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Character page for the Nihil in the High Republic era, set 250 years before the Battle of Yavin.

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The Nihil

The Eye of the Nihil

A group of marauders who plagued the Outer Rim Territories during the High Republic Era. Due to having access to mysterious routes known as "Paths" that defied conventional hyperspace logic, the Nihil emerged as a significant threat to the Republic and Jedi Order during a time of galactic expansion. They were headquartered in the Great Hall of the Nihil, a space station within No-Space that was only accessible through the Paths. The Eye of the Nihil operated from the Gaze Electric, a massive warship and palace.

In General

Anarchy Is Chaos: Described as “anarchistic” by promotional material, their guiding principle is “do whatever you want”, and what they want is to kill people and steal things.
Bullying a Dragon:
- The Nihil have made the monumental mistake of directly challenging both the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order, making a point of continually targeting and antagonizing the latter. Exactly how badly this backfires on them has yet to be revealed, but considering the fact that they are completely defunct by the time of the Galactic Empire...
- That said however, the Jedi and Republic underestimated them early on in turn, which resulted in the destruction of Starlight Beacon and the Nihil cutting off much of the galaxy from the Republic. Once they had access to the Nameless, the Nihil became a serious threat even to Jedi.
Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: The Nihil are entirely different from any other major enemies in Star Wars to date. They're not Force-wielders like the various Darksiders, they're not religious fanatics like the Sith cultists, they're not an enemy nation, and they're not even high-level criminals like the Hutts or the Shadow Collective. They are basically just a random band of marauders who lucked into a huge technological advantage. Even then, it's repeatedly made clear that the only reason they are a real threat to the Republic is because it's an unprecedented era of peace and there's barely any military presence in the Galaxy. However, they become even more dangerous once they have control of Eldritch Abominations that specifically prey on Force users and develop a barrier that can destroy any ships traveling through hyperspace, and effectively take control of the Outer Rim by destroying Starlight Beacon and using the Stormwall to lock the Republic out of much of it.
Child Soldiers: The Nihil sometimes influence children into joining their ranks, as evidenced by Nan and Krix. Others are coerced into joining.
Equal-Opportunity Evil: Anyone can join the Nihil so long as they are ruthless enough to survive and carry out heinous crimes.
Evil Is Not a Toy: During the events surrounding the Republic Fair on Valo, the Nihil try to capitalize on the Drengir threat as a distraction for the Jedi, even planting their seeds in key locations such as Crashpoint Tower on Valo and Mulita and promising some of these Drengir "meat" to feed on in the process. Unfortunately, this hasn't stopped the Drengir from eating some of them, especially after Ram Jomaram tells the ones planted at Crashpoint Tower that they've been lied to.
Fantastic Rank System: The hierarchy of the Nihil was divided into four ranks: Tempest Runners, Storms, Clouds, and Strikes. The Eye theoretically held equal rank to the three Tempest Runners as the one who handed out the Paths, but they existed outside of the regular ranking structure. This unusual command structure is exploited against the Jedi and Republic, which causes them to erroneously believe that one of the Tempest Runners, Lourna Dee, is the leader after the Republic Fair attack. It's not until Starlight Beacon is destroyed and the Nihil have won that Marchion Ro reveals himself as the true leader of the Nihil.
- Tempest Runners commanded each of the three Tempests and divided their spoils amongst each other and the Eye.
- Storms were the lieutenants of the Tempest Runners, reporting directly to their respective bosses as either officers on the Tempest's flagship or commanding their own unit of ships.
- Clouds commanded their own ships as part of each Tempest.
- Strikes were new recruits brought in by the Clouds and served as the rank-and-file members of the Nihil.
Fascist, but Inefficient: While the original Tempest system was rife with needlessly deadly competition with one another and Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, The Eye of Darkness shows that the ministry system installed to replace the Tempests in the wake of setting up the Occlusion Zone isn't any better about it (to the point that even Marchion admits that the ministers are just new Tempest Runners in all but name), as the three ministers each have their own ambitions (Boolan is more interested in his experiments while Viess is more interested in killing Jedi, which conflicts with Boolan's experiments; meanwhile, Ghirra Starros is the only one interested in actually trying to make the Nihil into a functioning government, as the ministry system was her suggestion and she worries that the Nihil's lawlessness will cause them to collapse in on themselves). Meanwhile, many of the worlds that have "joined" the Nihil on account of being in the Occlusion Zone when the Stormwall was erected are not only now being starved as a result of their original supply chain with the Republic being cut, the Nihil continue to raid and oppress them. Part of this is because Marchion Ro explicitly doesn't want an actual government, as it would be antithetical to the Nihil's anarchistic ideology and all he really cares about is tormenting the Jedi and Republic. When Marchion decides to expand the reach of the Stormwall in retaliation to the Republic's attempt to breach it, Yoda notes that this may ultimately come back to bite them since they would be spread too thin trying to control the worlds they've newly gained, on top of already dealing with Jedi, RDC taskforces, pro-Republic worlds and other resistance groups that were behind the Stormwall before it was erected.
Foil: To the Confederacy of the Independent Systems, especially after the creation of the Occlusion Zone. Both are Outer Rim entities comprised primarily of non-humans who fight against the influence of the Republic and are led by a shadowy leader with a grudge against the Jedi while claiming to fight for freedom. However, while the Confederacy was comprised of the worlds and governments who used to be part of the Republic and left due to (for the most part) legitimate grievances with its corruption and incompetence, only to be manipulated by Mega Corporations and the Sith, the Nihil are a band of pirates with a large number of members from non-Republic worlds (and the Republic worlds that "joined" the Nihil after the Stormwall was created didn't necessarily do so willingly), motivated by the Republic’s expansion threatening their ability to plunder and pillage whenever they want. Furthermore, while Sidious was a Force-sensitive human Shadow Dictator who only used the Confederacy to gain further power while his public Identity was the leader of the Republic, Marchion is not Force-sensitive and is a Humanoid Alien whose existence is common knowledge amongst the Nihil, but is completely unknown to the wider galaxy under any identity until the fall of the Starlight Beacon. Finally, while the Confederacy’s primary troops are battle droids led by organic Commanders, the Nihil have organic mooks comprised of many species with droids supplementing them.
Gas Mask Mooks: Gas masks are a common symbol among the Nihil's members, as they frequently weaponize Deadly Gas. These masks are designed to be both intimidating and functional.
Hate Sink: The Nihil as an organization are fully despicable. Their beef with the Republic is entirely because they are selfish bastards who only care about how much wealth and pleasure they can get for themselves, and they attack innocents just for the fun of it. Even other pirates (especially more noble ones who steal from the corrupt to help the downtrodden) find them repugnant because of this.
High Turnover Rate: There can only be three Tempest Runners at a time, and if one were to die, one of the Storms would be immediately promoted to replace them. The problem is that most of them have died not just in battle against the Jedi and Republic, but partially as a result of constant scheming among the Nihil leadership. As of the end of Phase I, Lourna Dee is the only Tempest Runner from before Marchion Ro became the Eye to still be alive, and she got her position from killing her predecessor. Even now, the Tempest system has effectively been dissolved after Marchion left Lourna and Zeetar high and dry during the Jedi attack on the Great Hall, and by Phase III, has been replaced with a trio of ministers after Marchion publicly revealed himself as the leader of the Nihil.
Hypocrite: The Nihil preach doing what you want without rules... but you still have to follow orders. One of the tempest riders lampshades it, but doesn't actually care.
Martyrdom Culture: Deconstructed. After the death of Kassav and his Tempest at the Battle of Kur, Marchion Ro props them up as martyrs and uses their Last Stand to get the rest of the Nihil to rally behind him. The reality is that Marchion set Kassav up to die after making it clear he had it out for him and suspected him of having a hand in his father's death, and Kassav's death was just a step to consolidating power. When Marchion starts moving against Pan Eyta, the latter suspects he's going to turn him into a martyr as well and replace him with a more sycophantic Tempest, just like what happened to Kassav (who got replaced with Zeetar).
Moral Myopia: The Nihil hate the Republic for being "tyrants" encroaching on their "freedoms." The freedoms in question being the freedom to raid and pillage the entire Outer Rim. The Tempest Runners appear to just be paying lip service to the ideal as a means to control their people, but Marchion Ro seems to genuinely believe it at least to some extent. In reality, Marchion is just as motivated by self-interest as the Tempest Runners, but instead of being motivated by just greed or power, he's motivated by his extreme ego. He's convincing as he is because he had to delude himself into believing his own lie.
Motive Decay: The group of raiders that would eventually become the Nihil started off as a loose off-shoot of the Path of the Open Hand formed by Marda Ro, initially built with the intent of punishing Force abusers (a carry-over from the Mother's indoctrination) and reuniting the scattered Evereni. By the time of the Great Disaster (and Marda likely long since dead), the Nihil's original pretenses have all but faded, have become little more than self-indulgent thugs, and while Marchion has some knowledge of his family history, his grudge against the Jedi and Republic is more motivated by a galaxy-sized ego than historical religious dogma.
N.G.O. Superpower:
- While they are outclassed by superpowers with actual armies in later eras, the Nihil are surprisingly well-equipped and organized for anarchistic Space Pirates, have pulled off well-calculated attacks on worlds (which have resulted in the deaths of Jedi), and even have secret backing from politicians and wealthy and influential hyperspace pioneers. In fact, most of their ranks are pulled not just from people with grievances against the Republic, but from worlds outside its jurisdiction and/or that have been hit hard by the Great Disaster. After the destruction of Starlight Beacon, Marchion Ro and the Nihil cut the Republic off from much of the Outer Rim with a wall of their newly-developed "stormseeds", effectively becoming its rulers at the end of Phase I.
- Deconstructed in Phase III, as while they effectively control a large chunk of the galaxy after the erection of the Stormwall, they are shown to be a very dysfunctional state that cares very little about the people that live in their territory and aren't really cut out for governing due to their chaotic ideology. Former Senator Ghirra Starros tries to get Marchion to make the Nihil resemble an actual government - knowing full-well that the Nihil will collapse in on themselves if they don't establish a proper system - only to realize she's dealing with a Psychopathic Manchild that cares more about crushing his enemies and has no comprehensible end goal beyond that. After Marchion expands the Stormwall to claim more territory as a response to the Republic attempting to breach it, Yoda notes that they have taken more territory than their numbers can reasonably control.
People's Republic of Tyranny: After the establishment of the Occlusion Zone, Marchion Ro declares it as Free Space... as long as you identify with the Nihil (and as far as Marchion's declaration goes, if you were living there at the time of the Zone's establishment, you are a Nihil by default).
Putting on the Reich: The Nihil eye symbol looks somewhat like a reverse swastika. The Nazi parallels become even more prominent in Phase III, as the eye is now their standard symbol (albeit now blue instead of red) and frequently displayed on banners in conquered territory, and the soldiers serving under General Viess wear black armbands that display the blue eye.
Red and Black and Evil All Over: Much like the Sith, the Nihil love the colors of red and black. They're also the main antagonists of The High Republic. However, once Marchion starts leading the Nihil, he eventually turns their logo blue (likely referencing their roots in the Path of the Open Hand) by the time he's created the Occlusion Zone.
Renegade Splinter Faction: The Nihil have their roots in the Path of the Open Hand, as many of their resources, such as the Gaze Electric and the Great Leveler, once belonged to them, and Marchion's great-grandmother Marda Ro was a member of the cult. After the Path was fragmented on the Night of Sorrow, Marda would gather some Path members who were away from Dalna and some rogues to create her own band of raiders, with her daughter Shalla turning these raiders into the Nihil.
Rotten Rock & Roll: Many Nihil pilots like to have intense music of a genre known in-universe as "wreckpunk" played on their own radios and their enemies' comms akin to war drums. The audio books tend to portray this music as heavy metal.
Thrown Out the Airlock: A common form of execution for those deemed responsible for failing the Nihil is to be thrown through the vac shields of the Great Hall of the Nihil to suffocate in space.

Leadership

Eye of the Nihil

Marchion Ro

"What do I see? What does your eye see for the Nihil?"

Species: Evereni

"I do not wish to rule the galaxy. If I did, you would be under my boot even now. But I will take what I wish, when I wish it, and no one will stand in my way - Republic, Jedi, or anyone else. They cannot stand in my way. The Nihil have proven our power, and we will use that power however we choose. This galaxy - this galaxy is mine."

The current Eye of the Nihil, who provides them their special Paths through hyperspace. Despite his position, Marchion has little real power amongst the Nihil overall and must play a complex power game with the Tempest Runners to advance his interests, a situation he seeks to change to reforge the divided Nihil into a larger and more cohesive power. After succeeding in claiming full control over the Nihil, Marchion began his true plan: utilizing the Nameless to drive the Jedi out of the frontier and to create the Stormwall, which cut off ten sectors of the Outer Rim from the rest of the galaxy for him to rule over.

