This male Chiss was a respected and honored commander in the Chiss Expansionary Defense Force during the years leading up to the Clone Wars, although not every Chiss was the Defense Hierarchy shared that view. His abilities to accurately predict his opponent's moves, and his tactical genius, moved him through the ranks with a quiet speed. Thrawn, whose full name was Mitth'raw'nuruodo, was trial-born into the Nuruodo family, which the Eighth Ruling Family during the years following the Battle of Naboo. Unlike most Chiss, Thrawn believed that there were certain times when a Chiss needed to strike the first blow in a battle, instead of sitting back and waiting for the enemy to attack first. He particularly believed this was the case with the Vagaari, who had been subjugating planets in the Unknown Regions while the Chiss simply ignored them. At the time, Thrawn was the youngest Chiss ever to hold the rank of Field Commander, and was leading Picket Force Two on a long patrol of the borders of the Chiss Ascendancy. He continually encountered Vagaari forces, and reported to his superiors on the subjugation andenslavement of entire races. Repeated encounters only heightened his sense of concern. Thrawn decided to strike a blow against the Vagaari some five years before the onset of the Clone Wars, when he captured one of their early gravity well projectors. He planned to use the device to capture more Vagaari, but was presented with a chance to capture the Dreadnaughts of the Outbound Flight project by Kinman Doriana. Unknown to the Jedi, Palpatine had sent a task force led by Doriana to make sure they didn't get started. The fifteen-ship Imperial force was summarily wiped out by Thrawn's small fleet of ships, although Doriana's ship was allowed to survive. Doriana then explained that the mission of Outbound Flight, though noble, mighgt possibly attract the notice of the Far Outsiders. Thrawn was aware of the predations of the Far Outsiders, and agreed that Outbound Flight needed to be stopped. He then saw the opportunity to eliminate both Outboard Flight and the Vagaari. After rendering Outbound Flight a derelict and destroying a large part of the Vagaari fleet, Thrawn agreed to let Doriana return to Coruscant. Chancellor Palpatine, acting in the guise of Darth Sidious, spent the next several years searching for Thrawn, in hopes of bringing his military genius into the Galactic Empire. After the establishment of the New Order, Thrawn learned about the Empire's the use of pre-emptive strikes against his opponents. The Ruling Circle of the Chiss regarded such unprovoked attacks as a form of murder, and exiled Thrawn after one particularly bloody incident. He was stripped him of his rank and exiled to live on an uninhabited world near Imperial space. It was here that Captain Voss Parck discovered Thrawn, eventually convincing him to travel to Coruscant and serve in Palpatine's Imperial Navy. Thrawn received private schooling in Imperial military academies, becoming a Captain shortly after the Battle of Yavin and quickly rising through the ranks as one of the few non-humans in the Navy. He later claimed that he contradicted the orders of Emperor Palpatine on at least four occasions; after the first, Palpatine learned that Thrawn was often correct. When Darth Vader was called by the Emperor to become more involved in his plot to capture Luke Skywalker, Vader assigned Thrawn to be the "guardian" of the Noghri on Honoghr. This exposure to Vader and Palpatine led to Thrawn's promotion to Vice Admiral, where he helped design the missile gunboat. As Vice Admiral, Thrawn oversaw the development of an Imperial outpost in the Pakuuni System, then assisted in the defense of Palpatine against Zaarin's treachery. However, Thrawn could not capture Zaarin before he made his escape into hyperspace. Further service to the Emperor garnered Thrawn a full promotion to Admiral, at which time he served on the Inexorable under Ysanne Isard. Sometime later, Thrawn was promoted to Grand Admiral, and he convinced both Isard and Soontir Fel that a group of clones created from Fel's genetic material would make perfect sleeper agents. They could pilot ships, and would be loyal to the Empire. During a political party in the Emperor's court, Thrawn made a rare judgmental error and wound up on the wrong side of a debate. This angered Palpatine, but it also gave him an excuse to move Thrawn out of the limelight. Thrawn and Parck were sent back to the Unknown Regions as punishment, but were continually fed Imperial support. While there, Thrawn and Parck set up the compound known as the Hand of Thrawn on Nirauan, drawing a military force from the Chiss who still supported Thrawn. During their tenure, they won over large sectors of the region. These sectors could have vastly increased the Empire, had not Palpatine died at Endor. Thrawn decided to hedge his bets, and began fortifying the Hand of Thrawn. He left Parck there, in charge of the planet, when he decided to return to the rest of the galaxy some four years after the Battle of Endor. He left word with Parck and the Chiss who supported him that, if he was ever reported dead, that they should wait ten years for his return. As one of the surviving Grand Admirals, Thrawn was able to quickly garner support from the Imperial remnants, obtaining control of the small fleet under the command of then-Captain Pellaeon. Using Noghri strike forces and clever deceptions - such as cloaking devices and clones recovered from the Mount Tantiss facility - Thrawn and his growing fleet began systematically retaking pieces of the New Republic a year later. He was successful until the Battle of Bilbringi, where his fleet was decimated and he was killed by his Noghri bodyguard, Rukh. In order to ensure that he would eventually return to the Chiss on Nirauan, as he promised, Thrawn had Parck and Fel maintain a clone of himself, ready for rebirth at the ten-year mark. The clone was never activated, as Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade discovered the ruse and exposed it to the New Republic.

Source Abbreviations Listing - HTTE, DFR, TLC, TIE, WG, SOP, VOF, GOF8, OF