Laranth Tarak, a Jedi Knight with green skin, was a female Twi'lek. She belonged to the Gray Paladin order, a group of Jedi who were considered outsiders because they used more than just a lightsaber in combat. Having survived Contingency Order 66, Paladin Tarak assisted Whiplash, a clandestine organization, by helping Jedi survivors and their allies escape Coruscant during the early stages of the Great Jedi Purge.
Instead of using a lightsaber, she favored a pair of DL-44 blasters. She and Jax Pavan were childhood friends. She would later help him search for Bug-Eyes, and ultimately joined Whiplash alongside him.
Laranth Tarak was born on the planet Ryloth to Twi'lek parents. Because she was discovered to be Force-sensitive at a young age, she was sent to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant for formal instruction in the Force at the Temple academy. During her initial training, she met Jax Pavan, another initiate. Tarak was chosen to be a Padawan, and saw little of Pavan during her apprenticeship, and even less after becoming a Jedi Knight. As a Knight, Tarak studied independently and became interested in the Gray Paladins, a group of Jedi who preferred using blaster weapons over the Force.
Tarak sought to assist the Galactic Republic as a Paladin, so she carried two DL-44 heavy blaster pistols. Her belief in the Gray Paladins' philosophy caused many of her colleagues in the mainstream Order to look down on her, considering her beliefs heretical and unorthodox. Tarak's role in the Clone Wars, the large-scale conflict between the Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, is not known. However, she was stationed on Coruscant when Supreme Chancellor Palpatine betrayed the Jedi Order by issuing Contingency Order 66 to the Grand Army of the Republic. Clone troopers across the galaxy turned on their Jedi leaders, and members of the 501st Legion attacked the Jedi Temple as part of Operation: Knightfall. Tarak assisted in evacuating Initiates, Padawans, and Temple employees, and encountered Pavan as he fled the Temple Precinct into the lower levels of Galactic City.
Several months later, Tarak and Pavan met again on Amtor Avenue in the Blackpit Slums. Her face was scarred, and her left lekku had been shortened by blaster fire. After Pavan explained the dying wish of a fellow Jedi, Tarak agreed to help him find a droid named 10-4TO. Tarak guided Pavan to the residence of Rokko, a Hutt from the Besadii clan, who provided assistance to them and their comrades, Nick Rostu, Den Dhur, and the seemingly fully sentient droid I-5YQ. Following a lead given by the Hutt, the Jedi and their companions ventured deep into the Works, only to be cornered by Prince Xizor. Xizor, already in possession of the droid they sought, killed Rostu, while the rest of the group escaped. As they fled the Falleen prince, they were trapped by feral droids that had overloaded a nearby reactor. They escaped aboard the Far Ranger and met with a representative of Whiplash, an underground movement supporting the Jedi, and agreed to join their fight for justice.
As time passed, Tarak found her work with Whiplash monotonous and desired a change. While the group started living in a small apartment, Tarak decided to leave on her own, partly because she sensed a negative future for the group. While investigating these feelings, she was attacked by the Jedi hunter Aurra Sing and barely survived. After Sing stopped pursuing her, Tarak returned to the apartment and discovered that the group had been paid a large sum of credits for solving the murder of Ves Volette. In the following weeks, as the group attempted to get Dejah Duare off Coruscant, Tarak felt another tremor in the Force just before Sing attacked them again. Sing severed Tarak's right arm before Pavan defeated the dark Jedi. He then rushed Tarak to a nearby medcenter. After recovering, Tarak told Pavan that she intended to leave the group, citing her individualistic nature and need for solidarity.
Later, the two met again when they rescued Kajin Savaros, an untrained Force-sensitive, who was wandering the streets of Ploughtekal Market. Tarak helped Pavan train the boy in the ways of the Force and was forced to protect him when he was attacked by Probus Tesla and other members of the Inquisitorius. While defending the young man from the dark-side Force-users, Tarak was struck by Force lightning from Inquisitor Mas Sirrah. She nearly succumbed to his power but was saved when Savaros used his untamed power to completely destroy Sirrah's body with a wild use of the Force. Because of this incredible power, Tarak agreed that Savaros should be moved off-world. During a transfer to a safe house, Tarak was incapacitated by spice gas and imprisoned unconscious within the Imperial Security Bureau's headquarters. Her friends helped her escape, and Darth Vader brought her to the building's roof for a prisoner exchange with Pavan. The group, betrayed by their former comrade Duare, was forced to fight their way out of the building, fleeing back into the undercity after Vader was weakened by his overuse of the drug bota.
Some time after these events, Thi Xon Yimmon, the leader of Whiplash, believed he was in immediate danger of being captured. To prevent this, the Whiplash council chose Pavan, Tarak, Dhur, and I-5 to escort him to Dantooine. On their way, they were pulled out of hyperspace by a gravity well generator and faced capture by a squadron of ships led by Darth Vader. Pavan ordered the ship to be abandoned, but Tarak waited until Vader's flagship lowered its shields to board them. She then fired a laser cannon at the ship at close range. The resulting explosion fatally wounded her, and she died in Pavan's arms moments later. Her final words to her lover were the last line of the Jedi Code: "There is no death, there is the Force."