Kreia

Kreia (pronounced /ˈkreɪə/), a female Human, was a Jedi scholar and Consular who rose to the rank of Jedi Master. During her tenure within the Jedi Order, Kreia sought to unravel the galaxy's enigmas through deep contemplation. Although this weakened her easily fixable eyesight, Kreia disregarded her vision, deeming it unnecessary for her role as a scholar. For many years, Kreia trained numerous students, consistently provoking their minds with inquiries about the nature of power. Her fellow Jedi considered her teachings, known as "Kreia's conundrums," as peculiar, while her students found them perplexing.

One of Kreia's apprentices was a highly talented Jedi who would later be known as Revan. However, the Jedi Council viewed her teachings with apprehension. After Revan concluded his training with Kreia, he sought further education from Jedi Masters Zhar Lestin and Dorak.

Around 3964 BBY, the Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders, a faction of the Mandalorian warrior culture originating from the Outer Rim planet of Mandalore, launched attacks against the Galactic Republic. As the Mandalorian Wars escalated, Revan, now a Jedi Knight, returned to Kreia, finding the Jedi teachings inadequate. He sought her guidance regarding the Jedi Council's cautious stance, fearing a greater threat and their inaction against the Mandalorians. Subsequently, Kreia's former student openly defied the Council, leading other rebellious Jedi, including Meetra Surik, to combat the invading Mandalorians.

Revan eventually embraced the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith, establishing a new Sith Empire to oppose the Jedi and the Republic. Kreia believed Revan had never truly "fallen" to the dark side. Instead, she posited that he had become the new Sith Lord—the embodiment of the dark side as Darth Revan—and initiated the Jedi Civil War to prevent a greater evil. She argued that as Revan was the "heart of the Force," a greater cause necessitated his actions.

As many of Kreia's students abandoned the Jedi Order to join the Mandalorian Wars, the Jedi Council, including Jedi Master Atris, deemed her teachings as breeding failures. Atris, deeply admiring Surik and firmly opposing the Mandalorian conflict, felt betrayed by the warring Jedi's rejection of her beliefs. Correlating this with the discovery that all of Kreia's pupils either succumbed to the dark side or abandoned their Jedi training, Atris led the Council in denouncing Kreia and condemning her "freethinking" teachings, resulting in her exile from the Jedi Order.

Silently departing from the Jedi Order, Kreia began questioning her own beliefs, leading her followers away from the Jedi. While some believed she had joined Revan and his Jedi in war, she instead traced her former Padawan's path, seeking an answer only she could find.

Kreia was eventually drawn to the Force echoes of Malachor V, a Sith world and a nexus of dark side energies, formerly part of the ancient Sith Empire. There, she discovered Darth Revan's former stronghold, the Trayus Academy, an ancient dark side training center containing the Sith's deepest secrets. She encountered Sith assassins left by Revan, who, instead of attacking, presented her with Sith hermetica. These manuscripts suggested that the truths of the cosmos were not meant for the sane, and Kreia believed their authors were pureblooded descendants of the ancient Sith species.

The Sith sorcerers claimed privileged insight into secret realities, arguing that while the contradictory and aimless nature of existence seemed obvious, awareness of the Force exposed this as a lie. They further stated that the Force betrayed Force-sensitives, forcing them to live in a compromised, chaotic universe—to live the lie. She succumbed to the dark side, becoming Darth Traya (pronounced /ˈtreɪə/), the Lord of Betrayal. Traya also learned of a forgotten legacy of the Sith lurking in the Unknown Regions for 1000 years: the "True Sith," remnants of the Sith Empire still existing in the galaxy's far reaches.

Determined to continue Revan's legacy, Traya re-established the Trayus Academy to train and convert a generation of "Sith" to challenge the Republic. As his former Master, she inherited the fealty of the remaining Sith troopers from Darth Revan's Sith Empire, who pledged allegiance to her as the Dark Lord of the Sith. She began searching for Force-wounds, discovering Darths Sion and Nihilus, who sought to rebuild the deteriorating Sith Order. Nihilus, the Lord of Hunger, and Sion, the Lord of Pain, joined her in creating the Sith Triumvirate, intending to eliminate Traya's Jedi betrayers. However, their ideals diverged over time. Traya and Revan's legacy strayed from Darth Nihilus' hunger and Sion's channeling of pain onto others in his crusade against the Jedi. Traya underestimated her pupils' depravity. After teaching Nihilus to devour worlds and Sion grew weary of her teachings, deeming them weakening, the apprentices plotted against her. Sion and Nihilus confronted her in the Trayus Core, stripped her of the Force, and exiled her, marking another betrayal.

