Mara was taken from her home planet as a child by Emperor Palpatine because of her rare abilities in the Force which presented themselves even at an early age. She doesn't remember much about her family or parents, just that they didn't want her to leave.

The Emperor trained her as his personal assistant, using her Force abilities as a type of communication device so that she could hear his voice from anywhere in the galaxy. Mara became his personal tool. The Emperor would send her in when jobs couldn't be handled by mere stormtroopers. She learned how to handle a lightsaber and how to fight with her bare hands if she had to, but her favorite weapon was a tiny blaster she kept hidden in her sleeve. With this deadly training, she became coded "The Emperor's Hand", a skilled assassin and in general a dangerous secret agent.

At some point in her career with the Empire, Mara was sent on a mission to stop a young rebel from rescuing his friend. She posed as a dancer in Jabba the Hutt's palace and plotted to keep that young rebel, who just happened to be Luke Skywalker, from escaping with Han Solo. But try as she might, she could not convince Jabba to allow her to accompany him on the ship to the Sarlaac pit and therefore he escaped.

Mara returned from her mission bitter, angry, and keenly aware of the Emperor's displeasure with her work. She knew that if she had been on that ship, Luke's plan would have been foiled and her position with the Emperor would be secure. She had no way of knowing that disaster in her world was on the horizon.

In disgrace, Palpatine had sent Mara off on another mission to redeem herself when the rebels were attacking the forest moon at Endor. The day that the Emperor died, he sent Mara a message through the Force. She saw a vision of his death, but somehow the signals got crossed and instead of the true scene, Mara saw that Luke and Vader were fighting and suddenly both turned on the Emperor at once and killed him with their lightsabers. With this vision, Mara also heard the Emperor's voice issuing one last order, "YOU WILL KILL LUKE SKYWALKER!"

Two years after the Battle of Endor, where the Emperor died and Mara's life was destroyed, she found herself alone, making ends meet by running odd jobs like smuggling runs and the occasional bounty, but always she was plotting how to destroy the man who had ruined her life. She was overwhelmingly angry and bitter, so much so that her emotions scarred her appearance and her ability to function in everyday life.

Even though she attempted to focus on her day to day survival, the Emperor's last command still echoed in her thoughts almost every second and was enough to nearly drive her insane. It kept her up at night thinking of ways to kill Luke Skywalker slowly and painfully. And yet, somewhere in the back of her mind, she was jealous of his calm exterior. She felt sure that he did not have to live with those ever present voices. And she certainly wanted to know how he used those Jedi powers. So every once in a while she considered that she might like to leave him alive long enough to make him teach her, but she still felt sure that she would kill him when he had finished.

Mara was scouting for jobs on Tatooine when she was hired by a quiet woman who called herself Morganna. Another woman named Blix became Mara's companion on the ship while they were waiting to go on a smuggling run. While sitting on the ship in the spaceport on Tatooine, Mara decided to head to the Cantina and get a drink. But before she made it anywhere, she ran into a mysterious robed figure. You guessed it. Mara flew off the handle. Luke was completely unaware of who she was or why she was so angry with him. But right before Mara could attack him, Blix, who had been watching from the ramp of the ship, pulled an stun rifle on Mara and shot her in the back. Luke carried the unconscious Mara on to the ship where Blix locked her in, hoping to find out why Mara had been so intent on attacking Luke. But when Mara regained conscious, she quite understandably wanted to kill Blix. She finally shot Blix twice, leaving her in pretty bad shape, and forced her way off the ship.

For the next few days things were relatively quiet, but one afternoon, while sitting in the Cantina, Mara noticed a woman walk in who seemed very familiar to her. After a few moments, she realized it was the same white-haired woman who had come in on the tail-end of the confrontation between her and Luke. When the woman started watching her and suddenly got up to leave, Mara decided to follow her. Outside, the woman pulled a blaster on her and at that instant, Luke walked up from behind the woman. He treated Mara as if she were a distant friend, which irritated her to no end. After he professed ignorance of any possible way in which he could have destroyed her life, Mara bitterly explained to him who she was and what the Emperor had done for her. Luke was stunned, but he tried to explain to her that he believed the Emperor had warped her mind into something angry and hateful. He tried to get her to allow him to help clear her mind and told her that she could be a great help to the New Republic. To which she plainly told him he was crazy and that the first chance she got she would see to it that he died.