Rafa XI existed as a frigid, icy slush-covered planet, positioned as the most distant orbit within the Rafa system of the Outer Rim Territories. A helium refinery and a research facility were both located there. In 3 BBY, after Lando Calrissian, the captain of a freighter, and his droid, Vuffi Raa, neutralized a squad of Colonial Constabulary troopers who were trying to apprehend Calrissian on the planet Rafa V, the pair compelled the police officers to embark on their own cargo barge. Vuffi Raa had modified the barge to transport them on a week-long journey to Rafa XI. Later, after four months, four of the Constabulary troopers Calrissian had attempted to abandon had made their way back to the administrative building of Duttes Mer, the governor of the Rafa system, which was situated on the planet Rafa IV.
Rafa XI was a rocky planet within the Rafa system, which itself resided in the Centrality sector of the Outer Rim Territories, specifically in the Slice region. As a desolate sphere of icy slush, Rafa XI held the eleventh and furthest orbital position around the Rafa system's sun, perpetually circling it in darkness. The planet, along with the rest of the Rafa system, was positioned along the Arleen Loop hyperlane, which provided a connection to both the Arleen and Dela systems. By 3 BBY, Rafa XI was the colony's smallest planet in the Rafa system.
In the year 3 BBY, Lando Calrissian, who was the captain of the freighter known as the Millennium Falcon, and his droid, Vuffi Raa, successfully disarmed a group of five Colonial Constabulary troopers. This group, which included Guard-Captain Myle Jandler, had been attempting to place Calrissian under arrest on the planet Rafa V. Because Calrissian did not want the law enforcement officers to continue interfering with his pursuit of the Mindharp artifact, but he was unwilling to kill them, Vuffi Raa modified the cargo barge that the Constabulary group had used to arrive on Rafa V so that it would transport them to Rafa XI.
The droid deactivated the starship's control systems and programmed the vessel's computer with a fixed course set for Rafa XI. The barge's journey was expected to take a week. Vuffi Raa also destroyed the ship's communications antennas, preventing it from communicating with the rest of the system, except by the troopers using flashlights out the vessel's viewports. Calrissian also instructed his droid to supply the Constabulary troopers with Oseon brandy and holocassettes, describing the "scenery" of their destination as "remarkably boring." Before the vessel departed from Rafa V, Jandler, who had grown weary of following orders from Duttes Mer, the Rafa system's governor, assured Calrissian and his team that they would not rush to report the circumstances of their abandonment once they arrived at Rafa XI.
Sometime in the following four months, four of the Constabulary officers who had been dispatched to Rafa XI returned to the planet Rafa IV, where they were placed under house arrest inside Governor Mer's office building. Four months after Calrissian's encounter with the Constabulary troopers on Rafa V, Vuffi Raa, who had become separated from his owner, disguised himself in a trooper's uniform and traveled to the penal colony of Rafa IV to liberate Calrissian from imprisonment. Once there, the droid, posing as a Constabulary officer, informed the supervisor of the prison complex that Calrissian was to be immediately handed over for transport to Mer, who supposedly wished to interrogate him regarding his attempted abandonment of the policemen on Rafa XI.
Rafa XI was initially mentioned in Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu, which was released in 1983 as the first book in The Lando Calrissian Adventures novel trilogy by L. Neil Smith. A 1990 roleplaying game source article titled "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, How I Wonder Where We Are," published in the thirteenth issue of the Voyages SF magazine, placed the planet within the Corporate Sector. Because that article was published independently of the Lucas Licensing process, its canonicity within the Star Wars Legends continuity was never officially established. The 2009 reference book The Essential Atlas later superseded the Voyages SF placement by specifying that the Rafa system, and therefore Rafa XI, was situated in grid square T-8 as part of the Centrality.