Dar'Nala, a Togruta woman, distinguished herself as a Jedi Master within the Galactic Republic during the Great Galactic War. This war pitted the Republic against the re-emerging Sith Empire. Satele Shan, a Human, learned from Dar'Nala as her Padawan throughout the war, eventually earning her Knighthood near the war's end. Continuing their partnership, Dar'Nala and Shan were chosen to represent the Jedi Order at a peace conference held on Alderaan in 3653 BBY. However, this conference, orchestrated by the Sith, was a deceptive maneuver. Its true purpose was to divert Republic forces, leaving the Republic's capital, Coruscant, vulnerable to the Empire's actual objective.
After the Empire's devastating assault on Coruscant, the Republic and Jedi representatives on Alderaan were compelled to accept the Treaty of Coruscant, a peace agreement dictated by the Empire. Dar'Nala strongly resisted signing it, but ultimately yielded to the counsel of Grand Master Zym of the Jedi and Senator Paran Am-Ris of the Republic. In the aftermath of the conference, Dar'Nala secretly started plotting with others in the Republic to undo the fragile peace and restart the war with the Sith Empire. To achieve this, the Togruta Jedi manipulated both Republic and Sith forces into open conflict, while also fueling rivalries within the Empire. She even faked her own death to operate secretly, during which she masterminded the assassination of Republic politicians and prolonged conflicts that had begun during the Great War.
Dar'Nala's main goal was to eliminate Darth Baras, the Sith Lord who had authored and presented the treaty on Alderaan. She worked together with Lieutenant Harron Tavus of the Republic, Jedi Knight Fortris Gall, and Dalborra, a Wookiee mercenary, to confront and assassinate Lord Baras in the Crystal Caves on Dantooine. Satele Shan, who had followed Tavus to the planet, interrupted Dar'Nala's fight with Baras. Seeking revenge for her former student's loyalty to the treaty's terms, Dar'Nala tried to murder Tavus, sensing Shan's feelings for him. However, Gall, who had finally recognized the darkness of her obsession, stopped the Togruta from committing the act, while Dalborra killed her.
Dar'Nala was a Togruta woman who lived in the millennium that separated the Old Sith Wars from the New Sith Wars. At some point, she was identified as someone who was Force-sensitive and was brought into the Jedi Order. She eventually achieved the rank of Jedi Master and chose Satele Shan, a Human woman, to be her apprentice. Shan was a direct descendant of Bastila Shan, the legendary Jedi Knight, and Dar'Nala believed that she possessed similar abilities to her ancestor. Shan became a Knight during the Great Galactic War, a conflict between the Galactic Republic and the re-emerging Sith Empire, and the two continued to collaborate closely for the rest of the war.
The Great War lasted for almost three decades, leaving the Republic in ruins. With its economy weakened and its territory shrinking, the Galactic Senate desperately wanted an end to the conflict, which the Sith offered in the form of peace talks on Alderaan, a Core World. The Senate accepted the offer, and Dar'Nala, Shan, Aryn Leneer, and Syo Bakarn were chosen to represent the Jedi Order during these discussions. The Jedi were to accompany the Republic's delegation, led by Paran Am-Ris, a Cerean Senator, to the planet to express the Order's concerns about a possible truce with the Empire. Unbeknownst to Shan, the other Jedi, and Am-Ris, Dar'Nala had already started planning to disrupt any peace agreement that might result from the meeting, as she had developed a profound hatred for the Sith during the war.
After the Republic delegation arrived on Alderaan, Dar'Nala and Shan met in the conference room where the negotiations were to take place. The Jedi Master could sense her former Padawan's unease and reminded Shan that to become a Master, she needed to calm her mind and learn patience. Shan agreed, but confided in her Master that she couldn't ignore her feeling that the Jedi Council was unaware of some hidden motive that had led the Sith to propose peace. As they spoke, Darth Baras, a Sith Lord, and his Imperial delegation arrived, and the two groups began their discussions. The talks were soon interrupted by an urgent holotransmission for Senator Am-Ris from Coruscant, the Republic's capital. The transmission was from the Republic's Supreme Chancellor, who frantically told Am-Ris to end the talks, as the Sith had invaded Coruscant and were destroying the planet. Dar'Nala and the rest of the Republic delegation watched in horror as Supreme Chancellor Berooken was killed by Darth Angral, the Sith Lord leading the attack.
