Mitth'ras'safis

"Car'das and Ferasi: this is Syndic Mitth'ras'safis of the Eighth Ruling Family. My brother."

- Thrawn introducing Thrass to his guests

Mitth'ras'safis, also known by his core name Thrass, was a member of the Mitth family, the Eighth Ruling Family of the Chiss Ascendancy, and was the brother of Mitth'raw'nuruodo, whose core name was Thrawn. Like his brother, Mitth'ras'safis was born as a commoner but was adopted to the Eighth ruling family and granted the title of Syndic. Despite being devoted to his brother, Thrass did not accept all the things that Thrawn did in the name of protecting the Chiss, including Thrawn's agenda against the Vagaari, a species of nomadic slavers. He also saw some of Thrawn's actions as harmful to their family&mdash;even spying on his brother and reporting back to Admiral Ar'alani of the Chiss Expansionary Defense Force.

After the Battle of Outbound Flight&mdash;fought between a Galactic Republic colony ship carrying an expedition attempting to travel outside the galaxy, a Vagaari war fleet, and Thrawn's Picket Force Two&mdash;Thrass' and Thrawn's Human friend Jorj Car'das discovered a group of survivors on board while attempting to prevent the ship and its technology from falling into the hands of Aristocra Chaf'orm'bintrano and the Fifth Ruling Family. While Car'das stayed behind, Thrass and Lorana Jinzler, the last surviving Jedi of the expedition, flew the Outbound Flight into the Redoubt&mdash;a star cluster at the edge of Chiss space&mdash;to hide it there. Thrass and Jinzler died when crash-landing the ship on one of the small planetoids in the cluster. About fifty years later, his remains were discovered by New Republic Jedi Master Luke Skywalker and his wife Mara Jade Skywalker, when they visited the colony created by the Outbound Flight survivors and their offspring.

Early life
"We were both born as commoners. I can live that way again if I have to. But I'll do what I can to assure that the Eighth Family doesn't release or rematch you on my account.''" "''I'm not worried about my own position. I'm trying to keep my brother from throwing away a fine and honorable career for nothing."

- Thrawn and Thrass

The Chiss Mitth'ras'safis and his brother Mitth'raw'nuruodo, who were known by their core names "Thrass" and "Thrawn," respectively, were born as commoners in the Chiss Ascendancy, living their early years as simple members of Chiss society. When they were of age, they were both deemed worthy to become merit adoptives in the Mitth family, which was the eighth among the nine Ruling Families that formed the Chiss government of the time. While Thrawn was a clever military strategist and gained rank fast among the Chiss Expansionary Defense Force&mdash;becoming the youngest Chiss to reach the rank of Force Commander before 27 BBY&mdash;Thrass chose a political career, holding a status of Syndic around the time.

Thrass was deeply devoted to his brother and watched with worry when Thrawn took, what Thrass saw, an unnecessary risk by engaging enemies who had not acted directly against the Ascendancy. Because Chiss had strict rules concerning preemptive strikes against potential enemies, some of Thrawn's more aggressive actions were deemed unethical by the Chiss Defense Hierarchy. When Thrawn had been given command of the Crustai base, he was involved in action against Vagaari moving around the same area. The Vagaari were a nomadic species of aliens who captured slaves from one planet and then moved on to another location, without having a homeworld of their own. The aliens had been moving near the borders of the Ascendancy, attacking low-technology planets, but had not made any moves against the Chiss. Thrass saw that Thrawn's active role in the matter was threatening the status that the Commander held among the military, as those who broke the Non-Aggression Law could be condemned into exile.

Encounter with Humans
Around the same time as the Chiss' first encounters with Vagaari, Thrawn also crossed paths with two ships from the Galactic Republic, the small time smuggling vessel Bargain Hunter&mdash;crewed by three Humans named Dubrak Qennto, Maris Ferasi, and Jorj Car'das&mdash;and a ship belonging to a Hutt named Progga, who had been following them into the Unknown Regions. After destroying Progga's ship, Thrawn captured the Humans and brought them to his asteroid base in the Crustai system. Thrass and Admiral Ar'alani, one of Thrawn's superiors in the Expansionary Defense Force, learned about the presence of Humans and Thrawn's most recent activities against the Vagaari from Aristocra Chaf'orm'bintrano, a high-ranking member of the Chaf family who had visited the base to meet with Thrawn concerning interests that the family had in the system.

