Fully functional T3-M4 in real life video.

This is GREAT! DarthMoose made a real life version of T3-M4.

Well I finally have him all together now and just need to prep for paint.
This is the newest video I have of him with all his moving parts....

You can see more cool projects at www.R2-CM.com

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Know your lore: Mission Vao

Mission Vao (pronounced /'mɪʃɪn 'veo/) was a female Rutian Twi'lek who lived as a street urchin on the ecumenopolis of Taris during the Mandalorian Wars and the first half of the Jedi Civil War. She preferred speaking Galactic Basic Standard rather than her people's native language and was the closest friend of the Wookiee Zaalbar.

She joined the crew of the Ebon Hawk following her encounter with Revan and the destruction of Taris, and was awarded the Cross of Glory in 3,956 BBY, at the age of 14, for her part in locating the Star Forge and the triumph of the Galactic Republic over the Sith Empire at the Battle of Rakata Prime. She parted ways with Revan after the defeat of Darth Malak.

Biography
Childhood
Mission grew up as an orphan, having never known her parents, with just her elder brother Griff to look after her. Griff was a scam artist, a gambler, and a drinker, always borrowing credits for his schemes of easy riches which regularly failed, leaving him in debt and on the run. Mission was only five years old when they escaped to Taris, smuggling themselves inside a packing crate in a star freighter's cargo hold, barely having enough supplies to make the trip.



On Taris, Griff and Mission had to live in the Lower City due to the alien ban that restricted access to the Upper City. Around 3,963 BBY, her brother Griff was a member of one of the Lower City's swoop gangs known as the Hidden Beks. People were still reeling from the consequences of the murders of the four Jedi Padawans that were to help rim-worlds such as Taris mantain law and order, when the Mandalorians invaded. Zayne Carrick, who had been framed for the murders, came back to Taris to try to help the resistance against the invading Mandalorians, and found the Hidden Beks' secret hideout.

Mission introduced herself to Zayne after he was through talking to Marn Hierogryph, and developed a crush on him, despite her brother's warning to stay away from the accused murderer. She then told him that she "knew a secret" and brought Zayne to see her brother's pet, which she thought was what Griff was feeding in secret. While they were spying on him, Gryph found them and inadvertently gave away their position to Griff. Meanwhile, Brejik attempted to kill Zayne with a vibroblade. Zayne was struggling to disarm Brejik when Mission bit his leg, causing Brejik to drop the blade. When he did, Griff came up behind her and pulled her away from the fight. Brejik then pulled out a blaster pistol, telling Zayne that he would tell everybody that he was killed "trying to escape".

Del Moomo then appeared from behind and pinned Brejik to a wall before he was able to kill Zayne. Mission, Zayne, and Gryph then discovered that the "pet" was not a pet at all; inside the container where Griff dropped the food were the missing children of Constable Noana Sowrs. After they got the two children out of there, they brought them back to the Hidden Beks' leader, Gadon Thek. Mission then helped feed the two children. While Gadon was enraged at Griff and Brejik for kidnapping the children, it gave the Hidden Beks an opportunity to open up negotiations with the "True" Resistance, and then eventually join them.

Griff and Mission were regulars of the Lower City cantina when Griff met Lena, a Twi'lek dancing girl, and started dating her. Lena, however, used to date Tarisian nobles, and Griff could never give her the kind of lifestyle she was used to. Eventually, he had to leave Taris, escaping his debts once again, this time together with Lena, and he left his twelve-year-old sister behind. He told Mission that Lena didn't want his little sister tagging along, but promised he would return as soon as they earned enough credits, and that then they would all live like royalty. Believing she made her brother forget about her, Mission hated Lena, and thought of her as a "busty, credit-grubbing cantina rat." She had no doubt their relationship wouldn't last long.

Encounter with Zaalbar
After her brother Griff deserted her on Taris, Mission got by on her own, until one day she made friends with Zaalbar, a Wookiee outcast from Kashyyyk. Zaalbar was being hassled by members of the Black Vulkars, a major Lower City swoop gang, when he attracted her attention. The sight of thugs picking on a lone Wookiee overwhelmed by a strange environment made her lose her temper, and she charged at them. She was smacked down by one of the Vulkars, but then the Wookiee got angry and yanked him a meter up off the ground, scaring the others away.

Despite such unusual circumstances of their meeting—or perhaps because of them—Mission and Zaalbar would stick together ever since, looking out for each other in their own way. She nicknamed Zaalbar "Big Z". For two years they got by in the Lower City, never hearing anything from or about Griff, and often seeking adventure in dangerous spots like the sewers of the Undercity, where Gadon used to tell her not to go. Mission never asked Zaalbar too much about his past, because he didn't like to talk about it, and she accepted that, dismissing the matter with the conclusion that he was the strong, silent type. The Wookiee would still talk a bit about his homeworld, about the big Wroshyr trees, and how he had "seen paradise destroyed by the greed of outsiders," which though Mission didn't understand at first, referred to Czerka Corporation and their slaving operations on Kashyyyk.



Entanglement with Revan
In 3,956 BBY, near the end of the Jedi Civil War, decorated war hero and legendary soldier Carth Onasi was stranded on Taris with an amnesiac Revan following the attack on the Endar Spire, a Republic warship under the command of the Jedi Bastila Shan. The entire war effort against the Sith relied on her skill with Battle Meditation, making her the Republic's only hope, so as soon as possible Carth and Revan made for the Undercity, where her escape pod had crashed. They passed by Javyar's Cantina where they found an unusual pair—a Wookiee, and a fourteen-year-old Twi'lek girl who preferred speaking Galactic Basic Standard rather than her people's native language. Revan watched as Zaalbar scared away some Black Vulkars picking on Mission.

Mission Vao stalking Gamorreans in the Taris Undercity.

Seeing that Revan was a newcomer in the Lower City, Mission provided him with information about the city, the swoop gangs, local Exchange boss Davik Kang, and the bounty hunter Calo Nord, who had just walked out of the cantina leaving a few corpses behind. She also spoke of the Hidden Beks as a more honest and reliable gang than the Black Vulkars, which were now led by Brejik, and she mentioned that Davik had recently acquired a new ship for his smuggling operations, the Ebon Hawk, which he supposedly kept in his estate. Mission and Zaalbar then left the cantina to seek more adventures in the Undercity.

At the Hidden Bek Base, the leader of the gang Gadon Thek made a deal with Revan, agreeing to provide sponsorship in the Tarisian Season Opener in exchange for the retrieval of a prototype accelerator that was stolen from him by the Vulkars. Revan was to break into the Vulkar base, where the swoop upgrade was being kept, and Gadon suggested that Mission could be able to get him in the back way. He then gave Revan authorization papers needed to get past the Sith guard at the elevator to the Undercity in exchange for the Sith uniforms he had used before as a disguise, and promised to let Revan use the accelerator to win the race and get Bastila back, who was being offered as a prize by Brejik, in his game to take over the Lower City. Once off the gates of the Outcast village of the Undercity, Revan ran into a very distressed Mission. She explained that her friend Zaalbar had been caught by Gamorrean slavers in the sewers and agreed to show Revan a secret entrance into the Vulkar Base if he helped her free the captive Wookiee.



