Ranna Tao'Ven was a female Twi'lek Pilgrim who lived on the planet Tython during the Cold War between the Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic. The daughter of the Pilgrims' Matriarch Sumari, Tao'Ven assisted her mother as Sumari grew ill near the end of the Cold War. During the uprising among Tython's native Flesh Raiders, Sumari passed away, leaving her daughter to become Matriarch, and Tao'Ven worked to lead her home of Kalikori village through the crisis—though she was ultimately unwilling to betray the Jedi Order to the Flesh Raiders as her villagers desired.
A Twi'lek female, Ranna Tao'Ven was born the daughter of Sumari—a member of the religious group known as the Pilgrims. Tao'Ven and her mother were among those Pilgrims who settled on the planet Tython shortly after the planet's rediscovery in 3651 BBY, during the Cold War between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire. The Pilgrims established Kalikori village near the site of the new Jedi Temple that the Jedi Order was constructing. Denied official settlement rights by the Galactic Senate of the Galactic Republic, the Pilgrims nevertheless remained on Tython without aid from the Jedi, and Tao'Ven's mother succeeded Kolovish as the Pilgrims's Matriarch, or leader, sometime before 3643 BBY. Sumari became ill around 3643 BBY, leading her daughter to take on more and more responsibility to aid her mother.
Ranna tries to stop the villagers from killing the Padawan
Shortly after a crisis involving the insane villager Nalen Raloch, a conflict ended by the actions of a young Padawan, the villagers observed a significant increase in activity by Tython's native Flesh Raiders—whose attacks had long plagued the village. The Flesh Raiders became far more organized and bold in their attacks, even going so far as to attack the Jedi Order's Gnarls Outpost. The attack was stopped when a young Jedi killed the Flesh Raiders' leader, the Dark Jedi Callef, and the Jedi was taken on as the Padawan of Jedi Master Orgus Din. In light of the attack, the Padawan was sent to Kalikori to learn what the villagers knew of the Flesh Raiders' activities, and Sumari met the Jedi with her daughter and the village's Scout Chief Moorint. Sumari was forced to retire early in their conversation, leaving Tao'Ven to continue with Moorint. Moorint informed the pair of a Flesh Raider weapons cache recently discovered in the Upper Hollows region of the nearby Tythos Ridge, and he asked the Padawan to destroy the weapons in order to deny the Flesh Raiders a tactical and technological advantage. However, Tao'Ven disagreed—she believed that the villagers would benefit from having the weapons, and asked the Padawan to retrieve them instead.
The Padawan sided with Tao'Ven and retrieved the weapons, but while the Jedi was away, the Flesh Raiders launched an attack on the village that saw the wife of a villager named Saylew killed. Master Orgus Din arrived shortly afterwards and met with Moorint and Tao'Ven to discuss cooperation in the face of the Flesh Raider threat, but a furious Saylew interrupted the discussion only minutes before Din's apprentice returned with the weapons. Tao'Ven, Din, and Moorint were unable to calm the angry villager, and Saylew stormed off when the Padawan arrived with the weapons and the astromech droid T7-O1, who had been captured by the Flesh Raiders during a Jedi scouting mission. After Moorint and Din sent the Padawan on a scouting mission to the ruins of the ancient Jedi city Kaleth, Tao'Ven returned to tending her mother, who grew worse by the hour.
Her mother's illness made her late to the next meeting with Din and his student, where Moorint informed them that the scouts had located a Flesh Raider command base in the mountains that was protected by a shield generator. Din's Padawan took out the generator, allowing the Jedi Masters to attack the command base, but Sumari passed away by the time the Padawan returned to the village. Now the village's Matriarch, Tao'Ven set aside her grief and met with the apprentice—only for the villager Eseni to interrupt their conversation with news of Flesh Raider sabotage in the village fields. Tao'Ven begged the Jedi to destroy the enemy toxin mines that were poisoning the village's crops, and was relieved when the apprentice was successful in the mission.
Writer Hall Hood, who wrote the Jedi Knight class storyline along with Drew Karpyshyn, was responsible for Ranna Tao'Ven. He considered her a challenge to write, as he had to compress a number of emotions into only a few conversations with her.
It is possible for a male Jedi Knight to romance Ranna as a dark side action. Females have the option to take the Oath of Family and become sisters with Ranna.