Rieve

Born on the planet [Corellia](/article/corellia], a Core Worlds location, Rieve was a Force-sensitive human female who grew up as an orphan. Raised by Togruta sisters in a Coronet City orphanage, she often felt alienated from the other children. She eventually found work as a courier for Feyr Jos'han. Rieve diligently saved her earnings, credits, stashing them behind a loose tile in the orphanage's bathroom. Her success was fueled by her deep understanding of Coronet City and her innate connection to the Force.

When she turned 16, Jos'han entrusted Rieve with delivering vital medical supplies to a Pantoran contact within the Rebel Alliance. While not aligned with the Empire, Rieve also wasn't part of the rebellion. She nonetheless agreed to deliver the small leather package to the shipyards. On her journey, she noticed at least 14 individuals clad in brown combat attire closing in on her. Scaling rooftops, she used the Force to enhance her evasive maneuvers. However, she found herself trapped in a dead end. One masked combatant demanded the package, as the others surrounded her. Their threats to kill Rieve ignited a surge of rage and fear, resulting in a powerful Force push that incapacitated all the combatants, leaving several with broken bones. Terrified by her uncontrolled abilities, she quickly completed the delivery before returning to the orphanage to gather her belongings and credits.

Before fleeing the orphanage, Rieve overheard a stormtrooper squad approaching, led by a mysterious figure concealed by a dark blue cloak. This figure ordered the troopers to find Rieve and bring her to him for execution. Escaping through the orphanage's rear, she rushed to a galactic port and booked passage across the galaxy.

Rieve eventually made her way to Hutta Town, the capital of Nar Shaddaa, where she initially worked as a courier before forming a friendship with Yemar. Joining Yemar, Rieve became the lead singer and frontwoman for a gonkrock band named Corellia's Not Dead, performing in various cantinas. As their popularity grew, Rieve continued her courier work during the day and pursued her music at night. Five years after leaving Coronet City, while headlining a concert at Yoshoyan's, an audience member hijacked the communicator used by the sound system operator to speak to Rieve's commbud, hurling insults at Rieve and the band. Overwhelmed with anger, she inadvertently pushed her bandmate Boornan with the Force before unleashing a massive Force wave that cleared the audience and destabilized the building. Once again terrified by her lack of control and the potential reaction of her bandmates, Rieve fled to the spaceport, where she saw a holonet advertisement for Balada the Hutt's Hunters of the Outer Rim tournament on the Outer Rim Territories planet Vespaara. She saw this as an opportunity to reshape her life, rather than remain a fugitive.

Arriving on Vespaara, she used the Force to force open the door of showman Daq Dragus, convincing him to enlist her as a Hunter. She then underwent a month of rigorous physical and performance training. Following Dragus's advice, Rieve adopted a Sith Lord–inspired persona as a Hunter, wielding a red lightsaber and facing opponents like J-3DI, a droid programmed to believe he was a Jedi. Balada eventually used footage from Rieve's training to promote the presence of a Sith Lord in the tournament. Rieve initially felt it was a cruel joke to advertise her without officially hiring her, but she was soon formally recruited and began competing.

Rieve joined a roster that included the Wookiee Grozz, the droid J-3DI, the Rebel Scout Zaina, twin Jawas Utooni, ex-Imperial Sentinel, bounty hunter Imara Vex, and the Ugnaught/droideka team known as Slingshot. As she prepared for her first match, she met her trainer, a human male named Rothwell. Rothwell applied bandage tape, dressed her in costume, introduced her to the comms system, and gave her the lightsaber acquired by Balada. In her initial matches, Rieve became fixated on J-3DI, ignoring teamwork and the objective, leading to losses. Consequently, Dragus asked J-3DI to train Rieve, after which the droid considered Rieve his Padawan learner.

After achieving her first victory, Rieve and the other Hunters dined together in the Grand Arena's chow room. As a newcomer, she struggled to understand the established social dynamics. Sentinel inquired about her past, noting the lack of a personal history in her Hunter profile. She gave a vague answer, mentioning only that she was from Coronet City. When J-3DI called Rieve his apprentice, she felt the uncontrolled Force, and fled the Arena. That evening, she wandered around Vespaara ending up in the Backwater District, known for its music venues and cantinas, where she heard a gonkrock band playing at the Oasis Cantina. Outside, she encountered Zaina, Imara Vex, and Grozz, whom she reluctantly allowed to join her in watching the performance.