Soon after Chaf'orm'bintrano's visit, Thrass and Ar'alani arrived at the Crustai base and found the Humans still living there and moving more or less freely around. Qennto, the captain of the captured Bargain Hunter, and Ferasi, his girlfriend and second-in-command, were still accompanied by guards whenever they went outside their quarters, but Car'das was allowed to come and go as he pleased. Thrawn had also given Qennto access to the treasure he had found on board the Vagaari vessel that he had captured&mdash;Qennto had traveled a lot and seen many cultures, and was thus knowledgeable about different species of the galaxy. Yet such a liberty did not sit well with Ar'alani and Thrass. Thrawn used this as a distraction and slipped away with Car'das and Ferasi to investigate another ongoing Vagaari attack in a nearby system. During the battle, Thrawn's flagship, the Springhawk, suffered damage to its bridge, and the Commander was wounded and would have died if his Human companions had not helped him. After their return to Thrawn's base of operations, Thrass thanked the duo for saving his brother's life, even allowing them to call him by his core name, a privilege usually only granted for friends or other socially equal people. Thrass also openly expressed his worry for Thrawn's action despite the Humans being present and reprimanded his brother for what he had done in front of them.

Despite Thrass' warning, Thrawn soon went out with Car'das to investigate another group of unidentified vessels. They discovered that it was Special Task Force One of the Trade Federation, led by Neimoidian Vicelord Siv Kav and Commander Stratis&mdash;Stratis was a false name used by Kinman Doriana, who worked as an agent for both Supreme Chancellor Palpatine of the Galactic Republic and his alter-ego, the Sith Lord Darth Sidious&mdash;which had been sent out to intercept and destroy the Republic expedition traveling aboard a large colony ship named Outbound Flight. Thrawn disposed of the task force without suffering any losses of his own, capturing its leaders and learning from them that the expedition that Kav and Stratis wanted to destroy was approaching Chiss territory. Stratis warned Thrawn about the Jedi traveling aboard the ship, claiming they would wish to put the Chiss under their rule, and did his best to persuade the Commander to destroy it. With his own strike force decimated, Stratis was unable to complete the mission that Sidious had given him if Thrawn refused to destroy the Outbound Flight in his stead. After Thrawn's return to his asteroid base, Thrass learned about his brother's latest act of aggression and believed that the Chiss had suffered losses in the battle. In truth, Thrawn had left the Whirlwind, the Springhawk sister cruiser which had been equipped with a Vagaari ship net that Thrawn had earlier acquired, to stand guard over the captured Trade Federation vessel. Believing Chiss lives to be lost, Thrass saw no other choice but to contact Admiral Ar'alani and ask her to investigate Thrawn's actions. The Admiral returned to the Crustai base promptly and started to look into Thrawn's activities and interview his personnel.

Destruction of the Outbound Flight
"My brother cares deeply about his blood family, including me. But he's disturbed by what he sees as my self-destructive behavior&hellip;and as a syndic of the Eighth Ruling Family, his duty is to protect that family's honor and position.''" "So he calls an admiral'' down on you?"

- Thrawn and Car'das, after Thrass calls Admiral Ar'alani back to Crustai

Thrass accompanied Admiral Ar'alani and their reluctant guide, Jorj Car'das, to the scene, where Thrawn had destroyed the Trade Federation task force. Thrawn himself spent the time on board the only remaining Trade Federation ship, speaking with Doriana and learning more about their mission and Outbound Flight; he used Ar'alani's orders to patrol the area as an excuse to stay away from his base. Car'das tried to convince Thrass and Ar'alani that Thrawn's actions against the Trade Federation were justified, but was worried about what would happen to him and his companions if the Admiral chose to bring up charges against the Commander. Three days after their trip to the battle site, Thrass witnessed a scene between Car'das and Ar'alani when the Admiral claimed that the Human was a spy and ordered him detained into his quarters. Desperate to escape the Chiss base, Car'das stole a long-range shuttle&mdash;unaware that Thrawn had specially prepared it for him just for that purpose&mdash;and escaped to seek help from the Vagaari. Thrawn had been able to anticipate Car'das' action and used it to lure the Vagaari into the same trap that he had been preparing for the Outbound Flight.

