Rieve

"Don't look at me. Don't even think about me. Unless you want to end up on the wrong end of my saber."

―Rieve, under the guise of her arena persona^[3]

Rieve was a Force-sensitive human female from the Core Worlds planet Corellia. After the fall of the Galactic Empire, she fought in the Hunters of the Outer Rim tournament in the Grand Arena on Vespaara, where she affected a Sith Lord persona during competition. Struggling to control her Force powers and adapt to her new position as a Hunter, Rieve feared her past had caught up with her when a mysterious stranger began appearing at the Arena.^[1]

Biography[]

Life on Corellia[]

Rieve was a Force-sensitive female human orphan^[1] from the Core Worlds planet^[5] Corellia. She was raised in an orphanage in Coronet City run by Togruta sisters. Throughout her time there, Rieve often felt like an outsider among the others. Eventually, she began working as a courier for Feyr Jos'han. Rieve saved up credits, hiding them behind a wall tile in the bathroom of her orphanage. Rieve used her extensive knowledge of Coronet City and her innate connection to the Force to find success.^[1]

RieveForcePush-BattleForTheArena — Rieve using the Force to push back assailants in Coronet City

At age 16, Jos'han gave Rieve a special delivery of medical supplies to deliver to a Pantoran contact in the Rebel Alliance. Although Rieve was not a fan of the Empire, she was not part of a rebel movement. Nevertheless, she accepted the small leather package to deliver to the shipyards. As she moved through the city, she spotted at least 14 combatants dressed in brown combat uniforms closing in on her. She climbed to the rooftops and used the Force to guide her evasive movements. However, she eventually got caught in a dead end. One masked combatant demanded that Rieve hand over the package, and the numerous fighters closed in on her. Their threats to kill Rieve made her rage and fear erupt in a massive Force push, rendering all the combatants unconscious, with several breaking bones. Afraid of her unrestrained power, she quickly completed her delivery before returning to the orphanage to gather essential belongings and credits.^[1]

Before Rieve fled the orphanage, she heard the sound of a stormtrooper squadron marching up the street towards the orphanage. Leading them was a mysterious man, his identity hidden with a dark blue cloak. The man demanded the troopers find Rieve and deliver her to him to personally kill. Escaping from the rear of the orphanage, she ran to a galactic port and booked passage across the galaxy.^[1]

Time on Nar Shaddaa[]

Rieve eventually moved to Hutta Town, the capital city of Nar Shaddaa, where she began working as a courier before befriending Yemar. Joining Yemar, Rieve played as the frontwoman and lead singer of a gonkrock band called Corellia's Not Dead, playing various cantinas. Their popularity grew, and Rieve continued her work as a courier by day, performing music by night. Five years after leaving Coronet City, Rieve and her band were headlining a concert at Yoshoyan's when an audience heckler seized the communicator that the sound system operator used to talk to Rieve's commbud, insulting Rieve and the band. As her anger grew, she accidentally pushed her bandmate Boornan with the Force before unleashing a massive Force wave that parted the audience and destabilized the building. Terrified by a lack of control once again and how her bandmates may react, 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 seized the opportunity to change her life, rather than being forced to run.^[1]

Early days as a Hunter[]

On Vespaara, she used the Force to break open the door of showman Daq Dragus, and convinced him to make her a Hunter. She spent the subsequent month in intense physical and performance training. Per Dragus's recommendation, Rieve adopted a Sith Lord–inspired persona as a Hunter,^[1] wielding a red lightsaber and going up against opponents such as J-3DI, a droid programmed to believe he was a Jedi.^[3] Eventually, Balada used footage from one of Rieve's training sessions to advertise the presence of a Sith Lord in the tournament. Rieve thought it a cruel joke to advertise her as a Hunter without officially hiring her, but she was soon formally taken on and started immediately.^[1]

Rieve was hired onto the same roster as 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 arrived in her prep pod to prepare for her first match, she met her trainer, a human male named Rothwell. The man wrapped Rieve in proprietary bandage tape, dressed her in her costume, introduced her to the comms system built into her outfit, and handed her the lightsaber acquired by Balada. In her first two matches, Rieve became hyper-fixated on J-3DI, ignoring teamwork and the objective. This led to decisive losses. Due to this, Dragus asked J-3DI to help train Rieve on his style, after which the droid considered Rieve his Padawan learner.^[1]

After her first win, Rieve and the other Hunters dined together in the chow room of the Grand Arena. As a newcomer, she struggled to navigate the established social relationships between her fellow Hunters. Eventually, Sentinel asked Rieve about her past, noting the lack of a personal history attached to her Hunter profile. She kept her answer vague, only mentioning being from Coronet City. When J-3DI arrived, calling Rieve his apprentice, she began feeling the uncontrolled Force, and fled the Arena. That evening, she wandered around Vespaara following the flow of the crowd. This led her to the Backwater District, which was lined with music venues and cantinas, where she head the sound of a gonkrock band in the Oasis Cantina. Outside the cantina, she ran into Zaina, Imara Vex, and Grozz, whom she reluctantly let join her to watch the band perform.^[1]

