At the close of the Mandalorian Wars, a conflict spanning the entire galaxy between the Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders and the Galactic Republic, the Human male who would eventually become known as Darth Nihilus, the Dark Lord of the Sith, was still alive. He suffered immense losses during those battles, including his family, friends, and the will to continue living. In 3960 BBY, he was present on the planet of Malachor V during the final battle of the war, when Jedi General Meetra Surik ordered the activation of the Republic's Mass Shadow Generator superweapon. The generator killed almost everyone on the planet's surface and in nearby orbit.

The future Dark Lord survived the superweapon's destructive effects on the surface, adopting a dark persona as a means of coping with his grief and ensuring his survival. He became trapped on the planet by the artificially created mass shadows, along with the majority of the disabled fleets that filled the space around the planet. The Mandalorians had committed all of their forces in a final attempt to defeat the Republic. He suddenly fell ill due to the effects of the shadows. His emotional pain manifested as an emptiness that consumed his idle body, soon transforming into an intense "hunger." He unintentionally drained the life force of another survivor. Although the act was unpleasant, it temporarily alleviated the hunger and his painful memories, along with his sickness. However, the emptiness returned, more relentless and severe than before. He began absorbing the energy of other survivors, but the more he fed, the shorter the period of appeasement became, and the more powerful the hunger grew.

Following the death of the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Malak, at the conclusion of the Jedi Civil War in 3956 BBY, the Sith Empire fractured, and its followers turned on each other. Numerous factions emerged, each vying for control of the limited power available. Eventually, the man was discovered by the Dark Lord Darth Traya, who had sensed him as a wound in the Force. After locating him, Traya explained that the Force fueled his hunger and offered to train him at her school on the planet, the Trayus Academy, to devour entire worlds to help appease his hunger. He followed her there and learned the ways of the Sith alongside another prospective Sith. Traya's hungry pupil and her other apprentice each honed different aspects and skills of the dark side of the Force, eventually becoming Sith Lords. The man adopted the name Darth Nihilus, while the second apprentice became known as Darth Sion, and they joined Traya in forming a Sith Triumvirate. Furthermore, each of the three chose a unique title, with Nihilus selecting "Lord of Hunger."

Darth Traya viewed Nihilus' hunger for the Force as detrimental to the Sith's objectives. Nevertheless, she taught him how to harness that hunger to increase his strength for a time, as she had promised. Nihilus consumed planets on several occasions, driven solely by his desire to satisfy his hunger, allowing the dark side to consume him more and more each time he indulged his ever-intensifying craving. Alongside his hunger, his power also grew significantly, eventually surpassing that of his Master. Their differing views on how to destroy the Jedi Order also created tension, with Sion and Nihilus advocating for their immediate destruction, while Traya favored a more protracted approach. This strained the Triumvirate's already fragile alliance to the breaking point. In 3955 BBY, Nihilus and Sion joined forces to challenge Traya, confronting her in the center of her own Academy. Sion and Nihilus entered the Core and ambushed Traya. Nihilus Force-pushed her into a feature of the platform, after which Sion larruped her into submission. Sion combined his power with Nihilus' to sap Traya's Force energy, cutting her off from the Force before casting her out into exile.

With Traya gone, the Sith were left without a clear leader, and her followers once again splintered into numerous factions, each vying for control of limited power. Meanwhile, the two Sith Lords embarked on a joint effort to destroy the Jedi Order, albeit through separate means and with different tools. Sion focused on killing as many Jedi as he could find, while Nihilus traveled the fringes of known space with a large fleet of ships that he had torn from the mass shadows surrounding Malachor V. He designated one such vessel, the Ravager, as his flagship and led his flotilla to the largest concentrations of Force energies he could locate. There, he satiated his hunger and further augmented his power. Both Nihilus and Sion achieved success in their pursuits, effectively extinguishing the Jedi. Four years after Traya's exile, Nihilus and Sion, having been the ones who defeated her, reunited the fractured Sith to take control.

