Characters of the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic series

The main protagonist and player character of the first game is Revan, an amnesiac Sith Lord who is reassigned a new identity as a member of the Republic army. Revan's true identity is not revealed until a predetermined point in the narrative where the player is confronted by the game's central antagonist Darth Malak for the first time.

According to continuity established by supplementary material,[4] as well as the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Star Wars: The Old Republic, in Star Wars Legends, Revan is male and follows the light-side path.

The Jedi Exile, also known simply as the Exile, is the main protagonist and player character of the second game. The player may choose the gender and decide what path to take.

According to continuity established by Star Wars: The Old Republic and its associated supplementary material, in Star Wars Legends, the Jedi Exile is named Meetra Surik, who is female and aligned to the light-side of the Force.

Canderous Ordo, voiced by John Cygan, is a Mandalorian who appears in both the first game and in The Sith Lords. Ordo is a veteran Mandalorian warrior who joins the player's party in Knights of the Old Republic. After the game's conclusion, he becomes "Mandalore the Preserver", leader of the Mandalorians. Mandalore pledges himself and his warriors to the service of the Jedi Exile in The Sith Lords.

UGO Networks ranked Ordo among their list of top fifty Expanded Universe characters.[5]

T3-M4 is an astromech droid who appears in both games. It was constructed by a Twi'lek named Janice Nall of Taris for local crime lord, Davik Kang. The droid features code-breaking and computer "slicing" skills in addition to being able to mount armor and weapon upgrades. If the player attempts to talk to T3 it will simply communicate in a series of bleeps, similar to other astromech droids like R2-D2.

HK-47, voiced by Kristoffer Tabori, is an assassin droid owned by Revan, who appears in both of the games. In 2003 HK-47 won Computer Gaming World's "NPC of the Year" award,[6] and later won the category of "Original Game Character of the Year" in the 2004 Game Developers Choice Awards.[7]

Carth Onasi, voiced by Raphael Sbarge, is a Republic soldier and pilot. During the Mandalorian wars, Carth served under Admiral Saul Karath, who would become his mentor and, later, object of revenge. He met Revan while the two were fleeing the Endar Spire, following a Sith attack on the ship. He is the second character to become a party member in the first game, after Trask Ulgo sacrifices himself to fend off the Sith apprentice Darth Bandon. It is later revealed that Carth had a family on Telos who were killed by the Sith: his son Dustil later turns up as a Sith convert and the player has the option of killing him or opening his eyes. He is a romance option for the female Revan. Carth can appear briefly in the sequel, The Sith Lords, via recorded audio and video messages.

Mission Vao, voiced by Catherine Taber, appears in Knights of the Old Republic. She is a fourteen-year-old Twi'lek and the best friend of Zaalbar. Mission joins the player's party after encountering her in the Undercity on Taris.

Zaalbar is a character from Knights of the Old Republic. He is a Wookiee who is friends with Mission Vao and joins the player's party, swearing a life-debt to the player for helping Mission rescue him from a group of Gammorrean slavers in the Undercity of Taris. Zaalbar is the brother to Chuundar, the leader of a tribe on their home planet Kashyyyk. When the player's party first lands on Kashyyyk, Zaalbar is referred to as "mad-claw". Through Zaalbar's and Chuundar's father, Freyyr, Revan learns why Zaalbar was banished from the tribe: Zaalbar learned that Chuundar was selling Wookiee slaves to Czerka Corporation, and in a fit of rage attacked him with his bare claws, breaking a major Wookiee taboo; this led Freyyr to side with Chuundar and thus Zaalbar was exiled. When Revan and Freyyr confront Chuundar, Zaalbar sides with Freyyr and Revan and in turn kills Chuundar, freeing the Wookiees and driving Czerka off the planet. A dark-side alternative has Revan kill Freyyr, allowing Czerka's slave trade on Kashyyyk to continue: a dark-sided Revan can also order Zaalbar to kill Mission in order to fulfill his life-debt - this may cause Zaalbar to turn against Revan as well.

