Nihilus – Dark Beginnings

 Nihilus was a Force sensitive that was present during the final battle of the Mandalorian Wars on Malachor V.  The battle was concluded with the activation of the Mass Shadow Generator, a weapon that was ordered to be activated by a Jedi General known to be the Jedi Exile.  Miraculously, Nihilus survived the destruction of the planet, but was overtaken by an illness.  Due to his Force sensitivity and the sudden violent destruction of the world, a great emptiness filled him, and caused him to feel an immense hunger.  When he found another survivor, he instinctually drained their life force and absorbed it.  For a moment, the hunger passed.  But it returned again, more ravishing than before. 

 Nihilus was eventually found by Darth Traya, and was taken to the Trayus Academy.  Traya told him that his hunger was fueled by the Force, and that she could teach him how to consume entire worlds.  Nihilus then began to learn the ways of the Sith under the harsh tutelage of Traya.  Apprenticed also with Darth Sion, Nihilus mastered his powers and became a Sith Lord.  The three would soon form the Sith Triumvirate. 

 Darth Traya soon saw that Nihilus' hunger would soon be even more powerful than her control over him, but she let him become stronger nonetheless.  Nihilus consumed several worlds, each time his hunger becoming worse and worse.

Betrayal – The Way of the Sith

Soon, Nihilus and Sion began to question Traya's subtle techniques to destroy the Jedi.  Both Sith wanted to take a direct, brutal, approach to the domination of the galaxy.  Nihilus and Sion allied themselves against Traya, and defeated her at the core of her own Academy.  Nihilus and Sion combined their power, and disconnected Traya from the Force before exiling her.

Now in control of the Sith factions, Sion and Nihilus went their separate ways, using their own methods to eliminate the Jedi.  Sion brutishly hunted down Jedi, while Nihilus stayed on the edge of the galaxy, consuming large deposits of Force energy to sate his hunger and delve deeper in the Dark Side.

 Nihilus eventually became so consumed by the Dark Side, he was forced to escape his decaying body and put his Force spirit into his armor.  His useless body was eroded by the Dark Side, and the Force now kept together his robes, mask, and lightsaber.  Nihilus was now nothing more than a dark spirit.

 Conqueror – Destroyer of Worlds

 Nihilus began his conquest of the galaxy, producing legions of Sith warriors to spearhead his campaign.  A trap was set up for Nihilus by a Jedi named Atris, in which she called an assembly of the surviving Jedi on Katarr in order to draw Nihilus to them.  However, the Force seeing Miralukians sensed Nihilus' hunger, and it overcame the population.  Nihilus' hunger destroyed the planet of Katarr, with the Jedi on it.  Nihilus found one remaining life form on the planet, a woman named Visas Marr.  He took her aboard his flagship, the Ravager, and healed her wounds.  When Visas asked why he had done this, Nihilus showed her how he saw the galaxy – a collection of beings who could not feel the Force, desolate, and lifeless, a chaos to which he could bring order.  The vision destroyed Visas' ability to see through the Force.  In awe of Nihilus' power, she became his apprentice and the two created a very strong Force Bond.

Darth Nihilus allied himself with General Vaklu of Onderon in an attempt to break Onderon from the Republic and transform it into a staging area for the Sith invasion.  Nihilus set up a camp on Dxun, the moon of Onderon and established control of the Tomb of Freedon Nadd.  The tomb contained an energy nexus that he hoped to feed upon while his plans went underway.

During this period, Nihilus sensed a disturbance in the Force.  He sent his apprentice, Visas Marr, to bring the Jedi Exile to him so that he could consume her Force energies.However, the Exile defeated Visas, and the dark apprentice soon began to doubt what her Master had showed her, and joined the Exile in the fight against the destroyer of her people.  Together, the Exile and her companions intervened in the Onderon Civil War and stopped Nihilus' plans for a staging area. 

Colonel Tobin then informed Nihilus that a secret Jedi Academy existed on Telos IV.  This ruse was actually created by Kreia in an attempt to draw him into a trap.  When Nihilus arrived, the Republic Navy was ready for his arrival, and the Battle of Telos IV commenced.  Nihilus soon realized that no Force sensitives existed in the Academy, but because of his ravishing hunger, attempted to consume the planet anyway.

A strike force, led by the Mandalorians, was launched upon the Ravager.  Four proton bombs were charged in strategic locations aboard the ship.  Mandalore, Visas Marr, and the Exile made their way to the bridge and confronted Nihilus.  He tried to feed upon the Exile's life energies, but exhausted himself because of the Exile's ability to draw on the Force powers of those around her.  Visas attempted to disrupt the link that she and her Master shared in an attempt to weaken him.  They succeeded, and Nihilus was defeated.  His mask was taken by Visas, and his spirit decayed into the dark side energies. Afterwards, the Ravager was destroyed, and his Sith were destroyed by the Republic.

Traits and Personality

It is believed that Nihilus lost all of his friends and family during the Mandalorian Wars, setting the stage for the creation of his empty soul upon Malachor V.  Once his hunger consumed him, Nihilus became one for the shadows.  He lost all worldly concerns of power, assuming a singular desire to sate his awful hunger.  His depth within the Dark Side forced him to shed his human body, becoming solely a Force spirit bound to his armor.  He was still partly human, as evidenced by his strong bond to his apprentice, Visas Marr.

Visas was able to determine how Nihilus viewed the galaxy.  It was a place not teeming with life, but a chaotic collection of beings that could not feel the Force.  He showed Visas his vision of the order he could bring to such chaos, very much in line with the Dark Lords of the Sith before him, but it was a world of emptiness and death. Because of his immense power in the Force, he stopped viewing the galaxy in the same convention most would, and instead started seeing only planets to be consumed, viewing past individuals and only seeing a larger picture, a greater goal that he could feast on to stop his ever building need for sustenance. It is largely believed that while the cost of his power was gravely self-destructive, Nihilus was by far the most powerful Sith to ever have lived, perhaps proving that the Dark Side, when taken to its rational extreme, meant only death and corruption for its user.