Hanharr, a male Wookiee by birth, carved out a niche for himself as a bounty hunter. He primarily operated from the shadows of Nar Shaddaa, especially during and after the tumultuous era of the Jedi Civil War. Widely considered among the most dangerous in his field, this merciless hunter and brutal sociopath was even rumored to have committed the cold-blooded murder of his own people.
Hanharr's formative years were spent on Kashyyyk, the Wookiee home planet. He dwelled amongst his kin in the high canopies, yet never truly felt a sense of belonging. Instead, he developed a strong fascination with the Shadowlands, the perilous and perpetually dark ground level of Kashyyyk, from an early age. Despite the dishonor associated with living in the Shadowlands among Wookiees, Hanharr couldn't resist its allure. He increasingly spent his time there, moving freely and killing without restraint. Eventually, his tribe ostracized him, sensing the killer within.
When the Czerka Corporation's human representatives first arrived on Kashyyyk, they appeared to pose no immediate threat to the Wookiee community. However, after gaining acceptance and deeply infiltrating Hanharr's tribe, they turned on the villagers. From a distance, Hanharr observed the events, recognizing the Czerka humans as physically weak predators. He understood that his tribe was on the verge of perpetual enslavement, destined to be hunted and degraded. To prevent this grim fate, Hanharr made the decision to slaughter his entire village, beginning with the youngest. Armed with a ryyk blade and bowcaster, Hanharr systematically worked his way through his people, ambushing them in their sleep, from the weakest to the strongest. Those awakened by the attacks were also killed. As each one died, he seized them by the throat, forcing them to confront the darkness of the Shadowlands and the weakness that led to their demise. Upon discovering the destruction of their intended slaves, the Czerka slavers captured and shackled Hanharr, intending to use him for hauling cargo on their starships. However, once aboard the ship, the humans found themselves trapped with Hanharr, who proceeded to eliminate them all. Over several weeks, Hanharr stalked the slavers, allowing them to hide and slowly starve before delivering the final blow, concealing their remains in storage compartments for their comrades to discover. With all the slavers dead, the ship, seemingly on autopilot, eventually arrived at its destination: Nar Shaddaa.
For a Wookiee hunter, Nar Shaddaa was far from the worst place to be marooned. It offered Hanharr the opportunity to climb to great heights, hunt his prey, and appreciate the newly discovered depths of the Shadowlands. Having learned a lesson from Czerka, Hanharr chose to apply it to humans as retribution for his slaughtered people, twisting the Wookiee life debt. He became a slaver himself, selling entire families to inflict misery and death on every human in the galaxy.
Hanharr shared a troubled past with Mira, the human bounty hunter. He had once been hired to hunt her down, trapping her in a network of vents with the intention of ambushing her. However, she managed to escape when his own explosives, set to kill her, detonated as he pursued her. He also found out that Mira had broadcast a signal to temporarily blind the mines' sensor receptors. Although he was nearly killed, Mira, moved by pity, saved his life. It remains unclear whether Mira was aware that she would then be owed a life debt, but she certainly wasn't enthusiastic about the prospect. Hanharr, however, despised it even more. Being shown mercy by prey like Mira was the ultimate insult to the Wookiee, and to make matters worse, he now owed his life to a human. In Hanharr's eyes, Mira had replicated Czerka's actions against his people, enslaving him.
He loathed the concept of a life debt, viewing it as a sign of weakness and enslavement. Yet, he clung to this tradition as the last connection to his deceased people. He served his life debt to Mira, but believed that killing her would liberate him. As a result, he oscillated between wanting to kill her and stalking her from the shadows. On one occasion, he grabbed her by the throat, promising to relish the moment when he would eventually kill her. Despite Mira's repeated declarations that she didn't want his life debt, Hanharr's madness prevented him from seeing any alternative to killing her.
Vogga the Hutt hired Hanharr to eliminate Goto. Since "Goto" always appeared as a hologram, his true identity as a spherical droid remained unknown. Vogga warned Hanharr that failure was not an option. Collaborating with Visquis, one of Goto's men, they devised a plan to capture Meetra Surik and deliver her to Goto for Hanharr to kill. However, Mira arrived in her place.
