Nuso Esva

Nuso Esva, a male warlord with Storm-hair, along with his Storm-hair warriors, known as the Chosen, originated from an unidentified planet located in the Unknown Regions. With a large battle fleet comprised of three fleets of equal strength, including the Eastern Fleet, and the Chosen, Esva conquered several planets in the Unknown Regions and Wild Space, forming his realm. In 1 BBY, the Storm-hair warlord began to fight Mitth'raw'nuruodo, whose core name was "Thrawn," a Chiss Senior Captain serving the Galactic Empire. The senior captain sent several communiqués and treaties to the warlord that suggested an alliance and a bargain; however, the latter turned them down, forcing Thrawn to oppose Esva. The senior captain's forces were unable to defeat the Storm-hair's forces, and the Chiss asked Emperor Palpatine to give him six Star Destroyers that would allow him to deal a crushing blow to Esva; however, the emperor refused.

Under Esva's command, the Chosen journeyed to the Poln system in the Imperial Candoras sector, which included the planets Poln Major and Poln Minor. There, they abducted the family of Bidor Ferrouz, the Imperial governor of the sector, and presented him with a note from Esva. The note directed Ferrouz to provide a base and supplies to the Rebel Alliance, which opposed Palpatine's Empire, in an attempt to draw an Imperial presence and Thrawn to the Poln system. The Storm-hair also pledged to Vestin Axlon, a Rebel, that when his forces vanquished the Empire, avenging Axlon's homeworld, Alderaan, which the Empire had destroyed, Esva's battle fleet would join the Alliance and aid them in their war against the Empire. Axlon believed Esva's promise to be genuine, and he helped the Chosen in their efforts on Poln Major.

Esva's agents kidnapped the family of a Human known as "Sorro" and forced the Human to serve as Esva's pilot aboard the warlord's Kazellis-class light freighter Salaban's Hope to redeem his family. The light freighter rendezvoused with the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Chimaera, whose captain, Calo Drusan had verified Esva's credentials after the warlord promised him a victory over the Rebellion that would make Drusan an admiral. Once the Kazellis freighter dropped out of hyperspace near the Chimaera, six starships of Esva's realm attacked the Salaban's Hope. Esva, who assumed the pseudonym of Imperial Court dignitary "Lord Odo," instructed Drusan to pull the two endmost attackers toward the Chimaera with the Star Destroyer's tractor beams and destroy them. While Drusan did as the warlord instructed, the Salaban's Hope helped destroy the other marauders. After two of the attackers fled and the rest were destroyed by Esva and the Imperial vessel, the warlord's freighter was brought aboard the Chimaera. To conceal his alien identity, Esva donned a mask and clothing before leaving the Salaban's Hope. The Star Destroyer's third bridge officer, Commander Gilad Pellaeon, greeted the warlord before the Storm-hair was brought to his new quarters.

Shortly afterward, Esva requested new quarters closer to the Chimaera's bridge from which he could monitor the warship's every system. While Sorro had lunch, Pellaeon attempted to interrogate him but was stopped by Esva. The warlord requested Pellaeon's help to move his belongings to his new quarters. While on their way to the Storm-hair's new residence, the warlord told the commander that Sorro had made the wrong choices and lost his family in the process; he explained that that was the reason for the pilot's deep sadness, citing an excerpt of the Song of Salaban, an Arkanian legend. After the Chimaera's crew prepared his quarters, Esva made a brief visit to an unknown world where he and his commanders planned Thrawn's destruction. He also visited the Inner Rim planet Wroona, where he acquired thermal detonators and cylindrical equipment that he planned to use to sabotage the Chimaera. After returning to the Star Destroyer, the Storm-hair brought his equipment to his quarters.

After arriving on the bridge, Esva instructed Drusan to travel to the Unknown Regions, where the Chimaera would attack one of the Storm-hair warlord's attack squadrons. The Star Destroyer then arrived in the middle of a battle in the Teptixii system, between Esva's attack squadron and Thrawn's Task Force Admonitor, whose flagship was the Star Destroyer Admonitor. Esva instructed Drusan and Pellaeon to divide his attack squadron's Firekiln warships and their escorts by moving the Chimaera behind the squadron's formation, which would prompt its components to flee. As the Storm-hair force was attempting to capture Task Force Admonitor's two Strike-class medium cruisers and four Carrack-class light cruisers, Esva ordered Drusan to angle his Star Destroyer thirty degrees to portside and begin dividing the attack squadron, which then fled.