The Jedi of the Outbound Flight refused to return to the Galactic Republic as Thrawn demanded. When Thrawn's stolen gravity well projector pulled the Vagaari into his trap, the aliens ordered the exploration team to surrender to them. The shuttle that Car'das had stolen from the Crustai base had carried several battle droids and droidekas, and having learned about the existence of fighting machines, the Vagaari were eager to get more. Car'das convinced them that Thrawn's base had more of them, but when the Vagaari saw the huge colony ship from the Republic, he assured them that it carried even more droids. The three-way battle that ensued between the Vagaari, the Outbound Flight, and Thrawn's troops finally ended when droid starfighters&mdash;taken from the Trade Federation ship and specially modified by Thrawn's people to carry radiation bombs&mdash;rammed each of the six Dreadnaught-class cruisers forming the large colony ship. The radiation being discharged from the bombs killed every living being on board the ships, but left the storage core intact, as no one was expected to be there.

Several hours after the battle, Thrass and Ar'alani arrived on the scene, the young Chiss mostly concentrating on helping the Geroons who had been rescued from the Vagaari warships, where the aliens had been used as living shields, while the Admiral accompanied Thrawn to investigate the Outbound Flight. On board the rescue vessel, Thrass met Car'das, who had been rescued with the Geroons, and the two spoke about the ways that Thrawn had been using them as part of his plan to remove the Vagaari threat. Thrass was slightly insulted by the fact that he had been used as a pawn, but Car'das understood Thrawn's reasoning in the matter and did not mind the role that the Commander had given him. After hearing that Aristocra Chaf'orm'bintrano was on his way to investigate the events and arrest Thrawn for overstepping his mandate as Force Commander, Thrass wanted to warn his brother about the approaching trouble.

Thrass and Car'das found Thrawn and Ar'alani on Dreadnaught-One, the commanding vessel of the Outbound Flight. Learning about the Aristocra's intentions, Thrawn and Ar'alani made a plan to move the vessel to the nearest Defense Fleet base, but Chaf'orm'bintrano arrived before they had time to leave. Thrawn warned that having the Outbound Flight falling into the hands of any one family would upset the balance of powers in the Chiss Ascendancy, and it would thus be better to destroy the entire ship if it was the only way to prevent that from happening. The Aristocra contacted Ar'alani, ordering her to put Thrawn under detention&mdash;the Admiral's station in the Defense Hierarchy did not allow her to ignore a direct order from a member of a ruling family. While Ar'alani, Thrawn, and the Chiss team who had been accompanying them left from the Outbound Flight, Thrass and Car'das stayed on board in order to put the ship on autopilot and send it on a one-way trip into the local star.

Death
"Your people will come here someday. Until then, they have enough food and supplies to last for generations. They'll survive. I know they will.''" "Then let us prepare for the end. I've known you and your people only briefly, Jedi Lorana Jinzler. But in that time, I've learned to admire and respect you. I hope that someday humans and Chiss will be able to work side by side in peace." "''As do I, Syndic Mitth'ras'safis of the Eighth Ruling Family."

- Lorana Jinzler and Thrass, moments before their death

When Thrass and Car'das were almost ready to set the autopilot and leave, Lorana Jinzler, a Jedi Knight who had been among the passengers of the expedition, arrived on the bridge and revealed that there were still nearly sixty people on board&mdash;they had survived the radiation bombs in the storage core, where they had been ordered by the Jedi Master leading the expedition, Jorus C'baoth. The shuttle that Thrass and Car'das had used was too small to take them all safely away from the ship in time, but Jinzler was convinced that she could fly the Outbound Flight by herself through her control of the Force. Thrass was able to provide them with the information about a safe location inside a star cluster known to Chiss as the Redoubt, where they could stay out of sight while Thrass would return to negotiate with the Ruling Families about Outbound Flight return to the Republic. Following Jinzler's order, Car'das stayed behind while Thrass and the Jedi took the ship to its final voyage into the star cluster.

Because of the serious damage that the Outbound Flight had suffered in the fight, it was taxing to Jinzler to operate the ship alone, and Thrass found no way to contact the remaining crew members, who had been left into the storage core. Even with all the possible speed, the trip into the Redoubt took several hours. When the hyperdrive stopped working, Thrass and Jinzler had to search the system to find a planet, where they could leave the ship in orbit to wait while the negotiations with the Chiss would be conducted. They found a small planetoid in the system, but setting a large vehicle like the Outbound Flight on an orbit when its drive systems were damaged turned out to be impossible. Thrass used what was left of the sensor systems to find a valley, filled with small stones, which was located along their route and where the impact with the planetoid's surface would be less violent.