After casting Traya out of the Sith Triumvirate, Sion and Nihilus began an assassination campaign against the Jedi, unknowingly aiding their former Sith Master. This decimated the Jedi, who were either killed or in hiding. Traya, resuming her identity as Kreia, left Malachor V and returned to Republic space, plotting revenge. Kreia sought Meetra Surik, the Jedi Exile, her former Jedi student who served as a general under Revan during the Mandalorian Wars. Surik helped defeat the Mandalorians at Malachor V by activating the Mass Shadow Generator, creating a wound in the Force. Kreia sought to exploit Surik's talent in Force bonding to create another, greater wound, deafening the galaxy to the Force with echoes that would never reach their destination.

Jedi Master Atris arranged Surik's return to the Republic, exposing her presence in coreward databases to bait the Sith. On the Republic warship Harbinger, Surik was found by an HK-50 Jedi hunter and drugged into unconsciousness. Kreia rescued her and took her to the Ebon Hawk, barely escaping a Sith ambush led by Darth Sion. Both unconscious, Kreia and Surik arrived safely on Peragus II thanks to T3-M4. They subconsciously reached out to each other, strengthening each other and forming a Force bond that intertwined their lives.

Meetra Surik regained consciousness and attempted to escape the mining facility, recruiting Kreia and Atton Rand. The Harbinger arrived, and Kreia warned Surik it was under enemy control. She identified the assassins as those who attacked the Ebon Hawk, arriving sooner than expected. Together with Atton Rand, the exile deduced they needed the asteroid orbital drift charts from the Harbinger to navigate the Peragus asteroid field. The trio boarded the Harbinger to steal the codes. Fighting their way to the warship's bridge, they took the charts from the navicomputer. However, the exile stopped by her former quarters. Urging haste, Kreia allowed her to salvage her possessions. They stopped again at the ship's medical bay, finding a holorecording of a scarred man breaking out of a kolto tank.

Proceeding to the engine deck, Atton Rand sensed danger, and the scarred man approached them. A Sith Lord, he warned the exile about her path. Kreia drew her weapon, declaring this battle hers and that Surik was not defenseless. Stating he could not kill what he could not see and that power had blinded him, she instructed the exile to run, promising to join her shortly. A door sealed between Kreia and the exile, and Darth Sion confronted his former master. Sion sensed Kreia's weakness in the Force, but Kreia retorted that his senses betrayed him. She told Sion his failure was learning nothing, but he blamed her. Sion claimed her quest for the Jedi was futile, as they were mostly eliminated, relying on the exile for survival. Kreia remained steadfast. A duel ensued, and Sion severed Kreia's left hand.

Due to their bond, Surik felt the pain of losing the limb while escaping to the Ebon Hawk with Atton Rand and T3-M4. After joining the exile's party, Kreia said they must trigger a chain reaction to destroy the asteroid field and escape the Sith, or die. As the Harbinger attacked, it fired upon a nearby asteroid, igniting the field and Peragus. The Ebon Hawk narrowly escaped and jumped into hyperspace, ending a series of dangers.

In hyperspace, Kreia explained that the Harbinger was originally set for Telos IV but was seized by Sith hunting the exile. She observed that many roads led to Telos, including theirs due to the Peragus charts' limited range, and that coincidences led to their meeting at Peragus. Kreia then left for the crew quarters, and Atton Rand advised the exile to tend to Kreia, sensing her pain and speculating she was too proud to show weakness. Rand also noted that Surik's opinion mattered to Kreia, who wanted her respect. Asked why she felt her pain, Kreia replied that their bond could be fatal; if one died, the other would too. Bound by death, Kreia intruded upon Surik's company, remaining vague about her ties to Revan. Surik also had no way of knowing where the ship had come from, since Kreia had the only means of accessing the Ebon Hawk's navicomputer.

While Surik was gradually regaining her connection to the Force, Kreia took on the task of molding the younger woman into her apprentice. She instructed Surik to carefully weigh her choices, urging the Jedi to consider the moral consequences of every quest she undertook. Kreia aimed to demonstrate that the ethics of the galaxy and its inhabitants were significantly more complex than the fundamental principles of the light and dark sides of the Force. As Surik's abilities grew, Kreia observed how the struggling Republic was unknowingly bolstered by the Jedi's journey. Throughout these adventures, Surik was joined by numerous individuals, many of whom possessed Force sensitivity. Despite their initial distrust of Kreia, she managed to manipulate the majority of them to serve her purposes. Impressed by Surik's ease in attracting these companions, the old Master recognized Surik's capacity to transmit potent echoes to those connected to her. Armed with Meetra Surik's power and knowledge of Darth Nihilus's weakened state, Kreia resolved to bring her schemes to fruition.

