The video games Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003) and Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (2004) features a large cast of characters noted for its diversity and is the subject of significant discussion from gaming magazines and websites.

The main and player character of the first game is Revan, and the main and player character of the second game is the Jedi Exile. Both can be either a human male or a human female. Various other characters join the player's party and become controllable, with a maximum of three characters at a time.

Concept and creation Chris Avellone, the lead designer of The Sith Lords, has said that "a core part of what made KOTOR I so great was the story and your companions, and that was our intention in the sequel as well", and has also said that he thought that the characters and voice-acting were some of the key strengths of The Sith Lords, and said that they got a lot of help and support from LucasArts in the voice-acting and sound department. Avellone stated that in some cases, the characters turned out "better than we thought they would be". According to Avellone, while "there was some stuff we wanted to add", overall they "got almost everything we wanted in there". Avellone has said he has been surprised by the positive feedback of some of the characters.

Player characters Revan

The main protagonist and player character of the first game is Revan, an amnesiac Sith Lord who is reassigned a new identity as a member of the Republic army. Revan's true identity is not revealed until a predetermined point in the narrative where the player is confronted by the game's central antagonist Darth Malak for the first time. Revan's gender, class, and facial appearance are chosen and customised by the player. Since the player can choose the gender of Revan, much of the dialogue revolving around the character is gender-neutral with only a few exceptions.

Jedi Exile The Jedi Exile, also known simply as the Exile, is the main protagonist and player character of the second game. The player may choose the name and gender and decide what path to take.

According to continuity established by Star Wars: The Old Republic and its associated supplementary material, in Star Wars Legends, rendered non-canonical in 2014, the Jedi Exile is named Meetra Surik, who is female and aligned to the light-side of the Force.

Other playable characters Recurring characters Canderous Ordo Canderous Ordo, voiced by John Cygan, is a Mandalorian who appears in both the first game and in The Sith Lords. Ordo is a veteran Mandalorian warrior who joins the player's party in Knights of the Old Republic. After the game's conclusion, he becomes "Mandalore the Preserver", leader of the Mandalorians. Mandalore pledges himself and his warriors to the service of the Jedi Exile in The Sith Lords.

UGO Networks ranked Ordo among their list of top fifty Expanded Universe characters.

T3-M4 T3-M4 is an astromech droid who appears in both games. It was constructed by a Twi'lek named Janice Nall of Taris for local crime lord, Davik Kang. The droid features code-breaking and computer "slicing" skills in addition to being able to mount armor and weapon upgrades. If the player attempts to talk to T3 it will simply communicate in a series of bleeps, similar to other astromech droids like R2-D2.

HK-47

HK-47, voiced by Kristoffer Tabori, is an assassin droid owned by Revan, who appears in both of the games. In 2003 HK-47 won Computer Gaming World "NPC of the Year" award, and later won the category of "Original Game Character of the Year" in the 2004 Game Developers Choice Awards.

Knights of the Old Republic characters

Carth Onasi Carth Onasi, voiced by Raphael Sbarge, is a Republic soldier and pilot. During the Mandalorian wars, Carth served under Admiral Saul Karath, who would become his mentor and, later, object of revenge. He met Revan while the two were fleeing the Endar Spire, following a Sith attack on the ship. He is the second character to become a party member in the first game, after Trask Ulgo sacrifices himself to fend off the Sith apprentice Darth Bandon. It is later revealed that Carth had a family on Telos who were killed by the Sith: his son Dustil later turns up as a Sith convert and the player has the option of killing him or opening his eyes. He is a romance option for the female Revan. Carth can appear briefly in the sequel, The Sith Lords, via recorded audio and video messages.

Carth is assigned to the cruiser Endar Spire during the Jedi Civil War when it was ambushed by a Sith fleet over the planet Taris. He narrowly escapes by taking an escape pod to the planet surface with an amnesiac Revan, who was memory wiped and given a new identity as a rank-and-file Republic soldier. The two searched for, and eventually rescued, the Jedi Bastila Shan from a swoop bike gang. Stealing the ship the Ebon Hawk from the crime lord Davik Kang, Carth and his companions escape Taris just as Darth Malak orders an orbital bombardment on its surface. After arriving at the Jedi Academy on Dantooine, he was tasked with searching for the Star Maps and the Star Forge along with Bastila and Revan. While searching for the Star Maps, Carth and his companions were captured by Admiral Karath and taken aboard his ship, the Leviathan. After breaking out, Bastila, Carth, and Revan managed to make it to the bridge of the ship, where Saul is defeated and killed. As he lay dying, Saul whispered Revan's true identity to Carth, to his dismay. Depending on Revan's alignment and relationship with Carth, Carth may accept that Revan is no longer a Sith Lord and had truly been redeemed. In the alternative, if Revan sides with Bastila later in the game and reassumes the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith, Carth flees from the party and disappears: if the dark-sided Revan is female, Carth will confront her and Bastila in the Star Forge's hangar after the defeat of Darth Malak, leading to a second boss fight.