After his forces' retreat, Esva told Captain Voss Parck, Thrawn's second-in-command, that Thrawn was to travel to the Poln system as a response to a possible insurrection; however, the captain had received no communications regarding the insurrection and refused. Soon after, however, the Admonitor received a message from Imperial General Kauf Ularno of the Poln system invoking Directive Four-Seventeen, requesting all nearby forces of the Galactic Empire to assist the system after the Chosen attempted to murder Ferrouz. Ularno broadcast a message that established that Rebel involvement in the assassination attempt was suspected as suggested by Emperor's Hand Mara Jade, who knew that if no broadcast was made, Esva would be suspicious. Task Force Admonitor and the Chimaera then left for Poln.

Following Thrawn's task force and the Chimaera's arrival over Poln Major, Esva and Sorro organized a Mon Calamari ballet performance with a dozen MSE-9 droids in the Star Destroyer's main engine room. Pellaeon arrived while searching for Esva and demanded an explanation, which the Storm-hair provided. According to Esva, his Troukree spies, who were actually Thrawn's agents and not Esva's, had infiltrated the Chimaera. The warlord claimed the ballet and an Arakyd Mark Two seeker droid he hid in his clothing were locating the Troukree.

In reality, the seeker was just one of several droids traveling through the Chimaera's ventilation systems en route to the engine room. Pellaeon apologized for the interruption and left. With the seekers and his thermal detonators, Esva prepared to destroy the Chimaera's engines. Shortly after, on the bridge, Drusan told Pellaeon to find Esva, who was not present as expected. However, the commander was unable to locate the warlord. Esva killed Drusan while his Eastern Fleet arrived in the Poln system and prepared to destroy the Admonitor and the Chimaera, moving to prevent any ship from assisting the latter Star Destroyer. The Storm-hair then destroyed the engines of both ships.

Esva attempted to incapacitate the Chimaera's crew by spreading the nonfatal vertigon gas through the ventilation systems. He set the Chimaera on a collision course with a nearby Golan I space station and destroyed the Star Destroyer's helm station, preventing the vessel from moving. When Pellaeon arrived on the bridge, he learned of Esva's promise to Drusan from the dying captain and learned the warlord's true identity from Thrawn, who spoke with the commander over comm.

Sorro, who was wearing Esva's mask and clothing, rushed at Pellaeon on the bridge and was subsequently killed. Following this, Commander Thrawn and Esva engaged in a conversation via comm regarding the latter's sabotage of the Chimaera after the warlord left the Star Destroyer aboard his Kazellis freighter. The Storm-hair mocked Sorro and presented Thrawn with a difficult choice that would ruin his reputation and result in his destruction: the Chimaera was on a collision course with the Golan, and the Star Destroyer was unable to move. Task Force Admonitor was trapped with Poln Minor's gravity well, and the Firekilns of the Eastern Fleet were prepared to destroy any ship that attempted to assist the Chimaera. If Thrawn failed to choose between the Star Destroyer or the defense platform, both war machines and all aboard would die in a "fiery collision." However, if he chose the Chimaera, the Golan would be destroyed, damaging the Chiss's reputation.

The warlord was confident that Thrawn had been defeated; however, the senior captain's DeepWater-class light freighter Lost Reef used its tractor beams to move the Chimaera away from the Golan. Shortly after, a force of Whisperlike fighters—which had been armed with Caldorf VII interceptor missiles by Chosen commander Ranquiv on Poln Minor—attempted to destroy the Admonitor, but the fighters were destroyed by the Golan. As Esva boasted and explained in detail how he would destroy the Poln system, Thrawn focused on amplifying his transmission with the warlord, which reached the Quesoth homeworld of Quethold and the Stromma homeworld of Oristrom, both of which were located in the Unknown Regions and both of which housed two of the Storm-hair's allies.

Esva vowed to destroy the Poln system with his Firekilns, but the Chiss suggested that the system's inhabitants could become his allies. The Storm-hair dismissed the suggestion, revealing that his only allies were the Chosen and that everyone else was merely a tool. Esva then announced that his fleet was in position and that his nemesis's time was ended. Thrawn responded by summoning Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Vader's Death Squadron fleet, including the Super Star Destroyer Executor and several Imperial Star Destroyers. Aboard the Lost Reef, the freighter's pilot, Jorj Car'das, told Thrawn that he could destroy Esva's Kazellis and kill the warlord; however, the senior captain commanded him to focus on the main battle. Esva was caught off guard by Thrawn's reinforcements, which the warlord had not prepared for, and his Eastern Fleet was defeated by the Imperial forces while Esva fled aboard the Salaban's Hope.

After his campaign against Thrawn, Esva launched his Braccio campaign, which nearly destroyed six species. On Oristrom, the warlord's forces fought the Stromma, who had the upper hand in the battle until Esva assumed personal command of his forces. However, Thrawn, who had become a Grand Admiral, arrived and forced the Storm-hair's forces to retreat. Eight years later, in 8 ABY, the Grand Admiral forced Esva—whose battle fleet the Empire of the Hand reduced to remnants—and thirty of his most loyal Chosen warriors to retreat to Quethold.

The warlord formed an alliance with the Quesoth ruler, the Queen of the Red. He promised that if they captured Empire of the Hand juggernaut vehicles, he would siege Quethold's White City and assassinate the city's Queen of the White. Killing the latter queen would make the Queen of the Red's reign eternal. Esva's siege of the White City would give him access to the shipyards beneath the settlement, where he planned to build a new fleet of fighter aircraft to fight his enemies. The Queen of the Red granted the warlord and his warriors quarters in the Dwelling of Guests, a building in her Red City.

A month after his arrival on Quethold, in the Dwelling of Guests, Esva and his Quesoth ally discussed the destruction of Thrawn and his Admonitor, which was blockading Quethold after learning that the warlord was hiding on the planet. Aboard the Admonitor, Stromma Council Liaison Nyama, the Queen of the Red's servant and confidant, met with Thrawn and his top commanders. The Grand Admiral sought to study the artwork Esva had brought to Quethold and tasked Nyama with planting a holocamera on a member of the Red monarch's entourage. Unbeknownst to the Chiss, Esva had prepared for this, bringing paintings that would lead Thrawn to reach the wrong conclusions about the warlord's strategy to his quarters. The Queen of the Red's bowlcarrier Trevik, who carried a bowl of nectar for the ruler of the Quesoth, recorded Esva's art and Nyama shared the recordings with Thrawn, actions Esva predicted.

Knowing that Thrawn was going to attack the Red City, Esva had his Chosen set up defensive cannons and protected them and the Red Ciity with umbrella shields. Under the warlord's directive, the Queen of the Red arrayed her Quesoth Soldiers at the western edge of the Red City's Setting Sun Avenue, from which Thrawn decided to launch his attack based on his study of Esva's paintings. She also hid thousands of Soldiers in her city's homes, preparing an ambush on the Imperial forces. Once the Empire of the Hand's forces, which consisted of heavy juggernaut tanks, transports, and a squadron of stormtroopers were deployed, and a group of TIE fighters flew over the Red City, the Chosen's cannons fired at the newcomers at Esva's command. Meanwhile, the Chosen and the Quesoth attempted to commandeer the juggernauts.

It wasn't long before Esva's forces realized that these tanks were devoid of any weaponry, thus rendering them completely ineffective for the warlord's purposes. The Storm-hair then directed the Quesoth troops to proceed towards the Imperial transports and take control of them instead. However, the majority of the speakers responsible for relaying the Red Queen's directives to her Soldiers were destroyed by TIE fighters, with only a single speaker surviving the onslaught. Due to the destruction of the speakers, the Soldiers were unable to advance towards the transports. Consequently, Esva instructed the Red monarch to journey to the juggernauts and designate them as the new target for her troops. Nevertheless, the queen firmly declined to comply with this order.

The Imperials seized control of the remaining speaker and utilized it to command the Soldiers to encircle and safeguard Esva. As the Quesoth troops charged towards Esva, the warlord, growing suspicious of the Quesoth ally, questioned what orders she had issued, fearing she might be a traitor. The queen responded by asserting that she had not issued any commands whatsoever.

Esva retaliated by firing a weapon, eliminating the Queen of the Red and most of her entourage, but sparing Trevik. By assassinating the Quesoth ruler, Esva irrevocably sealed his own doom, as the Soldiers would undoubtedly seek vengeance for their queen by killing the Storm-hair. Fully aware that his demise was imminent, Esva entrusted Trevik with the crucial task of informing Thrawn that regardless of where he sought refuge, the Chosen would relentlessly pursue and eliminate him. After Trevik departed to carry out his mission, Esva met his end at the hands of the Quesoth, while the Imperial forces neutralized his Chosen. Following the conclusion of the battle, Thrawn's Admonitor made its way to the Chaos Triangle, where it would undertake the cleanup of what the Chiss referred to as Esva's "legacy."

