Kinnin Vo-Shay, a gambler with a minor connection to the Force, possessed striking good looks, characterized by sharp, chiseled features and a prominent, jagged scar that began at his lip and extended past his nose. By his fifties, his hair had turned completely white. Vo-Shay was known for his distinctive obsidian pendant, which many believed was a mystical charm responsible for his extraordinary luck.
Around 50 BBY, Vo-Shay, piloting his freighter named the Ashanda Ray, ventured into the perilous Tyus Cluster. There, he found himself trapped within the island of stability, situated at the heart of a dense formation of black holes. He likely would have perished, but he encountered the ghost of Aryzah, a deceased Jedi Master and prior victim of the cluster. She imparted some knowledge of the Force to him, and somehow aided Vo-Shay in escaping the cluster. Aryzah's Force ghost accompanied him on his departure.
Although approximately fifty years had passed in the wider galaxy, the intense gravitational forces within the Tyus Cluster had significantly altered the passage of time from Vo-Shay's perspective. In Vo-Shay's own words, "time was nonexistent" at the cluster's core, meaning he did not age at all.
Vo-Shay promptly went back to the gambling tables, winning a quarter of a million credits from a Herglic named Doune. The single credit he used to start the game of sabacc was given to him by a farmboy named Nyo, who hoped to use his winnings to purchase a lightsaber. Nyo obtained his lightsaber, and Vo-Shay decided to hire him as the first mate of the Ashanda Ray, where Aryzah decided to teach Nyo the ways of the Force.