To Rieve's astonishment, the four-member band was led by her former bandmate Yemar. While the crowd, including Grozz, enjoyed the performance, Rieve worried about Yemar's reaction to seeing her after she abandoned Corellia's Not Dead. The drummer-turned-singer eventually spotted Rieve and invited her to the stage. Hesitant, Rieve was met by Yemar, who told her he missed her. Feeling emboldened, Rieve joined her friend on stage to sing the Corellia's Not Dead song "Forever." She reveled in singing about Coronet City belonging to the people, and then crowd-surfed. Although she wanted to reconnect with Yemar, his new band had to travel off-planet.

As Rieve struggled to adapt to her new role, events on Vespaara made her suspect that her past had caught up with her. Before a match, Rieve discovered that her prep pod had a malfunctioning air circulation unit. Unable to switch pods, her trainer, Rothwell, prepared her partially outside the pod. Rothwell shared his journey to becoming a trainer on Vespaara, including his studies in medicine and physical therapy and his work for a fighting ring on Chandar's Folly. He asked Rieve if she felt restricted by Dragus and Balada. During the match, her lightsaber malfunctioned, adding to her misfortune, though her team still won.

The next morning, Dragus, with the help of J-3DI and Grozz, trained Rieve on the Outpost battlefield, revealing his fighting skills and methods of opponent analysis. Surprised by Dragus's abilities, Rieve inquired about his reasons for retirement. Dragus explained his preference for training, showmanship, and avoiding pain. He announced that the following day, the Hunters would play Huttball in the Gauntlet battlefield. During her day off, Rieve visited the podracing arena, where her thoughts drifted to the past. As her troubled thoughts intensified, she heard an Urodel racer crash. Rieve questioned whether she had caused the crash. She thought she saw the man in the dark blue cloak, but it turned out to be just a human male. She quickly left the arena.

During the Huttball match, as her team performed well, Rieve spotted the man in the dark blue cloak in the stands, surrounded by people in the same brown combat uniforms as on her last night in Corellia. Determined to confront him, Rieve left the battlefield and entered the stands. The crowd hindered her progress toward the mysterious figure, and she nearly fought a Wookiee spectator. Dragus intervened, allowing the man in the dark cloak to escape.

Backstage, Dragus spoke to Rieve about her actions, and Rieve told him and the other Hunters that she saw someone from her past. J-3DI offered to run scans before the next match, but Rieve began to doubt whether she had actually seen the man in the dark cloak. That evening, Rieve wandered around Vespaara, ending up outside the Oasis Cantina, where she found a confused-looking Rothwell. They walked along the streets. Rothwell expressed his concerns about Dragus and Balada's ability to protect Rieve, and mentioned his work in an underground fighting ring for extra security. He subtly suggested that she would excel in the underground fighting scene.

As the next match began, Rieve saw the man in the dark cloak standing in the tunnel entrance from the Ewok Village battlefield. She alerted Zaina, who also noticed the figure in the restricted area. They looped in Imara Vex and Grozz, who confirmed their observation. The four teammates abandoned their match to pursue the cloaked figure, but he had vanished. They asked a group of shocked techs, meds, and trainers if they had seen him, but none had. Panicking, Rieve aggressively searched nearby prep pods as Dragus tried to calm her. Rieve's emotions erupted into an outburst, Force-pushing Dragus back. She stripped down to her base costume and fled the arena, leaving her lightsaber behind.

As Rieve moved through the crowd outside the Oasis Cantina, Rothwell caught up with her, and she asked to go to one of his underground fighting rings, seeking an outlet for her emotions. The next day, Rothwell took her to an industrial area in the Vespaara boomtown, where an underground fighting match was taking place. Rothwell easily got Rieve past the bouncer and introduced her to the protocol droid PZ-80B, who handled translation, refereeing, and announcements. Rieve watched several fights before Rothwell convinced the droid to let her enter a subsequent match. She decided to violate her Hunters of the Outer Rim contract, believing there to be little future there, and fought an Iktotchi male. Rieve easily won, but upon finishing, she couldn't find Rothwell. When she shouted his name, the crowd went silent. Moments later, the man in the dark blue cloak emerged. He revealed himself to be Rothwell.

Rieve's trainer had been the man in the cloak all along. Rothwell confessed that he used to run a successful business on Corellia before Rieve disrupted a vital shipment. The medical supplies she delivered to the Rebel Alliance were from an intercepted shipment that Rothwell intended to sell to an Imperial contact. Unable to provide the supplies, his contact assumed Rothwell sold them to the Rebels, and imprisoned him and his employees in labor camps. Rothwell blamed Rieve for the loss of his livelihood. Over the following years, he rebuilt his business before seeing the advertisement for the Hunters of the Outer Rim tournament featuring Rieve. He used his medical knowledge to convince Dragus to hire him as Rieve's trainer and sabotaged her along the way. He then declared his plan to sabotage the Arena one last time and sent a group of his fighters to kill her.