Revan saved Zaalbar from the slavers, and as customary to his people, the Wookiee swore a life debt to him. Mission was not about to part ways with the only family she had since her brother left, so she too joined Revan. They followed him aboard the Ebon Hawk, which Revan stole from Davik, just in time to escape the destruction of Taris. Although Mission was shocked to see her homeworld destroyed before her eyes, she told Revan she would find a way to deal with it, and that whatever help she could offer him against Darth Malak and the Sith she would. Because of her age, Mission was often looked down upon by Revan's other companions. Carth Onasi was particularly disgusted at first about a fourteen-year-old living by herself in a dangerous area and occasionally the two found themselves at odds in a father-daughter fashion.

Travels on the Ebon Hawk
After the destruction of Taris, Mission accompanied Revan and his companions aboard the Ebon Hawk and assisted Revan in his journey to destroy the Star Forge.

During these travels with Revan, Mission encountered Lena, who explained what had happened after she and Griff left Taris. She had dumped Griff, leaving him on Tatooine, where he was working for Czerka Corporation. She also said that she had actually wanted Mission to come with them, and even offered to pay for her ticket, but Griff told Lena that Mission wouldn't leave Taris. In reality, Griff had lied to them both and even though Mission wouldn't believe Lena at first, she realized that she had been misguidedly idolizing her brother.

Mission still questioned the validity of Lena's statements and when Revan took the Ebon Hawk for a landing on Tatooine in search of the Star Map, they found Griff had been taken prisoner by Tusken Raiders. In the enclave where he was being kept, a conversation ensued that allowed Mission to realize the truth in Lena's words. Even after his liberation, Griff didn't give up his half-baked business projects—his latest one, in which he tried to use tach glands collected by Revan to brew Tarisian ale, also failed, and he also got himself into trouble with the Exchange.

Mission was angry with Griff, especially after witnessing him continue his get-rich-quick schemes. Eventually she realized, though nobody was perfect, her brother was a little less perfect than most for he never learned from his own mistakes; therefore instead of fruitlessly trying to "improve" her brother, she learned to accept him as he was. Mission was happy that her brother was alive, but now she didn't feel as though she owed him anything anymore.

After escaping the Leviathan, Revan revealed his former identity to the crew. Though shaken, Mission found that he was now a completely different person, and therefore stood by him. She followed Revan to the end of his quest, even to the monstrous Star Forge. She was present at the celebration of the Star Forge's destruction and the Republic's victory over the Sith, where Revan's companions were proclaimed as saviors of the Republic and were each awarded the Cross of Glory. When Revan departed for the Unknown Regions, Mission did not accompany him.





Personality and traits
Despite her harsh upbringing and abandonment, Mission was a sunny and optimistic girl. She believed the best of people most of the time, and was the first to rally to Revan's defense after he was revealed as the former Dark Lord of the Sith in the skirmish aboard the Leviathan, as she had been convinced by Revan's actions over the course of their mission that he was a true friend. She was initially at a loss for words, much like the rest of the crew of the Ebon Hawk, but seeing how he didn't remember anything about being the Dark lord she concluded that it didn't really matter anymore, much to the chagrin of the paranoid and distrustful Carth.

As a child, Mission was very curious, spying on her brother and often playing with the personal effects of Gadon's bodyguard Zaerdra, who would get mad at her elder brother for not keeping Mission away from her stuff. One trait she shared with her brother Griff was smooth talking, and she was known to be forward with boys she considered attractive, such as Zayne Carrick.

She had a strong sense of fairness, as evidenced by her anger with Wookiee Chieftain Chuundar and Czerka and their treatment of the Wookiees, and by her loyalty to the Hidden Beks after Brejik's betrayal. She was easily influenced, however, and not only by Revan. She would let Kandon Ark twist her mind and seed animosity between her and Gadon, and there was little that Revan could not talk her into. She was also courageous and impulsive, charging three Vulkars by herself to try and save Zaalbar, or mouthing off at – and trying to bite – armed Sith troopers. Her chief annoyance, however, was when people dismissed her on the basis of age. This earned her several arguments with Carth and Bastila, the latter using the Force to trip her when Mission retorted to a crack about her age. She also constantly teased Zaalbar like a bratty little sister, suggesting he take a bath, brush his teeth, dye his hair, or even wear a suit.

Talents and abilities
After Mission joined Revan's fellowship, she had the chance to apply her knowledge and skills to different ends from what she was used to in the streets of Taris. Her fine sleight of hand gained Revan entrance to the Black Vulkar Base from the sewers of the Undercity, for which she had picked the codes off the pocket of a Black Vulkar.

She was a good slicer and was proficient with Stealth field generators. When the Leviathan captured the Ebon Hawk, and Revan had to choose a member of the crew for a rescue mission, she volunteered her skills with security systems, claiming she could slice her way out of any security cell. She could speak Basic and understand Shyriiwook, Rodese, and possibly other languages she may have grown accustomed to during her time on the Coruscant of the Outer Rim. She could also play Pazaak.

The Star Wars universe is an expansive universe. You're playing the games, you're watching the movies, you know the how, but do you know the why? Each week we make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind Star Wars: The old Republic

This article uses material from the "Mission Vao" article on the Star Wars wiki at Wikia and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.

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Can BioWare Put The RPG Back in MMORPG?

You can’t help but wonder whether BioWare’s upcoming MMOG, Star Wars The Old Republic, will be able to port the same roleplaying aspect their successful single player games are known for to a new platform. Tentonhammer Have an excellent editorial about this:

With story based MMOGs, I had hoped games would give us direction and purpose without losing the ability to make choices. Alas this was not to be--most current quest-based games give you little more than a choice between taking a quest or not taking a quest. I want to take a quest to kill a target and then be faced with the decision whether to actually kill them or let them go. Either way, there could be consequences for my actions. Let me piss off an NPC and have to face him or his minions later. Let me refuse to take a quest from an NPC vendor and then be forced to pay higher prices from then on. I want the quests I do to have some impact. It doesn’t have to be some world shattering impact like in single player games, but let me make a choice that affects me. In most MMOGs right now, nothing I do affects anything other than my XP bar.

You can read the full article here.

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While we wait for The Old Republic: Makazie One

Makazie One is a fan film that made its debut on the Internet in September of 2009. It is a great film that features the voice of Jay Laga'aia. As with most fan films, be sure to watch additional footage after the credits. You can visit their website for more information.

Set in the Star Wars Universe during the time period between Episodes 3 and 4, an elite soldier has been sent to track down and destroy a known threat to the Empire through intense ground battles and haunting imagery of death that surround the environment. The unsuspecting enemy to the Imperial Order has no idea what he is up against when the two finally meet for an action packed surprise ending.

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Threat Of Peace Issue #27

The next issue of Threat of Peace #27 has just been released:

The twenty-seventh issue of Threat of Peace™ concludes the volume with a surprising turn of events as Jedi Knight Satele Shan, Fortris Gall, and Special Forces Lieutenant Tavus report their battle with the Sith to Master Orgus Din. The story comes full circle when Braden the Bounty Hunter finally completes the contract which got him tied up in this mess in the first place.

Check out the final issue of Threat of Peace now.

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New blogger: Clayton

Hey everyone! Soren (the creator of this site) and I have teamed up and now I will be posting on this blog as well! I have a lot of ideas for this site that I think will really be beneficial for you all!

