Chosen (Nuso Esva)

Fanatical members of the Storm-hair species, the elite warriors of the Chosen followed their commander, Storm-hair Warlord Nuso Esva with fanatical zeal. Armed with blasters and sniper rifles, the Chosen were known for their devastating attacks in the name of Esva and his realm, which if ended in a retreat, prompted the Storm-hairs to destroy everything they could not capture or conquer as they fell back. Several Chosen were equipped with armor. Scouts of the Chosen wore corpses to protect themselves while sharing the location of their enemies.

Along with their master, the Chosen emerged from an unidentified world in the Unknown Regions and began their lethal rampage across the galaxy's Unknown Regions and Wild Space. By 0 ABY, the Chosen and Esva came into conflict with the Empire of the Hand, the shadow empire of Senior Captain Mitth'raw'nuruodo, core name "Thrawn," of the Galactic Empire.

To defeat Thrawn and begin invading the Galactic Empire, Esva and his commanders devised an operation that would take place in the Imperial Candoras sector's Poln system. The Chosen would kidnap the family of Candoras' governor, Bidor Ferrouz, and their master would command the governor to ally himself with the Rebel Alliance, which would draw the senior captain to the system. In 0 ABY, the Chosen kidnapped Ferrouz's and daughter and Esva sent him a note listing his demands, including his alliance with the Rebellion, which included giving them a base on the Poln system's planet of Poln Minor. If his demands were not satisfied, the warlord's elite warriors would kill the governor's family where they were holding them, a cave underneath Candoras' capital planet of Poln Major's surface. Additionally, Esva himself infiltrated the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Chimaera, aboard which he would travel to the Unknown Regions and bring Thrawn's Task Force Admonitor to Poln, where the Storm-hair's Eastern Fleet would destroy it. Additionally, Chosen leader Ranquiv and his Storm-hairs began arming Whisperlike fighters that would assist in Thrawn's destruction.

With traitorous Imperial Major Pakrie's insight, the Chosen learnt of most entrances and safe rooms in Ferrouz's in Poln Major's Whitestone City, which they could infiltrate to kill Ferrouz at any point. On Poln Minor, the Rebels Leia Organa and Han Solo were offered a job to mount Caldorf missiles on the Whisperlikes, which the pair accepted. Several Chosen and Ranquiv accompanied a group of nearly thirty workers to the cavern where the Storm-hairs were keeping their fighters. While the Rebels worked, Ranquiv, the thug known as Spikes and at least two Chosen discussed their coming attacks on Ferrouz. To the Chosen commander's anger, Solo and Organa stole a Whisperlike—which they lost before fleeing in a speederbus—although Ranquiv and his Chosen bodyguards attempted to prevent it.

Shortly after Esva's ally, the Rebel Vestin Axlon, and Emperor's Hand Mara Jade met with Ferrouz in his , the Storm-hair warriors and their thug allies attacked, blowing up the office's area and launching a ferocious siege of blastefire. While Esva's agents attempted to kill Ferrouz, Jade and Axlon were rescued by Daric LaRone and Saberan Marcross, Imperial stormtroopers part of the Hand of Judgment group. The group—excluding Jade, who killed two teams of Chosen in the palace's guard foyer—was able to fall back to a safe are of the palace grounds, whose basement led them to the Whistling Wind tapcafe's. Not much later, the Chosen discovered their targets' location, and attacked to no avail, as the Hand of Judgment stormtroopers were able to repel the Storm-hairs' attack.

Skywalker soon infiltrated the cavern where Ferrouz's family was being held hostage by hiding in Stelikag's landspeeder trunk. Jade did as well, watching several armed Chosen patrolling the area following a random guard pattern. Moments afterward, Ferrouz shared his location with Pakrie so that many of the Chosen and thugs surrounding his family would leave and therefore allow the Emperor's Hand to have a better chance at defeating the remaining forces, and nearly twenty humans and Storm-hairs left to attack the Hand of Judgment. Using a Chosen's corpse, Jade set off a catwalk trap to distract the guards while she crawled to the governor's family's cell. Meanwhile, Skywalker alarmed a guard, prompting two of the thug's companion to rush to kill the hostages; however, although the Chosen tried to prevent it, Jade and the Rebel were able to repel the Storm-hair attack, saving the hostages.

However, the Chosen did not give up on their attack on Ferrouz in the tapcafe, instead mounting an E-Web heavy repeating blaster. The Troukree refugees that had allied themselves with the stormtroopers then intervened, sacrificing the life of one of of their own to destroy the E-web. A third attack came, but was repelled easily by Hand of Judgment sharpshooter Taxtro Grave. Soon after, Ranquiv's Whisperlikes attempted to intervene in the battle over Poln Major, but were destroyed by a Golan I space station, the Imperial Death Squadron, and Thrawn's forces, as was Esva's fleet, whose leader fled.

In 8 ABY, Esva and thirty Chosen traveled to the Unknown Regions planet known as Quethold. Promising its ruler, the ruling Queen of the Red of the Quesoth, eternal dominion over Quethold by killing the monarch that would succeed her, the Queen of the White, Esva earned the Queen's loyalty and trust. With that, the Storm-hair warriors prepared for the upcoming attack carried out by now-Grand Admiral Thrawn's forces, setting up the Quesoth's primitive cannons across Quethold's Red City and employing umbrella shields to protect their forces as well as the City. Aboard Thrawn's Admonitor, Stromma Council Liaison Nyama, a traitorous member of the Empire of the Hand, did the Queen's bidding, and suggested that a Quesoth that opposed Esva could record his artwork in the Red City's Dwelling of Guests building.

A member of the Quesoth Midli caste and the Queen of the Red's own bowlcarrier, Trevik, did so. Unbeknownst to him, however, the Storm-hair warlord had made that happen by ordering the Queen to command a Circling, an advisor and breeder of hers, to task Trevik with recording the artwork that his brother, Jirvin, would share with Thrawn. By sharing his chosen paintings with the Chiss, the Grand Admiral would devise his strategy according to the pieces, which would allow Esva and his people to gain the upper hand.

The day after, Thrawn's stormtrooper forces attacked, with the three thousand Quesoth Soldiers assisting the Chosen in capturing the Imperial juggernauts that they would use to infiltrate the Queen of the White's White City. The Soldiers fought with primitive weaponry such as maces while the Storm-hairs fired blaster pistols, but were ultimately able to breach the juggernauts. Meanwhile, Thrawn's forces commandeered a loudspeaker that was broadcasting the Queen of the Red's orders in Quesoth Soldier Speak to her Soldiers, commanding them to protect Esva in the Dwelling of Guests. The warlord thought they were coming to take his life, and killed the Quesoth ruler and tasked Trevik with delivering a message to Thrawn: while his death had come, Thrawn's would come soon too, as the remaining Chosen were far more numerous than the Grand Admiral imagined, and they would hunt him down. Esva was then killed by stormtroopers, as were the remaining Chosen.

Although Thrawn believed the message the Quesoth bowlcarrier had delivered to be incorrect, he still assured a bodyguard— the Noghri Rukh— accompanied him at all times while he returned to the now-fragmented Empire to rebuild it. While the Noghri protected him from the Chosen and other threats, he proved to be his cause of death, killing the Chiss in 9 ABY.

Warlord Nuso Esva led the entirety of the Chosen while Ranquiv led the squadron sent to Poln Minor. A Chosen announced the third attack on the Hand of Judgment, while another pledged his life to the Queen of the Red.

The Chosen first appeared in Timothy Zahn's 2011 novel Choices of One.

• The Essential Reader's Companion