The man known only as the Shroud was a Human male who was a legendary freelance spy active years before the Galactic War between the Galactic Republic and the reconstituted Sith Empire. After a lengthy career that included acts such as the Great Czerka Datacrash, he eventually went underground and was widely considered a myth by the year 3638 BBY, when he was approached by the Hutt Cartel. At some point around the Eternal Empire's conquest, the Shroud was killed by Z0-0M, who assumed his identity.
The organization, constructed by Shroud by the year 3638 BBY was quite remarkable. He employed numerous battle droids of various design as well as many trusted lieutenants of several species. The Shroud and his men installed listening outposts on every major battlefield of the Galactic War, from Balmorra and Taris to Corellia and Hoth. The listening devices allowed Shroud to spy on any communications in the area, including those of the Empire and Republic, and were usually installed in extremely hard to reach locations, so that in case of discovery the listening devices could not be dismantled easily. In addition to the listening posts, the Shroud deployed MCR-99 reconnaissance droids to every planet he considered notable, including such closely guarded worlds as Tython and Korriban. In addition to his main base of operations on Nar Shaddaa, Shroud had his lieutenants posted at several hidden bases, spread from the capital worlds such as Dromund Kaas and Coruscant to the supposedly secret prison planet Belsavis. The bases' entrances were obscured and the inner workings possesses multiple levels of lethal defense systems, to the point of redundancy. He was rumored to have a contract with a small-time droid manufacturer who appeared to have been mass producing robotic doubles for him. The factory was later investigated.
The Shroud was hired to spy on the Republic and the Empire by the Hutts in the lead-up to their invasion of the planet Makeb, but the Shroud soon discovered weaknesses in both governments that would allow him to attack their capitals by launching dreadnaughts straight into Coruscant and Dromund Kaas. Using his significant funds, The Shroud bought both a Harrower-class dreadnought and a Valor-class cruiser, and planted hyperspace beacons inside Kaas City and Galactic City.
The Shroud in the Nar Shaddaa control room, his crowning achievement
One of Shroud's lieutenants, Evie Bo, was horrified by the Shroud's plan and fled to the Empire, taking a number of the Shroud's specially-designed EV2 discreet reconnaissance macrobinoculars with her. News of Bo's defection also allowed the Republic Strategic Information Service's Agent Deena Riss to learn bits of Shroud's plans and procure another copy of the special macrobinoculars. Riss on the Republic side and Darth Mortis on the Imperial side recruited the best agents available to track down Shroud's lieutenants and foil his plans.
When the Shroud first discovered intruders in one of his secret bases, he was extremely underwhelmed, even encouraging the opposition to continue their search for him, confident that it wound end in vain. However, as Republic and Imperial operatives discovered more of Shroud's listening outposts and bases, he grew more and more aggravated with their actions, to the point of direct taunts over the holocomm. Eventually, the Shroud was tracked to his largest and best protected base, located on Nar Shaddaa. In his personally designed control room, the Shroud made a stand and at one point during the fight employed holographic duplicates to confuse his enemies. Eventually, the Shroud was defeated and the attacks on Coruscant and Dromund Kaas were stopped. Confident of their success, the Shroud's pursuers left his body on the floor and departed his lair to rendezvous with their respective mission controls. The Shroud, however, escaped certain death by putting one of his duplicates in his place at the last moment. He made a taunting holocall to Deena Riss and inflicted his punishment on the defector Evie Bo. The Shroud interrupted her conversation with Darth Mortis and whispered a single word - "asunder" - that triggered the neural scrambler secretly implanted in Evie's brain. She remained completely healthy physically, but all of her memories and personality were gone, leaving her a blank slate to be used by the Empire and preventing her from revealing any more of the Shroud's secrets. Despite the failure of his plans, the Shroud continued to oversee his extensive spy network in the galaxy.
The Shroud later became curious regarding the clandestine meeting between Republic Colonel Rian Darok and Darth Arkous of the Dark Council with the blessing of the Order of Shasa. Knowing that the Order follows doctrine of the late Revan, he began noting unusual occurrences with his field agents, such as Asset R-27, who was intercepted by an Imperial stealth craft so far into Republic territory. Suspecting that the Order of Revan was rising out of obscurity, the Shroud ordered his agents to gather information on the Order.
After killing her master, Z0-0M replaced him with helpless lookalikes.
In the years following the Eternal Empire's conquest of the galaxy, the Shroud had his MCR-X reconnaissance droids monitor the massive Star Fortresses placed above key worlds suppressing rebellion. When the Outlander was in the midst of attacking one of these Star Fortresses, they spotted one of these droids with their macrobinoculars, with a coded message from the Shroud saying he was glad the Outlander had returned and he would be watching.
The Shroud is a character in the 2011 Star Wars: The Old Republic: Rise of the Hutt Cartel video game expansion, following the Makeb missions.
For Republic players, following the end of the Shroud missions, the Shroud will appear before the player(s) via holodroid and immobilize Deena Riss with a shock collar. He reveals that his double had some information he wasn't suppose to and demands that the player(s) wipe it from Riss' console in exchange for her life, warning that he'll be monitoring it. If the player(s) make the light side choice and return the data, the Shroud upholds his word and releases Deena. If the player(s) make the dark side choice and uploads the data to SIS servers, the Shroud kills Deena and becomes enraged. Either way, the Shroud promises to return as he self-destructs his holodroid.
During the bonus chapter in Star Wars: The Old Republic: Knights of the Fallen Empire, the Shroud of Memory, it is revealed that the Shroud was killed and replaced by his droid Z0-0M, though it is unknown when the replacement took place. Z0-0M would go on to have others facially reconstructed to look like and play the role of The Shroud for her while she manipulated them from a distance as to reduce risk for herself.