Formbi

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The fictional Star Wars character Chaf'orm'bintrano (also known by the core name Formbi) was an Aristocra of the Chaf Family, one of the Ruling Families of the Chiss Ascendancy. His career apparently spanned the decades from at least 27 BBY until 36 ABY, and served as the primary Chiss representative in dealings with the New Republic and Galactic Alliance from 22 ABY onwards.

1 Biography
2 References

[edit] Biography

[edit] Outbound Flight

In 27 BBY, Chaf'orm'bintrano was conducting an inspection tour as representative of his Family's (the Fifth Ruling family- at least at the time) interests in volume of space along the Chiss frontier, travelling aboard one of his kindred's distinctive diplomatic vessels. In this capacity, he arrived at the base of the Expansionary Fleet's Picket Force Two in the Crustai system led by Commander Mitth'raw'nuruodo.

He looked down on Thrawn's visitors, Maris Ferasi and Jorj Car'das as non-Chiss, and not only refused to make any gesture of greeting, but would also not use the Sy Bisti trade language to speak with them. Partially due to their attendance at his welcoming ceremony, and partially because of his already growing annoyance with Commander Thrawn's tactics, the group did not have a very pleasant visit and the Aristocra left quickly to report back to the Fifth and other Ruling Families on Csilla.

Some weeks after this, in the aftermath of the clash between Thrawn's picket force, the Vagaari and the Outbound Flight mission, Chaf'orm'bintrano reappeared at the head of a powerful squadron of Chaf Family ships, determined to take control of the Republic technology aboard Outbound Flight's Dreadnaught Cruisers, and to arraign Thrawn for overstepping the limits of the Chiss rules of engagement. Formbi was clearly prepared to fight senior representatives of both the Eighth Ruling Family and the CEDF if he thought that his actions would shift the balance of power within the Ascendancy in favour of his Family, but in the end, when Thrass and Jedi Lorana Jinzler took Outbound Flight out of the equation, Thrawn and Ar'Alani negotiated an alliance to their mutual benefit, and he retreated empty-handed.

[edit] The events of 22 ABY

In 22 ABY, a communique was sent out via Nirauan to Luke Skywalker, purporting to have originated from Chaf'orm'bintrano on the planet Sarvchi, and inviting the Jedi Master into Chiss space as a representative of the New Republic, due to the rediscovery of Outbound Flight deep inside the Redoubt.

The initial communique was, however, stolen by Jedi Knight Lorana Jinzler's surviving brother Dean, then working as a communications tech for Talon Karrde's organization. Jinzler had been mysteriously tipped off by Car'das, who was attempting to fulfil a promise he had made fifty years earlier to Lorana. When the communique to Luke passed through Jinzler's hands, he stole it and set off for the rendezvous, intending to pass himself off as a New Republic Ambassador in order to try and make peace with his sister or her memory. Car'das subsequently intercepted him when his ship suffered a mysterious drive failure, and took him to a rendezvous with a Chiss who he introduced as Chaf'orm'bintrano. Car'das soon departed, leaving Jinzler alone with the Chiss, who apparently accepted his claims to be a New Republic envoy.

Thanks to Karrde's intervention, Luke and his wife Mara Jade Skywalker also made their rendesvous at Crustai, where they encountered the Chiss consular ship Chaf Envoy, with Chaf'orm'bintrano, his niece Chaf'ees'aklaio, Dean Jinzler - and also Commander Chak Fel and Unit Aurek-Seven of the 501st Legion from the Empire of the Hand, whose presence the Aristocra had apparently requested from Parck when it seemed that the Jedi would not arrive in time.

The leader of this expedition, however, was a very different Chaf'orm'bintrano from the man who Car'das and Ferasi had encountered fifty years earlier. He spoke fluent Basic, and had no qualms doing business with humans or allowing them to address him by his core name as "Formbi" - and, perhaps even more significantly, his adherence to the Ascendancy's hallowed policy of isolation and their rigid rules of engagement was little more than skin deep. Unknown to the Jedi, the Aristocra was using the mission to recover Outbound Flight as a lure for the Vagaari, drawing them into a preemptive attack that would allow the Ascendancy to strike back, ending their threat, and weakening the machinations of their Yuuzhan Vong shadow partners.

In this, Chaf'orm'bintrano was ultimately successful; but as Mara and Luke later observed, his plan, with its complex subtleties, felt more like the sort of idea that Thrawn would have come up with than the thinking of the conventionally-minded Chiss nobleman that he claimed to be. Also, although it was not evident to the other participants at the time, the evident emotional burden carried by Formbi during the encounter also seems to have been personally linked with Thrawn.

Although Mara thought that the Aristocra was embodying "Chiss collective guilt" over the incident, his emotional involvement seems strangely to relfect Thrawn's own sense of responsibility at the time, and his awareness of what his miscalculation during the battle had cost. His strategem had hinged on luring Outbound Flight and the Vagaari into a clash, but he had underestimated his Jedi opponent Jorus C'baoth, and this had resulted in the deaths of almost all the fifty thousand crewers and colonists aboard the Republic mission, the disappearance of his brother - who apparently died ensuring that Outbound Flight stayed out of the hands of the Chaf Family - and the escape of a remnant of the Vagaari, whose descendants were by 22 ABY once again a threat to that region of space. Visiting Outbound Flight, making reparations for the loss, and securing the destruction of the Vagaari threat were thus concerns specific to Thrawn's interests, not the collective needs of the Chiss Ascendancy.

[edit] The Swarm War

Five years after the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, Aristocra Chaf'orm'bintrano who had led the mission to Outbound Flight played a significant role in the events surrounding the Swarm War. In 35 ABY, Formbi visited Luke and Mara on Ossus, and later appeared as the commander of Chiss military forces at both Qoribu and Tenupe, the two most significant battles of the conflict. He also appears in a holonet communication at the end of the Killik crisis to discuss the new positions of the Killiks, Alliance, and Chiss Ascendency with Gilad Pellaeon and agrees that hostilities are at least temporarily ended, and hints that Commander Jag Fel has survived the conflict.