Marchion Ro

Marchion Ro was a male Evereni who held the title of Eye of the Nihil in the days of the High Republic. The son of Asgar Ro, he grew up on the Gaze Electric, his family's ship, and watched as his grandmother, Shalla, and his father developed the marauder group known as the Nihil in the Outer Rim of the galaxy. The Ros grew the Nihil into a significant disruptive force, using a unique mastery of hyperspace to conduct lightning raids, and becoming rich and influential in the process. While he was still a teenager, Ro's father was betrayed and murdered by one of the Nihil's leaders, and Ro succeeded him as the Eye of the Nihil.

In 232 BBY, as the Jedi Order and the Galactic Republic prepared to unveil their principal base in the Outer Rim, Ro dispatched a Stormship to intercept a cargo freighter known as the Legacy Run, deliberately causing them to crash into each other. The crash resulted in a hyperspace cataclysm known as the Great Disaster, as the Legacy Run tore itself apart and emerged at lightspeed to strike various astronomical objects in realspace. Profiting from the subsequent blockade of the Outer Rim's hyperlanes, the Nihil struck at several worlds, revealing their existence to the Republic. Ro solidified his hold on the Nihil, and concealed their true strength from the Jedi, by sending one of its leaders, Kassav Milliko, and his Tempest fleet to be destroyed in a Republic trap. Hidden once again from their gaze, Ro continued his preparations for the future.

Working in secret, Ro collected an ancient relic from the Elders of the Path cult on Vrant Tarnum, which would allow him to control a creature from his family's past; a creature he collected from a shrine guarded by Ro relatives on the planet Rystan. A subsequent Nihil attack on the Republic Fair on Valo left thousands dead. In retaliation, the Jedi attacked a Nihil base on Grizal where Ro first unleashed the Great Leveler on the Jedi, overwhelming them with fear and turning Jedi Master Loden Greatstorm into dust. The attack on Valo and the engagement on Grizal showed the Nihil's continued strength and their possession of a weapon powerful enough to destroy the Jedi.

Using the Republic assumption that Lourna Dee was the true leader of the Nihil, Ro planned to strike at the Jedi directly, collecting several more creatures from their hidden homeworld and smuggling them onto Starlight Beacon as it orbited over the planet Eiram. Nihil operatives sabotaged the station while the Jedi were distracted by the Force-paralysing effects of Ro's creatures, and the whole galaxy watched as Starlight Beacon tore itself apart and crashed on Eiram. Dozens of Jedi died onboard Starlight Beacon and, in the aftermath, Ro revealed himself to the galaxy with a public broadcast, taking credit for his acts of destruction and challenging the Republic to stay away from the Outer Rim. He also sealed off ten sectors of the Outer Rim from the Republic's intervention, using the stormseed technology developed by scientists loyal to the Nihil to destroy the Republic Defense Coalition fleet sent to invade his territory and capture him.

In the end, Ro was so desperate to prove the supremacy of his own will that he hoped to use the Blight to wipe out all life in the galaxy, planning to destroy the Nihil, Republic, Jedi, and everyone else caught in its path. However, he was captured and put on trial before the Galactic Senate. Found guilty, Ro was imprisoned for life in solitary confinement within an asteroid, dying alone and forgotten.

Text and facts from the “Marchion Ro” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.