Rukh

As a male Noghri native to Honoghr, Rukh's skills led him to serve the Galactic Empire as a proficient assassin. He specifically became the dedicated bodyguard of Thrawn, a Chiss who had ascended to the rank of Admiral within the Imperial hierarchy.

Sometime between 9 BBY and 2 BBY, Rukh was assigned the task of assessing the capabilities of Magistrate Morgan Elsbeth, who had recently presented the concept of a new starfighter to a gathering of Imperial officers. After Captain Gilad Pellaeon, a trusted subordinate of Thrawn, reported Elsbeth's potential, Rukh was deployed to Corvus, the planet under Elsbeth's governance. Armed with a long bladed weapon, Rukh engaged the Magistrate in a duel, but she defended herself with a beskar spear. Despite initially gaining an advantage, Rukh was disarmed and defeated. As Elsbeth held her spear to the assassin's throat, Pellaeon revealed that Rukh's attack was a test designed for her. Pellaeon instructed her to lower her weapon, and upon doing so, Rukh snarled, retreated rapidly, and left Elsbeth alone with Thrawn.

Following the theft of the prototype TIE/d "Defender" Multi-Role Starfighter on Lothal in 1 BBY, Grand Admiral Thrawn tasked Rukh with aiding Governor Arihnda Pryce in locating the rebels responsible. Pryce suspected the thieves would return to the crash site to recover the hyperdrive removed from the prototype.

Upon reaching the crash site, Rukh detected the scent of the Lasat rebel Garazeb Orrelios, along with Ezra Bridger and Jai Kell, nearby, where they were in the process of retrieving the drive. As the assassin approached, Bridger attempted to delay him by claiming that he and Kell, disguised as scout troopers, had already searched the area. The deception failed, and Rukh attacked the pair. During the fight, he realized Bridger was a Jedi when Bridger employed the Force to hurl him into a rock. The two escaped on a speeder bike, with Rukh in pursuit. Meanwhile, Orrelios evaded the assassin and escaped with the hyperdrive in an Imperial Troop Transport.

Riding a speeder bike, Rukh chased Bridger and Kell through a maze of rock spires. He engaged Bridger in a brief duel, wielding his electrostaff against Bridger's lightsaber. As the two rebels pulled ahead, Rukh, forced to dodge a boulder, fired a dart equipped with a homing beacon at their bike, unnoticed by them. Continuing the chase, Rukh eventually launched his bike over a rock pile created by Bridger using a planted detonator. While airborne, Rukh's bike was destroyed by Bridger's fire, and the rebels escaped. Using his tracking device, Rukh located the rebel camp and relayed the coordinates to Pryce. However, due to the rebels' earlier escape, Pryce refused to allow Rukh to attack the camp alone, despite his confidence in doing so. Instead, she launched an attack with several tanks, a strategy that he criticized. After the Rebels escaped the camp, deeper into the mountains, Rukh demanded permission to pursue, but Pryce refused, opting to bomb the mountains instead.

During the Rebel attack on Lothal, Rukh was stationed in Capital City. The rebels' attempts to destroy the Imperial fuel depot and factory were unsuccessful, as Thrawn had deployed a second wave of TIE fighters to intercept the bombers after they breached the blockade surrounding the planet. Upon learning that some Rebel pilots may have survived their crash landings, Thrawn instructed Rukh to capture any survivors alive, resorting to killing them only as a last resort. Thrawn also ordered him to capture Hera Syndulla, the attack's commander, at all costs. Rukh complied, capturing Rebel pilot Secon Daree during his mission and presenting him to Pryce, who commended the assassin. Rukh later tracked Syndulla, using her scent to locate her assisting another pilot, Mart Mattin. He ambushed the trio and engaged them in a brief skirmish. While he failed to capture Mattin and Chopper, he succeeded in separating Syndulla from them, leading to her capture by Imperial forces.

When the Spectres launched a mission to rescue General Syndulla, Rukh was on patrol and encountered two stormtroopers. He inquired if they had anything to report. As the Spectres passed overhead in three Loth-bat gliders, Rukh's nostrils twitched. Sensing something amiss, Rukh attempted to warn Governor Pryce. While communicating with her, the Jedi Knight Kanan Jarrus freed Syndulla from Pryce's office. Rukh pursued them, scaling the Imperial Complex to reach the garbage chute on the south entrance. Rukh briefly battled Kanan, resulting in the loss of Jarrus's lightsaber. However, Kanan pushed him off the building, but Rukh avoided death by clinging to a balcony. The rebels escaped on a glider, but Kanan was killed.

Following the death of Kanan Jarrus, Rukh was present in Governor Pryce's office during a hologram briefing with Grand Admiral Thrawn. Thrawn reprimanded Pryce for destroying the Lothal City fuel depot and disrupting the Empire's TIE Defender project on Lothal. After chastising Pryce, Thrawn warned Rukh that the rebels would strike recklessly and tasked him with eliminating them. As Rukh departed the room, he smirked at the chastised Pryce.

Continuing his hunt for the Spectres, Rukh encountered a scout trooper who had been knocked out by Orrelios. He narrowly avoided being killed by an explosive that Sabine Wren had planted on the trooper's bike. Rukh's sharp senses helped him to home in on Sabine and Zeb, and he followed them into the wilderness. Sabine and Zeb trapped him but Rukh turned the tables on them by activating his cloaking device. Armed with his cloaking device, Rukh viciously attacked Zeb.

