Sifo-Dyas
Sifo-Dyas, a Human Jedi Master, served the Jedi Order during the last decades of the Galactic Republic. Following the revelation of the Sith's return during the Invasion of Naboo in 32 BBY, Master Sifo-Dyas secretly ordered the creation of a clone army from the Kaminoan government, but was then betrayed and killed by his comrade, Count Dooku. Sifo-Dyas possessed exceptional skill in the Force ability of foresight, which led to his appointment to the Jedi High Council prior to the Invasion of Naboo. He also possessed two lightsabers, one of which would become the first Jedi lightsaber used by General Grievous.
Biography
Jedi Master
Hailing from the Cassandran Worlds, Sifo-Dyas was a Force-sensitive Human with a gift for precognition, and he was raised within the Jedi Order. Like many Jedi of his time, he entered the Order at a young age and was taught about the Force at the Coruscant Jedi Temple. Sifo-Dyas constructed his own blue lightsaber and eventually achieved the rank of Jedi Master. He and Master Dooku became close friends and were frequently seen together. Sifo-Dyas was selected to join the Jedi High Council, but he was later removed before the Blockade of Naboo because the other members considered his ideas too radical.
In 52 BBY, Master Sifo-Dyas accompanied Dooku, Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, and Jedi High Council member Jocasta Nu to a meeting on Serenno. After a four-hour discussion, they took a break, and Damask Holdings magister Hego Damask, secretly the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Plagueis, confronted the Jedi, seeking flaws in the Jedi Order to exploit. Damask voiced his concerns about the Republic's future, and both Dooku and Sifo-Dyas responded with their own worries. Sifo-Dyas was firm in his answers and hesitant to agree with Dooku and Damask. Later, Sifo-Dyas and Dooku met Senator Palpatine of Naboo at the Senate Building, who was actually Damask's Sith apprentice (and Dooku's future master), Darth Sidious.
As his friend Dooku became increasingly dissatisfied with the Jedi and the Senate, Sifo-Dyas grew concerned. He became convinced that difficult times were ahead, but the Jedi Council dismissed his warnings. In 32 BBY, Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum hosted a gathering on Coruscant. Sifo-Dyas attended with Jedi Masters Yoda, Mace Windu, Adi Gallia, and Jorus C'baoth. Hego Damask approached Sifo-Dyas again and attempted to manipulate him by admitting that a growing darkness was approaching, as he had stated twenty years before on Serenno. Sifo-Dyas agreed, and Damask told him about cloners on Kamino who could create an army to be held in reserve. The Jedi Master was initially skeptical but was persuaded to consider it, unaware that he was being manipulated by the enemy.
Soon after, Sifo-Dyas contacted the Kaminoans and requested a clone army for the Republic, using funds from Damask Holdings. Around the same time, Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum, aware of Sifo-Dyas's expertise in the criminal underworld, assigned him a secret mission to negotiate with the Pyke Syndicate of Oba Diah. To keep the negotiations between the galactic government and the criminal organization secret, Sifo-Dyas did not inform the Jedi Council. Around this time, Dooku resigned from the Jedi Order and joined the Order of the Sith Lords as Darth Tyranus, Darth Sidious's apprentice. Sidious and Tyranus learned of Sifo-Dyas's clone army order and planned his demise. Tyranus's first test was to betray and kill his old friend, fulfilling the Sith covenant that required the murder of a close associate as a commitment to the Sith cause. By killing Sifo-Dyas, Tyranus would gain control of the clone army project for the Sith, using Sifo-Dyas as a cover.
Sifo-Dyas arrived on Oba Diah with Valorum's assistant Silman, but the Pyke-Republic talks were postponed when the Jedi Council assigned Sifo-Dyas to negotiate peace between Jungle Felucian tribes on Felucia. However, the Pykes, contacted by Tyranus, shot down Sifo-Dyas' Jedi T-6 shuttle 775519 over Oba Diah in exchange for a large sum of money and an advantage over rival crime families. The ship crashed on the planet's desert moon. The criminals recovered Sifo-Dyas's body from the wreckage and gave it to Tyranus, taking Silman prisoner as insurance.
To maintain secrecy, Tyranus erased all records of Kamino from the Jedi Archives, along with thirty-seven other systems, including Dagobah and Dromund.