Really soon here we are going to be setting up a newsletter for you guys where we will be giving away a lot of really cool content and helpful links among other things.

My name is Clayton and I LOVE Star Wars, everything about it! I have always thought that it is so amazing just how deep the storyline is and how there is so much to the Saga. I think everything about it is fascinating. And I just want to tell you guys that I am just as excited about this upcoming release of SWTOR as all of you are!

So I am going to be here enduring the wait with you guys but the game will come soon enough! I am looking forward to contributing in any way I can to this site and to also get in touch more with the subscribers of this site.

Talk to you all later and God bless! I will be posting soon :)

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Returning to Taris

Once home to a sprawling planet-wide city, Taris was razed long ago by the Sith Lord Darth Malak while seeking to eliminate the Jedi Knight Bastila Shan. Now, a post-apocalyptic Taris is being realized in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. After 300 years, Republic and Jedi leaders are moving forward with the efforts at colonization.

Watch insights from James Ohlen, Drew Karpyshyn, Scott Carpenter, and Mark How about the new environments – and adventures – awaiting players in Biowares latest Developer Dispatch: Returning to Taris:

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While we wait for The Old Republic: JEDI GYM

Former swordplay trainer to the stars and Star Wars fanatic Jeremy Flynn recently opened "Jedi Gym", a fitness center in Torrance, CA where members channel characters from the Star Wars film series to work out, meditate, and improve their lives. Created by Timothy Kendall and Ben Koldyke

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Planets of Star Wars: The Old Republic - Taris

Taris was an urban planet in the Outer Rim Territories. The term Tarisian was used to describe people and products from the planet. The planet's ecumenopolis quickly developed over a century of prosperity, and as a result the planet suffered from massive overpopulation. Once a galactic nexus, Taris' importance declined with the introduction of improved trade routes, and the planet rapidly fell into decay. The remainder of the planet's history was wrought with civil disorder and social unrest. As it turned to industry as a means of compensation for its economic troubles, its oceans became polluted, eliminating the planet's main food source. Famine spread among the lower classes while the rich hoarded what few supplies remained. The resulting strife led to the Tarisian Civil War, the start of lasting prejudices between the Humanocentric Tarisian nobles and the largely alien underclass. The city became segmented, and the lower classes were banned from living in the upper levels of Taris.

During the Mandalorian Wars, Taris served as a crucial rallying point for dissident Jedi who had decided to fight against the invading Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders. As the lower classes were crushed beneath the rich, crime became rampant, and the Tarisian government did little in response. This caused Lhosan Industries, a mining company which employed half of the planet's lower class in its operation, to leave Taris. The millions left unemployed rioted against the government, kidnapping the planet's senator in the Galactic Senate as well as the local constable. This caused the local Jedi to leave Taris as well, leaving the planet in a state of anarchy, as the war raged on around it.




By the time of the Jedi Civil War, order had been restored, but swoop gangs and crime still held sway over the Lower City. During the war, Taris was conquered by the Sith Empire, which quarantined the planet in an attempt to capture Jedi Bastila Shan. As the search continued fruitlessly, the Sith leader Darth Malak, ordered the bombardment of Taris, killing countless civilians. This act had huge political repercussions for the Sith and changed the tone of the rest of the war, showing Malak and the Sith's true colors, the desire to achieve victory at any cost.

Over the next few millennia the planet managed to rebuild and recover from its devastation, though never reaching the extent of its former glory. Similar to other ecumenopolies like Coruscant and Nar Shaddaa, the upper levels were safe and secure, inhabited by the wealthy, while the lower levels were frequently plagued by gang warfare and inhabited by thugs and the poor.

Terrain
Taris was a ecumenopolis, at least in that all its landmasses were covered in a large city. However, unlike other ecumenopoleis, Taris had an ocean that covered a large part of the planet's surface. The ocean once possessed massive kelp farms that were used to sustain the planet's immense population. However, these farms were poisoned by pollution, leading to food shortages in the city.


The city itself was formed over a century of prosperity, a remarkable feat considering other ecumenopoleis such as Nar Shaddaa took many centuries, even millennia, to form. The towers of the city were tall and gleaming, possessing a unique, universally-rounded appearance not found on other ecumenopoleis. However, beneath the planet's initial pristine exterior lay the result of many years of lawlessness and oppression. In the Lower City of Taris, the largely non-human population lived in total poverty and desperation, prevented from entering the safer Upper City, which was almost exclusively inhabited by rich Humans. Following the bombardment of Taris at the hands of the Sith Empire, the city was left in ruins. Although much of the city would be rebuilt in the following centuries, many ruins remained.

Flora and fauna
eing an ecumenopolis, Taris had relatively little animal or plant life. There were however several important species.
A rakghoul.

In the upper levels of Taris there were feathered dogs used almost exclusively as pets. These unique creatures could be seen on leashes as their owners took them out on walks through the promenades of Taris. There were also large lizards that were domesticated and used to pull refuse through the Lower City.

One of the only species of wild animals on Taris was the simian Tach. The Tach possessed a unique gland in their heads that, when powdered, could be used to make Tarisian ale, a major export of Taris.

The rakghoul, the fiercest and most terrifying species on Taris, inhabited the Undercity. They were mutated humans that ruthlessly attacked anything outside of the protective gates of the Undercity. Contact with the rakghouls caused a sentient to contract the rakghoul disease, a terrible affliction that would cause the victim to turn into a rakghoul.

The oceans of Taris once hosted a variety of kelp and marine life that were harvested as food for the Tarisians. These were later destroyed by pollution from Taris' many industries.

History
Circa 4,300 BBY, Taris was situated on a major hyperspace transport hub not far from the Hyperlane known as the Perlemian Trade Route, and was called the "Coruscant of the Outer Rim." Taris became an ecumenopolis, with all landmasses eclipsed with a world-spanning city. The city's grandeur was once said to rival the galactic capital, Coruscant, itself. However, the planet wasn't truly a planet-wide city, as unlike other city-planets such as Coruscant and Nar Shaddaa, it contained an ocean..

Civil war and anti-alien prejudice
Since there were no land areas dedicated to agriculture, the native populace harvested kelp and sea life from the ocean. However, industrial waste polluted the once pristine ocean, destroying the kelp farms and killing the marine life. Famine swept the planet. Panicking, the greedy Tarisian nobles hoarded the remaining food for themselves. In 4,056 BBY, the starving lower-class engaged the nobles in a massive civil war. Ultimately, the nobles triumphed. The Tarisian prisons couldn't hold all the rebels, so the nobles began the tradition of banishing criminals to the Undercity. Also, because many of the rebels were aliens, the human nobles became prejudiced against non-Humans, and banished them from the Upper City, punishing any that dared to enter the upper levels without a permit. Thus began the long oppression by the Humanocentric Tarisian nobility of the non-human lower class.

It was believed that the swoop bike first originated on Taris. It was here that swoop racing captured the imagination of the galaxy around 4,000 BBY. Using an intricate system of hyperspace beacons, Tarisian race organizers broadcast the results of their swoop races throughout the galaxy which eventually gave rise to a huge and profitable gambling operation. Taris remained a hub for swoop racing for decades, becoming the center of the Galactic Swoop Racing Circuit.

