Visas Marr

Origin

“There are many kinds of hate, and all of them have the call of the dark side in them.”

Visas Marr is a Miraluka, and although she is blind she is of a very rare, and special species of humanoid. She was able to rely on a force power known as force sight, with that power she was able to see. She was born on 3.976 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin). In approximately 3.952, her home world Katarr hosted a secret Jedi Conclave in the wake of the first Jedi Purge.

By accident one of the Jedi’s known as Atris, who was to attend the special event leaked out too much information. After which an evil Sith Lord known as Darth Nihilus came to take all life away from the planet, he was drawn there from the Outer Rim, unable to ignore the chance to consume the power profusion that the planet represented with some of the most powerful Masters of the Jedi Order assembled on a world as rich in the Force as the Miraluka’s.

Visas Marr, when returning to her planet Katarr, saw all the extreme destruction, devastated she had so much pain that it was unbearable for her to take it. Nihilus, seeing that she was at her most vulnerable stage took her in showed her the ways of the Force and she later became his apprentice. Her attraction to his power led her to the dark side. She was a very talented Sith Lord and did everything that Nihilus ordered, although she has stated this to the Exile, “My life for yours.” It is believed that she said the same thing to her master. Only a year later both Visas and her Master felt a disturbance in the force. The disturbance was no one else but an exile who was once again trying to retrieve his old ties of the force. Little did she know that The Exile would later be her destiny, either in life or death.

Creation

Brian Menze designed the character, and drew on ninjas, the look of previous Sith Lords, and G.I. Joe character the Baroness in creating her concept art. As the character was mostly covered – only the lower half of her face is visible – Menze decided to make what was shown “as sexy as possible”. Menze deviated from the usual black Sith Lords dressed in and instead added some color to soften her, based on the written description of the character.

Kelly Hu was chosen to voice the character. Voice directors Will Beckman and Darragh O’Farrell wanted someone “special” and “maybe a little sexy” to voice the part. It was Hu’s first role as a voice-actress, and she has said she enjoyed the role.

Major Story Arcs

The Exile

“My life for yours.”

The Exile was a Jedi whom participated in the Mandalorian Wars, and because he participated he was outcast. Later in life he was known to be found on the Ebon Hawk, the dark Sith Lords were aware of his presence there and attacked the ship he was in. Visas was then sent to the ship and order by Darth Nihilus to kill and destroy this Exile. Once there they engaged in, an epic lightsaber duel, she was then defeated and wounded. The Exile instead of killing her took her to the med-bay and helped her during her recovery, unfortunately to the displeasure of certain crew members she was kept alive. During the time that the Exile and Visas spent time together she began to once again she hope and once again she what it truly felt like to have hope.

Impressed by the Exile’s strength, Visas rediscovered hope and came to consider that perhaps the universe was not as her master had showed her, and that maybe with her help the Exile might be able to stop him. She refused, however, to guide the Exile to him untested and without her potential realized, as she felt the Jedi was not yet ready to face such a threat and feared to lose her only hope.

She foresaw that they would meet in the near future, however. She then helped the Jedi in his search for the remaining Jedi Masters, during their journey, she would speak of her past and the destruction of her home world, and from her the Exile would learn to see through the Force as one of her people, a most rare and precious gift. Her heart would finally be put to rest when the time came to accompany the Exile to the flagship of her former master, the Ravager, for their final confrontation.

As they made their way to the bridge, Visas took some time to visit her old meditation chamber one last time, finally coming to terms with the destruction of Katarr. Her new found strength would see her through the trial ahead, not for vengeance but for the sake of all life. In a final test of allegiance, Visas confronted Darth Nihilus with her fate resting solely on the Exile, who gave her the chance to stand up to the one who had wounded her.

As they approached Nihilus they began to dual, Visas although fighting hard couldn’t not overcome his power, she then used the bond that both her and the Exile had formed to weaken her old master. Both her and the Exile and the help of Mandalorian Canderous Ordo, were able to defeat the Dark Sith Lord and she was able to restore control of his powers used on her.

Personality

The Miraluka were acknowledged as individuals strongly committed to their chosen course of action, as was evidenced by Marr’s dedication to help Meetra Surik in stopping her former master. Nevertheless, the trauma of seeing her world die through the Force left Marr shattered and vulnerable, her Force Sight damaged. Darth Nihilus took advantage of this and twisted her psyche until she became utterly subservient and hopeless, disconnected from herself and life, a mere shell of a being.

Marr’s defeat at the hands of Surik proved to be the catalyst that allowed her to break Nihilus’s hold over her and restore her own free will. She confessed to Surik that the very fact that Surik’s nature had eluded her master gave her hope that he could be defeated. The search for the Jedi Masters reestablished Marr’s connection to life and believing Surik responsible for this, she vowed to protect her. Although she never quite lost her servile attitude, Marr’s journey with Surik allowed her to gain the confidence and self-respect that ultimately severed the final bond to her former master and enabled her to rediscover herself.

Powers and Abilities

Like all of her species, the Miraluka, Marr was born physically blind and instead relied on Force sight to see the physical world, which included the ability to see through walls. Though this Force power was a characteristic of the Miraluka, it was not species restrictive and Marr would later teach its use to Meetra Surik. Her sense of the Force was highly developed, as was evidenced by her detection of Surik, from across the galaxy, during her time as apprentice to Darth Nihilus. The depth of her Force-sensitivity granted Marr the ability to manipulate the Force to move or control the direction of objects through space. This was commonly known as the “Jedi’s object movement power,” also referred to as telekinesis. The use of this talent included pulling and pushing objects with minimal effort. In addition, she may also have been a practitioner of farsight, as she was able to ‘see’ the eventual showdown between her first and her final master.

Furthermore, Marr was highly skilled in the use of what were considered to be dark side powers, such as grasping and choking enemies, as well as unleashing raw dark-side energy. Her connection to the dark side gave her the use of Dark Healing, an ability that fueled regenerative processes by draining the life force of another. Marr’s return to the light side following her defeat at the hands of Meetra Surik allowed her to continue training as a Jedi Sentinel. Because of her training as a Jedi Sentinel, she was later given a yellow-bladed lightsaber by Surik, which served to extend her knowledge of lightsaber combat.

Other Media

Video Games

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords (romance)

“From the moment I heard your voice across the galaxy, I have longed for you—When I heard it, I loved you more than my own life. And I wanted you to be here with me, for as long as you will let me love you.”

“Stay, and I want you see what I see when I gaze upon you. I want you to know why I cannot look at you, and why I am drawn to you.”

–Visas Marr, to a male Jedi Exile

If the player chose a male character, Marr, along with the male-player-only character Brianna, was intended to be one of two romantic interests that could be chosen. Technically, however, it was not possible to have a romance with either one. Unlike the first Knights of the Old Republic game, there wasn’t a dialog-driven romance progression. Much of the romance was alluded to in the form of conversations between characters and cut scenes.

It was only toward the end of the game that Marr confessed her love for the male Surik as long as he had gained enough influence with her, although the player character did not have the option of returning those feelings.

The same is true with the romance with Brianna. Though she reveals her name and she is, ironically, supposed to be a romantic interest, she does not state her love for the Exile or vice versa.