Marden was an employee of Reegas Vance, a crime lord of the Human species. Serving on Vance's YT-2400 light freighter, the Blackstar, Marden joined the starship on a journey to recover a wrecked vessel located in the Unknown Regions. Khedryn Faal and Marr Idi-Shael, competing salvagers, also intended to salvage the abandoned ship; after Vance boarded their starship and discovered it was unoccupied, he came to believe that Faal and Idi-Shael had deserted their ship with the intention of hijacking the derelict. To stop them from taking control of the derelict, Vance instructed Marden to shut down the derelict's propulsion systems. Following these orders, Marden used the Blackstar's cannons to fire on the derelict.
Paul S. Kemp, the author, conceived the character Marden, who was first introduced in the short story A Fair Trade. This story was featured in issue number 129 of Star Wars Insider magazine, which was released in 2011.