Decay
In 4,086 BBY Taris also received an extremely harsh review in Trampeta's Star Guide, as it was given the lowest possible recommendation. According to the author, T3 droids working in one of Taris' starports stole his baggage. While probably not having any influence on the development of the planet itself, it was nonetheless a reflection of the decay that Taris was undergoing. Soon, new hyperspace routes rendered Taris largely obsolete in terms of its relevance to intragalactic trade.

Joining the Republic
In a secret backroom deal, Haydel Goravvus helped install Lhosan Industries on Taris and in exchange, Jervo Thalien managed to bribe Taris into the Republic and install Goravvus as its Senator.

Mandalorian Wars
Around the year 3,964 BBY, Captain Saul Karath commanded the Republic fleet that protected Taris during the Mandalorian Wars. Due to Taris' close proximity to the Mandalorian War front, it had been granted Republic membership in 3,966 BBY and it became the heart of the Republic's defense for the region. The planet served as a staging point for dissident Jedi and their allies for campaigns against the Mandalorians.

Taris skyline during the Mandalorian Wars.

Meanwhile, Taris had compensated for its decaying importance to trade routes by negotiating with Lhosan Industries, which employed over half of the Lower City residents in its mining activities. However, due to increasing swoop gang activity, Lhosan was considering pulling out, and moving its operations to a world with less crime. The local authorities assured Lhosan Industries that they had the swoop gangs fully under control, and would take care of them with the assistance from the local Jedi. However, after a fugitive Jedi Padawan named Zayne Carrick was accused of murdering the entire graduating class of new Jedi Knights and escaped twice from Jedi custody in the Jedi Tower, Lhosan made its decision, and abandoned Taris.

This left many of Tarisians unemployed, and angry citizens began rioting all over Taris, setting entire sections of skyline on fire. The riots soon spilled up into the Middle City. Crime began to envelope Taris. The Senator that represented the planet in the Galactic Senate disappeared, and the constable's family was kidnapped. Due to the political anarchy, the Jedi based on Taris were recalled to Coruscant, abandoning the Tarisians to their fates. Taris was also largely abandoned by the Republic military. It maintained only a small military base on the planet's surface. Without the protection of the Jedi and the Republic military, Taris was left open to a Mandalorian invasion.

The Mandalorians used Taris to make their first direct strike at the Republic. The Tarisians managed to form a small resistance movement led by Senator Goravvus and swoop gangs such as the Hidden Beks employed guerrilla tactics to assist them. The Chancellor of the Republic became suspicious of Taris' quick entry into the Republic and sent Jedi Master Raana Tey to retrieve Goravvus. Jervo Thalien, head of Lhosan, became frantic since it was Goravvus who had installed Lhosan on the planet and Jervo had arranged a Senate seat for him in return. He hired Marn Hierogryph and the Moomo Brothers to retrieve the Senator. He promised Hierogryph a reprieve of the Massacre charges and most of the bounties on him lifted, but also secretly ordered the Moomo Brothers to kill Goravvus, as he had become a liability.

Hierogryph met up with the Beks and was soon reunited with Zayne Carrick. The Beks wished to join with the Resistance but had nothing of value to offer them. Luckily, Carrick found the constable's children, who were being held hostage by Brejik and Griff Vao. The Beks then took the children to the Resistance, where they were reunited with their mother. Together, they sought to take out the Mandalorian commander, Cassus Fett, who was using the Jedi Tower as his base. By that time he had abandoned it to take the fight to the Resistance, driving them into the Undercity.

The Jedi Civil War

Battle over Taris
Though the Republic maintained a small military presence on Taris, the planet had not been viewed with any military importance since the First Battle of Taris. This changed when the Sith succeeded in overrunning nearly the entire Outer Rim, leaving Taris as the last valuable planet in that region still under Republic control.

The Endar Spire above Taris.

In 3,956 BBY the galactic senators decided to make a stand there and the Endar Spire soon arrived above the planet to bulk up the existing garrison. Several important members of the Republic war effort were onboard the Endar Spire including Carth Onasi, Bastila Shan, and an amnesiac Revan (who was currently under the impression that he was a Republic soldier).

While on a mission over Taris, the Endar Spire was ambushed by a Sith warship. Bastila Shan was famous for her affinity to the Force and her skill with battle meditation, but she was unable to use her powers during the ensuing battle. The Sith troops quickly seized the ship in an attempt to capture Shan to use her Jedi powers for their own goals. Shan and several other crew members were able to escape the ships in escape pods. The Sith then destroyed the Endar Spire.

Shan's escape pod landed outside the Undercity of Taris, while others crashed in the Upper City. Many Upper City citizens gave over injured Republic soldiers to the local healer, Zelka Forn. The Black Vulkars, a swoop gang of the Lower City, swarmed over the Republic escape pods that landed in the Under City, salvaging what was left of them. Shan had been unable to exit her escape pod in time and was captured by the Vulkars. Revan and Onasi's pod had landed in the Upper City and they were able to find an abandoned apartment to hide out in while they planned Shan's rescue.

Sith conquest
The rest of the Sith fleet quickly arrived above Taris, and began landing their troops on the planet. There was little resistance from the Tarisians, and the Sith were able to take the Republic military base without much trouble.

Darth Malak, leader of the Sith armada, enacted a planet-wide quarantine, preventing any ships from landing on or leaving Taris. The Sith also programmed their orbiting fleet to auto-target any ships that attempted to do so. This was all part of Malak's plan to capture Shan. Sith troops questioned the Upper City residents about the escape pods that landed there, searching for any surviving crew from the Endar Spire. Malak also sent Sith patrols into the Undercity to look for Shan, using the rakghoul serum to protect them from a mutating disease spread by rakghouls.

The quarantine kept many off-worlders who were on business on Taris from leaving the planet. Since aliens were forbidden in the Upper City without a permit, off-world aliens were ordered into the slums of the Lower City while the quarantine was active. The Sith did little to enforce this edict when off-world aliens ventured into the Upper City.

A local gang war between the Hidden Beks and the Black Vulkars further hindered the Sith's efforts to find Shan. Brejik, the leader of the Black Vulkars, wanted to encourage recruitment into his gang and gain dominance over the Lower City by winning the swoop season opener. He had a prototype accelerator stolen from the Beks, which would allow the Vulkars to win the race. He even offered Shan up as a prize to raise the stakes.

This was Onasi and Revan's opportunity to rescue Shan. Cooperating with the Hidden Beks, Revan stole back the swoop accelerator and won the Taris swoop championship. Brejik, unwilling to give up his prize, retracted Shan from the prize pool. While Revan protested, Shan freed herself and a brawl erupted. In the end Brejik was killed, and Revan escaped with Shan.

Canderous Ordo, a Mandalorian enforcer for Davik Kang, the local crime-lord and member of the Exchange, was impressed by Revan's skill and boldness during the race and the brawl afterwards. He approached Revan with a plan to escape Taris and told him where he could obtain a droid, T3-M4, that would be capable of bypassing the security system for the Sith military base. This would allow them to break into the base to steal the codes necessary to bypass the Sith blockade. Ordo then took Revan to Kang's estate, to steal his ship, the Ebon Hawk.

Bombardment of Taris
On his flagship, the Leviathan, Darth Malak grew impatient with the search for Shan. He feared her possible escape and ordered his fleet to bombard the entire planet. This was arguably the most horrific event during the Jedi Civil War. Taris was destroyed unnecessarily as Revan and his crew, including Shan, escaped the bombardment. It is assumed that most of the Upper City citizens were killed while only a few citizens, most notably Calo Nord, survived the destruction.

