The Grysk Hegemony was a hegemonic nation of the Grysk warlike species located inside the Unknown Regions of the galaxy, described as generally nomadic, and were thought of as semi-legendary, even among the peoples of the Unknown Regions. The Grysk had "client species," such as the Agbui, and had the ability to bend the minds of their subject species to their will, making the subjects willing to serve and die for their overlords. As such, it only took a few Grysks to turn whole planets to their will. During the reign of the Galactic Empire, the Grysk Hegemony began to make advancements into Imperial Outer Rim territories.
The Grysk Hegemony was an empire established and controlled by the Grysks. Located in the Unknown Regions of the galaxy, their empire established the Grysk military and fought against the Chiss Ascendancy and other groups and species, waging a series of conquests throughout the region. At times, the Chiss Ascendancy only observed battles, instead of participating in them. In the aftermath, survivors of the conquests created art pieces in memorial, while Grysk warriors degraded the right side of their helmets and armor.
When the Clone Wars erupted in the wider-known parts of the galaxy between the Galactic Republic and Confederacy of Independent Systems, the Grysk Hegemony began and conducted surveillance on both the galactic government and the secessionists in order to study them. At the same time, the Grysks were also working to overthrow the Chiss Ascendancy of the Unknown Regions. Setting up General Yiv and his Nikardun Destiny as his puppets, the Grysk "Jixtus" sat back as Yiv moved against the Chiss in the Nikardun conquests.
Hoping to secure control over the Confederacy, the Hegemony supplied Confederate Head of State Count Dooku with information on cortosis, an element that provided an effective defense against blasters and lightsabers. The Confederacy then established a factory on Mokivj and produced B2-series super battle droids with cortosis armor, only for the factory to also produce clone trooper armor at the direction of the Sith Lord Darth Sidious for the coming Order 66. The Chiss Mitth'raw'nuruodo "Thrawn" would later reason the Grysks intended to hold back on fully providing Dooku with the power of cortosis until he served their cause, only for the production of clone armor to surprise the Grysks; with that surprise and then reconsidering their plans, they were convinced to hold back on moving into the galaxy.
In the end, the cortosis factory was shut down by the combined efforts of Thrawn, at that time a Senior Captain in the Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet who was investigating the threat the Nikardun posed to his people, and two Republic operatives, Jedi General Anakin Skywalker and Senator Padmé Amidala. In part thanks to a Separatist deflector shield generator he secured during his mission with Skywalker and Amidala, Thrawn helped put down Yiv's conquests in the battle over Primea. All the same, he had deduced the general was serving an unseen master or that another force would be emerge after the Nikardun.
Jixtus moved to conquer the Chiss with a new plan. First, Jixtu's Agbui clients led by Haplif attempted to cause a Chiss civil war, only for Thrawn and his allies to shut down the effort in 18 BBY Jixtus next moved with the aid of the Kilji Illumine, a theocractic government under Grysk control, in the Grysk plot to engineer a Chiss civil war. While Thrawn and his allies triumphed in the end, with Jixtus himself perishing in the Sunrise confrontation, he promised the Grysks would return. Recognizing the threat before his people and how they sat on the verge of civil war, although he assumed the Aristocra would settle its differences in the end, Thrawn engineered his own exile into the wider galaxy thanks to his actions at Sunrise to met with the newly arisen Galactic Empire, either to secure aid in the battle against the Grysk or weaken the Empire into a more appealing target.
While Thrawn was gone, the rumbling of civil war only continued; by 2 BBY, it was possible one Chiss faction was already under Grysk control. Meanwhile, Thrawn found himself with a better situation than he hoped: he was offered a chance to join the Imperial Military, resulting in him staying in Imperial space for years as he rose through the ranks alongside his new protégé, Eli N. Vanto. Thrawn would ultimately be awarded the military rank of Grand Admiral. Although Thrawn remained amongst the Empire, he sent Vanto to the Chiss to join its ranks.
Finally returning to the galaxy proper after halting their operations back during the Clone Wars, the Grysk embanked on an expedition to the Outer Rim, and started to colonized the moons surrounding the planet of Mokivj; this action led the Galactic Empire to push back the Grysk. In the aftermath of the campaign, Thrawn told the Sith Lord Darth Vader—the Sith identity of Anakin Skywalker—that he believed the Grysk were planning an imminent invasion of the known galaxy. He also realized it was possible the Chiss Ascendancy was already under the threat of Grysk influence, noting that a civil war could be brewing amongst his own people. Indeed, the Grysk had uncovered the secret to Chiss hyperspace navigation, the Sky-walker corps. Nonetheless forced to follow his promise to Galactic Emperor Sheev Palpatine by Vader, a promise which held he would put the Empire's interests above those of the Chiss so long as he served in the Imperial Military, Thrawn used his full Chiss name whilst talking to the Grysk force, intending to trick the Grysk into possibly attacking his own people before the Empire, as Thrawn believed that the Grysk would continue with their bias of attacking the nearest enemy first.
Soon the Grysk would reappear and begun to make advances into Imperial territory, committing multiple criminal acts against it as noted by Chiss Admiral Ar'alani. One such incident was at the wreckage of the Allanar N3 light freighter at, where in hiding was an armed Grysk warship laying in wait and stuck at the Empire. The Chiss soon entered the battle to draw away the Grysk warship's laser fire. When the Grysk retreated, the Empire had been able to capture two Grysk prisoners. Meanwhile, upon examining the conjoined Grysk warships, the Imperials detected the presence of several nitrogen cylinders that were left behind to destroy all evidence within the next four hours. However, the Empire was able to detach the Grysk ships from the triad poles before the nitrogen bombs could destroy the cylinders. But this did not prevent another attack by the Grysk, who soon sent two more Grysk warships, upon exiting hyperspace. The Chiss were waiting and turned their ship to face them, demanding the Grysk Hegemony to depart Imperial-control space. The Grysk commander mockingly asked if the Chiss are serving the Empire and said recent Grysk defeats, including the loss of two warships, were unimportant.
As the Grysk starfighters approach, the Chiss crew deployed their plasma spheres, which disabled their missiles and caused them to explode. The surviving starfighters returned to their warships to inform newer reinforcements about their enemy's defenses. After the defeat of the Grysk forces that entered Imperial space, Thrawn had another meeting with Palpatine where he again argued the Grysk were a threat to his people as well as the Empire, giving him the power to combat them as they were a threat to the regime he promised to serve. Contemplating Thrawn's claim, Palpatine privately decided the best way to defeat the Grysk would be to force Thrawn to betray the Chiss and bring the Ascendancy under his control.
The Grysk Hegemony was a hegemony, which is an authoritarian government similar to an empire.
The Grysk Hegemony maintained a military, which played a key-roles in the conquests within the Unknown Regions. It was later locked into a conflict against the Galactic Empire.
It was rumored that the forces attacked with overwhelming numbers. Grysk warriors made up for the military's ground troops, which they utilized lighting guns and pellet guns.
The Grysk Hegemony was an enemy of the Chiss Ascendancy, as well as other organizations and species. Despite this, the Hegemony had active alliances with other factions. The Hegemony also allied itself with the Confederacy of Independent Systems by supplying it with critical information in an attempt to weaken the Galactic Republic. When the Republic transitioned into the Galactic Empire, the Hegemony maintained previous hostile relations and was involved in a conflict with them, and also intruded on Imperial territory.
Because the Hegemony had been surveying the Empire, they were aware of Imperial-class Star Destroyers, the capabilities and limits of TIE starfighters, and other Imperial weaponry and technology. As such, they utilized that knowledge in combat against Imperial forces.
The Attendants served the Hegemony during the Imperial Era, where they trained other alien species in navigation so that Grysk starships were able to travel through the Unknown Regions.
The Grysk were a warrior based society, and while having the characteristics of being a settled and centralized peoples, they were also described as generally nomadic. This was due to the view of no real fixed home, in which said perceptions were born out of their unfamiliar technology and cultural customs.
The Hegemony used population control over the planets it ruled using a unique mental ability, achieved fully through a Grysk strike force learning about the targeted species and twisting their wills to a point where they would follow orders and further Grysks plans, even when the conquerors were not physically present. They succeeded to the point where the "client species," as the Chiss called them, would kill themselves with full knowledge that their masters would never even know if they had or had not. The Grysks interrogated a few members of the species to find out what mattered to them and their culture. They then used that against the whole of the species and continued to bend their will until all of their individualism is gone and then twisted them more into servants, meaning it only took several Grysks to rule over entire planets.
The Grysk Hegemony was located in the Unknown Regions of the galaxy, and although they maintained homeworlds and displayed characteristics of being a settled and centered government, they were described as nomadic with no fixed home due to perceptions born out of their unfamiliar technology and tactics during war. The location of the Hegemony's area of influence and control brought them into conflict with the Chiss Ascendancy and other groups and species, and during the Imperial Lothal campaign, had already begun intruding on the Galactic Empire's territory.
The Grysk Hegemony first appeared, although unnamed, in the 2018 canon novel by Timothy Zahn, Thrawn: Alliances. It was later identified in the sequel to the novel, Thrawn: Treason, also authored by Zahn and released in 2019.
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