The High Republic Villains — Image Source: CultureSlate

The High Republic has been running for nearly four years and ends next summer. But, in that time, it has introduced fans to a treasure trove of characters, be they Jedi, Nihil, or civilians. We at CultureSlate felt it was high time to highlight these characters through a brief rundown of some of our favorites in various categories. Today, we will run through ten of the greatest villains of The High Republic!

Warning: This article will contain spoilers up to and including Wave 2, Phase 3 of The High Republic.

10. Dr. Mkampa

Doctor Zadina Mkampa is a relatively new villain to The High Republic, being introduced in the final middle-grade book for Phase 1, Mission to Disaster. A Nihil scientist operating on Dalna, she encountered Avon Starros among the prisoners kept by the Nihil and recognized her genius intellect. Forcing the young woman to work with her, Avon escaped from the doctor’s care and sabotaged her work, though Mkampa still triggered the required devices to devastate the planet and ran away to fight another day. Over a year later, in Defy the Storm, she appeared again, having stolen Avon’s crystal-based work completed under her watch on Dalna to use it in powering the Stormwall. Encountering Avon for a second time, the cyborg villain’s skillset failed her as Avon almost killed her, though a stun blast from Xylan Graf caused the scientist to collapse and Avon to avoid dooming her soul. Still alive, last we heard, she is a cold, ruthless woman devoted solely to the pursuit of science regardless of the costs to the living. She could be one of the many villains left standing when the initiative ends.

RELATED:

Featured

Why The Star Wars Franchise Is Still Strong

9. Chancey Yarrow

Chancey Yarrow has much in common with Dr. Mkampa despite having very different backgrounds. Chancey knew Lourna Dee back when they were both students at a naval academy on Carida, and years later, after Chancey had a daughter and was forced to operate as a freighter owner, her young daughter Sylvestri was left in the care of “Auntie Lourna” from time to time. Through this connection, Chancey remained informed of the Nihil and later faked her death to join a Nihil-led endeavor to craft an artificial gravity well. She had been obsessed with this idea back on Carida and, now free of moral scruples, dove into the project with assistance from the Graf family and Lourna Dee. However, her daughter and the Jedi ultimately learned of her actions and destroyed the weapon, which was called the Gravity’s Heart. Sylvestri also rejected her mother, with Chancey fleeing in the aftermath. Later, she was among Nihil prisoners held on Starlight Beacon and escaped with a young Nihil member named Nan, the two forming a bond even as the station began to deteriorate. Deciding to help save the station to also save their own skins, Nan and Chancey made their way to the station’s core, with the scientist moments away from preventing a complete crash when Elzar Mann showed up. Immediately identifying the two as Nihil, he lashed out, incorrectly assuming they were saboteurs, and bisected Chancey Yarrow before Nan’s eyes. In the end, Chancey was a deeply flawed woman, someone willing to abandon her child to chase her goals and dreams, as well as lie and manipulate to ensure she got what she wanted. However, there was still a spark of good in her at the end, and her death proved a catalyst in changing Elzar Mann in Phase 3, as he realized the terrible mistake he’d made in killing her.

8. Ghirra Starros

Ghirra Starros has the highest status of anyone on this list. Senator for Hosnian Prime and a politician with frequent access to Lina Soh’s office and meetings, Ghirra was seduced by Marchion Ro at some point. He ensured Ghirra fed him information about the Republic’s plans, and she tried to obscure investigations into the Nihil's background or operations. Shortly before the fall of Starlight Beacon, suspicions already falling on her, Ghirra left the Beacon to join Marchion, ensuring her daughter was also taken off the station. Ghirra had not done all of this simply because of her relationship with Marchion, but as she articulated later, the Nihil as a threat was something to hedge one’s bets with. She knew of Marchion’s intense drive and chose to side with them to influence their direction going forward as a new force in the galaxy. But, growing irritated with Marchion’s malaise after destroying Starlight and establishing the Occlusion Zone, Ghirra got tacit approval from her lover to create the Ministries. This new form of Nihil governance saw Ghirra become the Minister of Information, in charge of diplomacy, propaganda, and other affairs, while Marchion filled the other two positions with the mad scientist Baron Boolan as Minister of Advancement, and the former mercenary leader, General Viess, as Minister of Protection. However, Ghirra has struggled to deal with Marchion’s turn away from her, as well as his general absence in Phase 3.