The destruction of Taris

Rehabitation
After the Great Galactic War the Republic took up the difficult task of recolonizing Taris, establishing a spaceport, a military base, and settlements. The Republic believed that rebuilding Taris would be a substantial symbolic victory against the Sith Empire.

Many centuries after the planet's devastation, Taris was finally resettled by Human colonists. These settlers were famous for their ship-building skills. These settlers rebuilt some of the planet's former cities, though much of the surface was left in ruins. Historians attempted to excavate the planet-wide ruins, looking for proof that the swoop bike originated on Taris. Not long after Taris was linked to the Hydian Way Route, the sole route that passed through the entire Galaxy.

There is evidence that a battle was fought on Taris during the Galactic Civil War. In 1 BBY Pirates fed the Rebel Alliance false information about Taris's Imperial defenses. The Rebels defeated most of the Imperials on Taris and the pirates revealed their true colors. They sent three Interceptor-class frigates to mop up any remaining Rebel forces but were easily defeated, along with the remaining local Imperials. Near the end of the war Gilad Pellaeon, leader of the Imperial Remnant conquered the planet.

As of 40 ABY, the famed bounty hunter Boba Fett owned a private residence on Taris. He had once taken a bounty down in the Lower City and retained bad memories of the experience. He returned to the planet to research the possible whereabouts of the Kaminoan Taun We, and unwittingly met his granddaughter.

Culture
aris was a very segmented society, naming the layers of the cities where each class of citizen lived, Middle City, etc. After the Civil War, the humans on Taris banned all but a select few non-humans from the Upper City, making it exclusive only for the wealthiest citizens. Most aliens that ventured into the Upper City without a permit were arrested. The Middle City had mostly humans in it as well, but had many aliens there too. Conversely, the Lower City was mostly aliens, and crime was rampant. The Undercity was avoided at all costs, and only the Outcasts dwelt there.

Justice was swift and harsh on Taris, and criminals were either executed, or banished to the Undercity, depending on the severity of the crime. The Lower levels, while heavily-crime stricken, was occasionally patrolled by surveillance droids.

The law-enforcing division of the government was known as the Taris Civil Authority, headed by a Constable. During the Mandalorian Wars, the Civil Authority had several patrol ships in orbit.

One of Taris societies few reliefs was swoop racing. As the rumored birth place of the swoop bike itself, swoop racing was huge on Taris, and some of the best swoop racers came out of Taris. The Galactic Swoop Racing Circuit started on Taris with the Tarisian Season Opener. When Taris was bombarded by the Sith during the Jedi Civil War, some of the galaxy's best racers were killed, as most were present for the Season opener.

This article uses material from the "Taris" article on the Star Wars wiki at Wikia and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.

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Evidence of Personal Starships in SWTOR

Small video showing Evidence of Personal Starships in Star Wars the old Republic.

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While we wait for The Old Republic: Trial of Han Solo

Han Solo is on trial for the infamous murder of Greedo in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Throughout this trial the prosecution and defense provide evidence, counter-evidence, and double counter-evidence drawn from the 1977, 1997, and 2004 releases of the movie, in which the events in question are represented in three distinct ways. This is a must for all Star Wars fans (and for anyone interested in an extremely high-quality piece of filmmaking).

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Interview Montage

Video Mix of stand out interview footage for BioWare's New Star Wars The Old Republic MMO regarding Story, Grouping, Raids and BioWare's Ambitions for the game.

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Fan Friday with Fan Site Kit

Today's update is a Fan Friday update, including some community art, two bits in the developer corner, a couple of new forum avatars and the Fan Site Kit.

I'll just be lazy and copy-paste the entire thing:

Welcome to another exciting Fan Friday where we shine the spotlight on talented members of Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ community and share some gems from the Development Team.

This week, we also want to present you with the official Star Wars: The Old Republic Fan Site Kit! We know you’ve been waiting for this, and we think you’ll be impressed.

Be sure to see it all, plus check out the new avatars, and don’t forget to vote in the latest series of polls!

Community Creations

StandAlone has been busy creating some breathtaking Star Wars™ fan art. The three most recent paintings, Ambush, Inevitable Death, and Darth Satus were all created using TOR concept art for costume design inspiration. Fantastic job, StandAlone!

Developer Corner

In the Developer Corner this week, we’re giving you a quick look at some combat effects in Star Wars: The Old Republic, along with a creature render that we think you will appreciate. Be sure to visit the forums to share your thoughts on our progress!



In The Old Republic, every class will have unique and visceral combat abilities. Check out this powerful and destructive Trooper!



This ferocious Rancor, with his dreadful claws and fangs, can easily obliterate any creature that gets within his reach.

Fan Site Kit

Star Wars: The Old Republic is pleased to provide fan site creators with a variety of materials to help build engaging fan sites. The Fan Site Kit includes concept art, high-resolution images, logos, and other legendary pieces of content from The Old Republic!

To access the Fan Site Kit, log in to your Star Wars: The Old Republic account above, click on the My Account button, and choose “Fan Site Kit” from the options listed under Account Management. In order to download the Fan Site Kit, you must fill out the required information, and read and accept the Fan Site Agreement. On this page, you will also learn how to get your site added to the Fan Site Listing page, so other TOR supporters can find and enjoy your fan site!

New Forum Avatars

From drones to droids, community members now have six new avatars to choose from on the forums. To update your forum avatar, log in and go to My Account, and click Avatar. We hope you enjoy!

Polls

We want to know! You can find these polls in the Surveys and Polls section of the website.

• What gaming events are you planning to attend this year?
• Which Timeline entry is your favorite?
• Which character in The Threat of Peace webcomic series do you like the best?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how excited are you about STAR WARS: The Old Republic?

And that's it. Downloading the fansite kit now, will oblish all the cool stuff later :)

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Compilation of SWTOR Developer Quotes on Companions

After compiling all I could find on SWTOR companion characters Im certain the experience will be light years beyond any Pet Character we have seen in previous MMORPG's

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HeroEngine Developer Simutronics Reorganizes

Gamasutra is reporting that Simutronics, who developed HeroEngine which, in turn, is being used by BioWare in Star Wars: The Old Republic, is reorganizing to support the growth of their engine business:

Simutronics, the company behind the HeroEngine that's used in MMOs including BioWare's upcoming The Old Republic, has reorganized in order to support growth of its engine business.

[Simutronics], founded in 1987, will now be home to two new divisions: HeroEngine and Simutronics Games. The company promoted Neil Harris to president of HeroEngine, overlooking licensee support, and Herb Marselas as VP of engineering. CEO David Whatley is taking over as president of Simutronics Games.

HeroEngine is used by a wide range of customers, including large and small studios that make anything from games to government applications, Simutronics said in a statement. Aside from BioWare's highly-anticipated MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic, HeroEngine is also licensed by Zenimax Online Studios, the sibling studio to Oblivion developer Bethesda Softworks that's working on an unannounced online game.

Marselas said the company is currently hiring. A statement said that due to new licensees, Simutronics will be expanding its development teams near Washington, D.C. and St. Louis, MO.

HeroEngine's website said the engine features live collaborative development via online, real-time game creation that offers instant feedback, and middleware that includes SpeedTree, FaceGen, Scaleform GFx and others.

