In 18 BBY, the Illumine Kilhorde, the battle fleet of the Kilji Illumine nation, carried out conquests of enlightenment near the territory of the Unknown Regions Chiss Ascendancy nation to spread the Illumine's religion. The Kilhorde conquered several nations, planets, and peoples under the directive of the Grysk operative "Jixtus," who had allied himself with the Illumine's ruler, Generalirius Nakirre.
However, the Chiss Senior Captain Thrawn had retrieved data on the Kilhorde's weaknesses from the Kilji picket cruiser Hammer and shared it with the Paataatus Hiveborn nation. The Kilji conquests were taking place to the south and southeast of the Ascendancy, which positioned them north and northwest of the Hiveborn, which the nation deemed unacceptable. As a result, a Paataatus attack fleet destroyed the Kilji fleet.
The Illumine Kilhorde attacked several small nations while the Ascendancy's families (emblems pictured) fought each other.
The Kilji Illumine, the nation of the Unknown Regions Kilji species, sought to enlighten the peoples of the universe to the Kilji religion, the Kilji way of order and enlightenment. To achieve this, the Illumine tasked its battle fleet, the Illumine Kilhorde, with visiting the worlds of the Unknown Regions and showing them the Kilji religion to spread the Kilji enlightenment. In 18 BBY, Generalirius Nakirre, the Illumine's ruler, allied himself with the coordinator of the Grysk species, an operative known as "Jixtus," who promised to teach the Illumine the concept of conquest and guide a series of conquests of enlightenment in the Unknown Regions. However, the Chiss Senior Captain Mitth'raw'nuruodo, core name "Thrawn," boarded the Kilji picket cruiser Hammer while in the Unknown Regions' "Sunrise" system and stole a Kilji data rectangle containing data on the Kilhorde's weaknesses in design and combat doctrine, sharing the data with the Paataatus Hiveborn nation.
In exchange, Nakirre allowed the Grysk to travel aboard the Kilji war cruiser Whetstone, the generalirius's flagship, while the pair instigated a civil war in the Chiss Ascendancy nation. While the Ascendancy's families fought each other, the Grysks sent the Kilhorde to the south and southeast of the Ascendancy. They tasked the battle fleet with conquering several small nations consisting of several worlds, with the aim of preventing any Chiss refugees from fleeing to the targeted nations in the process.
The battle fleet attacked after the Grysks gave the Kilhorde permission to move against the nations to the south and southeast of the Ascendancy. The worlds and nations targeted by the Illumine's fleet were poor and desperate and willing to accept the Kiljis' enlightenment in return for peace and comfort, and, as a result, the Kilhorde was able to conquer them. The Kilji fleet's field commanders gave Nakirre details of their victories and mapped out the progress of the conquests in glowing reports of victory.
As the Kilji conquests took place east and southeast of the Ascendancy, they were positioned north and northwest of the Hiveborn's territory. The Paataatus deemed the military force's operations near their borders unacceptable, and they sent a multipronged Paataatus attack fleet to destroy it as a favor to Thrawn, who had liberated the Paataatus from the control of the Nikardun Destiny hegemony. The attack fleet attacked the Kilji fleet, obliterating it and liberating the worlds and peoples it had conquered.
Generalirius Nakirre feared that his generals had extended their conquests to Colonial Station Chaf.
After the destruction of the Kilhorde, Nakirre did not receive any reports from his field commanders, prompting him to speculate that his generals had "foolishly" extended their conquests to Colonial Station Chaf, a Chiss world. He feared that that was the reason for his commanders' silence, as the conquest of Colonial Station Chaf would have disrupted the operation of the long-range triad transmitter there, which was the only link between the generalirius and his forces.
Shortly after, the Whetstone traveled to the Sunrise system, where it encountered a fleet of Chiss warships under Thrawn's command. The senior captain told Nakirre that the Illumine's fleet had been destroyed by the Hiveborn, prompting the generalirius to snap at Jixtus, telling the Grysk that he had failed to provide adequate support for the conquests of enlightenment before the Grysk mortally shot him, as the Kilhorde's destruction rendered the generalirius useless to Jixtus.
The conquests of enlightenment were mentioned in the 2021 novel Thrawn Ascendancy: Lesser Evil, the final volume of Timothy Zahn's Star Wars: The Ascendancy Trilogy.