Sith Triumvirate

Darth Traya, along with her two apprentices, Darth Nihilus and Darth Sion, jointly led the Triumvirate as Dark Lords of the Sith. They were instructed at the Trayus Academy situated on Malachor V. While studying the dark side, they discovered their unique traits and abilities, adopting distinctive titles for Lords of the Sith.

Before succumbing to the dark side, Darth Traya was known as Kreia, a Jedi Master recognized for her contemplative and philosophical nature. She played a role as one of the many instructors of Revan, who would later become the notorious Sith Lord and a significant figure in galactic history. Revan, accompanied by his comrade, Malak, spearheaded the crusade against the Mandalorians. Many of her other students were swayed by Revan's convictions and joined his cause. Kreia was held accountable for Revan's deeds and was subsequently expelled from the Jedi Order. Questioning her beliefs, she embarked on a quest for answers, encountering those impacted by her teachings. Eventually, she arrived at Malachor V, a desolate world saturated with the power of the dark side. Intrigued, she was drawn to the Sith ruins. Overwhelmed by the allure of the dark side, she transformed into Darth Traya, the Lord of Betrayal, having been betrayed by the Jedi and prepared to betray in return. She assumed the position of headmistress at the Trayus Academy, welcoming any students willing to champion the Sith cause: the annihilation of the Jedi.

The history of Darth Nihilus remains largely shrouded in mystery. However, he was present on Malachor V during the Battle of Malachor V. As one of the few survivors of the battle, he found himself stranded in orbit around the planet. His immense Force potential and power were evident when he forcefully extracted his new flagship, the Ravager, from the gravity well. The ship, heavily damaged by Mandalorian artillery, was barely spaceworthy. Furthermore, its crew had been drained of all life and emotion by its captain. Nihilus eventually discovered the Trayus Academy, seeking instruction from Traya. He was accepted and shared equal status with another student, Darth Sion. During his time at the academy, he learned how to drain the Force, create wounds within it, and exploit Kreia's echoes to his advantage. Ultimately, his training and abilities transformed him into a mere shell of his former self, a wound in the Force that corrupted those around him. Unlike other Sith, Nihilus never aspired to rule the galaxy or establish a new order; his sole objective was to eradicate all life in order to satiate his insatiable hunger.

Amidst the power vacuum that divided the Sith on Korriban, Darth Sion emerged from the ruins of Revan's Empire as a notable figure. A twisted and broken remnant of a man, Sion was composed of countless fragments of his original body, repeatedly destroyed over the years. His fractured and decaying body was sustained by sheer willpower and the dark side of the Force; he harnessed the constant, intense pain and agony of his condition to fuel his power, hatred, and physical form. Sion fled Korriban and arrived at Malachor V, where he encountered the Trayus Academy and his new master, Darth Traya. Traya recognized his brutality, strength, and unwavering will, but the two soon developed a mutual disdain due to Sion's lack of comprehension, or perhaps his indifference, towards Traya's understanding of strength, which directly contradicted his almost servile dependence on the Force for his very survival, a glaring weakness in Traya's eyes.

Upon completing their training, the three became co-rulers of a new Empire. With the majority of Revan and Malak's remaining forces joining them, they began to subtly influence galactic affairs, employing Traya's vision of creating echoes in the Force and corrupting Jedi to the dark side. Sion grew impatient with the delay in directly confronting the Jedi and the Republic, while Nihilus increasingly felt the need to feed on the Force energy of other beings, a need that Traya's strategies failed to satisfy. The two conspired against Traya, believing their combined power to surpass hers, and launched their attack. They ambushed her while she meditated in the Trayus Core, violently subduing her. Nihilus used the Force to hurl her against a pillar, restraining her as she futilely attempted to summon her lightsaber for defense. Sion then proceeded to brutally assault her and cast her to the floor, rendering her unconscious. During this time, the two Lords employed Sever Force to sever her connection to the Force, stripping her of her power and, in a twist of irony, exiling her once again. The Lord of Betrayal had become the victim of betrayal herself.

Rejected by both Jedi and Sith, Kreia, no longer Darth Traya, came to the conclusion that the Force's influence should be eliminated from the actions of all beings, treating those reliant on this indifferent higher power with contempt. Seeking to empower all sentient beings in the galaxy to recognize and cultivate their own inherent inner strength, she abandoned the Sith Triumvirate she had established and redirected her attention towards Meetra Surik, a Jedi who had severed her connection to the Force and was exiled by the Jedi Council due to their fear of "the death of the Force" they perceived in her. Guiding the exiled Jedi on her journey, Surik eventually defeated Kreia's former students, the two Sith Lords, leading to the subsequent downfall of the Triumvirate. However, until then, Sion and Nihilus had gained complete dominance over the remaining Sith. Nevertheless, their conflicting philosophies and their shared conviction that the Jedi should be exterminated led them to pursue separate paths, each implementing their own methods for destroying the Jedi Order.

