Grand Admiral Thrawn & Joruus C'baoth and Rukh

[Cain]

A consummate strategist, Grand Admiral Thrawn likened combat to art, and was an aficionado of both. He could cite inspirations, analyze motives and determine outcomes before his opponents had even consciously began formulating a move.

Thrawn's greatest weapon was his mind. This was long ago recognized by his people, the Chiss, who banished Mitth'raw'nuruodo for his dangerous ideas. The Chiss of Csilla are a disciplined species, advanced enough to build a sizable fleet and an empire over two dozen worlds. Thrawn's tactics were controversial in their boldness, and his activities within the Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet drew many a concerned, glowing red eye.

The rest of the galaxy made first contact with the Chiss when a taskforce dispatched by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine stumbled upon Thrawn's fleet. The young blue-skinned commander was able to decimate the intruders despite inferior weapons and numbers.

The taskforce's commander, Kinman Doriana, asked Thrawn for a parley. The two conversed, and Doriana was able to appeal to Thrawn's cool sense of logic and order. He outlined his mission -- to destroy the incoming Outbound Flight vessel -- to Thrawn, spelling out the threat that this vessel filled with Jedi Masters posed to the Chiss people. Thrawn completed the mission that Doriana failed and destroyed the Outbound Flight project.

Returning to Csilla, Thrawn was reprimanded for his hostilities. Though he explained that his actions were part of a pre-emptive strike to protect Csilla and the Chiss, the ruling houses could not wrap their minds around such radical concepts. Thrawn was placed under close observation. In time, his activities caused him to be altogether banished from the Chiss.

The Chiss's loss became Palpatine's gain. Agents of the new Emperor discovered Thrawn on a barren jungle world and took him into their ranks. Despite a strong policy against non-human officers in the Imperial Navy, Thrawn ascended the Imperial ranks.

Before long, Thrawn attained command of an Imperial Star Destroyer, the Vengeance. When he transferred to the Admonitor, he was given the thankless task of mapping huge areas of the Unknown Regions. When in the depths of the galaxy's backwater, Thrawn re-established contact with the Chiss, who in the interim had been besieged by all manner of encroaching threats. Thrawn, who had once been banished for his bold leadership, was now being lauded for it. Many Chiss longed for his return, and Thrawn secretly established a base of operations on the distant world of Nirauan.

Returning to the Empire proper, Thrawn's star continued to rise unabated. He achieved the rank of Vice Admiral, and earned Vader's respect and access to his secret Noghri army. After helping dispose of the traitorous Grand Admiral Zaarin, Thrawn ascended to that rank himself.

After the Battle of Hoth, Thrawn returned to Outer Rim mapping duty. His ascent to Grand Admiral went without notice by Alliance Intelligence, thus his existence remained a secret. After the fall of Palpatine at Endor, Thrawn returned to Nirauan. He did not return to the Empire until four years after Palpatine's defeat.

Thrawn contacted Captain Gilad Pellaeon, and returned to the Imperial fleet. He then began a systematic campaign of retaking worlds in a bid to recapture Coruscant. His genius manifested itself best in constructing strategies from mere fragments of information. Thrawn was able to locate one of Palpatine's fabled storehouses, and there, found the technology necessary to begin growing a clone army. He found vessels for this army by discovering the long lost Katana Fleet. He recruited the maddened dark Jedi Joruus C'baoth and used his Force talents to better coordinate his scattered strikes. Thrawn also began to secure secret caches of cloned agents throughout the galaxy, ready to answer his call.

Thrawn's greatest oversight was the compelling leadership of Leia Organa Solo. Leia identified and befriended Thrawn's secret Noghri attackers. On their polluted homeworld, Leia was able to prove that the Empire had long exploited the Noghri's sense of honor. She showed how it was the Empire who was poisoning their world, not saving it. Incensed, the Noghri turned against their Imperial benefactors. At the height of the Battle of Bilbringi, Thrawn's faithful Noghri bodyguard Rukh killed the Grand Admiral with an assassin's blade.

The Imperial forces scattered, reformed, and scattered again in the ensuing power vacuum. Ten years later, word of Thrawn's miraculous return began to spread. In truth, it was not Thrawn at all, but Imperial conspirators using Thrawn's name and identity. Thrawn did, though, have some sort of plan to return. During this time, Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade made a chilling discovery on Nirauan: an incubating clone of Thrawn himself. The clone was killed before it ever drew breath, and the attempt to resurrect Thrawn's legacy was quashed.

 

 

 

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Rukh, clan Baikh'vair, was a member of the fierce Noghri species who served as one of the Emperor's Death Commandos. Five years after the Battle of Endor, when Grand Admiral Thrawn returned from the Unknown Regions to lead the remains of the Empire, he selected Rukh to be his personal bodyguard. Thrawn was impressed by Rukh's refusal to be intimidated by the technological might of the Empire.