The official Galactic Republic records on Sifo-Dyas—classified as "File 127456"—presented a different account. According to the file, Sifo-Dyas died while negotiating peace between tribes on Felucia, in a shuttle crash. The records stated that the Felucians removed his body and treated it according to their customs, explaining why it was never found. The file noted that "much of the information surrounding his death [remained] confidential under the Office of the Chancellor," but "further investigation in the matter [might] be authorized at a future date."
Legacy
Instead of discarding his friend's body, Count Dooku preserved it in a cryogenic hibernation capsule until the InterGalactic Banking Clan planned to transform the Kaleesh warlord, General Qymaen jai Sheelal, into a cyborg strategist. By transfusing Sifo-Dyas's blood into Grievous, he became the Supreme Commander of the Confederacy of Independent Systems' droid army. After Grievous's transformation, Dooku gifted him Sifo-Dyas's lightsaber (presumably a different one than that he carried to Oba Diah, which remained in the shuttle wreckage on the Oba Diah moon).
Dyas intended to install an inhibitor chip in each clone as a safeguard against rogue Jedi. However, Sidious and Dooku modified the chips to contain a protocol that would force the clones to view the Jedi as traitors and execute them. Dooku then presented the chip to the Kaminoans, deceiving them about Dyas's true intentions.
In 22 BBY, ten years after Sifo-Dyas's death, Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi's investigation led him to Kamino, the source of the saberdart used in the attempted assassination of Senator Padmé Amidala by Zam Wesell. In Tipoca City, Kaminoan Prime Minister Lama Su informed Kenobi that Sifo-Dyas had ordered the clone army on behalf of the Senate to aid the Galactic Republic. Su believed Sifo-Dyas was a member of the Jedi Council at the time and was unaware of his death. Realizing the timeline discrepancy, Kenobi contacted the High Council and revealed the army's existence.
Sifo-Dyas's army was eventually revealed and used by the Galactic Republic. The conflict between the Separatists and the Republic was named after it. In the third year of the conflict, as part of the Sith illusions created by Darths Sidious and Tyranus's dark side ritual, Sifo-Dyas appeared to Yoda on Korriban. His specter was being tortured and begged Yoda to release him, but Yoda saw through the illusion and recognized Sidious.
In 19 BBY, Sifo-Dyas's army was used by the Chancellor to destroy the Jedi Order as part of a Sith plot that had been a millennium in the making. Chancellor Palpatine, revealed to be Sidious, ordered the clones to execute Order 66, a secret protocol that commanded them to kill the Jedi for being traitors. Upon the command, the clones' inhibitor chips activated, brainwashing them into viewing the Jedi as enemies and turning their weapons against them, leading to the downfall and near destruction of the Jedi Order. In this way, Sifo-Dyas, manipulated by the Sith Lords, inadvertently contributed to the Jedi Order's destruction in his attempt to save it.
Behind the scenes
In early drafts of Attack of the Clones, the Jedi who contacted the Kaminoans was named Sido-Dyas, suggesting a possible early connection to Darth Sidious. However, "Sifo-Dyas" appeared in one instance, likely as a typo, which Lucas later preferred.
Originally, "Sido-Dyas" was a false identity for Sidious—Obi-Wan Kenobi claimed to have never heard of him, and Mace Windu confirmed that no Jedi had that name.
George Lucas promised to reveal his backstory in Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith. However, Lucas refocused the film on Anakin and cut several plot points related to Attack of the Clones, including Sifo-Dyas's backstory. He allowed author James Luceno to reveal it in the novel Labyrinth of Evil.
The character's name was changed to Zaifo-Vias in Brazil because the original name sounded similar to a vulgar phrase in Brazilian Portuguese.
Sifo-Dyas first appeared visually in The Eyes of Revolution comic in Star Wars: Visionaries. The story was written and drawn by Industrial Light & Magic concept artist Warren Fu, who used his own face for the Jedi Master as an easter egg. Artist Chris Trevas noticed Fu's likeness while researching for his own illustration of Sifo-Dyas in Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force. To maintain continuity and respect Fu, Trevas contacted him to reprise his role for the Jedi vs. Sith illustration.
In 2014, the episode "The Lost One" of Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series' sixth season revealed more details about Sifo-Dyas's final moments and how he died.