Ruhnali was a female Cathar who served the Jedi Order as a Jedi Knight during the Cold War. During her youth, she was sold by her slaver father to the Mandalorians of Clan Gharva, who released her into an area of dense woodland to be hunted for sport.
Located, beaten and repeatedly raped by the Mandalorians, Ruhnali was saved by the arrival of Republic forces, who had been tipped off about the site and nature of the hunt. The wounded Cathar was taken to Coruscant for medical attention and rehabilitation, and during her stay in hospital a Jedi healer discovered her connection to the Force. Following her physical recovery, the Jedi took responsibility for her psychological welfare, seemingly helping her to rise above the traumatic events of her past before they began to train her as a Jedi, a journey which ultimately led to her being knighted.
However, Ruhnali never truly let go of her past, and while serving on Cato Neimoidia a rumor began to circulate suggesting Clan Gharva were hiding on the planet; when the Republic soldiers Ruhnali had been assigned to could not legally gain any information regarding the rumors from a suspect despite the Force telling her he had information, the Cathar snapped and ultimately murdered her comrades and the suspect, but not before he pointed her to the planet's senator. Ruhnali learned that the senator had accepted a large bribe to hide Clan Gharva and tortured the location from him, escaping as the Jedi who had been sent to apprehend her – Avexiss Odé – arrived at the scene.
Ruhnali later arrived at the small island the senator had sent her to, discovering the Mandalorian encampment, who were oblivious to her arrival until Ruhnali began to systematically murder every being she encountered. One sole survivor – a young Human man in his early twenties – was able to outlast his peers through a combination of luck, his jetpack and the two lightsabers he carried, but it was only the arrival of Knight Odé that stopped Ruhnali from killing the junior Mandalorian. A ruthlessly effective duelist, Odé forced Ruhnali to flee the island and go on the run, after which she was quickly identified across the Republic as a Dark Jedi who was wanted for murder, a path which ultimately led her to the Order of Revan.