The Chiss: A Theory

So I've been rereading the Thrawn books and the Dark Nest trilogy recently, and I think I've come up with a grand unifying theory to retcon all of the conflicting accounts of the Chiss. This theory covers the Nine/Four Ruling Families issue, and the family identity of Thrawn. I would welcome any attempts to improve this theory, but I think it stands on its own.

To begin with, Chiss names. We have examples of Chiss with House names in the beginning or the end of their names, with no explanation given for this. See Chaf'orm'bintrano versus Hess'irolia'nuruodo as an example, or all the other various Chiss we've seen with Nuruodo attached at the end, including Thrawn. Yet Thrawn is now known as a member of the Eith Ruling House like his brother, which we assume to be House Mitth because they share the same first section of their names. It is possible, however, that Chiss names feature both their father and mother's family names, which might mean that the first section is the father's name, and the last section if the mother's name. Operating under this theory, all of the (name)'(name)'nuruodo's would be the children of Nuruodo women. Chiss adopted into families might take their adopted House name as if it were their father's, or perhaps they are adopted by an individual in the House, who then becomes their father or mother.

Now, this leads to a question of why Thrawn's (Mitth'raw'nuruodo) and Thrass' (Mitth'ras'safis) last names are so different. Perhaps they are not full brothers, but half-brothers, being born from different mothers. Perhaps Thrawn's mother was a low-level member of House Nuruodo, and Thrass' was not, nor was their father. Thus Thrawn could be both a commoner adopted by House Mitth, and a scion of a House Nuruodo bloodline. Thrawn could latter be accepted more fully by his Nuruodo relatives as the balance of power in the CEDF shifts from House Mitth to House Nuruodo.

Now, as for the Chiss Ruling Families, we know there were Nine families circa 27 BBY and 22 ABY, but by 28 ABY only four families remained. We assume that Houses Chaf, Csaspla, Irokini, Mitth, Nuruodo, and Sabosen were among the nine families, which leaves three unaccounted for. By 28 ABY the four Ruling Families are Csapla, Irokini, Nuruodo, and Sabosen, but Chaf still seems to be active, with an Aristocra even (Formbi). A possible explanation for this is thus: two families were absorbed by the Killiks, while the dispute over Killik labor which seemed to destroyed the other three didn't actually destroy the three families who were over-reliant on Killik labor. Instead, they still exist but with greatly reduced status, with some branches of the family destroyed and their Ruling Family status removed, leaving them a minor noble house. It is possible that this happened to House Chaf, leaving Formbi the head of a reduced House Chaf which had been punished for its over-reliance on Killik labor, but which still serves as part of the Ascendancy.

I hope this all made sense, but if it didn't, I'm sure someone else will make sense of it.

 

RS_R: It's a pretty well-thought-out possiblity, but there are other ways to do it...

1.) The 'nuruodo element needn't indicate membership of House Nuruodo, just like everyone called "Kennedy" isn't a Kennedy. Irolia and Ganet could actually be named after Thrawn.

We also have family-name prefixes that aren't the names of actual ruling houses - four of the implied "surnames", Mitth, Kres, Prard and Nuruodo, are shared between the Second and Eighth Ruling Families... and the Fels seem to be regarded as senior members of Thrawn's house too, and still go by the name Fel.

Also, it's pretty clear that Thrawn was born and raised a commoner. I'd always assumed thus far that he was Thrass's full brother, though now I think about it, it's possible that he's a half-brother, which fits nicely with all sorts of Campbell... Good idea!

Now I just have to see if OBF rules it out...

2.) The information on the number of Houses in Gamer #5 and FH3, and Formbi's explanation in DN3, could all be some form of misdirection (I don't trust Formbi! ), or "House" and "Family" could mean two different things...

3.) I'd like Zahn to take the lead in any retcon, as it seems likely that most of the inconsistency is people not understanding his stuff.

EDIT: absurd typo!

- The Imperial Ewok

 

I'd say the whole Four Families thing was misdirection on the Chiss's part, probably to keep their true social structure a secret. And Formbi's explanation in The Joiner King was part of the smokescreen. I'd wager that Houses Csapla, Nuruodo, Inrokini and Sabosen don't even exist.


And don't forget that the Chiss were back to Nine Ruling Families in Invincible

 

upcoming clone wars episode, George Lucas uses Thrawn during the Clone Wars changing his past and showing Chiss society

JUST JOKING

well, but there is this children book about a Chiss Padawan and he will visit Chiss Space in the next book!

 

I've always seen Chiss society as an odd blend of aristocracy and meritocracy, with the military being the great equalizer, which is why I think we see more variety in supposed-surnames there. So it's possible that a Chiss House operates like the Tapani Houses, with multiple surnames/bloodlines in each, or that it functions closer to a Mando'ade Clan and only contains one surname with the rest being of different families. Perhaps Mitth has nothing to do with any of the Ruling Families at all, and it's all just misdirection. Mitth could even be Thrawn and Thrass' shared commoner bloodline which was being adopted into the Eigth Ruling Family (which as far as I remember, goes unnamed). This of course conflicts with the Atlas, which has House Mitth being a Ruling Family, but I agree in wanting Zahn to take the lead in a Chiss retcon. Maybe they could give him an Essential Guide... I'd read the Essential Guide to the Chiss by Timothy Zahn and Daniel Wallace anyday.

The idea of all the 'nuruodo Chiss being named for Thrawn as a Chiss hero really appeals to me, though. In fact, I like it better than my previously stated theory. With no knowledge of the Cheunh language, it really could be or mean anything: could be a patronym or matronym, a generic word for soldier that Thrawn simply kept even after becoming an officer and then a Syndic, or anything else. Chiss society strikes me as being meritocratic enough to make you earn parts of your name, so it may be a title or honorific even.

...We need Zahn here. Seriously.