Rieve fought Rothwell's fighters, but they began to overwhelm her. Before the Iktotchi could kick her, he was shot by Zaina, who had arrived with the other Hunters. The hope of seeing her friends allowed Rieve to attune with the Force, and she used it to fight her combatants. Eventually, the Hunters defeated Rothwell's fighters, and Rieve warned them about Rothwell's planned sabotage. Utooni stole a speeder, and they rode back to the arena, giving Rieve the chance to share her story. When they arrived, they encountered Dragus, who told them of the goons attacking the arena, planting charges and destroying the battlefields. The Hunters planned an attack against the invaders as the crowd was evacuated.

Rieve took on a leadership role during the battle, helping send her fellow Hunters to where they would be most effective. Realizing that the other Hunters were more familiar with the arena, she went backstage to monitor the surveillance system and direct Hunters to the goons' locations. When she arrived backstage, she felt a blaster against her head. It was Balada, who assumed she was a goon. They cleared up the misunderstanding, and Balada went with J-3DI to fight off the goons. Rieve then directed her teammates, eliminating most of Rothwell's fighters. She eventually spotted Rothwell in the Aftermath battlefield and directed Dragus and Imara Vex to his location. However, they realized it was one of Rothwell's goons using a hologram disguise matrix. Rieve looked up to find Rothwell backstage with her. The man accepted the marginal destruction he caused to the arena, emphasizing that his sole focus was making Rieve suffer. He tried to shoot her, but Rieve blocked his first blast with her lightsaber before using the Force to dash away and dodge his subsequent shots. However, she slammed into a prep pod, losing her lightsaber.

Rothwell once again tried to blame Rieve for his problems, but she yelled back that his problems were not her fault, that she was just a teenager doing her job and defending herself from a violent attack. As Rothwell aimed his blaster at near point-blank range, Rieve spotted her lightsaber across the room and dashed to it. She deflected several shots and threw her lightsaber at Rothwell, slicing his blaster in half, before using the Force to retrieve it.

When Dragus and the other Hunters arrived backstage, Rothwell pulled out a Class-A thermal detonator, with a blast radius of up to twenty meters. He threatened to explode a significant portion of the backstage area unless they let him escape. Rothwell armed the detonator, which rolled to Dragus's feet. Rieve dashed to it and used the Force to retrieve it before channeling all her energy to contain the explosion. She minimized the damage and saved her friends, but burnt her hands. Balada and the others thanked Rieve for saving the arena, and Rieve secured her position as a Hunter, beginning to consider her fellow Hunters as her family.

After the conflict, Rieve sought medical attention for her burns. She started to nurture the friendships she had with the other Hunters. She extended an invitation to Sentinel to visit her home and became a regular at the Oasis Cantina, often accompanied by Sentinel, Imara Vex, Zaina, and Grozz. At some point, Balada introduced a new type of match where Hunters would fight a rancor, and Rieve finally found contentment in her position.

At a later time, tension between Rieve and J-3DI escalated, leading Rieve to issue a challenge for a battle. Speculation within the Arena suggested that the challenge was in response to J-3DI's request for Rieve to become his padawan.

Rieve later agreed to an interview for Arena News with Arena announcer Boz Vega. Despite Rieve's attempts to discuss her passion for gonkrock, Vega steered the conversation towards J-3DI, mentioning the rumor about him asking Rieve to be his apprentice. In an uncontrolled fit of anger, Rieve used the Force to knock Vega to the ground. Vega attempted to shift the focus back to gonkrock, but his efforts were futile; Rieve stormed out of the interview.

Rieve would ultimately emerge victorious from the battle. Following her defeat of J-3DI, Rieve generously, albeit reluctantly, assisted him in gathering his scattered components from the floor.

Upon the arrival of a new Hunter, the KX-series security droid K-A0S, who began to harass Grozz, Sentinel persuaded K-A0S, Rieve, and a selection of the more "villainous" Hunters to form a team, parading around the Arena adorned with Imperial flags. Despite being largely ignored by the other Hunters, Sentinel was pleased, even though his plans extended no further than a vague notion to "bring back the Empire." Rieve eventually lost interest in Sentinel's schemes and redirected her focus to the training ground.

