The concept of family hostages was a fake system created by Senior Captain Mitth'raw'nuruodo in an attempt to make General Yiv believe that he did not know everything about the Chiss. Caregiver Mitth'ali'astov was tasked with the role. The fictitious premise of a Chiss family hostage was that, in conflicts between one Chiss family and another, each family might take a member of the other family hostage, keeping them as little more than a slave. The captor would bring the hostage with them to discourage attacks by the feuding family, as attacks would easily kill their own family member (the hostage).
Under the fake system, the family hostages were to wear thick, ridged makeup, that needed to be kept in pristine condition. If hostilities were to break out between Chiss families, the hostages between those families were to be immediately killed. Thalias disliked the disguise because of what it represented. Family hostages were required to wear heavy makeup that was coarse and rough everywhere on their faces, in order to make their subordinate status immediately visually apparent. The makeup Thalias wore weighed around a third of a kilogram.
Prior to the battle over Primea, using Thalias and sky-walker Che'ri, the ploy was again used so that Yiv would capture Chiss citizens, giving the Ascendancy a premise to attack the Nikardun Destiny. During the battle, they used tava mist hidden behind the makeup against Yiv and his bridge crew.