What do we know about Revan from before the game?

Revan was a charismatic, intelligent, and exemplary Jedi Knight who led the charge for Jedi intervention in the Mandalorian Wars, as there was growing fear that the Republic would fall if the Jedi maintained their as-of-yet neutral stance.

Their intervention salvaged the war effort, and Revan himself was personally credited for the success: his strategies and tenacity bested that of the greatest Mandalorians, and on the battlefield he proved an indomitable opponent. Malak and Revan were heroes of the Republic, in every sense of the word. And that's when things began to go horribly wrong.

Some time shortly after Revan joined the fight against the Mandalorians, he realized that they were being manipulated by an outside force to fight the Republic. TOR canon and KOTOR canon diverges here: TOR canon has it that Revan met the Sith Emperor, fell under his sway, and returned with Malak as an unknowing puppet of the Emperor, working throughout the Mandalorian Wars to establish the basis of a campaign against the Republic to weaken them further in preparation for a True Sith invasion. KOTOR canon, meanwhile, never has Revan meeting the True Sith, instead merely finding relics and other evidence of their presence. From these scattered hints about their power, Revan made a determination that any sacrifice to unite the galaxy—even a fall to the Dark Side—would be a worthy one. In this interpretation Revan utilized the battle of Malachor V not just to defeat the Mandalorians, but to mass-convert his fleets and Jedi to his cause, forming the basis of the armies which would later be augmented by the Star Forge's weapons of war to begin the Jedi Civil War.

Regardless of which interpretation of the circumstances is adhered to, once the Jedi Civil War began it is fact that the Republic was outmanned, outmaneuvered, and even mysteriously outgunned. Revan's strategic brilliance, alongside his control of the Star Forge, eventually necessitated the all-or-nothing gamble which saw the Jedi strike team board Revan's flagship, eventually leading to his capture.

What do we know about Malak from before the game?

Malak was originally known as Alek "Squint" Squinquargesimus and was originally from the Outer Rim, before being forced to flee his home planet in the wake of a Mandalorian invasion. He was given the surname Squinquargesimus, the name of his village on Quelii, when he immigrated into the Republic. Eventually, it was discovered that he had potential in the ways of the Force and he was trained under Master Zhar, a member of the Jedi Council on Dantooine.

During the Mandalorian Wars, he went to war against the Mandalorians with his best friend Revan and many other Jedi at his side. Displeased with the rebellious Knights' decision to defy the Jedi, the Council put out an arrest warrant for him and others involved in the conflict—this forced him to adopt the name "Malak," and to re-color his tattoos.

Near the end of the Mandalorian Wars, Malak was corrupted to the Dark Side, either with the complicity of Revan or under the influence of the Sith Emperor, depending upon whether TOR canon or KOTOR canon is adhered to.

What do we know about Bastila from before the game?

We know very little about Bastila from before the events of KotOR. We know that she was born to Helena and her husband, a daring and successful hunter, and was given up to the Jedi Order for training. Bastila resented her mother, who she felt pushed her father to hunt treasure in order to support her extravagant lifestyle, and idolized her father.

What happened to Revan when he traveled to the Unknown Regions after the end of the game?

According to the original interpretation of KOTOR 2 (as it was Obsidian that established the plot thread wherein Revan eventually traveled to the Unknown Regions), what occurred is not clear. It's clear that Revan believed that his fight against the True Sith would be dangerous in the extreme (recall that KOTOR 2 also establishes that a True Sith Empire is lurking in the Unknown Regions, different in spirit from the True Sith of TOR), as he left all his companions behind. It's also clear that he ran into some form of trouble while he was out there, as T3-M4 returned in the Ebon Hawk looking for the Jedi Exile with the express intent of recruiting her to come with him to save Revan. With this in mind, whatever Revan's situation, it must not have been immediately life-threatening if T3 had the time to return and find her. Even so, T3 does confirm that Revan was in danger and needed help to defeat the True Sith. This was the original plot hook for what would have happened in the cancelled KOTOR 3 that Obsidian was producing.

Conversely, according to TOR canon, Revan lived with Bastila on Coruscant for two to two and a half years after the Star Forge was destroyed, during which time he was plagued by nightmares. He eventually went into the Unknown Regions to find the truth about his premonitions and perhaps recover part of his memories. During this expedition he was shot down over Nathema, a planet devoid of the Force, and was taken captive by Darth Nyriss, one of the Emperor's Council, a ruling council of the True Sith Empire. He was held captive for several years until he was eventually freed by the Exile, Meetra Surik. Prepared for a second confrontation with the Sith Emperor, Revan was betrayed in battle by a Sith ally named Scourge. Defeated, the Emperor held him in stasis for 300 years, all the while trying to break his mind and uncover his secrets of the Republic. Eventually, Revan was freed and went on to take over a construct similar to the Star Forge called a Foundry. Revan was overwhelmed in a battle to re-claim the Foundry and disappeared. According to TOR, by this point his spirit has been severed in two; one half light, one dark. The latter maintained control of his body and attempted another siege of the galaxy. He was stopped very early into his plan, and his two halves reconciled before fading into the Force for good.

Do all Rakatan things regenerate? Could the Star Forge come back one day?

No. Rakatan constructs don't regenerate, they repair and maintain.

In Drew Karpyshyn's Darth Bane novels, it was shown that several thousand years later, the remains of the Star Forge had fused into a ring orbiting the planet, unable to properly repair itself.