Eventually, Hanharr and Mira engaged in a duel within Visquis's hidden base, where Mira emerged victorious. Shortly after, Kreia healed his grievous wounds, saving his life and burdening him with another life debt that he was forced to accept. Hanharr claimed that Kreia honored him by showing him no mercy when she transported him to Malachor V to challenge Mira upon Surik's arrival. On the planet's surface, Mira and Hanharr fought again, and Hanharr was defeated once more. In response to Hanharr's desperate plea for death, Mira finally granted his wish, ending his lifelong suffering.
His anger and past trauma had driven him to the brink of insanity. He possessed a strong, albeit warped, sense of honor and duty. Despite believing that life debts weakened him and that he could be rid of them by killing the person to whom he owed the debt, he felt bound by duty to serve them regardless. However, even with his rage, he was cautious and never underestimated foes who were truly strong or superior, as he would constantly argue with Visquis, who on the other hand said Hanharr thought too much of the Jedi Surik's chances.
He maintained that love was each partner in the relationship being willing to lay down their life for the other. He believed that the weak must serve the strong. He probably also sincerely believed that he was 'saving' his tribe by slaughtering them, with his warped perspective of everything around him. He perceived that mercy was weakness, and truly despised anyone who showed him mercy.
Hanharr appears as a playable character in the video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. Both he and Mira are encountered on the planet Nar Shaddaa, and one of them will join the Jedi Exile's party, as determined by the player's alignment. Dark side-aligned players are joined by Hanharr, though he appears in cutscenes and in gameplay as an antagonist if the player is light side-aligned.
Hanharr is the only companion in the game that the player gains influence with through mostly negative reinforcement and insulting at the wookie.
On Nar Shaddaa, two possible things can occur. If the Jedi Exile follows the way of the light side, then Mira is captured by Visquis, an overseer for the criminal gang called The Exchange, and he allows Hanharr to kill her. However, in a surprising turn of events, Mira defeats Hanharr, and escapes. After this, Hanharr is found by Kreia, the mentor of the Jedi Exile, and she takes him into her service. However, so as to maintain his servitude, she promises that she will show him no mercy or pity. Later, when the heroes traveled to Malachor V, Hanharr confronted Mira once again.
If the Exile follows the dark side, he will meet Hanharr on his way to meet up with Visquis. They make an agreement to try and kill the crime lord as well as Goto. However, Mira manages to render the Exile unconscious and fools both Visquis and Hanharr, as in the light-side story. Hanharr manages to kill her in a duel but Visquis leaves him to be killed by his kath hounds. He helps the Exile by opening the door to the base while leaving at the same time, possibly killing a few of Visquis's men in the process. However, Jedi Master Zez-Kai Ell appears and takes him down with the Force. Kreia finds him and forces him to serve the Exile. He did, and although he was stubborn, the Exile manages to break his will by creating a bond and breaking it after he finds out about his past, making Hanharr serve him without question. The Exile makes a pact with him in addition, promising to never show him mercy when the time comes that they no longer need each other, much like Kreia's promises. Like Bao-Dur, his fate is unknown, although there are some scraps of what seems like he was supposed to save the Exile from the crumbling Malachor V core by throwing him on the Ebon Hawk and dying with the planet. This was found to be too reminiscent to Chewbacca's death on Sernpidal, however, and was therefore cut.
Hanharr tells a dark-sided Exile that he wishes to die and 'join his tribe', and that he wishes to walk in the Shadowlands no longer but instead on the tops of the trees of Kashyyyk, his homeworld. Hanharr also held a deep respect for a dark Exile for having the strength to kill members of 'his own clan', the Jedi, at Malachor V, despite the use of the Mass Shadow Generator to achieve victory being, in Hanharr's opinion, 'a coward's way of killing'. Hanharr also tells a dark Exile that he should have looked in the eyes of each victim at Malachor V before killing them, that being what he did when he slaughtered his own clan on Kashyyyk.