Nihilus became so consumed by the dark side of the Force and his hunger that his physical body began to deteriorate. Realizing that he would soon succumb to death if he did not take action, Nihilus severed his spirit from his body and encased it within the armor he wore, allowing the dark side to consume his useless physical form. Using the Force, the Sith Lord was able to maintain the integrity of his robes, armor, and mask, providing him with a semblance of form while enabling him to wield his Force powers and a lightsaber. Beyond that, he no longer possessed a physical form and became pure, primal intent. Additionally, the Dark Lord constructed a cubic holocron at some point, containing a wealth of Sith knowledge and secrets.

With Sion and Nihilus at its helm, the Trayus Academy continued to produce legions of Sith Lords, assassins, and marauders. They spread death throughout the galaxy and converted many other Force-sensitives to their cause. Those in Nihilus' vicinity were able to leech off the Force energy of other Force-sensitives, augmenting their own power. He also taught them how to locate their prey across the vast expanse of space.

In 3952 BBY, Atris, a Jedi Master, organized a large gathering of Jedi on the Miraluka colony world of Katarr, which most of the remaining Jedi were expected to attend. After organizing the event, she then leaked the location as a ploy to lure a dark presence that she had recently sensed so that she could destroy it. Atris' plan worked, drawing Nihilus toward Katarr. However, when Nihilus neared the planet, he spoke, his voice a great hunger that the Miraluka could see and feel through the Force. The Sith Lord's hunger overwhelmed them and obliterated the surface of Katarr, wiping out the entire colony and anything else touched by the Force. Nihilus destroyed much of what remained of the Jedi Order, including the Jedi Masters Zhar Lestin, Dorak and Vandar Tokare; Atris herself did not actually attend the conclave, though she was reported to have done so.

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

Nihilus forged an alliance with General Vaklu, the leader of a separatist movement seeking to secede the planet Onderon from the Galactic Republic. His intention was to support Vaklu's efforts to break away from the Republic, thereby bringing the planet under his influence and establishing it as a staging ground for the Sith. Colonel Tobin, Vaklu's second-in-command, became Nihilus' contact. The Sith Lord also established a base on Onderon's moon, Dxun, within the tomb of Freedon Nadd, an ancient Dark Lord of the Sith. This tomb contained a dark energy Force nexus upon which Nihilus intended to feed after his underlings performed a dark side ritual to influence the outcome of the upcoming Onderon Civil War between the separatists and the Onderon Royalists to his favor.

In another part of the galaxy, events that would culminate in Darth Nihilus' ultimate defeat took place when Atris, intent on using her as bait for Nihilus, arranged for the return of Meetra Surik to Republic space in 3951 BBY—Surik had been exiled by the Jedi years before for fighting in the Mandalorian Wars. Atris broadcast knowledge of Surik's presence through the Coreward databases, which reached Darth Sion. Nihilus' colleague then pursued her to the Peragus Mining Facility, which was destroyed as a result. The Telosian Restoration Project, an expensive pilot program for repairing the Mandalorian Wars' collateral damage, lost its main supply of fuel, which bolstered support for Republic secessionist movements on planets like Onderon. Surik came under the tutelage of Nihilus' former Master, who had forsaken her Sith identity of Darth Traya and retaken her original name, Kreia, following her exile. Kreia now trained and used Surik against the Sith whilst Surik herself set out on a quest to find any Jedi Masters who had survived the Mandalorian Wars so that they could take the fight to the Sith Lords who had destroyed the Order.

Nihilus eventually felt a disturbance in the Force that only his apprentice could identify. As a result, Marr was sent to defeat its source, Surik, and bring the woman before Nihilus so that he could consume her. When Surik defeated Marr instead, the Miraluka began to question the vision her Master had shown her. She was then swayed to serve Surik against Nihilus. Meanwhile, Nihilus and the Ravager crew continued travelling and devouring worlds.

The ritual Nihilus' group were conducting on Dxun was attacked by a group sent by Surik when she involved herself with the now-ongoing Onderon Civil War, with help from Mandalore the Preserver and his Mandalorian clan that lived in secret on Dxun. The practitioners were killed, but not before the ritual was completed. Meanwhile, Surik headed to Iziz to support Onderon's queen, Talia. The Royalist leader's palace was invaded by Nihilus' Sith and the separatists. Surik turned the tide in the Royalists' favor and Nihilus' plans for Onderon were thwarted when General Vaklu was executed summarily and the separatists were quashed.