To Rieve's surprise, the four-member band was led by her former bandmate Yemar. As the crowd, including Grozz, thoroughly enjoyed the performance, Rieve worried about how Yemar would react to seeing her for the first time since she abandoned Corellia's Not Dead. The drummer-turned-singer eventually noticed Rieve in the crowd and paused the performance to invite her to the stage. Rieve hesitated, but Yemar met her in the crowd, telling her that he missed her. Feeling bold, Rieve joined her friend on stage to sing the Corellia's Not Dead song "Forever." Rieve reveled in singing about how Coronet City would always belong to the people, and then crowd-surfed. Although she wanted to catch up with Yemar, his new band had to travel off-planet.^[1]

Battle for the Arena[]

While struggling to adapt as a Hunter in the tournament, events on Vespaara left Rieve concerned that her past had caught up with her. Before a match, Rieve found her prep pod had a non-functional air circulation unit. Unable to relocate to another pod, her trainer, Rothwell, prepared her partially outside the pod. That day, Rothwell explained to her his journey to working as a trainer on Vespaara, including his time studying medicine and physical therapy and working for a fighting ring on Chandar's Folly. He asked Rieve if she felt held back by Dragus and Balada. During the match, she found her lightsaber malfunctioning, adding to her streak of misfortune. Her team still won the match.^[1]

The following morning, Dragus helped train Rieve on the Outpost battlefield with the help of J-3DI and Grozz. In doing so, Dragus revealed his fighting skill and methods of opponent analysis. Surprised at Dragus's skill, Rieve asked him about his reasons for retirement. Dragus explained that he preferred training, showmanship, and avoiding pain. He announced that the following day, the Hunters would play Huttball in the Gauntlet battlefield. Taking advantage of her day off, Rieve ventured to the podracing arena, where her mind wandered to the past. As her troubled thoughts grew, she was alerted by the sound of an Urodel racer crashing. Her turmoil made Rieve question whether she had made the podracer crash. She thought she saw the man in the dark blue cloak, but it turned out to be just a human male. She hurriedly left the arena.^[1]

During the Huttball match, her team was performing well when Rieve spotted the man in the dark blue cloak in the stands surrounded by people dressed in the same brown combat uniforms as on her last night in Corellia. Determined to get the upper hand on him before she could get cornered again, Rieve kept from the battlefield into the stands. The confused crowd impeded her progress towards the mysterious figure, and nearly fought a Wookiee spectator. Dragus, however, stopped her, allowing the man in the dark cloak to escape.^[1]

Backstage, Dragus spoke to Rieve about her going into the audience, 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 actually did see the man in the dark cloak in the crowd. That evening, Rieve wandered around Vespaara, finding herself outside the Oasis Cantina, where she found a confused-looking Rothwell. The two of them walked along the streets. Rothwell discussed his concerns about the ability of Dragus and Balada to keep Rieve safe, and how he worked in an underground fighting ring for extra job security. In doing so, he subtly suggested that she would thrive in the underground fighting scene.^[1]

As the next match began, Rieve saw from the Ewok Village battlefield the man in the dark cloak standing in the tunnel entrance. She grabbed the attention of Zaina, who also noticed the mysterious figure in the restricted-access area. They also looped in Imara Vex and Grozz, who both reaffirmed the women's observation. The four teammates abandoned their match to pursue the cloaked figure, but he had disappeared. They asked a group of shocked techs, meds, and trainers if they saw the figure, but none had seen such an individual in the busy tunnel entrance area. Panicking, Rieve aggressively searched nearby prep pods as Dragus attempted to calm her. Rieve's emotions eventually erupted into an outburst, Force-pushing Dragus back. She stripped down to just her base costume, and fled the arena, leaving her lightsaber behind.^[1]

As Rieve sifted through the crowd outside the Oasis Cantina, Rothwell caught back up with her, and she asked to go to one of his underground fighting rings. She sought an outlet to express her emotions, believing a brutal fight would do the trick. The next day, Rothwell brought 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 ran translation, refereeing, and announcement for the attendees. Rieve observed several fights before Rothwell convinced the protocol droid to allow Rieve to enter a subsequent match. She decided to violate the exclusivity agreement in her Hunters of the Outer Rim contract, believing there to be little future there, and fought an Iktotchi male. Rieve handily won her match, but upon finishing could not find Rothwell. When she shouted his name, the crowd went silent in fear. Moments later, the man in the dark blue cloak emerged. He lowered his hood to reveal the face of Rothwell.^[1]

Rieve's trainer turned out to be the man in the cloak all along. Rothwell confessed to Rieve that he used to run a very successful business on Corellia before Rieve disrupted a vital shipment. The medical supplies she was delivering 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 the supplies to the Rebels, and imprisoned he and his employees in labor camps. Rothwell blamed Rieve for the loss of his livelihood. Over the following years, he steadily 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 to Rieve that he planned to sabotage the Area one last time, and sent a large group of his fighters to encircle and kill her.^[1]