Bastila Shan, voiced by Jennifer Hale, is a Jedi who defeated Revan prior to the beginning of Knights of the Old Republic. The first part of the game is spent searching for her after the Endar Spire is destroyed, and she joins the party upon her rescue. Darth Malak later captures her and seduces her to the dark side. Revan later confronts Bastila in a lightsaber duel and has the option of killing her or allowing her to live: a dark-side character makes her their apprentice, while a light-side character helps her redeem herself by helping the Republic fleet. Bastila is a romance option for a light-sided male player character.

Juhani, voiced by Courtenay Taylor, is a Cathar padawan who incorrectly believed she killed her master. She turned to the dark side and tainted the grove on Dantooine where she lived. Depending on which path the conversation is steered in by the player, Revan may either fight (and kill) her, or redeem her, where she joins the party to discover the location of the Star Forge and returns to the Order as a Jedi Knight. Juhani is the first explicitly LGBTQ character in Star Wars media.

Jolee Bindo, voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson, is a character in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Jolee is an old hermit living in the Shadowlands on the forest floor of Kashyyyk and a former Jedi Padawan. Bindo helps Revan bypass shield generators that lead deeper into the Shadowlands to find the Star Map and remains with Revan's party. After the main character gains experience, Jolee tells the tale of how he was once a smuggler, and through this met his wife. Against the wishes of the Jedi Council, he trained her in the way of the Force. She was then seduced to the dark side by Exar Kun, upon failing to convince Jolee to join Exar Kun as well, she drew her lightsaber on him. Jolee won the fight, but he was unable to bring himself to kill her. She escaped and went on to kill many Jedi. Jolee expected to be punished harshly for his mistakes, but the Council said he had learned his lesson the hard way, and even considered promoting him to knighthood. Disappointed with the Jedi’s decision, Jolee left the Order and started wandering the galaxy before crash landing on Kashyyyk, where he lived for 20 years until he met Revan.

Kimberley Wallace of Game Informer included Jolee Bindo in her list of best BioWare characters; she called him a "cranky old man who hacks the hell out of enemies is hard to top". According to Wallace, "he almost beats HK-47 for his power with sarcasm, as Jolee Bindo's self-ridicule is part of his charm", and claims that he will perhaps never live down his infamous line, "I did it all for the Wookiees!"[8]

Kreia, voiced by Sara Kestelman, is the teacher and mentor to the Jedi Exile in The Sith Lords.[9][10] Near the end of the game, she is revealed to have been Darth Traya, the Lord of Betrayal, all along. Her character received mixed reception since the game's publication, but is generally thought to be one of the most well developed backgrounds and characterizations in retrospective reviews.

Atton Rand, voiced by Nicky Katt, is a character in The Sith Lords. Atton is a human pilot that the Exile meets on the asteroid mining station Peragus II, and is patterned after the iconic Star Wars character Han Solo. Atton can become a Jedi Sentinel once the player character accrues enough influence with him.

Bao-Dur, voiced by Roger G. Smith, is a character in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords.[3][9] He is a Zabrak engineer from Iridonia, who fought under the command of the Jedi Exile during the Mandalorian Wars. Bao-Dur is the inventor of the Mass Shadow Generator that ended the battle on Malachor V by completely obliterating the Mandalorian Armada and inadvertently killing many Republic soldiers on his own side of the battle, leading to a great deal of guilt later in his life. The Exile, who did not know Bao-Dur on a personal level at the time, gave the command, which sent massive echoes in the Force throughout the galaxy. Bao-Dur is trainable as a Jedi Guardian.

Visas Marr, voiced by Kelly Hu, appears in The Sith Lords as an apprentice of Darth Nihilus. She is a Miraluka from the planet of Katarr where all living things except for her were consumed by Darth Nihilus. While she is considered blind, she is able to see through the Force which allowed her to find the Jedi Exile. When she confronts the Exile, she loses and in turn becomes part of the Exile's party. Eventually the player confronts Nihilus with Visas, and needs to kill him. The player may choose to have Visas sacrifice herself to weaken Nihilus.