Shan immediately attacked Baras, demanding answers for the attack on Coruscant. The Sith Lord explained that by holding the Republic's capital hostage, the negotiations on Alderaan could proceed as the Empire wanted: without the Jedi delaying the process with discussions. Dar'Nala declared that the Republic delegation would never accept the Empire's demands, but Senator Am-Ris calmed her down. Dar'Nala called off Shan, and the Republic delegation withdrew to discuss the situation. As they were unable to contact any authority on Coruscant, Dar'Nala and Am-Ris instead met with Zym, the Jedi Grand Master, later that night via hologram. Zym, who was away from the capital at the time, agreed with Senator Am-Ris that without any news from Coruscant, they couldn't be sure of the extent of the damage the Sith had caused or the level of control they had gained over the world. It was decided that the Republic delegation would agree to the Sith Empire's demands and that Master Dar'Nala would ask Satele Shan to apologize to Lord Baras for her earlier outburst.
The two groups later returned to negotiations, where Lord Baras presented Senator Am-Ris with the Treaty of Coruscant, a peace agreement between the Republic and Empire that heavily favored the Sith. With no other choice, the Republic delegation signed the treaty, ending the war and effectively declaring the Sith as the clear victors.
As control of Coruscant was returned to the Republic, the Senate and Jedi Order began the process of ensuring that their government fully complied with the treaty's terms. Meanwhile, Dar'Nala initiated a plan to dismantle the fragile peace established by the treaty, creating a network of individuals within the Republic Military and the Jedi Order who still wanted to see the Republic fight against the Sith's domination. As she made these preparations, Master Zym assigned her and Shan to tour the Outer Rim Territories aboard the Envoy, a Republic transport ship, and monitor the withdrawal of Republic troops from the front lines of conflict. They were accompanied on their mission by SP-99, a protocol droid designed and programmed by the Sith Empire to monitor the activities of Republic agents and ensure they followed the Treaty of Coruscant's regulations.
Before making its hyperspace jump to the Outer Rim, the Envoy traveled through the Kuat sector in the Core Worlds. During this time, Dar'Nala met with Shan in the young Jedi's quarters on the vessel to discuss recent events. Dar'Nala was angered by their mission and believed it was Master Zym's way of keeping them away from the task of managing the response to the treaty. Shan, who was more comfortable with the situation, tried to calm her Master, but was interrupted when Dar'Nala sensed a presence outside the quarters. The Jedi Master activated her lightsaber and rushed out the door, only to find SP-99, who had been listening to their conversation. Both the droid and Shan reminded her that it was simply his programming to monitor them, but Dar'Nala was still angered. She chose not to destroy the droid, as it would be a clear violation of the treaty's terms, but instead left Shan so they could find a more private moment to talk.
Dar'Nala spent the rest of the journey on the transport's bridge. While still in the Kuat sector, the Envoy encountered an Imperial battlecruiser under the command of Captain Sivill of the Imperial Navy. Hoping to frame it as an act of Imperial aggression against the Republic, Dar'Nala ordered the Envoy to fire on the cruiser. Sivill responded by returning fire and sending a boarding team onto the Republic transport. Dar'Nala met the team on the Envoy's bridge and pretended to resist capture by Captain Sivill. In reality, the Jedi Master planned to be taken hostage so she could access the Sith cruiser and give Shan a chance to escape and inform the Republic about the Empire's "attack." After Dar'Nala was trapped in an electrified net, Shan entered the bridge but quickly fled on her Master's command to inform the Jedi Council of the Sith's violation of the Treaty.
While Shan and SP-99 escaped the battle aboard one of the Envoy's escape pods, Dar'Nala was taken back to Sivill's cruiser, where she was imprisoned in a force cage in the ship's detention center. While imprisoned, she was repeatedly interrogated and tortured by Captain Sivill, who demanded to know why she had broken the treaty and ordered the attack on his ship. Dar'Nala, intending to create discord among the Sith, firmly refused to admit to ordering the attack and instead suggested that Sivill's superiors had ordered him to start the conflict and that he was only torturing her out of his own sadistic desire to see the Jedi Master in pain. Sivill was not swayed by her suggestions and responded by subjecting Dar'Nala to extensive electrocutions through the Force Cage's torture field.