A God Am I: It's revealed at the end of The Eye of Darkness that his narcissism is so great, he's even got a god complex.
And Then What?: After his victory with the destruction of Starlight Beacon and creation of the Stormwall, it becomes clear that Marchion has no plans beyond "destroy the Jedi and Republic". This becomes a point of contention with Ghirra Starros, who actually wants to make the Nihil into a legitimate, functioning government, and some of his less sycophantic subordinates, who start to realize he's actually quite insane.
Authority in Name Only: While his position as Eye grants him a great deal of influence over the Nihil because he controls the Paths, it's an important point that he doesn't directly command anything outside of his personal ship. By the end of Light of the Jedi, this changes.
Ax-Crazy: Don't let his calm demeanor fool you. Marchion is absolutely unhinged and frequently kills people on a whim, whether they be captive Jedi, civilians, or even his own subordinates.
Bad Boss: He's perfectly willing to sacrifice countless numbers of Nihil if it means getting something he wants. First, he sets up much of Kassav's Tempest (which makes up a third of the Nihil's numbers at that point) to get slaughtered at the Battle of Kur just so he could get rid of Kassav himself and consolidate power as the leader of the Nihil. Second, he brings along a Force-sensitive pilot just to use as a guinea pig for the Great Leveler's Force-nullifying abilities. Third, he sacrifices a number of Nihil pilots to the Veil so he and his personal cult can land on Planet X's surface. He also sometimes executes his subordinates on the fly for completely trivial reasons.
The Bad Guy Wins: By the end of Phase I, he has caused the destruction of Starlight Beacon, the deaths or demoralization of several Jedi, and has taken control of much of the Outer Rim by cutting the Republic off from it with the Stormwall.
The Beastmaster: He gains control of a creature called "Great Leveler" in The Rising Storm. This overlaps with Hijacking Cthulhu when it is revealed that the Leveler is one of the Nameless, and Marchion gains several more to control afterward.
Believing Their Own Lies: He's not actually quite sure why he's taken the Nihil beyond simple raiding and plundering beyond his own egomania, and when he develops a cult within the ranks of the Nihil, he ends up deluding himself by the end of Phase I.
Big Bad: By the end of Light of the Jedi, he has cemented himself as the greatest active threat to the Galaxy thus far revealed, and gets even more dangerous from there.
Black Eyes of Evil: Like all members of his species, his eyes are completely black with no sclerae.
The Caligula: While Marchion was always unhinged, he starts slipping into this role as lord of the Occlusion Zone. On top of having people killed who speak critically of him, his rule involves leaving the citizens of the Outer Rim at the mercy of his raiders despite claiming it as a place to be free. When Ghirra Starros tries to mold the Nihil into anything resembling a functioning government, Marchion absolutely derides her efforts, as all he cares about is asserting dominance over anyone who would dare stand up to him instead of doing any actual ruling. Also, despite supposedly having everything he could have wanted, ruling the Outer Rim just isn't enough for him and he has become incredibly paranoid of even his most sycophantic followers. Things have gotten so bad that there are even Nihil who are afraid of him and trying to either defect or have his authority undermined.
Captain Nemo Copy: As the Eye of Nihil, he poses a serious threat to the Republic due to his access to supposedly impossible hyperspace routes, provided by Mari San Tekka letting him attack indiscriminately. Like Nemo, Ro's past is a mystery, though it's implied he's out for revenge against the Jedi, and like Nemo, his name is an alias. Fitting with the high-tech pirate theme, he wears what resembles a finned diving helmet.
Card-Carrying Villain: He makes absolutely zero secret that all he cares about is killing Jedi and Republic loyalists, and derides Ghirra's efforts to make the Nihil into a more organized and "legitimate" organization and government as being antithetical to the Nihil's base nature of violence and death.
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: He plays just about everyone against everyone if he thinks it'll help him get on top.
Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
- Or prequel, as it were. He's very different from Palpatine, being a rough, loutish pirate who doesn't appear to be a Force user and who presides over a chaotic horde of anarchists rather than a sleek, authoritarian Empire. Additionally, while Palpatine's takeover of the galaxy was the mere start of his grander plans for immortality, Marchion is almost totally without any direction or plan after creating the Occlusion Zone.
- He's also different from Kylo Ren despite a few similarities. Both are intimidating figures that put up a cool and collected front, only to later be shown to be Psychopathic Manchildren, start off with relatively little power before seizing power from their predecessor, have issues with their fathers before murdering them, and have an obsession with family legacy. However, aside from not being a Force user and again, being a loutish pirate, his obsession with family legacy is actually very hollow and self-serving, he is an egomaniac, and lacks any of the traits that made Kylo sympathetic.
Covered in Scars: When seen without his shirt, his torso is shown to have a series of scarring.
Creepy Souvenir: After capturing Loden Greatstorm, he keeps his lightsaber as a trophy and after Loden's death by the Leveler.
Cult of Personality: He's been able to get one particular group of Nihil whom he call the She'ar to follow him closely - and even be willing to die for him - by promising that they'll be part of something special. The reality is he's just taking the Nihil beyond simple raiding for his own ego. Even when some of his closest disciples are put in danger on the Nameless' homeworld, they still continue to follow him.
Depending on the Artist: His mask changes appearance depending on the comic or book he's in, which is explained In-Universe by him having multiple masks, with one of them being his very first mask and the most iconic one being the mask of the Eye.
Dystopia Justifies the Means: He will do anything to establish a galaxy where ultimately there is no one and nothing that prevents him from doing whatever the hell he wants at any time. What he wants is utter chaos and the ability to kill anyone, and views any kind of organization or restrictions as limiters on that. Marchion will happily see all trappings of a functioning society fall away for such a galaxy to exist.
Enfante Terrible: Thanks to the harsh upbringing of many Evereni away from their homeworld, he was pretty bloodthirsty even as a child (to the point that Asgar had to threaten to discipline him to keep from killing all of Kassav's men), and he grew up to become bloodthristy even by Evereni standards. He barely even reacted to his own grandmother getting thrown to her death right behind him.
Evil Mentor: Takes Krix under his wing as a lieutenant and feeds his hatred of the Jedi and Force users, seeing in him a kindred spirit.
Evil Overlord: Has settled into this status by Phase III, with the Nihil now having control over at least ten sectors behind the Stormwall and subjugating its people under Nihil rule.
Faux Affably Evil: He has a certain rough charm to him, but don't be fooled - he's a total egomaniac and absolutely ruthless to anyone in his way. For example, he decides to tell a captive Master Obratuk Glii how he was able to destroy Starlight Beacon and destroy Jedi, but mainly as an excuse to gloat to one of his enemies. Once he finishes his story, he feeds Obratuk to one of the Nameless. One moment he can be very soft-spoken, but the next moment, he could be screaming for someone's blood to be spilled.
Freudian Excuse: Not just for himself but for his species as a whole. Due to several natural disasters, corruption, non-stop war and starvation on their home planet of Everon, the Evereni who were left and became spacefaring became a highly distrustful and self-centered people who want nothing more than galactic domination due to seeing it as their only path for safety. On a personal level, his father was physically and verbally abusive, on at least one occasion threatening to kill Marchion of his son wouldn’t obey.
Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Despite his people's history of hardships, Marchion is incredibly bloodthirsty even by their standards, and it's not clear how much bearing (if any) his people's and family's hardships actually have on his own motives, given the Evereni's hardships go back more than a century before Marchion was born. The same comic that revealed his origins also revealed that Marchion is more motivated by his own ego than his family history.
For the Evulz: Ultimately, everything he does just has the goal satisfying his personal desires of chaos and death. Marchion absolutely despises Ghirra's attempts to add organization, governance, and legitimacy as a galactic state to the Nihil and undermines her efforts through constant attacks outside the Occlusion Zones and spectacles like Pra-Tre Veter's show trial and execution even as she points out that if things keep going as they are, the Nihil will collapse under their own lawlessness within months.
Fur and Loathing: The Eye of Darkness suggests that the fur on his cape comes from a now-extinct creature, and he's the deranged leader of a marauder group.
Genius Bruiser: He's extremely cunning and, as Kassav finds out the hard way, is an absolutely lethal warrior.
Hope Crusher: Marchion doesn't just want to destroy the Jedi. He wants to break them and all that they stand for, and to him, the Nameless are the perfect tool to realizing that.
Humanoid Aliens: By the time of the Great Disaster, his species is unknown, but he looks mostly human save that he has grey skin and a somewhat predatory cast to his features. In fact, he's had underlings killed for asking about his species. Eye of the Storm reveals their species is called the Evereni, and the reason they are unknown is that back when they were known, they were persecuted for their generally distrustful nature.
I See Dead People: Ever since murdering his father Asgar, Marchion has suffered hallucinations of him. To deny any sense of guilt, he chooses to remember him only as a corpse. After the establishment of the Occlusion Zone, he also starts to have hallucinations of Marda.
It's All About Me: While he speaks the language of a liberator, his real motive for taking down the Republic and Jedi is that he's a narcissist with a galaxy-sized ego that doesn't like being told what to do. When he reveals himself on the Holonet to the galaxy as the leader of the Nihil, he claims that the fall of Starlight Beacon is his achievement and that the galaxy belongs to him, choosing specifically to not credit his organization.
Marchion Ro: I am all that matters, and I do not like people who do not matter telling me what to do.
The Kid with the Remote Control: In the first arc of The High Republic Adventures, Marchion gains two halves of a rod that allow him to control the Great Leveler, a creature capable of great harm to Force users. And it allows him to control other Nameless too. And there are three rods total: the Rod of Seasons, the Rod of Ages, and the Rod of Daybreak.
Kinslaying Is a Special Kind of Evil: In addition to finishing off his father after finding him mortally wounded, Marchion kills his cousin Kufa after she helps him reach the Great Leveler, seemingly out of a desire to not share the culmination of his family's goals with anyone else.
The Leader: Played with. As Eye of the Nihil, he effectively wields the most power of any individual in their organization because he controls knowledge of the Paths, but that's not nearly as much as he'd like and he still has to work with the Tempest Runners to actually get anything done. By the end of Light of the Jedi, he's succeeded in placing himself in a much stronger position as the leader of the Nihil.
Limited Wardrobe: Played with in that he has two different helmets — a red-eyed cyclops-like one and a black one. In one comic panel, he's shown to be choosing between them.
Malevolent Masked Men: Like all the Nihil, he wears a monstrous-looking helmet designed to be both functional and intimidating.
Manipulative Bastard: He's very skilled at this. The Tempest Runners start off regarding him (grudgingly) as a useful ally but not as their superior; by the end of Light of the Jedi he has the surviving two eating out of his hand.
Mask of Sanity: Downplayed, as his actions already make it clear that he's a lunatic. However, he sometimes experiences hallucinations of his father that he killed. Doctor Uttersond catches him going through one of these hallucinations and gets lashed out at, Marchion plays it off as him deliberately abusing the Doctor to hide the fact that he's seeing ghosts.
Missing Mom: He was raised by his father and grandmother, with absolutely no mention of who his mother was or what happened to her.
Mysterious Past: In Light of the Jedi he drops a lot of hints about his past but gives few solid answers, beyond that he wants revenge on the Jedi and the Republic for something that happened to his family long ago and that 'Marchion Ro' isn't even his real name. Even his species isn't clear and he kills anyone who inquires about it. Eye of the Storm reveals that his species call themselves the Evereni.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: His public execution of Grandmaster Pra-Tre Veter was meant to demoralize the Republic and Jedi, but it also unwittingly gave the Jedi some new insight on the Nameless, which they are otherwise unable to get near without being driven mad with fear at best.
No-Sell: He can shrug off a Jedi mind-trick through sheer stubbornness, though he indicates the knowledge of how to do this is a skill that's been passed down through his family.
Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: He claims to be leading the Nihil to absolute freedom from authority, but in reality, he's a bloodthirsty egomaniac that's only trying to destroy the Jedi and Republic for his own vanity and partially because of a family grudge. When he gloats about the destruction of Starlight Beacon on the Holonet, he claims it as his, and not the Nihil's, victory and that the galaxy belongs to him. And he has had to delude himself into believing in his own narrative.
Psychopathic Manchild: While he presents himself as someone with a grand vision to his followers, Eye of the Storm reveals that, underneath that grandiosity, his real motives are far pettier, being comparable to a playground bully: He's an egomaniac that wants to crush anyone that would dare to tell him what to do. This is also reflected in how he rules the Occlusion Zone: He's less interested in ruling and far more interested in making the Republic and Jedi suffer. He doesn't want Viess killing any Jedi because, to him, she's essentially breaking his toys before he does.
Self-Made Orphan: Discovered his father alive but badly wounded after one of the Tempest Runners attempted to kill him. Marchion could have taken him for medical treatment, but instead watches as his father bleeds to death for all the abuse he suffered at his father's hands, and because that is what is expected of the Evereni. His only regret was not asking which Tempest was behind the assassination.
Shout-Out: Charles Soule has admitted that Michael Corleone from The Godfather was something of an inspiration for Marchion.
Sleeves Are for Wimps: His usual outfit leaves his arms bare.
The Sociopath: He's very charismatic, but he's also a self-centered manipulator with a sadistic streak.
Soft-Spoken Sadist: In sharp contrast to his rowdier cohorts, Marc Thompson gives Marchion a distinctly quiet, eerie-sounding voice with a slight Icelandic accent. However, when he gives an emotionally-charged frothing-at-the-mouth speech, he can get especially scary.
Underestimating Badassery: He actively encourages the Tempest Runners to underestimate him, at least until he's ready to assume command outright.
Villainous Breakdown: He goes into a frothing rage when he learns that Avar Kriss was on Hetzal and escaped with Rhil Dairo, and becomes especially insistent on making sure Avar serves as a bigger example of what happens to those who cross him than Pra-Tre Veter's execution did.
Villainous Legacy: Inherited his position from his father, who inherited it from his mother. Also drops hints that his family has an antagonistic history with the Jedi going back a long time. His great-grandmother was likely Marda Ro.
Visionary Villain: He's coy on what exactly his vision is, but it's clear that he has big plans for the Nihil. Galaxy-spanning plans. However, underneath his grandiose pronunciations and ambitions, his real motives are far pettier: He just wants to destroy and humiliate those who would dare challenge him.
We Have Reserves: When traveling to Planet X, he sacrifices many of the Nihil who accompanied him to the planet's literally-hostile upper atmosphere so he and his chosen disciples can go down to the planet's surface.
Xanatos Speed Chess: Plays a mean game. He explicitly notes he doesn't have plans so much as goals and that he takes whatever steps necessary to reach those goals, adjusting in real-time as necessary.
The Warlord: Ascends to this role in Phase III with his rule over the Occlusion Zone and with the Nihil all being fanatically loyal to him alone. While a pseudo-government does emerge in the Zone, Marchion has no role in setting it up and treats the organization of it with disdain.
We Have Reserves: He has absolutely zero care for how many of his underlings get sacrificed for each of his plans, as more Nihil can always be recruited.
You Killed My Father: One of the Tempest Runners killed his father, though he's not sure which. He's pretty sure it's Kassav and explains as much to him as he prepares to leave him for dead. After Kassav's death, he begins to suspect Pan Eyta. It's revealed in Tempest Runner that all three of them plotted to kill Asgar, but it was Lourna Dee that had stabbed him. Marchion found him still alive, but wounded, and finished him off as payback for the abuse he suffered from him. Finding the assassin was just one of his ways to consolidate power.

Asgar Ro

Species: Evereni

Voiced by: Jonathan Davis (Tempest Runner)
Appearances: Tempest Runner (flashback only) | Eye of the Storm (Flashback)

Marchion Ro's father and the previous Eye of the Nihil until he was mysteriously killed.

Abusive Parent: He was abusive to his son Marchion.
Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When Marchion discovered him in his dying state, Asgar begged him for help, only for his son to turn against him for having abused him his entire life. When he realizes that Marchion is planning on watching him bleed to death, Asgar is pleased, as that is what is expected amongst the Evereni.
Asshole Victim: While Marchion was supposedly trying to avenge his death by taking out the Tempest Runner he suspects was involved in his death, it's revealed in the Wave 2 stories of Phase I that Marchion didn't have much love for Asgar due to the abuse inflicted by him and finished him off while he was already dying. Finding and eliminating the original assassin ultimately was just a formality for Marchion consolidating power.
Beard of Evil: Had a goatee and was a ruthless and abusive bastard with nefarious designs for his son and the Nihil.
Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Ro family is marred in distrust and betrayal, which is shockingly normal for Evereni families. In the case of the Ro family, Asgar murdered his own mother Shalla and abused his own son Marchion while raising him to be his successor. Asgar himself was finished off by Marchion after being killed by Lourna Dee.
Driving Question: For part of Phase I, it was a mystery over who killed Asgar, with Marchion suspecting it was one of the three Tempest Runners. Tempest Runner reveals that it was all three were conspiring to kill him, but Lourna killed him in a careful game of trust and betrayal, and Marchion himself finished him off upon discovering him.
From Nobody to Nightmare: The Nihil were just another small, insignificant gang of criminals until Asgar took charge and brought them the power of hyperspace by capturing Mari San Tekka.
Posthumous Character: He was killed sometime before the main events of the The High Republic series. His appearances in Tempest Runner and Eye of the Storm are flashback sequences.
Self-Made Orphan: Murdered his mother Shalla after accusing her of being too scared to enact their family's plan to destroy the Jedi and the Republic.

The Founder (Major Spoilers!)

Marda Ro

See her entry on the Path of the Open Hand page under Others.

Tempest Runners

Lourna Dee

Lourna Dee (born Lourna'dee)

Species: Twi'lek

Homeworld: Aaloth

One of the three Tempest Runners of the Nihil. Lourna's Tempest specializes in stealth and extortion, but she and her followers can also be amongst the cruelest of the Nihil. She commands her Tempest from the warship Lourna Dee, and follows in a tradition of renaming every ship she commands from after herself.

An Arm and a Leg: During the Jedi attack on the Great Hall, Avar cuts Lourna's right hand off in a rage when she realizes she's wielding Terec's lightsaber.
Bad Boss: She's not above killing the people in her own Tempest if it means achieving victory or survival.
Boxed Crook: After getting captured at the Battle of Ballum, Keeve forces Lourna to be her taskforce's guide as they get around the Occlusion Zone in exchange for her freedom.
Butter Face: Downplayed. She's still fairly attractive beneath her mask, though her piercings, sharpened teeth, and weary appearance make her look more intimidating than most Twi'lek women we've seen in the franchise. When shown in the High Republic comic, she is prone to many a Slasher Smile.
Co-Dragons: After Marchion Ro takes full control of the Nihil, Lourna and Pan becomes his reluctant lieutenants. However, with Pan's eventual death at her hands and the apparent High Turnover Rate among Tempest Runners, Lourna is treated as the most prominent of the Runners during the High Republic storyline.
Cyborg: Replaces her right hand with a cybernetic replacement during the Timeskip between Phases I and III.
Cynicism Catalyst: Being tricked by her boyfriend Bala Waleen into aiding a coup against her family causes her to assume the worst in everyone who tries to earn her trust in the future.
Dangerous Deserter: After being rescued from slavery when she was younger, Lourna was sponsored to attend Carida Academy by Jedi Master Oppo Rancicis. After learning military tactics for a few months, she fled the school after badly beating two other cadets and stealing a starfighter. She uses what she learned at Carida to more effectively run her Tempest and carry out raids.
Dark Action Girl: She isn't a Tempest Runner for nothing. During the Nihil's attack on Valo, Lourna duels two Jedi, one of whom is Council member Stellan Gios, and not only survives but wounds them both despite her own injuries.
Dragon with an Agenda: She has her own interests and plots outside of the Nihil's plans and is perfectly willing to use or sacrifice Nihil to meet those goals, like her plot with Chancey Yarrow and the Graf family to create a gravity well generator.
Even Evil Has Standards: Although she isn't torn up about Kassav's death, Lourna is unsettled by the fact that Marchion set up an entire third of the Nihil to be killed by the Jedi and the Republic as part of his scheme to seize control and wonders exactly what kind of man she is dealing with who could do something like that so casually.
Faking the Dead: Places H7-09 into her armor with a bomb strapped to it so that the Republic would think she went down fighting when they boarded her ship at the Battle of the Galov System. Thanks to no one outside of her bridge crew having seen her face, Lourna then passes herself off as a low-ranking member of the crew when captured.
Freudian Excuse: When she was younger, Lourna was manipulated by her boyfriend into helping a coup be carried out against her family that got them all killed and ended with her being sold as a slave. The trauma and torture she suffered during that period gave her severe trust and anger issues and a desire to never be controlled or manipulated again.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Goes from being a middle child of a minor noble family on a backwater Twi'lek colony to one of the most fearsome and tenacious pirates that the galaxy has ever seen.
Green-Skinned Space Babe: She's a green-skinned Twi'lek.
Her Own Worst Enemy: Lourna's inability to move past the betrayals she suffered and learn to trust again keeps her trapped in being a villain, with her self-loathing for all that she has done stopping her from truly thinking she could achieve some kind of redemption.
Hidden Agenda Villain: Out of the Shadows reveals that she has connections to the Graf family and a long association with Chancey Yarrow, with the three parties having conspired to develop interdictor technology behind Marchion's back. Why exactly Lourna was helping with that project and what her plan is are not revealed, but the technology ends up in the hands of Marchion, who uses it to create the Stormwall.
Honorary Aunt: Turns out to be one to Sylvestri Yarrow, who was left by her mother in Lourna's care for almost a year in an effort to teach her how to fight. Said training broke a number of Syl's bones and left her with a very negative opinion of "Aunt" Lourna.
Hypocrite: While pursuing her in the Phase III comic, Keeve learns that Lourna had been taking slaves, despite the fact that she had been enslaved herself once. Keeve immediately lampshades this.
It's All About Me: While Lourna is capable of caring for other people, ultimately her number one priority will always be herself and she won't hesitate to kill or sacrifice those she cares about to save her own life.
Karma Houdini Warranty: After getting captured at the Great Hall, she escapes Jedi custody during the fall of Starlight Beacon, seemingly kills OrbaLin, and hijacks the Ataraxia. However, her relationship with the Nihil has soured as a result of Marchion setting her up to die at the Great Hall. One year later, she's working as muscle for Skarabda the Hutt and tries to have Keeve Trennis killed once more, only for the Jedi to turn the Hutt against Lourna when she reveals that Lourna killed Skarabda's sister, Myarga. This eventually results in Lourna getting captured again and the Jedi reclaiming the Ataraxia. And to add insult injury, she even failed to kill OrbaLin.
Lean and Mean: She has a very lithe build, but still has a lot of strength in her with the ability to wield some particularly nasty weapons despite her small frame.
Made a Slave: After her family was removed from power in a coup she was tricked into aiding, Lourna was sold to a Zygerrian slave cartel. She was eventually freed when the Jedi led a Republic raid on the slave camp.
Mistaken Identity: The Jedi and Republic come to believe that Lourna is the Eye and leader of the Nihil after she leads the attack on Valo and due to further false information provided by the Graf family in an attempt to escape Republic justice for cooperating with the Nihil.
Narcissist: Given that she names every one of her own command ships after herself (when starships are normally named after people in memoriam), it's clear that she has a massive ego.
Pet the Dog: Even after deciding to recommit to the Nihil and rejecting the opportunity for redemption, Lourna lets Sestin leave in an escape pod with a distress signal active so that she can be found and rescued by the Republic.
Redemption Rejection: She has a chance to turn away from the Nihil and reform herself during the events of Tempest Runner, but her bitterness and need for independence and control over her life overwhelm any desire Lourna has to reform and cause her to fully embrace her life in the Nihil.
Revealing Cover-Up: When Lourna tries to convince Skarabda to have Keeve executed for the death of Myarga, Keeve suggests Skarabda have Masakene read her mind. Skarabda immediately turns on Lourna when the latter kills Masakene to prevent him from revealing Lourna's role in Myarga's death.
Scary Teeth: Has her teeth filed into sharp fangs, a tradition normally reserved for male Twi'leks.
Sole Survivor: All of her family were executed in the coup she helped make happen.
The Spock: Of the three Tempest Runners she appears to be the most levelheaded.
Villain Protagonist: She is the primary protagonist of Tempest Runner, which reveals her backstory, how she became a Nihil, and cementing her status as a Tempest Runner.
You Can't Go Home Again: After Marchion left her and Zeetar to fend for themselves against the Jedi at the Great Hall, Lourna has realized that Marchion is done with the Tempest Runners. While she escaped Jedi custody during the fall of Starlight Beacon, she knows she can't go back to the Nihil. By the time of the Phase III comic, she's serving as muscle for Skarabda the Hutt, who is initially unaware of the fact that Lourna killed her sister Myarga.
You Kill It, You Bought It: Ascended to her position as Tempest Runner by killing her predecessor in the position when he broke free and tried to kill Asgar Ro while on trial for breaking the Rule of Three.

Zeetar

Species: Talpini

Appearances: The Halcyon Legacy | The Rising Storm | Tempest Runner | The High Republic (2021)

An engineer originally from Lourna Dee's Tempest that got promoted to Tempest Runner following the deaths of Kassav Miliko and his Tempest at the Battle of Kur. He used his technical expertise to improve the Nihil's Path engines and scav droids.

Ain't Too Proud to Beg: He's usually incredibly arrogant about what his powersuit is capable of, but as soon as the Jedi bisect it, he begs them for mercy.
Bad Boss: After a Thisspiasian Strike serving under him downloads data from the Halcyon and transmits it to Zeetar, he has the Thisspiasian electrocuted to death with a booby trap in his gear just to prevent the risk of him leaking intel if he were captured.
Depraved Dwarf: Talpini like Zeetar are incredibly short, and he also happens to be a promoted Nihil Tempest and one of their best engineers.
Dirty Coward: With his suit not fully repaired and Marchion Ro leaving the Nihil to fend for themselves, he's quick declare everyone for themselves when the Ataraxia attacks the Great Hall of the Nihil.
Evil Genius: He's responsible for improving on the Nihil's tech, and he even built himself a powersuit.
Herr Doktor: In Tempest Runner, he's voiced with a thick German accent.
Hoist by His Own Petard: When the Jedi attack the Great Hall of the Nihil, he meets his end when Avar uses the Force to make his flamethrower's fuel tank explode on him.
If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!: To get Keeve to prove that she is one of the Nihil while she's going undercover, he orders her to smash Myarga's skull in with his hammer. While Myarga is hardly a kitten and more of an Asshole Victim in this situation, killing her in cold blood would compromise Keeve's values as a Jedi.
Mini-Mecha: After his promotion, he built himself a large powersuit to make himself look bigger, and this suit is strong enough to overpower Pan Eyta.
Mistaken Identity: He is mistaken for a candidate for Eye of the Nihil after Lourna Dee (who was previously presumed to be the Eye) presumably died at the Battle of Galov.
Mook Promotion: As the rules of the Nihil mean there can only be three Tempests at a time, he was promoted immediately after Kassav's death.
Naïve Newcomer: Being a newly-promoted Tempest Runner, Zeetar thinks that the Tempests all work together, but in reality, they are constantly trying to one-up each other. And since he was promoted to replace Kassav, he's unaware that Marchion Ro set Kassav up to die at Kur until he witnesses Marchion torturing Pan Eyta to make a point.
Properly Paranoid: When the Jedi attack the Great Hall, Zeetar does not take his powersuit into battle, stating it has not been fully-repaired and would rather retreat, but Lourna Dee rebukes him by claiming it looks ready enough to use. He is ultimately proven right posthumously, as when Lourna tries to attack Avar using Zeetar's powersuit, Avar uses the Force to break it to pieces with little effort (it should be noted that when the suit was fully functional, Zeetar managed to put up quite a fight against Nib Assek when he attacked the Halcyon and Keeve on Xais).
Puppet King: Pan suspects that Marchion Ro only appointed Zeetar as a replacement to Kassav to prop up an illusion that the Tempest Runners still have the same power they had before the Battle of Kur, being well aware that Ro used that battle and Kassav's death as an excuse to consolidate power for the Eye.
Smug Snake: He is very overconfident in what he's capable of using his powersuit and thinks he's Marchion's favorite Tempest Runner, but take that powersuit away from him, and he'll be begging for mercy or try to flee from the action. Even when he's forced to fight outside his suit, he's not a very impressive fighter, especially compared to the other Tempest Runners. When he tries to roast Avar with a flamethrower, she uses the Force to rupture his fuel tank and make him blow himself up.
Sycophantic Servant: In contrast to the original three Tempest Runners, who had nothing but disdain for Marchion Ro, Zeetar has nothing but respect for him and tries to gain the Eye's respect in turn, a trait which gains him Pan and Lourna's ire. And when Ro starts acting against Pan, the latter suspects he's going to replace him with another sycophant (which is proven right in Out of the Shadows, where with Pan presumed dead, he has been replaced with Kara Xoo, a former Storm from Kassav's Tempest).

Kara Xoo

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2fed45d6_5d70_4271_8c24_5bd215ce1a35.jpeg

Species: Quarren

Appearances: A Test of Courage | Out of the Shadows | Mission to Disaster | Defy the Storm

A female Quarren that was previously a Storm in Kassav Miliko's Tempest and the commander of the starship, Poisoned Barb. Her unit planned to prevent the Dalnan sector from joining the Republic and have them join the Nihil instead. After Kassav's death, she became one of the Tempest Runners to replace Pan Eyta after he went missing at the Battle of Cyclor.