Early on in her travels with the Jedi Exile, during the formation of their group at the secret Jedi Academy on Telos IV, Kreia delved into Atton Rand's mind, uncovering his hidden secrets. She then used blackmail, promising to keep his secrets from Surik if he pledged his allegiance and service to the Jedi. Following Meetra Surik's discussion with Jedi Master Atris at the Telosian Academy, she, Rand, Kreia, the Zabrak tech specialist Bao-Dur, and T3-M4 departed the Academy aboard the Ebon Hawk. T3-M4 revealed information downloaded from Atris's archives, revealing the locations of Masters Zez-Kai Ell, Vrook Lamar, Kavar, and Lonna Vash. Surik charted a course for Nar Shaddaa, where Master Ell could be found. On the moon of Nal Hutta, Kreia bound the Wookiee bounty hunter Hanharr to a life debt after his defeat by Mira, whom Kreia referred to as "the huntress." Kreia dispatched Hanharr to Malachor V, promising to end his debt to the Sith Lord upon Mira's death, and predicting he would become stronger if he survived. After Surik located Ell and persuaded him to return to Dantooine, the Ebon Hawk's crew left Nar Shaddaa, setting course for the planet Onderon.

Upon the Ebon Hawk's arrival at Onderon, they encountered a blockade around the planet. After repelling a squadron of Onderonian starfighters dispatched by Colonel Tobin to intercept the Ebon Hawk, Meetra Surik and her crew were forced to crash-land on Onderon's jungle moon, Dxun. Following their landing, Kreia reminded the crew that Dxun was the original battleground of the Mandalorian Wars. They ventured into the Dxun jungle in search of an alternate path to Onderon. Surik successfully recruited Mandalore the Preserver and his Mandalorians to their cause. Before their departure for Onderon, Kreia manipulated Mandalore into safeguarding Surik. She assisted Surik and Mandalore in defending the Mandalorian camp from an attack by Sith assassins. Meetra Surik managed to locate Kavar in Iziz, the capital city of Onderon. However, Kreia's conversation with him was cut short by Colonel Tobin, a commander serving under General Vaklu. After Surik returned to Dxun, they left the moon and headed for Dantooine. The Jedi Exile successfully defended the Khoonda outpost against the mercenary Azkul and spoke with Lamar. When the group was joined by the former Jedi Mical, whom Kreia called "the Disciple," the Exile's mentor manipulated Mical's perception, distorting his vision so that he was often unaware of her presence. Kreia finally revealed her true intentions to him after he uncovered the truth behind her motives and the encroaching darkness that threatened to consume all life in the galaxy. However, Kreia ensured that Mical would not remember her, or his discovery, until the opportune moment.

Upon the Ebon Hawk's return to Dxun, Kreia detected a nearby Sith outpost, prompting Surik, in collaboration with Mandalore's forces, to dispatch three members of her party to address the Sith threat. Kreia, Meetra Surik, and one other party member traveled to Iziz aboard a Basilisk war droid. Kreia, alongside Surik, then participated in the Onderon Civil War. After the Jedi Exile defeated General Vaklu and his forces within the royal palace, Kreia attempted to persuade the Exile to have Queen Talia execute her unarmed cousin, arguing that Vaklu posed too great a threat to be left alive. Meetra Surik, while acknowledging her counsel, deferred the decision to the queen. Talia ordered her troops to execute Vaklu, effectively ending the war. Following the battle, Kreia recognized Surik as a potential threat to her former Sith Triumvirate. She resurrected the deceased Tobin, who had been killed by a drexl larva while attempting to breach the queen's throne room. Kreia convinced Tobin that the Onderon Civil War was still ongoing and that she served Vaklu. Knowing that Vaklu and Tobin were loyal to her former Sith apprentice Darth Nihilus, she fed Tobin misinformation about numerous Jedi on Telos, when in reality, only one Jedi resided there. Tobin traveled to Nihilus's flagship, the Ravager, to relay this information to the Dark Lord. After Meetra Surik spoke with Jedi Master Kavar, the Exile and Kreia returned to Dxun, where her mentor informed her of the need to travel to Dantooine and meet with the Jedi Masters at the ruins of the Jedi Academy.

When the truth was revealed—that Surik had unconsciously severed her connection to the Force as a survival mechanism, rather than being deliberately cut off by the Jedi Council as Surik had previously believed—Kreia confronted the reassembled Jedi Council within the ruins of the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine. As Masters Lamar, Kavar, and Ell attempted to strip Surik of the Force, perceiving her as a wound in the Force and a potential lure for the Sith, Kreia intervened, utilizing the Force to drain their connection to it, resulting in their deaths.

While Surik remained unconscious, Kreia was brought before Jedi Master Atris for judgment by one of Surik's companions, the Echani Handmaiden Brianna. Journeying to the Telosian Jedi Academy, Kreia revealed that Atris had succumbed to the dark side through the Sith relics she had amassed, a truth she could not acknowledge even to herself. Kreia exposed that Atris reveled in the knowledge of the Sith, however limited its truth, and had taken a step Kreia herself once took, betrayed by herself after hearing the echoes of Malachor V.

Exposed by Kreia's words, Atris inquired about Meetra Surik's whereabouts, to which Kreia replied that the exiled Jedi would arrive, asserting that the one Atris exiled could still be redeemed, while also noting that it was too late for herself and Atris.