Subsequently, Colonel Tobin informed Nihilus of the existence of a Jedi Academy on the planet Telos IV. This information was actually a deception orchestrated by Kreia to lure her former pupil there while she traveled to Malachor to prepare for Meetra Surik's final lesson. Nihilus' forces, consisting of servants rendered mindless by prolonged exposure to their Dark Lord and Sith warriors, made their way to the planet. The Republic Navy was present to ambush the fleet upon its arrival, collaborating with the Mandalorians who were there to support Surik and their Mandalore. This marked the beginning of the Battle of Telos IV, a major conflict with fronts on both Citadel Station, the planet's orbiting satellite, and in space. Nihilus realized too late that the Academy was not actually populated by Force-sensitives, though Atris was the headmistress, but his ravaging hunger drove him to attempt to consume Telos anyway.

Nihilus' ship was assaulted and boarded by the Mandalorians in a coordinated final strike against the Dark Lord. Mandalore led his troops to board the Ravager, while covered by the Republic forces, to assist Surik and Visas Marr in their advance on the warship's bridge. Four proton bombs were set in strategic locations throughout the ship along their way. Colonel Tobin, his body twisted by exposure to Nihilus' dark powers by this point, attacked the raiders in an attempt to impede them. However, the Onderonian patriot relented when they pointed out that it would only be a matter of time until his homeworld would meet the same fate as Telos if Nihilus succeeded.

During his confrontation with the Exile, Marr, and Mandalore, Nihilus attempted to absorb Surik's Force energy, but failed and exhausted himself because of Surik's ability to draw on the Force energy of those around her. They engaged in a brief duel, with the Dark Lord seemingly too strong to defeat. When he stunned the Exile, Marr offered her life in exchange, a show of devotion that stalled Nihilus long enough for the Exile to recover. Marr entered a trance and disrupted her link with her former Master, undermining his connection to the Force through their Force bond. This weakened Nihilus enough that the trio was able to kill him. Before leaving in the orbital shuttle she and her companions had used to board the ship, Marr felt compelled to remove the Dark Lord's mask, wanting to see the face of the one who had wounded her. Nihilus' body then erupted in an aura of dark side energies as the trio left the bridge. Shortly thereafter, the bombs aboard the Ravager exploded and the rest of the Sith fleet was decimated by the Republic. Nihilus' spirit was able to survive inside his armor, not destroyed within the Ravager, which was taken for burial on Korriban, the Sith homeworld. Nihilus' spirit touched the planet's dark side nexus and remained in touch with the corporeal plane because of it.

After the demise of Nihilus, Meetra Surik journeyed to Malachor V for a culminating meeting with Kreia, thereby concluding her training through the death of the former Sith. Upon encountering her mentor, Surik vanquished Darth Sion, the last of the Sith, persuading the perpetually suffering Sith Lord to relinquish his existence. Nevertheless, the Sith persisted beyond the downfall of the Sith Triumvirate. At least one Sith Lord emerged and succeeded Nihilus, reigning inconspicuously as the Republic experienced a resurgence. Similarly, the Jedi Order recovered, with Marr and other Force-attuned companions of the Exile reconstructing it. In 3681 BBY, the Sith and Jedi would once more engage in conflict during the Great Galactic War, which pitted the Republic against a revitalized Sith Empire. Following that war, they endured an uneasy truce during the Cold War that commenced in 3653 BBY. In the years that followed, copies of Nihilus' mask and cowl were donned by citizens across the galaxy.