Arc Villain: She serves as a major antagonist throughout the Vernestra Rwoh novels, being the commanding officer of Gwishi and Klinith Da in A Test of Courage and the lead villain of Mission to Disaster.
The Fagin: She kidnaps several children during her raids, including Avon Starros at Port Haileap, to recruit into the Nihil. Unlike most examples of this trope, she's recruiting these children to be Child Soldier Space Pirates instead of mere thieves.
Karma Houdini Warranty: While Vernestra, Imri and Avon are able to safely evacuate Dalna's population, Kara Xoo ultimately succeeds in ravaging Dalna's surface and has already recruited many children into the ranks of the Nihil. And she's still better off than the other two Tempest Runners following the destruction of Starlight Beacon on account of not being present at the Great Hall of the Nihil when the Ataraxia attacked it. She's still active in Phase III and has been given control of the planet Aricho, but she's since been demoted as a result of Marchion replacing the replacing the Tempest Runners with the Ministers in the Nihil hierarchy. She is eventually captured by Vernestra, Imri and anti-Nihil resistance fighters on Aricho.
The Man Behind the Man: In A Test of Courage, two of her Strikes, Gwishi and Klinith Da, are the main Nihil antagonists of that story. After the both of them are captured by the survivors of the Steady Wing incident, Xoo is revealed to be their commanding officer, making plans to attack Dalna and get its people to join the Nihil's ranks.
Mook Promotion: She was originally part of Kassav's Tempest, but after his death (as well as the rest of his Tempest) at the Battle of Kur, and Pan Eyta disappears at Cyclor, she is promoted to fill in Pan's place as a Tempest Runner.
Puppet Queen: Like Zeetar, she was given the position of Tempest Runner purely to fill in Pan Eyta's place all while Marchion Ro actively undermines the Tempest system. She doesn't seem to mind, as she had her own ambitions regarding the Dalna system even she answered to Kassav.
Shout-Out: According to character artist Jeffrey Thomas, her mask is inspired by Black Mantha's helmet, as he wanted her to have a more nautical look compared to Marchion Ro..
Would Hurt a Child: Has no issue with enslaving or killing the kidnapped children who don't make the cut to join her Tempest, and it is made clear that she has let her lieutenant Deva eat some.

Original Tempest Runners

Xanaven

Species: Frong

Appearances: Tempest Runner^note

One of the original three Tempest Runners and Lourna Dee's predecessor.

Posthumous Character: He was killed long before the Nihil attacked the Republic.
The Starscream: Alongside Kassav and Pan Eyta, he was planning to kill Asgar Ro. When Lourna killed him to prevent an assassination attempt and was promoted to replace him, she got in on the conspiracy as well.
We Hardly Knew Ye: He was killed by Lourna shortly after she met him, existing only to show how she became a Tempest Runner.

Kassav Milliko

Species: Weequay

Homeworld: Sriluur

Voiced by: Neil Hellegers (Tempest Runner)
Appearances: Tempest Runner^note | Eye of the Storm^note | Light of the Jedi

One of the original three Tempest Runners of the Nihil. Kassav and his Tempest operate the most like standard pirates of all three groups, chasing riches, glory, and drugs. His flagship is the warship New Elite.

Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When his ship is boarded at the end of the Battle of Kur, Kassav resolves to negotiate with the boarders using his knowledge of the rest of the Nihil's operations. Unfortunately for him, the boarders are from Eriadu and led by Governor Veen, who promptly executes him as Kassav futilely tries to negotiate for his life.
An Arm and a Leg: After underestimating just how cunning he is, Marchion Ro proves that he didn't earn his position as the Eye through nepotism alone by cutting off enough of Kassav's right hand in a fight to render it functionally useless.
Asshole Victim: Being a hotheaded and greedy thug, Lourna Dee isn't particularly sad about Marchion Ro setting him up to die at the Battle of Kur. She's more disturbed by the fact that Marchion was willing to sacrifice a third of the Nihil as a whole to not only eliminate a potential rival, but prop them up as martyrs to declare himself leader of the Nihil.
Functional Addict: He and his crews are mostly addicts and tend to use spice or smash before raids, while celebrating successful raids, and pretty much any other time. This doesn't stop Kassav and his people from being brutally effective pirates.
Gas Mask, Longcoat: When wearing his breath mask (which looks close to a real world gas mask), he also wears what looks like a dress suit with it.
Mugging the Monster: He tries to extort the planet Eriadu for credits using Marchion Ro's knowledge that debris from the Legacy Run was going to hit it. Unfortunately for Kassav, he wasn't informed ahead of time that the people of Eriadu were a Proud Warrior Race, and after being extorted, the governor identifies his ship and posts the information on the HoloNet for the Republic and Jedi. And then the governor kills him and his Tempest herself after the Battle of Kur.
Oh, Crap!: Failing to stop an Emergence from devastating Eriadu's inhabited moon causes Kassav to panic a bit for several reasons. He knows the Eriadu government will want his head, that the Nihil cannot repeat the scheme because now there is no guarantee of actually being able to save the planets they extort, and lastly because he truly did not intend for millions to die and was trying to process how monumentally he had screwed up.
Parental Abandonment: When Governor Veen calls him a bastard for holding a moon hostage, Kassav jokes that might be true as he never actually knew his parents.
Underestimating Badassery: Throughout most of Light of the Jedi, Kassav presumes Marchion Ro only got his position as Eye of the Nihil by merely inheriting the position from his father, Asgar Ro. After Kassav's blunder at Eriadu, Marchion brutally proves to Kassav that he didn't earn his title just through nepotism and mutilates Kassav's right hand before he can draw his blaster.
Unwitting Pawn: Manipulated by Marchion into fighting the Republic at the Battle of Kur, which results in he and his Tempest being killed and subsequently martyred by Marchion, who uses their deaths to cement control over the Nihil and make the Republic assume that the threat the Nihil posed was mostly ended.

Pan Eyta

Species: Dowutin

Homeworld: Dowut

Voiced by: Marc Thompson (Tempest Runner)
Appearances: Eye of the Storm^note | Light of the Jedi | The Rising Storm | Tempest Runner

One of the three Tempest Runners of the Nihil. Pan is fond of the nicer things the galaxy has to offer with particular tastes in suits, music, food, and art, with those among his Tempest following suit. His flagship is the Elegencia.

Abandonment-Induced Animosity: While he hates Marchion and intends to kill him as well, Lourna Dee lying and pretending that she had cured him of the poison Pan was infected by and not coming to support his fleet at Cyclor and instead abandoning him to die makes her his primary targets of vengeance.
Bad Boss: Casually executes several of his crew throughout The Rising Storm for questioning or annoying him. By the end of the novel, he begins killing them just for being in his way and abandons them all to die in battle while he escapes in a secret private escape pod.
Co-Dragons: After Marchion Ro takes full control of the Nihil, Pan and Lourna becomes his reluctant lieutenants.
Covered in Scars: He has numerous scars from his childhood on Dowut and his various fights since then. Pan gains several new electrical scars after nearly being killed by Marchion's booby trapped helmet as punishment.
Determinator: He stops at nothing in his quest to kill Lourna Dee in Tempest Runner, even as he's dying from Marchion Ro's poison.
Evil Sounds Deep: Marc Thompson gives Pan a deep, baritone voice befitting a hulking Dowutin. His mask's vocoder only adds to the effect.
Killed Off for Real: He was presumed by many in the Nihil to have died immediately after the Battle of Cyclor, either from Marchion's poison or the explosives planted on his ship. Tempest Runner shows him to still be alive, but on life-support that's barely keeping him alive and plotting revenge against Lourna Dee. When he tries to kill her on Arbra, she tries to get rid of him by dumping him in a logging pit to be burned alive after damaging his life-support, but then it turns out his body was never found. After the Restitution leaves Arbra, Pan attacks the ship, but is executed by Lourna after being put at her mercy.
Sanity Slippage: After getting poisoned by Marchion Ro, he becomes uninhinged and starts murdering people in his Tempest left and right just for being in his way. He gets even worse after Lourna Dee backstabs him by giving him an anti-toxin that only makes his condition worse. As he's slowly dying from the poison in Tempest Runner and is in constant agonizing pain, he dedicates his last days to killing Lourna, even killing people who were only remotely associated with her, such as a deserter from her Tempest after she was captured.
Sapient Eat Sapient: When he was a child Pan escaped Dowut by stowing away aboard a freighter. He subsequently killed and ate the crew for sustenance on his journey.
The Starscream: After initially submitting to Marchion, Pan begins chaffing under the Eye's control and seeks any advantage he can to turn the Nihil against him and take power for himself. He ultimately fails after being betrayed by Lourna, who arranged for his Tempest to be destroyed in revenge for Pan leaving her to die on Valo.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: By the end of The Rising Storm, Pan's dying of Marchion's poison and the Elegencia had an explosive charge placed onboard. After being conspired against by Marchion and backstabbed by Lourna Dee, he decides to flee from the Battle of Cyclor towards Dowut, with Marchion, Lourna, the Republic and the Jedi presuming him to be dead. However, the Tempest Runner shows him to still be alive, but deathly ill and plotting revenge against Lourna.
Stereotype Flip: Dowutins are often characterized as large brutes who care only about strength and power, with little time for softer luxuries. Pan has custom made turquoise leather suits, enjoys the opera, and other luxuries. Kassav is disgusted by this and believes that Pan is attempting to be something he is not. After getting poisoned by Marchion and Lourna, he becomes increasingly unhinged and starts slipping into the brute stereotype.

The Three Ministers

Ghirra Starros

Senator Ghirra Starros, Minister of Information

^{Click here to see her Phase I appearance}

Species: Human

Homeworld: Hosnian Prime

A powerful senator who represented Hosnian Prime and was a key member of Chancellor Soh's inner circle. She was also the mother of Avon Starros.

However, she was also secretly a collaborator with the Nihil. After the fall of Starlight Beacon and establishment of the Occlusion Zone, she became Marchion Ro's Minister of Information.

Co-Dragons: Alongside the other two ministers who serve as Marchion's immediate subordinates with specific spheres of responsibility.
Dragon with an Agenda: Her ultimate goal is to forge the Nihil into an actual working nation-state with diplomatic and trade relations with other galactic powers. Ghirra realizes that Marchion has zero interest in that and thus begins working to undermine him and build her own support base within the Nihil in the hope of overthrowing him.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite her collaboration with the Nihil, she worked to ensure her daughter Avon escaped Starlight Beacon's destruction.
Even Evil Has Standards: She's absolutely disgusted (as much as she tries to hide it) when she witnesses the Nihil cheering at the beaten state of Jedi Grand Master Pra-Tre Veter and his horrific execution via the Great Leveler.
Evil Matriarch: Despite the above, her double-life as both Hosnian Prime's senator and the Nihil's Minister of Information has put her at odds with Avon.
Fantastic Racism: Despises droids and does not believe they should be allowed the capability to do anything beyond basic tasks. Droids that can fly ships or fight are particularly heinous to her as she views them as a threat to flesh-and-blood beings' place in the galaxy. Ghirra believes that only criminals would resort to using droids for such tasks, and it is Marchion replacing the crew of the Gaze Electric with droids that unnerves her the most about him.
The Ghost: She goes unseen in A Test of Courage before finally appearing in Out of the Shadows.
Hated by All: After her allegiances with the Nihil are revealed, there are few people between both the Republic and Nihil that actually like her. For the Republic, Ghirra is a traitor whose attempts at trying to make the Nihil into a legitimate government are naive at best. For the Nihil, she's a living reminder of everything they despise about the Republic.
Ironic Name: Her name originates from ghayrah, the concept of a "protective" jealousy over something. Being a good senator would certainly mean being protective of your world, but to the point of jealously may suggest some other things.
The Mole: It is revealed in The Fallen Star that she is providing information to Marchion Ro to aid the Nihil and helps a sabotage crew board the Starlight Beacon to destroy it.
Only Sane Woman: In Phase III, she takes the unenviable task of trying to turn a chaotic group into anything resembling a functioning government now that they rule a large chunk of the galaxy and is the only Nihil interested in potentially negotiating peace with the Republic. Unfortunately for her, not only do most of the Nihil balk at such ideas, her co-ministers are a Mad Scientist and a Blood Knight mercenary with Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, and the leader of the Nihil is a Psychopathic Manchild that has no real interest in governing and only cares about rubbing the Jedi and Republic's losses in their faces. However, there are a few among Nihil who actually agree with her.
Playing Both Sides: She was a key part of the process that led to Starlight Beacon being built but later helped the Nihil destroy it, all so that she could be in the good graces of both sides and benefit no matter who ended up winning the conflict between the Republic and the Nihil.
Sleazy Politician: Syl Yarrow comes to this conclusion about her in Out of the Shadows, as Ghirra's family is mentioned to have scooped up contracts to help the rebuilding on Valo and she gets involved in a petty feud between the Graf and San Tekka clans for her own benefit, even dragging the Jedi into it. The reveal that she is working for the Nihil makes her a Corrupt Politician, and its likely she was able to get those contracts on Valo due to knowing about the attack beforehand.

Boolan

Baron Boolan, Minister of Advancement

Species: Ithorian

Once raised in the Path of the Open Hand, Boolan grew up to become an amoral scientists and Marchion's Minister of Advancement, often doing studies and experiments on Force-users and the Nameless. He also served as the leader of the "Children of the Storm", a group of Jedi-hunters tasked with kidnapping Force users for his experiments.

