14 DAY TRIAL // BioWare has finished unveiling the classes of Star Wars: The Old Republic, the developer's upcoming MMO, and while all of them got a bit of background information as well as a general feel of their attitude and gameplay style, little is known about the individuals that we'll be impersonating. The Star Wars: TOR official blog has posted an inside peek into the existence of the Sith classes, taking a closer look at the Sith Inquisitor. Rebecca Harwick, a writer for the game, described the class as being "about the darkest of dark side secrets; everything that’s weird and unsettling and dangerous about the Force. The Inquisitor is about power not (solely) through brute force and intimidation, but through manipulation, corruption, and knowledge."
As she explains, the Star Wars trilogy offered two character builds for the Dark side users of the Force, the physically dominant Darth Vader and the frail but deceitful and powerful Emperor Palpatine. Further on, the rest of the Star Wars universe offered further starting points, through the likes of Darth Maul, Count Dooku and Asajj Ventress, which have led to the creation of very unique Sith classes, yet true to the universe of Star Wars.
If the rest of the Sith classes enjoy a privileged existence, training at the Academy on Korriban, the Inquisitor is an outcast, shunned for its sensitivity to the Force and sent to become a Sith or die trying. "The Sith Inquisitor begins the game as a slave, plucked from obscurity and toil in a highly stratified, unforgiving Empire because of his Force-sensitivity and sent to become a Sith or die," Harwick further explained.
Plunged in a world where everyone is out for themselves, the only rules being that there are no rules and that only the strong survive, the way Harwick tells the story of the Inquisitor's origins, he is nothing but a man, or woman, that's thrown into a merciless environment, faced with the choice of admitting their limitations and surviving or risking it all in search of a free existence, one that can only be granted by immeasurable power.
The blog post also offered a bit of an information leak regarding the Inquisitor's starting quest. "I will say that yes there are some freaky artifacts involved and maybe a Force ghost or two, and lots of opportunity to apply lightning in some very persuasive ways," Harwick said. "But there are also opportunities for a more subtle approach: 'Look the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it.' Manipulate, corrupt, and play Sith against Sith."