Astaal Vilbum was a Baragwin Jedi Knight during the time of the Old Republic, around the time of the Battle of Naboo. Astaal was the caretaker of the Tower of First Knowledge, and among the responsibilities of such a title were the knowledge of old lore, as well as all the holocrons stored there. Sometime after the Battle of Naboo, a holcron in the Tower activated itself. Astaal and other Jedi Master took up the task of deciphering the message the holocron was broadcasting.

Apparently, the message concerned Jedi Knight Quinlan Vos, his past, as well as information concerning the Anzati Dark Jedi, Volfe Kaarko. As was such, Quinlan Vos had recently been sent on a mission that would bring up his past and his early experiences with Anzati. Vos, having recently lost his memory was only beginning to regain it, and again take up the role of Jedi Knight. However, the interim in which Quinlan Vos had no recollection of events left him walking close to the Dark Side.

The information in the holocron only proved that matters were much worse than was previously believed. Astaal and the other Jedi attempted to contact Vos, but as he was on the primitive prison planet of Kiffu, and was unable to be reached. When Astaal contacted the native ruler of that system, the Sheyf Tinte, a corrupt ruler in her own right with a vendetta against Quinlan Vos, said that communications between the home planet of Kiffex and the prison planet of Kiffu were disrupted due to electromagnetic storms. The situation with Quinlan Vos was eventually resolved, thanks, in part to the work done by Jedi Knight Astaal Vilbum, chief caretaker in the Jedi Temple's Tower of First Knowledge.