In this vacuum, she has been able to gather more power and has forced Chancellor Soh to engage in diplomacy with the Nihil, who she is slowly seeking to evolve into something more than the savage force they have been under Marchion. Ghirra is a unique villain, someone who joined the evildoers to change them from within, but she is also a bad mother for how her choices have negatively affected her daughter Avon. Whether there can be any reconciliation between these two or how much punishment Ghirra will face when the formal initiative ends next year is uncertain. But, she will no doubt remain important even after the Nihil are defeated.

7. The Herald

The Herald, whose true name was Wearth Plouth, was the highly mysterious leader of the Path of the Open Hand before the arrival of the Mother. Having lost the ends of all his Nautolan head tendrils from some violent encounter in his younger years, Wearth had a wife, Opari, and a daughter, Kor, and begrudgingly stepped aside to let the Mother take center stage after her rise to prominence in the Path. He did this both because it was the wish of the cult’s adherents and because the Mother was able to help heal an ill Opari, using her apparent healing abilities, but also having access to medicine and more the rest of the Path lacked. The arrival of Jedi Master Zallah Macri and Padawan Kevmo Zink destabilized the balance within the Path, as the Mother grew more anxious, hiding from the Jedi while sending other members to engage with these outsiders. However, the Herald couldn’t have guessed what the Mother would do next.

Sending her thieves, known as the Children, out on a suicide mission, Kor died as she was part of the group, though Yana Ro (Marda Ro’s cousin and Kor’s girlfriend) survived. Returning to the Path and informing Wearth that the Mother had his daughter killed was the catalyst for the man to turn against the cult’s leader. Helping instigate a riot in Jedha City as the Battle of Jedha broke out, he was caught and arrested, though he was soon freed by Yana in Path of Vengeance. In the fittingly titled novel, he sought that vengeance, though he quickly became distracted by the powerful oration of Marda Ro as she declared the Path of the Closed Fist. His hatred for the Jedi kept him diverted but recaptured and forced to lead a group of Jedi to the Mother, he learned of Elecia Zeveron’s powers in the Force. Attacking her for his now mistreated wife (abandoned by the Path as the spouse of a traitor), for his dead daughter, and for the Mother’s lies, she then killed him with a hidden lightsaber. Ultimately, the Herald’s past remains a mystery to us. But, from what we saw, he was a calculating man entirely willing to unleash harsh violence when it suited his goals and easily distracted from goals by that love of violence.

6. Kara Xoo

A Nihil leader who rose to prominence midway through Phase 1, Kara Xoo reached the rank of Tempest Runner after the death of the towering Dowutin Runner Pan Eyta. Deferential to Marchion Ro, Kara was put in charge of the Nihil’s operation on Dalna, as well as a program of her design to abduct the children of Dalna and other nearby planets for training into hardened warriors for the Nihil. She also oversaw Dr. Mkampa’s work. Cruel and devoted to the Nihil, Kara escaped the planet’s devastation and carried on as a Tempest Runner into Phase 3. She later appeared in Defy the Storm as the conqueror of an isolated world, having carved out a private fiefdom under Nihil rule and focused on cruelly enslaving the locals in factories and production facilities. However, she ends up opposed by Imri Cantaros and J-6, hidden on the planet by Avon Starros, alongside other Jedi and refugees who found their way to the world after the movement of the Stormwall over their region of space. By the time Vernestra Rowh arrives, a plot is already in motion to oust and defeat Kara, which succeeds, and she is led away in chains for imprisonment. It is suggested she and the other Nihil will be put to work repairing all that they have damaged or destroyed in their time on the planet. Hopefully, this fierce Quarren leader remains imprisoned or can meaningfully contribute to the society she was in the process of destroying.

