Empatojayos Brand was a Jedi Knight and one-time student of Jedi Master Yoda and trained as a Padawan by Jedi Master Yaddle during the last decades of the Old Republic. Brand was in service to the Jedi Knights when the Separatist uprising threw the galaxy into turmoil allowing civil wars and system conflicts to resurface. One such conflict was the decade long civil war between the worlds of Dimok and Ripoblus. Empatojayos Brand was part of a delegation sent to the worlds to try to negotiate peace between the warring factions, and help bring a solution to the underlying problems that were the cause of the war. Joining Jedi Knights Bultar Swan and Chellemi Chuovvick, Brand's mission was the third of its kind sent to try to broker peace.

While Brand's and the Jedi's efforts were able to bring the war to a stop for a short while, when Brand and the Jedi returned to Coruscant, the war flared up again, prompting for a fourth mission by the Jedi to the two worlds. In a time of war, Brand rose to the challenge to preserve peace and justice in the galaxy. However, when Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader began hunting down and destroying the Jedi Knights, Vader soon came for Brand. Pursued to the edges of the Hutt's home system, Vader engaged Brand, destroying his ship, and what he thought was Brand as well.

However, Brand had survived the attack, but was left for dead by Vader. The Force was with Brand however, as he was soon discovered by a low-level technology society known as the Ganathans. The Ganathans were a simple society whose homeworld was located near the Smuggler's Moon, Nar Shadda, hidden by a giant radioactive cloud that hid them from the rest of the galaxy and kept unwanted visitors away from their way of life. Near death, Brand was discovered by the Ganathans and using their antiquated technology kept him alive through the use of a mechanical body. After Brand's encounter with Vader, all that remained of him was his torso and head, and after he was rescued by the Ganathans, inhabited a metallic, sphere body with mobility provided by repulsorlifts.