Brian Menze designed the character, and drew on ninjas, the look of previous Sith Lords, and G.I. Joe character the Baroness in creating her concept art. As the character was mostly covered – only the lower half of her face is visible – Menze decided to make what was shown "as sexy as possible". Menze deviated from the usual black Sith Lords dressed in and instead added some color to soften her, based on the written description of the character.[11] Menze noted that the character has since become a fan favorite and a popular choice for cosplay activities at fan conventions.[11] Voice directors Will Beckman and Darragh O'Farrell wanted someone "special" and "maybe a little sexy" to voice the part.[12] It was Hu's first role as a voice-actress, and she has said she enjoyed the role.[13]

Brianna, voiced by Grey DeLisle, is the "Last Handmaiden" on a Jedi Academy located on Telos IV in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. She initially does not reveal her name to the Exile; until she mentions her name late in the game, she is referred to as the Handmaiden. Brianna joins the party after leaving Telos on the Ebon Hawk if the player's character is male. Her training before joining the Exile's party makes her a skilled close quarter combatant and, after fulfilling certain combat and conversation requirements, she can be trained to become a Jedi Guardian or a Dark Jedi Guardian. It is revealed by Kreia that Brianna takes up Atris' role as the historian of the Jedi.

Mical, also known as the Disciple, is a character in The Sith Lords voiced by Greg Ellis. He is a soldier and force-adept that was refused for training because of the Mandalorian Wars. He eventually tells the player character that he wishes the player to be his master. He is a playable character that joins the player's party on Dantooine if your character is female. The Disciple can be influenced by light side acts and can be trained as a Jedi Consular.

Mira, voiced by Emily Berry, appears in The Sith Lords. Mira lost her family during the Mandalorian Wars. By the end of the wars, the Galactic Republic was flooding with refugees, and many of them, including Mira, ended up in the refugee sector of Nar Shaddaa. To survive in the hostile environment, she became a bounty hunter with the sole purpose of earning credits. A rival bounty hunter, the Wookiee Hanharr, was employed to hunt her by an unknown person. Mira will join player characters who are oriented towards light-sided or neutral alignments, and can become a Jedi Sentinel.

Menze had a "shaggy-like character from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon Speed Buggy" as a reference for Mira. Her visual design was based on the appearances of women Menze described as the "gothic girl gamer" who attend shows or fan conventions in the early 2000’s, and whose stylistic choices included dyed hair, strapped platform leather boots and Hello Kitty backpacks, as he had hoped to tap into a likeness that these fans would respond to.[11]

Hanharr is a Wookiee bounty hunter in The Sith Lords, and can play different roles within the game, depending on the alignment of the player character. Hanharr is encountered on the planet Nar Shaddaa, as is Mira, another bounty hunter. One of these will join the party of the Jedi Exile, as is determined by the personality of the player character. Light-side and neutral players are joined by Mira, dark-side players are joined by Hanharr.

G0-T0, voiced by Daran Norris, is a droid who appears in The Sith Lords. Built to oversee and aid in the planetary reconstruction of the planet Telos, its programming included two directives: produce options to rebuild the Republic and follow all the laws of the Republic. Sadly, all options G0-T0 could think of to assist the Republic would involve breaking a Republic law. Following this, the droid 'broke'; it overrode the second directive, and set up The Exchange, the greatest smuggling organization in the galaxy. Eventually the droid would be destroyed, but not before the organization had helped countless systems achieve prosperity.

