Chiss/Legends

The Chiss were a tall, blue-skinned Near-Human species from the Unknown Regions, best known as the species to which Grand Admiral Thrawn belonged. The Chiss were very mysterious to the rest of the Galaxy, largely keeping to themselves in their home beyond the Outer Rim Territories, expanding the Chiss Ascendancy across much of the Unknown Regions thousands of years before they made any significant impact on the rest of the Galaxy, when Thrawn launched the infamous Thrawn campaign.

Overview
The Chiss were a tall humanoid species, marked out from the majority of mainstream Galactic civilization by their pure blue skin, gleaming black hair, and glowing red eyes. Physically striking and instantly recognizable and armed with a typically cool and disciplined manner, the mystique of the Chiss was further increased by the remote location of their territory. But their positioning in the Unknown Regions also meant that they were largely disconnected from the Galaxy-spanning nexus of hyperspace travel and subspace communications that bound together the Old Republic, Empire and New Republic in turn, and thus detached from the associated pan-Galactic networks of economic, cultural and political contacts.

There is, in fact, evidence that intermittent, clandestine and low-level encounters between the Chiss and groups within the Old Republic had been ongoing for perhaps a millennium prior to the era of the Galactic Civil War; but these encounters left no visible, lasting impression on the Galaxy as a whole, and the isolation of the Chiss can be gauged by the fact that they remained largely unaware of standard languages such as Huttese and Basic, with communications with outsiders being conducted instead through local trade-languages such as Minnisiat.

The pace of contact began to accelerate shortly before the Clone Wars, but it was only after the Battle of Endor that the Chiss became visible for the first time on the wider Galactic stage&mdash;largely due to the rise to prominence of the exiled warrior named Thrawn, a military genius who became the only non-human Grand Admiral in the Imperial Starfleet. Thrawn’s distinctive character has undoubtedly influenced subsequent popular perceptions of the Chiss as cool, enigmatic warriors, but he was a highly controversial figure among his own people, and two points must be borne in mind when considering the pattern of this and subsequent contacts. Firstly, interaction between outsiders and the Chiss remained largely restricted to encounters with military personnel, and the primarily martial nature of these encounters may not have reflected Chiss society as a whole. Moreover, it must also be appreciated that contact was made at this time with two distinct and entirely independent Chiss military forces, apparently reflecting two sharply diverging trends in Chiss opinion.

The first of these was Thrawn’s own Household Phalanx, personally loyal to him and his ideals, and allied with the Imperial forces that he brought to the Unknown Regions&mdash;the faction that came to be known as the Empire of the Hand. The other group was the Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet, which served the Chiss Ascendancy, the government which exiled Thrawn in around 20 BBY for breaking its strict codes of military conduct, and which apparently commanded the loyalty, or at least the acceptance, of the vast bulk of the Chiss population.

The frequent confusion between the CEDF and the House Phalanx was just one indicator of how little the wider Galaxy knew or understood about the Chiss. Although Thrawn’s fame ensured that they rapidly became one of the most iconic and instantly recognizable of all non-human peoples, much about them remained mysterious to Galactic civilization at large, even as the Unknown Regions began to be opened up in the age of the Galactic Alliance. Moreover, what was known about them was often hard to fully understand, and sometimes seemed paradoxical&mdash;and that may well have been exactly how they wanted the rest of the Galaxy to think of them.

Biology
The Chiss and baseline humans regarded each other as aliens, but genetic studies have indicated that the two peoples were close biological cousins, and it is not clear whether the differences between them were the product of straightforward evolutionary divergence and differing planetary habitats, or the result of genetic engineering similar to that which produced such hybrid species as the Massassi, Myke and Yuuzhan Vong.



Outwardly, the Chiss were distinguished from baseline humans by three clearly visible traits&mdash;blue skin, jet black hair, and glowing red eyes; but their blood was red, and a case can be made that all these superficial features were the result of external factors in the biosphere of the ice-locked planet Csilla, said to be their homeworld, or at least, the political, cultural and military center of their civilization. Their coloration was said to be caused by the same atmospheric minerals that gave Csilla’s glaciers their distinctive bluish tinge, and while less is known about the reasons for their distinctive glowing red eyes, an environmental reaction does seem to be involved, in as much as Chiss eyes were observed to glow brighter as the oxygenation of the atmosphere increased.

Beyond these potentially superficial differences, it is not clear how far the Chiss diverged from human norms. Although both Chiss and humans speculated about distinct physiological differences, for instance in the vocal apparatus or skeletal structure, there is no firm proof of such stark evolutionary differences. It does seem that the Chiss possessed a faster-than-average metabolic rate, leading to a distinctively lean physique, and they were considered to have reached maturity by the age of ten or twelve; but there is nothing to say that the Chiss metabolic rate sits outside the range of known human parameters, and it is not clear that their early maturity was a result of strictly genetic factors rather than cultural attitudes.

History
The Chiss are believed to have been established on Csilla for some time: records made available in the last years of the New Republic suggested that they had been there since before the beginning of the millennia-long ice-age in which the planet was then locked fast, and possibly since before the foundation of the Old Republic. By the time contact was made with modern Galactic civilization, they had extended their frontier across a volume of space in the Unknown Regions, perhaps encompassing as many as several hundred thousand star systems, and they claimed to have been a major interstellar power in this area for at least a millennium; but while Chiss space had been mapped by astrogation missions over the centuries, it was by no means fully explored, still less intensively colonized.

The government on Csilla controlled 28 major colony worlds scattered across Chiss space, united in a political federation known as the Chiss Ascendancy. New Republic sources suggested that their interstellar expansion had been driven by the need to feed the large urban population of the capital, which had grown beyond the levels that Csilla could comfortably sustain, and estimated a total Chiss population for the Ascendancy of just less than five trillion. Against this must be set rather more certain evidence that Chiss control over outlying systems such as Klasse Ephemora and Yashuvhu was tenuous, and Chiss space only occupied a tiny fraction of the Unknown Regions.

