Rukh

Rukh was a male Noghri warrior who served as the personal bodyguard, and then later the assassin, of Grand Admiral Thrawn. Raised at a time when his homeworld Honoghr was ravaged by ecological disaster, Rukh was fiercely loyal to the Galactic Empire, which claimed to be working to restore the planet. After serving as one of Emperor Palpatine's Noghri Death Commandos, Rukh was handpicked by Thrawn in 9 ABY to serve as his bodyguard, traveling the galaxy aboard Thrawn's flagship, the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Chimaera.

A deadly and stealthy warrior, Rukh was often at Thrawn's side while the Grand Admiral waged his military campaign against the New Republic. He was present with Thrawn during several important missions, including the recruitment of the Dark Jedi Joruus C'baoth on the planet Wayland. Rukh accompanied Thrawn to Honoghr to interrogate the Noghri Khabarakh after his failure to capture Princess Leia Organa Solo, and Rukh unsuccessfully attempted to stop the Jedi Luke Skywalker from breaking the smuggler Talon Karrde out of imprisonment aboard the Chimaera.

Rukh soon learned Thrawn was not actually restoring Honoghr, but was secretly keeping it in a state of poor health so the Noghri would remain perpetually indebted and effectively enslaved to the Empire. Furious, he resolved to assassinate the Grand Admiral, but decided to wait for the right moment to strike. During the height of the Battle of Bilbringi, Rukh drove his assassin's knife through Thrawn's chest from behind and killed him. Shortly thereafter, the Noghri was killed by a clone of Imperial Major Grodin Tierce. Rukh became revered for his role in the assassination, which led to division within the Empire and helped the Noghri escape their Imperial enslavement.

Text and facts from the “Rukh/Legends” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.