The HeroEngine was originally developed by Simutronics for the MMORPG Hero's Journey, which has been in development for several years and has yet to receive a firm release date. Simutronics is also the developer of games including GemStone IV, DragonRealms, Modus Operandi, Alliance of Heroes, and CyberStrike 2.

The Simutronics Games division will focus on social networks and iPhone game development, the company said. "I've always had a passion for creating games, and our new corporate structure lets us take what we've learned over the past two decades and focus exclusively on applying it to new gaming platforms," said Simutronics Games president Whatley.

That unannounced MMO that Zenimax Online Studios is working on is rumored to be Elder Scrolls Online.

Whether this reorganization will have any effect on SWTOR is the question. Possibly the reorganization will allow Simutronics to give BioWare more support with the engine if they need it. But it's nice to hear that the engine is doing well enough to warrant the reorganization. And perhaps Simutronics will finally manage to finish Hero's Journey; I think it's been in development for over ten years now.


[link] to news report at Gamasutra.

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Deceived Remix (ft. Hollywood Undead)

This cool remix is made by Jadaco

The following is his own description from his youtube page:

I don't normally do this kind of thing.

But, just for fun, after buying this song and later seeing this trailer, I played the song with the trailer's sound muted. I was really surprised how well they synced up together. So much so, in fact, that I couldn't fight the urge to completely remix the original audio of the trailer to underlay this song as an alternate score.

I did NOT edit the song AT ALL for the sake of the video.
I did NOT edit the video AT ALL for the sake of the song.

What you see is just an awesome coincidence.

I DID, however, have to remix a lot of the sound effects in order to get rid of the original music. If you compare the two, you'll notice where I used a different sound set. This is mostly because I didn't bother to hunt down every single sound they used in the original track (the ships sound most notably different). Ultimately, though, I'm really happy with the sounds I did use. It gives this version a different feel.

I do NOT take credit for the original video.
I do NOT take credit for the song.

I only mixed the two together.

The original video is the "Deceived" cinematic trailer for the upcoming game "Star Wars: The Old Republic". Look it up, it's extremely well done. This isn't meant to replace it, or even "one up" it. I like both versions just the same.

The music, as credited in the video, is the song "City" by Hollywood Undead. If you like it, I highly recommend picking it up from iTunes (or wherever you prefer). In fact, it's a great album overall, so I recommend that too.

Last, and most important, this is purely a fan work that seeks no profit and does not aim to infringe upon the rights of any respective copyright owners. This is meant to be a transformative work that, if anything, strengthens the support and interest of any fans of the content. Unless they don't like this particular work, in which case they'd ignore it anyway. Even so, this work does nothing to deface the value or profitability of any of the content herein.

In any case, no harm done. Please don't bark, just enjoy.

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Know your lore: Darth Nihilus

Darth Nihilus was a Human male who reigned as a Dark Lord of the Sith during the era of strife following the Jedi Civil War. Before becoming a Sith, he lost everything during the Galactic Republic's war against the Mandalorian Neo Crusaders. He survived the activation of the Mass Shadow Generator superweapon during the war's final battle at the planet Malachor V, which surrounded the planet with a destructive spacial phenomenon known as a mass shadow that obliterated almost everything and everyone on and around the planet. The experience of the shadows made him "hunger" for Force energy, and the affliction began to ravage his body. In his pain he became a wound in the Force and was found by a seeker of such things, the Sith Lord Darth Traya. She told him that she could teach him to feed his hunger. He accepted her offer, becoming Traya's apprentice at the Trayus Academy on Malachor V. Over time, he became one of three concurrent Dark Lords of the Sith.

Together, the three formed a triumvirate with Traya at its head and her other apprentice, Darth Sion, as the third member. The trio chose individual names for themselves and Nihilus became the Lord of Hunger. The apprentices grew in strength during their training and eventually overpowered their Master. Sion defeated Traya, while Nihilus sapped her energy, before the two Sith exiled her and combined their powers to sever her ties to the Force. Nihilus's affliction developed to the point where the Dark Lord was forced to call upon the dark side of the Force to encase his spirit within his mask and armor to stay alive. Nihilus and Sion then became the main perpetrators of a Jedi purge, causing the virtual extinction of the Jedi Order. Nihilus was responsible for the devastation of the planet Katarr, killing and absorbing the Force energy of the Jedi at the Conclave on Katarr, along with every other living thing on the world, save one Miraluka woman named Visas Marr. Nihilus took Marr from the surface and made her his Shadow Hand.

One year later, Nihilus sensed a growing presence in the Force, and sent Marr to investigate and destroy it. The presence was a female Jedi, known only as the Exile, who was on a quest to find the remaining Jedi Masters who had survived the Purge. When Marr attempted to assassinate the woman, the Exile defeated her and convinced her to turn to the light side of the Force in the process. Although Nihilus returned to lurking the fringes of known space, the man was eventually tricked by Traya into initiating the Battle of Telos IV in an attempt to absorb a Jedi Academy without any actual Force-sensitives aside from the Jedi Master Atris. At Telos, the Sith Lord met a large fleet comprised of Republic and Mandalorian forces. In the carnage, his flagship Ravager was secretly boarded by a small force consisting of the Exile, Marr, Mandalore the Preserver, and his Mandalorians. The trio successfully killed Nihilus and destroyed the Ravager. Four millenia later, Nihilus' holocron was in the possession of the Dark Lord Darth Krayt, the founder of the One Sith Order and Emperor of his Galactic Empire.

Biography

The Human male who would one day be known as Darth Nihilus was alive at the conclusion of the Mandalorian Wars, a galaxy-wide conflict between the Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders and the Galactic Republic. Amidst those battles, he was said to have lost everything, including his friends, family, as well his will to live. During the final battle of the war, which took place on the planet Malachor V, a human female Jedi General gave the order to activate the Mass Shadow Generator. The Generator, a superweapon conceived by the Zabrak tech specialist Bao-Dur, killed almost everyone on the planet's surface and in orbit nearby.

This man survived the superweapon's destruction of the surface of Malachor and in his grief over his losses during the war, he assumed a dark persona, in part as a means of survival. He was trapped on the planet by the artificially-created mass shadows along with the bulk of the two fleets that filled space around the planet—where the Mandalorians had committed all of their forces in a last attempt at defeating the Republic—and suddenly took ill due to the shadows' effects. An emptiness swept over the man's idle body and it soon began to "hunger" intensely. Without intent, he drained the life-force of another survivor. The act was an unpleasant experience for him, but for a brief moment the hunger ceased. The emptiness, however, came back more relentless and intense than before. He indulged in absorbing the energy of other survivors, but the more he fed, the shorter the hunger was appeased and the more relentless it became.

After the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Malak was killed by the former Sith Lord and redeemed Jedi Revan at the Jedi Civil War's end, the Sith Empire became divided and its followers turned on each other, with many factions rising to stake claim to what little power could be garnered. The man was eventually discovered by the Dark Lord Darth Traya, who had sensed him as a wound in the Force. After locating the man, Traya explained that it was the Force that fueled his hunger and offered to train him at her Sith Academy on the planet to devour entire worlds to help appease the hunger. He followed her to the Trayus Academy and learned the ways of the Sith. The man apprenticed under Traya during this time, along with another prospective Sith. Traya's hungry pupil and her other apprentice each honed different aspects and skills of the dark side of the Force, until they both became Sith Lords. The man took up the name Nihilus, while the second apprentice became known as Darth Sion. The three Sith joined in the creation of a Sith Triumvirate. In addition, the three each took a unique title, with Nihilus electing for the "Lord of Hunger."