Leaving the fallen Jedi Master amidst her collection of Sith relics, Kreia departed before Meetra Surik arrived to confront Atris. In the interim between Kreia's departure and Surik's arrival, Atris fully embraced the dark side within her, but was swiftly defeated by Surik. Thus, through Atris, Kreia manipulated the Exile to end the fallen Jedi Master's corrupted teachings, and forced Surik to confront, and defeat, her unresolved past to progress towards the completion of her training.

Kreia then returned to Malachor V, where she confronted Darth Sion and compelled him to submit to her will. Kreia reclaimed her identity as Darth Traya and assumed command of the remaining forces of the Sith Triumvirate on Malachor V. Traya intended to sacrifice herself to open up the larger wound in the Force in order to destroy it. However, Traya elected to wait for Meetra Surik to come to her for answers and a final confrontation. After Surik vanquished Darth Nihilus during the ensuing battle above Telos, she journeyed to Malachor V, where Traya and Darth Sion were hidden in the depths of the Trayus Academy. Sion forced Surik to confront him first, although the Jedi Exile demonstrated her stronger will in defeating him to reach Traya and convinced the fallen Jedi to let go of his pain. By giving up the pain, and therefore the Force, Sion was finally able to die—but not before warning Surik that Traya would try to do to her what she had done to Sion himself. Meetra Surik then found Traya in the core of the Academy. Traya resolved that only one could leave alive, engaging Surik in a duel which ended with her student slicing her remaining hand off. Traya then tried to convince Surik to kill her, to let her die, but the Exile refused. Angered, Traya used the Force to control three lightsabers against Surik, but the Jedi bested the lightsabers.

Despite Kreia's betrayals and deceptions, Surik forgave the Sith Lord for everything that had happened. She still tried to save Kreia, who told her she already had, and that by killing her, Surik had awarded Kreia, more than she could possibly know. She confessed that she truly loved Surik, not only because she felt the Jedi was her greatest student, but because she was a true Jedi. Before dying from the wounds dealt to her by Surik, Kreia chose to give her one last gift; drawing upon the Force that radiated from Malachor V and casting a prediction of both the future of the galaxy and that of Surik's friends, her disciples. Kreia told Surik that her followers were the Lost Jedi, the true Jedi, upon which a new Jedi Order would be built.

Kreia then told her student of her hopes that she would follow Revan's path, but said that Surik and Revan were different; one being the death of the Force, the other being its heart. Kreia said that Meetra Surik could follow Revan to the Unknown Regions, or take one of the ships in Malachor's orbit and depart the planet, or remain on Malachor to wait for the "others", those who were touched by the Force, who would come in time. Kreia also said that Surik could also return to her exile, where her presence could no longer affect the actions of others, and said that there was no dishonor in any of those choices, asking Surik that she make her choice without any regret. After Surik told her that she would follow Revan as she did a decade before, Kreia finally surrendered her life to what she once despised—the Force. Her body was destroyed shortly afterwards along with Malachor V when the Mass Shadow Generator was activated for the last time by Bao-Dur's remote.

Though her eyes had diminished and appeared entirely white due to lack of use, Kreia's connection to the Force allowed her to "see" without the need for physical sight. As Darth Traya, Kreia's appearance shifted to feature pitch-black eyes and pallid skin.

Kreia was an independent, manipulative individual, inherently suspicious of others' motives. She employed her manipulative skills to secure a position of power within the Trayus Academy, and subsequently used these skills to exert control over several of Meetra Surik's companions, all in pursuit of her own goals. As Surik's group of allies expanded, Kreia recognized the potential of these newfound companions for her own purposes, often securing their loyalty through coercion and blackmail. After unwillingly probing Atton Rand's mind and uncovering his dark deeds, Kreia leveraged this knowledge of Atton's past to blackmail him into serving Meetra Surik. She also enticed Mandalore the Preserver with information regarding Revan's fate to ensure his unwavering loyalty to Surik.

Furthermore, the former leader of the Sith Triumvirate displayed exceptional skill in manipulation and deception, which she employed to further her own agenda. Kreia deceived Surik at the outset of their quest, falsely claiming that the Jedi Council had stripped her of the Force. She knew that this deception would compel Surik to seek out the surviving members of the Jedi Council, with the hope that either she or Surik could challenge and disprove their teachings. On Onderon, Kreia misled Tobin about the presence of numerous Jedi within the Jedi Academy on Telos. Knowing that Tobin secretly served Darth Nihilus, she manipulated him with the intention of tricking Nihilus into attacking Telos to replenish his power, thereby strategically positioning her former Sith apprentice for a vulnerable assault by Surik and the Mandalorians. While Surik's ability to attract others to serve her was unintentional, Kreia was impressed by her pupil's natural talent for manipulation and control.