The holocron of Darth Nihilus, capable of facilitating communication with his spirit, was already centuries old when the crime lord Diago Hixan acquired it. Hixan housed it within a cavern known as the Lightspring on the planet Tatooine during the Cold War era. A Sith named Vaverone Zare discovered that Hixan possessed the artifact and sought to procure it for the Sith Empire. To achieve this, she attempted to enlist the assistance of a smuggler later known as the Voidhound, without disclosing its true nature. However, the smuggler, loyal to the Galactic Republic, informed a Jedi Knight, Nariel Pridence, about Zare's pursuit of the box. The Jedi embarked on a solitary mission to retrieve it but was captured by Hixan. The smuggler, however, trailed her. In the ensuing confrontation, both Hixan and Zare, who had also arrived, met their demise at the hands of the smuggler and the Jedi. Pridence successfully identified the origin of the holocron and resolved to prevent it from falling into the Empire's hands.

Prior to the establishment of the Galactic Empire in 19 BBY, Jedi Master Bodo Baas was aware of three conflicting accounts regarding the fate of Darth Nihilus. One version claimed that Brianna, another companion of Surik's who was present on Telos IV when Nihilus was defeated, had slain him. The other two versions suggested that either Marr had killed Nihilus, or vice versa. Baas documented these accounts in his holocron, from which Jedi Master Tionne Solusar would transcribe his knowledge into Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force some decades later.

During the Empire's reign, three distinct factions tracked Nihilus' mask to the planet Volik in the Unknown Regions, where it was stored aboard a Dynamic-class freighter named the Nashuaga. These groups—a band of spacers, Sith devotees known as the Apex Society, and a crew of pirates called Sando's Boys—converged in and around the cove where the vessel was located. After eliminating the other two factions, the spacers secured the mask for themselves.

Darth Krayt, the founder of the One Sith Order, discovered Nihilus' holocron. In 137 ABY, Krayt journeyed to Korriban and accessed it, along with two others belonging to Darth Andeddu and Darth Bane, seeking their counsel on how to combat the Yuuzhan Vong organisms that were consuming his body. Nihilus responded only with a statement in his peculiar language, which his comrades did not attempt to decipher, but all three were in agreement. They deemed Krayt unworthy of being a Sith, viewing his Rule of One as a weakening of Sith traditions.

Darth Nihilus possessed an insatiable thirst for power. However, unlike many Sith Lords, he demonstrated little regard for the Sith as an organization. Nihilus considered death to be the ultimate purpose of existence, and power the means to achieve it. He exhibited caution, as evidenced by his actions during the campaign against the Jedi, and was known as an assertive, dominant figure who would not tolerate any threat to his authority.

Nihilus was once a Human male with black hair meticulously coiled into strips and bound behind his head. After succumbing to his hunger for the dark side, he lost his physical form, maintaining his existence solely by anchoring his spirit within his mask and armor. The Dark Lord embraced his condition, as its mysterious and monstrous aspects instilled a deep-seated fear in those who encountered him, which he exploited. Having relinquished fear and other emotions, he became an entity of pure intent. Nonetheless, Nihilus retained enough of his humanity to experience some emotions, as evidenced by his bond with Marr, which persisted until their confrontation on the Ravager. She was his sole apprentice, and her betrayal elicited considerable anger.

In combat, Darth Nihilus employed an aggressive, one-handed fighting style. He had mastered some of the most formidable Sith teachings, but these practices manifested as dependencies. They would temporarily amplify his strength, but he would need to replenish it by feeding on Force energy. Consequently, Force-sensitive individuals and worlds abundant in the Force attracted him. His command of the Force eventually reached a point where he could sense Force users throughout the galaxy, enabling him to locate planets that he would then completely cleanse, eliminating all those touched by the Force. Prolonged use of this power made him a threat to all life, as his hunger intensified with each feeding. Ultimately, Nihilus' hunger controlled him, rather than the other way around, and the Sith Lord would instinctively feed on those around him, slowly killing them. Nihilus' very words inflicted pain and death upon those who heard them, and his servants eventually became utter slaves. His ability bore some resemblance to Traya's influence over others: the reconvened Jedi Council in the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine surmised that the Sith had somehow acquired this Force-feeding ability from her.

