The novel follows a younger Thrawn during his time serving in the Chiss Ascendancy.
It was released on November 16, 2021.
It follows Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendacy: Chaos Rising and Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy: Greater Good in the Thrawn Ascendancy trilogy and leads right into Thrawn.
Tropes in this book include:
- Bait-and-Switch: When visiting the UAG on Sposia, Thrawn obtains an alien artifact that he plans to use against the Grysks. It's heavily implied that this is the second Starflash. However, during the battle, it's revealed that what he actually took was the Vagaari gravity projector. Afterwards, General Ba'kif tells him that he honestly thought that Thrawn would take the Starflash and is glad he didn't. Thrawn simply tells him that if he thought that was the only way, he would have done it without a second thought, even if it meant the destruction of Sunrise. He swore to protect the Chiss Ascendancy at any cost, and he has every intention of keeping that promise.
- Big Bad: Jixtus and the Grysks.
- Black Box: Thrawn learns from the UAG that some of the alien tech he's brought to them for study and reverse-engineering is proving difficult to understand and copy. This includes the Republic shield generator (far superior to the electrostatic barriers used by most races in the Unknown Regions) and the Vagaari gravity well generator, as well as the Starflash superweapon.
- Boarding Party: Thrawn's Paccosh friend Uingali foar Marocsaa takes his captured Nikardun gunboat to Sunrise (with Thrawn and Qilori aboard) and claims to be the Nikardun fleeing an enemy to get close to Kilji and Grysk ships in the system. Just then, the Springhawk arrives. Quickly figuring out what's going on, Samakro warns the Kilji and the Grysks not to interfere in their hunt for the Nikardun. The Kilji and the Grysks allow the gunboat to approach, anticipating a battle with the Springhawk. But the Paccosh marines storm the Kilji ship and quickly slaughter everyone aboard, except for the hired Pathfinder. Thrawn then uses the ship's weapons to aid the Springhawk in battle against the Grysk ship before returning to the gunboat.
- Broad Strokes: The events of Outbound Flight are referenced as a clash between Thrawn’s forces, the Vaagari, and a large colony ship from Republic space. Thrass’s death is depicted almost identically down to the dialogue exchange, as he chooses to sacrifice himself along with an unknown human woman(Lorena Jinzler in Legends) in order to save a group of humans during the ship’s crash-landing. Also, in the new canon, Thrass isn't Thrawn's biological brother (Thrawn's only biological sibling was a sister), but they do become brothers in name.
- Call-Forward: When discussing Thrawn's upcoming exile, General Ba'kif ruefully tells him that he always wanted to see how Thrawn looks in admiral white. Any reader familiar with Thrawn will know that he eventually becomes an Imperial Grand Admiral, who wear white uniforms.
- The Cavalry: In the middle of the final battle between the Chiss and the Grysks, the former Nikardun gunboat commanded by Apros (Ziinda's first officer) is trying to get away from the two Grysk BattleChiefs chasing it. Then a dozen ships suddenly jump in and open up on the surprised BattleChiefs, turning them to scrap. The ships belong to a combined Garwian and Vak task force, two of the races Thrawn previously helped against the Nikardun and repay him with their service in the battle.
- The Cavalry Arrives Late: Just after the end of the battle, Admiral Dy'lothe arrives aboard the Venturous and wonders what he missed.
- Combat Clairvoyance: Thrawn learns that the Magys's ability to look into the Beyond can be linked with a navigator's Third Sight in order to allow them to see far enough into the future to predict the course of a battle. Thrawn realizes that this is why Jixtus is after the Magys. He wants this ability in order to be able to win battle after battle, especially against someone like Thrawn. Thrawn takes advantage of this knowledge by telling Qilori that the Magys isn't the only one of her species with this ability, knowing that he will tell Jixtus that. Jixtus comes to Sunrise in force to secure the Magys and the potential others with the ability. After the Grysk fleet is destroyed, the dying Jixtus asks Thrawn if he was lying. Thrawn admits he was; the Magys is the only one of her species able to look into the Beyond and interface with a navigator. Jixtus admits he should've seen through the obvious lie, but he really wanted it to be true.
- The Dog Bites Back
- During the final battle, Jixtus kills Generalirius Nakirre after his usefulness runs out and flees the Whetstone to his own flagship FateSpinner. Qilori is left on the Kilji ship's bridge among the cowering Kilji vassals who have been taught to obey orders and nothing else. With the battle going in the Chiss favor, Jixtus tries to flee. With his path putting him directly in front of the Whetstone, Qilori takes command and orders the Kilji vassals to open up on the Grysk ship's flank with all weapons. The surprise attack at a mere 300 meters utterly cripples the ship and leaves it adrift and Jixtus himself is fatally wounded.
- Also, Senior Captain Roscu of the Clarr family ship Orisson and her first officer Mid Captain Raamas. After Patriarch Clarr'ivl'exow possibly leads them into a trap and then demotes Roscu, reinstating Raamas as commanding officer of the Orisson, Raamas ignores Rivlex's orders and takes the ship to rendezvous with Thrawn for the battle with the Grysks, even unofficially returning command to Roscu for the duration of the battle given her greater combat experience.
- The Empire: Thrawn learns of the formation of the Galactic Empire in Lesser Space from a group of Neimoidian refugees. This worries him, as his previous encounter with Anakin Skywalker led him to believe that the Galactic Republic was fractious and weak. But the Empire, under a single powerful leader, could potentially become a threat to the Chiss Ascendancy.
- "Eureka!" Moment: One of Qilori's tasks, assigned by Jixtus, is to discover how the Chiss navigate through the Chaos even when not employing Pathfinders or any other navigator guild. Jixtus suspects they may be employing a mechanical device for calculating the path, possibly recovered from Lesser Space. It's not until the final battle that Qilori has an epiphany and realizes why the navigator controls on Chiss ships seem to be positioned so close to the chair: they're meant for children! Then he quickly forgets about the realization due to pressing matters, but by the time of Thrawn: Alliances the Grysk are actively kidnapping the sky-walkers, leaving Qilori as one possible means by which they found out about them.
- The Exile
- The imprisoned General Yiv offers to trade information about Jixtus and some of his allies for freedom and exile from the Ascendancy. He'd much rather live out the rest of his days on some uninhabited planet than in a Chiss prison cell, especially now that his hope of being rescued by the other Nikardun has been dashed and Jixtus plans to raze Csilla.
- Even after defeating Jixtus and the Grysk fleet, the Syndicure demands blood. They initially want to punish all the senior officers involved in the battle, but General Ba'kif instead offers up Thrawn as the scapegoat. Thrawn is stripped of his military and family rank (becoming a rankless Mitth) and is exiled from the Ascendancy, permanently. The exile is partly a way to appease the Syndicure and partly a cover for Thrawn's undercover mission to scout out the Galactic Empire to see if it may one day pose a threat to the Ascendancy, since the way the Neimoidian refugees encountered by Thrawn described Palpatine, he reminded him too much of Yiv the Benevolent, the way Palpatine turned a weak and factional Republic into the strong Empire.
- Final Battle: Thrawn's plan is to lure Jixtus and his Grysk fleet to Sunrise. Jixtus arrives expecting two dozen Chiss ships in confrontation with Thrawn, having been sent by the Syndicure to apprehend him. He arrives to see all the Chiss ships floating dead in space, seemingly destroyed by Thrawn's tactics. Jixtus sends his 15 warships to scout the wreckage for any Chiss survivors in order to exchange them for the Magys and any others of her kind who may have her powers. With the Grysk ships out of formation and surrounded by the Chiss "wrecks", Thrawn sends the signal, and the Chiss crews bring up their systems and attack. Since the Grysks excel at long-ranged combat, the Chiss are able to inflict heavy damage on their powerful ships. Having learned of Grysk tactical weaknesses from previous engagements, Thrawn had the crews train to take advantage of them. Jixtus's flagship FateSpinner is able to evade destruction by diving into Sunrise's atmosphere. When an opening presents itself, the ship dashes out and makes a break for it, hoping to flee. Thrawn knows that Jixtus has to be stopped here and now in order to secure the Ascendancy's safety, at least temporarily. But no ship is in a position to catch the FateSpinner. Jixtus's end comes from an unexpected source, with Qilori taking command of the Whetstone and unleashing a deadly barrage at close range on the FateSpinner's flank, crippling the ship. Wounded and dying, Jixtus speaks with Thrawn for a short while before sending a signal that causes all the Grysk ships to self-destruct, leaving nothing for the Chiss to study.
- Hero of Another Story: The book does a good job showing that Thrawn is far from the only competent commander in the Chiss military. Notable commanders include Admiral Ar'alani and Senior Captain Ziinda. At the same time, they recognize that Thrawn has a far superior grasp on tactics and strategy, so Ar'alani lets Thrawn command the final battle despite outranking him.