Kreia conveyed to the Jedi Exile that her true allegiances lay with herself and the galaxy. Regarding intimate relationships, Kreia viewed such passions not as strengths, but as sources of erosion, though she refrained from passing ultimate judgment on the matter. She also reproached Surik for assuming the burdens of others, arguing that compassion weakened the benefactors by depriving them of the mental and physical enrichment that life's challenges provide. Kreia considered acts of compassion committed without regard for consequence to be not only pathetic but also ironic, as they weakened the very individuals they were intended to help, "cheapening" their experiences and leaving them less prepared to face difficulties on their own. This revealed an additional dimension to her beliefs, as her advocacy for allowing others to address their own problems was rooted in the belief that it would ultimately elevate and empower them further. Despite her cold and callous demeanor, Kreia possessed a softer side that was more evident in her mentorship of Surik.

Kreia loved Meetra Surik as a person to the point where she would have been willing to sacrifice the entire galaxy if it meant preserving her. During their time together as master and apprentice, Surik was the only person that Kreia truly cared for; everyone else in their group was an expendable asset in her eyes.

Due to her disdain of others who were either weak-willed or utterly blind to the Force's control, she often belittled Meetra Surik's allies by using nicknames whenever addressing or referring to them. She would refer to Atton Rand as "the fool," Mical as a "tiny Jedi," Brianna the Handmaiden as the "servant of Atris," Visas Marr as "the blinded one" or "the seer," Mira as "the huntress", and Bao-Dur as "the alien". Kreia also referred to the droids who traveled with Surik—T3-M4, HK-47, and G0-T0—as "machines." Before Atton Rand's Force-sensitivity was discovered by Surik, Kreia possessed a small amount of respect for him. Although the exiled Sith regarded Atton as an idiotic fool, she was amused by the irony of how he could survive without the Force, whereas Jedi would be rendered almost helpless without their connection to the Force.

Aside from showing disparagement for Meetra Surik's friends, Kreia made public a contempt of Mandalorians. As she despised the Jedi Council for its hubris, she detested the Mandalorians for possessing the arrogance to believe that they could defeat those who made use of the Force. During Surik's alliance with Mandalore the Preserver, Kreia took every opportunity to remind the Mandalorians of their inferiority against the Forceful Jedi and Sith. She saw them as simple-minded fools for constantly underestimating the Force. Ultimately, Kreia perceived the Mandalorians as nothing more than common soldiers who could never triumph over the Jedi, for their military "tactics" were nothing in comparison to the power of the Force.

Kreia also displayed skepticism of artificial intelligence. Although she regarded Revan as "power itself" and one of her finest pupils, Kreia could not understand Revan's fascination with "things dead to the Force" such as machines and technology. She believed that her former Padawan's interest in droids stemmed from his preference for followers who obeyed his orders without question. Hence, she felt that Revan would have loved nothing more than to have "human droids" like Surik in service to him—one who was dead to the Force, an empty shell that would carry out his orders without question. Due to her lack of trust in droids, Kreia treated T3-M4 with disdain and begrudging tolerance.

Aside from droids, Kreia put up a distinctive mask of mild intolerance towards non-Human species. Aside from Bao-Dur, she referred to the Exchange criminal syndicate boss Visquis as "the alien". She also regarded Zhar Lestin, a Twi'lek Jedi Master, as a fool.

Kreia disapproved of Revan's "redemption" of Ajunta Pall, believing it to be cowardly by turning away from one's own nature—a betrayal of the self. Rather than believe that dying in peace and passing on to the Force could belong to anyone who truly wanted it, Kreia felt that redemption was a form of spiritual collapse, a fall that few recovered from.

At some point between Revan taking up the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith and encountering Surik, the one thing that fueled Kreia's hatred the most was the Force itself. She strongly believed in the will of the Force, viewing it as a conscious entity that controlled the destiny of all living beings. Thus, she knew the Force as a deity that gave no regard to individual wills, and sought to rid all sentients from its control. However, with her power and connection to the Force stripped away by Sion and Nihilus, who have been consumed by the dark side of the Force, Kreia turned to Meetra Surik. The fact that Surik was virtually the exact opposite of Revan had been what drew Kreia to the Exile. Whereas Revan was "the heart of the Force" in Kreia's eyes, Surik was "the death of the Force." Thus, Kreia hoped to use the Exile to destroy both the Jedi and the Sith and form a synthesis of both dichotomous ideologies. At the end of the Exile's quest to find the Lost Jedi, Kreia stripped away their bonds to the Force, thus killing them in their inability to let go. In orchestrating her student's confrontation with Atris, the fallen Jedi Master's teachings are foiled, and along with the defeat of Darth Nihilus over Telos, the Sith Revan formed were no more save for those on Malachor V, who were dispatched by Surik as she convinced Darth Sion to let go of his suffering and life. Ultimately, Kreia wanted to pass on her teachings to the Exile, allowing her and her followers—the Lost Jedi, the true Jedi—to form a new Jedi Order.