After torturing Dar'Nala, Sivill left the detention center. With the captain gone, Braden, a bounty hunter and fellow prisoner on the cruiser, approached the Jedi Master. From his cell, Braden commented that he had never seen anyone survive so many electric shocks and asked why Dar'Nala didn't just give in to Sivill's demands. The Togruta claimed that it was because she knew the truth behind the attack, but Braden countered that the truth wouldn't help her if Sivill killed her. In response, Dar'Nala used the Force to deactivate the force field keeping the bounty hunter in his cell and recruited him to act as her messenger. Braden asked why she didn't simply free herself, but Dar'Nala assured him that it was because she was too weak after the torture and would never be able to escape the ship alive. The bounty hunter accepted her explanation and agreed to deliver her message to Shan and Master Zym. The message was Dar'Nala's fabricated account of how she had been able to search Sivill's thoughts and learn that Lord Baras had ordered the Sith attack on the Envoy.
Braden left to carry out his mission, leaving Dar'Nala behind to face Sivill's wrath. The captain determined that Dar'Nala had been instrumental in Braden's escape from the cruiser, so he summoned Dalborra, a Wookiee, to the detention center. Sivill explained to Dar'Nala that the penalty for helping a prisoner of the Empire escape was death and intended to allow Dalborra to carry out the Jedi's execution, as Braden had been the Wookiee's target. Although Dar'Nala tried to reason with Dalborra and convince him not to kill her, the Wookiee acted on Sivill's orders and activated the electric field in Dar'Nala's cage. The field sent powerful electric shocks into Dar'Nala's body, seemingly killing her.
Dar'Nala had actually faked her death and escaped Sivill's ship at some point. Despite witnessing the botched execution, Sivill was convinced that Dar'Nala had died and sent a transmission to his colleagues to report the Jedi Master's death. Republic forces intercepted the transmission and reported it to Master Zym, who then informed Satele Shan of her master's supposed execution. While the galaxy at large believed her to be dead, Dar'Nala continued to pursue her goals. Fortris Gall, a Jedi Knight who had served on Balmorra during the Great Galactic War, joined her in her mission. Following Dar'Nala's plan, Gall continued to provoke violence between the Republic and Empire on Balmorra despite the treaty. The Togruta Jedi also used her Force powers to control the mind of Dalborra, the Wookiee who had supposedly executed her.
Her first mission was to silence Sivill, whose death would also fuel the conflict among the Sith. Dar'Nala arranged for a bomb to be placed on his shuttle, which would detonate after he boarded it on Korriban, the Sith holy world. The assassination was successful and led the militaristic Darth Angral to claim that it was proof that the Republic was already breaking the treaty. Angral's claims, in turn, led Baras to believe that his fellow Sith Lord had orchestrated the bombing to support his anti-treaty stance. As the Sith descended into infighting, Dar'Nala moved forward to execute an assassination within the Republic. The rogue Jedi dispatched Dalborra to Coruscant, where the Wookiee committed an act of terrorism: he blew up a large part of the Senate Tower, killing several senators who had advocated loyalty to the treaty despite continued Imperial aggressions.
Dar'Nala was convinced that these senators were Sith-Imperial infiltrators working within the Republic to weaken the government so that the Empire could easily dominate it. The Senate Tower bombing was a success, especially since it occurred in conjunction with an independent assassination of Gin Lesl, a Republic Military Commander, and Grand Master Zym. Both events were initially blamed on Imperial assassins, when the latter was actually the result of Braden's attempt to relay Dar'Nala's message to Zym.
The events on Coruscant reinforced doubts about the Empire's loyalty to the treaty and encouraged some, like Dael, a Republic Major on Dantooine, to continue fighting the Sith. To defuse the situation on Dantooine, Senator Am-Ris sent Satele Shan, Fortris Gall, and Harron Tavus, a Lieutenant, to convince Dael to stand down. Still acting under Dar'Nala's orders, Gall encouraged Dael to continue fighting, an opinion that Tavus shared. Seeing that Tavus shared the views of Dar'Nala's coalition, Gall conferred with the Togruta, and the two agreed that the lieutenant should be brought into the plan. Dar'Nala, Gall, and Dalborra prepared to meet with Tavus while another of Dar'Nala's plans was carried out on Korriban: an attempted assassination of Lord Baras. This time, the assassin was a Sith, leading Baras to believe that Angral was trying to eliminate his rival.