Aristocrats Are Evil: He has the title of Baron, and he's a Mad Scientist serving as one of the Nihil's ministers. However, Marchion questions if he actually is a baron.
Ascended Extra: He was a minor character who only appeared in one story in Phase II. In Phase III, he's become a major character as one of the Nihil's new ministers.
Co-Dragons: Alongside the other two ministers who serve as Marchion's immediate subordinates with specific spheres of responsibility.
Evil Old Folks: At over 150 years old, he's incredibly old for an Ithorian, and he's behind several unethical experiments involving Force-users and the Nameless.
Faux Affably Evil: His demeanor is rather tender towards both Marchion and his pupil Niv Drendow Apruk, but it belies the fact that he's a lunatic that experiments on living beings.
For Science!: His main motivation for working with the Nihil is so he can have more resources for his experiments.
The Fundamentalist: He's been viewed as a deranged zealot by many, undoubtedly a result of his upbringing in the Path of the Open Hand.
High-Class Glass: He wears a golden monocle over his right eye and happens to be a Baron.
Ignored Epiphany: As a child, he developed an intense hatred of the Jedi after the death of his father Tragor - whose death actually had nothing to do with the Jedi, as he died during the expedition to Planet X. Even after learning of the true circumstances of his father's death and the Mother's true nature, it's apparent his hatred of the Jedi didn't dissolve and is now glad to perform unethical experiments on them.
Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: At first, he was just a child that developed a grudge against the Jedi as a result of religious indoctrination and personal trauma, only to be talked out of going too far by Marda Ro. 150 years later, he's a Mad Scientist performing unethical experiments on Force users.
Long-Lived: He was just a child when was in the Path of the Open Hand. By the time of the Nihil, he's well over 150 years old.
Mad Scientist: He is infamous for performing inhumane experiments on living beings, with his current project being Force users and the Nameless. Notably, he was imprisoned by the Republic for said experiments before Marchion recruited him.
Morality Pet: He used to be one for Marchion's great-grandmother, Marda, who served as a caretaker towards him and the other Littles. When she learns that the Mother had been manipulating him and the other Littles to plant bombs around the Path compound, this is enough to make her reevaluate her devotion to the Mother.
Nightmare Fetishist: The fact that he's fascinated by the Nameless of all creatures is a tell-tale sign of this man's mental state.
Playing with Syringes: The Children of the Storm are a result of him kidnapping Force-users and subjecting them to inhumane experiments, eventually molding them into vicious Jedi-hunters. He's also done similar experiments with the Nameless, and frequently pairs the two together (even if it means intense physical and psychological pain for the Children). He isn't above experimenting on non-Force users either, as after being freed from prison, he requests Marchion to give him the prison guards as test subjects.
Room Full of Crazy: When Marchion recruits him from a Republic prison, Marchion notices a number of disturbing drawings on the walls of his cell, such as of Nameless, potential experiment ideas, and one of Loden Greatstorm's petrified corpse.
Stereotype Flip: Ithorians are usually known for being pacifists. While he isn't the only Ithorian in the ranks of the Nihil, Boolan is distinctively a deranged religious zealot and Mad Scientist.
Translator Microbes: Like many space-faring Ithorians, he wears a vocal translator over his mouths, but his is rather elaborate and cybernetically embedded into his throat.
Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Back when he was one of the Path's Littles, he poisoned a journalist (albeit unknowingly) and was willing to plant bombs around the Path's compound during the Night of Sorrow as a way of getting back at the Jedi.
Used to Be a Sweet Kid: He was relatively innocent - if not somewhat troubled - as a child, with the Path of the Open Hand's religious dogma and Mother's manipulations molding him into who he would eventually become.
Would Hurt a Child:
- He's not even above feeding Jedi younglings to Nameless, as he tried to have one attack Driggit Parse until he realized she wasn't even Force-sensitive.
- As for the Children of the Storm, it's heavily implied that some of them are literally children, and thus subject to the same hideous experiments as the adult members (which includes constantly being in the presence of Nameless), something backed up by the Nihil kidnapping Force-sensitive children from vulnerable settlements in the Occlusion Zone.

Abediah Viess

General Abediah Viess, Minister of Protection

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/viess_sw.png

circa 382 BBY

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/viessphaseiii.png

circa 229 BBY

Species: Mirialan

Homeworld: Sarumo

Appearances: The Blade | Shadows of Starlight | The Eye of Darkness | Defy the Storm

The leader of a mercenary army that was hired by the Bethunians to aid in their war with Firevale on the planet Gansevor during the exploration era of the High Republic. She not only had a reputation for killing Jedi, but also turning on her clients at her convenience.

150 years after the war on Gansevor, she and her mercenaries would serve as the Nihil's Ministry of Protection.

Arch-Enemy: After the Battle of Gansevor, she's developed a grudge with Jedi Master Porter Engle due to him being one of the few Jedi who has survived her.
Ascended Extra: She started off as a villain in a limited-issue Phase II comic that was otherwise self-contained in the context of Phase II's main narrative, and mostly served as a Porter Engle story. Come Phase III, she is a major antagonist for the Phase in general on account of being one of the Nihil's new leaders.
Bad Boss: Among the three ministers, she has the most casualties among her ranks, usually as a result of her executing them frequently. This leads to plenty of her own subordinates plotting to overthrow her.
Blood Knight: She's all too eager for the chance to kill Jedi.
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Gansevor wasn't the only time she's betrayed a client. According to Shadows of Starlight, she's been stabbing clients in the back for most of her long life. When Viess offers her services to Marchion after selling out Sarumo, Marchion immediately makes it clear to her that he won't tolerate any funny business from her after seeing how eagerly she betrayed the people he was ready to conquer before he could even attack them.
Co-Dragons: Alongside the other two ministers who serve as Marchion's immediate subordinates with specific spheres of responsibility.
Creepy Souvenir: To further sell her credibility as a Jedi killer, she keeps a collection of their lightsabers under her robe.
Dragon with an Agenda: At first, Field Marshal Tozen hired her and her mercenaries as extra muscle for a siege. However, when it seems the idea of peace between Gansevor's warring nations becomes likely and Tozen has no interest in destroying what he wants to rule, she murders Tozen and reveals that she used her contract as an excuse to pillage Firevale, making her the ultimate villain of The Blade.
Evil Is Petty: After Porter has practically crippled her mercenary army and both nations of Gansevor unite against her mercenaries, she decides to retreat, but not without trying to get some kills on the way out to spite the Jedi.
Evil Old Folks: She's at least 170 years old by the time she's the Minister of Protection, and it's apparent by her looks that she's no longer young even by Mirialan standards, and Ghirra Starros notes how remarkable it is that she's lived as long as she has in her line of work. She's also an amoral former mercenary with a reputation for pillaging settlements, betraying clients and killing Jedi.
Karma Houdini: While Porter Engle is able to disarm her mercenaries enough to make them relatively toothless against the united forces of Firevale and Bethune, she ultimately retreats with her life to fight another day. 150 years later, she's still alive and kicking, killing Jedi and backstabbing clients, and she's become a major figurehead in the Nihil.
Long-Lived: She's over 170 years old by the time of the Nihil crisis.
Mage Killer: She boasts of having killed many Jedi, and she's got not only the tools to do so, such as a beskar spear and armor, but proof that she has done so in the form of a lightsaber collection she carries under her cloak. And she's become even more dangerous in this regard after being given access to Nameless.
Moral Myopia: She despises Jedi because, according to her, they are constantly encroaching people's freedoms. As Porter points out, the freedom she's talking about is that to kill people for money, thus encroaching on her victims' rights to live. This mindset is similar to the Nihil's, and fittingly, she became one of Marchion's ministers.
Never Mess with Granny: She's no longer young when she joins the Nihil. However, she isn't any less deadly against Jedi in her incredibly advanced age.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Her murder of Marshal Tozen is what ultimately helps Sicatra convince the Bethunians to stop fighting with Firevale and unite against Viess's mercenaries.
No Honor Among Thieves: When Tozen reveals that he has no intention of actually using her mercenaries to destroy Firevale, Viess murders him and decides to pillage Firevale on her own terms, which she hoped to use the contract for in the first place.
Private Military Contractors: She and her mercenary group have military-grade training and weaponry and work for the highest bidder. As she points out when offering her services to Marchion Ro, she's giving the Nihil a sense of military-like organization that the anarchistic group otherwise lacks.
Psycho for Hire: She uses mercenary work as a front for raiding and pillaging settlements, and when Porter Engle foils her plans on Gansevor, she takes the time to get as many kills as possible while retreating.
Punch-Clock Villain: Subverted hard. Porter Engle and Barash Silvain presume that she and her mercenaries are just run-of-the-mill hired guns who will cut their losses the moment they are completely disarmed of their siege weapons. It turns out she's actually using the contract with Bethune as an excuse to rob Firevale during their siege. While she does retreat after the people of Gansevor unite against her and her mercenaries' siege weapons are destroyed, she takes the time to get some kills on the way out.
The Quisling: She sacrificed her homeworld of Sarumo as a way of ingratiating herself to the Nihil (although, she never really considered it her homeworld, and more of a retirement home).
Rape, Pillage, and Burn: No implied rape, but her mercenary contract with Bethune is secretly an excuse to rob Firevale while they ravage the city. When Field Marshal Tozen reveals that he has no intent of destroying Firevale, she murders her contractor, and drops all pretense of her mercs being hired guns.
Stereotype Flip: Most Mirialans are a spiritual people who frequently become Jedi. Viess is a bloodthirsty mercenary with a disdain for Jedi, a reputation for killing Jedi, and, a century-and-a-half later, a leader of the Nihil.
Underestimating Badassery: She makes a big deal about how she's killed several Jedi to Porter Engle, but as Porter points out, she hasn't dealt with him before. This mistake makes Porter a century-long point of obsession with Viess.
Villain with Good Publicity: She set herself up in retirement on the planet Sarumo and spread a reputation as a heroic general who was the hero Siege of Gansevor and other false tales. Viess used that reputation to take control of the planet's defense systems after the Stormwall went up and the Nihil came to subjugate the planet, killing the leadership and destroying its soldiers to offer it up to Marchion Ro and secure her place in the Nihil.

Others

The Eye's Staff

Thaya Ferr

Species: Human

Appearances: The Fallen Star | The Eye of Darkness

An assistant to Marchion Ro who serves aboard the Gaze Electric.

The Creon: She harbors no desire for power beyond her position as Marchion's assistant, content to carry out his will and ensure that his plans are carried out without issue.
Hypercompetent Sidekick: Marchion values her due to her loyalty, skill, and lack of zealotry. Ferr often finds small ways to improve upon her boss's plans, including such touches as broadcasting his message to the galaxy over the same frequency Starlight Beacon used.
Remember the New Girl?: Never mentioned or seen prior to her appearance in The Fallen Star, where Ferr is suddenly introduced as Marchion's loyal right hand.
Undying Loyalty: She is completely loyal to Marchion, and he finds in her the one follower he has that is competent, not a sycophantic zealot, and won't betray him.

Kisma Uttersond

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kisma_uttersound_sw.png

Species: Chadra-Fan

Homeworld: Chad

A Chadra-Fan doctor who was tasked with taking care of Mari San Tekka aboard the Gaze Electric and with the Nihil's initial experimentation with the Nameless.

Artificial Limb: He has a cybernetic left leg.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His main motivation for working with the Nihil was to make money to support his family's medical debts.
Hidden Depths: Out of the Shadows reveals he has a passion for holofilms and enjoys a great number of genres, including overwrought emotional romance dramas.
Mad Doctor: Downplayed. While he's a part of Marchion Ro's inner circle and he's tasked with keeping a one-hundred-year-old woman on life-support against her will, he's not as deranged as most examples of this trope and is actually more pragmatic. Deconstructed in Trail of Shadows, which shows he's actually getting fed up with being one of these, as his complicity with the Nihil means he's indirectly hurting people instead of helping them like he wants to, and he only joined the Nihil in the first place to support his family. It gets to the point of him betraying the Nihil and gunning Zagyar down in a fit of rage.
Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: After taking too much abuse from Marchion, he starts to undermine him in Trail of Shadows, plotting to sell the Nameless on the black market and even conspiring with the Tarnab serial killer Arathab Fal to fake attacks against himself and kill those who would try to follow his trail.
Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Subverted. He does have actual medical experience and seems to subscribe to the Star Wars version of the Hippocratic oath, but the fact that he's with the Nihil makes it questionable if he's legally licensed. However, as the Nihil's atrocities get worse, Uttersond starts to crack under pressure and betray the Nihil.
Only in It for the Money: His work with the Nihil is purely about credits, which he sends back to his wife and children on Chad.
Only Sane Man: Among the Nihil, he seems to be among the few with their head on straight. Most of the Nihil's ranks consist of megalomaniacs, amoral pirates, and ideological zealots, with varying degrees Chronic Backstabbing Disorder or being incredibly sycophantic. Doctor Uttersond seems to care more about making sure his patients are taken care of and that the Nihil don't overtax their resources. However, as the Nihil start committing progressively worse atrocities and Marchion continues to abuse and belittle him, he snaps and not only betrays the Nihil (declaring both them and the Jedi as enemies), he conspires with a serial killer as part of the betrayal and murders one of his colleagues in a fit of rage.
Pragmatic Villainy: He may be loyal to Marchion, but even he suggests that Mari shouldn't be pushed past her limits when having her calculate "paths" and be given at least a week's worth of rest so she doesn't strain herself out. And seeing as Mari is the source of the Nihil's paths, he's making a point to make sure she doesn't get exhausted to death.
Punch-Clock Villain: Trail of Shadows reveals that he's just a guy trying to pay the bills for his family and not an opportunistic pirate or ideological zealot like most of his colleagues in the Nihil. While he's not a big fan of the Jedi, the lack of respect from Marchion Ro and the others and his complicity with their worst atrocities resulting in blood being spilled causes him to crack under pressure and betray them.
Kisma Uttersond: I have no moral code whatsoever. No politics. No loyalty. Not to the Nihil. Not to the Republic. Not to anything. I just want to make lots of money and live to see another day. That's it.
Uncertain Doom: He disappears in the last of issue of Trail of Shadows, having escaped from Emerick and Sian aboard the doomed Starlight Beacon while it was falling. Emerick presumes the Doctor either died in the station's destruction or was devoured by the Nameless.
When You Coming Home, Dad?: His work with Nihil and being in Marchion Ro's inner circle means he barely has any time to spend with his wife and his children.

Nan

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nan_sw.png

Species: Human

A small, orphaned young woman encountered by the Vessel when they are stranded by the Great Disaster. She is secretly a Nihil agent, and soon catches the Eye's attention and becomes his top spy.

