Lanius Qel-Bertuk was a Jedi Master a few decades before the Trade Federation was defeated at the Battle of Naboo. As a young student at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, Lanius found that he favored Force-abilities that focused on knowledge and learning. Eventually, Lanius had trained under Jedi Master Nerra Ziveri who served as headmaster at the Jedi Academy on Almas, a school set up to train Jedi Knights after the system's Dark Jedi Conflict was concluded. The Academy was established on Almas because of the system's long history with the Dark Side and its presence that still remained there.

Lanius trained with Nerra to eventually take his place as headmaster at the Academy as well as focusing his attention to studying the Dark Side aura that surrounded an ancient Sith fortress on Almas. Finally realizing what he must do, Nerra called Lanius to him and explained that it was time for him to take his place as the headmaster of the Academy. Telling him or any other Jedi little else, Nerra disappeared into the wilderness of Almas, never to be seen again, even absent from the Jedi's senses. With that, Lanius became headmaster when he was middle-aged and shades of gray were starting to appear in his mustache and beard. Lanius still sported raven black hair, and through his life as a Jedi gained a scar on his left cheek, and lost a finger on his left hand.

As Nerra's student, Lanius was also involved with the curriculum of the Jedi Academy. Realizing that the environment was so much different from the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, Nerra and Lanius decided that curriculum should be unique as well. Coming up with the idea of 'Jedi Quests,' a test for Jedi students to retrieve a certain object from popular planets throughout the galaxy, Lanius continued this tradition when he became headmaster.