Empire of the Hand

The Empire of the Hand was a shadow Galactic Empire secretly established by Grand Admiral Thrawn before his departure from the Unknown Regions in 9 ABY.

History
"The Unknown Regions are the future of the Empire, Captain. It's only fitting that the Imperial Fleet lead the way."

- Mitth'raw'nuruodo to Dagon Niriz

Thrawn's empire was intended to establish the order and efficiency of Emperor Palpatine's New Order without the Emperor's megalomania, the Tarkin Doctrine, and the institutionalized xenophobia (minus that of the average Chiss and Imperial officers).

The Empire of the Hand was viewed with distrust by the Chiss Ascendancy, who still considered Thrawn an outcast from Chiss society despite his galactic fame.

The Empire of the Hand was discovered by Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker when they were searching for the source of the clones and mysterious starfighters that had suddenly appeared. These clones and starfighters were in fact searching for Grand Admiral Thrawn, who had said he would return to them ten years after his death.

Luke and Mara were the ones who found Thrawn, right under the fortress on Nirauan. They found an almost mature clone and a map that revealed that the Empire of the Hand stretched across 250 sectors, as opposed to the Imperial Remnant's mere 8 sectors. They decided that the clone had done nothing wrong yet so they wouldn't destroy it, but when two defense droids attacked them, they were forced to destroy the clone of Thrawn to escape. Before they did, R2-D2 managed to download an unaltered copy of the Caamas Document.

The Empire of the Hand disappeared sometime around the Yuuzhan Vong War. The Jedi believed that the Killiks destroyed it, while the Chiss claimed that it was merely absorbed either by the Imperial Remnant or the Chiss Ascendancy itself, although remarks by Aristocra Chaf'orm'bintrano shortly before the Swarm War may suggest that the Empire of the Hand was simply disbanded. There is the possibility that this was an attempt at misdirection, as the Aristocra's behavior at the time was irregular, indicating that he may not have been the 'real' Chaf'orm'bintrano at all, thus the Empire lasted for no more then 21 years.

During or rafter new wars with the Vagaari, the Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet absorbed the Empire of the Hand.

Government and politics
Based on Nirauan, the Empire of the Hand drew its name from the Hand of Thrawn, a fortress left behind under the leadership of Admiral Voss Parck. Parck, a select group of top Imperial officers, pilots, and soldiers (including General Soontir Fel), and a cadre of Thrawn-loyal Chiss were given the responsibility of upholding Thrawn's vision and expanding his empire.

Chak Fel noted that while it was called the Empire of the Hand, the government worked more like a confederation than a true imperialistic government that it was based on. The Hand worked to form alliances with the native governments within the Unknown Regions as well as accepted the alien races that lived within that region of space in their ranks. There were at least two races who were accepted within their pilot corps due to their natural flying skills.

Military
The Empire of the Hand maintained many visual connections to the Galactic Empire through its warships, use of stormtrooper armor and Imperial uniforms. Many regular soldiers were given stormtrooper armor to promote order amongst the Empire of the Hand's citizenry. Traditional, elite stormtroopers remained, but were relatively rare. Unlike the Galactic Empire, the Empire of the Hand allowed aliens to join their ranks either as pilots or as stormtroopers.

Appearances

 * Specter of the Past
 * Vision of the Future
 * Fool's Bargain
 * Survivor's Quest
 * Dark Tide II: Ruin
 * Balance Point
 * Dark Nest I: The Joiner King
 * Crosscurrent