Is Admiral Forn Dodonna related to Jan Dodonna from A New Hope?

There's never any confirmation one way or the other, but considering they have the same last name it seems to be implying that they're related in at least some capacity, or at least that the Dodonna clan has some sort of root in the Old Republic. More likely than not it merely represents a simple reference, but in story terms that means they're probably related.

Broadly, what happened between KOTOR and KOTOR 2?

This section is NOT intended to be a synopsis to be read before playing KOTOR 2—it is spoiler-heavy, even for plot events which are revealed in KOTOR 2. This is meant to be exhaustive review, not something read before playing the second game; it will reveal most of the information here on its own.

With that said: since the Revan novel which establishes many of the events between KOTOR and KOTOR 2 is BioWare's (much later) take on what happened, was written to explain that BioWare decided to do in the MMO rather than as an organically developed story, and served to retcon much of what was established in KOTOR 2, it isn't always a popular book in the KOTOR community. This is an overview of what occurred so far as KOTOR 2's plot is concerned, IE the assumptions which KOTOR 2 itself makes about the interim period between the two games.

After KOTOR, Revan slowly began to regain his memory, and eventually remembered the threat of the True Sith Empire, a powerful remnant of the Sith who fled Korriban after the Great Hyperspace War, lurking in the Unknown Regions. Revan had found evidence of the True Sith on Malachor when he discovered the Trayus academy during the Mandalorian Wars, and orchestrated the Jedi Civil War as a means to conquer the Republic to strengthen it, so that he could create a unified power to face off against the True Sith. With his war machine defeated at his own hand, Revan had no real option but to go into the Unknown Regions alone to attempt to stop the True Sith, although he orchestrated some moves to strengthen his allies beforehand, such as entrusting Carth with strengthening the Republic and granting Mandalore the mask of Mandalore the Ultimate, so that he could begin to rebuild the Mandalorian clans into a once-again-powerful ally.

Yet something went wrong with Revan's plan and he was put into danger. T3-M4 was forced to take the Ebon Hawk and seek for an ally to assist Revan; this is what T3 is doing on the 'Hawk when you meet him at the beginning of the game.

Elsewhere—and indeed elsewhen, as this occurs during the events of the original KOTOR—Kreia, Nihilus, and Sion were present on Malachor, training. Some time after the events of the original KOTOR (likely not much longer than two years after), Kreia was cast out by the Triumvirate, temporarily lost her ability to use the Force, and had her revelatory experience about the Force's influence over all life, coming to the decision to destroy it.

Some time after Kreia was exiled, Atris, already falling under the influence of Sith Holocrons and determined to draw the Sith threat striking at the Jedi out so she could face them, leaked information of the Jedi gathering on Katarr to ensure the Sith would appear, hoping that she could learn how to find and destroy them as a consequence. Nihilus learned about the gathering from her leak, travelled there, and consumed all life on the planet save for Visas Marr, thereby robbing Atris of her chance to learn of the threat in the shadows and making her complicit in the death of the majority of the remaining Jedi.

After several more years and no more indication of who or where the Sith were, Atris decided that she once again needed to bait them, but could not risk using "real" Jedi this time. She arranged to have the Exile recalled from the Outer Rim and, once she was on her way, leaked information about her return as another trap.

Kreia gained information about the Exile in this manner and, seeking her for her own personal vendetta against the Force, reached her on the Harbinger in time to save her from HK-50, but not in time to avoid Sion's Sith, who were also hunting the "Last of the Jedi." In a pitched battle Kreia (possibly with the assistance, unwitting or otherwise, of the HK-50 unit later locked in the Ebon Hawk) was able to get the Exile to the Ebon Hawk and take off, at which time T3-M4 was able to dock with Peragus for repairs, thus beginning the events of KOTOR 2.

What story content was cut from KOTOR 2?

This is impossible to answer in its entirety, as a great deal of the content which was cut was removed so early on in the development that no detailed information exists about it. That said, some of the highlights include:

• Atris as an alternative teacher to Kreia
• The inclusion of the HK Factory mission, wherein the issue of the HK-50 units would be permanently resolved (included in TSLRCM)
• The inclusion of the Genoharadan on Nar Shaddaa
• A much longer sequence with Lonna Vash, including another planet (what can be restored of this sequence is included in the M4-78EP mod)
• The death of Bao-Dur
• Significantly extra endgame content

While the entirety of what content is missing cannot be ascertained, there is a partial list of content which was restored (and not restored) in TSLRCM which can provide significant clues about what the original shape of KOTOR 2 was meant to be.

How did Kreia get on the Ebon Hawk at the beginning of KOTOR 2?

This sequence is harder than it should be to parse, made more difficult by what we suspect are the presence of plotlines which were cut during early development, things that lead to confusing sentence structures (such as Kreia saying 'we' and 'our' as if she had help when hunting the Exile down). But if you look very closely, there is a coherent series of events here.

Kreia didn't meet T3 in advance. Kreia--and perhaps some unknown ally whom she never names, which would explain the 'we' and 'our', though personally I find this incredibly unlikely and think the plural is just a holdover from an earlier plan--was searching for the Exile on her own, just as T3 was searching for her on his own. The Sith vessel under Sion found the Ebon Hawk with T3 on board and, knowing that it was Revan's vessel, begin firing on it. The Ebon Hawk sends out a distress signal, which draws both the Harbinger and Kreia's vessel. It's likely, although never outright stated, that Kreia was shadowing Sion's movements because she anticipated that he would lead her to the Exile's location.