Darth Nihilus possessed proficiency in numerous aspects of the Force. He employed a dark variant of the Sever Force ability to betray Darth Traya alongside Darth Sion, stripping her of the Force and expelling her from the Sith Order. Nihilus could also manipulate the Force to levitate starships, as he demonstrated on Malachor V with the Ravager. He wrenched it from the mass shadows surrounding the planet and maintained its structural integrity despite extensive damage. Through the Force, Darth Nihilus evaded death by containing his consciousness within his armor—an ability that Darth Krayt would later inquire about via Nihilus' holocron millennia later. He also demonstrated expertise in Dark rage, Farsight, Force lightning, Force resistance, Force scream, Force plague, and Force whirlwind, among others, including a dark variation of Force healing known as Dark Healing. His knowledge also encompassed Sith alchemy: during the second battle of Onderon, Nihilus' Sith followers employed techniques to bend and tame wild beasts to their will. Nihilus could significantly amplify the strength of his Force powers if he desired, and he could reach through the Force across distances spanning entire star systems.

Darth Nihilus wielded a self-constructed lightsaber containing a red crystal. It was destroyed aboard the Ravager following Nihilus' confrontation with Meetra Surik. He donned a distinctive mask and suit of armor, into which he merged his spirit to survive after his physical body deteriorated. His robes and armor were black and concealed his entire Human form, except for his face, which was covered by a mask. The mask was white with red stripes over each eye socket. It would have covered cheeks, but not a nose or mouth. There was also a brown embossed detail on the mask that split it vertically in two halves.

To facilitate his addiction to consuming worlds, he commanded a flotilla from his personal starship, the Ravager. He constructed these vessels from the wreckage left behind after the Battle of Malachor V. Consequently, they were severely damaged and held together by Nihilus' will. He permitted the particle shield to barely maintain an atmosphere and staffed them with slaves whose bodies were severely damaged from exposure to the Dark Lord.

Darth Nihilus was conceived by Obsidian Entertainment as a primary antagonist in the Xbox and PC video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. Nihilus' face served as the desktop icon for the PC version of the game. His narrative was further developed in a comic, "Unseen, Unheard," featured in Star Wars Tales 24. This was written by Chris Avellone, the lead writer of The Sith Lords, and illustrated by Dustin Weaver. Nihilus' background was further explored in the Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide, and he was featured in an entry in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia. Nihilus' name and its pronunciation were derived from the terms nihilist, denoting someone who believes in "the denial of all real existence or the possibility of an objective basis for truth," and annihilate, meaning "to destroy completely" or "reduce to nonexistence." In an interview with a Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic fan website, Avellone was questioned about his intentions for Darth Nihilus. While he clarified that his conception of Nihilus' origin story was non-canon, Avellone stated that he envisioned Nihilus as Meetra Surik's "other half," pursuing a divergent path after the destruction of Malachor V. From a visual standpoint, Avellone credited artist Brian Menze with creating a compelling hook for the character, citing this contribution as a key factor in the success of The Sith Lords. Menze himself felt that his work on Nihilus lacked originality: he was instructed to design a mask based on No-Face, a character from Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away film, and it was heavily influenced by that design. Nonetheless, Nihilus was his favorite character to draw for the game, and he was proud of him. He considered the opportunity to paint him for the cover of Electronic Gaming Monthly to be one of the highlights of his career.

In the game, Nihilus never uttered intelligible words; he only emitted sound patterns similar to those produced by Atris' Sith holocrons found on Telos IV. Alien languages such as Huttese were subtitled, while Nihilus' utterances were not. Marr appeared to comprehend at least some of what Nihilus communicated to her. In promotional materials for the game, Nihilus was portrayed as Atris' opposite. Concept art depicted a confrontation between the two, but Atris never actually interacted with Nihilus in the game. In a glitch that occasionally occurred upon Nihilus' death, his body was enveloped in dark side energies, but the body itself did not vanish. A Sith lightsaber, a Dark Jedi Master robe, and a lightsaber crystal could then be discovered among his remains. In Hasbro's Star Wars Evolutions action figure set, The Sith Legacy, Nihilus was featured alongside Darth Bane and another Sith, Darth Maul. He had a detachable hood that revealed Nihilus' hair for the first time. It was styled in dreadlocks. In The Sith Lords, Nihilus' name was never spoken aloud but was visible during the battle against him and in certain written materials. The smuggler's storyline from 2011's Star Wars: The Old Republic included a segment on Tatooine that involved Nihilus' Sith holocron, in which his name was spoken for the first time. Nihilus' name was also used for two of The Old Republic's servers, although one was named "Mask of Nihilus." Following a server merger, the "Mask of Nihilus" server was discontinued, and the "Darth Nihilus" server was utilized for French Player-Versus-Player services.