- Thrawn's Paccosh friend Uingali foar Marocsaa is also shown to be an excellent and resourceful commander in his own right (seeming to be the Paccosh version of Thrawn in some ways), and his team of commandos are more effective ass-kickers than the Chiss are themselves, and are extremely active in the fight against the Grysk's spreading influence.
- Heroic Sacrifice
- Thrass's father gave his life to save the life of a random Chiss about to be attacked. That Chiss turned out to be Mitth Patriarch Thooraki in disguise, and the attack was an assassination attempt. In recognition, Thooraki rematched the man's widow who was about to give birth to Thrass. He also fudged the records to have the rematching ceremony appear to have taken place before Thrass's birth. That way Thrass would be born a Mitth cousin rather than a ranking distant like his mother.
- Thrass himself ended up giving his life to save a group of unknown humans aboard a (presumably) Republic ship during a crash-landing, knowing that neither those humans nor anyone in the Ascendancy would know of his sacrifice. He even mused that there was a symmetry between him and his father.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Thrawn and Thrass became very close friends after Thrawn's rematching ceremony. And eventually Thrass even called Thrawn his brother. After Thrass's death, Thrawn would never again have such a relationship with anyone. Thrawn's final act before being exiled is to eat alone at the bistro he and Thrass used to frequent to think back on some of his happiest memories.
- Long-Lost Relative: After Patriarch Thooraki's death, his senior aide Thivik passes along a data cylinder from the late Thrass to Thalias. The cylinder contains information about Thrawn's older sister, taken from the family not long after Thrawn's birth. Thalias learns that Thrawn's sister Cohbo'rik'ardok (originally Kivu'rik'ardok) was taken because of her Force-sensitivity to become a sky-walker. After her powers faded, she was rematched to the Irizi family and eventually married into the Cohbo family, becoming a trainer of future sky-walkers. When Thalias visits her and tells her about Thrawn, Borika is both happy to have a brother and sad that she'll never remember him because of what the Seekers program has done to her memories. She decides not to meet Thrawn.
- Magnetic Hero: Thrawn is showing elements of this by this book; various species and individuals he's helped in the past two novels return to help him against the Grysks, and Ziinda notes that, for all the many people who don't actually like Thrawn, an awful lot of them are willing to risk everything to support him. She also notes that, (between his blindspots when it comes to politics and his focus on tactical choices that seem obvious to him,) he probably doesn't even realise that he inspires this.
- Man Behind the Man: Jixtus is once again using another race to do his bidding. This time it's the Kilji Illumine, led by Generalirius Nakirre.
- Manipulative Bastard: Jixtus once again nearly manages to turn the Chiss families against one another, this time by fabricating evidence of secret alliances and military build-ups among rivals. Specifically, he convinces the Patriarchs of the Chaf, Clarr, and Ufsa families to accept his help in the form of Grysk ships to bolster their own fleets. In fact, Jixtus merely uses them as a safe place to park his ships until he needs to gather them for a final blow.
- Meaningful Rename: Xodlak'in'daro is rematched to the Irizi family, becoming Irizi'in'daro (and going from Lakinda to Ziinda). When asked by a Xodlak family member, she explains that, after her first officer pretty much mutinied against her in the previous novel, he wasn't punished in the least, simply because he was Xodlak blood and she wasn't. When the Xodlak family member tries to say that this isn't how things should be, Ziinda simply says that it happened, and now she no longer feels any sense of loyalty to her former family that didn't show her any.
- Naming Ceremony: Happens twice in the book's Memories chapters. First it's Thrawn's rematching ceremony to the Mitth, where he's renamed from Kivu'raw'nuru to Mitth'raw'nuru. Then, after Thrawn and Thrass help the Stybla family recover an item pertaining to the Starflash, the Stybla Patriarch decides to honor Thrawn with a special ceremony that has been performed by the Stybla for millennia, although only eight non-Stybla have been honored thusly. The ceremony includes the addition of the suffix "-odo" (meaning "guardian" in Tybroic, the ancient language of the Stybla) to Thrawn's name, so he becomes Mitth'raw'nuruodo.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Just before the final battle, Thrawn reveals that Generalirius Nakirre's mighty Kilhorde has been wiped out by a surprise attack from multiple direction by the Paataatus.
- Path of Inspiration: This is essentially what the Kilji Illumine tries to spread throughout the Unknown Regions, although it pretty much boils down to Happiness in Slavery.
- Prequel: The book ends shortly before Thrawn begins, with Thrawn being exiled from the Ascendancy.
- Rank Up
- At the end of the novel, Mid Captain Samakro is promoted to Senior Captain and gets back command of the Springhawk.
