Thrawn

Mitth'raw'nuruodo, better known by his core name Thrawn, was a Chiss male officer of the Chiss Ascendancy and a Grand Admiral in the Imperial Navy during the age of the Galactic Empire. An alien officer with blue skin, red eyes, and an angular face, he was renowned as a brilliant and ruthless strategist who held that to win a war one must first understand the enemy. To that end he studied the philosophy, art, and culture of his opponents, among them the rebel cell led by Hera Syndulla, the New Republic, and the Grysk Hegemony. (Thrawn; Steps Into Shadow; Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos Rising)

Origins and the Chiss Ascendancy#

A native of the planet Rentor in the Unknown Regions, Thrawn was born into the comparatively small Kivu family as Kivu'raw'nuru, with the core name Vurawn. His talents drew the attention of powerful figures in the Ascendancy. The patriarchs Mitth'oor'akiord and Stybla'mi'ovodo, working with General Ba'kif, founder of the Expansionary Defense Fleet, arranged for him to be adopted into the Mitth family and to have his career and training guided within the Fleet. They also steered him into a close friendship with Mitth'ras'safis, called Thrass, a man whose political instincts complemented Thrawn's analytical mind. Thrawn, who did not form friendships easily, came to regard Thrass as a brother. He led anti-piracy operations against a group of raiders known as the Vagaari, a campaign in which Thrass went missing and was presumed dead. (Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos Rising; Thrawn Ascendancy: Greater Good; Thrawn Ascendancy: Lesser Evil)

The Grysk threat#

Near the end of the Clone Wars, around 19 BBY, the warlike Grysk Hegemony began a plot to destroy the Chiss Ascendancy. The Grysks first groomed a Nikardun general named Yiv, ruler of an expansionist empire in the Unknown Regions, and through him sought to encircle the Chiss, who by their own non-intervention policy could not strike anyone who had not directly attacked them. Searching for allies against Yiv, Thrawn traveled out of the Unknown Regions into known space, where he encountered the Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and fought alongside him on a mission to Mokivj. He went on to play a decisive part in defeating Yiv's fleet and ending the Nikardun Destiny. (Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos Rising; Thrawn: Alliances)

The Grysk agent known as Jixtus pressed the campaign further, dispatching the telepathic Agbui to manipulate officials of three Great Families into civil war. Thrawn defused that plot above the planet Hoxim. When Jixtus next enlisted the Kilji Illumine to undermine the Ascendancy from within, Thrawn and his allies united several neighboring nations and defeated Jixtus's fleet in a climactic battle over Sunrise that became known as Senior Captain Thrawn's last stand. (Thrawn Ascendancy: Greater Good; Thrawn Ascendancy: Lesser Evil)

Defeating the Grysks cost Thrawn dearly in the Ascendancy's politics. Many adversaries wanted him stripped of rank and exiled. Supreme General Ba'kif chose to let him go into exile and use that exile to study the Galactic Empire, reasoning that the Chiss would need allies for the Grysks' inevitable return. (Thrawn Ascendancy: Lesser Evil)

Service to the Empire#

After stowing away aboard a Star Destroyer, Thrawn offered his allegiance to Emperor Palpatine and the Empire. With the help of the cadet Eli Vanto he assimilated into galactic society, became fluent in Galactic Basic, and graduated from the Royal Imperial Academy on Coruscant in only three months. Vanto became his aide and protege, and Thrawn recruited Morgan Elsbeth as one of his most loyal followers. A string of successes carried him through the ranks until the Emperor personally granted him the rank of Grand Admiral. (Thrawn; Chapter 13: The Jedi)

As Grand Admiral, Thrawn commanded the Seventh Fleet from the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer Chimaera. When Governor Arihnda Pryce requested a commander capable of crushing the rebels on Lothal, Thrawn accepted, intending to dismantle the rebellion one piece at a time. He pursued the cell led by Captain Hera Syndulla and championed a new starfighter-bomber, the TIE Defender, to be built first on Lothal. Following the Battle of Atollon, Palpatine sent him on a mission alongside Darth Vader, the Sith apprentice Thrawn had once known as Anakin Skywalker; their forces recovered Force-sensitive Chiss children held by the Grysks, and Thrawn later exposed the treason of Grand Admiral Balanhai Savit. (Steps Into Shadow; Thrawn; Zero Hour; Thrawn: Alliances; Thrawn: Treason)

Lothal and exile on Peridea#

Thrawn resumed his campaign to eliminate Syndulla's cell on Lothal. When the rebels moved to liberate the world once and for all, the battle turned against the Empire. A flock of purrgil, drawn to the aid of the Jedi Padawan Ezra Bridger, inflicted heavy damage on the Seventh Fleet. Thrawn was on the bridge of the Chimaera when the creatures surrounded the ship and pulled it into hyperspace, carrying both Thrawn and Bridger to the extragalactic planet Peridea, where they remained in exile. (Family Reunion and Farewell; Part Six: Far, Far Away)

In the years that followed, the Emperor and Vader were killed at the Battle of Endor, the Empire was beaten at the Battle of Jakku, and the Rebel Alliance reorganized into the New Republic. The former Jedi Ahsoka Tano began hearing whispers of Thrawn's return and set out in 9 ABY to find the last missing Grand Admiral, a search that led her to confront his protege Elsbeth. With the help of Elsbeth and the Great Mothers, Thrawn escaped Peridea, though unknown to him Bridger escaped as well. Free at last, Thrawn traveled with the Great Mothers to the Nightsister homeworld of Dathomir. Even during his long absence, his knowledge of the Unknown Regions had aided Imperial loyalists who fled the known galaxy and eventually formed the First Order. (Chapter 13: The Jedi; Part One: Master and Apprentice; Part Eight: The Jedi, the Witch, and the Warlord; Aftermath: Empire's End)