Considering their proximity to aggressive and expansionist species such as the Nagai, the Tofs and the Ssi-Ruuk, and in particular, the Killiks and the Vagaari, it is perhaps no surprise that the Chiss saw their territory as a bastion of calm and order in a chaotic galaxy, or that outsiders were discouraged from encroaching on the untapped resources of the area by the threat of savage military reprisals against any species whose ships violated the Chiss frontier. It is not clear whether simple territorial transgression could be enough to constitute a violation, or if overt hostile action was required as a trigger for retaliation&mdash;and perhaps the Chiss were happy to keep outsiders unclear on that point. What is known for sure is that the Ascendancy's relations with the rest of the Galaxy were governed by a strict policy of non-aggression. Although retribution was swift and relentless when they were attacked, the Chiss never struck the first blow themselves.

In the final years of the Old Republic, it appears that a new sense of urgency sent tremors through the strict façade of Chiss society. A vast interstellar fortress began to be prepared in the Redoubt Cluster, and Thrawn, then a young officer in the Expansionary Fleet, called for the abandonment of the hallowed doctrine that outlawed preemptive strikes. It seems evident from these events that a concern with external threats laid at the back of the disquiet; but even now, however, it is unclear exactly what combination of circumstances led to these developments.

On a local level, this period is known to have been marked by vicious conflict with the Vagaari, but the Chiss seem to have been slowly growing aware of events in the wider Galaxy. Corellian traders had apparently reached the Ascendancy a few years earlier, and the Jedi expedition known as Outbound Flight had been destroyed by Thrawn’s own squadron when it violated the Ascendancy’s frontier&mdash;an incident which also brought the Chiss into direct contact with agents of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine.



This was, of course, the period of the Clone Wars, the fall of the Old Republic and the rise of the Galactic Empire; and also the time of the first Yuuzhan Vong scouting missions, as a result of which the living planet Zonama Sekot fled to a refuge in Chiss space. Nor was all contact at this time outward from the Old Republic: a handful of individual Chiss had participated in the Clone Wars, such as the Separatist commander Sev'rance Tann and her lover, the bounty hunter Vandalor. Any or all of these events could have affected the course of developments in Chiss society at this time.

Thrawn, persisting in his challenges to received wisdom, was exiled by the Ascendancy&mdash;but in 19 BBY, he was discovered and recruited by the Empire. For almost three decades, however, his true capabilities, and his true status within the Imperial hierarchy, were kept carefully hidden even within the ranks of the military.

It appears that for much of this time, Thrawn was supervising a program of Imperial exploration and conquest in the Unknown Regions, joined not only by line elements of the Imperial military, but also by the Chiss warriors of his Household Phalanx. While the government of the Ascendancy turned their back on events beyond their borders, the influence of Thrawn’s ideas continued to spread, and over the next forty years, a steady flow of CEDF defectors and civilian volunteers left Chiss space to join the House Phalanx. Of course, tensions exist in any society between official policy and popular opinion, and while it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Thrawn’s actions polarized the situation, there are also some hints that the Chiss leadership's response was not direct hostility but a careful silence, behind which they were prepared to profit from the changing situation in surrounding space, and from the knowledge which returning House Phalanx personnel brought back to the Ascendancy.

It is possible that the Imperial command were, in turn, aware of this agenda on the Ascendancy's part, and some subsequent events and attitude might be more easily explained if Thrawn's senior human and Chiss subordinates, Admiral Voss Parck and Commander Stent, had kept the Ascendancy and the Phalanx's own rank-and-file personnel largely in the dark about the true extent of Imperial involvement in the Unknown Regions. As so often with the Chiss, however, this interpretation is essentially a speculative attempt to make sense of apparently incompatible pieces of information, and other interpretations remain quite possible, such as the hypothesis that, apart from Phalanx forces, the idea of an organized Imperial presence beyond the Outer Rim was largely a fantasy.



Moreover, evidence for this period is very sparse. There are some fragments of information concerning campaigns conducted by Thrawn using Imperial line forces, and a vague sense of the ambiguous relationship between the Ascendancy and the Household Phalanx, but after Thrawn's exile, specific, detailed information about events concerning the Chiss is lacking until 4 ABY, that is to say, for a period coinciding almost exactly with Palpatine's reign. A few months after the Battle of Endor, however, a Chiss taskforce attacked the Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium, effectively destroying the Ssi-Ruuk as an interstellar power until they were revitalized a generation later by the machinations of Yuuzhan Vong agents. It is often said that this was formal CEDF retaliation for a prior attack on the Ascendancy, but it is possible that it was a preemptive strike carried out by Thrawn's forces, and that sources have been confused by the problem outsiders have shown in differentiating between the two groups.

Then, in 9 ABY, Thrawn left the Unknown Regions to take supreme command of the Empire's war machine, and launched his campaign against the New Republic. This was the first time that a Chiss became a major figure on the Galactic stage, and Thrawn made a dramatic and distinctive mark, comparable to that of Darth Vader or Tsavong Lah. In spite of his death at Bilbringi, his legacy endured, not least in the form of the House Phalanx and their allies in what was now known as the Empire of the Hand.

By 19 ABY, it would appear that the Empire of the Hand embraced a vast area of territory, up to thirty times the size of the Imperial Remnant within the Rim frontier. Yet the only recorded direct encounters with its forces took place on the largely uninhabited world of Nirauan. And while Nirauan is often described as the capital of the Empire of the Hand, the only settlement here, the fortress known as the Hand of Thrawn, seems to have served officially as a liaison post between the Remnant and the Ascendancy, with General Baron Soontir Fel apparently serving as a top-secret intermediary between Bastion and Csilla.



It is not clear exactly what the purpose of the negotiations undertaken by the former TIE ace were. Chiss paranoia was such that even in the Remnant's highest echelons, his mission and location were apparently largely unknown, and the Baron's sons, Davin and Jag, were required to enroll as cadets to a CEDF military academy, primarily as a hostage to ensure their father’s integrity.

Outwardly, it would appear that the Ascendancy itself had changed little over the decades since Thrawn’s exile. But beneath the glacial surface, it would appear that seismic shifts in opinion and attitudes were happening. Thrawn was privately revered by many in the CEDF, and by 22 ABY, one of the Ascendancy’s leading diplomats, Aristocra Formbi was flirting with Thrawn’s doctrines: negotiating secretly with the Imperials, and luring the resurgent Vagaari into starting a war.

What is certain is that over the next few years, largely during the Yuuzhan Vong War, a highly confusing series of events took place, affecting both the Ascendancy and the forces loyal to Thrawn.

First of all, Baron Fel assumed direct command of House Phalanx forces from his Chiss subordinate Commander Stent, and Jag returned from service with the Ascendancy to join, and then lead, the Chiss pilots of one of the Clawcraft squadrons under his father’s command. The rise of human officers to command positions within the House Phalanx was accompanied by the unexplained end of all mention of the Empire of the Hand, and then by abrupt promotion of those same human officers to high office within the Ascendancy itself. Simultaneously, it appears that massive internal upheavals saw a large part of the Ascendancy's ruling elite deposed from power. Years later, Formbi would claim that the Third Vagaari War had caused a significant labour shortage in the Ascendancy, leading indirectly to a radical shakeup of the factional politics of the Ascendancy.

Formbi would also hint that Baron Fel had become involved with this "disagreement", securing victory for the faction he allied with. By 29 ABY, he had apparently been appointed to the senior position of Assistant Syndic in the Expansionary Fleet, and in 30 ABY, his son was named as the Ambassador from the Ascendancy to the Galactic Alliance. By 36 ABY, Jag was the primary Chiss military commander serving under Aristocra Formbi in the first skirmishes of what would become the Swarm War. Throughout all this, the Ascendancy continued to maintain its ostensible policy of eschewing first strikes; but at the same time, of note is the clandestine cooperation of Chiss military scientists with New Republic Intelligence on the Alpha Red project.

It is possible that, with internal dissent bordering on civil war and running conflicts with the Vagaari and Yuuzhan Vong, Household Phalanx forces simply became militarily indispensable to the Chiss government; but it may also be that the Ascendancy's hierarchy saw this as a tactically acceptable way to achieve their own traditional goals. Enmeshing Baron Fel and the House Phalanx into the CEDF ended the decidedly unorthodox independence of Thrawn's forces, and strengthened the Chiss military as the Yuuzhan Vong began to posture against Chiss space&mdash;indeed, it transformed much of the troublesome dissident wing of Chiss society into expendable front-line troops. On an even more Machiavellian level, by accepting a few human officers&mdash;or, it was suggested, similarly capable Ssi-Ruuk or Yuuzhan Vong&mdash;the Chiss would also gain insights into the ways their enemies thought and fought, enhancing the Ascendancy's ability to beat them in battle, and also their capacity to manipulate them to their own ends, diplomatically or psychologically.

Nevertheless, much of this is cautious extrapolation from ambiguous hints in the evidence. The true nuance and context of these events, and their effect on Chiss society and politics, still remain largely unknown, and what little is known is, for now, largely unexplained.

Society


Even in the era of the Galactic Alliance, the wider Galaxy seems to have had no direct contact with Chiss civilians. What was known about them was, as mentioned above, they mediated largely through encounter with military units, and through a few high-level contacts with political and diplomatic delegations. It is perhaps no surprise, then, that these were the best understood aspects of Chiss society; or at least, the best documented.

Military forces
The front-line armed forces of the Ascendancy were referred to variously as the Chiss Expansionary Defense Force or "Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet", and sometimes by the acronym "CEDF", or by shorter forms such as "Chiss Expansionary Defense", "Chiss Expansionary Force", or "Chiss Defense Fleet". This oscillation in terminology may have reflected only a quirk of translation or idiom, but given the complex semantics and linguistics of the Cheunh language, it is not impossible that the differentiation carried subtle inflections of meaning for the Chiss. We might compare the concurrent use of the terms "Fleet", "Navy" and "Defense Force" under the New Republic, the usage of which sometimes reflected the subtle complexities of linguistic register, political ideology and inter-service rivalry&mdash;and sometimes meant nothing at all.

Beyond this, a study produced by the University of Sanbra in the last years of the New Republic makes a clear-cut distinction between the CEDF, whose duty was to guard the frontier and retaliate against attacks, and the Colonial Phalanxes which defended the twenty-eight colony worlds of the Ascendancy: these units were apparently designed to serve as a second line of defense against invasion, and to provide reinforcements for the fleet when required. It appears, however, that both services made use of a shared system of military academies, and the precise parameters of connection and differentiation between them are unclear.

Additional to all this, of course, were the forces of Thrawn's Household Phalanx, which in 19 ABY could deploy at least a hundred Blastboat-sized TIE scouts, and in 26 ABY they deployed a wing of 36 Clawcraft at Garqi and Ithor. It is likely that overall numbers were significantly larger, and the Nirauan garrison may have included distinct elements of infantry and gunnery specialists, but is not known whether the Phalanx maintained any major surface-warfare or capital ship forces.

Much of the Chiss rank structure seems to have paralleled the patterns that would have been familiar to contemporary Basic-speakers, though it is unclear how much the semantics of the original Chiss terminology survived the translation from Cheunh. The title of Commander was common, denoting the officers in charge of many elements, varying from a cadet squadron upwards through a frontier patrol and a space station, to a major battlefleet. Junior officers, including personnel in cadet units, were titled Lieutenant, the ranking officers of naval ships were styled Captain, and at least some senior officers bore the rank of General; but it is not clear whether other conventional ranks, such as Major and Colonel, existed outside the Imperial-influenced forces of Thrawn’s House Phalanx.

One military designation that was largely unique to the Chiss was that of Syndic: there is some evidence that this was the title borne by the commander-in-chief of CEDF line forces, and also the local commanders of each of the Colonial Phalanxes; but the highest-ranking personnel known to have been encountered by outsiders were the Assistant Syndic and Chief Navigator of the CEDF: both posts were occupied in 29 ABY by human ex-Imperial officers&mdash;Soontir Fel and Peita Aabe.

Uniforms


All Chiss military personnel wore sharply-cut black uniforms, varying according to rank and occasion from ornate ceremonial dress to practical combat jumpsuits. All uniforms appear to have carried at least a little colored trim, increasing in quantity on more formal attire, and alongside the essentially horizontal divisions of uniform style, a further lateral distinction separated officers whose uniforms bore red flashes from those with green facings, although the exact meaning of this differentiation is unclear. Red piping was borne by senior officers such as General Prard'ras'kleoni, and also by military cadets, for whom it represented a military ideal known as Red Flame, while green tabs were worn by the captain and crew of the diplomatic ship Chaf Envoy. Given the apparent philosophical importance of Red Flame, it might be speculated that red denoted the front-line forces of the CEDF while green indicated the locally-based personnel of the Colonial Phalanxes. It appears that the occasional non-Chiss allowed for political reasons to train at Chiss military academies were distinguished by blue piping, but while it appears that these alien personnel could gain commissions in Colonial Phalanxes if not the front-line CEDF, it is not fully clear what color sort of facings they wore subsequent to graduation.

Somewhat confusingly, the officers of Thrawn’s House Phalanx normally wore uniforms which in cut and color broadly resembled those of the CEDF &mdash; black, black with red trim, and burgundy with black facings have been recorded. The problems, discussed above, with distinguishing personnel from the two organizations, cannot have been helped by the fact that a variety of styles of uniform were evidently worn by both House Phalanx and Ascendancy personnel, with varying quantities of colored patches and turnbacks according to status and occasion. There is some evidence that the traditional Chiss uniforms of the House Phalanx were burgundy with black trim, as opposed to black-with-burgundy of the CEDF, and the black uniforms of some personnel may simply be Imperial lancer tunics and flight suits, perhaps with the red piping of an elite unit as worn by Baron Fel’s former command, the 181st Fighter Wing. Nevertheless, it is clear that there are complexities that cannot be fully understood from the evidence to hand: at Ithor, Jag Fel wore a uniform and flight suit remarkably similar to those of his father’s former unit, but the House Phalanx pilots under his command wore white full-dress uniforms; and it is not clear whether descriptions of extensive burgundy or purple predominating over the black fabric on the uniforms of ostensible CEDF personnel encountered in 29 ABY simply reflect ceremonial uniforms decorated with deep shades of red, hint that these were really Phalanx personnel, or indicate something else entirely.

Regardless, one thing that is clear is that the aesthetic of Chiss military uniforms was part of a wider visual pattern, in which specific colors were associated with specific social groups. The black uniforms of the Defense Force represented the fact that personnel were drawn from all branches of the Chiss community, black being perceived as a combination of all the colors. The predominantly burgundy dress of some House Phalanx personnel may indicate a red color associated in some way with Thrawn or the House Nuruodo affiliation to which he belonged; but the Chiss civilians who the wider Galaxy had most contact with, the diplomats of the Chaf Family, dressed in yellow clothes with grey trim.

The ruling families
The Chaf seem to have been at once a lineage-group and a specialized professional caste, one of a group of affiliations known as the Ruling Families, who between them, provided leadership for the Chiss in all aspects of society. Within this elite, the Chaf were said to hold a specific portfolio for diplomacy and foreign affairs, but as part of this, they, or more exactly, their leader Aristocra Chaf'orm'bintrano, apparently had an oversight role with regard to the military. During the events surrounding the rediscovery of Outbound Flight in 22 ABY, and the subsequent outbreak of the Third Vagaari War, and also later during the conflict with the Killiks that began in 36 ABY, the Aristocra seems to have served in the role of civilian proconsul, with operational authority over the military deployment.

At this point, however, we must turn to one of the most perplexing disjunctions in the evidence for Chiss society. In 22 ABY, it was said that the Chaf were the Fifth Ruling Family from a total of nine. In the University of Sanbra study mentioned above, however, written about five years later, only four ruling families were identified. According to this report, House Csapla was responsible for relationship between Csilla and the colony worlds, and the associated distribution of foodstuffs and the allocation of economic resources. House Nuruodo was responsible for relations with outsiders, including control of the CEDF&mdash;a portfolio that seems basically identical to that earlier claimed for the Chaf. House Inrokini was responsible for technological research, manufacturing, and the information infrastructure. And House Sabosen was responsible for law and order, healthcare and education.

The official explanation offered for the discrepancy between the "Nine Families" of 22 ABY and the "Four Families" of 29 ABY is that in the aftermath of the Third Vagaari War, safeguards designed to prevent Chiss from being absorbed by the hive-minds of their newly-contracted Killik laborers were compromised, resulting in two of the Ruling Families becoming Joiners. A subsequent "disagreement" over how to respond to the crisis saw three other families removed from power, apparently by the intervention of Thrawn’s Household Phalanx. However, it is not at all clear how seriously this information can be taken, as it was conveyed by Aristocra Chaf’orm’bintrano, of the Chaf Family: the Aristocra himself represented one of the five Families absent from the Sanbra material, and he referred in passing to Baron Fel’s opponent Commander Ganet, whose name would suggest she was a member of House Nuruodo, as being a scion of one of the "destroyed" lineages. Further adding to the complexity, it can be observed that whereas Fel identified Ganet as a syndic's phalanx commander, the militia chief from a colony world, she herself claimed to speak for the CEDF, of which Fel was, according to all other evidence, field commander.

According to the Sanbra material, the families were lineage-groups with pedigrees allegedly stretching back to the ancient past before the formation of the modern Chiss political systems; but while the criteria for membership are unclear, it seems that at least up to a point, blood descent, through either the male or female line was sufficient: this meant that at least some Chiss were eligible for membership of more than one family, sometimes for all of them. Thus, Family affiliation, while determined in part by territorial allegiances and cultural expectation, was at least partially a matter of personal choice.