Although we can't be absolutely sure, it seems very likely that whatever damage the Sith vessel did to the Ebon Hawk rendered T3 damaged (remember that T3 does start the game at minimum health and must repair himself during the prologue), and he isn't a player in further events until the prologue. When the Harbinger docks with the Sith vessel, the Sith pour on board to hunt the Exile. But it's important to remember that the Sith aren't the only ones with a plan moving here: HK-50 is there as well. Kreia finds the Harbinger "crippled, drifting in space" because of the HK-50 unit's actions causing a cascade failure of the ship's systems, which was meant to cover his escape with the Exile but which turned out to coincide with the Sith having identified the location of the Exile and Sion waking up to hunt her.

During the chaos surrounding the Sith attack and the complete crippling of the Harbinger's internal systems, Kreia's vessel docks. HK units are opportunists by nature, and, lacking other means of leaving the vessel, the unit apparently intended to use the docked Ebon Hawk, with the damaged T3 still on board, as his getaway ship. Kreia intercepted the droid during this sequence of events and, either alone or with T3's help, managed to temporarily lock him in the cargo hold of the Ebon Hawk. With the Exile on board, a serviceable ship, and an army of Sith between her and her vessel, Kreia abandoned the ship she flew in on and elected to steal the Ebon Hawk, disconnecting from the Harbinger to flee. But the Harbinger then fired on the Ebon Hawk while it was entering hyperspace, critically damaging it and almost killing both Kreia and the Exile. The damaged hyperdrive spits them out above Peragus, and the game begins.

So in an extremely convoluted series of events: both Kreia and T3, two separate individuals with two separate ships both hunting you, join together at the last possible moment as a total 'coincidence' caused by the HK-50 unit's actions and the inability to use any means other than the Ebon Hawk to flee the scene.

What caused the Jedi Exile to become reconnected to the Force on Peragus?

Kreia first suggests that the Exile was able to hear the Force again through her, as a function of their bond. She intimates that this was a natural reaction to the physical and mental proximity between the Exile and herself, and that the Exile's connection—which she claims was forcibly broken by the Jedi Council—was reconnected with her help.

In actuality, as the Jedi Council never forcibly ended the Exile's connection at all, this is another of Kreia's manipulations. The Exile did hear the Force again through Kreia, but it was an active rather than a passive consequence, with Kreia intentionally pressing upon the Exile with the Force until their deafness, through Kreia, was undone. Kreia suggests that she did this in order to better understand the Exile's peculiar Wound in the Force (thereby to understand the nature of the Force better), but also later admits that this was a mistake and she never should have shown the Exile the Force again, because there was no "truth" in it.

There are some theories which suggest that the Exile never properly felt the Force again after Malachor, and the result of Kreia's bond was merely that the Exile could utilize their unique bonding abilities to reach out to the life around them and draw upon its connections to the Force to fuel their abilities. While there is some evidence for this, it's not entirely clear whether Kreia properly healed (or even just bridged) what the Exile did to themselves or whether she only accomplished a workaround which allowed the Exile to utilize the Force again without ever being able to directly draw upon it.

Why is the Republic falling apart in KOTOR 2 even if I chose the LS ending in the original KOTOR?

Because the Republic suffered from two very large and very costly wars in a very short span of time, during which many planets were devastated and entire fleets of (expensive) warships lost. Its infrastructure was collapsing, its military presence reduced to a fraction of even normal peacekeeping strength, and the planets of Dantooine, Taris, and Telos, to name just a few, were among those rendered lifeless. Add in a secessionist movement due to resentment over the two wars, the current crisis with the (lack of) Jedi, and that the Republic has lost a large amount of its trade routes? Honestly, it's a wonder the galaxy has even the slightest semblance of an economy.

Why has Revan's Sith Empire collapsed by the time of KOTOR 2, even if I chose the DS ending in the original?

When Revan left to fight the True Sith, the conquest of the Republic had not yet been completed; he saw the True Sith as a more significant threat in need of immediate attention. Without a stable government established prior to his departure, however, infighting on Korriban soon resulted in the deaths of most of the Sith loyal to him, and chased those who survived into the waiting arms of the Triumvirate, strengthening their power in the galaxy. Without Force users to support their war effort, the Sith forces which made up the bulk of Revan's empire could not triumph against a Republic which, at that time, still possessed some loyal Jedi, and therefore the Empire collapsed.

In TSLRCM, G0-T0 confronts HK-47, hinting that the two have met before. How did G0-T0 know HK-47?

It's not certain, although the implication seems to be that G0-T0 is aware of HK-47 thanks to G0-T0's involvement in the production of the HK-50 units; naturally, as the progenitor unit, G0-T0 would have had some familiarity with HK-47. It's unclear, however, whether G0-T0 could have had an even more intimate relationship with HK in the past, and could even perhaps have been behind HK's violent disassembly between KOTOR and KOTOR 2.

At one point, Kreia uses lightning on T3-M4, yelling "betrayal." The only hint behind this attack is in a conversation, wherein she laments Revan's fascination with droids. Why is this cutscene triggered?

