This post is a Headcanon Meta. That means it is far from canon and it will never be canon. The main idea behind this post is why does it seem the SWTOR Chiss seem more outgoing and interact with other species, than the xenophobic type Chiss we meet with Thrawn’s timeline? Did something happen that made the Chiss become xenophobic and “close their borders” against threats to The Unknown Regions?

People do not just become xenophobic, it happens over time and is promulgated by fear of the unknown.

Thrawn himself seems fearless. Admiral Ar’alani is fearless. The younger Chiss may not be, but they do not rule the Ascendancy — yet.

There is this past the Chiss know, but never forgotten. This post is a speculation of this idea and may be a source of the Chiss fear and may be the reason they lose their Force powers, and for this fan-fiction is the reason why Thrawn reached out to the Empire.

The Chiss are genetically modified organisms created by the Celestials to specifically fight in military combat for them. The Chiss were created for their use before the use of humans and Arkanians and Yinchorri. There were designed to be more intelligent than droids. They were designed to maximize battleplans and survivability. In our story, the Chiss are crosses between different species including human, and were selectively bred to maximize their society’s function into high society. Any Chiss that fell outside the boundaries was euthanized or his or her lines were disposed.

Since, Chiss learned quickly, they tended to fall in line with their creators. But they also mimicked them and escaped to find freedom. They took all their people and ships and escaped with fleet during hibernation capsules and after thousands of years, they found an island from chaos.

Then SWTOR Chiss entered into the Sith Empire war and started small trading with a few species. But there were bouts of hundreds of years would go by never seeing Chiss. Then, one day, they would appear for specific reasons and once their reasons were fulfilled they would return into hiding.

Back in Chiss space there was in-fighting between the families. By the time MITTH’RAW’NURUODO was born, the concept of bloodline family ruling places had changed. Families had become living groups that served purposes — like House Nuruodo for military. Thrawn’s immediate family was Mitth and they were shipbuilders.

Our hypothesis is many Chiss families disliked the Mitth family — think big extended family — because Chiss were into eugenics to control for the presence of the Force and restrict it in only females. The Chiss scientists said that Chiss male users were incorrigible as Force users. Really, what we speculate is there is no difference between Chiss males or females, but genetic markers to suppress passing the Force to offspring were X-linked and required ploidy or 2 X chromosomes. The Chiss scientists could not add suppression genetic markers to the males successfully. What is worse, is the Mitth family practice natural reproduction, pregnancy and birth for all their offspring. It ruins Chiss eugenics of tight control. Wayward genetics worries Chiss society like invasive species wild seeds that destroy their people — but that was the xenophobia.

Thrawn and his compatriots discover that the xenophobia fears were epigenetic programs created by their creators. Then when the Chiss started their eugenics programs to control the Chiss Navigators, the fears were heightened through this epigenetic phenomena. Thrawn and a few others, were “immune” because they were born, naturally.

Now, here’s the hard part to explain:

Let’s say there are a group of genes or gene families that code for Force use and they are complex traits or qualitative traits. No ONE gene or single gene codes or controls the ability to use the Force, but combinations of the at least 1000 genes or gene families, causes the increases possibility for children to use the Force.

To ferret that out, cross breeding lines to increase the likelihood to have the Force, its intensity and its strength, the Chiss use eugenics to maximize the combinations of genes needed, then add suppression markers. But they expanded this eugenics to the entire society. If one does that too many generations or times, genetic integrity or collapse can occur, which leads to an extinction event — the entire Chiss culture is going extinct — between 20 – 200 generations.

Thrawn learned of this fact and that scares him.

But some like him (or he himself let’s hope) had the Force use even though he was born. There is another way that bypasses the suppression and creator’s epigenetics — the meiotic tetrad (top image) at Meiosis I interphase.

The Mitth family is not liked well (headcanon). They happen to be more social and personable toward all families and other species. They are not xenophobic like other Chiss. Chiss view it as bumbling and clumsy. To humans it appears as the “absent minded professors”. They also partake in strange rituals and collections of appreciation, like the arts. To high Chiss society, the odd behavior makes them pariahs. Then their practice of sexual reproduction is nasty to most Chiss — Ew! Fluid transfer? Excluding this family is easy, until it is revealed that Thrawn’s prognostications were accurate.

Then there may be Grysk involvement to make some Chiss client species. A different post.