Dar'Nala, Gall, and Dalborra met with Lieutenant Tavus in the ruins of the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine, where they could be sure that Imperial spies and Republic forces loyal to the treaty wouldn't be listening. Tavus was surprised to see Dar'Nala, as he thought she had been killed by Captain Sivill, but the Jedi Master reassured the lieutenant that the rumors of her death were just tools to further her plans. Although Tavus initially saw Dar'Nala's goals and the size of her following as treason, she calmed him by explaining her position and her concerns about the Sith's motives behind the treaty. Ultimately, she and Gall convinced Tavus to join their cause, and together with Dalborra, the three of them moved to enact the final stage of Dar'Nala's plan: the assassination of Lord Baras. With the Sith Lord out of the way, the anti-treaty coalition could blame him for the violence and assassinations while reigniting the war between the Republic and Empire.
Meanwhile, Darth Baras, who had survived his previous assassination attempt, confronted Darth Angral, and together they concluded that Dar'Nala was indeed alive and instigating the violence. Although neither trusted the other, they agreed to travel to Dantooine together to confront and kill the Jedi. Dar'Nala learned of this and, with her small group of co-conspirators, traveled to the ancient Crystal Caves of Dantooine to confront the Sith Lords. Inside the caves, she, Tavus, Dalborra, and Gall discovered Baras and Angral with a small contingent of Sith troopers. The two forces engaged each other, with Dar'Nala dueling Baras while Tavus battled Angral and Gall and Dalborra fought the troopers. The melee was briefly interrupted by the arrival of Satele Shan, who had followed Tavus into the caves. As Dar'Nala threw Baras into the cavern wall with the Force, she explained her goal to her former Apprentice and implored her to join the battle.
Together, the former Master and Apprentice dueled Baras while the Sith Lord tried to retreat from the onslaught. During the fighting, he managed to separate from Shan, but Dar'Nala continued to press the attack. Baras explained to them both that the battle revealed the true purpose of the treaty: to expose the hypocrisy of the Jedi Order. Dar'Nala was blown away from the Sith by a blast of Force lightning, so she ordered Shan to continue the attack, but the young Jedi refused, knowing that by continuing Dar'Nala's plans, she was proving the Sith right. Shan ordered Tavus, who had gained the upper hand over Angral, to let the Sith Lord live. Witnessing her plans fall apart, Dar'Nala declared Tavus and Shan traitors and moved to punish her former student for her disobedience. Sensing Shan's affection for Tavus, she attempted to kill the lieutenant in a fit of rage.
Fortris Gall saved Tavus from execution by blocking Dar'Nala's attack with his own lightsaber. In retaliation, the Jedi Master threw Gall to the ground and ordered Dalborra to kill him. Dalborra, who had broken free of Dar'Nala's control, delivered a powerful punch to her face, causing bleeding, serious physical damage, and ultimately death. As Shan examined her Master's body, Dalborra fled the scene and Lord Angral attempted to restart the battle. With their leader dead, Gall and Tavus followed Shan's lead and retreated from the caves, leaving Dar'Nala's body there.
Dar'Nala's goal of breaking down the treaty was never achieved, and the document remained in effect for years to come. Shan's experience in defeating her Master and preserving the peace eventually led her to a seat on the Jedi High Council and the position of Grand Master of the Order.
Despite reaching the rank of Jedi Master, Dar'Nala was unable to adhere to the Jedi Code because of the hatred she had developed for the Sith during the Great Galactic War. While the Code states that there is no place for emotion and passion in the life of a Jedi, Dar'Nala embraced these vices during her campaign against the treaty. Her anger with the submission of the Jedi High Council and the Galactic Senate drove her to commit crimes that ultimately led her to the dark side.
Dar'Nala had a very close relationship with her former apprentice, Satele Shan. She could not bring herself to tell Shan to apologize to the Sith after the Council instructed her to do so. She was a violent Jedi and, despite having calmed Satele, she angrily raised her lightsaber against the Sith. Over the course of the war, Dar'Nala developed a deep-seated hatred for the Sith and did not trust their motives. It was this hatred, a violation of the Jedi Code, that drew her close to the dark side and led her to assassinate members of the Galactic Senate, whom she considered "traitors".