Darth Traya perceived Nihilus's hunger for the Force as detrimental to the goals of the Sith. Nevertheless, she taught him how to harness that hunger to make him stronger for a time, as she had promised. Nihilus consumed entire planets on several occasions, caring only to appease his hunger. The dark side consumed him more and more each time, causing his hunger and power to grow dramatically. His power eventually grew beyond what Traya could match. Their views on how to destroy the Jedi also became divided, with he and Sion wanting to destroy them outright while Traya desired a more subtle and time consuming approach. This strained the Triumvirate's already fragile alliance to the breaking point. Nihilus and Sion combined forces to challenge Traya, confronting their teacher in the center of her own Academy. Sion and Nihilus entered the Core from two separate doors and closed in on Traya while igniting their lightsabers; Traya followed suit by igniting hers. Nihilus Force-pushed her into a tooth-like feature of the platform, causing the woman to drop her lightsaber as she slumped against it. Meekly, Traya attempted to reach her lightsaber with the Force but failed as Sion slammed her head into the tooth, then beat her to the ground. Sion combined his power with Nihilus to sap Traya's Force energy. In the process, they also cut her off from the Force and cast her out into exile.



With Traya gone, the Sith were left with no defined leadership and her followers fractured once again into many factions, all seeking to take what little remained. Nihilus and Sion, having been the ones who defeated Traya, took control of the fractured Sith. The two united the numerous Dark Jedi who had followed Traya and had vied for her power themselves. The Dark Lords took control of these groups and focused them on a single common goal: the elimination of the Jedi Order, leading to an extensive assassination campaign against the Jedi, although both Sith Lords had different vehicles for achieving this. On the one hand, Sion killed as many Jedi he could find, dying many times along the way, only to be resurrected by his own anger and will to live fueled by the dark side of the Force. On the other, Nihilus traveled the fringes of known space with a large fleet of ships that he had ripped from the mass shadows surrounding Malachor V. He made one such vessel, the Ravager, his flagship, and led his flotilla to the largest deposits of Force energies he could find, whereupon he sated the ever-growing hunger within him and further increased his power. Both Nihilus and Sion were successful in their pursuits and brought the Jedi to the brink of extinction.

Eventually Nihilus became so absorbed by the dark side of the Force and his hunger that his physical body began to erode. Knowing that he would succumb to death if he did not act soon, Nihilus ripped his spirit from his body and encased it in the armor he wore, thus allowing the dark side to consume his useless body. Using the Force, the Sith Lord was able to keep his robes, armor and mask together, giving him some form and allowing him to use his Force powers as well as a lightsaber. Apart from that, however, he no longer had a physical form and became simple, primitive intent.

Silent sojourn
The Trayus Academy continued producing legions of Sith Lords, assassins and marauders, with Sion and Nihilus at its head. They spread death throughout the galaxy and turned many other Force-sensitives to their cause. What his followers experienced while simply being in Nihilus' vicinity allowed them to leech off other Force-sensitives' Force energy, increasing their own power. He also taught them how to sense their prey across the vastness of space.

In 3,952 BBY, the Jedi Master Atris, organized a large gathering of Jedi on the Miraluka colony world Katarr, which most of the remaining Jedi were expected to attend. After organizing the event, she then leaked the location as a ploy to lure a dark presence that she had sensed through the Force so that she could destroy it. Atris' plan worked, drawing Nihilus toward Katarr. When Nihilus neared the planet, however, he spoke, his voice a great hunger that the Miraluka could see and feel through the Force. The Sith Lord's hunger overwhelmed them and obliterated the surface of Katarr, wiping out the entire colony and anything else touched by the Force. Nihilus destroyed much of what remained of the Jedi Order, including the Jedi Masters Zhar Lestin, Dorak and Vandar Tokare; Atris herself did not actually attend the conclave, though she was reported to have done so.

As he walked on the surface of Katarr, Nihilus found only a single living being, an injured Miraluka woman named Visas Marr. He put her in a deep sleep, and brought her aboard his ship. Days later, Marr awoke, completely healed aboard the Ravager, and approached the Dark Lord. When she asked him why the wave of death had spared her, the Sith Lord did not speak. Instead, he showed her a vision of the galaxy as he saw it through his senses: beings on other planets unable to feel the Force, disconnected from one another and lost in the crush of humanity, a chaos to which he brought order. The vision crippled her ability to see through the Force and carved out the flesh of her vestigial eye sockets. Marr became the Sith Lord's Shadow Hand, and developed a powerful Force bond with Nihilus that strengthened both and allowed them to support or weaken each other in battle.



Downfall
In another part of the galaxy, the human female known as the Jedi Exile returned to Republic space after being banished from the Jedi Order for following the Jedi Knight Revan to the Mandalorian Wars. She had begun to re-establish her connection to the Force, which had been severed during the Battle of Malachor V. The Exile became a factor in Republic politics when Atris, intent on using her as bait for Nihilus, arranged for her return in 3,951 BBY aboard the Republic warship Harbinger, and broadcast knowledge of her presence through the core ward databases. When the Peragus Mining Facility was destroyed, as a result of Darth Sion's pursuit of the Exile there, the Telosian Restoration Project, a pilot program for all potential restorative efforts in the wake of the Mandalorian Wars, lost its main supply of fuel and the Republic secessionist movement on planets such as Onderon increased. The Exile came under the tutelage of Nihilus's former Master, who had forsaken her Sith identity of Darth Traya and retaken the name Kreia following her exile. Kreia now planned to use the Exile against the Lords of the Sith to achieve her revenge.

Nihilus commands Marr to seek out the Jedi Exile.

Nihilus eventually felt a disturbance in the Force that only his apprentice could identify. As a result, Marr was sent to defeat its source, the Exile, and bring the woman before Nihilus so that he could consume her. When the Exile defeated Marr instead, the Miraluka began to question her conclusions to what her Master had once shown her. She was then swayed to serve the Exile against Nihilus, the slayer of her people.

Alliance with General Vaklu
Nihilus allied himself with General Vaklu, the leader of the Onderonian separatists and cousin of Queen Talia of Onderon, just before the Exile's return to Republic space. He wanted to aid Vaklu in breaking away from the Republic so the planet would fall under his influence and become a staging ground for the Sith. Colonel Tobin, Vaklu's second-in-command, became Nihilus' contact. The Sith Lord also established a base on Onderon's moon, Dxun, inside the tomb of Freedon Nadd, an ancient Dark Lord of the Sith. The tomb was filled with a dark energy Force nexus, which Nihilus he hoped to feed upon and where his underlings were to perform a dark side ritual and influence the coming events, the instigation of an Onderonian Civil War. Nihilus's plans for Onderon failed when the Exile, with help from Mandalorian leader Mandalore the Preserver, intervened in Nihilus's plans. The Exile joined forces with Mandalore's clan, which were secretly living on Onderon's moon. The Mandalorians and the Exile were unaware of the presence of Nadd's tomb until the Exile received a warning about them from Kreia, who sensed the preparations for the dark side ceremony. A member of the Jedi Exile's team was put in charge of an assault on Nadd's tomb aimed at halting the Sith's plans and two more of the Exile's companions accompanied this leader as well a squadron of Mandalorians. The ritual inside the tomb was successfully interrupted by the strike team and stopped upon their defeating the Sith Lord's stationed there.



