Following his ascension to the throne three years prior, King Regalun Petryph greedily sought to strip-mine his planet's rich resources to line his coffers, but his plans were opposed by Senator Deja Nebet and his council of nobles. So Petryph retreated to his royal hunting lodge to avoid their scrutiny, unintentionally subjecting himself to the manipulations of Darth Savik of the Dark Council.
As Onderon was a key refueling station for a Republic fleet intended to reinforce Corellia, where the Empire was planning to assault the Meridian Complex, Savik plotted to catch the fleet unaware by seizing control of the planet's anti-orbital defense cannons. Additionally, Savik plotted to seize Onderon's resources for the Empire. To that end, she manipulated Petryph into believing that Nebet and the nobles were plotting to usurp him in an effort to start a civil war that would serve as a diversion for her agents to reach the cannon controls.
Even Mandalore the Avenger's attention would be brought onto the world when discovering the whereabouts of the Mandalorian deserters known as the Ash'ad. Their leader Mirli Lok had made an agreement with King Regalun Petryph that in exchange of being allowed to hunt the beasts of his world, they would give tribute of their quarries and bring offworld creatures to him for time to time, thus members of the Ash'ad were seen in the Royal Hunting Lodge. Shae would have her people set up in the city of Iziz and eventually give task to have the Ash'ad hunted down and their armor retrieved from their bodies.