T3's revelation of the holorecord wherein Bastila stored the instructions for him to protect Revan triggers this particular outburst by Kreia. She knows that T3 was Revan's droid, and the only entity which he chose to take with him into the Unknown Regions. When she attacks T3, she cries "betrayal!" in reference to what T3, Revan, and you have done: T3 has betrayed Bastila's confidence by revealing his true mission to the Exile, Revan long ago betrayed her own teachings by placing his trust in machines rather than in flesh and blood as she had taught him, and you have betrayed her presently, just as Revan did, by putting your faith in T3. Why she chooses to actually destroy T3—petty revenge? an outburst of anger?—can only be guessed at, but it's clear that her fury is directed at multiple entities, and T3 is only the unfortunate recipient.

Who is Arren Kae? I heard she was Kreia.

Possibly.

Arren Kae was a Jedi who followed her love, Yusanis, to war against the Mandalorians. At some point she gave birth to Brianna the Handmaiden, and fought at Malachor V where she was ostensibly killed.

There is some evidence suggesting that Kreia and Kae are the same person, however. Kavar says that he thought Kreia died in the Mandalorians Wars, which Kreia at no point indicated she had taken part in. Atris says that "Kreia" is not her name. There is some animosity between Kreia and the Exile over the Handmaiden when she arrives, and Kreia is quick to avoid her. Kreia herself says she knew Kae, and hesitates when she calls her "beautiful"—a description which Atton at one point applies to Kreia, or at least says that she would've been if she were younger. Both Kreia and Kae were exiled from the order, and, most interestingly, both Kae and Kreia are referred to as the first teachers of Revan.

Even so, despite multiple requests for clarification, there has never been confirmation for this theory from Chris Avellone, and so the veracity of it must be left to the player to decide for themselves.

In TSLRCM, when speaking to Atris, Kreia claims that she was present at your trial and ensured you were exiled. Is this true?

This is probably the least sensible statement in the whole game. It's commonly taken as a sort of psych-out claim meant to intimidate Atris, but, to be fair, the game doesn't support that with any real context, whereas it does support Kreia having encountered and interacted with both Atris and the Council. The Exile can ask Kreia about why Atris and the Council never mention(s) her, and in the context of that dialogue can discover that Kreia knows a technique which can blur her presence, both visually and in the Force, to prevent anyone from being aware of her. She used this on Atris in the Telos Polar Academy and Zez-Kai Ell in the tunnels under Nar Shaddaa at a minimum, and considering the Exile mentions the Council it's a reasonable implication that Kreia also used this against them. This is further supported by the Council's surprise at her unveiling in the Dantooine Academy.

So the real question is: if it's true that Kreia convinced the Council to exile the Exile, why? It doesn't really make sense. She is continually adamant that, back then, her only goal was to try to prove to the Council that the Jedi Code was flawed. In the present, she argues that the Exile was perfect proof of that. While it's possible that Kreia would not have understood the Exile's importance at that time, if we presume that that is the case, it doesn't follow that she would have looked on a relative non-entity as important enough to even bother with, much less to ensure a particular—and harsh—outcome for that non-entity.

If we presume the following:

1. Kreia's statement to Atris about her presence in the Council chamber and her interference with their decision is not false;

2. Kreia had a reason to make herself scarce (IE invisible to the Council) in the Council chambers;

3. Kreia did want to change the Council's minds at that time, and was only complicit in exiling the Exile because she was unaware of how beneficial she would have been toward that end;

4. Kreia did have some reason to force the Council to choose exile as the sentence;

Then the only possible explanation which fits all conditions must presume that Kreia had already fallen to the Dark Side, and had done so in an environment which the Exile was in a unique position to reveal: Malachor.

In this presumed scenario, Kreia must almost certainly be Arren Kae (for more information on this, see the above question). She was on Malachor's surface as Revan intended, to ensure her death, and therefore non-interference, in his plans. She survives the destruction, however, and is corrupted in the process, either because of the echo of Malachor or by some other means (potentially finding the Trayus).

After escaping from Malachor, she would have learned that the Exile, the same woman who metaphorically "pulled the trigger" on Malachor and one of the few people most qualified to speak about its corrupting effects, likewise survived the encounter. Moreover, she would have learned that the Exile was presently on her way to Coruscant to face the Council, potentially threatening her newfound place of power.

Kreia would have traveled to Coruscant to ensure that your trial was rapid and left no time for detailed questioning—which, as we see in the game, was precisely what occurred. She doesn't want the Council or Revan to know that she or anyone else on the surface could have survived, and therefore hid her presence from them, but pulled the strings from the shadows to ensure that the Exile had no time to testify about the conflict. She also ensures that the sentence is exile, to limit the Exile's contacts and to ensure that she can't easily inform the Jedi of what she knows. Her task completed, Kreia could return to Malachor; the remainder of the story of the Triumvirate unfolds as usual.

...but it should be stressed that this is an extremely circumstantial and assumptive theory attempting to rationalize an almost mindbogglingly nonsensical claim from Kreia. It fits the pieces, but this scene seems far too "deep," far too reliant upon presumptions and content which is barely even mentioned in the games, to be the truth. This line is stated without any real context, reasoning, or later explication in the game, which is unusual for KOTOR 2. It's unclear whether Kreia was simply lying or whether this was all some very vague and confused allusion to Kreia really being Kae, but it's more likely that the latter explanation is a bit too much of a read into this, even if it does fit; most likely of all, it might have simply been a dialogue line that was intentionally cut which TSLRCM accidentally restored.

