A whole new Empire is coming to Star Wars. A new novel set in the Star Wars galaxy, Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos Rising will start a brand new trilogy exploring the origins of Grand Admiral Thrawn before he joined the Empire fans are familiar with. Before the Empire, Thrawn was a commander in the Chiss Ascendancy, the empire of his people, located in the Unknown Regions of space. According to writer Timothy Zahn, he’s been building the Chiss as an entirely new dynamic race for readers to be introduced to and explore, finally giving them details and answers into the mysterious figures.ead on to learn more.
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The news from Zahn comes from the recent SDCC 2020 Luscasfilm Publishing panel. Thrawn is a longtime creation of Zahn’s from before the Disney-rebooted Star Wars continuity. Before the reboot, Zahn wrote a trilogy of books on Thrawn, detailing his efforts to end the Rebel forces about 5 years after Return of the Jedi. However, Thrawn was brought back into the new official timeline as a primary villain in the Star Wars: Rebels animated series, taking place before the events of A New Hope. Zahn then wrote a new Thrawn trilogy taking place before and during the events of Rebels, detailing the character’s journey from the mysterious Unknown Regions and into the service of the Emperor, climbing the ranks to Grand Admiral, as one of the few alien species serving among Imperial High Command.
Not much is known about where Thrawn came from, other than the information that he was a commander of the Chiss Ascendancy’s Expansionary Fleet before traveling to learn about the Empire and form an alliance to benefit his people. The knowledge of the Unknown Regions proved incredibly interesting to the Emperor. It was most likely instrumental to his plans following his death on the second Death Star, with the First and Final Orders gathering their forces and the Emperor himself being resurrected there, hidden within the uncharted area of space, away from the New Republic’s view.
At the SDCC panel, Zahn assured fans that new information will be coming with new details on the Chiss Ascendancy in this next set of books:
“With this trilogy, I’m being able to basically build the Chiss Ascendancy and the culture from the ground up, exploring how the families work, how the military works, their relationships with others in the area. The focus will be on Thrawn of course, his interaction and bringing in a bunch of new characters, and the emergence of a threat against the Ascendancy. Someone has the Ascendancy in their sights and it will be up to our heroes to figure out where these attacks are coming from, how they’re being done, and how to deal with them.”
The families Zahn spoke of at the panel are most likely the alleged Nine Ruling Families that lead the Ascendancy, and it will be incredibly interesting to learn more about them as well. Zahn is essentially creating an entirely new space within Star Wars to be explored. According the the first book’s synopsis:
“The peace of the Ascendancy, a beacon of calm and stability, is shattered after a daring attack on the Chiss capital that leaves no trace of the enemy. Baffled, the Ascendancy dispatches one of its brightest young military officers to root out the unseen assailants. A recruit born of no title, but adopted into the powerful family of the Mitth and given the name Thrawn.”
Thrawn is brilliant strategist and tactician, primarily due to his ability to study and analyze his foes in great detail. What happens with the enemy is unseen? Will this new empire fans are being introduced to end before they truly get to explore it? Hopefully, Star Wars fans will get their answers when Thrawn releases this September.