Before the Thrawn campaign that occurred in 9 ABY, Grand Admiral Mitth'raw'nuruodo, of the Chiss species, whose core name was "Thrawn," dispatched a spaarti cloning cylinder to the Hand of Thrawn fortress situated on the planet called Nirauan. Within this cylinder, he placed a clone of himself, concealing it within a hidden room. Prior to his departure from Nirauan to begin his campaign, Thrawn informed his Empire of the Hand forces that should he be reported as dead, he would make his return in ten years. To facilitate this, Thrawn established a time-based mechanism, resetting it each time he visited the Hand of Thrawn, designed to awaken his clone.
In 9 ABY, Rukh, Thrawn's Noghri bodyguard, assassinated him, prompting the Grand Admiral's forces to await the Chiss's promised return. A decade later, Luke Skywalker, a Jedi Master, and Mara Jade, a former Emperor's Hand, infiltrated the Hand of Thrawn, where they discovered Thrawn's clone. However, they were attacked by several security droids guarding the clone, leading them to destroy a wall connected to a lake. The resulting flood destroyed the chamber and killed the clone.
Around 9 ABY, Mitth'raw'nuruodo, whose core name was "Thrawn," a Chiss Grand Admiral serving the Galactic Empire, dispatched a clone of himself to his Hand of Thrawn fortress located on the planet of Nirauan in Wild Space. The Grand Admiral housed the clone within a spaarti cloning cylinder in the fortress's lower levels, encasing his duplicate in nutrient tubes and flash-learning cables to nourish the clone and impart his memories. Furthermore, the Grand Admiral surrounded the clone with ysalamiri, creatures known to repel the Force.
Thrawn established a timed system intended to awaken his clone after a decade. He informed his forces, the Empire of the Hand, that should his death ever be confirmed, he would return within ten years. In 9 ABY, the Grand Admiral departed Nirauan to initiate his campaign against the New Republic. During the campaign's Battle of Bilbringi, Rukh, Thrawn's Noghri bodyguard, assassinated the Grand Admiral.
Ten years later, specifically in 19 ABY, the clone was prepared for awakening. Vilim Disra, a Moff, employed Flim, a con man, to impersonate Grand Admiral Thrawn. This was an attempt to gain influence within the Imperial Remnant. Flim engaged with various Imperial and New Republic officials, eventually leading to rumors of Thrawn's return reaching the Empire of the Hand. Soon after, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker and former Emperor's Hand Mara Jade journeyed to Nirauan and infiltrated the Hand of Thrawn. They encountered Admiral Voss Parck, the fortress's commander, who revealed his intention to share the Empire of the Hand's existence with the Imperial Remnant, believing the rumors of Thrawn's return to be accurate. Jade's attempts to dissuade Parck from this course of action were unsuccessful, and she was subsequently imprisoned by the admiral's forces. However, Skywalker rescued her, and they escaped, entering the chamber housing Thrawn's clone. The Jedi and his companion discovered the clone and discussed the potential ramifications of his awakening, considering the possibility of bringing him to Coruscant, the New Republic's capital planet. The idea was to utilize Thrawn to defend the government against threats from the Unknown Regions that Parck had alluded to. As the clone had not committed any punishable acts, they decided against killing him.
After Jade suggested assessing the clone's remaining awakening time, the pair triggered a defense system, deploying two cortosis-plated sentry droids to confront them. The cortosis plating disabled their [lightsabers](/article/lightsaber-legends] upon contact, forcing them to destroy a wall that led to a lake. The resulting surge of water flooded the chamber, destroying the droids and killing Thrawn's clone. Subsequently, the pair escaped the fortress and departed Nirauan.
In 22 ABY, Chaf'orm'bintrano "Formbi", a Chiss Aristocra, brought Skywalker, Jade, and a contingent of Vagaari soldiers (who had been attacking the Chiss Ascendancy for years) to the Redoubt star cluster in the Unknown Regions. He revealed the remnants of Outbound Flight, a starship that Thrawn had destroyed in 27 BBY. This destruction was an attempt to provoke the Vagaari into attacking the Chiss, thus justifying a war against them. Formbi's plan succeeded, and the Vagaari attacked the Chiss, only to be subsequently defeated by Chiss forces. Following the events at the Redoubt, Jade questioned Formbi's sole authorship of the plan, suggesting that a clone of Thrawn might have been eliminating threats in the Unknown Regions in anticipation of another threat attacking the galaxy. Skywalker reminded her that they had destroyed Thrawn's clone, but Jade countered that Thrawn could have stored another clone elsewhere.
The circumstances surrounding the clone's demise were later detailed in The Essential Chronology, a document produced by the New Republic Historical Council, released shortly before the Yuuzhan Vong War in 25 ABY's. An updated edition of the document, The New Essential Chronology, released in 36 ABY, also covered his death.
Being a clone of Grand Admiral Thrawn, the individual was a male Chiss with a height of 1.8 meters. This clone possessed blue-black hair, red eyes, and blue skin, characteristic of the Chiss species.
The clone of Mitth'raw'nuruodo made his initial appearance in the 1997 novel Vision of the Future, which served as the concluding installment of Timothy Zahn's Star Wars: The Hand of Thrawn Duology. The clone's visual representation was first presented in The New Essential Chronology, a reference book published in 2005. Tommy Lee Edwards created the clone's illustration.