Above Good and Evil: She considers "good" and "evil" to be little more than matters of opinion and perspective and thus not something to ever give much thought to.
Broken Pedestal: Her admiration for Marchion falls apart after coming to realize how he truly does not care about any of the Nihil and will sacrifice them all for his own personal ambitions.
Dark Action Girl: While her primary skillset if information gathering and spying, Nan is a capable raider and fighter as well.
Even Evil Has Standards: Nan doesn't often make moral judgements, but seeing the state of Mari San Tekka disturbs her and she believes that being trapped in a medical pod for decades, kept alive only to be used, is a horrific fate.
Happily Adopted: She considered Hague to be more of her true parent, as he raised and mentored her after her parent's deaths.
I Owe You My Life: After Reath saves her from being kidnapped by slavers, she lets him live after cornering him with her blaster, so long as he leaves the Amaxine station. It's made very clear that this is a one-time offer.
Older Than They Look: Nan is a young woman around Reath's age, but looks like a child due to her small stature.
Parental Abandonment: Her parents were both Nihil raiders but died when she was very young, to the point Nan barely remembers them.
Removing the Rival: She despises Krix, as he is Marchion's other favorite, and is trying to find a way to kill him without drawing the Eye's ire. When it appears a fight might break out during a meeting with the Tempest Runners, Nan plans to take the chance to kill him discreetly, but the fight doesn't happen.
Replacement Goldfish: Believes that Chancey Yarrow is using her as one for her daughter Syl after she rejected her mother for working with the Nihil.
The Vamp: Played With. While Nan flirts with Reath in order to gain information about the Jedi, he generally ignores the flirting but still gives her the information she wants due to his status as an emissary of the Republic. It's also implied that it may have been at least somewhat genuine on her part.
Would Hurt a Child: She attempts to hurt Reath, and she also intends to kill Krix.
You Have Failed Me: Executes an underling in Out of the Shadows after they were the Sole Survivor of a raid intended to retrieve a stolen puzzle box.

Krix Kamerat

Species: Human

Appearances: The High Republic Adventures (2021) | Out of the Shadows | The Edge of Balance | Midnight Horizon | The High Republic Adventures (2023)

A follower of the Elders of the Path and Zeen's best friend. After the Nihil attacked their commune on Trymant IV, Zeen revealed her taboo connection to the Force, spurring Krix to join the Nihil out of feelings of betrayal.

Black-and-White Insanity: As the Elders taught that having a relationship with the Force beyond observing it is bad, he sees Zeen revealing her Force-sensitivity as a huge betrayal due to that and believing she didn't trust him enough to tell her. This is also why he's against the Jedi and joins the Nihil to spite them, despite the Nihil being responsible for the destruction of his home and attack on his people.
Dramatic Irony: Zeen kept her Force-sensitivity a secret from even him as she was afraid of what their group would do to her. When she's forced to reveal it to save them both and the Jedi, Krix proves her fears when he angrily accuses her of manipulating him and not trusting him before joining the Nihil out of belief that they're the real good guys.
Entitled to Have You: Krix's biggest flaw is that he's entitled to be with Zeen because they were childhood friends raised in the same cult, and sees at as an attack against him when she decides she'd rather be with the Jedi. When he's seen again in Crash Landing, his delusional side is highlighted in his Imagine Spot, thinking that helping the Republic will get Zeen to marry him.
Evil Former Friend: Any trace of decency is burned out of Krix by his belief Zeen betrayed him and his time spent as Marchion's protege.
Hazy-Feel Turn: By the time he's in a Republic prison after Starlight's destruction, he's decided to get back at the Nihil for a perceived betrayal and start giving the Republic intel. However, his motives for doing so are far from altruistic and he's as delusional as ever when it comes to the recognition defeating Marchion will get him.
Knight Templar: While his hatred of Force users is certainly a result of his upbringing with the Elders, he takes his zealotry to levels comparable to the Path of the Closed Fist (which ironically, the Elders split from the Path of the Open Hand because of). When Krix hears that Marchion got his hands on a weapon that can supposedly make Jedi quake in fear, he asks Marchion if he can use that weapon himself.
Meaningful Name:
- In Norwegian, Kamerat means "friend" or "comrade", referencing both his relationship with Zeen and him joining the Nihil.
- In Latin, camerata can also mean "chambered", seeing as Krix is essentially trapped with the Nihil, whether he knows it or not.
Missing Steps Plan: After being captured by the Republic, he decides to take revenge on Marchion for abandoning him and rebuild his life. To that end, he keeps sending messages to Republic Intelligence where he outlines his plan to defeat Marchion and bring peace back to the galaxy in hopes they will accept it and recruit him. To put it mildly, his plan is not very well thought out and is filtered through his delusions, going something like: Return to Nihil and get close to Marchion in order to assassinate him ^note, become a great hero to the galaxy while all his previous crimes are swept under the rug, marry Zeen in a ceremony that would be broadcast across the galaxy ^note, get elected Supreme Chancellor and lead the Republic and Nihil into a new era of peace. It’s no wonder Republic Intelligence didn’t respond to his petition before Crash broke him out.
Alys "Crash" Ongwa: Sweet song of the Abyss - these little boys and their delusions of grandeur.
My God, What Have I Done?: Upon realizing he shot down Zeen's ship during the skirmish on Quantxi, Krix is horrified and tries to check on her. However her anger overwhelms her and she briefly chokes Krix with the Force, further reinforcing his feelings of betrayal and hatred which drive him down the path of the Nihil.
Never My Fault: During the fall of Starlight Beacon, he blames Lula and the Jedi for his friendship with Zeen fracturing. As Lula points out, he only has himself to blame for her leaving him due to his dogmatic hatred of Force users making her unwilling to be forthcoming with him.
Revenge Before Reason: Even as Starlight Beacon is burning, he puts his zealous hatred of the Jedi before escaping from the station.
Sanity Slippage: As he spends more time being molded by Marchion, he becomes more and more unhinged as he tries to get Marchion's approval and revenge against the Jedi, eventually to the point that some of his followers (namely Sabata and Respriler) think he's unfit for command and conspire to kill him. His capture by the Republic has done little to restore his sanity, as his belief that Marchion abandoned him has Krix desperate for revenge. He honestly believes that if he works with Republic Intelligence to kill Marchion, he can unite both the Republic and Nihil under his leadership as someone who "understands both sides" and become Supreme Chancellor with Zeen as his wife.
Teens Are Monsters: He is within Zeen's age group, and he's sided with the Nihil and wants to kill Zeen for a perceived slight along with her new Jedi friends.
Uncertain Doom: After he was captured at the Battle of Dol'har Hyde, he was brought over to Starlight Beacon for interrogation. He manages to escape custody, but only in time for the station's destruction and is last seen fighting with Lula Talisola as the station burned up in Eiram's atmosphere. The second issue of The High Republic Adventures (2023) reveals that he survived the fall along with Lula, and Crash Landing reveals that he's being held in a Republic prison.
"Well Done, Son" Guy: After he joins the Nihil, he tries desperately to gain Marchion Ro's approval, especially after he gifts Krix the helmet he wore as a child. However, while Marchion directly recruited Krix with his charm alone, Marchion doesn't actually care for anyone he sees as beneath him. After being effectively abandoned after his capture at Dol'har Hyde and the destruction of Starlight Beacon, he wastes no time giving his intel out of spite against the Nihil.

Udi Dis

Species: Talortai

Homeworld: Talor

Appearances: The Rising Storm

Marchion Ro's private pilot, a Talortai with low-level force sensitivity that allows him to navigate dangerous space with pinpoint precision.

Ace Pilot: Thanks to his force sensitivity, Udi can navigate unpredictable asteroid fields and make maneuvers that would kill a normal pilot.
Addled Addict: He was addicted to Reedug for the better part of a decade until Marchion forced him to come clean.
Canon Immigrant: Talortai were a Legends species known for being somewhat avian and having innate force sensitivity, both traits apparent in Udi Dis.
Cruel and Unusual Death: While he doesn't get calcified by the Leveler while getting cut off from the Force (since the Leveler is still frozen at this point), he gets impaled by a droid before getting his skull crushed by Marchion.
Dual Wielding: Fights with two wingblades, which are curved weapons that are traditionally used by the Talortai. They are his only link left to his homeworld.
The Exile: Udi was exiled from Talor since he’s a “witch” that uses the force, which is taboo among the Talortai.
First-Name Basis: He takes great pride in being allowed to call the Eye "Marchion".
Healing Factor: Like in Legends, Talortai are capable of healing from injuries quickly. Unfortunately for Udi, it doesn't help him after he gets impaled by one of the shrine droids while he was being psychically-assaulted by the Great Leveler, with the implication that his regenerative abilities came from his now-severed Force connection.
Schrödinger's Canon: In Legends, Talortai were The Ageless. It’s implied this is true here as well, since while Udi is talking to Pan he implies that Mari San Tekka being older than himself is extremely noteworthy.
The Starscream: After his Cloud Scarspike commanded a botched raid that left most of their crew dead, Udi killed him by slashing his throat. This act helped bring him to the attention of Marchion and earn his promotion into the Eye's routine.
We Hardly Knew Ye: He's killed off in his third chapter in his only appearance.
"Well Done, Son" Guy: Udi is constantly haunted by the disapproval of his late father and it’s implied this is the root of his eagerness to please Marchion.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Marchion actually brought him to Rystan to use as a guinea pig for the Great Leveler's effects on Force-sensitives. After it passively cuts Udi off from the Force, he is impaled by the shrine droids, and Marchion thanks him for serving his purpose by stomping on his head.

Hague

Species: Zabrak

Appearances: Into the Dark

An elderly Zabrak man and Nan's guardian. Like her, he is a Nihil agent.

Evil Old Folks: He's described as elderly and somewhat frail, though still strong enough to wield a blaster well enough.
Parental Substitute: Nan says he's looked after her since her parents were killed and was the one who mentored her in the ways of the Nihil.
Thrown Out the Airlock: During the three-way fight between the Nihil, the Drengir, and the Jedi, Reath opens an airlock and spaces him and most of the Nihil aboard the Amaxine station, along with the Drengir.

Arathab Fal

Species: Tarnab

Appearances: Trail of Shadows | Shadows of Starlight | The Eye of Darkness

A Tarnab serial killer who worked as an agent for Doctor Kisma Uttersond when he decided to betray the Nihil and sell the Nameless on the black market.

After the fall of Starlight Beacon, he joined the Nihil as one of the She'ar, Marchion Ro's personal bodyguards and cult.

An Arm and a Leg: Sian cuts off his left arm using Emerick's lightsaber (as Emerick was incapacitated by a Nameless at the time) when he tries to strike a killing blow on Beesar. By the time of Phase III, he has replaced it with a cybernetic.
Ax-Crazy: He really enjoys killing people, and will sometimes use his claws to eviscerate his enemies. He will only show reluctance if the battle in question is apparently suicidal, if only because it means he won't get to kill more enemies for his Eye.
Recruiting the Criminal: While the Nihil are already criminals themselves, he's previously caused problems for the Nihil by aiding in Doctor Uttersond's betrayal and killing many of their raiders. However, that didn't stop Marchion from making him one of his bodyguards.
Serial Killer: By Trail of Shadows, he's already wanted for murdering a number of deep-cover Republic agents.
Undying Loyalty: Played with. Like most of the She'ar, he is cultishly devoted to Marchion Ro to the point of being willing to die for him. However, he notes that he would also like to live long enough to kill many enemies for him when faced with what looks like a suicide mission on Sarumo.

Lourna Dee's Tempest

Tasia

Species: Cathar

Voiced by: January LaVoy
Appearances: Tempest Runner

A Storm serving under Lourna's command aboard her flagship.

Bullying a Dragon: After she and Lourna are captured and sentenced to prison, Tasia gets Lourna to serve as her bodyguard by threatening to tell the Republic or the other prisoners who she really is, as the Republic would take her away for interrogation and likely sentence her to life in prison, while the other prisoners, which include many Nihil from Pan's crew, would love to kill her for the bragging rights. Tasia also spends a lot of time mocking or insulting Lourna in addition to blackmailing her.

Quin

Species: Bival

Voiced by: Shannon Tyo
Appearances: Tempest Runner | The High Republic (2021)

A Cloud who served aboard the Lourna Dee as a slicer and engineer.

Affably Evil: She is actually pretty friendly for a member of the Nihil, and looks after Sestin during Pan Eytan's attack on the Restitution. However, Quin is still a willing member of a violent murderous group of raiders who thinks nothing of killing those in her way.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: When the Jedi attack the Great Hall of the Nihil and the Ataraxia blows a hole in it, the Jedi save her and some other Nihil from being sucked out into space. While she does thank the Jedi for sparing them as she's taken prisoner, she openly admits that she wouldn't have done the same for them had their positions been reversed.
Rank Up: By the end of Tempest Runner, Quin is appointed to be one of Lourna's new Storms in her reformed Tempest.

Muglan

Species: Gloovan

Voiced by: Soneela Nankani
Appearances: Tempest Runner | The High Republic (2021)

A criminal who was imprisoned onboard the Republic prison ship, Restitution. While serving time, she was recruited as muscle for the former Hutt enforcer, Ola Hest.

Avenging the Villain: After Pan Eyta kills Ola Hest, she decides to team up with Lourna as payback against Pan, despite antagonizing her throughout Lourna's time on serving on the Restitution.
Half the Woman She Used to Be: She is fatally bisected by Avar Kriss during the Jedi attack on the Great Hall of the Nihil.
Recruiting the Criminal: After successfully defending the Restitution (and taking over and renaming it the Lourna Dee), Lourna Dee recruits her as a Storm into her rebuilt Tempest.

Kassav Milliko's Tempest

Gwishi and Klinith Da

Species: Aqualish (Gwishi), Human (Klinith Da)

Appearances: A Test of Courage | Defy the Storm (Klinith Da only)

Two Strikes from Kassav's Tempest who served in Kara Xoo's Storm. After the Great Disaster, they were tasked with sabotaging the Republic starship, Steady Wing, to prevent Dalna from joining the Republic.

