Ruling Families The Ruling Families or Ruling Houses were the complicated familial / governmental hierarchy that dominated the Chiss Ascendancy . Their leaders composed the Council of Families . History . In social and constitutional terms , the Ruling Families were an oligarchy which operated above the level of the professional bureaucracy and the ( at least partially ) democratic legislature . Each Family was responsible for a certain sector of Chiss government , and each had formal representatives with titles such as Aristocra and Syndic ; but within each family , preeminent power and status was vested in the hands of a hierarchy ranked , in order , as brothers and sisters ( collectively siblings ) , cousins and ranking distants . While it seems that these titles often indicated literal blood relationships , they could also be awarded on merit , and while each Family was ultimately a kin - group , they also contained adoptive members who were not born into the oligarchy . For example , all Chiss Expansionary Defense Force officers were classed as merit adoptive s of a Ruling Family for the duration of their service , while being named as Trial - born of a family enabled the most able commoners to aim for permanent ' matching ' to one of the Families - a process that seems to have involved marriage to an eligible member of the Family ; in rare cases , a Trial - born matched to the Family might even secure the status of ranking distant . According to sources made available through New Republic channels during the Yuuzhan Vong War , the Chiss Ruling Families traced their origins to the distant past , before the onset of the ice age in which Csilla had been gripped throughout reliably - recorded Chiss history , and it was implied that every contemporary Chiss individual had a blood relationship with at least one of the Families . The same sources , however , made clear that the information available at this time about pre - glaciation Csilla took the form of contradictory legends , and it is not clear how reliable the claims for the antiquity of the Families could therefore be . Secondly , and especially bearing in mind the dubious nature of this first claim , the idea that all five trillion contemporary Chiss could then trace some form of biological descent to no more than nine pairs of historical ancestors must " prima facie " be treated with extreme caution . Over the course of recorded history , the number of Ruling Families was said to have fluctuated between three and twelve , but in contacts with the Chiss in both 27 BBY and 22 ABY , it appeared that the number of Ruling Families stood nine , and they were known formally as the Nine Ruling Families . However , within a few years of the latter date , it was said that the number of Ruling Families had been reduced to four , identified as House Csapla , House Nuruodo , House Inrokini , and House Sabosen . This information seems to stem from the same New Republic sources mentioned above , and it too could also be considered suspect , but it was apparently confirmed by Jagged Fel shortly before the Jedi mission to Csilla in 29 ABY . According to the account offered by Aristocra Chaf ' orm ' bintrano in 35 ABY , the Third Vagaari War had caused a serious labor shortage among the Chiss ( whether through casualties or simply due to conscription ) , and they turned to the insectoid Killik s for help , and hired several Nests as workers . Steps were taken to prevent any Chiss becoming Joiner s , but these were sabotaged , leading to the absorption of two Families into the Nests , while three others were unable to retain their position without the continued use of Killik labor . Chaf ' orm ' bintrano claimed that this situation led to a " disagreement " in which the four other Families , assisted by Baron Fel and the Household Phalanx , removed the three Killik - dependent lineages from power . However , there are some uncertainties about the nature of this account . Firstly , it seems unlikely that there really were three wars between the Chiss and the Vagaari ; secondly , the Aristocra himself supposedly belonged to the Chaf family , one of the lineages not mentioned in the lists of the four surviving families ; his remarks also suggested that Baron Fel ' s family had adopted at least some of the trappings of a Ruling Family in their own right , and he mentioned that Fel and his troops had destroyed the family of Commander Ina ' ganet ' nuruodo , whose name suggests membership of the supposedly surviving House Nuruodo .