Gora reigned during the High Republic Era, and was a descendant of the ruling house of the planet Serenno. Although the planet had several other noble Houses that exercised a considerable influence over the planet's politics, notably by their presence on the planet's highest council, the Great Assembly, Gora's ancestors had led the resistance against the Sith Empire during their occupation of the planet, for which their family name had been given to the whole planet along with the title of Count, putting them in a position of primacy over the other Houses. Although many on Serenno believed such stories to be legends, Gora was a firm believer in the history of his family. He eventually inherited the title from his own father and married a Serennian woman named Anya.
Gora and Anya had three children: two sons, Dooku and Ramil, and a daughter, Jenza. Dooku, however, soon proved to be Force-sensitive, demonstrating powers that frightened and disgusted Gora. Determined to be rid of his "freak" of a son, the Count contacted the Jedi Order on Coruscant. However, instead of waiting for the Jedi seekers to arrive and give them Dooku, he left his infant son outside his palace on the edges of the forest, without clothes or identification, in a place where Serennian spine-wolves could have mauled him to death. Dooku was eventually found by a seeker and brought to the Jedi Temple, where he was not told about his father's actions.
Gora's reign as Count was marked by a desire to isolate Serenno and a strong distrust of the Galactic Republic, which went all the way back to the old Sith wars when the planet had won its freedom without assistance from the galactic government and its Jedi allies. However, Gora did not rescind his planet's membership of the Republic, and he did maintain some ties with the Senate, inviting several officials and even some Jedi to a festival on Serenno in 90 BBY, an event which was attended by himself, his wife Countess Anya, and his children Jenza and Ramil. The celebration was designed to attract traders and innovators from the entire Outer Rim to show the expanding Republic the potential to be found in the Outer Rim. Despite Gora's continued isolationist ideals, he was convinced by the Serennian Assembly to attend the celebration. Unknown to him, one of the Jedi Younglings brought to the celebration was his son Dooku. Only when a groundquake destroyed the Great Assembly building with Jenza and Dooku inside did the Count discover what had happened, angrily lashing out at Master Yoda for bringing his son back to Serenno.
In the years that followed the confrontation in the ruins of the Great Assembly building, Gora continued to rule Serenno, which saw growing discontent with the Count's policies. Specifically, protests began to erupt over Gora's moves to replace living workers with droids both in the civilian economy and in the Serennian military. The Count made considerable efforts to keep this unrest quiet to the galaxy at large, especially trying to keep it from reaching the notice of the Republic.
Gora appeared in the audiobook Dooku: Jedi Lost, written by Cavan Scott and published in 2019.
- Star Wars: Timelines