Although no details of internal Family structure are mentioned in the Sanbra material, it appears that an individual known as the Aristocra wielded significant power in each Family, but it appears that there was also a leadership caste of brothers and sisters (known collectively as siblings), plus cousins, and ranking distants, and it is not certain that the Aristocra was necessarily of the highest rank within this elite. Chiss officers serving alongside the New Republic during the Yuuzhan Vong war indicated that the actual structures of power and influence within the Family hierarchies were apparently kept largely secret from those outside them, and when a Jedi delegation visited Csilla in 29 ABY, they were met by ostensible leaders of the Ruling Families whose identities were concealed by hooded cloaks in bronze, rust-red, grey and copper-green.

It is not known whether an individual could change their Family designation, but recorded remarks by Chiss individuals hinted at complexities in the construction of Family affinities and the expectations placed on their members, and also indicated the existence of other, lesser but similarly organized families subordinate to the dominant houses &mdash; all of which, without further evidence, we can barely hazard a guess at. However, it can be noted that Aristocra Formbi's remarks in 35 ABY contained a hint that, in spite of the outward impression of calm and order, political assassinations were a real part of Chiss political life for the Ruling Families and other allied kin-groups. He said that the Fel family had adopted a Chiss tradition of Shadow Children, offspring who were kept safely anonymous to prevent a family bloodline being fully extirpated. Of course, as with most information on the Chiss, this custom was reported by a Chiss source, rather than directly observed; and in this case, it was offered as an explanation for an apparent paradox in previously-supplied information. The usual refrain must once again be given: much remains uncertain about Chiss society.

Government structure
Given the caveats noted above, it is perhaps best to treat the rest of the University of Sanbra material on Chiss government with some caution, in emphasis if not precisely in content. The report claimed that the twenty-eight colony worlds were led by a democratically-elected governors, known as House leaders, who held executive authority on their own worlds&mdash;for instance, appointing the commanders of the Colonial Phalanxes. These governors also came together to form the Chiss Parliament, sitting in a building known as the House Palace, located on Csilla in the capital city of Csapla (the name of which was obviously related to that of the putative House Csaplar).

However, the House leaders' powers in federal politics were largely limited to voicing concerns that would then be responded to by a central oligarchy, consisting of the informal Family hierarchy acting in conjunction with the Cabinet, a cadre of administrative officials appointed by the Families themselves. It was this elite that was apparently responsible for all aspects of policy and strategy, shaping and directing Chiss society across the Ascendancy through controlling the allocation of resources in a highly-controlled and money-free command economy.

The sources generally suggest that the Chiss prized stability and tradition, but it is, in the final analysis, entirely unclear how transparent or influential the democratic process represented by the Parliament truly was, and utterly unknown how effective the Families and Cabinet managed the means of distribution, or whether any sort of black economy functioned alongside the state apparatus.

Language and names
The Chiss language, Cheunh, was complex and densely-constructed, expressing complicated ideas by combining smaller elements into intricate words and phrases. It was hard for outsiders to understand, and the Chiss believed that it was quite impossible for non-Chiss to learn to speak it properly. Given the near-human genealogy of the Chiss, it is unclear how much store can be put by their suggestions that ‘aliens’ such as baseline humans simply had inadequate vocal mechanisms: simple chauvinism may have factored into this perception, or alternatively, understanding might have depended on subtle phonetic contrasts which non Cheunh-speakers would lose the ability to distinguish or articulate in infancy.

Linguistically, Cheunh was highly synthetic, which is to say that complex meaning was conveyed by forming compound words from conjunctions of sense-bearing word-elements known as morphemes. While not unusual as a linguistic principle, synthetic construction appears to have been taken to extremes by the Chiss, and it may be that communicating in Cheunh required a conscious awareness of individual morphemes and phonemes and a subtle ear for complex linguistic relationships, far more than was demanded of, for instance Basic-speakers. Such a sensitivity would also explain the remarkable acuity shown by at least some Chiss in picking out important recurring agglutinations from long phrases of alien languages that they had not previously encountered. One factor that certainly added to the complexity of the language was the fact that written Cheunh was not set down in a phonetic alphabet like the Aurebesh, but rather, assembled using ideograms. And on top of all this, at least some phrases in the language were highly idiomatic – the pejorative moactan teel meant literally "fair-haired", implying that something about the addressee was non-Chiss, and hence barbarous.

Outsiders, however, had little exposure to Cheunh except through Chiss personal names. A Chiss was most often known and addressed by a short core name, which was an abbreviated form of a longer full name, consisting of three distinct primary sections; perhaps inevitably, Chiss full names were often hard for those who were not native Cheunh speakers to pronounce correctly. Usage of the full name appears to have indicated politeness or formality, whereas the core name was apparently used with in situations where brevity and simplicity was preferred, as among friends, in combat communications, or with aliens such as Basic-speakers, who could not easily master the complex phonetics of the full name. The predominance of core names, at least in communication with outsiders, was such that a number of such names were recorded without the full name being known, such as Prakk, Kayree, Lev, Szardra, Voss and Zilvad.

It seems clear, however, that the core name was typically formed by combining the short central section of the name with the last sound of the preceding section and the opening sound of the following. Thus Thrawn was more formally Mitth'raw'nuruodo, Commander Stent of the House Phalanx was Kres'ten'tarthi and Captain Talshib, the line commander of the diplomatic ship Chaf Envoy, was Brast'alshi'barku.

However, some evidence suggests that several somewhat different semantic and phonetic patterns were used in constructing the full names of different Chiss. Most notably, it appears that a primary familial relationship could be indicated by both the opening and closing elements.