HuntersRescuingRieve-BattleForTheArena — Zaina and the other Hunters saved Rieve from Rothwell's fighters

Rieve fought Rothwell's fighters, but they began to overpower her. Before the Iktotchi could kick her, he was shot by Zaina, who had arrived with the other Hunters on Rieve's roster. The surge of hope at seeing her friends allowed Rieve to attune with the Force, and she used the Force in a controlled manner 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 opportunity to share her story and how Rothwell had manipulated her. 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 invading fighters as the crowd was evacuated.^[1]

Rieve took on a leadership role during the battle, helping send her fellow Hunters to where they would be most helpful. She realized that since the other Hunters were more familiar with the arena, she could go backstage to monitor the surveillance system and use comms to direct Hunters to the locations of the goons. When she arrived backstage, she felt a blaster against the back of her head. Fortunately, it was Balada, who assumed she was another goon. They cleared up the confusion, and Balada went with J-3DI to fight off the goons. Rieve then directed her teammates in 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 that it was actually 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 became making Rieve suffer. He attempted 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.^[1]

Rothwell tried once again to blame Rieve for his woes, but she yelled back how his problems were not her fault, how she was just a teenager doing her job and defending herself from a violent attack. As Rothwell aimed his blaster once again at near point-blank distance, Rieve spotted her lightsaber across the room and dashed to it. She deflected several shots, and eventually threw her lightsaber at Rothwell, slicing his blaster in half, before using the Force to retrieve it.^[1]

When Dragus and the other Hunters began arriving backstage, Rothwell pulled out a Class-A thermal detonator, which had 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. She began to consider her fellow Hunters as her family.^[1]

After the battle[]

Following the battle, Rieve received medical treatment for her burns. She began to embrace her friendships with her fellow Hunters. She invited Sentinel to her home, and frequently visited the Oasis Cantina with him, Imara Vex, Zaina, and Grozz. At some point, Balada introduced a new style of match in which Hunters fought a rancor, and Rieve finally felt content in her life position.^[1]

Personality and traits[]

Rieve, growing up an orphan on Corellia, had experienced trauma as a result of her past which made her a difficult person to get to know. She disliked revealing her past or showing vulnerability, which was why joining Hunters of the Outer Rim appealed to her, and was driven by a strong self-preservation instinct.^[1] Rieve struggled with her lack of confidence, getting her career as a Hunter off to a rocky start.^[6] Rieve generally had no interest in others and was used to having to protect herself, with her refusal to trust others proving to be a serious flaw. After battling to protect the arena from attacking goons, she began to consider her fellow Hunters as family, finally opening up.^[1]

Rieve disappeared into the persona of a Sith Lord for arena combat. In the development of her persona, she created an appropriate voice, fighting style, and costume to maximize the entertainment value of a Sith Lord Hunter.^[1]

A human female, Rieve naturally had white hair, blue eyes, and pale skin. She wore her hair long on top, and fully shaved on either side.^[3] For her in-tournament persona,^[1] Rieve sported red makeup resembling geometric Sith tattoos on her face and head to accent her angular features.^[3]

Powers and abilities[]

Rieve had Force powers which she struggled to control,^[6] although the Arena served as a chaotic outlet for them.^[1] She knew some lightsaber combat, which she utilized during her arena battles. She spoke Galactic Basic^[3] but could not understand Shyriiwook, which made it difficult for her to communicate with the Wookiee Grozz.^[1]

Equipment[]

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.^[3]

Behind the scenes[]

Rieve's logo in Star Wars: Hunters

Rieve was created for the 2024 mobile game Star Wars: Hunters,^[7] produced by Zynga and Lucasfilm Games,^[8] and was first revealed in a trailer released on September 14, 2021.^[3] She debuted in the game's soft launch on November 16, 2021,^[9] prior to its global release.^[3] Rieve is also the protagonist of Hunters: Battle for the Arena, a tie-in novel written by Mark Oshiro. In an interview with StarWars.com, Oshiro described Rieve as an "anti-hero" type of character who could seem almost villainous from some perspectives, and said that they had looked to characters like Lando Calrissian, Jango Fett, and Asajj Ventress for inspiration when writing Rieve.^[10]

As a playable character, Rieve is considered a level three-difficulty Damage-class Hunter. Her main weapon is her red lightsaber, which deals a large amount of melee damage. She has four active abilities. Ruthless Pursuit allows Rieve to dash forward to strike an opponent with her lightsaber for high damage. Her Lightsaber Throw ability can damage enemies in either direction of its arc. Additionally, her Wild Defense ability lets Rieve deflect incoming blaster bolts and block melee attacks and physical projectiles. Her fourth active ability, considered a talent, is called Vicious Leap, in which she can jump forwards or target onto an enemy. Her Ultimate ability is Crushing Will, in which she uses the Force to stun and pull in nearby enemies, leaving them entirely vulnerable to damage.^[3]