Who Are The Chiss And Why Are They Important To ‘Star Wars’?
To many fans of Star Wars, it seemed like just another line meant to foreshadow an upcoming character. “Now tell me, where is your master? Where is Grand Admiral Thrawn?” But this line said by Ahsoka Tano in Season 2, Episode 5 of The Mandalorian caused a lot of fans to go absolutely nuts. They know who he is, and they love him.
Thrawn first appeared in Timothy Zahn’s 1991 Novel Heir to The Empire, the first in a trilogy of books where the alien tactical genius, now in charge of the Empire, was the antagonist to our heroes from the original trilogy. The character proved so popular, that Dave Filoni brought him back into Canon in his TV series Rebels, and is scheduled to have his first Live Action appearance in the upcoming Ahsoka show, where the titular Jedi is speculated to be hunting him down. With the character coming into the mainstream more and more, people are curious about his origins.
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Thrawn is a member of a species called the Chiss, an isolated race that looks almost exactly like humans except with blue skin and red eyes. In both Canon and Legends, the Chiss are from the freezing cold planet of Csilla. Csilla is in the Unknown Regions, a region beyond the Outer Rim. Due to their isolation, they had little to do with the rest of the galaxy, thusly the reason they have not yet appeared in any of the movies. They developed a sense of independence, keeping mostly to themselves while also not allowing themselves to pre-emptively attack any neighbours for moral reasons. For these reasons, other species knew very little about them for several years, and they were even seen as a legend by many. After Thrawn took control of the Empire, his brash nature and aggressive tactics painted the chiss in a negative light. However, contrary to Thrawn, despite their seemingly closed-off nature, they are very welcoming of outsiders. Although they do share one trait with Thrawn: an extremely high intellect. However, they tend to apply it to trade, politics, and science rather than military acumen.
With all this in mind, why are they important? They just seem like just another race of humans with a strict culture. In a sense, that’s not entirely wrong. However, looking at their presence in Legends, they’ve done quite a lot. They created the Alpha Red virus during the Yuuzhan Vong war, were a substantial force in the swarm war, and created the Nssis-class Clawcraft, an extremely nimble starfighter that outperformed the Imperial craft it was based on. During the Yuuzhan Vong war, they also acted as one of the many factions defending the galaxy from the most devastating invasion in galactic history, playing a major part in the war after Coruscant was lost. The Chiss Ascendency has also been an established area of space (albeit relatively unknown) around since 5000 years before the events of the movies, meaning that they were around when Revan was running rampant. They played a major part in the novel Outbound Flight where a group of Jedi planning to leave the galaxy for another and pass through an area controlled by the Chiss Ascendancy, who are aware of the invading Yuuzhan Vong. Despite all this unique history and technology, they are almost entirely a blank slate in Canon outside of the Thrawn: Ascendancy trilogy of books, leaving them open for new creators to interpret them as they wish.
Their strong military despite their small numbers, as well as their brilliant scientists have shown that they can be a valuable ally. Given their isolationist nature, they could become allied with almost any force in the galaxy, or even become a wild card. Thrawn’s appearance could have him mention his past, which would bring in a whole new species that could one day become as iconic as Wookiee's, Twi'leks, Hutts, Zabraks, Togrutas, and whatever Yoda is. Although, I don’t think a baby Chiss will ever be as adorable as Grogu.
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Source(s): Wookieepedia