During the time of the Mandalorian Wars, a Nagai male named Gharn served the Jedi Order as a Jedi Padawan. He was the Padawan of Jedi Master Xamar, who was one of the five Jedi stationed at the Jedi Tower on the planet Taris. Gharn was very close to his fellow Padawans: Humans Zayne Carrick and Shad Jelavan, the Ho'Din Oojoh, and Kamlin, who was a Falleen. Gharn was one of the few Nagai to be considered as a Jedi, and by 3964 BBY, he was on the verge of becoming a Jedi Knight.
Gharn and his classmates were given their final test as Padawans: they had to navigate Taris's rogue moon, which was under constant meteor bombardment, while blindfolded. All of the Padawans managed to complete the trial, and a celebratory banquet and ceremony was planned for them. At this event, they would learn which of them would be promoted to Knighthood. However, the five Jedi Masters of the Taris Jedi Tower, who were secretly members of a Jedi Covenant dedicated to preventing the rise of the dark side, had decided that the Padawans would bring about the return of the Sith. After the banquet concluded, the Jedi Masters slew Gharn and his friends. Carrick only managed to escape because he arrived late due to timely circumstances, but he was falsely accused of the murders.
Gharn, a Nagai male, was discovered to be Force-sensitive and was brought into the Jedi Order when he was young. As a youngling, Gharn resided at the Jedi Enclave on the planet Dantooine, where he became close friends with four other students: Humans Zayne Carrick and Shad Jelavan, the Ho'Din Oojoh, and Kamlin, a Falleen. These five younglings grew up together, and Gharn, along with his friends, eventually became a Padawan at the Jedi Tower on the Outer Rim planet Taris. Gharn received his training directly from the Khil Jedi Master Xamar, who was one of the five Jedi Masters at the academy, along with the Human Lucien Draay, the Miraluka Q'Anilia, the Feeorin Feln, and Raana Tey, a Togruta. Gharn, who was a rare Nagai Jedi candidate, was approaching Knighthood by 3964 BBY with his friends.
In that year, Gharn joined his classmates for what was supposed to be his final test as a Jedi Padawan. He and his friends were tasked with traveling to Taris's rogue moon, a planetoid in the Taris asteroid belt that was constantly bombarded by thousands of meteors every hour, and navigating it while blindfolded. They had to rely solely on the Force to guide them to their Masters' encampment, which was located far away. To reach the moon, the Padawans had to survive a difficult shuttle ride through the asteroid belt before arriving high above the moon. After Master Draay gave a brief speech, Gharn and the others were dropped from their shuttle, through the asteroid belt, and onto the moon below.
Wearing an environment suit with his blast shield down, Gharn successfully traversed the dangerous terrain and passed the test. His classmates also succeeded, with Carrick arriving last. However, Gharn and the other Padawans were unaware that their fate had already been determined. The five Jedi Masters of Taris were actually part of a secret Jedi Covenant, whose purpose was to guard against the return of the Sith. As they waited for the Padawans to reach their camp, the Masters began to meditate. Together, they shared a vision of a figure wearing a red environment suit, identical to the ones the Padawans were wearing, killing them all and leading the Jedi Order and Galactic Republic to their downfall. Believing that one of their apprentices would be their destroyer, the Covenant decided to eliminate them all in a preemptive strike.
After the group returned home, the Masters secluded themselves for days. When they finally emerged, they announced that they had decided who would be promoted to Jedi Knight and organized a banquet and ceremony where the Padawans would learn their fates. Gharn attended the festivities with his classmates. Carrick, who was known for being late, arrived late again, crashing through a window while chasing a criminal. Afterward, the Padawans, except for Carrick who was late once more, went to the Masters' chambers to find out who would be Knighted. However, while they waited for Carrick, Shad Jelavan realized that something was wrong. Carrick, who was the least skilled in their class, seemed as if he was going to be Knighted by his Master, Lucien Draay. Jelavan refused to believe that Carrick would actually become a Jedi Knight and tried to get the Masters to reveal what was really happening.
Gharn and the others followed his lead, until suddenly the Masters activated their lightsabers and attacked. The Padawans stood no chance, and Gharn was slain along with Kamlin, Jelavan, and Oojoh. Carrick, who arrived late and discovered the corpses of his friends, managed to escape the Masters' pursuit after a frantic chase. Carrick was blamed for the murders, and a large bounty was placed on his head, as well as on the head of a local Snivvian hood named Marn Hierogryph, who was labeled as an "accessory." Meanwhile, the bodies of Gharn and his friends were taken away by medical droids. The massacre became a major news story on Taris, and holograms of Gharn and his class could be found even in the depths of the Lower City.
Gharn and his friends were publicly mourned sometime afterward, with the Masters of the Covenant speaking kindly of them at the funerals. In the year after the murders, Raana Tey, who was losing her sanity, had a nightmarish vision in which Gharn and his Jedi class replaced the Jedi Covenant, and she replaced Zayne Carrick, walking in on the murders of her fellow Masters. In her dream, Gharn wielded a red lightsaber, similar to those used by the Sith. Xamar, Gharn's Master, later confessed to the murders to the Jedi Council and cleared Carrick's name. Gharn's father eventually joined Carrick's Rogue Moon Project, which was an organization dedicated to helping refugees, wrongly accused fugitives, and others in need.
Gharn, who had violet skin and dark hair and wore a Padawan braid, was very close to the four other Padawans in his class, having grown up with them on Dantooine and Taris. Gharn was particularly close to Zayne Carrick. Although he enjoyed teasing the Human, Gharn was overjoyed when he learned that Carrick was going to be Knighted. However, when Shad Jelavan challenged the Taris Jedi Masters about Carrick's potential Knighthood, Gharn followed Jelavan's lead and questioned whether they would actually make Carrick a Jedi Knight.
Gharn made his first appearance, although unnamed, in Knights of the Old Republic 1, a comic written by John Jackson Miller and released in 2006. The character, illustrated by Brian Ching, appeared in flashbacks in the remaining issues of the Commencement arc, as well as in Knights of the Old Republic 0, a prequel issue. The Taris Holofeed: Prime Edition, an in-universe news report that appears at the end of Crossroads, confirmed Gharn's status as a member of the Nagai species and was the first publication to identify him by name. Gharn was also mentioned in several other issues of the Knights of the Old Republic series, and in 2008 he received an entry in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia.