On the Outer Rim Territories planet of Bortras, specifically in its capital, Reithcas, a Human male named Jorus C'baoth was born during the final century of the Galactic Republic. From his very time of birth, in 70 BBY, the young infant displayed a clear connection to the Force, the mysterious energy field that binds the galaxy together. Eventually, his untrained potential attracted the attention of the Jedi Order, an order of force wielders. Adhering to Jedi tradition, C'baoth was taken from his birth parents and brought to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, the Republic's capital and an ecumenopolis, which also served as the Jedi's headquarters. Within the Temple, C'baoth joined the ranks of the Jedi Initiates, with the Order becoming his sole family.

In 53 BBY, at the age of seventeen, C'baoth combined his Jedi studies with education at a university known as the Mirnic University. After graduating, he journeyed to the Kamparas Jedi Training Center on the Core Worlds planet of Kamparas, a hub for Jedi scholars. C'baoth joined to further his instruction in the demanding ways of the Force. Following two years of training at the Jedi Training Center, C'baoth was accepted as a private student.

By 44 BBY, C'baoth had become a member of the Jedi Knights, dedicated to upholding what they believed was right. The newly appointed Jedi Knight chose to follow the path of the Jedi Consulars, focusing on mastering the art of diplomacy rather than combat. As a supporter of the Galactic Republic, C'baoth served in various capacities, most notably as a mediator and negotiator in numerous conflicts fueled by Speciesism across the galaxy. He notably served with the Demilitarization Observation Group stationed on the Mid Rim planet of Ando, a mineral-rich world where the native Aqualish subspecies were perpetually at war over mineral rights. As a key observer within the group, the Jedi from Bortras encountered Senator Palpatine of the Chommell sector, an ambitious figure. The two diplomats formed a bond, and upon their return to Coruscant, established a lasting friendship that bolstered C'baoth's diplomatic career.

Some years after the events on Ando, the Council of Reassignment appointed Jorus C'baoth as Palpatine's advisor on matters related to the Jedi. During his tenure as a member of the senator's staff, the Jedi engaged in discussions about the Extragalactic Society, a community of scientists dedicated to the search for life outside the galaxy. Both friends shared a mutual interest in ExGal's ambitious project. However, some years before the Battle of Naboo in 32 BBY, C'baoth experienced visions of the dark side of the Force growing stronger. The Jedi left the senator's staff and was reassigned, tasked with locating the source of his premonitions. His quest led him to the Elrood sector in the Outer Rim. There, C'baoth discovered a group of marauding Dark Jedi who brought chaos to the sector. Aided by a small strike team of fellow Knights, C'baoth eliminated the dark Force-users. Unbeknownst to him, his old friend Palpatine was a powerful darksider, a Dark Lord of the Sith known as Darth Sidious, who was amplifying the dark side with his plots.

Following his victory against the Dark Jedi, C'baoth bestowed upon himself the title of Jedi Master, an unconventional move as the Jedi High Council typically granted the title to Jedi who had trained multiple Jedi to Knighthood. However, the Council was pleased with C'baoth's efforts in quelling the uprising and accepted his self-imposed promotion, deeming it well-earned and valid.

