Gorak was a mercenary and slave of the Trandoshan female species.
The early years of Gorak's life were a blur to her. She recalled being raised as a slave aboard a starship, where she faced ridicule from Wookiees due to her diminutive stature, pink eyes, and albinism. She was apparently rented to a large Wookiee for one week, but she had no memory of what transpired. During this period, she was also subjected to frequent beatings, which toughened her skin.
As the years passed, she matured into a sturdy, though still short, young adult. Her growing size made her a potential threat. Although her status as a slave remained, the mocking ceased.
Eventually, Gorak gained her freedom and encountered the slaver Phylus Mon. Phylus Mon offered Gorak employment at his zoo, along with food, clothing, and a sense of purpose. However, upon hiring her, Phylus Mon implanted an explosive device near Gorak's heart. This device was designed to detonate and kill Gorak if Phylus Mon were to die for any reason. The bomb could be disabled by an ion weapon, but Phylus Mon prohibited ion weapons on his ship, the Animiasma. This mechanism served as a security measure that Phylus Mon employed on all his slaves. Simultaneously, Phylus Mon compensated his slaves and insisted on referring to them as employees. However, they all understood that leaving his service would result in their death.
Phylus Mon was a hunter and trader of large animals. Gorak's responsibilities involved managing violent creatures, ostensibly due to her own history of violence and her philosophical perspective on the inherent violence of reality. After several years of working in this capacity, specializing in Acklays and Rancors, Gorak developed the ability to identify most non-sentient species by their scent. She also developed claustrophobia.
Around 20 BBY, Phylus Mon decided to include Gorak in a mission to the Cularin system aboard the Animiasma, a vessel she had never been on before. While the specifics of the mission were not disclosed to Gorak, she was introduced to the other members of the team. She considered Nalz, the Spiner, to be a useless technician, although she reminded herself that Phylus Mon would not have trusted him if that were true. She disliked the Human, but she assumed he might have some local contacts. She felt a sexual attraction to the Barabel bounty hunter Yerj, but the feeling was not reciprocated. However, the final member of the team, the Wookiee Kaarror, evoked an innate hatred in her.
Gorak and the other minions launched an assault on the Almas Sith fortress in the Cularin system. The fortress entrance was guarded by six Jedi, but Phylus Mon deployed no fewer than thirteen minions, including his Wampa bodyguard Ku-Kak. Phylus Mon's team eliminated four of the Jedi and defeated the remaining two, even though Gorak and Kaarror spent the entire battle exchanging insults from opposite sides of the battlefield.
Within the fortress, Phylus Mon conducted a Sith ritual to transform Gorak and the others into Sith battlelords. This dangerous, life-threatening process was intended to elevate them into powerful military commanders capable of using Force powers to quell insubordination among their troops. However, the ritual malfunctioned, resulting in Gorak and the other prospective Battlelords being stripped of their Force essences, which were then stored within a large crystal.
Phylus Mon departed the fortress with the crystal, leaving behind Kaarror and the other empty bodies. These bodies were later discovered by a search team dispatched by the Jedi at the Almas Academy. The bodies were transported to the Academy, where the Jedi endeavored to recover the lost essences and restore them to their original state.
In A Mon Alone, a player character can, at a certain juncture, inhabit this non-player character's body and utilize Gorak's statistics until their essence is liberated (meaning Gorak's essence returns to Gorak's body and the PC's essence returns to the PC's unconscious body), or until Gorak's body is killed in action. The text indicates that some of the final scenes are so perilous that they could easily result in the death of the player characters, potentially leading to player frustration.