5. Lourna Dee

Lourna Dee has one of the most complex narratives in The High Republic, as a villain the Jedi created for themselves, yet also a woman whose hatred for Marchion Ro has turned her into an ally in Phase 3. But, returning to Phase 1, we learn about Lourna’s backstory through the audio drama Tempest Runner. Growing up privileged, but her colony falling under the control of criminals she helped accidentally put into power, she was about to become a slave when the Jedi intervened. Saved by Oppo Rancisis, he sponsored her enlistment at a Carida military academy, where she did not fit in. Oppo was deaf to her concerns, creating a resentment that blossomed into hatred against the Jedi. Leaving the academy after severely injuring several other students (bullies, to be fair), she became a mercenary, later getting revenge on those who had taken over her homeworld. But she was soon inducted into the Nihil to retain the power she had gained and now craved.

She grew to the rank of Tempest Runner but dreamed bigger, only for then-Eye of the Nihil Asgard Ro to completely reject her plans and insult her ambition. This earned him a dagger to the gut, weakening him sufficiently for Marchion to kill him and take power. Across Phase 1, we see the growing tension between Lourna and Marchion as Lourna’s two fellow Tempest Runners are killed and replaced by new blood more loyal to Marchion than the previous job occupants. Lourna is ultimately left to die by Marchion when Avar Kriss closes in on the Nihil’s sanctuary in the void of space, framed as the Nihil’s leader by Marchion to keep the heat off him.

Captured by Avar but taken to Starlight Beacon moments before the station begins falling, Lourna gets free along with other Nihil prisoners and steals the Jedi’s flagship, the Ataraxia. Jumping to Phase 3, she has found a new job as a Hutt enforcer but is forced to help lead the Jedi in a quest to Nihil territory. Driven by her hatred for Marchion, Lourna remains on the Jedi’s side across the events of The High Republic (2023) and will be seen further into Phase 3, with her story getting a focus in the upcoming audio drama Tempest Breaker. But will she remain an ally? Is she on the brink of a redemption arc? Can her crimes, helping lead the attack on the Republic Fair among the biggest, be forgiven? We will just have to wait and see.

4. Baron Boolan

Once a Little of the Path of the Open Hand, Boolan matured into a monster. This may be due to the trauma of the events in Phase 2, where he lost his father shortly before the Night of Sorrow. He was turned into a child soldier during this conflict by the Mother, who had him plant bombs all over the Path’s underground compound. But whatever the reason for his development, when he is encountered again in Phase 3, he has become a truly mad scientist. He is in jail for unclear crimes when Marchion Ro finds him inside the Occlusion Zone but is soon declared Marchion's Minister of Advancement. He then got to work on the Nameless and the people he calls his Children. These people were mutilated and tortured while also being injected with Nameless blood, creating a unit of radically loyal Jedi hunters capable of wielding the Force yet who serve on the side of the Nihil. Boolan also enhanced the Nameless with implants, mechanical body parts, and grafted body parts to create savage killing machines. He is assisted in this by Niv Drendow Apruk, a young Umbaran man with an unclear past who is deeply devoted to the Nameless and aiding Boolan’s work.

While Boolan is ultimately the main villain of The High Republic (2023), Tears of the Nameless gives us our best look yet at his horrific actions and genuine insanity. He sees no limits in his craft and has conducted terrible tests on living beings in the name of understanding and perfecting the terrifying power unleashed a century and a half ago during the era of the Path. He is also extremely manipulative of the Children of the Storm, guilting them for any possible failures and controlling them through their required injections of Nameless blood. His exact fate remains uncertain, as while he was captured at the end of that comic run, other material for Wave 3 of Phase 3 suggests his escape. Just where he will end up is uncertain as a result, but unlike Lourna, there is little redemption for this mad scientist.