Esva, being a Storm-hair, possessed hair that resembled the color of a dark storm cloud, along with shimmering, multicolored skin and a pair of multifaceted yellow eyes. When the Storm-hair quoted a passage from the Song of Salaban to Pellaeon, the commander surmised that Esva was an Arkanian, given that the warlord's height and mass fell within the Arkanian species' typical range. The Storm-hair's voice was characterized by its melodious quality. While operating under the alias of Lord Odo, Warlord Esva exhibited a calm demeanor and was regarded as competent by Pellaeon. He also proved to be a helpful presence aboard the Chimaera, offering tactical insights to Drusan and Parck during the engagement at Teptixii.

The warlord was known for his obstinacy and viewed only the Chosen as his true allies, treating those he exploited in his conquests as mere instruments to carry out his commands. Should the warlord deem these instruments as ineffective or broken, Esva would compel them to become useful once again. The Queen of the Red regarded the warlord as an equal, refraining from demanding a death-pledge from the Storm-hair, as was customary among the Quesoth. Esva firmly believed that a genuine queen did not passively accept the world as it was, but instead "grasped the world by the throat and squeezed her destiny from it." Prior to Esva's murder of the Quesoth ruler, the Queen of the Red remarked that Esva intended to seize the Imperial transports and use them to escape Quethold, a statement that the warlord dismissed as "foolish prattle." As the battle on Quethold neared its conclusion, Esva's anger intensified, and his voice barely maintained a semblance of civility while conversing with the Queen of the Red.

In his relentless pursuit of his objectives, Esva resorted to kidnapping children, corrupting Imperial officials, and threatening to obliterate entire planets. These extreme methods prompted the Hand of Judgment, a group of five Imperial stormtrooper deserters who had previously aided the Empire in rescuing Ferrouz's family, to join forces with Thrawn's Empire of the Hand. Their aim was to assist in transforming his Troukree agents into Imperial stormtroopers, thereby maximizing their potential in the battles against Esva.

The Troukree agent Vaantaar observed that Esva conveyed a "dark challenge" prior to his attacks and expressed his aversion to witnessing the warlord's legacy of destruction, which he had established following his forced retreat. Esva's conquests extended to over twenty species, all of whom suffered under his oppressive reign of "terror." The Chosen demonstrated unwavering loyalty to the warlord, who reciprocated their dedication, fighting with fanatical zeal and adhering to the Storm-hair's scorched-earth policy, destroying everything they could not carry with them when Thrawn compelled them to retreat. Esva harbored a resolute determination to eliminate Grand Admiral Thrawn, displaying both unwavering resolve and moments of profound melancholy in the moments preceding his demise.

While assuming the identity of Odo, Nuso Esva donned a metallic mask, a burgundy hooded robe, black gloves, and black boots. Prior to his escape to the Quesoth homeworld, Esva commanded three fleets that rivaled the Eastern Fleet in power. During the battle on Quethold, Esva carried a sheath that contained a weapon, which he ultimately used to assassinate the Queen of the Red. He aimed that same weapon at Trevik when he entrusted the bowlcarrier with delivering a message to Thrawn. Esva communicated in his native language through a communications device during the assault on the Red City.

Rebel General Carlist Rieekan harbored fears regarding Esva, as he believed the warlord possessed the capability to supplant the Empire with an empire of his own creation. Axlon considered Esva to be a military genius. Pellaeon held the opinion that Esva was a competent member of the Imperial Court during his time operating under the guise of Lord Odo. In addition to his own native tongue, Esva was also fluent in the Basic language. However, Esva lacked comprehension of the Quesoth Soldier Speak language.

Warlord Nuso Esva made his debut in Choices of One, a novel penned by Timothy Zahn and released on July 19, 2011. He was initially referenced in an excerpt from Choices of One that was published on June 7 of the same year.

During a Facebook chat held on September 28, 2011, the author verified that Esva's name was a coded representation of Moriarty, a character originating from Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. When each consonant of "Nuso Esva" is substituted with the consonant preceding it in the Latin alphabet, and each vowel is replaced with the preceding vowel in the Latin alphabet, including y, "Nuso Esva" transforms into "Moriarty."

In an interview conducted on February 27, 2022 with the Fandom Spotlite site, Zahn stated that Choices of One and Crisis of Faith were incompatible with the current Star Wars canon. He also added that Esva was "adequately defeated" when questioned about any potential plans to write further stories centered around the character.