Riddick was born on
Furya and inherited the traits of an
Alpha Furyan, which gives him an advantage in strength and endurance over normal
Furyan infants. Before Riddick's birth, a
Necromongerofficer named
Zhylaw consulted an
Elemental seer (implied to be
Aereon), who prophesized that a male child born on the planet Furya would be his ultimate downfall. To forestall this prophecy, Zhylaw attacked Furya in an attempt to massacre all male children, going so far as to personally strangle newborn infants with their umbilical cords, including Riddick himself. In doing so, Zhylaw believed that he had culled his own doom, but unbeknownst to him an infant survived. It is possible that this particle infant's inherent advtanges were key to his survival. It is unknown who collected the infant Riddick from where Zhylaw had left him for dead, or how he got off planet. As his official records read "Place of Birth: Unknown," it is clear whoever was responsible did not reveal Riddick's origins to any authorities.
Little is known about Riddick's childhood, save that he was, by his own admission, educated in the penal system.
While Riddick retained memories of massacre on Furya, these memories were repressed and forgotten, likely due to his extreme youth at the time. Instead, he believed his mother attempted to kill him at birth by strangling him with his umbilical cord and dumping him in a liquor store trash bin
[1]. This is likely the story contained in his records and just as likely told to him repeatedly by those with little care for the child Riddick's sense of self worth.
As Riddick grew older he began receiving periodic visions of a Furyan named
Shirah; visions which he believed to be signs of mental instability. It would not be until his encounter with the Necromongers that his repressed memories would finally escape their imprisonment and he would realize that he had a homeworld and a tragic past of which he had never been consciously aware
[2].
Once grown, Riddick became a
Company ranger. It was here while in the military that he learned how to pilot ships. He was assigned to
Sigma 3, where he worked as a
sweeper. Sweepers worked in the tunnels, where they drew out
spitfires. It was incredibly dangerous, and the method of drawing them out required two sweepers to lay in wait while another acted as a distraction for nearby spitfires so the other two sweepers could kill them. Riddick was wounded multiple times doing this, and since the ranger team played dice to choose the decoy, Riddick learned to cheat at dice. During his tour on Sigma 3, he learned how corrupt the Company was.
He was promoted to the prestigious
Strikeforce Academy on Sigma 3's moon. There, he became a much more efficient soldier. After graduating from the Academy, he was once again assigned to Sigma 3, this time to "enforce security." Riddick learned that life on Sigma 3 was nearly slavery, and enforcing security there meant murdering and torturing. Riddick spoke out against it, but the Company refused to change their inhumane system on Sigma 3. Instead, the Company disposed of the evidence Riddick gathered and sent him to a prison known only as
Deep Storage[3].
Riddick spent less than three years in
Ribald S Correctional Institute. Before his third year was up, he overpowered a guard and took his uniform. Riddick shot two guards and a pilot before escaping on the prison planet's only space freighter.
The Company put a million-credit contract on Riddick and he became a wanted man on five planets in three systems, and was pursued by nearly every bounty hunter, bushwhacker and
Mercenary in the space lanes. Every time he killed one of them, their deaths were added to his list of serial killings.
Over several years, Riddick evaded all who wanted to kill him, though several times he was caught. He spent time in the
Hubble Bay Penal Facility,
Ribald S Correctional Institute,
Tangiers Penal Colony, among other places. He took a psychological evaluation, by
Dr. Snyder, at one of these prisons, which stated that he was a violent sociopath and a murderer. He escaped each prison with relative ease.
During one escape, Riddick joined a mercenary outfit that augmented a company of
E-TAC soldiers fighting in the
Wailing Wars. Of the 500 men in that outfit, Riddick was supposedly the only man to leave the planet alive. Rumors suggested that Riddick killed most of his own platoon.
[4]
Once, Riddick was captured and brought to Ursa Luna Maximum Security Prison -- also known as
Slam City -- by a pair of hired guards. He had been put into
cryosleep during their journey to the prison. When the warden of the Slam City demanded that Riddick be woken up to prove that he was alive, Riddick 'woke' with calculated violence, killing one merc and capturing the other. He briefly held a mercenary hostage and stole both their transfer fee and cigarettes before escaping into the dark, unlit bowels of the prison. There, he survived attempts on his life by the guards,
Shiners (individuals with medically augmented night vision) and automated security weapons.
He escaped the prison area of Slam City, and killed a medtech and stole his uniform. He then moved towards the hangar, but his cover was blown while doing so. He killed two guards, and escaped in a spaceship. Riddick only spent 11 hours and 22 minutes in Slam City.
