The origins of the Clone Wars dated back to the time of the Old Republic,[61] which reigned over a millennium prior to the war. That era marked a dark age in galactic history,[1] as the Sith battled their ancient enemies, the Jedi, for control of the galaxy.[62] The Sith suffered from infighting,[63] which ultimately led to their defeat at the hands of the Jedi, but although the Jedi believed they had vanquished their foes,[60] the Sith had merely retreated into hiding. Darth Bane, the last surviving Dark Lord of the Sith, founded a philosophy known as the Rule of Two, which dictated that the entire Sith Order would be comprised solely of a master and an apprentice.[63] Operating in the shadows, the Sith accumulated power and influence in preparation for the endgame of their grand plan: galactic domination and revenge against the Jedi.[8] From the remnants of the Old Republic, a modern Galactic Republic was formed. For the first time, a Galactic Senate afforded political representation to hundreds of worlds and star systems. The Old Republic's armed forces were disbanded,[1] leading the Jedi Order to assume a peacekeeping role within the Republic, serving at the behest of the Senate and its Supreme Chancellor.[60] Over time, the Senate incurred notoriety for its stagnant bureaucracy and corruption,[64] and rifts emerged as the central Core Worlds—including the Republic's capital, Coruscant—became reputed for their willingness to exploit the resources of the outlying Outer Rim Territories.[1] Adding to the morass of bureaucracy and inaction was the fact that corporate blocs such as the Trade Federation, the InterGalactic Banking Clan, and the Techno Union were granted Senate representation alongside the Republic's member worlds.[53] Nearly a thousand years into the Republic's reign,[15] Darth Sidious became the ruling Dark Lord of the Sith after betraying and murdering his master Darth Plagueis. Sidious planned to continue the Siths' revenge plot by using his Sith persona and alter ego Sheev Palpatine. His double identity would allow him to deceive and eventually destroy the Galactic Republic and Jedi. In order to infiltrate the Republic, Palpatine became the senator of his home planet Naboo. As the senator of Naboo, he devised a complex scheme to unseat the incumbent Supreme Chancellor, Finis Valorum, and install himself as the Republic's next head of state: as the Republic became embroiled in a dispute over the taxation of trade routes, Sidious secretly allied himself with Nute Gunray, the Viceroy of the Trade Federation, and ordered the Trade Federation to blockade his homeworld of Naboo. When the Senate's characteristic stagnation proved ineffectual at overturning the Invasion of Naboo, Palpatine manipulated and deceived Queen Padmé Amidala of Naboo into calling for a Vote of No Confidence in Valorum's leadership. The Senate thereafter elected Palpatine as Valorum's successor, and the Jedi Order aided the Royal Naboo Security Forces in ending the blockade, though not before the Sith revealed themselves in the form of Darth Maul, Sidious' current apprentice. Maul was defeated by the Jedi Knights and presumed dead, leading the Jedi High Council to suspect the existence of a second Sith Lord.[60] Now the Supreme Chancellor, Palpatine was seen as a crusading reformer in the face of the Republic's failings, while three of those major failings—the maze of bureaucracy, the lack of any formal military, and weak central power—were showcased to the galaxy at large. Additionally, thanks to the Invasion of Naboo, Palpatine was able to vilify galactic corporations, which helped lead to the Separatist government. Though an open war was still ten years away, the fight for Naboo had served as the first spark of the Clone Wars in a number of ways. Sidious found a replacement for Maul in Count Dooku, a former Jedi Master who had left the Order and become integral to the Sith plan for galactic conquest. Sidious and Dooku, the latter of whom adopted the name Darth Tyranus, plotted to manipulate the Republic into a sham war with an opposing state. The Jedi would be forced to serve as generals for a Republic army of soldiers,[15] who would eventually serve as their executioners. Furthermore, the conflict would destabilize the Republic and render it vulnerable to the Sith takeover.[8] Prior to the Invasion of Naboo, the Jedi High Council dismissed one of its members, Master Sifo-Dyas, due to his unorthodox belief that the Republic would need to raise an army for a full-scale conflict that he had foreseen.[59] Undeterred, Sifo-Dyas contacted the Kaminoans, a species reputed for its cloning industry, and ordered the production of a clone army on behalf of the Republic. In so doing, Sifo-Dyas circumvented both the Senate and the High Council, purporting to have the support of the former.