Ambition Is Evil: Klinith hopes that her role in sabotaging the Steady Wing will get her promoted in the Nihil's ranks.
Arc Villain: They are the main villains of A Test of Courage, but in the grand scheme of the Nihil's plans, they are ultimately mere underlings.
Asshole Victim: Deconstructed. Being a Nihil who sabotaged the Steady Wing and killed an untold number of civilians, Klinith Da was far from a good person, and this is acknowledged by Avon Starros when she accidentally poisons her to death. However, her visibly agonizing death is enough to shake Avon Starros and rethink her original plan to kill every Nihil on the Lightning Crash.
Back for the Dead: Klinith Da makes a surprise appearance during Defy the Storm, her very first appearance since A Test of Courage (one of the very first novels in the High Republic publishing initiative), only to be killed almost immediately.
Cruel and Unusual Death: Klinith Da dies a slow, agonizing death when Avon accidentally fires one of Deva Lompop's poison darts at her instead of a sleep dart. This is enough to horrify Avon and rethink her desire to kill every on the Lightning Crash.
The Dividual: Gwishi and Klinith work as a team and are never seen separated from each other.
Eye Scream: Gwishi is missing his lower right eye.
Leave No Witnesses: The both of them go down to Wevo's surface to eliminate anyone that might have survived their attack. Unfortunately for them, two of those survivors are Jedi, one of them having recently been knighted.
Vehicular Sabotage: Both of them go undercover as mechanics at Port Haileap as part of the plan to sabotage the Steady Wing.
What Happened to the Mouse?: While Klinith Da returns in Defy the Storm, Gwishi is nowhere to be seen.

Kara Xoo's Tempest

Zadina Mkampa

Doctor Zadina Mkampa

Species: Human (Cyborg)

Appearances: Mission to Disaster | Defy the Storm

A scientist that served aboard Kara Xoo's starship, the Poisoned Barb. Later, she would play a key role in the development of the Nihil's Stormwall.

Affably Evil: When Kara Xoo catches note of Avon Starros's technological expertise and appoints her to be Mkampa's assistant, the doctor is surprisingly accommodating to Avon despite her coldness, such as providing her more comfortable living quarters and clothing and offering her sweet drinks (if only because of a lack of water). As far she's concerned, she needs her assistant well-cared for if she wants to make use of her. Even when confronted by Avon seeking to kill her, she laments that she may have to kill her because her genius is going to go to waste.
Arch-Enemy: After being forced to be her assistant and unwittingly aiding her in ravaging Dalna and providing her the means to create the Stormwall, Avon Starros seeks revenge against Mkampa.
Arm Cannon: Her cybernetic hand can lower to reveal a blaster built into her arm.
Cyborg: The left half of her body is heavily covered in cybernetics, which she got as a result of a few accidents in her relentless pursuit of science.
Even Evil Has Standards: An amoral Mad Scientist she may be, but even she doesn't want the stormseeds drifting away from the Stormwall and scattering across the galaxy because of the widespread damage they could do.
Foil: To Avon Starros. Both Mkampa and Avon are scientifically curious people who try to tinker with things just because they can. Unlike Avon, however, Mkampa has no ethical boundaries whatsoever when it comes to these pursuits.
For Science!: She cares very little for the Nihil's cause and only sees them as a means to pursue her own scientific curiosities.
Karma Houdini: Played with. She ultimately succeeds in ravaging Dalna's surface when Avon tries to sabotage her superweapon, only to end up finishing it for her, and she escapes from Dalna unscathed. Come Defy the Storm, Avon eventually gets payback against her by defeating her in a fight, but doesn't kill her off despite initially planning to at Xylan Graf's urging and leaves her behind on the Lightning Crash without destroying it, potentially allowing her to continue her work for the Nihil. In contrast, her former direct superior, Kara Xoo, was taken prisoner on Aricho.
Mad Scientist: She felt working in a university would be boring, so she felt like the Nihil were a much more promising alternative. Among her scientific curiosities, she also made the Nihil's trademark Deadly Gas bombs and a Superweapon that ultimately renders Dalna uninhabitable, and had a role in the development of the Stormwall.
Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: She started off as a munitions officer to satisfy her scientific curiosities, and she didn't feel like she belonged in a university. Instead, she put her talents to use as a Nihil weapon scientist.
Nightmare Fetishist: She speaks of a hellish war on her homeworld she was involved in before joining the Nihil as something beautiful, if only because of the scientific opportunities it offered her.

Deva Lompop

See her entry on the Bounty Hunters and Mercenaries page.

Krix Kamerat's Cell

Sabata Krill

Species: Er'Kit

Appearances: The High Republic Adventures (2021) | The Edge of Balance | Midnight Horizon

One of two Er'Kit sisters who served in a Nihil cell led by Krix Kamerat.

Agent Provocateur: Her main role in the operation on Corellia was to set up a student revolt on the moon of Gus Talon to draw the local Jedi and security forces attention there. Sabata spent several months inciting unrest and eventually murdering a security officer and pinning the blame on a student to accomplish this.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: While operating on Corellia, she manipulates a lovestruck passerby into helping her, only to leave him to die and be a scapegoat for her activity.
Cain and Abel: While Sabata is loyal to the Nihil through and through, Bareen shows some hesitation when it comes to trying to go after the Jedi on Takodana. Both of them defect after their ship is brought down, but only Bareen's defection is genuine. Sabata uses this as an opportunity to sabotage the Takodana Jedi Temple, hoping to kill Bareen in the process. After the battle, Sabata reports her sister's defection to Krix and makes it clear she would try to kill her if she ran into her again.
Character Death: She is killed when Ram Jomaram crashes a starfighter directly into the bridge of a Republic ship she hijacked.
Fake Defector: When her and Bareen Krill's ship gets downed by Sav Malagan when attempting to attack the Jedi temple on Takodana, both sisters surrender. However, while Bareen's defection is genuine, Sabata uses this as an attempt to get closer to the temple and have it bombed from within.
Sadist: In Midnight Horizon, she notably takes a bit of pleasure of watching Prybolt Garavult - a Grindalid - die from a combination of Nihil gas and getting his skin burned from exposure to Corellia's sun.
Sibling Team: She and her sister, Bareen Krill, flew the same ship at the Battle of Takodana. However, they parted ways afterward, with Bareen defecting and Sabata planning to kill her for treason.
The Starscream: After the Battle of Takodana, she plots to have Krix killed, thinking him too much of an anger-driven hothead to be an effective leader.

Respriler

Nomar Tralmat (Respriler)

Species: Human

Homeworld: Corellia

Apearances: The High Republic Adventures (2021) | Midnight Horizon

A major political figure in Corellia's Coronet City, who is also an agent in Krix Kamerat's Nihil cell going by the name "Respriler".

Ambiguously Human: Invoked. As Respriler, he wears a mask that could indicate a number of alien species, with the nozzle on his mask notably similar to species such as Kubaz or Culisetto. This hides that he's actually a Corellian human.
Broken Pedestal: Alys "Crash" Ongwa considered Nomar Tralmat, the Father of Finance, to be one of the more respectable politicians on Corellia, until she learned that he was collaborating with the Nihil.
Cruel and Unusual Death: He meets a brutal end when a family of angry Grindalids tear off his limbs and bite his head off.
Faking the Dead: Many on Corellia presumed Nomar Tralmat to be either dead or missing around the time Nihil started showing up on their world. In truth, he used his disappearance to slip into the Nihil's ranks.
Motive Rant: Engages in one after his true identity is revealed in which he rants abouts his disdain for the Republic and its values and how he desires a Corellia independent of it.
Off with His Head!: After his role in Prybolt's death was confirmed, Fastidima and four of her other children attacked Nomar, with Fastidima biting off his head while her children each tore off a limb.
The Quisling: He is a major political figure on Corellia, who has used his influence to not only supply the Nihil with Corellia's resources (namely their starships), but also to allow the Nihil a secret foothold in the Core Worlds.
Refuge in Audacity: As Nomar Tralmat, he took advantage of many Corellians' presumptions that the Nihil were entirely an Outer Rim problem and that the Core Worlds were safe. This allowed him to set up a masquerade ball where everyone was wearing Nihil masks in plain sight, with Ram Jomaram (who remembers very well the casualties the Nihil caused on his homeworld of Valo) considering it to be an incredibly tasteless joke at best (if not everyone at the ball was actually Nihil).
The Starscream: He plots alongside Sabata Krill to have Krix killed.

Ministry of Advancement

Niv Drendow Apruk

Species: Umbaran

Appearances: Escape from Valo | The High Republic Adventures (2023)

A teenage prodigy of Baron Boolan, who like his mentor, has also taken an interest in the Nameless. One of his goals is to increase the survival rate of Nameless incubated and hatched in captivity, to which he seeks out large quantities of mycopram - an antiaging cream developed only in Republic space - after the role it played in making Grendrek the first Nameless to successfully hatch in captivity..

Bald of Evil: He has not a single hair on his head, and he's a Mad Scientist in training.
Deadpan Snarker: His tongue is rather sharp. When Commander Vark Tarpalin tries to address him after a spectacular failure, he not only addresses him as "Acting Regional Commander Vark Tarpalin", but calls him out on his pathetic attempts to come off as formal.
Ditzy Genius: He is a super genius when it comes to mad biology, but Niv Drendow is utterly incompetent when it comes to basic life skills. As Daniel Jose Older describes him, "He's not street savvy. His charisma is in the negative tens. He's a mediocre tactician at best."
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Against Boolan's advice, he's grown incredibly attached to Grendrek, the first Nameless the Nihil were able to successfully incubate and hatch in captivity. When Grendrek is eaten by a seevi worm onboard the sunken Innovator, he is utterly devastated and is still despondent after escaping from Valo with Driggit Parse. It's also worth mentioning that it's unlikely that Grendrek would have lived long even if they weren't eaten due to severe birth defects (i.e. rotting flesh), which means Niv Drendow saw them as more than just an experiment.
Even Evil Has Standards: When he first arrives on Valo, he finds Commander Vark Tarpalin's chewing out of Driggit Parse to be rather pathetic coming from him, as he's essentially bullying a child.
High Collar of Doom: His lab coat has a rather exaggerated collar that almost covers up his face, a fashion choice similar to many other Umbarans.
Insufferable Genius: Despite his intelligence, he is very dismissive of both enemies and allies alike.
Not-So-Harmless Villain: Despite his incompetence at living in general, his scientific genius is not to be underestimated, especially when it involves the Nameless. He was also a participant in at least one Jedi Master's execution via Nameless.
Odd Name Out: He is one of the few Umbarans to have a double first name (his first name isn't Niv, and Drendow isn't a middle name; thus his first name is Niv Drendow). This is lampshaded In-Universe, as Niv Drendow is repeatedly annoyed by others either thinking he has two last names or that having a double first name is weird.
Teens Are Monsters: He's one of the youngest members of the Nihil's science sector, and he's every bit as depraved as his mentor. Unlike his mentor however, he is capable of forming genuine connections, such as with Grendrek. The fact that he's utterly devastated when the young, sickly Nameless is killed is a stark reminder that ultimately, like many teenage Nihil, Niv Drendow is a child that got roped into a bad cause.

Children of the Storm

A group of Force-sensitive Jedi-hunters that have been experimented on by Baron Boolan and tasked with capturing other Force-users for the Baron to experiment on.

Hunter of His Own Kind: A villainous example of the trope. All of them are Force-users that were abducted by Boolan and experimented on, and now, they seek out other Force-users to capture for the same experiments.
Mind Rape: They are frequently paired with Nameless as part of both Boolan's experiments and their work of capturing Jedi, even if being near the Nameless means intense physical and psychological pain for the Children.
Super-Soldier: Boolan did a lot of experimenting on them to make them as deadly as they are.

Lycos

Brother Lycos

Species: Lonto

Appearances: The High Republic (2023)

A masked Lonto and Child of the Storm and who lives for battle and fights with vines.

Blood Knight: According to Affanar, he lives on the battlefield.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: After getting shot in the stomach by a Republic Defense Coalition soldier, Terec immediately heals him. Lycos doesn't understand because his encounter with Sskeer in the Occlusion Zone gave him a negative impression of Jedi overall.
Eye Scream: Before the mission to Ballum, he lost his left eye to Sskeer's claws.
Good Scars, Evil Scars: His face underneath his mask is hideously scarred as a result of an encounter with Sskeer, who seems to have succumbed to Magrak Syndrome.
Green Thumb: As a former member of the Lonto order, he attacks with thorn-covered vines that he can use like whips. He can also use them to launch himself into the air.
Hero Killer: To solidify the threat he and the Children of the Storm pose to the Jedi, he seemingly kills Terec in the first issue by jumping up to their Jedi Vector, punching into the cockpit and forcing them to crash down. Subverted when the second issue shows Terec to have survived, with Lycos getting taken down shortly after.
Humanoid Alien: His pointed ears, his ability to attack with vines and all of the Children being Force-sensitive confirm he's a Lonto.
Malevolent Masked Man: While most of the Nihil wear masks, Lycos wears a comparatively simple mask to hide his scarred face.

H'Tar

Appearances: The High Republic (2023)

A former Fallanassi who was abducted by Baron Boolan and turned into a Child of the Storm.

Master of Illusion: As a Fallanassi, she excels at conjuring illusions. On Kindosorn, she conjures illusions based on Jedi's personal fears (causing Terec to hallucinate the presence of Drengir).

Ministry of Protection

Melis Shryke

Homeworld: Bantoo

Appearances: Shadows of Starlight | The Eye of Darkness

A former noble from Bantoo, Melis Shryke betrayed her house and her homeworld when the Nihil raided it following the establishment of the Occlusion Zone. She would serve under General Viess as the captain of the Cacophany and become a target of ire for Bell Zettifar after an attack on Asternin.