When Sion and Nihilus grew weary of Kreia's teachings, they betrayed her, stripped her of powers, and exiled her. Even during her years as a Jedi, Kreia's views were perceived as unorthodox, and she often put forth questions that challenged and deconstructed the traditional interpretations of both the Jedi and the Force itself. While wandering the galaxy, Kreia refined her beliefs, eventually coming to view the Force as being a power that, by nature, used everything as pawns in a pernicious game of balance without regard to sentient lives. This, Kreia thought, was evidenced by the widespread occurrences of destruction and death that had persistently transpired throughout the galaxy to that point, many of which could be traced to a conflict between Force-sensitives. Yet, Kreia blamed neither the Jedi nor the Sith, but rather, the very thing they had both come to draw and rely upon: the Force itself.

After being exiled from the Jedi Order, when she was forced to shoulder the blame for Revan's corruption, and again after she as Darth Traya was exiled from Malachor V by Sion and Nihilus, Kreia had experienced betrayals from, and saw the flaws of both the Jedi and the Sith. These unique experiences disillusioned her, forcing her to refine her ways of thinking. When she heard about Meetra Surik, she saw proof that life could exist without the Force, which she saw as disproof of the traditional dogma of both the Sith and Jedi that the Force and life itself were inseparable by nature. This renewed Kreia's confidence in her personal beliefs, and fueled her desire to learn more of the Exile's personal motivations. In her adventures with Surik, Kreia had discovered that certain tragedies could leave wounds in the Force, which sometimes made it difficult to hear and be used. These "echoes," as Kreia called them. Her discovery was due in no small part to Surik, as her experience at Malachor V, where she cut herself off from the Force, created an echo large enough that Kreia was able to connect the tragedy to the wound created in the Force. In Surik's disconnection, she saw an opportunity to liberate the galaxy from the Force's control over the fates of all living things. According to Kreia, those who had chosen death, or the Jedi who chose the dark side, over a life devoid of the Force were not strong enough to deserve life. Her desire to prevent the spiritual death of the individual in the future was the motivation that cultivated her hatred for the Force.

Despite her loathing of the Force's influence over sentients, she still used it; she explained it by comparing herself to one who would use poison. Just as such a person would strive to understand the lethality behind poison, so she strived to understand the particularities of the Force, thereby enabling her to destroy it; however, she admitted it was possible that that may have really been just an excuse for her having to come to depend on something she hated. Kreia envisioned a galaxy that would choose not to acquiesce to the will of the Force. She thought she could achieve this by showing how one could willingly abnegate the Force and eventually become stronger for it, and it was Meetra Surik who was a living testament to this. In her teachings with Surik, she emphasized how dependent the Jedi and Sith were on the Force, and how they had become flawed for it. By making Surik her protégé, she hoped her message would resonate with future Force-sensitives so they would choose to use the Force without relying on it. Ultimately, though, she dreamed of a galaxy lacking of the Force altogether, as it was her belief that the galaxy would be better off without it imposing its will.

Although Kreia was intelligent and powerful, she realized that her philosophies would be regarded as fanatical by both the Jedi and the Sith. Hence, she preferred to operate from within the shadows, often using her own power to shield her identity from other Force-sensitives who might have known her, and could have otherwise detected her. She was not outspoken about her convictions, but simply stated her opinions as the correct way of thinking, although the exiled Sith did not enforce her own beliefs upon others. Nevertheless, Kreia was adament in her views that many others were wrong and misguided in their thinking.

A being of remarkable talent and strength in the Force, Kreia demonstrated a diverse array of Force powers, encompassing Force horror, Force speed, Force Crush, Force cloak, energy resistance, Force scream, Force lightning, Force Choke, and the mind trick. Furthermore, she possessed the capability to employ the Force to control beasts, an ability she later imparted to Meetra Surik during their journey on Dxun. It was known that she utilized an advanced Force technique referred to as Force Channel. Kreia was also a master of Dark Healing, which she used to kill dozens of Sith Assassins instantaneously and simultaneously on Malachor V. She had the power to sever Jedi Masters from the Force. Meetra Surik would later describe the Masters as feeling "worse than lifeless, like an absence in the Force."

Additionally, Kreia had the uncommon talent of perceiving shatterpoints, which she characterized as "fractures". As her life drew to a close, Kreia also showed skill in predicting events to come, even managing to foresee the demise of Mandalorian bounty hunter Jango Fett at the hands of Jedi Master Mace Windu roughly 4,000 years in the future, within a prophecy connected to the destiny of the Mandalorians. Her telepathic abilities were also noteworthy, allowing her to communicate across vast expanses. She showcased this by speaking telepathically with Meetra Surik on Korriban. While aboard the Ebon Hawk and light years away from Telos, she also telepathically alerted Atris to Brianna's act of betrayal.

