“Where is Grand Admiral Thrawn?”
After Ahsoka Tano uttered these words in Chapter 13 of The Mandalorian, Magistrate Morgan Elsbeth quickly cemented herself as one of the most mysterious and intriguing villains in the entire galaxy. How does this cold, seemingly innocuous bureaucrat know Thrawn? What is the rest of her story?
A Force-sensitive Nightsister witch, Morgan Elsbeth was one of the few who survived the massacre of her people during the Clone Wars. Fueled by rage and an intense sense of revenge, she then built a business empire for herself, constructing ships for the Imperial Starfleet while simultaneously destroying worlds to harvest their resources. It was during this time that she first interacted with Mitth'raw'nuruodo, the Chiss Imperial better known as Thrawn. She became his loyal follower, and eventually devoted her life to returning him to the larger galaxy after his forced exile by Ezra Bridger.
Anger. Revenge. Loyalty. Why did she become so committed to this alien officer, even more than to the Empire at large?
She eventually established herself in the city of Calodan as the Magistrate of the scorched forest planet Corvus, protected by her own HK-87 droids and Lang, a hired gun. It was here that she continued to amass her forces in secret, even after the fall of the Empire, as she prepared to travel to distant worlds in an effort to find the missing Grand Admiral.
She was tracked by Ahsoka Tano, however, who bested her in combat (and gave Elsbeth’s beskar spear to the Mandalorian). Morgan was then taken into New Republic custody, before being broken out and restored to her position of control onboard the Eye of Sion, a massive hyperdrive ring capable of traveling beyond the known galaxy. Morgan used her magick and a lost star map to find the planet of Peridea; there, she finally found Thrawn, as well as the ancient Dathmiri witches known as the Great Mothers.
The Great Mothers granted Morgan the gift of shadows and the mystical Blade of Talzin, fully realizing Elsbeth as a Nightsister, but it was a short-lived triumph; Elsbeth would fall in battle to Ahsoka Tano. Still, her ultimate goal of returning Grand Admiral Thrawn to the galaxy had been set in motion. Her distraction and death allowed him to return, bringing his Imperial Remnant army along with him.
While we have witnessed Morgan Elsbeth’s journey end with the white blade of Ahsoka Tano, we have yet to see how it began. More will be revealed in Star Wars: Tales of the Empire, with all shorts streaming on Disney+ beginning May the 4th.