On the one hand, the Chaf diplomats Chaf'orm'bintrano ("Formbi") and Chaf'ees'aklaio ("Feesa") bore the name of the Ruling Family to which they belonged as the first element of their full name, and this also defined the opening sound of their core name. A similar family relationship is implied between General Prard'ras'kleoni ("Drask") and Station Commander Prard'enc'iflar, although it is not known whether "Prard" is one of the Nine Families.

In contrast, the name of House Nuruodo was attested only as a final element, in the names of Mitth'raw'nuruodo, Ina'ganet'nuruodo and Hess'irolia'nuruodo, and in the differently-presented names of military academy commandant Gimald Nuruodo and Clawcraft pilot Shawnkyr Nuruodo. Compounding the problem, all these names with the exception of that of Mitth'raw'nuruodo diverged to a greater or lesser degree from the expected transcription pattern outlined above.

In the case of the female CEDF officers Ina'ganet'nuruodo ("Ganet") and Hess'irolia'nuruodo ("Irolia"), while the overall structure of the names was broadly the same, the core name and the central element of the full name appear to have been identical with, without obvious input from the opening and closing sections. In contrast, the names of Gimald Nuruodo and Shawnkyr Nuruodo appear to have combined core name and House name, in a manner more typical of other species’ forename-surname usages.

Other Chiss with anomalous names included the important historical figure Jer'jo Cam'co, and Sev'rance Tann, a Separatist General from the Clone Wars. The name of Jer'jo Cam'co may have predated standard Chiss naming conventions, but it is worth noting that as the founding Syndic of the CEDF, he is likely to have belonged to House Nuruodo, along with most of the other individuals recorded with anomalous names.

A number of factors may have contributed to the variety within Chiss naming patterns. There may have been a genuine variety of naming systems in use, some more subtly differentiated than others. The dense and complex phonetic and morphological structure of Cheunh may have had unusual effects on pronunciation. Alternatively, at least part of the distinction may have been due to the use of varying standards of transliteration conventions &mdash; not least because written Cheunh was apparently a primarily ideogramatic language, and "literal" transcriptions may not have adequately reflected pronunciation.

With questions of transcription and pronunciation in mind, we can consider the name of Aristocra Mitt'swe'kleoni ("Tswek"), the legate dispatched by the Ascendancy to Coruscant in 35 ABY. The first element of his name looks as though it corresponds to the "Mitth" found in Thrawn’s full name, but compositional factors would appear to have influenced pronunciation of the final phone, with a sound corresponding approximately to a dental fricative in one name, and an alveolar stop in the other. It is unclear how, if at all, such a distinction would have been marked in written Cheunh.

Turning from questions of linguistics to questions of meaning, two possible, if perhaps only partial, solutions can be suggested that might explain the apparent inconsistencies in Chiss naming patterns. Although "Chaf" and "Prard" are only attested as opening units, and "Nuruodo" only as a closing one, the fact that the opening and closing sections of names alike could apparently indicate lineage descent may mean that both were typically tokens of ancestry, perhaps indicating the families of the father and paternal grandfather, or the father's male-line ancestry and the mother's female-line lineage. Additional to this, it can be observed that some Chiss could choose to align themselves with more than two houses, so unless such a choice implied a name-change, it may be that a Chiss could belong to a House not directly indicated in his full name, explaining the utility of the core name plus House name construction. For instance, it might have been permissible to refer Chaf'orm'bintrano as "Formbi Chaf" and to Thrawn as "Thrawn Nuruodo", while Shawnkyr Nuruodo may (speculatively) have had a full name in which the first and last element indicated familial ties without incorporating the name of the House to which she belonged.

Alternatively, it is not impossible that most of the apparent inconsistencies are simply discrepancies of flawed or eccentric Aurebesh transcription, and that "Sev'rance Tann" and "Shawnkyr Nuruodo" should have been something like "Sev'rance'tann" and "Shawnk'yr'nuruodo" under the standard transcription, with the conventional core names "Vrancet" and "Kyrn."

Ultimately, however, as with all aspects of Chiss culture, much still remains unclear about how the Cheunh language and the associated pattern of personal names operated.

Culture
One major problem caused by the distance which the Chiss keep from outsiders is the relative paucity of evidence for their culture outside of the fields of language, society, and military culture.



One feature that can be noted is the distinctive Chiss mode of dress, though this also hints at connections with wider aesthetic and cultural patterns in the Unknown Regions. The tailoring of garments from an asymmetrical patchwork of subtly contrasting pieces is reminiscent of the Ebruchi, but, more prominently, the use of symbolic colors to indicate family and profession finds parallels among nearby species. Among the neighboring Killiks, the Unu adopted the red, gold and purple family colors of the human "Joiner King", Raynar Thul, while the Kind and Joiners of the Gorog "Dark Nest" were distinguished by a deep midnight-blue coloring to their carapaces or clothing. The reptilian Ssi-Ruuk similarly distinguished among their castes by the colors of their scales. Among the Chiss, the diplomats of the Chaf family wore yellow with grey trim, House Nuruodo and their retainers apparently dark red with black flashes, and the military black with red, green or blue flashes depending on status; the Csaplar, Sabosen and Inrokini families apparently dressed in grey, bronze and green.

When foreigners thought of the Chiss, however, it was almost inevitable that they would think first and foremost of Thrawn, dressed in the sharply tailored and gleaming white uniform of an Imperial Grand Admiral. On a purely visual, even aesthetic level, it can be seen in retrospect that Thrawn’s distinctive appearance made him not just instantly recognizable, but also quintessentially Chiss in appearance. What is rather less clear how much Thrawn’s cool, subtly creative and resolutely confident character reflected ‘typically’ Chiss behavior patterns.

As alluded to above, the Chiss military is known to have prized a warrior ideal known as the "Red Flame"&mdash;a combination of courage, discipline and cunning; and this is an ideal that, at first glance, Thrawn could also be said to have embodied. But such values have been traditionally common to many military organizations, and the practical demands of military discipline in the armed forces do not in themselves require a philosophical collectivism in mainstream civilian culture.

