Star Wars: 10 Things Fans Need To Know About Admiral Thrawn
3. He Was Using The Empire For A Larger Goal
From his very first interaction with the Empire, Thrawn had been using them to eventually work towards his own goals.
Pretending to be exiled from his homeworld, Thrawn manipulated the imperials into thinking he had no understanding of the language and had indeed been trapped on a rural trading planet. In reality, Thrawn had orchestrated the entire meeting and was on a secret mission from the Chiss Ascendancy to seek allies in defeating a much more imposing threat.
Back on Csilla, the Chiss were preparing for the inevitable invasion of the Grysks and saw the might of the empire as way of putting an end to the war. Thrawn only made a few people aware of this including Eli Vanto and Emperor Palpatine. During his time in the imperial navy, Thrawn would go on to send several officers to secretly assist Chiss Ascendancy.
Thrawn had even groomed Vanto from the first time they met into becoming a worthy addition to his grand scheme.