join player characters who are oriented towards light-sided or neutral alignments, and can become a Jedi Sentinel.
Menze had a "shaggy-like character from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon Speed Buggy" as a reference for Mira. Her visual design was based on the appearances of women Menze described as the "gothic girl gamer" who attend shows or fan conventions in the early 2000’s, and whose stylistic choices included dyed hair, strapped platform leather boots and Hello Kitty backpacks, as he had hoped to tap into a likeness that these fans would respond to.[14]
Hanharr is a Wookiee bounty hunter in The Sith Lords, and can play different roles within the game, depending on the alignment of the player character. Hanharr is encountered on the planet Nar Shaddaa, as is Mira, another bounty hunter. One of these will join the party of the Jedi Exile, as is determined by the personality of the player character. Light-side and neutral players are joined by Mira, dark-side players are joined by Hanharr.
G0-T0, voiced by Daran Norris, is a droid who appears in The Sith Lords. Built to oversee and aid in the planetary reconstruction of the planet Telos, its programming included two directives: produce options to rebuild the Republic and follow all the laws of the Republic. Sadly, all options G0-T0 could think of to assist the Republic would involve breaking a Republic law. Following this, the droid 'broke'; it overrode the second directive, and set up The Exchange, the greatest smuggling organization in the galaxy. Eventually the droid would be destroyed, but not before the organization had helped countless systems achieve prosperity.
Darth Malak, voiced by Rafael Ferrer, is the old Sith apprentice of Revan and the main antagonist of the first game. As Jedi, Malak and Revan disobeyed the Jedi Council and helped the Republic defend against the Mandalorians. During the war, Malak was captured by them for a time and experimented upon, which caused his baldness.[17] It was also during the Mandalorian Wars that he got the name "Malak", his birth name being "Alek". He first started calling himself Malak to escape the arrest warrant issued by the Jedi Council,[18] and he later decided to keep this name in protest until the war is over.[19] At the end of the Mandalorian Wars, however, both Revan and Malak fell to the dark side and turned against the Republic, although Malak viewed Revan as too soft, which led to a duel that ended with Revan cutting off his lower jaw.[20] Malak later betrays Revan when he is facing Jedi and usurps the title of Dark Lord of the Sith, but Revan survives the attack, at the cost of his memory. Under Malak's leadership, the Sith devastate planets Taris and Dantooine, while Revan regains his power in the search for the ancient space factory The Star Forge where he defeats Malak in the game's final battle. GamePro's Hugh Sterbakov ranked Darth Malak as 22nd most diabolical videogame villain of all time, saying he was "one of, if not the coolest expanded universe Star Wars character yet".[21] UGO Networks put the character as their 19th top Star Wars Expanded Universe character.[8] On GameSpot's "All-Time Greatest Villain" competition in 2011, Darth Malak managed to get into the top sixteen.[22] GameDaily's Robert Workman put Darth Malak as their 16th top evil mastermind of all time.[23] Workman also listed Malak as one of his favourite Star Wars video game characters.[24]
Darth Sion, voiced by Louis Mellis, is an antagonist in The Sith Lords. Darth Traya trained both Sion and Nihilus, who in turn betrayed her. He holds his ravaged, necrotic body together by drawing on his constant pain using the dark side of the Force, making himself virtually unkillable. The player's character Jedi Exile eventually defeats Sion several times, and convinces him to end his own miserable existence by letting go of the Force.
Chris Avellone, lead designer of The Sith Lords, was inspired to create Sion by Tessai's death scene in Ninja Scroll.[25] In contrast to other characters, Sion's design took much longer to hone down. Brian Menze, creator of the concept art and in-game model, had difficulty finding a design that Avellone was satisfied with, and the two had many conversations on how he should appear.[25] It was planned that Sion would have small parts of him orbiting around him. Engine troubles, however, made that difficult, ultimately resulting in a character looking far more "human".[25] Voice directors Will Beckman and Darragh O'Farrell originally sought to hire someone with an English accent, rather than the Scottish one found in the game. Problems arose due to most English actors lacking deep voices, though afterwards they wished to avoid making Sion "too Scottish", wishing to avoid creating a caricature to American ears.[15] They called Sion's voice one of their favorites in The Sith Lords.[15]
Darth Nihilus appears in Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords as one of the titular Sith Lords. He is known as the Lord of Hunger, capable of draining the life force out of any living thing, and intends to consume as much life in the galaxy as possible. He is depicted as a wraith-like being who speaks in unintelligible rasps and feasts on the Force like a parasite. Nihilus bound his consciousness into his robes and mask in order to preserve his physical form.[26] Prior to the game's events, Darth Sion, Darth Nihilus and Darth Traya formed a short-lived Triumvirate as leaders of the resurgent Sith based on Malachor V, though Traya was later cast out and driven into exile. Nihilus then uses the might of the Sith Armada not to conquer planets, but to contain them so that he could "feed" off the Force energy of each planet's lifeforms, wiping planets of life. Nihilus is defeated in the game after being drawn out and tricked into launching an attack on Telos, believing it to harbour the last of the Jedi. The Exile, together with Canderous Ordo and Nihilus' former associate Visas Marr confront the Sith Lord on his ship, and Nihilus is slain either after Visas sacrifices herself due to their shared link in the Force, or after his attempt to feast on the Exile's connection to the Force backfires and weakens him.