At the end of Slam City we are introduced to someone we will see again... the uniformed, shotgun wielding 'lawman' we will come to know as
William J. Johns in the movie
Pitch Black. He has responded to Ursa Luna's report of an escaped convict. The prison staff, however, have developed such a fear of Riddick that they do not want him brought back to Slam City, and instruct that he be taken to
Hubble Bay Penal Facility instead.
(Previous to the Butcher Bay game, Ursa Luna was the original source of Riddick's 'eye shine'. After losing his recently stolen cash to the Shiners, Riddick encounters
Cutter, the slam doc who gave the Shiners' their enhanced night vision and pays the 'doctor' in cigarettes to perform the same surgery on his eyes. Despite this surgical eye shine origin being documented in multiple canon sources [including Pitch Black, the novelization, the Slam City flash movie and even the pop up bonus info on the TCoR DVD] many considered it retconned by the origin given in the Butcher Bay game - see below.)
Some time after the events of Slam City, Johns and a captured Riddick arrive at
Butcher Bay Correctional Facility. Johns meets with
Hoxie to negotiate his pay, while
Abbott escorts Riddick to his cell in the "single-max" security area. Riddick familiarizes himself with the facility, and soon instigates a riot; during the confusion, he escapes into the prison's sewer system. Fighting through the sewers against mutant "
dwellers", Riddick eventually meets
Pope Joe, for whom he retrieves a lost radio. A woman named Shirah tells Riddick that he "has been blind too long", and he gains his trademark "eyeshine" night vision. Afterwards, he accuses Pope Joe of tampering with his eyes; Joe says that he merely treated Riddick's injured arm. Riddick then continues his escape, while using the eyeshine to his advantage.
Riddick is captured and transferred to the "double-max" security area, where he infiltrates a mining facility. He meets an inmate of great influence in the area named
Jagger Valance, who wishes to escape with him. However, Riddick is discovered and caught by the guards. During his transfer to another section, the prison is disrupted by an outbreak of creatures called "
Xeno", and Riddick attempts to escape with Valance. His plans are foiled again by Johns, and Riddick is placed in the "triple-max" area, where inmates are kept in cryonic sleep. They are awakened daily for two minutes of exercise; during this time, Riddick discovers a flaw in the system and escapes. He then hijacks a large robot and fights his way through Butcher Bay Correctional Facility to reach Hoxie. Tired of dealing with the prison officials, Johns helps Riddick to elude the guards, and the two trick them into killing the warden. They then steal a ship and escape the prison.
Not long after Riddick and Johns escape from Butcher Bay Correctional Facility, on their ship together in a cryogenic sleep, they are dragged unwillingly into the
Dark Athena, a gigantic mercenary vessel run by
Gale Revas and her second in command,
Spinner. Riddick avoids capture as Revas and her men take Johns away. Using the same stealth tactics as he did in Butcher Bay Correctional Facility, Riddick sneaks and hides throughout the ship seeking to escape, killing the guards and mercenaries he encounters along the way. Many of the guards are automated drones that are human bodies with implanted machine parts, controlled remotely from within the ship.
He meets with a little girl named
Lynn Silverman who is hiding from the guards in the air vent systems. Riddick makes his way to the prison cells and finds several people captured, including the former Captain of the Dark Athena before Revas took control. There he meets Lynn's mother,
Ellen Silverman. She offers to make Riddick the tools he needs to escape through the air vents if he can get the right parts. She also asks to find Lynn because she is concerned for her safety. Another prisoner named
Max Dacher offers his technical skills to help Riddick escape on a ship and unlock doors for him if Riddick can find him a Data Pad. He agrees and finds the Data Pad for Dacher and the parts for Silverman. Having again met with Lynn, Silverman keeps her word and makes him the tool he needs. Riddick moves on and is in contact with Dacher via video communication at computer terminals on the ship. Riddick frees the prisoners but most are killed, including Lynn's mother Silverman. Revas kills Dacher as he prepares the ship for their escape. Riddick finally meets Revas face to face. As they fight, he wounds her severely and she is thought to be dead. As he is preparing an escape pod to take off, Lynn is pounding on the door begging Riddick to take her with him. Revas, who is still alive as Riddick's pod takes off, fires a missile that hits the pod, causing it to crash on the planet
Aguerra Prime below.
