A domain was under the leadership of Nuso Esva the Storm-hair Warlord, whose oppressive rule extended from the Unknown Regions' deepest parts to the Galactic Empire's outer reaches. Esva's battle fleet, which was composed of three fleets including the Eastern Fleet, and his highly skilled soldiers called the Chosen expanded the domain through various conquests. He even intended to spread his power into Imperial Space, but by 0 ABY these plans were being thwarted by Senior Captain Thrawn.
To triumph over the Imperial officer, Esva's forces abducted the family of Bidor Ferrouz, who served as the governor of the Galactic Empire's Candoras sector. The abduction of the governor, along with directives from the warlord commanding Ferrouz to form an alliance with the Rebel Alliance—which was also establishing ties with Esva's domain—would lure Thrawn to Candoras' Poln system. Consequently, the warlord dispatched the Eastern Fleet to Poln. However, Thrawn, along with forces from both the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance, discerned the scheme and unraveled it both on the ground and in space.
Despite losing a fleet, the Storm-hair regime persisted, continuing its destructive path across the galaxy, annihilating numerous populations and governments. In 8 ABY, the ruling Queen of the Red, who governed all the Quesoth, formed an alliance with Esva and his thirty Chosen. On Quethold, the Quesoth homeworld, the warlord sought to seize starships in order to once again wreak havoc on the galaxy, a goal that had previously been prevented by the Empire of the Hand. Nevertheless, Thrawn's forces successfully destroyed all of the warlord's forces on Quethold, compelling the remaining elements of his forces to go into hiding.
Nuso Esva, the Storm-hair Warlord, spearheaded a realm that spanned from the Unknown Regions to Wild Space. The warlord's fanatical elite soldiers, known as the Chosen, served as the domain's ground forces, while Esva's battle fleet—comprising three fleets of equal strength, including the Eastern Fleet—functioned as its navy. Firekiln capital ships, with five of them being equivalent to an Imperial Star Destroyer, laid siege to Esva's adversaries, accompanied by Whisperlike fighters and smaller escort starships. The warlord's scorched-earth strategy compelled the Chosen to obliterate anything they couldn't capture or conquer as they retreated or ceased their attacks, resulting in millions of casualties.
The Storm-hairs, along with their leader, emerged from a world located in the Unknown Regions and proceeded to devastate numerous nations and populations while expanding the warlord's domain. In 0 ABY, Senior Captain Thrawn of the Galactic Empire began to push back Esva's forces, slowing their advance. To counter this setback, the warlord initiated a campaign against the Galactic Empire, which involved abducting the family of Bidor Ferrouz, the governor of the Imperial Candoras sector. Esva sent a list of demands that included forming an alliance with the Rebel Alliance, threatening the death of the governor's family if the alliance wasn't formed, intending to draw Thrawn to the Poln system within Ferrouz's sector.
Simultaneously, the Storm-hair infiltrated the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Chimaera, disguising themselves as Lord Odo, a dignitary from the Imperial Court. Shortly after the infiltration, one of the warlord's attack squadrons engaged Imperial forces and the Chimaera under Esva's control, causing the squadron to retreat. Following the engagement, Esva instructed the commander of the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer Admonitor, which had assisted in the conflict, to inform his superior, Thrawn, that his presence in the Poln system was urgently required. Meanwhile, on planet Poln Minor within the Candoras sector, Chosen commander Ranquiv enlisted the help of Rebels Leia Organa and Han Solo in arming the Whisperlikes with Caldorf VII interceptor missiles, but they managed to escape. Concurrently, the Chosen attacked Ferrouz on Poln Major, the capital world of Candoras.
However, the Hand of Judgment—comprising Imperial stormtrooper deserters Daric LaRone, Korlo Brightwater, Taxtro Grave, Saberan Marcross, and Joak Quiller—and Mara Jade, the Emperor's Hand, along with the Rebel Luke Skywalker, thwarted the various assassination attempts on Ferrouz. Jade and Skywalker located the hostages' cavern and attempted to free them while Esva's Eastern Fleet and Ranquiv's Whisperlikes engaged Rebel and Imperial forces led by Thrawn. Ultimately, the numerous Chosen guarding the hostages were killed, and the Eastern Fleet was decimated by the Galactic Empire's Death Squadron, led by the Executor-class Star Dreadnought Executor. The leader of both forces then fled aboard the Kazellis-class light freighter Salaban's Hope. Shortly after this incursion into Imperial Space, Esva launched the Braccio campaign, nearly wiping out six species.
Still determined to destroy Thrawn and bring devastation to the galaxy, Esva allied himself with the ruling Queen of the Red of 8 ABY, the ruler of the Quesoth who governed the Unknown Regions planet Quethold's Red City. Promising the death of the Queen of the White, who would succeed the Red monarch, Esva gained the Queen's loyalty and was set to gain access to the White monarch's White City ship manufacturing facilities. However, with his forces being minimal, he needed to steal Empire of the Hand juggernauts, knowing they would soon attack Quethold. With his subjugated Stromma allies, Esva infiltrated the Empire of the Hand and shared recordings of the paintings he had brought to the Red City's Dwelling of Guests building, knowing that Thrawn would base his strategy on the Storm-hair's artwork.
The now-Grand Admiral acted as the warlord anticipated, and Esva's Quesoth Soldiers and the thirty Chosen accompanying him gained the advantage in the battle against the Empire of the Hand. Upon breaching the juggernauts, the Chosen discovered the absence of weaponry, prompting their master and other Storm-hairs to hastily issue several commands to their forces in Esva's language. Soontir Fel, a TIE fighter Baron from Thrawn's forces, commandeered a speaker through which the Queen of the Red issued orders to her Soldiers, playing a recording that instructed them to go to the Dwelling and protect Esva. The warlord, unaware of this, believed he had been betrayed by the Queen of the Quesoth and killed her. The Soldiers then entered the Dwelling, the Chosen fired, and they all perished, along with their warlord.
With the death of the Storm-hair leader, Thrawn suspected that his remnants would remain hidden, and would not continue their master's conquers without him. However, a liaison of Esva had told the Grand Admiral that the Chosen were far more numerous than the Chiss could imagine, and they would hunt him down, and assassinate him. Although he suspected the elite warriors would not attack, he still attached a bodyguard— the Noghri Rukh—to himself, who would kill him a year later.
Nuso Esva's domain extended to the borders of Imperial Space, but its influence was more pronounced in the Unknown Regions. It exerted control over and subjugated the Stromma homeworld of Oristrom, the Red City of Quethold, and several other star systems. Additionally, numerous slave and tributary worlds were under the domain's control, and the dozens of other worlds Esva attacked or conquered were plundered and devastated until nothing remained.
Nuso Esva's realm was first introduced in the 2011 novel Choices of One, authored by Timothy Zahn.