Kreia understood the technique of breath control, rendering her resistant to most airborne toxins. She passed this knowledge on to the Exile when the Exile was in danger of succumbing to the poisonous atmosphere of the Jekk'Jekk Tarr cantina during a meeting with Visquis, a local Exchange leader, on Nar Shaddaa. Kreia also employed her restorative abilities to bring the Wookiee Hanharr back from the brink of death after Mira had left him for dead. Furthermore, on Onderon, she resurrected Colonel Tobin after he was slain by a drexl larva. Kreia was notably adept at using the Force to conceal her presence from others. Her mastery of this skill was evident on the Ebon Hawk when she whispered to Mical, leading him to believe he was imagining things. Kreia also utilized a variation of this ability, allowing her to be seen but remain entirely unnoticed, to obscure the memories of others, causing them to forget her presence or even her existence. She possessed the power to manipulate the memories of even Jedi; for example, selectively altering the memories of the Jedi Mical. Upon his discovery of the true scope of Kreia's plans, she modified his memory to make him forget her completely. Kreia then altered his memory of what he had discovered; burying it so that he could remember what he had discovered about her plans at a time that suited her better. Kreia's proficiency with this technique was so refined that she could render herself completely invisible to Jedi, even those in close proximity. When Surik inquired why none of the Jedi Masters they encountered mentioned her, she deceived Surik, suggesting that they might not remember or care. She described her ability as making herself "very small," a talent she claimed not to use on Surik, and that was even more effective on the worlds where they traveled, where sensing Force-users was difficult. On Dantooine, Jedi Master Vrook Lamar informed Surik about the Sith threat and their ability to mask their presence, but he did not believe that mere Force-cloaking techniques alone would be sufficient to hide the one responsible for what had befallen the Jedi. Eventually, Surik would learn more about this; when Kreia was revealed as one of the Lords of the Sith in the past, Atris explained that much of the reason she succeeded in hiding her dark persona lay actually in the fact that the Force had been stripped from her. Kreia had extreme power over the workings of the mind and while she was a naturally talented manipulator, she could use the Force to confuse others, or reach into their minds and find their darkest secrets.

Kreia was proficient in telekinetic lightsaber combat, enabling her to wield a minimum of three lightsabers in battle, levitating each one with the Force and allowing them to fight autonomously. She also demonstrated skill in physically wielding a lightsaber, employing the combat forms Shii-Cho, Makashi, and Soresu. Additionally, she was known to have employed a rare lightsaber technique known as Tràkata. Whenever the Exile inquired about the different forms of lightsaber combat, the exiled Jedi Master and former Sith Lord possessed sufficient knowledge of each form to provide Surik with an accurate explanation.

Kreia had previously served as a Jedi historian, and throughout her pursuit of knowledge, the Jedi Code became incompatible with her understanding of teaching and learning the ways of the Force. She came to the conclusion that the Force defied the Order's principles, and that true understanding required contrast rather than adherence to a single ideology. During this period, Kreia sought out and gathered dark side relics. On Korriban, Kreia guided Surik on a tour of the tombs and excavation sites in the Valley of the Dark Lords, demonstrating a deep understanding of their history, a disdain for ignorance, and a dedication to truth that persisted until her final days. Throughout her journey with Surik, Kreia spoke of healing during a lesson related to skills as something about which she was knowledgeable. When questioned about her eyes, Kreia asserted that she could heal her own damaged eyes—which were atrophied from disuse—but chose not to, as she possessed the ability to see through the Force and considered her natural sight a distraction. She could use the Force to enter a hibernation trance that would slow down her biological functions and make her appear dead. She employed this ability on the Ebon Hawk when the Harbinger tractor beamed the freighter, and again when the Republic warship fired on it.

Having been both an exiled Jedi and a former Sith, Kreia typically donned a simple set of brown Jedi robes. During her travels with Meetra Surik, she wielded a custom-built double-bladed lightsaber containing a green crystal. After departing Dantooine and Telos, Kreia adopted the persona of Darth Traya, abandoning her Jedi attire in favor of black robes and a red-bladed lightsaber. Kreia also possessed three lightsabers containing violet crystals, which she utilized against Surik on Malachor V, controlling all three lightsabers through the Force.

Kreia's creation is credited to Obsidian Entertainment, who developed her as both a companion and the deuteragonist in the 2004 Xbox and PC video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. As with the majority of companions, Chris Avellone penned the character, and Brian Menze produced the concept art. Sara Kestelman provided the voice for Kreia, and Mark Griskey composed her distinctive musical motif.

Developer Chris Avellone mentioned on the Obsidian Entertainment forum that a casting document was sent to LucasArts that said Kreia looks 50, but "like Yoda, who knows." However, due to ambiguity of the statement and the fact that it was from a casting doc that should not be taken as canon it cannot be used to establish her age.

The Sith name of Kreia, Traya, was derived from the word "betrayer".

Writer Chris Avellone expressed that a key takeaway he hoped players would gain from The Sith Lords was that "it's okay to question the [Star Wars] franchise; you [artists] don't have to answer those questions for the player nor should you. You can get people's perspectives in that world and why they question certain things, but asking questions of the franchise, if they lead somewhere interesting, I feel that's always worthwhile."