Amazing Technicolor Population: She's got very pale blue skin.
An Arm and a Leg: Avar cuts her right hand off when she and Porter board the Cacophany.
Arch-Enemy: She becomes one to Bell Zettifar after her role in the capture of Pra-Tre Veter.
Aristocrats Are Evil: The Shryke family are known for protecting Bantoo so that they can be the ones who oppress it. Melis takes that one step further by ditching the protection part and joining the Nihil in plundering her world.
Ax-Crazy: She absolutely relishes at the idea of getting to kill Jedi, and shows disappointment when she has orders to take them alive for Boolan's experiments.
Braids of Barbarism: She wears her hair in three large braids, and she's part of one of the more battle-happy ministries in the Nihil.
Dude, Where's My Respect?: Despite her capturing a Jedi Grand Master, Viess decides to claim Shryke's success as her own.
Irritation Is the Sincerest Form of Flattery: Her wearing armor modeled like Viess' and imitating her in other ways amuses the General at first, but she later finds Melis' irritating and demands she stop.
The Quisling: Much like her mentor Viess, she also sold out her homeworld to the Nihil.
Rubber-Forehead Aliens: Her species has pale-bluish skin and facial markings not too dissimilar to Pantorans.
Rich Boredom: She comes from a noble house on Bantoo famed for its dedication to oppressing and protecting their world. However, this wasn't a satisfying life for Melis, and she turned on her family and her homeworld to get more excitement in her life.
Self-Made Orphan: Murdered her father, who she despised and blamed for her mother's death, the night the Nihil invaded her homeworld.
Smug Snake: Despite her capture of Pra-Tre Veter, it was her only success in the service of the Nihil, and as Viess points out, she only succeeded there because she caught him at a disadvantage with a lightsaber nullifier and an electrified floor on her ship. She also doesn't command much respect aboard her own ship. Even Veter himself mocks her during his capture, pointing out that he was only a distraction for her while Bell and Burryaga worked to evacuate the citizens of Asternin. When Avar Kriss and Porter Engle board the Cacophany in the Seswenna Sector, she is defeated with little effort.
Melis Shryke: Don't you move a muscle, Jedi! You move, you die!
Pra-Tre Veter: I couldn't move if I tried. And yet all I sense from you poor people... is fear.
Melis Shryke: Then you're sensing wrong, Grandmaster. All you should be getting from me is gorgeous joy at all the money you're going to make me.
Pra-Tre Veter: Hnh. A bit of advice, then. If I were you, I'd focus less on the Jedi you did capture and begin worrying immediately about all the ones you didn't.
The Starscream: She plots to have Viess overthrown after the General takes credit for her capturing Pra-Tre Veter and belittles her for failing to capture Bell Zettifar and Burryaga.

Other Nihil

Vark Tarpalin

Commander Vark Tarpalin

Species: Human

Appearances: Escape From Valo

Once the leader of a small Nihil Cloud, Vark Tarpalin was given command of Valo after the creation of the Stormwall.

Arc Villain: He is the main antagonist of Escape From Valo.
Dastardly Whiplash: While he has yet to get an official design, descriptions of his appearance (such as his mustache), his inflated ego, and him constantly being foiled by a group of kids (who even go so far as to lampshade how he gives the same speech about killing them quickly every time he thinks he has the advantage) give him aspects of this trope.
Just Desserts: He gets eaten by a seezi worm while aboard the sunken Innovator.
Small Name, Big Ego: He makes a big deal about how he was the commander of a Cloud before being given control of Valo and thinks his "Dark Fair" will impress Marchion Ro. However, not only is his previous track record not all that impressive (he was just the equivalent of a minor ship captain and not say, a Tempest Runner), Marchion doesn't seem to care about his efforts from what is seen in other stories.
Smug Snake: Just about everything he say oozes with arrogance, but lacks the competence to back it up.
Wicked Pretentious: He has a rather magnificent mustache and keeps a portrait of himself in his office on Valo and tries to make a point about impressing important figures in the Nihil, but when he meets Niv Drendow Apruk, the young Umbaran completely dresses down his attempts to appear formal.

Driggit Parse

Species: Human

Homeworld: Valo

Appearances: Escape From Valo | The High Republic Adventures (2023)

Once a friend of the Jedi initiates Gavi, Tep Tep and Kildo, Driggit found herself working for the Nihil after believing them to have died and to keep her homeworld safe from the Nihil.

Anti-Villain: She works with the Nihil with the hope of keeping them in check and eventually making them leave Valo. She was also coerced into joining after Baron Boolan almost tried to have her killed with a Nameless. At the end of Escape From Valo, she plots to destroy the Nihil from within, but she's become incredibly cruel in how she does so.
Evil Former Friend: She was once close friends with Gavi, but became enemies as a result of hardships created by the Nihil occupation.
Kick the Dog: While Niv Drendow Apruk is far from an innocent puppy, the fact that Driggit decided to manipulate while he's in an emotionally vulnerable state makes her come off almost as cruel as the Nihil she wants to dismantle.
Manipulative Bitch: She's become much more ruthless in her methods of destroying the Nihil from within by the end of Escape From Valo. Notably, she tries to pressure Niv Drendow Apruk to seek revenge against the Jedi Order as a whole while he's in an emotionally vulnerable state following Grendrek's death.
No Sympathy: Even though she feels some pity for Niv Drendow after Grendrek's death, she decides he doesn't deserve any compassion despite being a teenager who's essentially just lost his pet, all because he's a Nihil. Instead, she uses his sorrow to manipulate him into a futile quest for vengeance.

The Warden

"The Warden"

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nihildog_6.jpg

Appearances: The High Republic Adventures (2023)

The overly theatrical warden of the Nihil prison ship, Korvix Vorn. Having taken a number of prisoners from the destruction of Starlight Beacon, the Warden seeks out the Jedi hiding among them.

Arc Villain: He's the main antagonist of Issues 4-5 of The High Republic Adventures (2023).
Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": He's just known as "the Warden", even in scene panels identifying characters.
I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: Farzala, Torban Buck and the rest of the captured Star Hopper Jedi could have easily escaped anytime within the last year since Starlight's destruction. The reason they haven't is that the Warden has threatened to kill one prisoner for every day the suspected Jedi is out of captivity.
Make an Example of Them: In contrast to Niv Drendow Apruk - who would rather do his work in a private lab - the Warden chooses to make a spectacle out of using the Nameless to expose the hiding Jedi. He brings all the prisoners into the courtyard with the intent of turning this weeding out into a public execution. However, the real reason he did this was that he anticipating a rescue attempt, and he's trying to put the prisoners in a position where either he or the rescuers could easily kill them all.
Prison Ship: His starship, the Korvix Vorn, is a particularly large and well-armed one.
Wardens Are Evil: To highlight how much of a monster this man is, Farzala, Torban Buck, and the other captured Star Hopper Jedi are staying in prison willfully for the safety of the other prisoners while waiting for rescue. Going further than that, he not only has Niv Drendow Apruk bring a baby Nameless in to sniff the Jedi out in public, he arranges the procedure in a way that would put the prisoners in danger if the Republic came to rescue them. When a Jedi rescue team makes it onboard the Korvix Vorn, he retaliates by having the courtyard's containment forcefield deactivated to expose the prisoners - and some of his own men - to the vacuum of space.

Assets of the Nihil

Mari San Tekka

Species: Human

Appearances: Light of the Jedi | The Rising Storm | Out of the Shadows | Defy the Storm^note

"It's always strange where the Paths lead me. Or perhaps I should say when."

An older member of the San Tekka clan, used by Marchion Ro to conduct his plans for the Great Disaster.

Ambiguous Situation: What exactly the apparitions of Mari which appear to Vernestra in Defy the Storm are is unclear. Vernestra believes the Force is communicating through her form, but one comment made by Mari suggests it could be her consciousness projected from a different point in time.
And I Must Scream: Marchion has her hooked up to a medical pod to keep her alive, using her "gift" to control his ship and calculate Paths, and she has no idea what he's doing to her.
Fling a Light into the Future: Knowing her end is close, Mari passes on one final path to Vernestra Rwoh after guiding the Jedi to her that leads someplace outside the galaxy where "no living thing should go" that had not been travelled to in a long time, but which Mari believes will be of great importance to Vernestra in the future.
The Navigator: She has a very rare natural Force ability that allows her to find temporary "paths" through hyperspace that would normally be impossible to utilize. This made her invaluable to the San Tekkas when she was younger, and eventually led to her kidnapping and exploitation by an ancestor of Ro.
Obliviously Evil: Has no idea that the Paths she is charting are being used for malicious purposes. Loden Greatstorm's presence aboard the Gaze Electric reawakens enough of her mind to realize what is happening and provide him encouragement and strength to break out.
Spirit Advisor: An apparition of Mari serves to give advice to Vernestra when she has hyperspace visions in Defy the Storm.
Telepath: After her mind is reawakened by Loden, she thanks him telepathically and later reaches out to Vernestra Rwoh, guiding the young Knight to her.

Great Leveler

The Great Leveler

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/levelerpanelart.jpg

Species: Nameless

Homeworld: Dalna (hatched), Planet X

A particularly unique Nameless with historical connections to the Ro family, originally gifted as an egg by the smuggler Radicaz "Sunshine" Dobbs to the Path of the Open Hand's Mother. Sometime later, it was frozen and sealed away in a shrine on Rystan and worshipped by the Ro family before being captured by Marchion and weaponized by the Nihil 150 years later.

For the Nameless as a species, see their entry on the Other Force Users and Beings page.

Ancestral Weapon: While the Nameless as a species has been weaponized by the Ro family in both the Path of the Open Hand and the Nihil, the Great Leveler individually has strong connections to them, being the first Nameless weaponized by both factions. While most of the other Nameless seem to have disappeared and been isolated to their homeworld before the Great Disaster, the Leveler was uniquely kept in storage due to being the only survivor among the Nameless the Path had collected.
Animalistic Abomination: Even among the Nameless, the Leveler is a horrifying monster that, even when it isn't causing nightmarish hallucinations in Jedi, doesn't look like it could have evolved from any sensible ecosystem.
Attack Animal: After Marchion gets his hands on the Great Leveler, he and the Nihil weaponize it against Jedi in horrifying fashion, with Kisma Uttersond making some modifications to it, such as attaching a camera to it for research purposes. In The Fallen Star, the Nihil get their hands on several more of the Nameless and use them to attack Starlight Beacon. Overlaps with Bioweapon Beast after Boolan starts making further modifications to them.
Fed to the Beast: Even after gaining more Nameless, the Leveler in particular seems to be Marchion's favorite specimen, and his go-to monster for executing Jedi.
Horrifying the Horror: Once the Mother has her hands on the Rods of Seasons and Daybreak, the Leveler becomes visibly fearful and submissive towards her.
Knight of Cerebus: Phase I of The High Republic starts off fairly optimistic, with the Jedi successfully nullifying the damage of the Great Disaster, the Nihil being well-equipped raiders with unusual tech at worst, and the Drengir being a lighter shade of Eldritch Abomination that while persistent in spreading themselves, the Jedi are able to come out on top of. That all changes when Marchion Ro gets his hands on the Great Leveler, whose killing of Loden Greatstorm causes a sense of dread in the Jedi Order. And it gets worse from there.
Lean and Mean: While most Nameless seem to have a bit of muscle on them, the Leveler is distinctively larger yet bone thin. This is because the Leveler hatched out of its natural environment and thus spent much of its life starving and emaciated. Tellingly, a lot of other Nameless in Nihil captivity - who are deliberately starved to take advantage of their Horror Hunger - look just like the Leveler.
Light Is Not Good: It's even paler than other Nameless and glows blue, but that not does make it any less dangerous to Force users.
Miracle-Gro Monster: Shortly after feeding on Jedi Master Zallah Macri, the Leveler goes from about the size of a house cat to a mountain lion mere minutes after hatching from its egg. Even then, it's still considered a baby. True adult Nameless are much larger.
Names to Run Away from Really Fast: "Great Leveler" is an on-the-nose summation of what this creature can do to Jedi. The names its species have gone by are also red flags.
Non-Malicious Monster: As noted by Marda, the Leveler only preys on Force users because Sunshine Dobbs displaced it from its original homeworld of Planet X when it was just an egg. Whereas its food source was in abundance on Planet X, the fact that it's more scattered in the galaxy at large leaves the Leveler and other Nameless trying to satisfy their dietary needs from other sources.
Sealed Evil in a Can: Before being found by the Nihil, the Leveler was locked deep away in a glacier with lots of security. However, while being frozen keeps it from attacking, it doesn't stop it from overwhelming Force-users' senses by its presence alone, as Udi Diss found out. The Leveler was even able to cause a sense of unease in Kor Plouth, a Force-sensitive member of the Path of the Open Hand, when it was just an egg.
Sole Survivor: Out of the Nameless that were brought to Dalna, the Great Leveler is the only one to survive the Night of Sorrow. The rest drowned when Yana flooded the Path compound's underground tunnels. This is why the Leveler is the only Nameless the Ro family has on reserve by the time of the Starlight era.
Spikes of Villainy: Unlike other naturally healthy Nameless, the Leveler has some visibly elongate spines along its back to make it look even more menacing.

Characters / Star Wars - The Nihil

Edit Locked

All spoilers regarding the Skywalker Saga and The Clone Wars are unmarked. Examples relating to Disney's EU and the new movies can be spoiler-tagged if deemed necessary. Spoilers from Phase I of the High Republic publishing initiative are also unmarked.

Leadership

Eye of the Nihil

Marchion Ro

Species: Evereni

Asgar Ro

Species: Evereni

Marda Ro

Tempest Runners

Lourna Dee (born Lourna'dee)

Species: Twi'lek

Homeworld: Aaloth

Zeetar

Species: Talpini

Kara Xoo

Species: Quarren

Original Tempest Runners

Xanaven

Species: Frong

Kassav Milliko

Species: Weequay

Homeworld: Sriluur

Pan Eyta

Species: Dowutin

Homeworld: Dowut

The Three Ministers

Senator Ghirra Starros, Minister of Information

Species: Human

Homeworld: Hosnian Prime

Baron Boolan, Minister of Advancement

Species: Ithorian

General Abediah Viess, Minister of Protection

Species: Mirialan

Homeworld: Sarumo

Others

The Eye's Staff

Thaya Ferr

Species: Human

Kisma Uttersond

Species: Chadra-Fan

Homeworld: Chad

Nan

Species: Human

Krix Kamerat

Species: Human

Udi Dis

Species: Talortai

Homeworld: Talor

Hague

Species: Zabrak

Arathab Fal

Species: Tarnab

Lourna Dee's Tempest

Tasia

Species: Cathar

Quin

Species: Bival

Muglan

Species: Gloovan

Kassav Milliko's Tempest

Gwishi and Klinith Da

Species: Aqualish (Gwishi), Human (Klinith Da)

Kara Xoo's Tempest

Doctor Zadina Mkampa

Species: Human (Cyborg)

Deva Lompop

Krix Kamerat's Cell

Sabata Krill

Species: Er'Kit

Nomar Tralmat (Respriler)

Species: Human

Homeworld: Corellia

Ministry of Advancement

Niv Drendow Apruk

Species: Umbaran

Children of the Storm

Brother Lycos

Species: Lonto