With their former master seemingly vanquished, Nihilus and Sion initiated their own distinct "shadow wars," operating independently of each other. While they maintained a technical alliance, it was tenuous at best. Nihilus engaged in large-scale exterminations in his insatiable quest for Force energy, as exemplified by the events on Katarr, while Sion operated silently and ruthlessly, dispatching Sith assassins to lure and eliminate isolated Jedi. They came dangerously close to achieving their objective, leaving only a handful of known Jedi survivors. The Sith, particularly Nihilus, turned their attention towards Onderon and other struggling Republic worlds in an attempt to dismantle not only the remnants of the Jedi Order but also the galactic government that had supported them for millennia: the Galactic Republic.

As the new Sith tactics rapidly eliminated the few remaining Jedi, the Masters convened a meeting on the Miraluka colony of Katarr. Given the Force-sensitivity of all Miraluka, the planet served as a potent nexus of the Force. The Jedi hoped to harness this power to discern the nature of the threat they faced. Their plan succeeded, but the immense concentration of Force energy also attracted the attention of Darth Nihilus. He devastated the entire planet with his hunger, slaughtering all Jedi, natives, and other life forms, reveling in the death he sensed. Jedi Council member Atris, who was not physically present, fled to Telos IV, a world that would later become significant. The sole survivor of the massacre was Visas Marr, whom Nihilus spared for reasons unknown, perhaps out of pity or a need for an apprentice. Regardless, the blind female became his servant, seemingly untouched by the decay that plagued his ship. Her role within the Sith, if any, remains unclear. The aftermath of the Katarr attack left the entire surrounding region devoid of the Force, allowing the Sith to move undetected. The remaining Jedi scattered to various worlds scarred by war or teeming with life, making it nearly impossible to sense their presence.

Darth Sion, conversely, employed more subtle and brutal methods to eliminate the Jedi. Torture, coercion, and traps were among his preferred tactics. Sith Assassins were dispatched throughout the Galaxy, systematically slaying numerous Jedi, one at a time. These assassins eventually tracked down Meetra Surik, who was accompanied by Kreia on the Peragus Mining Facility. Sion arrived in this area after deceptively hijacking the Harbinger from the Republic Navy. However, his prey managed to escape, but not before Kreia lost her left hand during a verbal and physical confrontation with Sion, serving as a diversion. Following the initial purge of the Jedi, he achieved a more notable kill: Jedi Master Lonna Vash, a member of the Jedi Council who had been exiled at the Sith Academy on Korriban. This attracted Surik and some of her newly acquired companions, who had been searching for the remaining Jedi. Sion had not forgotten Darth Traya's departure and recognized Surik's quest as her doing. After a brief conflict, Surik was forced to flee, as instructed by Kreia. Sion desired further vengeance but was unable to pursue it at that time.

The Onderon Civil War, a conflict instigated by Nihilus on behalf of the Triumvirate, divided the planet and further complicated the Exile's mission. The battles pitted Loyalists, aligned with Queen Talia, against General Vaklu, her cousin in command of the majority of the military, and his Sith allies. The fighting engulfed the city of Iziz, incorporating both Sithspawn and native Onderon beasts. The conflict also extended to a darker battlefield: Onderon's mutual atmosphere moon, Dxun, where the tomb of Freedon Nadd, an ancient Sith Lord, was located. A Sith Master and his legions of Sith Lords, Assassins, warriors, and basic Sith troops guarded the tomb, performing a ritual around a dark side nexus to sway the tide of battle. Ultimately, with the assistance of Meetra Surik, her companions, and Kavar, another sought-after member of the Jedi Council, the Loyalists emerged victorious.

Nihilus also acquired a new slave: Colonel Tobin, a veteran and Vaklu supporter. Kreia provided Tobin with false information after the battle, effectively luring Nihilus towards another tempting target: Telos IV, where Atris had supposedly established a new Jedi Academy for him to consume.