Riddick wakes up on the shore of a beach (the same beach seen in the introductory tutorial level) and he makes his way into an abandoned city. The planet is under siege from Revas' troops who are capturing civilians and harvesting their bodies to use for their drones. Riddick realizes his only way off the planet is to get back on the Dark Athena again. He makes his way through the city and back to the port where the Athena is docked. Spinner attacks Riddick in a robotic mech suit but is defeated. He gets back onto the Dark Athena and meets Lynn again. She tells Riddick her mother taught her how to make the drones turn on Revas' crew and attack them instead. Fighting ensues on the ship between the drones and the mercenaries. He makes his way up the ship and Riddick meets with Revas again, who is in a
suit of armor with heavy weapons. He defeats her by pushing her into an elevator shaft and she falls to her death. Lynn meets up with him and they are seen going into the elevator. She asks him if Revas is coming back, and Riddick answers "When I say goodbye, it's forever."
Some time after the Dark Athena, Riddick is recaptured by Johns, who decides to travel on ghost lanes to avoid anymore trouble. While its crew and passengers are in cryo-sleep, the transport ship
Hunter Gratzner passes through a comet's tail while on autopilot; debris from the comet ruptures the hull and kills some of its crew, including the captain,
Tom Mitchell. The remaining crew is awakened and docking pilot
Carolyn Fry crash lands on the nearby planet,
M6-117, despite nearly dumping the passenger compartment; although many survive, the ship is a total loss. The survivors find the planet to be near desert, its orbit around three suns keeping the surface in perpetual daylight. The survivors learn that one of the passengers is a dangerous criminal, Richard B. Riddick, who escaped in the crash. Riddick is chased by Johns, before he gets away. Meanwhile, one of the other survivors is killed while investigating a nearby cave. Johns returns with Riddick, who is accused of the survivor's murder and kept under close guard.
A group of the survivors travel to a nearby abandoned geological research settlement to find a supply of water and a
spaceship they can use to escape the planet, though lacking power cells needed to start it up. They come to learn that the planet has a native species of extremely deadly, bat-like
Bioraptors, that preyed on the residents of the settlement but only hunt in darkness, staying in the planet's cave systems otherwise. The survivors, discovering an
Orrery of M6-117 orbit, realize that the suns will soon become eclipsed from M6-117 by another planet in the system, plunging the surface into darkness for an unspecified length of time. They quickly race back to the crashed ship to collect the power cells, other supplies and the other survivors before this occurs.
As they begin the journey back from the crash to the settlement, the eclipse begins and the creatures begin to emerge from the underground caves and attack the survivors. Riddick reveals that he has perfect night vision and the group finds it necessary to trust him to lead them to safety. After Riddick realizes that
Jack, a young runaway disguised as a boy, is female and on her menstrual cycle, Riddick tells the others that her blood is attracting the creatures. When Johns suggests leaving Jack behind to lure the creatures away, Riddick instead wounds Johns and leaves him as the bait. Soon the group is whittled down to Riddick, Fry, Jack and the Muslim
Imam Abu al-Walid; Riddick has the other three wait in a nearby cave with
bioluminescent worms that will keep the creatures at bay while he proceeds with the heavy power cells. Concerned, Fry follows Riddick and finds him ready to take the escape craft by himself but manages to convince him to help rescue Jack and the Imam.
Returning to the cave, Riddick and the others proceed to the ship; Riddick is taken by the creatures, but is saved by Fry's sacrifice. As they prepare to take off, Riddick waits for the last possible minute to kill as many of the creatures as possible in the ship's engine blast. As they are leaving the planet, Jack asks what they should say if they run into bounty hunters or other law enforcers asking where to find Riddick. Riddick responds:
"Tell 'em Riddick's dead. He died somewhere on that planet."
Shortly after escaping the planet, Riddick, Jack, and Imam are picked up by a ship
Kublai Khan. They quickly discover that it's a mercenary ship. Although Riddick attempts to conceal his identity from the mercenaries by impersonating William J. Johns over the intercom, they quickly voice-print and identify him.
Captured by the mercenaries, the trio of survivors rapidly discover that their captors have unusual plans for them. The ship's owner,
Antonia Chillingsworth, is a collector of criminals, whom she freezes and keeps as statues that are, in her view, art. Although the criminals are frozen, they are still alive and conscious. To her, Riddick is the ultimate "masterpiece" for her collection. Riddick, Jack, and Imam must face down and fight their way through the enormous army of human and nonhuman creatures at her disposal, or they will meet a fate far more cruel than death.
Riddick is pursued much of the story by
Toombs and his Mercs. Mercs here are soldiers that are kept in suspended animation until they are needed. They are released to confront Riddick and company aboard the ship.