Meanwhile, the Exile and two companions headed to Iziz to support Queen Talia and keep Onderon in the Republic. There, the Triumvirate's Sith Lords and Dark Jedi had joined the separatists in a march on the Iziz Royal Palace. The Exile battled Vaklu's forces until she reached the Royal Palace's throne room, where she helped end the war by defeating Vaklu. With the defeat of the separatists and Vaklu, Nihilus's plans for Onderon were thwarted; Queen Talia subsequently decided to have Vaklu executed by a firing squad.

Assault on Telos IV
Afterwards, Nihilus was informed by Colonel Tobin, Vaklu's second in command, that there was a Jedi Academy on the planet Telos IV. This was actually a ruse by Kreia in an attempt to draw her former pupil there while she traveled to reclaim her academy on Malachor. When Nihilus's fleet arrived near the planet, the Republic Navy was there to meet him, working with the Mandalorians who were there to assist the Exile and their Mandalore. This began the Battle of Telos IV, a large conflict with fronts on both Citadel Station, the large station orbiting the planet, and in space. Nihilus realized too late that there were actually no Force-sensitives in the Academy, yet his ravaging hunger drove him to attempt to consume Telos anyway.

Dark energy stems from Darth Nihilus's body as it fades away.

Nihilus's ship was assaulted and boarded by the Mandalorians in a coordinated final strike against Nihilus. Mandalore led his troops to and aboard the Ravager, while covered by the Republic forces, to assist the Exile and Visas Marr in their advance on the warship's bridge. Four proton bombs were set in strategic locations throughout the ship along their way, the fourth being obtained from the missile bay after a premature detonation risked putting the entire plan in jeopardy. Colonel Tobin, however, met the Exile one last time, though his body was twisted by the dark side from exposure to Nihilus's dark powers in the time since Kreia saved him. Though at first Tobin was hostile towards the Exile, the Jedi informed him that it would only be a matter of time until Onderon would meet the same fate as Telos if Nihilus was to succeed. Tobin, an Onderonian patriot, agreed to help the Mandalorians detonate the charges.



During his confromtation with the Exile, Marr, and Mandalore, Nihilus attempted to absorb the Exile's Force energy, however, he failed and exhausted himself. This was due to the Exile's ability to draw on the Force energy of those around her, as a result of her tie to the Force being cut at the end of the Battle of Malachor V. They engaged in a brief duel, with the Dark Lord seemingly too strong to defeat. Then, the Exile learned of his aversion to her Force energy signature and turned the tide against him. Marr entered a trance and tried to disrupt the link with her former Master, undermining his connection to the Force through their Force bond. Nihilus was eventually defeated by his three opponents. Before making for the orbital shuttle she and her companions had used to board the ship, Marr felt compelled to remove the Dark Lord's mask, wanting to see the face of the one who had wounded her. Nihilus' body then dissolved in an aura of dark side energies as the trio left the bridge. Shortly thereafter, the bombs aboard the Ravager exploded and the rest of the Sith fleet was decimated by the Republic.

Legacy
After Nihilus' death, the Jedi Exile traveled to Malachor V to find Kreia, who had taken back her former identity of Darth Traya, along with the Academy. The Exile entered the Academy and Darth Sion ordered all the students in the Academy to attack her. She fought through the halls and found Sion defending the door to the Trayus Core. The two dueled, with Sion regenerating when injured. The Exile convinced Sion to let go of the anger keeping him alive and he succumbed from his lifetime of injuries. Proceeding into the Core, the Exile found Traya meditating. The Jedi reluctantly dueled her former teacher but, after defeating her, refused to strike Traya down. Traya attacked the Exile again but was defeated a second time, dying of her injuries.

The Sith lived on after the fall of the Sith Triumvirate. At least one Dark Lord of the Sith rose and succeeded Nihilus, quietly ruling as the Republic began to thrive anew. By 3,681 BBY, the Sith would once again threaten the galaxy in a Great War that pit the Republic and the Jedi against the mysterious Sith Emperor and the resurgent Sith Empire, which was thought defeated during the Great Hyperspace War.

At some point during his life, Darth Nihilus created a holocron that eventually fell into the hands of Dark Lord Darth Krayt, the founder of the One Sith Order as well as Galactic Emperor from 130 to 137 ABY. Several millennia after Nihilus's death, the Sith had reclaimed the galaxy for the first time since the fall of Palpatine's Galactic Empire. During the last year of his reign, Krayt traveled to the Sith homeworld of Korriban and accessed this holocron along with those of Darth Andeddu and Darth Bane, seeking their advice on how to stop the Yuuzhan Vong creatures from consuming his body. The only response he received from Nihilus was a statement in the Sith Lord's language, which his comrades did not attempt to translate.

Powers and abilities

Darth Nihilus wielded a self-built lightsaber containing a red crystal, and fought in an aggressive, one-handed style. He had learned some of the greatest of the Sith teachings, but such practices took the form of dependence. They would make him stronger, but only for a time. Force-sensitives and worlds rich in the Force would draw him and the Miraluka colony of Katarr was one such place. His reach in the Force eventually extended to a point where he could feel Force users throughout the galaxy, cleanse entire planets, killing everything that was touched by the Force. Prolonged use of this power made him a threat to all life, as his hunger grew as well. The hunger controlled him, not the other way around. He was a wound in the Force, his mere presence casting echoes that would slowly kill all around him, feeding him. This ability was similar to the Jedi Exile's, the reconvened Jedi Council in the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine inferred that the Sith had somehow learned this ability to feed on the Force from her. Nihilus' very speech caused pain and death to all who heard it. The ones who served him, in time, like his crew on the Ravager, became utter slaves.

Darth Nihilus was adept in many aspects of the Force. He used his dark variant of the Sever Force ability to strip the Force from Darth Traya and, together with Darth Sion, betrayed her and cast her out of the Sith Order. Nihilus could also use the Force to lift starships, as he did on Malachor V with the Ravager. He tore it from the mass shadows that surrounded the planet and kept it together even though it had suffered extensive structural damage. Through the Force, Darth Nihilus was able to escape death by containing his consciousness in his armor—an ability that Darth Krayt would inquire of Nihilus's holocron millennia later. He was also proficient in Dark rage, Farseeing, Force lightning, Force Resistance, Force Scream, Force Whirlwind, among others such as a dark variant of Force Healing called Dark Healing. Nihilus was aware of some secret powers of the dark side such as devastating power, used to increase the power of an offensive Force technique either by half of its power or to double its power, and distant power, which gave him the ability to increase the range of a Force power to anywhere in the star system from which it originated. His knowledge also extended to Sith alchemy; during the second battle of Onderon, Nihilus's sect of Sith followers used techniques that would bend tame beasts to their will.

The Star Wars universe is an expansive universe. You're playing the games, you're watching the movies, you know the how, but do you know the why? Each week we make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind Star Wars: The old Republic

This article uses material from the "Darth Nihilus" article on the Star Wars wiki at Wikia and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.

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