Darth Sion

"Yes. Of pain, he has learned much, of knowledge, of teaching, he knows nothing."

- Darth Traya about Darth Sion.

Darth Sion is the secondary antagonist of the video game, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. He is voiced by Louis Mellis.

He, alongside the Dark Lord Darth Nihilus, has overthrown and usurped Darth Traya and began the First Jedi Purge, devastating the Jedi Order and the Galactic Republic. They then began hunting down the remaining Jedi.

Past and Restoring the Sith
Sion had throughout his life been plagued by pain and weakness, which maddened him. He hated his painful state and instead used the pain to drive himself as a SIth. Sion fought for Exar Kun's Sith order and defeated many Jedi in the process, but was unable to die, which was what he truly desired. He became more and more immune to pain and eventually, a Jedi was able to cut him down. However, Sion didn’t die and the pain within him reached incredible new heights, causing him to rise and slaughter his foe. While his body started to decay, Sion used the dark side to maintain it and savored his immortality, despite the incredible pain and rage that it caused him. Eventually, Exar Kun was defeated but Sion would come to serve in Darth Revan and Darth Malak's new Sith Empire. However, this empire was defeated as well, by none other than Revan returned to the light. Sion believed that Revan had given in to weakness in betraying the Sith and watched as the Sith order tore itself apart without a leader, particularly on the Sith Academy on Korriban. However, Sion survived and was found by Darth Traya, who was seeking beings that were “wounds” in the force. She’d found them in the form of Sion and Darth Nihilus and together the two formed the Sith Triumvirate on Malachor V. They worked together to destroy the Jedi and restore the Sith and Sion studied under Traya, learning much from her. Despite this, their alliance was fragile as Sion and Nihilus cared more for power than Traya did. Additionally, the Lord of Pain was frustrated with Traya’s teachings, her abstract ideals and how her words haunted his mind. Finally, Sion and Nihilus joined forces to cast her out and attacked her as she was meditating. Sion beat her senseless while Nihilus stripped her of her force abilities, before the two drained their energies for themselves, casting Traya out of their order.

Hunting the Jedi
With Traya gone, Sion and Nihilus pursued their own goals, uniting what was left of the Sith Empire once more. Sion took command of a group of Sith assassins, originally formed by Revan, and began hunting Jedi throughout the galaxy. With his inability to die, Sion overcame every Jedi he faced and he almost succeeded in entirely wiping them out. After Nihilus destroyed most of the Jedi left on Katarr, the Jedi were forced underground but Sion continued seeking them. At one point, a Jedi Master, Lonna Vash came to Korriban to hunt for Sion, but the Lord of Pain captured her. He imprisoned her in the Sith academy, torturing her to draw in more Jedi. Eventually, a banished Jedi Knight, Meetra Surik, returned after being summoned back by Atris in order to draw out the Sith. Sion went after her, tracking her to the Republic ship, the Harbinger, and he and his assassins approached it on a Sith warship. However, Sion’s forces came across Traya, going by her original name of Kreia, aboard the Ebon Hawk, on her way to recover Meetra and opened fire on it. The Harbinger heard the Ebon Hawk’s distress call and came to fight the Sith off, but Sion pretended to be a corpse while his assassins hid themselves. The Republic forces brought Sion aboard their ship while his stealth cloaked assassins snuck aboard. The Lord of Pain was put in the med bay where the medical officer was disturbed and confused by the countless wounds on his body. She finally put him in a kolto tank to see if he could be restored, but as this went on, Sion’s assassins silently waited for the right moment, though not without killing several members of the crew. Finally, Sion woke up and broke out of his kolto tank, cutting his way through the security team and crew while trying to find Meetra. However, the Lord of Pain was unable to capture the exile as Kreia managed to sneak her abroad the Ebon Hawk, attempting to escape. Sion had the Harbinger fire on the ship as it escaped and managed to damage it, but the Ebon Hawk managed to escape into hyperspace. The Sith Lord tracked Meetra and Kreia to the Peragus II mining facility, determined not to let them escape him this time. Sion had the Harbinger dock with the facility, sending his assassins out to track down his prey. Eventually, Meetra, along with Kreia and Atton Rand, a prisoner they’d came across in the facility, came aboard the Harbinger. Sion tracked them down and Kreia took him on to give the others time to escape. The Lord of Pain was surprised to see his old master again, noting she was difficult to kill. Kreia said that he had fallen far but had learned nothing, that was his failing, but Sion replied that she was the failure. He declared he was free of her whispers crawling in his skull and of her weak teachings. Sion stated that her belief that any one Jedi could stop him and the Sith was wrong but Kreia just stated that they would see. She emerged from the shadows to fight the Lord of Pain, but Sion counterattacked to slice off her hand. Kreia managed to escape to join back up with Meetra and Atton and they escaped aboard the Ebon Hawk. Sion made the Harbinger fire on the ship, but it sit off the volatile minerals in the asteroids, causing a huge chain reaction of explosions that heavily damaged the warship.