Chris Avellone also shared that the main impetus for crafting the narrative in The Sith Lords stemmed from his unease with his perception of the prequel trilogy's portrayal of the Force; specifically, that the Force appeared to possess a will and dictated the destinies of individuals within the Star Wars universe, thereby preventing them from exercising their own agency. However, since The Sith Lords was released in 2004, and the final installment of the prequel trilogy, Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, was not released until 2005, Avellone could not have known of the events of Revenge of the Sith when he wrote The Sith Lords. Furthermore, George Lucas, the writer of the prequel trilogy, said in the making of Revenge of the Sith in 2003 that his personal motivation for writing his Star Wars films was to showcase how an individual becomes "bad," and concluded that what made a person fall to evil was the inability to let go of emotional attachments when "the reality of life's passages and changes" struck.

On Nar Shaddaa, when accompanied by Kreia as the active companion, the player has the option to offer Kreia as one of Vogga the Hutt's dancers. However, Vogga's majordomo declines the offer, explaining that while he means no offense to the august woman, Vogga preferred dancers of a younger age. Kreia thus responds that she was not offended by the majordomo's words.

Within unused dialogue and discarded plot elements, Kreia revealed that she had been manipulating the mind of Atris for years, and through her orchestrated Meetra Surik's trial and sentence. A single alternative line in the "Kreia's Fall" scene from the game revealed that the catalyst for Sion and Nihilus's betrayal was that Traya decreed that Surik was not to be harmed. After Kreia slew the three Jedi Masters on Dantooine, Visas Marr would take Kreia before Nihilus instead of Atris if Brianna the Handmaiden was not part of Surik's party. The screenshot that shows Kreia with her hood removed was taken with a modified game; while such a scene never takes place in the game, it was supposed to take place during the Rebuilt Enclave scene, Kreia reveals herself to the three Jedi Masters; however, in the official release, Kreia stays hooded due to a scripting glitch. This has been fixed by The Sith Lords Restoration Project developers. The official player's guide to the game showed that Kreia had actual dark side transitions, and that her alignment would change depending on Surik's alignment and level of influence with her, like the rest of the crew.

A persistent debate surrounded the true identity of Kreia. One theory posited that the Jedi Arren Kae and Kreia were one and the same. While available material, cut or not, indicates that it may indeed have been Obsidian Entertainment's original intent, there is no conclusive evidence that could either prove or disprove this theory within Star Wars canon. The main source cited is that at one point in the game Mical the Disciple said that Arren Kae was the first and also the last of Revan's many trainers, When asked about the relationship between Kreia and Kae, Chris Avellone ambiguously responded "Can't comment, but good catch. Sorry."

According to the game, Arren Kae is the mother of the Echani Handmaiden Brianna. Kreia only mentions her to the male Jedi Exile who chooses to romance Brianna. While Brianna herself never knew Kae, Kreia seemed to know much about her, but disapproved of speaking of this to Brianna, for the same reason Jedi separate children from their parents: because "family exerts a powerful influence on one's development." Brianna and Kreia share the same views on conflict and its effects, and while Brianna fought long to prove that she, unlike her parents, would not betray her oath, she eventually did when she asked the male Exile to train her in the Jedi ways.

A Kreia miniature was included in the Knights of the Old Republic set for Star Wars Miniatures, which was released on August 19, 2008. Both Kreia and Darth Traya received entries in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia. Traya was subsequently incorporated into the mobile game Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes as both a non-player character boss in the "Sith Triumvirate Raid," a raid inspired by Knight of the Old Republic II, and as an unlockable playable character.

In The New Essential Chronology, Kreia was incorrectly labeled as "Darth Kreia." Author Daniel Wallace later acknowledged the error, but the book had already been published. The error was repeated once more in Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force. "Darth Traya" was mistakenly spelt as "Darth Treya" in an EA Star Wars Twitter post announcing the character's addition to Galaxy of Heroes.

Within the section dedicated to Jedi Temples and Academies in the guide Jedi Academy Training Manual, it incorrectly states that the Dantooine Jedi Enclave remained in use for several decades following the conclusion of the Jedi Civil War. The source book also states that it was abandoned by the Jedi after Kreia killed the remaining members of the Jedi Council. While Kreia did kill the last three Council members, the Jedi did not rebuild the Enclave until after 3951 BBY, five years after the Jedi Civil War's end. Following the loss of her left hand on Peragus, some inconsistencies arise in her actions and movements throughout the remainder of the game, such as gripping her lightsaber with both hands. Furthermore, in the cutscene depicting Darth Traya's betrayal at the hands of Darths Sion and Nihilus, she is depicted without her hand, even though she did not lose it until years later.

Although the Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia states that Kreia uses a double-bladed lightsaber, and the Star Wars Miniatures model of Kreia has the character wielding such blade, this is not possible in The Sith Lords as Kreia cannot use dual weapons. This is similar to other retcons such has the Handmaiden traveling with the female Exile, which is also impossible in the game.