Ruling Families

"The Nine Ruling Families are like any other families. Blood and merit create siblings and cousins and ranking distants. Some are released, others are rematched, others are born to trial. The same as any other family."

- Chaf'ees'aklaio

The Ruling Families or Ruling Houses were the complicated familial/governmental hierarchy that dominated the Chiss Ascendancy. Their leaders composed the Council of Families.

History
"There have been as many as twelve ruling families and as low as three"

- Mitth'raw'nuruodo

In social and constitutional terms, the Ruling Families were an oligarchy which operated above the level of the professional bureaucracy and the (at least partially) democratic legislature. Each Family was responsible for a certain sector of Chiss government, and each had formal representatives with titles such as Aristocra and Syndic; but within each family, preeminent power and status was vested in the hands of a hierarchy ranked, in order, as brothers and sisters (collectively siblings), cousins and ranking distants. While it seems that these titles often indicated literal blood relationships, they could also be awarded on merit, and and while each Family was ultimately a kin-group, they also contained adoptive members who were not born into the oligarchy. For example, all CEDF officers were classed as merit adoptives of a Ruling Family for the duration of their service, while being named as Trial-born of a family enabled the most able commoners to aim for permanent 'matching' to one of the Families - a process that seems to have involved marriage to an eligible member of the Family; in rare cases, a Trial-born matched to the Family might even secure the status of ranking distant.

According to sources made available through New Republic channels during the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, the Chiss Ruling Families traced their origins to the distant past, before the onset of the ice age in which Csilla had been gripped throughout reliably-recorded Chiss history, and it was implied that every contemporary Chiss individual had a blood relationship with at least one of the Families. The same sources, however, made clear that the information available at this time about pre-glaciation Csilla took the form of contradictory legends, and it is not clear how reliable the claims for the antiquity of the Families could therefore be. Secondly, and especially bearing in mind the dubious nature of this first claim, the idea that all five trillion contemporary Chiss could then trace some form of biological descent to no more than nine pairs of historical ancestors must prima facie be treated with extreme caution.

It is possible that the idea that all Chiss were members of the ruling families is in some way connected with the temporary status of merit adoptives, which made all Chiss military personnel members of a Ruling Family for the duration of their service careers. Almost all contacts with the Chiss up to this point had been with the military, and it is possible that New Republic scholars simply misunderstood the situation. Alternatively, it may have been that at all stages of their life, all Chiss were in some way bound to a specific Family according to a combination of geographical, professional and genealogical factors. Either way, if claims were made that the entire Chiss people were descendants of a small group legendary or semi-mythical founder-figures, these are perhaps more likely to have been a matter of genealogical artifice and political ideology, rather than history.

Over the course of recorded history, the number of Ruling families was said to have fluctuated between three and twelve, but in contacts with the Chiss in both 27 BBY and 22 ABY, it appeared that the number of Ruling Families stood nine, and they were known formally as the Nine Ruling Families. However, within a few years of the latter date, it was said that the number of Ruling Families had been reduced to four, identified as House Csapla, House Nuruodo, House Inrokini, and House Sabosen. This information seems to stem from the same New Republic sources mentioned above, and it too could also be considered suspect, but it was apparently confirmed by Jagged Fel shortly before the Jedi mission to Csilla in 29 ABY.

According to the account offered by Aristocra Chaf'orm'bintrano in 35 ABY, the Third Vagaari War had caused a serious labor shortage among the Chiss (whether through casualties or simply due to conscription), and they turned to the insectoid Killiks for help, and hired several Nests as workers. Steps were taken to prevent any Chiss becoming Joiners, but these were sabotaged, leading to the absorption of two Families into the Nests, while three others were unable to retain their position without the continued use of Killik labor.

Chaf'orm'bintrano claimed that this situation led to a "disagreement" in which the four other Families, assisted by Baron Fel and the Household Phalanx, removed the three Killik-dependent lineages from power. However, there are some uncertainties about the nature of this account. Firstly, it seems unlikely that there really were three wars between the Chiss and the Vagaari; secondly, the Aristocra himself supposedly belonged to the Chaf Family, one of the lineages not mentioned in the lists of the four surviving families; his remarks also suggested that Baron Fel's family had adopted at least some of the trappings of a Ruling Family in their own right, and he mentioned that Fel and his troops had destroyed the family of Commander Ina'ganet'nuruodo, whose name suggests membership of the supposedly surviving House Nuruodo.

It is, in short, not clear precisely what had really happened in the Ascendancy, and all information on the Ruling Families should perhaps be regarded as suspect&mdash;which may have been what the Chiss wanted.

Families and their roles according to New Republic sources

 * Csapla, resource management and colonial affairs
 * Nuruodo, military and foreign policy
 * Inrokini, Industry, non-military science, and communications
 * Sabosen, law and order, health, education

Other Known Former Ruling Families

 * Chaf
 * Mitth

Appearances

 * Outbound Flight
 * Survivor's Quest
 * Force Heretic II: Refugee
 * The Joiner King
 * Tempest