Facing the Exile
Sion managed to survive the Harbinger’s demise and was outraged that Kreia had so much faith in Meetra. The Lord of Pain was deadset on finishing off the exile and destroying everything that Kreia had worked for. Eventually, Sion sensed Meetra arriving on Korriban to find Lonna Vash and murdered the Jedi Master, before setting a trap for the exile. When Meetra and her companions entered the abandoned Sith Academy, Sion had the doors shut and lock themselves behind them and sent his Sith assassins out to kill them. Meetra eventually found Vash’s body and were able to use a passcode she’d created to open the academy doors again. Sion intercepted her, stating he’d studied her thoroughly and he knew her well. He told her that Kreia would ruin and destroy her as she’d done to him and that he could end her before it began. Sion declared that Meetra did not know Kreia as he did, he had survived her teachings and bested her in combat, compared to him, the exile was nothing. Sion noted that the exile was a wretched being of weakness and fear, even if Kreia sacrificed herself for her, and she would die at his hands. Sion battled Meetra, surviving every wound she inflicted upon him thanks to his abilities and finally the exile retreated after Kreia mentally warned her she couldn’t defeat the Sith Lord. Sion found himself now respecting Meetra and ordered his assassins not to pursue her, certain they would meet again. However, Sion found himself drawn to the exile, seeing her as beautiful, but he could not stand having such feelings and began to hate Meetra for it. The Lord of Pain went back to Malachor V, only for Kreia to return there. She had turned on Meetra, destroyed almost all of the remaining Jedi masters, and manipulated Nihilus into meeting his end. Now Darth Traya once more, she met Sion in the Trayus Core of her Sith academy and he threatened to kill her. However the Lord of Betrayal bent him to her will and made him prepare for when Meetra would follow her to Malachor, telling him to show her complete respect. The exile did indeed return to Malachor V to face Traya and fought her way through the Sith of the academy, before coming to the door before the Trayus Core. Sion appeared to face Meetra, telling she should not have come as Traya would break her and that she should return to the surface of the planet and let it claim her instead of suffering at the Lord of Betrayal’s hands. Sion believed that if Meetra were gone, Traya would be forced to accept him as her apprentice again. He felt he had come father than any of her apprentices and his betrayal of her had been a test. Sion stated that Meetra and Traya were similar, but different and he hated the exile for capturing his mind and making him weak. The Lord of Pain declared that he was ready for her and he had waited for a long time to bring down the last of the Jedi. Sion battled Meetra and when she struck him down, he again rose up, stating that the dark energies of Malachor V would ensure he could not die. The Lord of Pain kept fighting Meetra, immune to her attempts to kill him, and the exile tried to convince him that Traya was merely using him. She explained that Traya respected those who turned away from the Force while Sion depended on it. The Lord of Pain declared there was no life without the Force, it was a blade and one was defenseless without it. Meetra demanded Sion let her pass but he refused, determined to spare her the fate Traya had in store for her by killing her himself. After being beaten a fourth time, Sion started to falter but refused to give in and Meetra said that he had already been beaten. The Lord of Pain demanded to know why Traya chose her and what made her able to defeat him. Meetra stated that it was because she had turned away from the force and Sion could not. The Sith Lord stated that was impossible to do so unscarred and Meetra replied it was difficult, but true strength was doing so in spite of those difficulties. Sion declared that he was the dark side itself, to which Meetra replied that Traya hated the Force so she hated the Lord of Pain. The exile encouraged Sion to let go of his cursed life and Sion realized that she was right, his existence gave him no strength, only suffering. He warned Meetra that Traya would try to break her and that the exile had been both his and Traya’s weakness. With that, Sion accepted death, happy to leave the living world at least and be at peace.

Personality
Sion’s most notable trait is his ferocious hatred for all and he lives in constant pain, using it to drive him and give him power and strength. He wishes to unleash his pain on the galaxy, particularly the Jedi and his hatred is so great, it lets him survive any attempt to slay him. Sion believes that the Force keeps him immortal so that he may continue his crusade of pain and he embodies the dark side itself. He refuses to give up for any reason, hunting the Jedi without mercy, and is more cunning than some believe him to be, using the fact that others see him as a mere brute to his advantage. Sion is fuelled by an extreme desire for power, which was what caused him to turn on Traya as she had no interest in this. His hatred of the Jedi has made him much more focused on eliminating them than other Sith, thus he and Nihilus hide themselves and silently slaughter them bit by bit instead of launching a grand war against the Jedi. However, Sion is not immune to compassion, he has a desire to fix the galaxy as it started to crumble and found himself compassionately drawn to Meetra.

Abilities
Sion is an extremely powerful Sith Lord and can use the dark side to maintain his body and keep himself alive. If he is killed, Sion draws on his rage and pain to revive himself and can gain even more power by feeding on the dark side energies of places where it is particularly present. Sion is quite proficient with his lightsaber and possesses many force powers. He can use telekinesis, inflict internal wounds upon his foe, infect his opponent to slow his opponent’s movements, draw on his negative emotions to enter a powerful rage, protect himself from his foes’ force powers, and drain life from others.

Trivia

 * Sion’s name comes from “scion,” which means “heir.”
 * He appeared as an alternate costume for the player in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.
 * There were numerous scenes cut from the final game featuring Sion. These include a scene where Sion believes he has killed the exile and goes to see Nihilus, declaring their alliance over before briefly fighting him, attacking the Jedi Council on Dantooine and forcing Vash to sacrifice herself to fight him off, and another where Sion battled Atton, cutting off his arm and mutilated his body.