Darth Malak, voiced by Rafael Ferrer, is the old Sith apprentice of Revan and the main antagonist of the first game. As Jedi, Malak and Revan disobeyed the Jedi Council and helped the Republic defend against the Mandalorians. During the war, Malak was captured by them for a time and experimented upon, which caused his baldness.[14] It was also during the Mandalorian Wars that he got the name "Malak", his birth name being "Alek". He first started calling himself Malak to escape the arrest warrant issued by the Jedi Council,[15] and he later decided to keep this name in protest until the war is over.[16] At the end of the Mandalorian Wars, however, both Revan and Malak fell to the dark side and turned against the Republic, although Malak viewed Revan as too soft, which led to a duel that ended with Revan cutting off his lower jaw.[17] Malak later betrays Revan when he is facing Jedi and usurps the title of Dark Lord of the Sith. But Revan survives the attack, at the cost of his memory. Under Malak's leadership, the Sith devastate planets Taris and Dantooine, while Revan regains his power in the search for the ancient space factory The Star Forge where he defeats Malak in the game's final battle. GamePro's Hugh Sterbakov ranked Darth Malak as 22nd most diabolical videogame villain of all time, saying he was "one of, if not the coolest expanded universe Star Wars character yet".[18] UGO Networks put the character as their 19th top Star Wars Expanded Universe character.[5] On GameSpot's "All-Time Greatest Villain" competition in 2011, Darth Malak managed to get into the top sixteen.[19] GameDaily's Robert Workman put Darth Malak as their 16th top evil mastermind of all time.[20] Workman also listed Malak as one of his favourite Star Wars video game characters.[21]

Darth Sion, voiced by Louis Mellis, is an antagonist in The Sith Lords. Darth Traya trained both Sion and Nihilus, who in turn betrayed her. He holds his ravaged, necrotic body together by drawing on his constant pain using the dark side of the Force, making himself virtually unkillable. The player's character Jedi Exile eventually defeats Sion several times, and convinces him to end his own miserable existence by letting go of the Force.

Chris Avellone, lead designer of The Sith Lords, was inspired to create Sion by Tessai's death scene in Ninja Scroll.[22] In contrast to other characters, Sion's design took much longer to hone down. Brian Menze, creator of the concept art and in-game model, had difficulty finding a design that Avellone was satisfied with, and the two had many conversations on how he should appear.[22] It was planned that Sion would have small parts of him orbiting around him. Engine troubles, however, made that difficult, ultimately resulting in a character looking far more "human".[22] Voice directors Will Beckman and Darragh O'Farrell originally sought to hire someone with an English accent, rather than the Scottish one found in the game. Problems arose due to most English actors lacking deep voices, though afterwards they wished to avoid making Sion "too Scottish", wishing to avoid creating a caricature to American ears.[12] They called Sion's voice one of their favorites in The Sith Lords.[12]

Darth Nihilus appears in Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords as one of the titular Sith Lords. He is known as the Lord of Hunger, capable of draining the life force out of any living thing, and intends to consume as much life in the galaxy as possible. He is depicted as a wraith-like being who speaks in unintelligible rasps and feasts on the Force like a parasite. Nihilus bound his consciousness into his robes and mask in order to preserve his physical form.[23] Prior to the game's events, Darth Sion, Darth Nihilus and Darth Traya formed a short-lived Triumvirate as leaders of the resurgent Sith based on Malachor V, though Traya was later cast out and driven into exile. Nihilus then uses the might of the Sith Armada not to conquer planets, but to contain them so that he could "feed" off the Force energy of each planet's lifeforms, wiping planets of life. Nihilus is defeated in the game after being drawn out and tricked into launching an attack on Telos, believing it to harbour the last of the Jedi. The Exile, together with Canderous Ordo and Nihilus' former associate Visas Marr confront the Sith Lord on his ship, and Nihilus is slain either after Visas sacrifices herself due to their shared link in the Force, or after his attempt to feast on the Exile's connection to the Force backfires and weakens him.