Nevertheless, one observed cultural trait that does seem to have had a wider cultural cachet is a stress on conformity and consistency. There are hints at a social structure stratified to the point of frigid immobility, suggestions that traditional ceremony and polite behavior were regarded as important factors in ensuring social stability, and, more clearly, evidence for a culturally-predicated reluctance to acknowledge change or difficulty. All of this may have meant subordinating individual feelings to the requirements of the group, and a prioritization of discipline and common purpose over freedom and individuality. A stress on the extended family as the primary social unit, and a sense that civilization was represented by public acts external to individual drives, may have led the Chiss to define themselves less by what made them individuals than by what made them distinctively members of their own culture and people&mdash;and thus, encouraged to contrast themselves sharply with non-Chiss, who were clearly distinctive in their priorities, and who did not share their formal perception of right action and appropriate behavior. Such an attitude could in turn, have accounted for their traditional aversion to aggressive warfare, and the chaotic situations and contact with outsiders that it entailed.

The opposition to preemptive strikes was, however, an issue on which Thrawn disagreed emphatically with convention; and it may not be over-emphasizing the contrast to further note that where the ethos of the CEDF placed a firm stress on self-restraint, obedience and success, placing these qualities ahead of individualism, inspiration and commendable effort, the Grand Admiral is known to have encouraged personal initiative and rewarded creative thinking even when the outcome was less than perfect success. Moreover, where Thrawn showed a keen interest in understanding the unique cultural, aesthetic, and ideological traits of alien species, more traditionalists Chiss seem to have regarded the distinctions between Chiss and non-Chiss as insurmountable. One typical Chiss attitude that Thrawn's character may reflect is a disinclination to confront problems directly, which may be manifested in his fondness for lateral strategies, and in his apparently boundless optimism; but his quiet enthusiasm and his enjoyment of conversation and the exchange of ideas with subordinates are very different from the intense demeanor and lack of direct discussion that seems to have been typical of Chiss in similar situations.

Further to this, it should be noted that all the evidence cited for "tradition" relates directly only to the orthodox military teachings of the CEDF, and perhaps by extension, the vested interests of the Ascendancy’s elite. Amid the general paucity of comparable evidence for wider Chiss society, it seems reasonably clear that there was no universal consensus on the nature or morality of Thrawn's actions, intentions or ideals: as in the wider Galaxy, multiple interpretations of his behavior and character were current among the Chiss, both during and after his lifetime.

Depending on one's point of view, it could be said that Thrawn represented a broad range of points of view on one side of a spectrum of opinion, or pointed opposition to the ruling consensus and the systems of established power. Whatever the case, it is clear that the orthodoxy of the Ascendancy was not the only attitude current among the Chiss in the years between the fall of the Old Republic and the birth of the Galactic Alliance, and that Thrawn was not an anomalous eccentric: as well as fierce opponents, he also had loyal supporters.

Following on from this last observation, it should be stressed that many of the Chiss subsequently encountered by outsiders were House Phalanx warriors, personally loyal to Thrawn, and thus presumably influenced by his personal qualities. While representing a distinct tendency among the Chiss, they were thus atypical in some sense of conventional behavioral norms of the Ascendancy.



The contrast between Thrawn's followers and traditional orthodoxy can be seen more clearly if we consider the early career of Jag Fel, one of the few non-Chiss to have served with either the CEDF or the House Phalanx (and at times an officer with both). As noted in the previous section, political reasons led to Jag being trained and commissioned as an officer in the Ascendancy’s military arm, but while expediency made it necessary for the Chiss to tolerate the presence of a human in their ranks, the actual concept of his being there was akin to a joke in questionable taste.

Jag's subsequent departure from the Ascendancy to join the House Phalanx is unlikely to have represented an enthusiasm for Chiss tradition; but he did not leave the wider frame of Chiss culture: he continued to fly and fight with Chiss pilots in the House Phalanx, surpassing their standards of excellence and earning their respect and allegiance to the point that his squadron elected him as their commander. While capable aliens might earn the personal and professional respect of those Chiss who had the opportunity to work directly alongside them&mdash;as Jag had done with Shawnkyr Nuruodo, and as his brother Chak Fel did with General Drask&mdash;it would seem that the Phalanx was more open to acknowledging outsiders than the CEDF.

Contrary to what is often assumed, therefore Baron Fel's son did not embrace the culture and values of the Chiss Ascendancy&mdash;indeed, conventional Chiss wisdom regarded it as impossible for an alien to do so. Rather, Jag saw himself as specifically motivated by a loyalty to Thrawn's legacy and ideals, and in his eyes, these were centered on a military independence from political concerns, and a high-minded belief in the proactive use of force in defense of moral ideals.

It is tempting to see here the outline of a political, military, moral and philosophical doctrine attributable to Thrawn and shared by his followers, but in truth, it is unclear how much weight this interpretation of Thrawn's beliefs should be allowed to carry: Colonel Fel's attitude may have been influenced by a young man's own self-confident idealism. What may be more significant is the fact that Jag was able to frame Thrawn’s legacy in such terms&mdash;and even to think of the Grand Admiral as having a personal legacy at all.

Some heavy hints dropped by Thrawn's closest lieutenants suggest, however, that he broke ranks with his peers in the Ascendancy and the CEDF in response to the magnitude of specific&mdash;but unknown&mdash;threats in the Unknown Regions, and that it was in response to these threats that they in turn had joined him; but at base, it may simply be that Thrawn possessed an ability to persuade people to follow him into conflict, regardless of reason or logic.

What is certain is that, whether due to abstract principles, specific circumstances, or a megalomaniacal personality cult, Thrawn commanded the impassioned loyalty of his followers and allies, Chiss and non-Chiss alike, a devotion comparable to that inspired by some of the worst dictators and greatest leaders in known history. It is hard to quantify the effect of such a figure on a society, and no schematic explanation is likely to adequately express it. Thrawn’s influence is a reminder not only that Chiss culture was broader than the glacial monolith of orthodoxy, but also that, while across a species&mdash;or culture&mdash;specific factors such as language, ideology and conceptual framework may bind people together into cohesive groups, other elements are at work, such as personal charisma and inspiration, which simply transcend the differences and definitions that people think of as defining themselves.