[15] When the Sith discovered the existence of the clone army, they went to extreme lengths to hijack the project. At the time, then-Chancellor Valorum asked Sifo-Dyas to oversee confidential negotiations between the Republic and the Pyke Syndicate, a rising spice cartel that had begun to dominate the Coruscant Underworld. Unaware of Valorum's request, the High Council separately dispatched Sifo-Dyas to resolve a tribal dispute on the planet Felucia.[59] Sifo-Dyas never reached Felucia, and the resulting events became enmeshed in a web of subterfuge that took the Jedi Order many years to unravel. Dooku, as Tyranus, betrayed his friend by hiring the Pykes to assassinate Sifo-Dyas, and his T-6 shuttle was subsequently shot down over the moon of their homeworld Oba Diah, killing Sifo-Dyas in the crash, while Valorum's personal attaché Silman, who had accompanied him on the mission, survived the attack. The Pykes delivered Sifo-Dyas's corpse to Tyranus, but covertly kept Silman hostage as potential leverage in the future. The Jedi Order, meanwhile, believed Sifo-Dyas to have died on Felucia after he failed to negotiate peace between the local tribes. After seizing control of the cloning project, the Sith selected the renowned bounty hunter Jango Fett as the genetic template for their army.[15] Chief Medical Scientist Nala Se served as one of the project's main engineers.[37] On the Kaminoan home-world of Kamino, Fett provided both genetic samples and training for his so-called clone troopers, who were subjected to growth acceleration and thereby aged at twice the normal rate of humans. As a result, the first generation of troops was ready within a decade of Sifo-Dyas's original order.[15] Sifo-Dyas wanted an inhibitor chip implanted in the brain of each Clone, as a safeguard against rogue Jedi. However, Dooku and Sidious retooled the chips in order to ensure the Jedi's destruction. Posing as a Jedi, Dooku presented the chip to the Kaminoan scientists and deceived them into believing the chips were designed to preclude aggression within each subject, as well as that Sifo-Dyas had ordered the installation of the chips[65] as a countermeasure against betrayal from rogue Jedi.[37]In truth, the chips would force each clone to comply with Protocol 66, a directive for the soldiers to execute their Jedi commanders for being perceived traitors to the Republic.[65] Thus, the Sith would be able to massacre the entire Jedi Order via its subordinate soldiers. Eight years after the Invasion of Naboo, a pan-galactic Confederacy of Independent Systems began to take shape when Count Dooku commandeered a HoloNet relay station in the Raxus system and berated the Republic with condemning rhetoric. Over the next two years,[1] a Separatist Crisis arose when thousands of star systems seceded from the Republic and flocked to the Confederacy.[64][66] The Separatist Crisis sent the Republic into a frenzy, particularly as Dooku repeatedly spurned Palpatine's public requests for negotiation.[1] The Republic Senate soon became divided over the passage of a Military Creation Act. Advocates of the bill argued that the Republic required a military force to defend itself from the Separatists, whereas others such as now-Senator Padmé Amidala believed that the measure would provoke full-scale civil war between the Republic and the Confederacy. Such a war became increasingly inevitable,[15] with the Sith Lords poised to lead both sides of the approaching conflict that would tear the galaxy asunder. Fearful that such meetings would grant the CIS state legitimacy, the Republic Senate also declared it illegal under[53] the Republic Senate non-communication law[39] for Republic representatives to meet with Separatists in formal talks.[53] By 22 BBY,[12] the Sith had nearly completed preparations for open conflict between the Republic and the Confederacy. Nominally the Confederacy functioned as a democracy,[66] and delegates from its myriad member worlds formed a Separatist Senate,[53] though in truth it was ruled by the Sith.[8] At the same time, the galaxy's major corporations pledged their support and resources to the Confederacy, and their leaders thereby earned seats on Dooku's Separatist Council.[15] Its members included Chairman San Hill of the InterGalactic Banking Clan, Foreman Wat Tambor of the Techno Union, Magistrate Passel Argente of the Corporate Alliance, Presidente Shu Mai of the Commerce Guild, and Archduke Poggle the Lesser of the Geonosian hives, as well as Senators Po Nudo of Ando and Tikkes of Mon Cala.