Why don't you die at the end of the game, when Kreia does? Doesn't the Force Bond mean you should?

There are multiple schools of thought on this question, and multiple possible answers. These include:

• Kreia lying. It's possible that the bond was never lethal to you, and that you only believed that it was because you trusted her.

• Kreia shielding you from the pain. In the same conversation that she tells you that death for one could be equivalent to death for the other, she also mentions that, if one party is prepared, they can likely shield the other from feeling reciprocal pain. Kreia could have chosen to spare you in light of your victory.

• Kreia letting go. This only truly makes sense in the Light Side ending, but as the LS ending was initially the canon ending, it still represents a possibility. Because in the LS ending you do not kill Kreia and she instead merely lets go of her life, it's possible that the peaceful means of her death saved you from suffering the same fate.

• The bond having changed. This interpretation seems the least likely, but there is an argument which posits that Kreia had changed sufficiently whilst in her persona as Traya for the bond to have vanished or significantly weakened, thereby protecting the Exile. This seems unlikely for many reasons, not the least of which being Kreia's continued threat that she would kill herself in the Trayus core (thereby killing you) if you did not come to face her. Whilst this is likely a bluff, it's unlikely that she would have made it had the Exile had no remaining connection to her whatsoever.

Was Bao-Dur intended to die in the course of the game?

Yes. According to this blog entry of Chris Avellone, Bao-Dur was going to die during the Nihilus' attack on Telos. He would sacrifice himself to help HK-47 reach HK-50 factory.

What happened with Bao-Dur - we know that he was supposed to die near the end because of the: "make my sacrifice matter line".

Bao-Dur - we didn't have time to finish his thread, but if I recall (it's been a while), he was supposed to die on the attack on Telos to help HK-47 get to the HK-50 factory and shut it down to save the planet.

Does the Exile actually not remember their past and why they lost their connection to the Force?

It's strongly implied that the events of Malachor were so traumatic for the Exile that she didn't realize that she had actually lost affinity for the Force until after she left the Council on Coruscant. Whatever the case, it's clear that the Exile didn't like to think about it much herself, and gradually took the view that she was simply without the Force, and that to dwell upon it or upon what had caused it was a mistake.

This changes when the Exile meets Kreia, who tells her that the Jedi stripped the Force from her. Kreia is aware that this is false, but tells the Exile this as a means of manipulating her. When Kreia and the Exile later discover that there are actually Jedi Masters still alive, the Exile's new predisposition to find them based upon her belief that they were the ones that stripped her of the Force plays directly into Kreia's hand, as the Exile is now willing to do the work of finding the Masters and gathering them together for Kreia.

What's the deal with G0-T0? He seems so out of place in the story. What's his angle?

G0-T0 was designed by the Republic as an artificial intelligence meant to solve the Republic's problems and to rebuild the strength of the Republic. He was the Ithorians' original infrastructure droid for Telos, who was given the impossible instruction to find a way to save the Republic—impossible because G0-T0 was also programmed to not break any Republic Laws.

Since he could not maintain both protocols, G0-T0 made the conscious decision to disregard the latter in order to focus on rebuilding the Republic at all costs, which he felt was more in line with the spirit of his original programming. His primary objective was to find a Jedi in order to facilitate the strengthening of the Republic, specifically one who could help him deal with the "rogue element" of the Sith left over in the galaxy.

What are Nihilus and Sion, exactly? How did they get that way?

Nihilus and Sion were Jedi that fought in the Mandalorian Wars, particularly on Malachor V, where they were nearly killed. After training in ancient Sith techniques at the Trayus Academy, they began hunting down the few remaining Jedi after the civil war.

Sion's exact origins, according to the KOTOR comics, date back to the time of Exar Kun; certainly, we know that Sion was already a Sith and served Revan's Sith Empire on Korriban, unlike Nihilus. After Revan's empire fell he passed with many of the remaining Sith to Malachor to serve under Darth Traya. At this time Sion perfected his acceptance of pain, making himself essentially immortal, though this fractured his body further into the nightmare you see at Peragus.

Nihilus's own origin is actually very intriguing, because apparently they were the only other Jedi besides the Exile to be faced with the extreme toll of death at Malachor V. Instead of cutting themselves off, Nihilus embraced the Force, becoming a Wound much like the Exile. In time, however, this began to create a hunger for the Force, which he was forced to sustain by ripping the Force from living beings. Nihilus infamously employed this power at Katarr, killing all but one of the living organisms on its surface.

Had he not been stopped by the Exile, whose status as a wound in the Force prevented Nihilus's technique from killing them, Nihilus's hunger would have grown to a terrible, insatiable point that might very well have resulted in the death of the galaxy before Nihilus consumed himself. He was a ticking time bomb that could only be slowed by the sacrifice of all life.

What language does Nihilus speak?

In-game, Nihilus speaks the Sith Language, the same language Atris's holocrons speak. It's the language of the True Sith that they spoke before switching over to Galactic Basic some time during the history of the galaxy.

But according to Wookiepedia Nihilus was actually speaking a raw untranslated version of "Force Language", he was literary speaking through the Force. All this comes from a cut passage that would have been in the Knights of the Old Republic Game Guide.

You can read more about the Sith Language here. The citation for Nihilus's speech being raw Force can be found here.

