A Force-sensitive Near-Human, Saren Valek was trained in the ways of the Force by the Jedi Order, studying at the Coruscant Jedi Temple until he was selected as the Padawan to the respected Jedi Knight Alec. During Valek's apprenticeship, the boy was seduced to the dark side of the Force by the fallen Jedi Karae Nalvas in 34 BBY. Valek stole Alec's blue-bladed lightsaber and abandoned his former master to train with Nalvas. For three years, Alec tracked the dark pair unsuccessfully.
In 31 BBY, Nalvas went to the Cularin system with Valek where he intended to build a giant, armored flying city with enough firepower to destroy any of the other flying cities above the planet Genarius. When the fortress, Conkesta, was almost operative, Valek remained on board of her as it was maneuvered into position. As the warship became active, Alec sent a team of independent adventurers to infiltrate the Conkesta and upload a virus in her computer, hurtling her to her destruction in the planet's core and activating alarms during the process. Valek and eighteen guards went to the hangar, where they met the raiders. Valek contacted Nalvas using a hologram, and Nalvas ordered them to kill the intruders. Twelve of the guards chose not to obey, trying instead to abandon the doomed ship; Valek and the other guards did their best to stop the trespassers from leaving the Conkesta before it was obliterated.
The plot of Into the Storm Clouds suggests that the player characters either kill Valek or escape from him, leaving him to die in the condemned Conkesta. Although canon specifies that the Conkesta is destroyed, it does not specify Valek's fate. Further sources featuring Nalvas (eg. A Mon Alone) also fail to mention Valek or his death. Valek has two different sets of RPG statistics for the gamemaster to choose depending on the skill of the player characters.