3. Marda Ro

Marda Ro is a tragic figure, a villain whose turn we can see happen before our eyes and understand many of the forces involved. Marda, alongside her cousin Yana, was abandoned by their family at a young age and joined the Path of the Open Hand. Marda became supremely devoted to the Path’s faith and was excellent with the Littles, the Path’s term for their children. Yana, by contrast, never bought in and acted on her Evereni instincts, often as a member of the Children. The arrival and rise of the Mother also heavily impacted Marda, who saw her as an amazing leader, though this gradually broke down with time. The arrival and starstruck love story with Kevmo Zink in Path of Deceit ended horribly when the Mother used a baby Nameless to kill both Kevmo and his master. Traumatized by her beloved crumbling to dust before her eyes, Marda became radicalized, convinced that the Jedi were the cause for Kevmo’s death due to their beliefs around the Force dooming the young man she had fallen in love with.

Traveling to Jedha as the Path’s new Guide, the Battle of Jedha that broke out and the Path’s retreat back to Dalna wove together to see Marda isolated as the Mother pushed her to the sidelines. However, she forced herself aboard the Path’s trip to Planet X, where Marda saw many amazing things yet was tortured the whole time by the specter of Kevmo (a strange trait of the Evereni being that they can see facsimiles of those they have killed or seen die). Traumatized by her voyage, she returned to Dalna to find the Path in chaos. She snapped and moved to take charge, her impassioned oration painting the Jedi as the villains and agreeing with the radical militarization of the Path. Cutting off Yana’s hand when her cousin tried to reason with her, embracing her Evereni identity in the process, Marda was almost too blind to see the Mother’s evil, though Yana soon brought to her attention that child soldiers were planting bombs across the compound. Escaping from the Night of Sorrow after helping kill all but one of the Nameless, Marda kept command of the first hatched, the Great Leveler, killing the Mother with it before she fled into space aboard the former flagship of the Path of the Open Hand, the Gaze Electric.

Her journey from here is unclear, though we know she began to let raiders live aboard the ship and that she hunted down at least one Jedi to capture and feed to the Leveler kept in the bowels of the starship. We know that later, she went insane, her journals becoming full of ramblings and regrets, possibly as she reconsidered a life of violence and terror brought about in the name of a young man who would have never wanted her to take that path in life. There is plenty more to learn about Marda’s life, though, so we shall see what Wave 3 and possibly beyond has to offer.

2. The Mother

The Mother, Elicia Zeveron, is the main villain of Phase 2. Many of the events that transpire are due to her manipulation through proxies, agents, and tools she had found during her life as a con artist with a deep, petty grudge against the Jedi. When she was just a girl, she and her sister had gifts in the Force. The Jedi came, but instead of choosing her, they took her sister, Oliviah. Later in life, the Mother, now operating as a criminal, became bitter toward the Jedi and vowed revenge for them choosing Oliviah over her. A few years before Path of Deceit, she found the Path of the Open Hand and chose to turn them into her instrument of revenge. Elecia used her hidden natural power to influence minds just by talking, alongside other resources from her past life, to gain influence and power quickly in the cult and to build them a magnificent flagship, the Gaze Electric, to help them spread the faith. She became almost venerated, though none knew the full extent of her plans. To fund the Path and her lifestyle, despite her connections in the Core through pawns like Axel Greylark, she created the Children of the Path to go out and steal Force-related artifacts for her. These thefts led the Jedi to investigate, which set off a whole chain of events that ended in slaughter.