Jack shoots Chillingsworth just before she can kill Riddick. This discovery is clearly a source of worry for Riddick and Imam as the three escape from the mercenary ship. This manifests itself in Riddick's decision to deliver both Jack and Imam at
New Mecca.
5 years later, on the icy world of the planet
U.V.6 where Riddick is evading bounty hunter Toombs and his crew. Toombs is trying to collect the 1.5 million bounty placed on Riddick's head. Riddick kills or disables all but Toombs and leaves the planet with their ship, setting a course for the planet
Helion Prime, from which the bounty originated. While in cryo-sleep, Riddick is plagued by visions from a character named Shirah during the flight, who tells Riddick he is the last of a warrior-race called the Furyans.
When Riddick lands on Helion Prime, he confronts Imam in the city of New Mecca, believing he is responsible for the bounty. Imam explains that he only gave information on Riddick's location to the one who placed the bounty. Imam also tells Riddick that Jack, the other survivor from the Hunter Gratzner crash, went looking for him several years earlier, missing her brother-like influence. She became a criminal and was sent to prison on the planet
Crematoria. He introduces Aereon, an envoy of the Elementals, who arranged for Riddick to be brought to Helion. She explains he is part of a prophecy that states a lone Furyan will one day challenge an unstoppable evil and bring balance back to the universe, and says the Necromongers are the ones the prophecy foretells.
Following this revelation, the Necromonger army attacks Helion Prime, wiping out the planet's defenses in one night. Imam is killed in the attack while protecting his family. An enraged Riddick heads to the city forum, where the Helion Prime leaders are gathered before the Necromongers and the
Lord Marshal. He challenges and dispatches Imam's killer,
Irgun easily. Suspicious of his abilities, the Lord Marshal has Riddick taken into his fortress to confirm his identity. Placed before the psychic
Quasi-Deads, who claim Riddick is a Furyan, the Lord Marshal orders his death. Riddick escapes, only to run into Toombs again. Toombs has hired a new crew. Riddick allows himself to be captured so he can be transported to Crematoria, a dead world where daytime surface temperatures scorch the face of the planet.
Riddick is reunited with Jack, who now goes by the name of Kyra. She blames him for leaving her and Imam in New Mecca, but eventually they reconcile. Back on Helion Prime, the Lord Marshal commands Necromonger Commander
Vaako to find Riddick and have him killed, so Vaako sets out with a small group of Necromongers and a
Purifier to bring him down. Vaako is curious as to why the Lord Marshal is so afraid of Riddick. With encouragement from his rabidly ambitious wife,
Dame Vaako, the two learn, before he achieved his current title, the Lord Marshal destroyed the Furyans' homeworld of Furya and its citizens. This occurred after a seer foretold that a male Furyan would cause his downfall. They deduce Riddick is the one around whom the prophecy is centered.
When Toombs and his crew argue over Riddick's bounty with the prison warden,
Vasilev, and his guards, the warden reveals he has pictures of the incoming Necromongers, who have picked up the trail left behind by Toombs's ship. A gunfight erupts, with the staff emerging victorious. The warden and guards depart, running through man-made tunnels towards the ship hangar, locking the rest of the prison down to prevent the inmates from escaping. Riddick, Kyra, and some of the inmates decide to reach the hanger first by traveling on the surface, surviving by keeping pace with the temperate zone created between the scorching heat and freezing cold of Crematoria's daily cycles. They reach the hangar, but Vaako and his contingent of soldiers have arrived on the planet, hastily taking out the warden and his guards. Riddick and company are forced to fight the Necromongers.
Amidst the numerous casualties, Vaako narrowly defeats Riddick. Riddick suddenly manifests a powerful energy burst which knocks out both himself and most of the Necromongers. Vaako leaves Riddick for dead as the rising sun burns Crematoria's surface. Vaako and the surviving Necromongers make their escape, taking Kyra, who believes Riddick has perished. Riddick nearly burns to death, but is suddenly saved by the Purifier. He states the Lord Marshal has offered to spare Riddick's life in exchange for assurance that Riddick will not attempt to kill him; however, the Purifier goes on to say Vaako will likely claim Riddick's death, in fear of failure, leaving the Lord Marshal vulnerable. Before walking into the sunlight and his death, the Purifier reveals himself to also be a Furyan. Vaako returns to the Legion Vast, where the Lord Marshal promotes him. Riddick flies Toombs's ship back to Helion Prime, intending to rescue Kyra. Not quite convinced of Riddick's death, the Lord Marshal orders the "
Ascension Protocol", which will ultimately destroy all life on Helion Prime. Dame Vaako spots Riddick, who has infiltrated the
Basilica. She suggests to her husband that Riddick be allowed to fight the Lord Marshal, hopefully injuring him and allowing Vaako to deal the final blow so he may assume power, based on the
Necromonger philosophy, "you keep what you kill." Riddick makes his way to the throne room, where he comes face to face with the Lord Marshal, who reveals Kyra has converted to their faith. After lamenting to himself that the Necromonger has killed everyone he loved, Riddick does battle with the Lord Marshal, whose unique powers prove too great for Riddick to handle although Riddick manages to put up a good fight.