Kreia says that she "suffered indignities" when she was cast out of the Triumvirate—did Sion rape her?

There's no confirmation, there are only interpretations (which, because the game is rated Teen, was almost certainly intentional).

There is evidence that suggests that Kreia was raped, however, not least of which being how well it fits Sion's personality. Sion hates Kreia and mistrusts her teachings, but simultaneously wants to please her and has an inferiority complex towards her because of her manipulative nature and constant derision of him as a failure. It's quite possible that Sion originally agreed to work with Nihilus because seizing power from her would, to his mind, grant him a degree of mental freedom from her; it's also possible he raped her in the process, to humiliate her as much as to assert his independence from her, and his freedom from her judgement.

This interpretation is supported by Kreia's other usage of the word "indignities," specifically referring to what Atton thinks of to shield his thoughts ("certain base lusts, certain... indignities"). Considering Kreia appears to use the word in a sexual context once, it's quite possible that she used it in a sexual context when referring to what Sion and Nihilus did to her.

Why does Kreia have an interest in the Exile?

After Sion and Nihilus cast Kreia out of the Triumvirate, she temporarily lost her ability to touch the Force for unknown reasons. During this time of absence she had a strong revelatory experience about the nature of the Force and its meddling influence in all things, and came to believe that the only way to provide the galaxy total free will was to destroy the Force, so it would no longer have the ability to influence the actions of others. The trouble Kreia immediately encountered was an uncertainty about how to accomplish such an unthinkable goal.

Through some unknown means—quite possibly Atris leaking information about the Exile, which was the same action which led the Exile to eventually return to known space—Kreia found out about the Exile and her uniqueness in cutting herself off from the Force. She determined that learning about the Exile, learning about how she was able to willingly turn away from the one element of a Jedi's life which was almost impossible to escape, might provide her with the knowledge necessary to destroy the Force.

During their travels together Kreia also used the Exile for two other functions: collecting the Jedi together (so that Kreia could attempt to show them the flaws of the Code and, when that failed, to kill them) and slaying the only two people in the galaxy who were a threat to her, and whom she could not kill herself (Nihilus and Sion). These other two motivations can also be considered reasons why Kreia was interested in keeping the Exile around, although they have less to do with her initial and primary interest in her.

It often seems like Kreia didn't really have a "master plan" throughout the game; is this true?

That's partially true. From the moment Kreia discovered the Exile, she intended to use them to get revenge on the disloyal members of the Triumvirate, as well as ultimately using the Exile to destroy the Force. Though those two goals did not change, her plan often adapted and bent around circumstance. For example, she almost certainly didn't intend to find Atris on Telos, nor did she will Brianna into traveling with them - however, she made sure to use her to return to Telos once the masters were slain.

What, EXACTLY, was Kreia's plan?

Kreia is trying to deafen the galaxy to the Force and effectively end the Force as a concept. But at first she doesn't understand you or what happened to you well enough to undertake this plan; all she knows is that you probably cut yourself off from the Force and yet survived, which gives her a glimmer of hope philosophically—there's nothing practical there for her to work with, however. The recording of the Masters appears conveniently, providing an excuse of a quest she can send you on while she studies you, and it's even more convenient as she wants to prove them wrong as well. So, since she's well-aware her plan to destroy the Force could go awry anyway, she decides to play the long game and allow you to hunt down the Masters, steadily growing in power and absorbing more of her teachings. Once they're all gathered (not if you killed them—she's rather annoyed with you if you do that) she can present you to the Masters as evidence that she was right all along, and it was the Jedi who were flawed rather than her own students.

But from the Enclave sequence, she understands what happened to you and what you really are: a Wound in the Force, a container of the same echo which reverberates from Malachor still. With that knowledge, she then knows how to destroy the Force: she must kill you, yes, but she must kill you specifically at the heart of Malachor, where the echo you hold inside you can be released and reverberate against the existing echo of the planet, drowning out the Force entirely with the cacophony of the ever-building "sound" of the echoes reverberating against one another. Very metaphysical, but that's KOTOR 2 for you.

Even then, though, Kreia recognizes that there is a very real chance that she could lose. The Exile could defeat her, and by the end of the game it's highly likely that Kreia even wants her to defeat her, because Kreia is that impressed with the Exile and her development. So rather than bringing the Exile directly to Malachor, she instead orchestrates the sequence of events on Dantooine so that she will be brought to Atris, and Nihilus and Atris will both be in one place: threats to the galaxy which the Exile can deal with and defeat before coming to Malachor to put an end to everything, leaving no loose ends behind her, so that in the Trayus Core whichever party wins will be free of all remaining ties: if Kreia wins, her two troublesome students will already have been punished, securing her revenge, and the Force itself will be deafened shortly thereafter; if the Exile wins, conversely, there will be no threats or ties of the past remaining to her which she has not conquered, and she can immediately choose her own path forward, wherever it will lead.

If the Force "died" as Kreia wanted it to, what would have happened?

We do not know enough; it depends on the intricacies of metaphysics in the Star Wars universe, which predictably are never explained. It could be anything from all life going on as usual to the sudden death of all Force Sensitives to the absolute death of all living beings in the galaxy. It's clear from in-game discussions that Atris believed the lattermost option was most likely, and that Kreia was prepared for it to occur, though she did not personally believe it would be the result of the deafening.

