Brooches made of the valuable industrial metal nyix were made as jewelry by the native species of the planet "Sunrise." The brooches were considered beautiful and made of multi-colored strands of nyix, with decorative markings.
At the behest of the Grysk agent "Jixtus," Haplif of the Agbui incited a cataclysmic civil war on Sunrise, killing most of the planet and allowing the Agbui to colonize that planet to mine nyix. After moving in, the Agbui seized much of the natives' jewelry and used it as part of a scheme to incite a civil war among the Chiss of the Chiss Ascendancy.
The Agbui gave these brooches to ambitious Chiss family officials of the Xodlak, Erighal, and Pommrio Great Families. They told those official they procured the nyix for the brooches on an uninhabited planet named Hoxim, where they set up a fake nyix mine. They also convinced those officials that they were extremely naive about the value of the brooches by selling them for less than 1/1000th of the value of the nyix they were made out of. Haplif gave one brooch each to Councilor Lakuviv, the Chiss mid-ager Yomie, and his hosts on Celwis Lakansu and Lakris.
After learning that the brooches were made of nyix, Councilor Lakuviv sent his Senior Aide Lakjip to investigate the "Agbui mining world" of Hoxim, where she saw the fake mine and believed it to be rich in nyix. Lakjip later seized the brooch Haplif gave to Lakansu, which her husband Xodlak'phr'ooa believed was an illegal seizure. Suspicious of the brooches, even more suspicious of their Agbui purported artisans, and most suspicious of all about Lakjip and Lakuviv's behavior about the brooches, Lakphro sent his daughter's brooch to his cousin Lakbulbup on Naporar for analysis. Lakbulbup insisted on sending Lakris's brooch to a Senior Captain of the Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet named Mitth'raw'nuruodo who was famous for his ability to learn hidden details from cultures' art.
The Chiss family officials each declared family emergencies, calling for the Chiss Defense Force warriors and officers of their families to assemble at Celwis, Copero, and Sarvchi to claim Hoxim and its mine for their own family. The Chiss families were prepared to fight to the death over the nyix supposedly on Hoxim, but were stopped from doing so in a skirmish whereby Senior Captain Thrawn's Springhawk appeared to be under attack by unknown gunboats. In reality, Thrawn's forces were controlling the gunboats and putting on a "light show," appearing to attack ferociously while inflicting no actual damage.
Nyix brooches appeared in the 2021 novel Thrawn Ascendancy: Greater Good by Timothy Zahn, in which they served as a major plot point.
Nyix brooches appeared in the 2021 novel Thrawn Ascendancy: Greater Good by Timothy Zahn, in which they served as a major plot point.