In 33 BBY, Master C'baoth became involved in the Esseles droid starfighters affair due to his connection with Palpatine, who had risen to become an influential senator. The Jedi Council had received an anonymous datacard, alerting them to a factory named Trinkatta Starships that had begun constructing fifty experimental droid starfighters. Concerned that these new ships were commissioned by a Republic ally plotting a civil war, the Councilmen sent Jedi Master Adi Gallia to identify the buyer. Master Jorus C'baoth was summoned by the Council, which instructed him not to inform Palpatine or any other Senators of Galia's secret mission until they had concrete evidence identifying the buyer. As C'baoth's diplomatic career progressed, he became a member of the Senate Interspecies Advisory Committee, being appointed ambassador of the Xappyh sector, and assisted fellow Jedi Master Tra's M'ins in mediating the Duinuogwuin–Gotal conflict. In 32 BBY, C'baoth was appointed Jedi Watchman of the Alderaan sector and was involved in resolving a crisis known as the Alderaan Ascendancy Contention. The Ascendancy involved tensions between the Organa and Antilles houses as each family sought to claim the position of Viceroy. With the assistance of Captain Pello Scrambas of Organa, C'baoth united both families in marriage, easing the tensions. During the Naboo crisis in the same year, Palpatine was nominated as Supreme Chancellor of the Republic. Despite their long-standing friendship, C'baoth supported another candidate, Bail Antilles. The Jedi Watchman was seen in the company of the Alderaanian senator during a gathering on the Perlemian Orbital Facility, a space station orbiting Coruscant. However, C'baoth's friend was nominated and succeeded the previous chancellor, Finis Valorum.

During his time as a Jedi Master, C'baoth took on several Padawans. At some point after training them, the Jedi diplomat took a female Human named Lorana Jinzler as his Padawan. C'baoth's relationship with his good-natured and humble apprentice was unusually tense. His attitude that Jedi were superior to non-Force users disturbed Jinzler, but she was too timid to confront him or say anything to address the issue.

Around 29 BBY, inspired by the Extragalactic Society, C'baoth conceived the idea of a grand expedition beyond the Galactic Rim to search for life outside the known galaxy. With the support of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, C'baoth played a vital role in persuading the Republic Senate to authorize and fund what became known as the "Outbound Flight Project." The entire project was kept secret during its development, never being revealed to the public. Given that the planned expedition would traverse the galaxy's Unknown Regions, it was decided that crew members would bring their families to colonize habitable worlds along the way. While the Republic had its official policy regarding the mission of Outbound Flight, C'baoth had his own vision, seeing it as a catalyst for discovering other Force-sensitive species who could join the Jedi.

However, as time passed, the enthusiasm of the political class for C'baoth's project began to wane. It soon became clear that the Outbound Flight project was at risk of being sidelined by the Republic's bureaucracy when the Financial Appropriations Committee of the Senate imposed a series of budget cuts. Furthermore, the Jedi Order also began to distance itself from the project. While Grand Master Yoda had agreed to assign several Jedi to the project, he ultimately considered allowing only one or two. Despite the project's jeopardy, C'baoth remained determined to bring it to fruition.

Following further budget cuts to Outbound Flight, C'baoth and his Padawan, Lorana Jinzler, visited the Supreme Chancellor's office, where C'baoth confronted Kinman Doriana, one of Palpatine's aides, and Palpatine himself. Palpatine and Doriana attempted to dismiss the true purpose of C'baoth's visit, but they failed. Shortly after, C'baoth dismissed Doriana, and the Jedi Master and Palpatine discussed Outbound Flight. C'baoth requested that the project's funding be restored. Palpatine consistently rejected this request, claiming that "he could not make it happen without the senate's approval." Doriana then suggested that C'baoth could resolve a dispute between the Corporate Alliance and the Brolf people, which had arisen from the Corporate Alliance's desire to extract minerals from Brolf. C'baoth agreed to resolve the conflict if Outbound Flight received its funding back and departed for Barlok.

On Barlok, Jinzler and C'baoth met with Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi and Jedi Padawan Anakin Skywalker, who admired C'baoth, and in turn, impressed C'baoth with his progress. Kenobi and his Padawan had been sent by Jedi Master Mace Windu, the leader of the Jedi Council, to spy on C'baoth due to the Council's suspicions about the leader of Outbound Flight's activities. Wishing to separate himself from the others, C'baoth left Jinzler with the observers while he met with Brolf Guildmaster Gilfrome of the Mining Guild and the Corporate Alliance's leader, Koorivar Passel Argente, to mediate the conflict. While Kenobi's party investigated a plot to assassinate Argente and everyone involved in the conflict, orchestrated by a Human known as "Defender," who was in fact Kinman Doriana serving Palpatine's Sith identity of Darth Sidious, C'baoth mediated the conflict.

Eventually, Jinzler uncovered the plot and was captured by Brolf conspirators. However, Kenobi and Skywalker freed her, discovering a missile set to destroy everyone at the meeting between the Corporate Alliance and the Mining Guild. The party traveled to the meeting location, and although they attempted to stop the missile, it continued its path, eventually reaching the meeting room. To Kenobi's surprise, C'baoth used his mastery of telekinesis to stop the incoming missile, while addressing the conflict's participants and informing them that the Corporate Alliance would be allowed to extract minerals from Barlok, destroying the missile shortly after with the Force.

Following the Jedi Master's thwarting of the assassination attempt on Barlok, Palpatine and the Senate provided C'baoth's Project with the support that C'Baoth believed it needed, as well as the necessary warships and crew. The Jedi Master, however, did not suspect that Palpatine would secretly sabotage the project. Darth Sidious, the Chancellor's Sith persona, had C'baoth cloned under the guise of a blood test shortly before the launch of the Outbound Flight project, masking it as a test for hive viruses. Sidious also dispatched his minion, Doriana, ahead of the Outbound Flight along with Special Task Force One, consisting of two fully armed Lucrehulk-class battleships to destroy C'baoth's project, effectively killing several dozen Jedi as well as C'baoth himself. As planned, C'baoth was one of the six Jedi Masters aboard the project when it departed from Yaga Minor in 27 BBY. Once the Outbound Flight was launched, C'baoth increasingly took control over all aspects of the ship, even going so far as to take Force-sensitive children away from their parents in the middle of the night to be trained as Jedi. By establishing himself as the de facto leader over all aspects of the ship, even overruling the Mon Calamari captain of the vessels, Captain Pakmillu, he earned the resentment of the colonists and crew who had initially joined the Outbound Flight to seek a better life. Although several Jedi aboard the vessel, including Kenobi, Jedi Master Justyn Ma'Ning, and others warned C'baoth about his rise in power and him doing what they considered wrong, C'baoth continued with his agenda to create more Jedi.

After Skywalker and Kenobi left Outbound Flight at the planet of Roxuli following Palpatine's request to do so, the Outbound Flight and all its passengers entered the Unknown Regions. Upon the massive starship's arrival, it was confronted by Chiss Picket Force Two's commander, Force Commander Mitth'raw'nuruodo with the Core name of "Thrawn", who contacted C'baoth and met with him aboard Outbound Flight. The Chiss told C'baoth to remove his vessel from Chiss space, to which C'baoth did not comply. Although the passengers of the starship wished to remove C'baoth's tyranny from the vessel, C'baoth used the Force to silence all of them, including their leader, Chas Uliar. He then ordered Jinzler to get all of them in the storage core following Thrawn's departure.

The Chiss commander waited an hour and then attempted to negotiate with C'baoth again, only to be cut off by the Jedi. Deeming his efforts a failure, Thrawn ordered his forces—droid starfighters or vulture droids—to launch an attack on the incoming alien forces, who had been brought to the Outbound Flight's position by Human smuggler Jorj Car'das. The crews of the two hundred alien vessels, Vagaari warships and civilian transports, were killed after all Jedi aboard Outbound Flight performed a Force meld led by C'baoth. This wave of death caused by the Vagaari left all Jedi paralyzed, rendering them unable to defend themselves from the incoming droid starfighters. As the Outbound Flight was crippled, C'baoth succumbed to his anger and began turning to the Dark side of the Force. His Padawan sensed his fall and attempted to reach him in time to save him, but the Chiss attack on the vessel prevented her from doing so. The Jedi then opened a comm channel with Thrawn and choked Thrawn in an attempt to kill him.

However, Doriana, aboard the Springhawk, Thrawn's flagship, pressed a button that ordered all vulture droids to fire their radiation bombs at Outbound Flight, killing everyone aboard, including C'baoth, except for the fifty-seven prisoners and Jinzler, who had been sent there by C'baoth.

Palpatine had extracted analysis-grade blood and tissue samples, the secretly Dark Lord of the Sith cloned C'baoth using Spaarti cloning cylinders, which made Jorus' Force-sensitive clone, Joruus C'baoth, go insane. Joruus was found at the planet of Wayland by now-Grand Admiral Thrawn, who used the clone in his decisive campaign against the reborn Jedi Order and the successor of Palpatine's Galactic Empire, the New Republic. Using the clone's—and subsequently, Jorus'—Force powers, Joruus became a major player in Thrawn's campaign.

Given that the Great Jedi Purge created by Jorus' friend, Palpatine, had destroyed most records relating to the Jedi and that Wayland itself was a carefully hidden secret, almost no one knew that Joruus C'baoth was a clone, except for Thrawn, who had killed the original when destroying Outbound Flight. Due to deteriorating sanity from the unstable Spaarti cloning cylinders as well as long isolation, even Joruus C'baoth forgot his true origins and believed himself to be the original Master C'baoth. However, the insane Dark Jedi was killed at the hands of Human Mara Jade Skywalker at the clone's planet of origin, Wayland, which after Thrawn's death, ended the Chiss' campaign.

A wild-eyed Human with a chiseled face, Jorus C'baoth was a tall man of average build, and was considered fairly muscular. His clone, Joruus, stood at 1.9 meters. At the time of the Alderaan Ascendency Contention, he had a neatly trimmed short beard. Walking with long loping strides, he simply expected other beings to make room for him, stepping to either side, for he never conceded to other, inferior beings the right of way. C'baoth's manner of speaking was direct, unadorned, no-nonsense. He spoke in a husky baritone voice. C'baoth was known to believe in the superiority of the Jedi, his unapologetic conviction was that the Jedi were far above the galaxy's average non-Force users, and therefore they had the right to rule over them, be they outlaws, thieves, bureaucrats, or senators. His proud attitude of superiority caused several Jedi to be disturbed by his views, including his own Padawan Lorana Jinzler—to whom he was especially brutal, considering he was her Jedi Master.

C'baoth was also extremely arrogant in his dealings, not only with non-Force users, but also with his fellow Jedi. That arrogance, as it combined with his often severe attitudes, divided many Jedi on their perception and/or approbation of the Jedi Master. Some believed that he was the consummate model of what it meant to be a Jedi, while others vehemently disagreed with his methods and remained very wary of him and his extremist views. C'baoth was among the very few Jedi Masters who indulged an unqualified admiration of Anakin Skywalker, and the Padawan's prodigious youth, in turn, Skywalker admired the master, believing him to be a powerful Jedi who he could learn a lot from.

Jedi Master Jorus C'baoth held a major dislike toward Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, as the latter viewed C'baoth's way of teaching as a path toward the dark side, and constantly suggested that C'baoth used the dark side. However, C'baoth considered his teachings as a way to make his apprentice ambitious, and to reach beyond their limits, stating it worked as Skywalker was a powerful Padawan already. During their time together, Kenobi was disturbed by the arrogant Jedi Master's way of speaking and techniques, as well as the use of advanced Jedi techniques, such as the Force meld, which Kenobi considered dangerous.

C'baoth admired Skywalker, as the young Padawan had become far more powerful than what a normal Padawan would have achieved, which he constantly reminded his Padawan, Jinzler, of. The admiration went both ways, as Skywalker viewed C'baoth as a powerful, direct, and knowledgeable Jedi Master, and Skywalker also wished to spend more time with C'baoth, as he believed he could learn a lot by watching C'baoth do his daily activities.

The Jedi Master was arrogant and harsh toward Jinzler, as she had not reached the power Skywalker had obtained in a shorter time. However, once she achieved the title of Jedi Knight, C'baoth was very proud of Jinzler, viewing her as a fully-fleshed-out Jedi. C'baoth was admired by Jinzler, as he was considered powerful by his Padawan, and a man who had taught her a lot of valuable lessons, both in the Force and in daily life. Both cared for each other, most notably, shortly before C'baoth's death, Jinzler attempted to reach D-One to help C'baoth when he had fallen to the dark side.