What purpose does Atris even serve in the game?

In vanilla KOTOR 2, Atris serves no purpose other than to provide the player with logs showing the location of the other Jedi Masters and as a convenient late-game pre-boss to Darth Nihilus.

In KOTOR 2 with TSLRCM, Atris further reveals that she was the one who leaked information about you to the galaxy at large, and that she arranged for your return to known space, in order to draw out the Sith so that she could determine who they were and what they sought. She also reveals that she was behind what happened on Katarr—she leaked knowledge of the Conclave there—hoping to achieve the same thing: knowledge of the Sith, of their strength, and of their goals.

In cut content which cannot be restored, Atris was meant to be an alternate teacher to Kreia. The player was meant to be able to select between Kreia and Atris to accompany them on the Ebon Hawk to train them, with ramifications for the end of the game. This content never got far in development, and was cut with little enough work done that it is unrestorable.

The Jedi Masters hid on several very specific planets in KOTOR 2; do these planets have any special significance?

Yes. All of them are connected to the Mandalorian Wars or Jedi Civil War, and have a strong connection with the Force. Because of their unique natures, it was easy for the Jedi to hide from other Force Sensitives on their surfaces, which prevented the enemy they knew existed but knew nothing about—Nihilus—from detecting and eliminating them.

Dantooine was home to the Jedi Enclave that Revan, Malak and the Exile were trained. It was destroyed by Malak in order to damage the Jedi Order's training ability as well as cover up any knowledge of the Star Forge.

Onderon/Dxun was the site of the first major clash between the Jedi-lead Republic and the Mandalorian Crusaders.

Nar Shadaa was flooded with refugees fleeing the wars, and its immense amount of life blinds most force-sensitive beings.

Korriban is the ancestral home of the Sith race. Final Burial ground of countless Sith Lords, home to Revan's Sith Empire and training academy, as well as one of the planets containing a Star Map.

Telos was bombarded by Darth Malak until the surface became an inhospitable wasteland. The recent restoration has created an imbalance that hides Atris and her academy.

Who are the True Sith?

For the purposes of these games, the True Sith are an ancient species and galactic empire that thrived on using the Dark Side of the Force, who have not been seen in Galactic space since ancient times. While there are many individuals that claim the title of Sith Lords and occupy the True Sith's planet of origin (Korriban) at the time of the Old Republic, they are no more than offshoots and followers of the True Sith civilization and ideology.

After the events of each game, Revan and later the Exile travel to the Unknown Regions in search of these True Sith. It is hinted that they were the ones who truly spurred the Mandalorians to war, and Revan remembered the menace after more and more of his shattered identity began to be pieced together.

What is this "echo" I keep hearing about in KOTOR 2?

The "echo" is a phenomenon when a Wound in the Force (a dead spot in the Force caused by large loss of life or terrible tragedies) does not fade and heal, but is instead carried on forever without ending.

In KotOR II, the huge loss of Force Sensitive life on Malachor V was enough to create an echo both on the planet and within the Exile themselves (see the question below). The nature of this echo isn't entirely clear, but it presumably ended some time after the destruction of Malachor at the end of the game, when the machine which originated the suffering—the Mass Shadow Generator—was reversed.

What is a "Wound in the Force?"

When Malachor was destroyed, it put out an echo of the pain and suffering of the tens of thousands—many of them Force Sensitives—that died there. This echo was so strong that it resonated across the entirety of the galaxy, causing a permanent "background noise" of pain in the Force. For those who were immediately present, barring one (or arguably two) exception(s), it invariably resulted in one of two outcomes: death, or a corruption to the Dark Side. This was part of Revan's greater plan, to corrupt those who were present, to bind them to him, and to force them to follow him in his next campaign, to conquer the Republic.

The two exceptions (arguable in the latter's case) are the Exile and Nihilus. It's less clear if Nihilus is an exception because he is a Sith, in a more vague sense of the term, but unlike the remainder of the Sith who were exposed to Malachor, for unknown reasons he, like the Exile, internalized the echo. Effectively, both of them were exposed to the events of Malachor so strongly (the Exile because she has an incredible affinity for forming Force bonds and was bonded to many of the Force Sensitives who died or were corrupted on Malachor; Nihilus potentially because he was a Force Sensitive who was on the surface but somehow survived, or because he shared the Exile's almost unique affinity for forming Force bonds) that they became, in a sense, reflections of the agony. Whereas Malachor's echo is just a background noise to the rest of the galaxy, they carry it with them; they became physical containers for the wound of Malachor which was, elsewhere, spread out and diffused.

In Nihilus's case, it's quite likely that his being a Wound resulted in his unique manipulation of hunger. Rather than turning away from the Force as the Exile did, to cope with the events of Malachor he embraced the Force. But he was a wound, a sort of improper container for its power, and he began needing to absorb the Force from others in order to sustain himself. Eventually, as Kreia later states, hunger began to dominate him rather than the other way around.

The Exile, however, was different. She willingly cut herself off from the Force after she activated the Mass Shadow Generator, because she could not stand the agony occurring all around her. It's implied that the agony, for her, was amplified due to her facility with creating Force Bonds. She retained the initial impression of Malachor, the echo and the agony, but in turning away from the Force she was able to save herself from becoming bounded by it. She taught herself to live without it, and therefore when it was returned to her she could master it once again, rather than it mastering her. A theory also exists that the Exile never truly regained her connection to the Force and instead merely fed on the Force capabilities of those around her in a parasitic relationship similar to (but more benign than) Nihilus, but this is not provable.