Hiding away from the Jedi and in possession of a Nameless egg she acquired after bewitching the hyperspace prospector "Sunshine" Dobbs, Elecia finally unleashed the creature against the Jedi when their investigation discovered the stolen artifact they had been searching for. Elsewhere, to keep the Jedi and Republic off-balance, she used agents to rekindle the Forever War between Eiram and E’ronoh, though this effort was foiled. On Jedha, she used her connection to Tilson Graf to acquire enforcer droids for the Path and again worked to stoke the Forever War on the planet, though the Herald turning against her by unleashing the Great Leveler and causing a riot foiled her plan for a smooth get-away. Driven back to Dalna, the Mother fully twisted the Path into a fanatical army, and calling in other favors or entreating those with a grudge against the Jedi to come to Dalna helped bring about the Night of Sorrow.

However, even here, she plotted her escape, having the Path’s Littles set bombs to blow up the group’s compound and hide her escape behind a mountain of rubble and bodies. She was stopped, and her control of the Nameless ceased, but her period in Jedi capture lasted only a short time. Marda Ro, a pawn in the Mother’s games, came and let the Great Leveler feast before escaping. Elecia Zeveron died in agony and fear, in the same way of death as she had unleashed on multiple victims on Dalna, a fitting end for someone who brought about so much suffering in her villainous quest.

1. Marchion Ro

The main villain of Phases 1 and 3, Marchion, is the product of a vendetta going back to Marda, one twisted, corrupted, and reinterpreted over the years by Marda’s descendants. Marchion had a rough childhood, his mother was not in the picture, he was in the room when his father Asgar killed Marchion’s grandmother, and his father ruthlessly trained his son to be an expert pilot. Marchion, in short, had a brutal childhood and grew to hate his father. So, when the time came, and his weakened father lay before him, Marchion kicked the man to death. He then took the role his father had held, Eye of the Nihil, and began to enact his plans. After having stolen Mari San Tekka away decades in the past, the Ro family had exclusive access to her and offered the Paths she created to the Nihil in exchange for a cut of the loot. In the system of three Tempest Runners, the Ro-held role of the Eye was meant to be a peacekeeper between all three, but Marchion planned to become the sole leader. He did this systemically throughout Phase 1, killing his rivals one by one while scapegoating Lourna Dee as the Eye instead of him. At the same time, he planned brutal attacks on the Republic, beginning his quest for revenge against the Jedi. He also found and unleashed the Great Leveler, frozen and hidden by his ancestors at some point in the past, killing Loden Greatstorm, a Jedi he had held captive and tortured for months. Finally, he moved on to his greatest plan: destroying Starlight Beacon.

Finding loyalists in his ranks, he put together a team to travel with him to Planet X, harvesting Nameless eggs and adult specimens, before sending a different team to slip aboard the great space station to sabotage it while also unleashing a portion of terrifying creatures. Elsewhere, he set a plan in motion to steal a host of Republic starships from Corellia and crew them with Nihil so that when the Beacon began to fall, and help arrived, these ships could devastate them for an even greater morale blow. While this smaller part of the plan was foiled, Starlight still fell, and Marchion moved on to the next stage of his plot. Using technology crafted by Chancey Yarrow and combined with the existing Path technology of the Nihil, Marchion constructed the Stormwall and created the Occlusion Zone behind this great barrier that encircled several sectors in the galactic south. But with such success, Marchion grew bored, disconnecting from most events within the Nihil except when it interested him and lording over the world of Hetzal from a newly built fortress.

However, with the rise of the blight and Marchion’s use of the ancient rods able to control the Nameless and also somehow grant himself immunity from the blight’s decaying effects, he found a new purpose. At the end of Temptation of the Force, he traveled to Coruscant and offered his services to the Republic and Jedi in combatting this threat, as he claimed he was the only one with answers. He was their only hope. Where could The High Republic go with this dramatic cliffhanger? Marchion will almost certainly remain a villain, his offer merely a chance to upstage the Jedi and undoubtedly part of expanding his control of the galaxy through another method than shifting the borders of the Stormwall. We will just have to wait for answers.

READ NEXT:

Featured