While Nihilus' background and motivations remained consistent regardless of whether players of The Sith Lords directed Surik, their avatar, to make choices aligned with the light or dark sides of the Force, the unfolding of his story could vary slightly. One potential outcome of the final battle with Nihilus involved persuading Marr to sacrifice herself, thereby severing the bond she shared with Darth Nihilus and severely weakening the Dark Lord's spirit. This rendered him no match for Surik, but this option was only accessible if Marr was equipped with ordinary clothing and wielding a melee weapon.

Surik could decide whether or not Visas Marr gazed upon her Master's face. If Surik permitted Marr, she could also request that Marr bring his mask to her. The mask was not wearable; however, it granted Surik bonus Force points in the game. Forgoing the mask resulted in its disappearance with his body. Subsequent dialogue options prompted Marr to describe Nihilus' face in two alternative ways. She would either respond with "A man, nothing more" or "I saw a graveyard world, surrounded by a fleet of dead ships. I felt it through him… as I feel it through you."

Had the Voidhound aided Zare in eliminating Pridence and Diago Hixan at the Lightspring in Star Wars: The Old Republic, Nihilus' Sith secrets would have fallen into the Sith Empire's possession. In return, Zare would have provided a reward of some sort, ranging from equipment to a sexual favor.

Sources have presented conflicting accounts regarding the timeline of Nihilus' loss of his physical body. The Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide asserted that he encased his spirit in his armor after deposing Darth Traya due to his dark side usage consuming his body. Conversely, The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia stated that he lost his body when the Ravager was destroyed, preserving himself in the same manner before being discovered and buried. This article assumes the former to be accurate and that his spirit was already inside his armor when he battled Surik. However, the Encyclopedia's entry questioned whether Marr was permitted to view Nihilus' face before departing the bridge. Because The Sith Lords depicted Nihilus' armor being destroyed in an explosion of Force energy, it was previously assumed that Marr was allowed to look and brought Nihilus' mask to Surik. Otherwise, it would not have resurfaced thousands of years later in a Wizards of the Coast Star Wars Roleplaying Game supplement, "The Mask of Darth Nihilus." The establishment of his armor as having survived the explosion and being recovered later rendered this uncertain.

Due to a compressed development timeline, Obsidian Entertainment was compelled to omit several planned features from The Sith Lords. Darth Nihilus was among those affected by these cuts. The Jekk'Jekk Tarr, a cantina on the moon Nar Shaddaa, was initially intended to be destroyed by Dessicus—the leader of the GenoHaradan bounty hunter guild active on the moon—with Surik inside. Everyone presumed Surik to be dead, which was false, and Sion approached Nihilus. He informed Nihilus that their partnership was over and that he had never needed him before attacking him. Sion was repelled by a surge of the Force that killed several people around him. Sion limped away from this encounter and left the Ravager.

Surik was to have the option to declare her desire to become Nihilus' apprentice during their final confrontation. She could either lie or tell the truth, and if she was truthful, Surik would have killed Marr, weakening Nihilus through their bond before turning to kill him as well. If she was lying, Nihilus would have lowered his guard only for Surik to attack him without killing Marr.

Furthermore, a subsequent sequence was planned in which Surik meditated to determine the location of Nihilus and Sion. This would have involved the voices of Surik's companions chiming in and blending together to reveal that they originated from Malachor V, leading her there. Chris Avellone was very fond of this scene, and the dialogue was blended very well in his opinion, but there was simply not enough time to put it in.

During the creation of the Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide, Star Wars author Abel G. Peña composed an entire passage dedicated to Nihilus' mask, which was ultimately cut. It would have comprised the final paragraph of Nihilus' section and suggested that the mask might have been a death mask of Hendanyn make. These masks first appeared in The New Rebellion, a 1996 novel written by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.