The only other hyperspace-capable vehicle on board was a Delta-12 Skysprite that had been stored on Dreadnaught-Three. The small, two-person ship had been meant to be used by Padawan Anakin Skywalker and his Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, who accompanied the expedition during its first trip around known space but had been pulled out prematurely by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, who didn't want Skywalker to die in Doriana's ambush. Thrass and Jinzler planned to use the Skysprite to return to Chiss space and negotiate for the relocation of the survivors of the Outbound Flight. To have easy access to the two-person ship, they planned to land the Outbound Flight in a way that would place Dreadnaught-Six at the bottom and leave number three on top. They were forced to rethink their plan when they learned that the survivors had moved away from the storage core and were on Dreadnaught-Four instead&mdash;which was directly opposite Dreadnaught-One where Thrass and Jinzler were.

To protect the survivors, Thrass and Jinzler knew that they would have to put Dreadnaught-Four as far away from the impact as they could. Having their own ship hit first would cost them their own lives, but neither Thrass nor Jinzler hesitated to make the sacrifice. While Thrass had been suspicious of Humans when he first encountered them, through Car'das and Jinzler he had learned to appreciate them. In the moments before their death, he voiced this newfound appreciation to Jinzler, sharing with her the hope that their two peoples would one day be able to work together peacefully. Their thoughts also lingered on the people for whom they would be giving their lives before the Outbound Flight slammed into the planetoid, killing Thrass and the young Jedi.

Decades later in 22 ABY, a Chiss survey team located the remains of the Outbound Flight inside the Redoubt, and a larger team was assembled, led by Chaf'orm'bintrano. The Chiss also invited two Jedi from the New Republic to join the expedition, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker and his wife, Mara Jade Skywalker. The team discovered that the survivors had created a colony into the remains of the ship with their offspring. The survivors believed that the Jedi had been to blame for the destruction of the Outbound Flight, and they were distrustful toward Skywalker and his wife, locking them inside a turbolift car. After escaping from the trap, the duo made their way down to what was left of Dreadnaught-One and found the remains of two people on the bridge. They recognized Jinzler from her lightsaber&mdash;Jinzler's brother Dean, who was among the expedition, identified the weapon&mdash;while the presence of a Chiss weapon, charric, revealed that the other body belonged to one of the blue-skinned aliens, though the Skywalkers were unaware of the fallen Chiss's identity, it was Thrass.

Personality and traits
"You're gifted in many ways, my brother. But you have yet to develop the farsightedness you will need to survive the intrigues and conflicts of political life."

- Mitth'raw'nuruodo

Thrass was devoted to both his blood family&mdash;including his brother Thrawn&mdash;and his adopted family, which made him feel conflicted about his loyalties. He was worried about Thrawn's actions, which he saw as a risk to his brother's career as well as to Thrawn's relationship with the Eighth Ruling Family. He was drawn between his loyalty to Thrawn and his loyalty to what he perceived to be the good of the family, as he strictly believed in the non-aggression laws of the Chiss Ascendancy. While he respected his brother's abilities as a tactician, he often found himself unable to understand Thrawn's reasoning and plans, and also found it insulting that his brother would use him as a pawn in his plan to lure the Vagaari into an aggressive strike against the Ascendancy.

Unlike his brother's military pursuits, Thrass was interested in politics. However, Thrawn believed that Thrass was still lacking in the farsightedness that he would need to excel in such a career. As a merit adoptive member of a Ruling Family&mdash;who, just like his brother, had the possibility to become a more permanent Trial-born member&mdash;Thrass wore gray clothes with highlights colored burgundy, the color of the Mitth family. He had the blue skin, blue-black hair, and red, glowing eyes which were typical of Chiss. In addition to Chiss language, Cheunh, Thrass spoke fluent Minnisiat and accented Sy Bisti.

Despite his initial suspicion and dislike toward Humans, Thrass learned to admire and respect Jorj Car'das and his people&mdash;he even revealed his thoughts and worries about his brother's actions to the man. In addition, he soon learned to respect Jedi Lorana Jinzler, when the two of them flew the badly damaged Outbound Flight into the Redoubt, sharing with her the hopes that Chiss and Humans could find a way to live together in peace in times to come. When Thrass learned that he and Jinzler would be trading their lives to those of the survivors, he did not hesitate to make the sacrifice, but would have liked to save Jinzler as well.

Behind the scenes
Mitth'ras'safis made his first appearance in Timothy Zahn's novel Survivor's Quest in 2004, as an unidentified Chiss skeleton discovered on the bridge of the Outbound Flight. Zahn expanded his background&mdash;revealing his name and connection to Thrawn&mdash;in his later novel, Outbound Flight in 2006.

Appearances

 * Outbound Flight
 * Survivor's Quest