Before the Lord Marshal can deliver the final blow, Kyra stabs him in the back, but he backhands her into a spike on a column, mortally wounding her. Vaako, sensing an opportunity to vanquish his superior and claim leadership, strikes out at the Lord Marshal, who narrowly escapes the blow. Riddick, however, had positioned himself where the Lord Marshall retreated, and stabs the Lord Marshal in the head, killing him.
Riddick turns to the mortally wounded Kyra, and she dies in his arms after telling Riddick that she was "always" with him. As he collapses with shock on the Necromonger throne, the Legion Vast kneel before him, and Vaako repeats the Necromonger adage "you keep what you kill," realizing Riddick is the new leader of their empire. The Necromonger fleet abruptly departs, sparing Helion Prime as Riddick orders the Necromonger fleet to ascend leaving Helion.
For 5 years Riddick has been neglecting the Necromongers as Lord Marshal and has yet to take the sacred oath or lead them to the
Underverse. Several assassins try to take him out by orders of Necromongers commanders, but all of them fail. Seeing that he has let his animal side slip past, he orders Commander Vaako to take him to his home planet. When Riddick arrives on a planet he finds out it is
Not-Furya, and the Necromongers betray him trying to kill him.
Krone sends Riddick falling off a cliff where he breaks his leg, as the Necromongers believe Riddick to be dead.
Riddick emerges from the fall with a broken leg and over the course of six months he heals while taking a pet
pup as his own, raising it. He and his pup becomes familiar with the planet as they find out the dangers like the
mud demons which emerge when the ground is wet. After taking measures to immunize himself and his dog, Riddick manages to bypass some of the demons and makes it over to a savannah where he treks until he finds
Mercenary Station P7. Knowing there's a thunderstorm nearing that will bring out the mud demons, Riddick scans himself inside sending out a distress beacon to any merc ship near by.
Two mercs arrive
Santana's crew who is hell bent on decapitating Riddick for the bounty, and
Boss Johns' crew who just want answers to William J. Johns death. Both merc crews feud with each other, and Riddick begins picking them off one by one and he manages to steal both of their power nodes to the ships, burying them and leaving them unable to take off. Riddick then tries making a deal with the Captains, but it is spoiled when Santana tries to kill Riddick from behind, but his pet jackal attacks Santana instead. Riddick tries to kill Santana but
Dahl shoots him with several tranquilizers which brings him down, as he watches Santana kill his pet before being knocked out by Boss Johns.
Riddick is captured and chained up as Boss Johns questions him for answers about the death of his son in the
M-344/G System, but Riddick gives little answers. The storm hits the merc base as they pick up the mud demons on
Cyclops. In anger Santana tries to behead Riddick, but Riddick ends up kicking a machete through his head slicing it in half. The mercs free Riddick and they ride off on their
Jet Hogs to the location where Riddick buried the power nodes. While Riddick digs for the nodes he tells Boss Johns about his son and that he did not kill him, but Johns wanted to kill a kid to save his own neck. Boss Johns refuses to believe it and
Diaz tries to kill them both, but Riddick kills him before he can.
With all their jet hogs destroyed Riddick and Boss Johns make their way with a node each across the storm ridden plain fighting mud demons. Riddick gets bit and a tooth gets broken off in his chest and Boss Johns takes Riddick's node leaving him there to fight for his life. Riddick makes it up to a steep cliff where he uses a hot rock to cauterize his wound and fights a hoard of mud demons with his fist. Boss Johns' craft emerges to blast the remaining mud demons as Dahl brings him on board.
Boss Johns gives Riddick
Santana's Ship to take as they agree to settle their difference on a another day, and both ships part ways. Riddick returns to the Necromonger fleet, who have come to the
Threshold for the ceremony to ascend Vaako as Lord Marshal, Riddick then interrogates Krone and demands to know if Vaako is alive or dead to which he receives the answer of 'Both' before dying at Riddick's hands, Riddick then watches on as Vaakos ship descends into the
Underverse.
