Chosen (Nuso Esva)

The Chosen, elite warriors of the Storm-hair species, were known for their unwavering devotion to their commander, the Storm-hair Warlord Nuso Esva. Equipped with blasters and sniper rifles, they were notorious for launching devastating assaults in the name of Esva and his domain. In the event of a retreat, the Storm-hairs were known to destroy everything they could not seize or conquer as they withdrew. Some Chosen wore armor. Scouts among the Chosen would use corpses as protection while simultaneously relaying enemy positions.

The Chosen, along with their master, emerged from an unidentified world situated within the Unknown Regions, embarking on a deadly rampage throughout the galaxy's Unknown Regions and Wild Space. By 0 ABY, the Chosen and Esva found themselves in conflict with the Empire of the Hand, the clandestine empire of Senior Captain Mitth'raw'nuruodo, whose core name was "Thrawn," of the Galactic Empire.

To achieve victory over Thrawn and initiate an invasion of the Galactic Empire, Esva and his commanders devised an operation to be executed in the Imperial Candoras sector's Poln system. The Chosen were tasked with abducting the family of Bidor Ferrouz, the governor of Candoras. Their master would then compel the governor to forge an alliance with the Rebel Alliance, thereby drawing the senior captain to the system. In 0 ABY, the Chosen kidnapped Ferrouz's wife and daughter, and Esva delivered a message outlining his demands, which included an alliance with the Rebellion and the establishment of a base on Poln Minor, a planet within the Poln system. Failure to comply would result in the execution of the governor's family in their holding location: a cave beneath the surface of Poln Major, Candoras' capital planet. Furthermore, Esva himself infiltrated the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Chimaera, intending to travel to the Unknown Regions and lure Thrawn's Task Force Admonitor to Poln, where the Storm-hair's Eastern Fleet would annihilate it. Additionally, Ranquiv, the leader of the Chosen, and his Storm-hairs began arming Whisperlike fighters to aid in Thrawn's destruction.

With the assistance of Pakrie, a traitorous Imperial Major, the Chosen gained knowledge of most entrances and safe rooms within Ferrouz's palace in Whitestone City, Poln Major, enabling them to infiltrate and assassinate Ferrouz at any moment. On Poln Minor, Leia Organa and Han Solo, Rebel operatives, were offered a job to equip Caldorf missiles on the Whisperlikes, an offer they accepted. Ranquiv and several Chosen accompanied a group of approximately thirty workers to the cavern where the Storm-hairs were storing their fighters. As the Rebels worked, Ranquiv, a thug known as Spikes, and at least two Chosen discussed their impending attacks on Ferrouz. To the Chosen commander's dismay, Solo and Organa stole a Whisperlike—which they subsequently lost before escaping in a speederbus—despite Ranquiv and his Chosen bodyguards' attempts to stop them.

Shortly after Vestin Axlon, Esva's Rebel ally, and Mara Jade, an Emperor's Hand, met with Ferrouz in his office, the Storm-hair warriors and their thug allies launched an attack, detonating the office area and initiating a fierce siege of blastefire. While Esva's agents attempted to assassinate Ferrouz, Jade and Axlon were rescued by Daric LaRone and Saberan Marcross, Imperial stormtroopers belonging to the Hand of Judgment unit. The group—excluding Jade, who eliminated two teams of Chosen in the palace's guard foyer—managed to retreat to a secure area within the palace grounds, whose basement led them to the Whistling Wind tapcafe's. Shortly thereafter, the Chosen discovered their targets' location and launched an attack, but to no avail, as the Hand of Judgment stormtroopers successfully repelled the Storm-hairs' assault.

Skywalker soon infiltrated the cavern where Ferrouz's family was being held hostage by hiding in Stelikag's landspeeder trunk. Jade followed suit, observing several armed Chosen patrolling the area according to a random guard pattern. Moments later, Ferrouz shared his location with Pakrie, prompting many of the Chosen and thugs surrounding his family to depart, thus increasing the Emperor's Hand's chances of defeating the remaining forces. Nearly twenty humans and Storm-hairs left to attack the Hand of Judgment. Using a Chosen's corpse, Jade triggered a catwalk trap to distract the guards while she crawled toward the governor's family's cell. Meanwhile, Skywalker alerted a guard, prompting two of the thug's companions to rush to kill the hostages; however, despite the Chosen's attempts to prevent it, Jade and the Rebel managed to repel the Storm-hair attack, saving the hostages.

However, the Chosen persisted in their attack on Ferrouz in the tapcafe, mounting an E-Web heavy repeating blaster. The Troukree refugees who had allied themselves with the stormtroopers then intervened, sacrificing one of their own to destroy the E-web. A third attack followed, but was easily repelled by Taxtro Grave, a sharpshooter from the Hand of Judgment. 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. Esva's fleet suffered the same fate, and its leader fled.

In 8 ABY, Esva and thirty Chosen journeyed to Quethold, a planet in the Unknown Regions. Promising the Queen of the Red, the ruling monarch of the Quesoth, eternal dominion over Quethold by eliminating the monarch who would succeed her, the Queen of the White, Esva secured the Queen's loyalty and trust. With this alliance, the Storm-hair warriors prepared for the impending attack by Grand Admiral Thrawn's forces, positioning the Quesoth's primitive cannons throughout Quethold's Red City and deploying umbrella shields to protect their forces and the City. Aboard Thrawn's Admonitor, Nyama, a Stromma Council Liaison and a traitorous member of the Empire of the Hand, acted on the Queen's behalf, suggesting that a Quesoth who opposed Esva could record his artwork in the Dwelling of Guests building in the Red City.

Trevik, a member of the Quesoth Midli caste and the Queen of the Red's own bowlcarrier, complied. Unbeknownst to him, however, the Storm-hair warlord had orchestrated this by ordering the Queen to task a Circling, an advisor and breeder of hers, with instructing Trevik to record 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 based on the pieces, allowing Esva and his forces to gain the upper hand.

The day after, Thrawn's stormtrooper forces attacked, with three thousand Quesoth Soldiers assisting the Chosen in capturing the Imperial juggernauts that they would use to infiltrate the White City, the Queen of the White's domain. The Soldiers fought with primitive weapons such as maces, while the Storm-hairs fired blaster pistols, ultimately managing 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, believing they were coming to kill him, murdered the Quesoth ruler and tasked Trevik with delivering a message to Thrawn: while his death had arrived, Thrawn's would soon follow, 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 delivered by the Quesoth bowlcarrier to be inaccurate, he still ensured that a bodyguard—Rukh, a Noghri— accompanied him at all times as he returned to the now-fragmented Empire to rebuild it. While the Noghri protected him from the Chosen and other threats, he ultimately became the cause of his death, killing the Chiss in 9 ABY.

Warlord Nuso Esva commanded the entire Chosen, while Ranquiv led the squadron dispatched to Poln Minor. An unidentified Chosen announced the third attack on the Hand of Judgment, while another pledged his life to the Queen of the Red.

The Chosen made their debut in Choices of One, a 2011 novel by Timothy Zahn.