[67][14] Nute Gunray's condition for joining the Separatist Council was that Amidala be killed in revenge for her humiliating defeat of him at the Battle of Naboo. Jango Fett and his associate, Zam Wesell, undertook the bounty that Gunray subsequently issued on Amidala. Just before the Senate's vote on the Military Creation Act, Wesell mounted an unsuccessful attempt on Amidala's life, resulting in the High Council designating Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi and his Padawan, Anakin Skywalker—both of whom had been instrumental in the Republic's victory at the Battle of Naboo—as Amidala's personal bodyguards. Wesell's second attempt on Amidala's life similarly failed, and Fett used a Kamino saberdart to execute Wesell before Kenobi and Skywalker could extract information from her. Nevertheless, Kenobi identified the saberdart's connection to Kamino, and was alarmed when his research revealed that the planet had been erased from the Jedi Archives. With the help of Grand Master Yoda, he pinpointed Kamino's location above the galactic plane, just south of the Rishi Maze, and traveled there as part of his investigation into Amidala's assailant. When Kenobi arrived at Kamino's capital of Tipoca City, Prime Minister Lama Su greeted him and revealed the existence of the clone army. By this time, 200,000 troopers were ready for deployment, with a million more soldiers nearing completion of their training. A shocked Kenobi reported his discovery to the High Council, which ordered him to detain Fett and bring him to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant for questioning. Fett escaped from Tipoca City with his son, an unaltered clone whom he named Boba, and fled to[15] the Confederate capital of Geonosis.[68] Kenobi tracked the Fetts and, after engaging in a starfighter dogfight that led them to believe him dead, followed them to the planetary surface. There, he discovered that the Geonosians were manufacturing millions of battle droids in their droid foundries. He also witnessed a meeting between Dooku and the Separatist Council, discovering that they were preparing to merge their resources into a Separatist Droid Army. The Geonosians thereafter captured Kenobi, though not before he sent a message to Skywalker. Skywalker was with Amidala on the nearby world of Tatooine and relayed Kenobi's message to Coruscant, where Palpatine and the High Council heard the news that the commerce guilds had joined the Confederacy. Against the Council's orders, Amidala and Skywalker rushed to rescue Kenobi on Geonosis. While Kenobi was in his custody, Dooku claimed that the entire Republic was under the sway of a Dark Lord of the Sith named Darth Sidious, and tried to persuade Kenobi to help him destroy the Sith. Kenobi refused, and after Amidala and Skywalker were similarly captured, the Geonosians sentenced all three of them to execution in[15] the Petranaki Arena.[14] Despite Kenobi's report that the Confederacy was raising an army, Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan and other members of the Senate still believed that the Military Creation Act would not be passed in time to contend with the Separatists. Consequently, Junior Representative Jar Jar Binks of Naboo motioned that the Senate grant emergency powers to Palpatine, who could then use his newfound authority to formally approve the creation of a Grand Army of the Republic. Though Palpatine promised to relinquish his emergency powers once the crisis had passed,[15] that was never to be the case.[8] While Master Yoda traveled to Kamino to marshal the clone troopers for the Grand Army, Master Mace Windu assembled an assault team[15] of 212 Jedi,[69] drawn from the Masters of the High Council and the Order's ranks of Knights and Padawans, to save Kenobi from imprisonment on Geonosis. The galaxy teetered on the brink of civil war. The Battle of Geonosis[22] commenced when Windu and his Jedi strike team infiltrated the Petranaki arena to save Amidala, Kenobi, and Skywalker from gladiatorial combat with three beasts: an acklay, a nexu, and a reek. While the Geonosian spectators fled the arena, Dooku unleashed a massive infantry of B1 battle droids, B2 super battle droids, and droidekas against the Jedi. During the ensuing ground battle,[15] Council member Coleman Trebor[70] came within seconds of ending the conflict when he nearly managed to kill Dooku, but Jango Fett gunned him down before he could do so. Windu thereafter beheaded Fett, an act that would earn him the ire of his son, Boba. Within a short span, only Amidala, Kenobi, Skywalker, Windu, and a fraction of their Jedi allies were still standing. With his battle droids encircling the ring of survivors, Dooku demanded their unconditional surrender, but Windu refused to allow himself and his comrades to become hostages. Just as Windu and the other survivors were about to be executed, Yoda swept in with reinforcements, the Grand Army of the Republic:[15] 192,000 clone troopers[68] aboard Acclamator-class transgalactic military assault ships, with LAAT/i gunships ferrying them into the Petranaki arena to defend and extract the surviving Jedi. Amidala, Kenobi, Skywalker, Windu, and the other surviving Jedi withdrew from the arena aboard Yoda's gunships and rushed to Geonosis's red sand plains, where a ground campaign was taking shape. Jedi such as Aayla Secura, Kit Fisto, and many others immediately accepted command positions and led the clone troopers into battle against the Separatist Droid Army, working to decimate the enemy infantry and prevent the Techno Union's Hardcell transports from escaping. While Yoda proceeded to the Republic's forward command center, Windu oversaw an assembly area,[15] where Clone Commander Ponds[71][72] handed him command of five special commando units.