Technology


A major problem with understanding Chiss technology is distinguishing specifically Chiss elements from its wider context. The celebrated Nssis-class Clawcraft was a hybrid of Imperial and Chiss technology, and may have also involved the input of other species &mdash; the flowing lines of the strike foils were certainly at odds with the general aesthetic of Chiss design.

Chiss technology was angular, perhaps inspired by the icy geometries of Csilla’s glacial landscape. We can note the double-pyramid shape of the Brask Oto space station in the Redoubt, and the angular, faceted hull-design of the cruiser Chaf Envoy.

A few specific elements of their technology were observed by outsiders. The Chiss did not use droids, and seem in some respects to have lagged behind Galactic standards &mdash; for long-range travel, for instance, many Chiss ships were slaved to a network of hyperspace beacons rather than equipped with independent navicomputers. On the other hand, their ships were highly automated&mdash;a cruiser more than two hundred meters long had an operational crew of less than thirty, and some of their devices, perhaps devised by Chiss scientists with access to Imperial technology, were highly advanced. Examples included chameleon-cloaked armor that enabled infantry to blend into the terrain, and long-range tracers that activated only in hyperspace, enabling its users to track targets across Galactic distances without transmissions being picked up by standard security scans.

But perhaps the most important known aspect of Chiss technology was their distinctive type of energy-weapon, the charric. This fired a lancing blue beam that delivered thermal energy comparable to conventional blaster weapons coupled with a much greater kinetic punch, but lacked a stun-setting. Low-power shots instead administered disabling burns. The most common form of charric was a hand-held carbine, but pistols are also known, and larger versions of the weapon were carried by some starfighters, and included along with turbolasers among the heavy defensive batteries of the Hand of Thrawn. By the time of the Swarm War, however, the Chiss had adopted standard blaster technology alongside charric weaponry, and their heaviest tactical artillery pieces, known as MetaCannon, were capable of being configured to fire charric beams, blaster bolts, or physical artillery shells.

Known planets and locations
In the Chiss Ascendancy
 * Csilla &mdash; ice-girt homeworld and political capital of the Chiss. Site of the city of Csaplar and the Expansionary Library.
 * Sarvchi &mdash; colony world from where Chaf'orm'bintrano sent a message to the Jade Sabre in 22 ABY.
 * Crustai &mdash; colony world where Chaf'orm'bintrano later rendezvoused with the Jade Sabre en route for Outbound Flight.
 * The Redoubt &mdash; dense star cluster developed as an interstellar fortress by the Chiss. Site of Brask Oto and the unnamed planet on which Outbound Flight came down.
 * Brask Oto &mdash; CEDF space station serving as the barbican for the Redoubt.
 * Tenupe &mdash; captured from the Killiks in the Swarm War.
 * Thrago &mdash; site of a CEDF supply depot anchored around a small moon, destroyed by rogue Jedi in 36 ABY.
 * Rata Nebula &mdash; an H II region, within which lies the system containing Rhigar.
 * Rhigar &mdash; site of a Chiss military academy in the Rata Nebula, with three moons: the green-hued Asdroni, the forest moon Rhigar 2, and the more distant, blue-tinged Rhigar 3
 * Yashuvhu &mdash; remote hinterland planet with a Force-sensitive human population; homeworld of the duuvhal, and of Force-talent Valara Saar.
 * Klasse Ephemora system &mdash; remote hinterland system surrounded by navigational anomalies, centred on the star Klasse A; location of the gas-giant Mobus.
 * Mobus &mdash; gas giant in the Klasse Ephemora system. Zonama Sekot sought refuge in a lunar orbit around Mobus after its flight from its home system in 29 BBY, and from 30 ABY, Zonama Sekot was resettled by the Yuuzhan Vong remnant.

Outside the Ascendancy
 * Nirauan &mdash; home to a large House Phalanx garrison at the Hand of Thrawn, nominal liaison post between the Imperial Remnant and the Ascendancy, also command post for the Empire of the Hand.
 * Taat &mdash; Killik Nest with many Chiss Joiners; based on Jwlio in 35 ABY, later relocating to a planet in the Utegetu Nebula; by 36 ABY they had largely transferred aboard a colony ship to fight in the Swarm War.
 * Thule &mdash; millennia-old Sith garrison world, with a Chiss colony among it inhabitants.

Known Chiss individuals

 * Main article: List of Chiss

Behind the scenes
The Chiss first appeared in Timothy Zahn's novel Heir to the Empire, in the form of Grand Admiral Thrawn, but the name of his people was not revealed for another eight years, until Zahn's Hand of Thrawn Duology.

Although the basis of the Chiss naming pattern and the distinction between the House Phalanx and the Ascendancy were established in Vision of the Future, these were apparently misunderstood by or imperfectly communicated to some of the authors of the New Jedi Order novels and concurrent sourcebooks. This led to some continuity uncertainties in Red Sky, Blue Flame, Dark Journey, and Force Heretic II: Refugee.

Chiss bartenders appear in the two most recent installments of the computer-game series focusing on Kyle Katarn. In Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, Kyle has a brief conversation with a Chiss bartender on Nar Shaddaa, who has not yet mastered all aspects of the grammar of Basic. In Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, his apprentice Jaden Korr also encounters a Chiss bartender.

Appearances

 * Mist Encounter
 * Command Decision
 * Outbound Flight
 * Heir to the Empire
 * Dark Force Rising
 * The Last Command
 * Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
 * Specter of the Past
 * Vision of the Future
 * Survivor's Quest
 * Red Sky, Blue Flame
 * Dark Tide: Ruin
 * Dark Journey
 * Force Heretic I: Remnant
 * Force Heretic II: Refugee
 * The Joiner King
 * The Unseen Queen
 * The Swarm War