C'baoth and Palpatine had a long-standing friendship, as C'baoth respected Palpatine and vice versa. With Palpatine's support, C'baoth was able to eventually launch Outbound Flight, which he was not grateful for, as Palpatine had taken "too much time" from the Jedi Master, allowing the bureaucrats and senate to delay the project. However, although both shared a friendship, Palpatine, under his secret Sith identity of Darth Sidious, destroyed Outbound Flight through Thrawn and Doriana, which was "helpful" as Palpatine had killed approximately 20 Jedi at once.

Jedi Master Jorus C'baoth was a very gifted and talented Jedi. As he showed prowess in the Force, he was quickly brought to the Jedi Temple. C'baoth was proficient in telekinesis, as he showcased during the dispute on Barlok, where he stopped an incoming missile to explode and collide with its targets. The talented Jedi was also able to perform Force-Choke through a simple video transmission, choking someone at lightyears ahead of him, which he used against Thrawn before his death. Another example of his proficiency in the Force was his ability in Force Meld, being able to anchor several Jedi in a row, and not being exhausted afterward, but being unaffected after performing several melds. Among C'baoth's other Force abilities were the common Jedi mind trick, Force stealth, telepathy, battlemind, Force sight, farsight, Force healing, and Force empathy.

His skill with the Force eventually culminated in imposing himself on the title of Jedi Master thanks to his prowess in the Force. However, although no one approved his decision, the Jedi High Council and Jedi saw it as a well-deserved promotion. He also was a highly intelligent man, being able to speak fluently in Galactic Basic Standard, expanding on his ability to read and write ancient Onderonian. He could also speak Huttese.

Jorus C'baoth wore a dark brown cloak and light-colored Jedi robes. It’s unknown if he used a lightsaber or not.

Jorus C'baoth was first mentioned in the 1991 novel Heir to the Empire, the first entry of The Thrawn Trilogy, which was written by Timothy Zahn. While the Jedi Master didn't appear himself in the book, a mad clone of C'baoth served as one of the novel's main antagonists. The original Jorus C'baoth made his first brief appearance in Episode I Adventures 1: Search for the Lost Jedi, a 1999 novel written by Ryder Windham. After those cameos, Timothy Zahn fleshed out his character in 2006 by writing Outbound Flight, a novel centered on the events surrounding C'baoth's demise and life.

The second installment in the trilogy, Dark Force Rising, included a very thorough biography of C'baoth, complete with a "Pre-Empire" dating system using a month\day\year notation. However, Zahn's original dating was based on when he believed the Clone Wars took place. At the time, George Lucas had not settled on the final timeline, and Star Wars authors were told that the Clone Wars took place thirty-five years before Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. However, with the release of the prequel trilogy between 1999 and 2005, it was revealed that the Clone Wars ended only nineteen years before Episode IV. Therefore, all the dates featured in the Thrawn Trilogy were off by at least sixteen years. In 2002, C'baoth's birth date was retconned to 70 BBY in the Star Wars Roleplaying Game Revised Core Rulebook.

According to The Essential Guide to Characters, C'baoth's last name is pronounced "Sub-Bay-Eth." However, Zahn has stated that it is pronounced "SA-bay-oth," with the first vowel pronounced like the a in has. Timothy Zahn commented that had he realized how hard it would be for everyone else to figure out the pronunciation, he would have changed the spelling. Jorus C'baoth was originally named as the Jedi who quelled the insurrection of several Bpfasshi Dark Jedi during the Clone Wars. After the exact date of the Clone Wars was revealed, that became impossible, as C'baoth had died five years earlier. Yoda was then named as the Jedi Master responsible for opposing the insurrection some time after the end of the war.