Grand Admiral Thrawn, a member of the Chiss race, is the first non-human officer ever to rise to the rank of Grand Admiral in the Imperial army. A fan-favorite in the Star Wars Expanded Universe and widely considered the best villain after Darth Vader, Thrawn is the primary antagonist of Heir to the Empire and its sequels, earning the series the title of the Thrawn trilogy. Timothy Zahn portrays Thrawn’s appearance as off-putting to most of the characters, with his blue skin and red eyes. He is calculating and manipulative with exceptional powers of perception. Pellaeon calls Thrawn “possibly the greatest military mind the Empire ha[s] ever seen” (6). Thrawn cultivates knowledge—particularly knowledge of individual cultures gleaned from their art—to discover a way to control them. He tells Pellaeon: “Learn about art, Captain […] When you understand a species’ art, you understand that species” (14). Art becomes a weapon to a man like Thrawn, who translates knowledge of a species’ art into a tool for manipulation and dominance. Thrawn is the most cerebral of the Star Wars villains.

Captain Pellaeon serves on board the Chimaera as Thrawn’s second-in-command. Having served in the Imperial army before the Rebels’ defeat of the Empire, Pellaeon knows and values the order and hierarchy of the army as it existed before the rise of the Rebel Alliance as opposed to the relative chaos left in its wake.