Star Wars is full of cool bullshit which is , in many ways , why we love such an absurd behemoth in the first berth . Space genius withlaser brand ? Extremely bullshit , and very cool ( some of the time ) . chargeman shooting iron ? Theygo church bench church bench , what ’s not to love . Starfighters ? They go pew pew andfly in space , what ’s not to have a go at it ! ? Anyway , screw all of them . The coolest Star Wars bullshit is xenolinguistics .
Specifically , Chiss xenolinguistics . While readers of io9 lie with I ’m more than unforced to discuss Star Wars nonsense at the bead of a hat , this special indulgence was brought about by Del Rey ’s recent teaser for itsnext Star Wars novel , Thrawn Ascendancy : Chaos Rising — the first in a new trilogy from legendary Star Wars author Timothy Zahn . Unlikehis recent booksabout the steely skipper tactician , the Ascendancy trilogy is not about Thrawn ’s time in the Empire , but the time he still lived with his people , the Chiss , in the Unknown Regions . Which entail the cast inclination for the book of account … requires some explanation :
When the#ThrawnAscendancytrilogy begins , you ’ll be going beyond the galaxy far , far away … . into a new reality of stories . Take a feeling at the Dramatis Personae along with helpful info about the Chiss Ascendancy , both included inside#StarWar#ChaosRising.pic.twitter.com / ul65J0ioDc
Grand Admiral Thrawn, presumably thinking about just how to explain the many layers of his name to these dumb Imperials.Screenshot: Lucasfilm
— Star Wars Books ( @StarWarsByRHW)August 5 , 2020
We know Thrawn as Thrawn ( his “ Core name ” ) simply because it ’s the name he and other Chiss use in less formal situations . He also habituate it when he eventuallymakes his wayinto the part of the Star Wars galaxy as we know it , because speaker system of Basic — space - English , basically — chance full Chiss names hard to pronounce . Thrawn ’s full name is Mitth’raw’nurodo , and aside from being incredibly Star Wars plainly just from look at it , it ’s also incredibly Star Wars because there ’s a reason it reckon like the auditory sensation you might make stepping on a Lego brick or something .
Chiss society — the titular Ascendancy , based on the planet Csilla — set up immense grandness on name because they not only mull over a being , but their family , and their theatrical role within that family . Csilla is govern by nine major clans , which organize the first fragment of a Chiss name . The other component are a mix of a personal name , as well as an indicant of that somebody ’s position in a house on an administrative and hierarchical stratum , and even whether or not they are part of that family by blood or by borrowing . Take our admirer Mitth’raw’nurodo — the “ Mitth ” is Thrawn ’s family , almost a cognomen to us . “ naked as a jaybird ” is his given name , and then “ nuruodo ” reflects his relationship to his family . In this case , Thrawn is a virtue adoptive of the Mitth family : he was n’t bear into it by blood , but is in the mental process of prove to join it for good by serving in the Chiss military .
Confusing ? Yes . Geeky ? As all hell . But also dead gripping ? emphatically .
https://gizmodo.com/i-loved-thrawn-so-much-i-am-looking-for-some-blue-face-1794233275
Much of these conventionsare a holdoverfrom what Zahn established about the Ascendancy in his pre - Disney Star Wars work . The current canon has re - acquired so much of what came before it in the retiring few years , and the author has decidedly flirt a gravid part in that with his yield to his most renowned character , making the passage for fans much smoother . For newcomer who metThrawn through Rebels , there ’s this whole weird young culture to explore , all these hierarchies and family systems . For fans who ’ve loved Thrawn sinceHeir to the Empire , it ’s like take back to an old friend and around three billion contraction ( suffice to say : you ’ll get used to it ) . But even then , it ’s still so cool to dive into all these way of life the Chiss ’ preponderance for category and societal condition is so deep imbued into the Ascendancy ’s culture that it forms the very definition of a being ’s name . It make it all the more interesting to see how individual Chiss choose to flex and shape those pattern to find ways to define themselves outside of it .
The Chiss are n’t the only Star Wars unknown we have this sort of geeky detail for , of course . Karen Traviss ’ Republic Commando series did so much for flesh out Mando’a , the language of the Mandalorians , for exercise , that westill see echoesof it in Star Wars fiction today . Thanks to the wonderful world of the Star Wars roleplaying games , we have information about naming cultures and conventions for more scope alien metal money than you could escape from a lekku at . ( talk of : did you bang in the old EU , Twi’leks had a on-key name that blends their personal and kindred name into a single word with its own meaning in Ryl , and one they use for non - Twi’leks that discriminate their two names into a unlike substance ? Cool ! )
https://gizmodo.com/every-new-and-returning-development-thrawn-brings-to-1794265990
Yet Zahn ’s work on the Chiss , and the elbow room they talk with and about each other , still remains some of Star Wars ’ most engrossing explorations of exotic polish — it makes them feel truly alien , to both the audience and the denizens of the galaxy far , far away . Their position as this outsider subspecies from beyond what our common Star Wars characters know of the galaxy is check only by how differently their finish is presented to us compared to other Star Wars existence . For better or big , most Star Wars aliens are defined as being different mostly because they do n’t await human ( or if they do , they ’re humanish , and one of a rainbow of skin tones ) .
The Chiss resist out because , while they are that on the surface — they’re the Blue Man Group of the unsung regions!—their tone and language , and the way that is presented to the being around them , is unlike anything else we typically see in the franchise . They have this civilisation that is their own , for purpose among themselves , and have to bend to the conventions we would typically require of a Star Wars airstream when outdoors of it . This young serial of novels , taking place primarily within the Chiss Ascendancy , is our first actual luck in the current canyon to explore what being inside that smart set was really like .
To be certain , we know mode , way more than we feasibly should about a batch of Star Wars backwash because , once again , this franchise is always some of the dorkiest stuff around thanks to itsscope and breadthover the preceding 40 - plus years . But even then , Zahn — and other writers who ’ve tackled the Chiss since his biz - changing origination of Thrawn all those years ago — created some of the most riveting facial expression of the erstwhile Expanded Universe . With Thrawn ’s return to canon in the last few years thanks to Rebels and these new novel , we ’re glad it ’s uphold to be explored once more .
https://gizmodo.com/the-best-star-wars-reads-of-the-disney-era-1842845728
For more , ensure you ’re following us on our Instagram @io9dotcom .
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