Rukh was never far from the Grand Admiral's side, though his incredible stealth abilities meant that he was often overlooked until he was within striking distance. When the Empire's deception against the Noghri people was revealed by Princess Leia Organa Solo, Rukh carefully hid his thirst for vengeance and bided his time. He monitored Thrawn's activities, and chose to strike only when Thrawn came to realize he had lost the loyalty of the Noghri. When the best opportunity presented itself, Rukh killed Thrawn with his assassin's blade. The Noghri was in turn killed by Major Tierce of the Imperial Royal Guard, though the Noghri's killing of a hated enemy made him a legend.

 

 

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When Grand Admiral Thrawn began his campaign to retake the Core from the New Republic, his master plan revolved around a trio of crucial discoveries: a cache of Spaarti cloning cylinders, a working cloaking shield, and the insane Dark Jedi clone, Joruus C'baoth.

It is not yet known how the Jedi Master Jorus C'baoth came to be cloned. The tell-tale side effects of mental instability and self-name mispronunciation indicate Joruus was the result of hasty Spaarti-based cloning. The last known whereabouts of the real Jedi Master Jorus C'baoth was aboard the ill-fated Outbound Flight mission to explore regions beyond the Republic's borders.

The original Jorus C'baoth was a well-regarded Jedi. Originally from Bortras, a world in the Reithcas sector, he added to his Jedi studies with an education from Mirnic University. After assuming the title of Jedi Master, C'baoth served the Republic by overseeing the demilitarization of the aggressive Aqualish. He helped settle an ascendency contention on Alderaan; C'baoth's delegation decreed that the Organa bloodline was the rightful heir to the viceroy title. The Jedi negotiated treaties between warring aliens, and was also a personal advisor to Senator Palpatine on Jedi-related matters.

Thrawn found the cloned C'baoth protecting the Emperor's secret storehouse on the planet Wayland. Clone madness made it difficult to decipher the truth behind C'baoth's origins. He maintained that he had killed the Guardian of the Emperor's vaults, and took his place ruling over the natives of Wayland. It is likely that C'baoth was the original Guardian, and the epic battle he recounted was but a product of his delusions.

Thrawn needed C'baoth to coordinate his military forces in much the same way Emperor Palpatine consolidated the fighting spirits of his followers through the Force. C'baoth was hesitant to join Thrawn's forces, but the crafty Grand Admiral promised him more Jedi to train -- namely, Luke Skywalker and his sister Leia Organa Solo. The Empire would capture and deliver the Force-strong Jedi siblings for C'baoth to mold and train as he saw fit.

C'baoth differed from Thrawn in his perceptions of power. While the Empire sought to exert control over distant worlds, C'baoth was content to rule over Wayland. He believed true power was enforcing his will over the citizenry he faced every day, and not governing remote and faceless planets. As Thrawn's repeated victories over the New Republic strengthened the Empire, C'baoth's ambitions grew. He would soon have dark and twisted designs of ruling over a revitalized Empire as Palpatine once had.

C'baoth was very powerful in the dark side of the Force. He could create deadly blue-white lightning from his fingertips, though his preferred use of his powers was imposing his will over others. In his service to Thrawn, C'baoth enhanced the coordination of the Imperial fighting forces, but that was just the start of his influential abilities. When desired, C'baoth could completely subjugate a victim's mind, forcing them to do his bidding.

Luke Skywalker heard rumors of C'baoth's reappearance, and followed these carefully planted leads to Jomark. Skywalker sought out a Jedi Master of old to supplement his training, but upon spending time with C'baoth, he recognized the elder Jedi's madness. The compassionate Skywalker thought he could heal C'baoth, bringing him back from the darkness of insanity. The clone's mental instabilities were too deep-rooted, and Skywalker was forced to flee C'baoth.

C'baoth grew increasingly frustrated with Thrawn's inabilities to deliver him a new Jedi apprentice. Once Thrawn had all his pieces in place for a push against Coruscant, the insane Jedi made his move. He returned to Mount Tantiss on Wayland, and killed the Imperial officer in charge of the new cloning operation there. C'baoth holed himself up in the storehouse. The clones generated by Thrawn were based on approximately 20 templates. This meant that C'baoth needed to learn to control only those 20 minds to be in command of his own army.

At this time, the New Republic had discovered Thrawn's cloning operation, and a strike team infiltrated Mount Tantiss. The team included Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade, whom C'baoth saw as prospective students. When C'baoth realized he could not turn Luke to the dark side, he unleashed a terrible and twisted weapon: a clone of Luke Skywalker. C'baoth had ordered the clone grown from a sample of Skywalker's genetic material kept in the Mount Tantiss storehouse. Luke faced his mindless doppelganger, but it was Mara Jade who eventually killed Luuke Skywalker.

After the clone fell in combat, C'baoth let go of whatever tenuous grip he had on reality and self-control. His rage overtook him, charged by the dark side of the Force. A whirling tempest of anger and the Force, C'baoth dropped his guard, and Mara Jade struck him down.

Joruus C'baoth was a tall, lean and muscular man with unkempt gray hair and a long beard. He spoke in a powerful, baritone voice and had a surprisingly regal air to him despite his readily apparent madness.