Nihilus appears in the "Unseen, Unheard" story in the final issue of Star Wars Tales, which recounts Nihilus using his power to decimate all life on the Miraluka colony world of Katarr, including the vast majority of the Jedi Order's leadership. Visas Marr is shown as the sole survivor of the catastrophic event, which impressed Nihilus and moved him to claim her as his apprentice and slave. Nihilus is mentioned in a few other stories in the original Star Wars Expanded Universe, and makes a short appearance in Star Wars: Legacy. The character's distinctive mask is also made available as a loot item for Star Wars: The Old Republic if the Crime Lord's Cartel Pack DLC is installed.[24] Nihilus is introduced to the Galaxy of Heroes mobile game as a playable character in a 2017 update.[25] As the “face” of the marketing for The Sith Lords, the character has been featured prominently in promotional material and subject to merchandise, including several action figures.[26][27][28][29]

Nihilus was written so players would identify him less as a "human" and more a "force of nature". Avellone described him as without personality beyond "just a feeling of hunger" due to having succumbed so far to the dark side. Avellone felt beating such a force seemed "more heroic" or "far more epic" than taking on an individual person.[30] The character's visual was quick to define; Eurogamer describes him as "a concept created and greenlit in all of 15 minutes".[22] Character modeller and lead concept artist Brian Menze was asked to create a Sith Lord with No-Face from Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away (2001) as a reference; Avellone felt that the final design, which employs a lot of voluminous black, was closer to the Studio Ghibli character than was intended.[31][28] One idea behind Nihilus's design was that there should be nothing behind the mask – representative of him being a void. A "pet peeve" of Avellone's is promotional art of Nihilus with a visible nose, which contradicted his concept of a character who lack facial features;[28] Menze had drawn a nosed Nihilus for a magazine cover which had become widely circulated and Avellone had "let it go", to Menze's now regret.[22]

Nihilus is considered to be one of the best remembered aspects of The Sith Lords's story.[28] IGN's Jesse Schedeen singled out his obliteration of Visas' homeworld as the Sith Lord's "defining moment of villainy".[32] Chris Freiberg from Den of Geek ranked the introduction of Darth Nihilus as one of the most memorable moments in Star Wars video game history.[33] Glixel listed him as one of twenty "awesome" Star Wars characters originating in video games, and considered him "terrifying" and "more of a malevolent ghost than a typical self-serving Sith".[34]

Nihilus' visual design proved to be very popular with Star Wars fandom. Revan aside, Eurogamer's Robert Purchese described The Sith Lords' villains as "far more memorable" than those of the first game, and described Nihilus as the most recognisable of the trio.[22] Schedeen remarked that "Nihilus probably wins the award for coolest-looking Star Wars villain ever".[32] The Citizen's Lake Life editor David Wilcox opined that Darth Nihilus is the best designed character outside of the Star Wars saga's "main players".[35] The character has been frequently referenced in fan art, cosplay and other derivative works since his appearance in The Sith Lords.[36][37][38][39][40][41] The character was also featured on The Howard Stern Show for several weeks.[29][42]

Nihilus' popularity has led to discussions about the supposed references to the character in canon Star Wars works, such as the identity of an ancient Sith statue in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, as well as the origins of the Nihil, a faction set to be the overarching antagonists of the upcoming Star Wars: The High Republic subseries.[43][44] Obsidian Entertainment acknowledged their creation of Darth Nihilus and the character's popularity as a notable contribution to the Star Wars license.[45] Menze noted in retrospect that co-creating Darth Nihilus with Avellone is a career highlight for him, and acknowledged that the character "has gone on to be bigger than the game we created".[22][29]

Atris, voiced by Elizabeth Rider, is a former member of the Jedi Council and one of the Jedi largely responsible for banishing the Jedi Exile from the Jedi Order. Prior to the events of The Sith Lords, Atris had an idealistic view of the Jedi that bordered on fanaticism, believing that they were the perfect guardians of the galaxy and, as a result, did not tolerate any criticism directed towards them. However, Atris' beliefs were challenged during the events of the Mandalorian War and the war against Darth Malak in the first game. This drove her to betraying the Jedi by leaking the location of their hidden conclave, resulting in them being driven to near-extinction by Darth Nihilus. Atris then planned to rebuild the Jedi Order under her own dogmatic doctrine, and started an unethical campaign against the Sith. This included leaking information of the Jedi Exile's return to the rest of the galaxy, setting off the events of The Sith Lords.