Nihilus appears in the "Unseen, Unheard" story in the final issue of Star Wars Tales, which recounts Nihilus using his power to decimate all life on the Miraluka colony world of Katarr, including the vast majority of the Jedi Order's leadership. Visas Marr is shown as the sole survivor of the catastrophic event, which impressed Nihilus and moved him to claim her as his apprentice and slave. Nihilus is mentioned in a few other stories in the original Star Wars Expanded Universe, and makes a short appearance in Star Wars: Legacy. The character's distinctive mask is also made available as a loot item for Star Wars: The Old Republic if the Crime Lord's Cartel Pack DLC is installed.[27] Nihilus is introduced to the Galaxy of Heroes mobile game as a playable character in a 2017 update.[28] As the “face” of the marketing for The Sith Lords, the character has been featured prominently in promotional material and subject to merchandise, including several action figures.[29][30][31][32]
Nihilus was written so players would identify him less as a "human" and more a "force of nature". Avellone described him as without personality beyond "just a feeling of hunger" due to having succumbed so far to the dark side. Avellone felt beating such a force seemed "more heroic" or "far more epic" than taking on an individual person.[33] The character's visual was quick to define; Eurogamer describes him as "a concept created and greenlit in all of 15 minutes".[25] Character modeller and lead concept artist Brian Menze was asked to create a Sith Lord with No-Face from Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away (2001) as a reference; Avellone felt that the final design, which employs a lot of voluminous black, was closer to the Studio Ghibli character than was intended.[34][31] One idea behind Nihilus's design was that there should be nothing behind the mask – representative of him being a void. A "pet peeve" of Avellone's is promotional art of Nihilus with a visible nose, which contradicted his concept of a character who lack facial features;[31] Menze had drawn a nosed Nihilus for a magazine cover which had become widely circulated and Avellone had "let it go", to Menze's now regret.[25]
Nihilus is considered to be one of the best remembered aspects of The Sith Lords's story.[31] IGN's Jesse Schedeen singled out his obliteration of Visas' homeworld as the Sith Lord's "defining moment of villainy".[35] Chris Freiberg from Den of Geek ranked the introduction of Darth Nihilus as one of the most memorable moments in Star Wars video game history.[36] Glixel listed him as one of twenty "awesome" Star Wars characters originating in video games, and considered him "terrifying" and "more of a malevolent ghost than a typical self-serving Sith".[37]
Nihilus' visual design proved to be very popular with Star Wars fandom. Revan aside, Eurogamer's Robert Purchese described The Sith Lords' villains as "far more memorable" than those of the first game, and described Nihilus as the most recognisable of the trio.[25] Schedeen remarked that "Nihilus probably wins the award for coolest-looking Star Wars villain ever".[35] The Citizen's Lake Life editor David Wilcox opined that Darth Nihilus is the best designed character outside of the Star Wars saga's "main players".[38] The character has been frequently referenced in fan art, cosplay and other derivative works since his appearance in The Sith Lords.[39][40][41][42][43][44] The character was also featured on The Howard Stern Show for several weeks.[32][45]
Nihilus' popularity has led to discussions about the supposed references to the character in canon Star Wars works, such as the identity of an ancient Sith statue in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, as well as the origins of the Nihil, a faction set to be the overarching antagonists of the upcoming Star Wars: The High Republic subseries.[46][47] Obsidian Entertainment acknowledged their creation of Darth Nihilus and the character's popularity as a notable contribution to the Star Wars license.[48] Menze noted in retrospect that co-creating Darth Nihilus with Avellone is a career highlight for him, and acknowledged that the character "has gone on to be bigger than the game we created".[25][32]
Atris, voiced by Elizabeth Rider, is a former member of the Jedi Council and one of the Jedi largely responsible for banishing the Jedi Exile from the Jedi Order. Prior to the events of The Sith Lords, Atris had an idealistic view of the Jedi that bordered on fanaticism, believing that they were the perfect guardians of the galaxy and, as a result, did not tolerate any criticism directed towards them. However, Atris' beliefs were challenged during the events of the Mandalorian War and the war against Darth Malak in the first game. This drove her to betraying the Jedi by leaking the location of their hidden conclave, resulting in them being driven to near-extinction by Darth Nihilus. Atris then planned to rebuild the Jedi Order under her own dogmatic doctrine, and started an unethical campaign against the Sith. This included leaking information of the Jedi Exile's return to the rest of the galaxy, setting off the events of The Sith Lords.
The characters have overall been well-received, with the first Knights of the Old Republic winning the Academy of Interactive Art's "Outstanding Achievement in Character and Story Development", and both Kreia and HK-47 receiving other awards.
The characters of the Knights Of The Old Republic series have remained highly popular, often being cited as some of the best characters in both the Star Wars franchise and video games in general by both critics and fans. IGN ranked several characters from the series in their list of Top 100 Star Wars Characters: Darth Revan, Darth Malak, HK-47, Canderous Ordo, Darth Nihilus, Bastila Shan, Darth Sion, and Darth Traya placed 12th, 28th, 33rd, 52nd, 56th, 62nd, 73rd and 81st respectively.[63] Darth Revan and Darth Malak jointly ranked fifth place in a Top 15 list of Star Wars villains by IGN's Jesse Schedeen, who remarked that "[v]isually, both Jedi are immediately memorable".[64] The members of the Sith Triumvirate, Darth Nihilus, Darth Sion and Darth Traya, came second place in a modified supplementary list of the best Star Wars villains based on reader requests for characters left out of the original Top 15 list published by IGN.[35] In a 2020 fan poll organized by IGN for best Star Wars characters of all time, Revan, Darth Malak and Bastila Shan placed 30th, 34th and 69th place out of 200 characters.[65] Several characters from the series dominated GameSpot's 2019 list of "15 Great Star Wars Characters Who Came From Video Games".[66]
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