Depending on dialogue options made by the player character during certain conversations about how the aftermath of the so-called Jedi Civil War in the first game affects the branching narrative for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, Carth may make a brief appearances in the game, or be referenced by other characters such as HK-47.

In The Sith Lords, following the destruction of the Star Forge and the end of the Jedi Civil War and if Revan returns to the Jedi, Carth is promoted to Admiral. Revan tasked Carth with protecting the Republic and left in search for the true Sith Empire in the Unknown Regions prior to the events of the game. When the Sith Lord Darth Nihilus attacks Telos five years after the end of the Jedi Civil War, Carth leads the Republic fleet in defense of the planet and the space station orbiting above it. He also requests to speak with the Jedi Exile about Revan's whereabouts, where his dialogue content will differ depending on Revan's gender and the nature of his relationship with Revan. If Revan is female and if the player completes T3-M4's repairs, the droid will play a holovid recording of Carth discussing Revan, which again differs in content based on her final moral alignment.

Carth first appears in Issue No. 8 of the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic comic series as the helmsman serving aboard the Inexpugnable-class tactical command ship Courageous. He is often referred to by the nickname "Fleet" during this time period. Carth participates in several battles, where he eventually met the fugitive Padawan Zayne Carrick, who is disguised as a janitor. Carth later appears in a more prominent role for several of the series' story arcs.

Mission Vao Mission Vao, voiced by Catherine Taber, appears in Knights of the Old Republic. She is a fourteen-year-old Twi'lek and the best friend of Zaalbar. Mission joins the player's party after encountering her in the Undercity on Taris. Mission is first seen in a Lower City bar on the planet Taris, and is later encountered in its Undercity. She is distraught that her Wookiee companion Zaalbar has been captured by the Gamorrean slavers during a trip into the sewers of the Undercity, and seeks help to rescue Zaalbar. Zaalbar swears fealty to the player character upon his rescue, and both he and Mission join the player character's party as companions for the remainder of the game. Optional conversations with Mission will reveal details about her past and how she and Zaalbar met, and eventually unlocks a subplot side quest involving her brother Griff. Towards the end of the game, if the player character embraces their identity as Darth Revan, Dark Lord of the Sith and sides with a fallen Bastila Shan, Mission and Zaalbar will attempt to defect from the party. The player will have to either kill them, or in the alternative, exploit Zaalbar's life debt and force him to murder Mission on their behalf. If Zaalbar is forced to kill Mission, he will turn on Revan if he is brought along as a companion to the Star Forge.

Mission's past is explored in the twenty-second issue in the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic series of comics. Mission has been mentioned in the massively multiplayer online game Star Wars: The Old Republic as well as Star Wars reference books, such as the second volume of The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia.

Zaalbar Zaalbar is a character from Knights of the Old Republic. He is a Wookiee who is friends with Mission Vao and joins the player's party, swearing a life-debt to the player for helping Mission rescue him from a group of Gammorrean slavers in the Undercity of Taris. Zaalbar is the brother to Chuundar, the leader of a tribe on their home planet Kashyyyk. When the player's party first lands on Kashyyyk, Zaalbar is referred to as "mad-claw". Through Zaalbar's and Chuundar's father, Freyyr, Revan learns why Zaalbar was banished from the tribe: Zaalbar learned that Chuundar was selling Wookiee slaves to Czerka Corporation, and in a fit of rage attacked him with his bare claws, breaking a major Wookiee taboo; this led Freyyr to disbelieve Zaalbar and side with Chuundar, and thus Zaalbar was exiled. When Revan and Freyyr confront Chuundar, Zaalbar sides with Freyyr and Revan and in turn kills Chuundar, freeing the Wookiees and driving Czerka off the planet. A dark-side alternative has Revan kill Freyyr, allowing Czerka's slave trade on Kashyyyk to continue: a dark-sided Revan can also order Zaalbar to kill Mission in order to fulfill his life-debt – this may cause Zaalbar to turn against Revan as well.

Bastila Shan

Bastila Shan, voiced by Jennifer Hale, is a Jedi who defeated Revan prior to the beginning of Knights of the Old Republic. The first part of the game is spent searching for her after the Endar Spire is destroyed, and she joins the party upon her rescue from slavers. Darth Malak later captures her and seduces her to the dark side. Revan later confronts Bastila in a lightsaber duel and has the option of killing her or allowing her to live: a dark-side character makes her their apprentice, while a light-side character helps her redeem herself by helping the Republic fleet. Later Star Wars Legends continuity adopts the outcome in which Bastila is redeemed by a male Revan, whom she later marries, and survives the destruction of the Star Forge.

Juhani

Juhani, voiced by Courtenay Taylor, is a Cathar padawan who incorrectly believed she killed her master. She turned to the dark side and tainted the grove on Dantooine where she lived. Depending on which path the conversation is steered in by the player, Revan may either fight (and kill) her, or redeem her, where she joins the party to discover the location of the Star Forge and returns to the Order as a Jedi Knight. Juhani is the first explicitly LGBTQ character in Star Wars media.

Jolee Bindo