By 19 BBY, the Chiss Expansionary Defense Force officer Thrawn pre-emptively raided a ground installation in the Unknown Regions that was manufacturing weapons in a lead-up to an attack against the Chiss Ascendancy. According to Ascendancy law, such a pre-emptive strike was illegal, and Thrawn's actions were judged to be in violation of all the Chiss believed regarding not attacking without direct, violent instigation by the enemy. Unbeknownst to most was that Thrawn had actually engineered the conflict so that he was exiled and could—with no affiliation to the Expansionary Defense Force— join the Galactic Empire.
The Ascendancy indeed exiled the officer, and sent him to an uninhabited planet, where Imperial Captain Voss Parck captured Thrawn and brought him before Emperor Palpatine, who accepted the Chiss into the Imperial Fleet.
The conflict was first mentioned in the biographical capsule written by Peter M. Schweighofer that accompanied Timothy Zahn's short story Mist Encounter in Star Wars Adventure Journal 7. Its role as an engineered downfall was explained in Vision of the Future, the final installment in Zahn's Star Wars: The Hand of Thrawn Duology.
The conflict was first mentioned in the biographical capsule written by Peter M. Schweighofer that accompanied Timothy Zahn's short story Mist Encounter in Star Wars Adventure Journal 7. Its role as an engineered downfall was explained in Vision of the Future, the final installment in Zahn's Star Wars: The Hand of Thrawn Duology.
- "The University of Sanbra Guide to Intelligent Life: The Chiss" — Star Wars Gamer 5
- The New Essential Guide to Alien Species
- The Unknown Regions