[15] Colonel Meebur Gascon and other top strategists from Republic High Command advised the Grand Army on its battlefield tactics. A frenetic offensive ensued, as the Republic's All Terrain Tactical Enforcers went head-to-head with the Separatists' IG-227 Hailfire-class droid tanks and OG-9 homing spider droids. Yoda ordered the Grand Army's Self-Propelled Heavy Artillery Turbolaser walkers to ground a number of Trade Federation core ships before they could escape. On the ground, the Jedi and their clone troopers were forced to contend with the enemy battle droids and DSD1 dwarf spider droids, but they made gradual headway against the Separatists. Overwhelmed by the Republic's assault, Dooku and the Separatist Council ordered a retreat. Poggle the Lesser entrusted Dooku with the Geonosians' plans to the Ultimate Weapon, and Dooku headed for a remote hangar where his Punworcca 116-class interstellar sloop was docked. En route to the hangar, Dooku crossed paths with Amidala, Kenobi, and Skywalker and they gave chase aboard their LAAT/i gunship. When Dooku's escort of Nantex-class territorial defense starfighters retaliated, Amidala was dislodged from the gunship, while Kenobi and Skywalker pursued the Count. When Kenobi and Skywalker reached the hangar, Dooku defeated them in a lightsaber duel, injuring Kenobi and severing Skywalker's right forearm. The duel continued when Yoda, Dooku's former Jedi Master, arrived and proved more than a challenge for the Sith Lord. Dooku was able to escape only by collapsing a pillar on top of Kenobi and Skywalker, forcing Yoda to choose between pressing his attack and saving his fellow Jedi. Amidala arrived at the hangar with another gunship, but she and her squad of clone troopers were unable to shoot down Dooku's solar sailer. Although Dooku and the Separatist Council had escaped with their forces, the Republic declared victory in the Battle of Geonosis. Dooku secretly traveled to Coruscant, where he met with Darth Sidious and reported that the intergalactic conflict which they had worked to instigate was finally underway. Though Kenobi believed that the clone troopers had been instrumental to the Republic's victory on Geonosis, Yoda knew that it was not a victory: The Clone Wars had begun. From Coruscant, the Republic deployed tens of thousands of clone troopers and a fleet of warships and assault craft, which formed the Republic Navy, as part of its war machine.[15] The Confederacy, meanwhile, moved its capital from Geonosis[68] to the planet Raxus Secundus, which served as the headquarters of the Separatist Senate. As the Clone Wars engulfed world after world across the galaxy incredibly quickly, Amidala's handmaiden Dormé suspected the Confederacy had its forces lying in wait on the impression the events on Geonosis would end in a Separatist triumph, only for the Republic's own forces to be able to confront the CIS.[75] Windu also suspected the Separatists were moving to establish a foothold in the Outer Rim and then move inwards to the Core, eventually having enough strength to strike at Coruscant itself. As such, the Republic was forced to move forces into the Rim to prevent the Confederacy from completing a foothold that they could push in with.[76] The Jedi were forced to relinquish their traditional roles as peacekeepers[74] in favor of military commands within the Grand Army of the Republic. Knights and Masters accepted the new rank of Jedi General. Even Padawans contributed to the Republic's war effort, serving as Jedi Commanders on the battlefield[22] at the suggestion of Palpatine.[77] Among the newly promoted Jedi Generals was Anakin Skywalker, whom the Jedi High Council elevated to Knighthood.[22] Unbeknownst to his colleagues, Skywalker had secretly married Padmé Amidala following the Battle of Geonosis,[15] a relationship that would have repercussions for the entire war.[8] Amidala and Skywalker were also involved in a mission to Nooroyo between the Battle of Geonosis and their wedding, during which they escaped Gunray's forces when the Viceroy arrived for in person negotiations over Nooroyo's spice export. To satisfy the Republic's increased demand for troops, Kamino continued its production and training of clone troopers. In turn, the Republic Navy blockaded Kamino,[78] and the Grand Army established a network of listening posts to monitor Separatist activity in the vicinity.[79] Due to the death of Jango Fett, the Kaminoan scientists stretched the preexisting samples of his DNA in order to decant more clones. The Jedi High Council selected one of its members, Master Shaak Ti, to oversee the training of clone cadets in Kamino's Tipoca City, assisted by contracted mercenaries such as Bric and El-Les to help supervise the clones' combat instruction. (This is a scenario.)