Helena Shan was the mother to the Jedi named Bastila Shan, and she was also married to a man who worked as a treasure hunter.
When Bastila Shan was still a young girl and her father expressed his desire to bring her along on his usual treasure hunting expeditions, Helena stepped in to prevent it, believing it was too dangerous for her. Bastila believed her mother was encouraging her father to go on these hunts. This led Bastila to develop a sense of resentment towards her mother, resulting in a strained relationship between them. When Helena made the decision to send Bastila to join the Jedi Order, hoping to provide her with a better future than that of a treasure hunter's daughter, Bastila interpreted it as a sign that her mother simply didn't want her around anymore.
In the years that followed, Helena and her husband continued their treasure-hunting adventures. Helena fondly remembered her daughter, even showing holograms of her to one of her husband's employees, a Twi'lek woman known as Malare. Sometime during this period, Helena developed a terminal illness. To afford the necessary treatments, her husband desperately pursued his treasure-hunting endeavors to raise the required funds. These hunts took him to Tatooine in search of valuable krayt dragon pearls, where he ultimately met his demise at the hands of a canyon krayt dragon in the Eastern Dune Sea. When Helena next spoke with Malare, she expressed her desperate desire to find her daughter.
During the Jedi Civil War in 3956 BBY, as Bastila and the Jedi Padawan Revan journeyed to Tatooine as part of their quest to halt the Sith Invasion, Malare encountered them, informing them that Helena was on Tatooine, actively searching for Bastila. Helena's behavior had provoked the anger of several patrons at the Anchorhead cantina, including the Duros named Maana Demknot, who angrily left just as Bastila and the amnesiac Revan arrived. Maana was able to point them in Helena's direction. Bastila reluctantly agreed to meet with Helena but expressed doubts about the severity of her illness. After a brief argument, she learned about her father's death. Helena requested that Bastila retrieve a holocron that had belonged to Bastila's father, which was located in the krayt dragon's lair. After defeating the dragon, the two Jedi recovered the holocron, but Bastila hesitated to return it to her mother. Upon learning that Helena was indeed dying and correcting her misunderstandings about her childhood, Bastila reconciled with Helena and provided her with 500 credits to cover the cost of treatment from a doctor on Coruscant. Before departing the Cantina, Helena implored Revan to protect and care for Bastila, to which he responded that he would do his best.
Interestingly, Helena is depicted wearing what appear to be Jedi robes. This could be an oversight on the part of BioWare, or it might reflect the relatively simple design of some Jedi robes during that era, which bore a resemblance to basic desert robes. Her character portrait is also a common Human female model that appears in various parts of the game. With the robes, she looks similar to many Jedi females at the ceremony on Lehon, although with an older face.
In the game, an alternative outcome is possible where Bastila chooses not to give her father's holocron to Helena, deciding to keep it for herself. Bastila remains unconvinced of her mother's illness and, therefore, does not provide her with credits to seek medical treatment on Coruscant, resulting in a negative and unresolved conclusion to their encounter.