- Also, Ziinda recommends that Mid Captain Apros be promoted to Senior Captain and be given command of his own ship. When General Ba'kif asks if she'd be willing to give him her own ship, the Grayshrike. After a brief pause, she decides that Apros would indeed deserve it more than her. However, Ba'kif was merely curious and instead gives Apros command of the patrol cruiser Parala, even noting it was Admiral Ar'alani's first command.
- Refused Reunion: Thalias, finds Thrawn's long-lost sister, who has long since forgotten that she ever had a brother and has no interest in meeting him.
- The Reveal:
- In the Memories chapters, Thrawn and Thrass learn that the reason Csilla froze over is because of the use of a super weapon called Starflash thousands of years ago, which reduced the luminescence of their sun. On the other hand, they had to use the weapon to destroy a large alien fleet about to attack Csilla. This event, as well as the self-sacrifice of 10 Mitth warriors (including all 4 sons of the reigning Mitth patriarch), has resulted in the Mitth becoming a Ruling Family and being given the sun as their family crest.
- Also, Thalias learns that the reason she doesn't remember her parents is because all Sky-Walkers get their memories suppressed in order to avoid sadness and longing.
- Secret-Keeper: Admiral Ar'alani is told the truth about Thrawn's exile, partly because she's Thrawn's friend and partly to keep her from making waves in demanding that Thrawn's exile be reversed.
- Self-Destruct Mechanism: All Grysk ships are equipped with them in order to keep their enemies from learning anything about them. After Jixtus loses the final battle against the Chiss, he sends a signal that triggers the self-destruct of all the Grysk ships in the system.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Thalias find's Thrawn's long-lost sister, who, thanks to the memory wipes that are part of early sky-walker training to keep five-year-olds who have been separated from their families from being more concerned with homesickness than their families, was unaware that she even had a brother. She declines to meet him, seeing no point in meeting someone she has no memory of, not considering that since he never forgot her, one meeting to allow him some closure might be valuable to him.
- Shoot the Bullet: The Grysks use small guided missiles called dibbers to intercept Chiss breacher missiles and plasma spheres. The Chiss have to learn to get around them if they want to be able to use more than just spectrum lasers against the Grysks.
- Take a Third Option: Just before the battle with the Grysk fleet, the Magys takes control of Che'ri and insists that the two of them can use their combined powers to ensure the success of the battle. Both Samakro and Thalias are against that, since it could leave Che'ri permanently damaged. Thalias then offers herself as a conduit instead, assuming her residual Third Sight would still allow the Magys to be able to foresee the course of the battle. Samakro points out that the Magys would have to pour a lot of her power into Thalias in order to make use of her reduced ability, which would likely harm her. Instead of allowing the Magys to take either Che'ri or Thalias, Samakro orders the gunners to target the Magys's location on Sunrise and prepare to unleash a barrage of spectrum lasers and breacher missiles on the planet if the Magys doesn't release Che'ri. After a few seconds, the Magys relents.
- Undying Loyalty: Ziinda notes that, for all the many people who don't actually like Thrawn, an awful lot of them are willing to risk everything to support him. She also notes that, (between his blindspots when it comes to politics and his focus on tactical choices that seem obvious to him,) he probably doesn't even realise that he inspires this.
- Ungrateful Bastard: The Syndicure. After Thrawn defeats the Grysks, who have nearly torn the Ascendancy apart with their manipulation, the Syndicure demands that he be brought up on charges of violating the Chiss defensive-only doctrine. Ba'kif tells Ar'alani that most of them recognize the great service Thrawn has done to them, but they still feel they have to punish him. And given the fractured state of the Ascendancy, the Defense Hierarchy Council has opted to throw them a bone.
- Worthy Opponent: It is clear that Jixtus considers Thrawn to be this, but it's not clear if it's reciprocated; while fully acknowledging how dangerous and clever Jixtus is, Thrawn treats him as simply an especially dangerous enemy who needs to be destroyed, and shows none of the reluctant respect or wish to be on the same side that often characterises this trope.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness
- After Generalirius Nakirre learns that his mighty Kilhorde has been wiped out by the Paataatus, he confronts Jixtus about his failure to make the Kilji his true allies and provide them adequate support. Jixtus calmly takes out a weapon and shoots him, explaining to the shocked Qilori that Nakirre's usefulness to the Grysks has run out with the destruction of the Kilhorde.
- Qilori himself believes that Jixtus plans to dispose of him when he is no longer useful to his plans. See The Dog Bites Back for his reaction.