Using her Mandalorian helmet's rangefinder, Sabine managed to shoot at Rukh. However, he was able to dodge her with superhuman reflexes and managed to knock out her helmet. After struggling with Zeb, Rukh retreated for a second round. This time, Sabine managed to neutralize his cloaking device by throwing a paint bomb at him, damaging his cloaking device and partially painting him. Now visible, he was quickly overpowered by Orrelios. Zeb almost beat him to death but was stopped by Sabine, who convinced him to spare Rukh's life. Wren instead spray-painted Rukh before sending him back to the Empire on a speeder bike.

Rukh accompanied Pryce on an invasion of the rebel base. Ryder Azadi nearly shot him, but decided to maintain his cover and let him go. Rukh fought with Ezra Bridger. When the rebels retreated into the cave, Rukh followed them with his men, and found Bridger standing in the dark. When Rukh taunted Bridger about his "army," Bridger ignited his lightsaber, revealing a pack of Loth-wolves, terrifying him. In the ensuing battle, he was thrown off the encampment by the White Loth-wolf. While he survived the plunge, he lost his electrostaff.

Despite being thrown by the loth-wolf, Rukh managed to survive the fall. Later, he found Commander Wolffe, Mart Mattin and Cikatro Vizago loading up the Ghost and attacked them. He easily subdued all three rebels and prepared to kill them, but became terrified when the white Loth-wolf returned and hastily boarded a stolen patrol transport to escape. He then informed Thrawn of Pryce's capture. Thrawn tasked him with disabling the Planetary Shield Generator.

Rukh managed to disable the generator, but was attacked by Orrelios, who fought him in the shield generator core. During their fight, Orrelios grabbed Rukh's foot as the Noghri attempted to gain the higher ground, and caught it in wires, crushing them and trapping Rukh's foot in the generator's wiring. As Kallus activated the shield generator, Zeb jumped to safety, but Rukh was stuck and unable to escape as the electric current burst across the generators, to the Noghri's horror. Realizing the shield was up as his bombardment did nothing to the city, Thrawn contacted Rukh for his status, but Orrelios had retrieved Rukh's comlink and laughingly informed Thrawn of the bodyguard's fate amidst the sound of Rukh being fried to death, which then went suddenly silent.

Rukh demonstrated unwavering loyalty to the Galactic Empire in general, and Grand Admiral Thrawn in particular, functioning as Thrawn's dedicated bodyguard and primary assassin. Unless explicitly instructed otherwise, he pursued his targets relentlessly, without hesitation or remorse. From the moment he arrived on Lothal, Rukh harbored a rivalry with Governor Arihnda Pryce, expressing contempt for her reliance on brute force to suppress the rebels, and in turn, receiving significant scorn from her regarding his abilities. After Pryce killed Kanan but destroyed the Imperial fuel depot on Lothal in the process, Rukh was present when she was admonished for her failure by Thrawn. He smirked in delight at the sight of his humbled rival.

Like Pryce, Rukh was terrified of the Loth-wolves.

As a Noghri, Rukh possessed the ability to scale tall structures and move swiftly on all fours without experiencing fatigue. His agility and reflexes made him a formidable and unpredictable opponent in close quarters combat. Despite these advantages, he could be easily overpowered by Force-sensitives such as Bridger. Rukh also exhibited an enhanced sense of smell, capable of detecting Orrelios's scent from a considerable distance, and effortlessly discerning Bridger and Kell's disguises. Furthermore, he possessed exceptional eyesight.

Rukh demonstrated proficiency in melee combat, even when outnumbered, due to his use of a personal cloaking device. He possessed faster reflexes than a human and could match the strength of the Lasat Zeb. However, when Rukh's cloaking device was compromised, he was no match for Zeb's brute force. Only Sabine's intervention prevented his death.

Rukh wielded a custom electrostaff in combat, proving capable of holding his own against the experienced Bridger. His electrostaff also incorporated a built-in blaster, similar to a Lasat bo-rifle. He also utilized tracking darts equipped with a homing beacon to aid in locating targets, and possessed the skill to operate a speeder bike. Rukh employed a personal cloaking device, a Sinrich optical dephaser, as demonstrated during his battle with Garazeb Orrelios and Sabine Wren, which rendered him invisible.

The character of Rukh was initially introduced in Timothy Zahn's 1991 Star Wars Legends novel, Heir to the Empire, serving as the bodyguard of Grand Admiral Thrawn. At Celebration Orlando 2017, it was confirmed that Rukh would appear in Star Wars Rebels Season Four, with his voice provided by Star Wars veteran Warwick Davis.

According to Rebels creator Dave Filoni, Rukh's confrontation with Zeb Orrelios in the series finale, "Family Reunion – and Farewell," was originally conceived differently. However, it was re-staged because Filoni felt the original version lacked impact and wasn't "special" enough.

Zahn was not consulted on how the Rebels crew would utilize Rukh. However, in an interview with the French YouTube channel La Tribune de Coruscant on May 5, 2023, Zahn suggested that the Rukh featured in his books might not be the same character as the one in Rebels, raising the possibility that Rukh could be a common name or a title.