Regardless of her specific case, it's important to realize that the Exile was also an "imperfect vessel" as Nihilus was. She was able to survive without the Force dominating her as it did him because she was able to willingly turn away from it, but she was no less a wound than he was. Therefore, when he attempted to feed on her, he could not drain her of the Force as he was able to do to others. Instead he only fed upon a reflection of himself, the pain and agony of Malachor. Because the Exile was the only other physical manifestation of Malachor, then, she was the only one who could resist Nihilus and defeat him; this is part of the reason why Kreia used her.

The other reason was the unique nature of the Echo, and of the way the Wound in the Force interacts with it. An Echo, in Star Wars terms, represents the galaxy's (and the Force at large's) impression of the agony of an event; there was an echo of Alderaan, an echo of Malachor, an echo of Katarr, etc. Wounds are individual, while echoes travel outward and are heard everywhere.

Kreia's goal throughout the course of KOTOR 2 was to destroy the Force, and, to do this, she needed to make use of an Echo and of a Wound created by that Echo, namely Malachor and the Exile. Were the Exile to die in the same place that gave birth to her Wound, the Wound inside her would be released and would begin to act like an Echo of the wound which created it. Those Echoes would reverberate against one another, becoming progressively louder until they eventually drowned out everything else, effectively deafening the ability of every creature in the universe to "hear" the Force.

Why don't the officers and Visas die from prolonged Nihilus exposure?

Visas does not die because she is bonded to Nihilus, and therefore attempting to feed on her would be equivalent to attempting to feed on himself. As for the officers on the Ravager, Nihilus feeds on them to the barest edge of life, but allows them to continue living just enough to power the ship. This is possible so long as Nihilus has a modicum of control over his hunger which, whilst slipping, he still does possess during KOTOR 2.

What happened to the Exile after the events of KOTOR 2?

Because the Revan novel written by Drew Karpyshyn was not written (or even conceived of) when KOTOR 2 was released, it represents BioWare's take on what happened to the Exile following KOTOR 2, not Obsidian's original intention.

Obsidian intended for the Exile to leave the Trayus with a few trusted companions to enter the Unknown Regions in search of Revan, whom T3-M4 claimed was in serious, although not immediate, danger, and whom needed help to defeat the True Sith. Which companions, exactly, were to go with the Exile is not entirely clear (aside from T3-M4), although it's hinted that HK-47, Mandalore, and Atton may have been among them. In the KOTOR 3 which Obsidian had in pre-production, the Exile would have entered the Unknown Regions, found Revan and further allies, and assisted him in defeating the True Sith as a wrap-up to the KOTOR trilogy which would have united the stories of Revan and the Exile.

In TOR canon, the Exile, formally known as a Light-side Force-user called Meetra Surik, was tasked by Bastila to go to the Unknown Regions and find Revan. With T3's aid, Meetra tracked Revan to Dromund Kaas (home planet of the True Sith Empire) and discovered he was being held captive by one of the Emperor's inner circle.

With the aid of a sympathetic Sith named Scourge (who was intrigued and at times at odds with Revan's philosophy about the Force), Meetra Surik found Revan's cell and freed him. Upon returning his mask, a relic Bastila kept in secret ever since she saved Revan on his flagship, Revan regained his memories and his former power in the Force. Together with Scourge, Meetra and Revan escaped the compound and fled the city amidst the chaos of a purge of the Emperor's Council.

While hiding in a cave outside the city, Meetra gave Revan another present from Bastila, a holo-recording of her and their son. Later that evening, Revan revealed to Meetra and Scourge his past with the Sith Emperor and his fall to the Dark Side; armed with this knowledge, the three Force-users and T3 assaulted the Emperor's Palace, intent on ending his reign. During the battle, Meetra was killed by Scourge. He had a vision of the Emperor's defeat and stabbed Meetra in the back, as well as incapacitating Revan, in order to gain the Emperor's trust and ensure he could guide the person from his vision.

Though dead, Meetra still endured as a Force ghost for at least 300 years. She aided Revan and kept him strong while the Emperor tried to break his mind, preserved in stasis the entire time.

What happened to Mandalore after the events of TSL?

In terms of KOTOR 2's storyline, it's uncertain. There is an implication that Mandalore would have travelled with the Exile to try finding Revan in the Unknown Regions to defeat the True Sith, but there's no confirmation on what Mandalore actually did.

What happened to Atris and all her holocrons after you defeat her?

The Exile has the option to kill Atris, to force her into exile as she forced you into exile, or to forgive her. If she is exiled it is unclear what happens to her; if the Exile chooses to forgive her, it's likely that she plays a role in the recreation of the Jedi Council under the Exile's companions.

What did Obsidian have planned for the story of KOTOR 3?

Based on the podcast featuring Chris Avellone, where he answered this exact question, we know that:

1. Exile would be the PC and Revan would be an NPC.
2. HK-47 and T3-M4 would be your starting companions.
3. Game would be set in Unknown Regions in the teritory of the True Sith.
4. True Sith were meant to appear incomprehensibly vicious and menacing.
5. Plot would revolve around finding Revan and a way to defeat True Sith.
6. True Sith were not merely a sect of Sith but were actually the original Sith Lords.