When the Iridonian Zabrak Nox joined the Hunters, her attitude was far from welcoming. During a training session where she spent her time avoiding her fellow Hunters, Rieve finally approached her and suggested that Nox train with the group. Nox's cold response nearly ignited a conflict with Rieve until other Hunters intervened.

During an interview with Boz Vega, Nox was critical of Rieve's skills and reputation. When Nox's words reached Rieve, she began furiously destroying droids on the training grounds until Nox herself appeared. Rieve lunged at Nox, and the two engaged in a brief battle before Grozz was able to pull Rieve away. Once things calmed down, Nox approached Rieve with a compliment, and the two began discussing battle strategy. Rieve invited Nox to a team social, but Nox rudely rejected her offer of friendship, nearly sparking another fight before Daq Dragus intervened, suggesting they settle their score in the Arena. Nox and Rieve eventually faced off in an Arena Clash, where Rieve was defeated.

Despite Nox's disdain for friendship, she soon began spending time with Rieve, training discreetly after hours and dining together in the Chow Room. However, when Diago Velaar commented that Nox had found friends, Nox angrily denied it and stormed off, narrowly avoiding crushing a nearby mouse droid. Rieve rushed after her, explaining that not only was Diago harmless, but he was also likeable. Nox disagreed and insisted that her friendship with Rieve was also a mistake before stalking off. Rieve wondered why she was even trying.

After Nox and Diago resolved their issues with a friendly Clash, the two began training together. In the training grounds, Nox awkwardly greeted Rieve, who acknowledged her, but was clearly in a bad mood about something. Suddenly, Balada and Daq Dragus arrived, announcing that Balada's prized tiara had been stolen from her chambers. They offered a reward for the capture of the thief, hinting that this may have something to do with a new Hunter who would be arriving shortly.

Rieve, having been an orphan on Corellia, had endured past traumas, making her a challenging person to get to know. She was reluctant to reveal her past or show vulnerability, which was why she was drawn to joining Hunters of the Outer Rim, and was motivated by a strong sense of self-preservation. Rieve struggled with a lack of confidence, which initially hindered her career as a Hunter. Generally uninterested in others, she was accustomed to protecting herself, with her distrust of others proving to be a significant flaw. However, after fighting to protect the arena from attacking goons, she began to view her fellow Hunters as family, finally opening up.

Rieve adopted the persona of a Sith Lord for arena combat. In developing this persona, she created an appropriate voice, fighting style, and costume to maximize the entertainment value of a Sith Lord Hunter.

As a human female, Rieve naturally possessed white hair, blue eyes, and pale skin. She wore her hair long on top, with the sides fully shaved. For her in-tournament persona, Rieve wore red makeup resembling geometric Sith tattoos on her face and head to accentuate her angular features.

Rieve possessed Force powers that she struggled to control, although the Arena served as a chaotic outlet for them. She had some knowledge of lightsaber combat, which she used during her arena battles. She spoke Galactic Basic but could not understand Shyriiwook, making it difficult for her to communicate with the Wookiee Grozz.

Rieve wore a red-and-black outfit with layered leggings and prominent shoulder pads, as well as black and red arm wrappings, as a Hunters of the Outer Rim combatant. She also wielded a red lightsaber. Upon discovering it in Balada's property, Rieve also modified a suit of Sith armor for use in the arena.

Rieve was conceived for the 2024 mobile game Star Wars: Hunters, a joint venture between Zynga and Lucasfilm Games, and was initially revealed in a trailer released on September 14, 2021. She made her debut in the game's soft launch on November 16, 2021, before its global release. Rieve is also the central character of Hunters: Battle for the Arena, a tie-in novel penned by Mark Oshiro. In an interview with StarWars.com, Oshiro characterized Rieve as an "anti-hero" who could appear almost villainous from certain viewpoints, and mentioned drawing inspiration from characters like Lando Calrissian, Jango Fett, and Asajj Ventress when crafting Rieve's character.

As a playable character, Rieve is categorized as a level three-difficulty Damage-class Hunter. Her primary weapon is her red lightsaber, which inflicts substantial melee damage. She possesses four active abilities. Ruthless Pursuit allows Rieve to dash forward and strike an opponent with her lightsaber for significant damage. Her Lightsaber Throw ability can damage enemies in either direction of its arc. Additionally, her Wild Defense ability allows Rieve to deflect incoming blaster bolts and block melee attacks and physical projectiles. Her fourth active ability, considered a talent, is called Vicious Leap, which enables her to jump forwards or target onto an enemy. Her Ultimate ability is Crushing Will, which allows her to use the Force to stun and pull in nearby enemies, leaving them completely vulnerable to damage.