Darth Sion's path led him to Malachor V, while Nihilus' led him to Telos IV, with Kreia and the Exile visiting both. Kreia had initiated plans to force the Jedi to confront her truths, destroy the Sith, and eliminate the Force's influence on sentient beings. She had already eliminated the remaining Jedi Masters for their failure to recognize the consequences of their actions and the potential within Meetra Surik. Kreia traveled to Telos with the intention of persuading Atris to finally acknowledge her own descent into the dark side, influenced by her archived Sith holocrons'. Before departing for Malachor V and the Exile's arrival at Atris' chambers, Kreia revealed to Atris that she herself was the new Darth Traya, for the Jedi had been betrayed by her. Surik confronted Atris shortly thereafter, putting an end to her dark teachings. Meanwhile, Kreia located Sion, defeating all his Sith Assassins along the way to the Academy. Sion was once again brought under her control to serve against Surik, a somewhat shared objective. Simultaneously, the Republic, the Telos Security Force, Surik's team, and her various allies were diligently combating Darth Nihilus' fleet, which had begun bombarding the vital Citadel Station. The invasion of Sith commandos was briefly contained, while Surik, Visas Marr, and Mandalore Canderous Ordo with his Dxun-trained Mandalorians piloted a shuttle to the Ravager with the intention of destroying it and its all-consuming master. Proton detonators were strategically placed, and Surik's companions assisted her in battling Nihilus, resulting in a swift and decisive victory that drew upon the Force bonds between Marr and Nihilus. Nihilus, the Lord of Hunger, met his demise. He vanished in a manner befitting an evil distortion of a Force ghost, his body consumed by dark energies. The Ravager was destroyed, and the battle was won.

Meetra Surik had personal matters to attend to on Malachor V, and thus journeyed there. She fought and eliminated the majority of the Sith Triumvirate, including Marauders, Assassins, Lords, and regular troopers. She defeated Darth Sion in a battle of lightsabers, followed by a battle of wills in an emotional confrontation, where he relinquished his grip on the constant pain and embraced death. Surik then proceeded to confront Kreia, who was meditating in the Trayus Core. Kreia dismissed Surik's attempts to "save" her and guide her back to the light. Kreia compelled her student into a fight she had anticipated, to fulfill her plan; Surik would either achieve wholeness by letting go of her mentor through Kreia's death, or the resulting Force echoes subsequent to the student's death would, as Kreia claimed, eliminate the Force's influence over sentient beings at the cost of countless lives.

Forced to defend herself against Kreia's full power, Surik was drawn into a duel to the death. Surik wounded Kreia by severing her remaining hand, but she retaliated using telekinetic lightsaber combat, launching three hidden lightsabers at her. Surik's final step in negating the echoes stemming from the events of Malachor V and regaining the ability to hear the sound of the Force was complete; Kreia's death was imminent. As a final gift to Surik, Kreia imparted prophecies concerning the Force, the Mandalorians, and all her acquaintances and friends. With Kreia's final breaths, Surik's bond to her mentor was severed, and she departed Malachor V to witness its self-destruction and pursue her quest to locate the lost Revan. Consequently, the remnants of the Sith Triumvirate were annihilated.

The Sith Triumvirate employed the same weaponry and technology as Darth Revan's Sith Empire. As a remnant of that Empire, its military structure was virtually identical, utilizing Interdictor-class cruisers and Sith fighters in its navy, and Sith troopers, war droids, and Dark Jedi in its army. However, the organizational and classification systems for Sith and Dark Jedi differed. The Triumvirate primarily utilized Sith Marauders, Warriors, and Assassins, each serving a unique purpose not found in Revan's technologically advanced Empire.

Furthermore, due to its smaller size, the Sith Triumvirate generally avoided direct confrontations, favoring deception. It was also directly commanded by the three Sith Lords; Sion would often dispatch Assassins after a target while he was physically present within the building, and Nihilus would only engage in space combat if the Ravager was present, allowing him to utilize his unique abilities. After manipulating events to eliminate the Lost Jedi and Nihilus, Darth Traya reassumed her Sith title and authority over the Trayus Academy to enable her student, Meetra Surik, to confront her and achieve wholeness as an individual. The military lacked a formal command structure akin to larger systems of government, with no admirals or generals, but instead, Sith Lords or lesser Dark Jedi held command. The few instances in which the Triumvirate engaged in open warfare were during the Onderon Civil War and the Battle of Telos IV, the former supporting General Vaklu's soldiers with Dark Jedi and Sith beast handlers, while the latter seemingly deployed all of their remaining space and ground forces.

• Malachor V , origin and capital [2] Trayus Academy[2] Trayus Core[2]
• Korriban [2] Sith Academy, abandoned[2]
• Onderon , support [2] Dxun, Onderon's moon[2] Tomb of Freedon Nadd[2]

The term "Sith Triumvirate" was initially coined for the trio of Darth Traya, Darth Sion, and Darth Nihilus by Wookieepedia until authors John Jackson Miller, Rodney Thompson, Sterling Hershey, and Abel G. Peña officially adopted the name for the group in Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide.