Dooku (Powerstaark)

Count Dooku was a Jedi Master who fell to the dark side of the Force and became the powerful Sith Lord Darth Tyranus. Dooku was the Jedi who trained Qui-Gon Jinn and the only Jedi besides Yoda, Sora Bulq and Qui-Gon who could defeat Mace Windu in sparring. He was a very wealthy man which was vital for the funding of the Clone Wars and after nearly seventy years of service in the Jedi Order he fell under the influence of Darth Sidious, turning him to the dark side and having him replace the deceased Darth Maul as Sidious' apprentice.

Early life
Dooku was born on the planet Serenno to a wealthy noble family. His parents were stern, but proud of his Force abilities, and willingly surrendered him to the Jedi Order. Unlike most younglings, he was aware of his origins and felt driven to prove himself worthy of them.

By far the swiftest learner in his year, Dooku was particularly apt at telekinesis and combat games such as push-feather. He could easily move objects with the Force by the age of seven, and he won the Twelve-and-Under push-feather tournament at only nine years of age. Before he became a Padawan, Dooku studied diplomacy and signed up for special tutorials in Senate procedure.

When Dooku was fourteen Master Thame Cerulian chose Dooku as his apprentice. Cerulian sat on the Jedi Council, and was renowned as a historian. Dooku had several friends when he was younger, including fellow youngling Lorian Nod and alien senatorial aide Eero Iridian. However, Lorian Nod was jealous of Dooku being chosen as a Padawan before him. Insecure about his future as a Jedi, Nod stole the Dark Holocron from the Jedi Archives, trying to gain an edge over other prospective Padawans. Dooku visited Nod's room to talk his friend into returning the holocron, but the pair were interrupted by Master Oppo Rancisis, who discovered the stolen item. Nod implicated Dooku in the theft, and Dooku was too shocked to contradict him.

Nod later visited Dooku, and asked his friend to cover for him, but Dooku was still angry with Nod and did not give him any assurances. The next day, the two were on opposite sides in an urban tracking exercise and ended up brawling with each other. After Yoda broke up the fight, Dooku and Nod were examined separately before the Jedi Council. Dooku told the truth about the theft of the holocron, and Nod was cast out of the Jedi Order. The pair became bitter enemies. This experience made Dooku wary of friendship and attachment, and he became paranoid about the possibility of betrayal.

Even though he studied under Cerulian, Yoda took a particular interest in the young Dooku and was frequently his adviser and confidant. The Jedi Master, however, was equally quick to point out Dooku's flaws when necessary. He also assisted in Dooku's lightsaber training as a Padawan. Building from this foundation, Dooku became an accomplished duelist with the weapon. In his later years, few Jedi Masters were considered equal to Dooku's skill with a lightsaber. Under Yoda and Cerulian's tutelage, Dooku became a powerful Jedi. He was the most gifted Padawan Cerulian had ever seen, and Dooku learned much from his Master. As he grew older and continued to develop, Dooku became an outspoken individual who had strong views about the systemic corruption that plagued the Galactic Republic.

Knight and Master
Dooku became a Jedi Knight in his early twenties, and took Qui-Gon Jinn as his first Padawan. When only ten, Jinn had impressed Dooku with his potential. Even though Dooku was still a Padawan himself at the time, he succeeded in convincing Yoda that he and Jinn would be a good match and like Dooku Jinn was chosen as a Padawan at only fourteen years old. Several years into Qui-Gon's apprenticeship, Dooku and his Padawan were assigned to protect Senator Blix Annon from pirates who were kidnapping senators for ransom. On the senator's ship, Dooku met up with his old friend, Eero Iridian, who was now serving as Blix's aide. Pirates attacked the vessel, exploiting weaknesses in the design, and Blix Annon was kidnapped despite the actions of the two Jedi.

During the raid, Dooku recognized one of the pirates as his old friend Lorian Nod and became obsessed with not allowing Nod to win. He neither told his apprentice that he knew the kidnapper nor did he inform the Jedi Council of his failure to protect Senator Annon. Dooku suspected that the security weaknesses and malfunctions on the senator's craft during the battle has been deliberate sabotage, since the craft had recently undergone a security retrofit. He traced the sabotage of the senator's ship back to the responsible factory on the polluted ice world of Von-Alai.

With Jinn's help, Dooku discovered that the factory was owned by Caravan, a corporation belonging to Nod that used child labor on its assembly lines. While they were investigating further, Eero Iridian arrived. Telling the Jedi that he'd found a worker willing to talk to them, he lured the pair into an ambush. There, Colicoid Eradicator droids suddenly appeared and threatened the two Jedi. Iridian had betrayed his early friendship with Dooku and was now working for Lorian Nod. Dooku and Jinn were forced to surrender in order to avoid collateral damage to the factory's numerous child workers. They were injected with toxins that paralyzed them and rendered them unconscious. The incapacitated Jedi were subsequently transported to Lorian Nod's headquarters.

The two Jedi woke up in an unfamiliar room some time later, restrained by stun cuffs. They had been captured by Nod, who spoke to them and said he planned to hold them until Senator Annon was ransomed. Unfortunately for Nod, the senator died from a sudden heart attack. This panicked Iridian, who rushed into the room where the Jedi were held and began to argue with the pirate leader. During their quarrel, Dooku broke free from his restraints and used the Force to summon his lightsaber through the door Iridian had opened. Dooku then dueled with Nod, intending to kill him. Only Jinn's objection stopped him from slaying his overmatched foe. Instead, Dooku arrested the two pirates and returned to Coruscant with his apprentice.

After further service with the Jedi Order, including a final mission that lasted two years, Jinn was ready to face the Jedi Trials. Before the pair parted, Dooku advised Jinn that his need for connection with other beings was dangerous, and betrayal should never catch him by surprise. Jinn passed the Jedi Trials, and became a Jedi Knight. Having successfully trained an apprentice, Dooku was promoted to Jedi Master. While Dooku and Jinn had been an effective team, their relationship after Jinn's Knighting was distant. However, Dooku was a great influence on his Padawan. Jinn followed Dooku's moral teachings as opposed to Yoda's in later life. He heeded all of Dooku's lessons except his last one, concerning the inevitability of betrayal.

As a Jedi Master, Dooku was one of the most highly regarded lightsaber instructors in the Jedi Order. Recordings of Dooku demonstrating lightsaber techniques were recorded on the Great Holocron and became mandatory viewing for two generations of Padawans. In addition, a lecture by Dooku on telekinesis was recorded by Jedi Master Asli Krimsan and preserved in her holocron. In the recording, Dooku described an encounter he had with Master Yoda when he was seven, in which Yoda asked him to move a pot with the Force. While Dooku thought the pot was light, and successfully moved it, it was actually massively heavy. During his time as an instructor within the Jedi Temple, Dooku's teachings on methods for conquering arrogance were also particularly well received.

Dooku was offered a place on the Jedi Council, but he turned it down so that he could remain more independent as a proactive peacekeeper. The Council agreed that his skills made him well suited for such field work. Despite this prior refusal, he was later offered another seat and accepted. Dooku was known as a political idealist and was skilled at resolving disputes throughout the galaxy. Dooku became friends with many younger Jedi, such as Mace Windu and Sifo-Dyas, and was considered part of the "Old Guard" of potential, current, and former Jedi Council members.Some time after the mission to Sevarcos he took a new apprentice, a young woman named Komari Vosa.

Around this time, Dooku was part of a diplomatic envoy aboard a consular ship. However, negotiations failed and fighting broke out, during which, Argyus, a young member of the Senate Guard, was seriously injured. Dooku helped save him and they soon became friends and associates.

Skirmish at Galidraan
Of the many missions Dooku undertook, the deadly skirmish at Galidraan was the most disastrous. An emergency call for aid by Galidraan's governor against a Mandalorian invasion prompted a swift but ill-prepared Jedi response. Dooku was the senior Jedi Master of the twenty Jedi thrown together for the task force. Unlike most of his companions, he had some knowledge of the enemy they were facing.

The governor of Galidraan had hired Jango Fett and his followers, the True Mandalorians, to eliminate a local insurgency that was fighting against him. Fett agreed to destroy them in exchange for the location of his enemy, Vizsla, the leader of the Mandalorian splinter faction known as the Death Watch. However, the governor was secretly working with Vizsla and had no intention of letting Fett live after the task was completed. He decided to use the Jedi to destroy the True Mandalorians, and enlisted their aid by claiming the Mandalorians had invaded and were slaughtering political dissidents. The Death Watch impersonated Fett's forces and murdered noncombatants to further incriminate the True Mandalorians in the eyes of the Jedi.

Dooku was aware of the Mandalorians' reputation as warriors and requested reinforcements from the Jedi Council. The urgency of the situation, however, required him to use only his initial task force. The Jedi were given the coordinates of Fett's camp and surrounded it; Dooku demanded their surrender. Instead, Fett ordered the Mandalorians to open fire. The encounter decimated both sides. The battle concluded after the deaths of eleven Jedi and the near-complete destruction of Fett's forces. Fett was captured alive after killing several Jedi with his bare hands. Upon orders from the Jedi Council, Dooku turned Fett over to the planet's governor without further investigation. The governor took Fett's armor and sold him into slavery.

While he was at the time unaware of the extent by which the Jedi had been manipulated, Dooku learned shortly thereafter how the Council and the Jedi had been used to further the governor's personal motives. This deeply offended Dooku, and he continued to seek out the full story behind the Galidraan debacle. Dooku took a particular interest in the fate of Jango Fett, who had earned his respect as a warrior.

Dooku's apprentice Komari Vosa was one of the survivors at Galidraan and was said to have killed twenty Mandalorians personally. While Dooku praised her skills with a lightsaber, he was not convinced she was worthy of becoming a Jedi Knight. In particular, he was disturbed by her inappropriate romantic feelings for him and her volatile personality. Some time after the incident on Galidraan, Dooku refused to recommend Vosa for the Jedi Trials and she was released from the Order.

Her release infuriated Vosa, but she managed to attach herself to a Jedi mission to Baltizaar to prove Dooku and the Council wrong. While the Jedi repulsed the ruthless Bando Gora cult there, they took heavy casualties. At the end of the fight Vosa was missing and presumed dead. Dooku submitted a protest to the Jedi Council after Baltizaar, arguing that the Council was wasting Jedi lives for political reasons.

Leaving the Order

 * "Even though I knew that the Senate was corrupt, the Council was fallible, and Jedi training methods far from perfect, I remained with the Jedi Order for twelve years after Galidraan. Why? Because I still believed that I could accomplish some good as a Jedi. I thought I could bring about some positive changes, right certain wrongs, and do better than maintain the status quo. In short, I was an utter fool." 
 * ―Darth Tyranus

After the battles of Galidraan and Baltizaar, Dooku became increasingly withdrawn from the Jedi Order. He refused to accept any more missions from the Jedi Council and became concerned about prophecies he felt were coming true about dark times unfolding across the galaxy. While he discussed his concerns with many of the Order's most prominent Jedi Masters, his friend Sifo-Dyas was his closest confidant.

Dooku's growing disenchantment with the Jedi way was sensed by Senator Palpatine, who had been watching Dooku for some time and had plans that required someone with Dooku's reputation, skills, and financial resources. Palpatine was secretly the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, and even before the Battle of Naboo he had held several meetings with Dooku to feel out his opinions and cultivate him as an ally. Dooku's behavior and beliefs as a Jedi had previously been within the scope of Jedi orthodoxy.However, Dooku flirted with the belief that the dark side of the Force could be called upon without personal corruption as his discontent with the Jedi Order grew.

Dooku made several public condemnations of the Senate after the death of his former Padawan Qui-Gon Jinn in a duel with the Sith Lord Darth Maul. This Zabrak was the apprentice of Darth Sidious, raised as a weapon to combat the Jedi Order. Maul did not survive his victory, as Jinn's apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi slew the Sith Lord with Jinn's own lightsaber. Shortly thereafter, Dooku resigned from the Jedi Order, retired to Serenno, and claimed his family title of Count. He neither gave a reason for his decision to leave the Jedi in his public announcement nor did he provide one when summoned before the Jedi Council to explain his actions.

Dooku's abrupt departure surprised and disturbed the Jedi Order. As a Jedi Master who had voluntarily resigned his commission, Dooku became part of the group later known as the Lost Twenty. In over two thousand years, only nineteen other Jedi Masters had walked away from the Order, and among those Dooku was considered the most bitter loss. A bronzium bust of Dooku was created to join the other sculptures of the Lost Twenty in the Jedi Archives.

Not long after he had left the order, he contacted his old friend Argyus, who was now a Captain in the Senate Guard. Argyus agreed to work for Dooku in secret.

Fall to the dark side
Dooku's disillusionment with the Senate and the Jedi were no secret to Palpatine, and Dooku was likely partially under Palpatine's influence even before the death of Qui-Gon Jinn. However, Dooku was not yet a Sith, nor was he aware that Palpatine's hidden identity was Darth Sidious. After the Battle of Naboo, Dooku gave some thought to hunting down the hidden second Sith, but concluded that even eliminating both Sith would not halt what he felt was the inevitable advance of the dark side.

Shortly thereafter, Dooku was approached directly by Darth Sidious. They had a long discussion, and Dooku found that Palpatine's goals were not dissimilar to his own. Despite the recent death of Dooku's apprentice Qui-Gon Jinn at the hands of Darth Maul, Darth Sidious found it surprisingly easy to convince Dooku to ally with the Sith. After seventy years in the Jedi Order, Dooku abandoned his friends and the Jedi way for the dark side of the Force.

Under the tutelage of Sidious, Dooku was renamed Darth Tyranus and became a Sith Lord. With his family holdings on Serenno, he had access to vast reserves of wealth that he used in the service of his new Master. Tyranus was soon fully enmeshed in Sidious's schemes. Shortly after Dooku left the Order, Sifo-Dyas secretly ordered a clone army from the planet Kamino, claiming the army was for the Jedi and the Republic. Sidious informed Dooku of this, and told him to eliminate his friend and gain control over the army.

Dooku obeyed, murdering the Jedi Master and moving his body to storage on Serenno. He then paid for Sifo-Dyas's clone army. After the death of Sifo-Dyas, Dooku successfully erased Kamino, Dromund, and thirty-five other star systems from the Jedi Archives, despite no longer being a Jedi himself. Additionally, Dooku stole information about secret Jedi hyperspace routes through the Deep Core region in the center of the galaxy.

Moving the pieces
Dooku had officially retired from public life, but he was by no means idle. On a mission to the planet Geonosis, on Sidious's behalf, he impressed Archduke Poggle the Lesser with his knowledge of ancient Geonosian atmospheric sailing vessels. The Archduke then presented Dooku with a Punworcca 116-class interstellar sloop as a gift. Dooku was pleased with the ship, and acquired an exotic solar sail in the Gree Enclave to install on the vessel. The sail propelled the sloop and allowed it to go to hyperspace without the use of a standard hyperdrive. This distinctive solar sailer remained Dooku's personal craft for the rest of his life.

Dooku also began to learn Sith teachings from Darth Sidious in The Works, a deserted industrial region of Coruscant. However, his training was soon interrupted by his Master with an urgent matter. The Bando Gora cult had reemerged and were dealing in assassination, deadly drugs, corruption, and chaos. Their influence in the galactic underworld was strong enough that Sidious considered them a threat to the plans of the Sith. This "threat" had grown because of their new leader, Komari Vosa, Dooku's former apprentice. Captured by the cult on Baltizaar and tortured to the point of madness, she had escaped and seized control of the entire criminal organization. Dooku had previously rediscovered Vosa, but was allowing her to live as an "experiment." Displeased, Sidious commanded Dooku to kill his former Padawan.

Darth Sidious also tasked Dooku with recruiting a template for the Grand Army of the Republic's clone troopers, one that was capable of slaying Jedi. Resolving to complete both of these missions at once, he placed an extravagant bounty of five million Republic credits on Komari Vosa, and pitted some of the galaxy's most fearsome bounty hunters against each other to kill or capture her. In the end, the Mandalorians Montross and Jango Fett faced each other on Kohlma, a moon of Bogden. Jango Fett triumphed over his long-hated rival Montross, although he needed some assistance from fellow bounty hunter Zam Wesell to escape after being briefly captured by the Bando Gora.

In a brutal fight, Fett subdued Komari Vosa and captured her alive. However, Dooku was also on Kohlma and had observed the fight in secret. He slew his former apprentice with the Force, and then revealed his presence to the surprised Jango Fett. Fett demanded payment, but was intrigued at Dooku's offer of greater wealth if he helped to create and train a clone army.

At a later meeting, Dooku and Jango Fett addressed the history that lay between them. While Dooku had discovered most of the true story behind the manipulation of the Jedi and the Mandalorians at Galidraan, he did not know what had happened to Fett afterwards and wished to find out. Mistrusting Dooku because of his Jedi past, Fett attempted to extort further concessions out of him by infecting him with a biological weapon. The Sith Lord feigned defeat and convinced Fett to tell the rest of his tale. While Fett spoke, Dooku healed himself with the power of the Force. Finding his leverage suddenly neutralized, Fett agreed to be cloned on the condition he would receive the first clone unaltered to have for his own.

Dooku's hand was silently behind many events in the years leading up to the Clone Wars. On the planet Ryloth, he supported the attempted coup of Twi'lek exile Kh'aris Fenn, with the intent that under Fenn's leadership Ryloth would eventually secede from the Republic. As part of his plan to seize power, Kh'aris Fenn had Clan Secura heir Nat Secura kidnapped. Nat Secura's father was Lon Secura, an influential clan leader and Fenn's enemy. When Jedi Master Tholme was captured trying to rescue the boy heir, Dooku himself intervened to spare the Jedi, as be thought Tholme could be of later use to him. Due to the actions of Tholme, his former apprentice Quinlan Vos, and Twi'lek Jedi Aayla Secura, Kh'aris Fenn did not succeed in usurping control of Ryloth and young Nat Secura was returned to his family. Though the Jedi had prevented Fenn's victory, they remained wholly ignorant of Dooku's role in the matter.

During this time Dooku also assisted a Trade Federation assault on Kashyyyk that resulted in the extermination of the army that served the Wookiee Trade Guild. The guild had resisted Trade Federation attempts to tax them. Since there were no Wookiee survivors of the battle, no rumor of Dooku's presence on Kashyyyk reached the Republic.

Creating Grievous

 * "I have the Kaleesh general. He was not conscious to witness his "Jedi" captor. In fact, he is completely unaware of what has transpired. You may begin preparations for your experiment." 
 * ―Darth Tyranus

As the years passed, Darth Sidious and Darth Tyranus made preparations for war against the Republic. They planned to use the droid armies of the Trade Federation and other corporations, and they needed generals for those armies. Sidious considered a Kaleesh leader named Grievous a candidate due to his skill in warfare, and ordered his apprentice to enlist Grievous to their cause.

Dooku in turn spoke with San Hill of the InterGalactic Banking Clan about recruiting Grievous. Grievous had previously been the head of the Banking Clan's droid army, but had left to fight in a war on his homeworld. San Hill, Dooku and Poggle the Lesser—who had remained an ally of Dooku's—then hatched a plan to cripple Grievous and rebuild him as a cyborg warrior under their control. They arranged for an ion bomb to be planted on Grievous's shuttle, Martyr. The shuttle was altered so that Grievous would be ejected when the bomb exploded.

Grievous was gravely injured in the explosion of Martyr, and by the time Dooku reached the site of the crash, he was already dying. Only a heart stun preserved his life long enough for him to be transported to Geonosis. While Grievous was being shipped to the Geonosian homeworld, Dooku returned to his own homeworld Serenno to collect the blood of Sifo-Dyas, whose corpse was stored there.

On Geonosis, the Geonosians encased what was left of Grievous in a metal body and rebuilt him almost completely. The resulting creation retained only part of the brain, the eyes, and a sack of internal organs from the original Kaleesh. Even Grievous's brain was altered and augmented to make the general a more effective tool of war. In addition, Sifo-Dyas's blood was transfused into Grievous during his reconstruction as an experiment in midi-chlorian transplantation. The midi-chlorians, did not induce Force-sensitivity in Grievous, but they helped to save his life.

Though he loathed cyborgs, Dooku was quite pleased with the finished "product". He personally trained Grievous in lightsaber combat, turning the cyborg into an expert duelist. Dooku now had a commander to lead droid armies in the upcoming galactic war, something the Count had no desire to do himself.

The Separatist movement
As plans laid by the Sith for over a decade began to come to fruition, Dooku reappeared on Raxus Prime two years before the Clone Wars, commandeering a Republic communications station and giving a speech that heavily criticized the Republic for its decadence, hypocrisy, and corruption and the Jedi Order for its complacency. Dooku publicly called for entire systems to secede from the Republic and join the Separatist movement. Separatist sentiment indeed soon spread, and on some planets dissatisfaction turned into armed resistance against the Republic. Propaganda in Dooku's name flooded communications networks, though much of it could not be directly attributed to him. Dooku himself had a mobile base of operations and no fixed address. Rumored sightings of him were headline news across the Republic.

As his fame grew, Dooku became a figure of great controversy. An unknown party posted a large illegal bounty for his death, and several bestsellers were written about his rise to prominence in galactic affairs. As the threat of violence spread, the Republic considered the Military Creation Act to better oppose the Separatists with an official Republic military. Pretending to seek peace, Chancellor Palpatine made a public address offering to meet Dooku on Bothawui, but Dooku did not answer. Even as the Separatist movement grew and coalesced around Dooku as a leader, the Jedi Council did not believe he could be behind the violence that the movement sometimes caused.

During this period, Dooku sought secret allies for his future plans. The Fondor Shipyards were critical to the plots of the Sith Lords, but three schemers plotted to destroy them for their own personal gain. Groodo the Hutt, Senator Rodd of Fondor, and Kuati droid designer Hurlo Holowan formed a pact to crash a ship into the yards, crippling their production. This conspiracy came to the attention of both Dooku and Techno Union leader Wat Tambor. Dooku sent Jango Fett to capture the three plotters alive, while Tambor hired the Trandoshan Cradossk to kill them. Fett outwitted Cradossk and his son Bossk to capture Rodd and Groodo, although he subcontracted Holowan's capture to Zam Wesell. Dooku, having convinced Tambor to cancel the other bounty on the trio, accepted the prisoners from Fett. He offered the three of them the opportunity to work for him, in exchange for their lives. Rodd, Groodo, and Holowan accepted Dooku's proposal. Dooku also recruited scientist Jenna Zan Arbor to the Separatist movement, and attempted to enlist Granta Omega, the son of Qui-Gon Jinn's apprentice Xanatos, to his cause. However, Omega was killed before he could enter the Count's service.

Dooku's next move was to try to arrange the secession of the planet Ansion. Ansion was the hub of a network of minor alliances, including the Malarian Alliance and the Keitumite Mutual Military Treaty. Due to these pacts, Ansion's secession would prompt many other wavering worlds to consider leaving the Republic. Commerce Guild President Shu Mai and Ansion Senator Mousul orchestrated Dooku's plan through various agents, backing the Separatist-inclined Unity of Community government against Ansion's Alwari nomads. The plan failed due to the intervention of Jedi Knights Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luminara Unduli as well as their Padawans Anakin Skywalker and Barriss Offee. In response, Dooku shrugged off the loss and informed Shu Mai that Ansion was not necessary in the grand scheme of the Separatist movement.

Shu Mai had also dealt with a small rebellion among the secret supporters of secession in the Commerce Guild. Industrialist Tam Uliss wished to step up the Commerce Guild's plans to bring down the Republic despite Ansion's failure to secede and against Shu Mai's wishes. Shu Mai informed Dooku that she had given Uliss's faction an object lesson by killing Uliss in a staged accident. Dooku was pleased, telling Shu Mai that his own plans were nearing completion.

Conspiracy revealed
Some of Dooku's allies were more reluctant than others. Nute Gunray insisted on the death of Padmé Amidala, the Senator and former Queen of Naboo who had led to Gunray's defeat in the ill-fated invasion of Naboo, as a prerequisite for the secession of the Trade Federation. Dooku sent Jango Fett to kill the Senator, but Fett decided to subcontract the task to Zam Wesell. The Jedi thwarted Wesell's assassination attempt, and Fett was forced to kill Wesell and leave without killing Amidala. Obi-Wan Kenobi then traced the weapon Fett used back to the planet Kamino. He discovered Fett there, as well as the clone army that Sifo-Dyas had once ordered. The army was now fully grown and ready for delivery to the Republic.

Fett escaped arrest on Kamino and fled to Geonosis, where a meeting between Dooku, the heads of many major business and economic interests, and selected senators was taking place. Many of these had long been allies of Dooku, such as Commerce Guild head Shu Mai and Archduke Poggle the Lesser. This meeting resulted in the formation of a new Confederacy of Independent Systems to oppose the Republic. Of the major factions present, the Corporate Alliance, Geonosian Industries, the Techno Union, the InterGalactic Banking Clan, and the Trade Federation became signatories to the treaty to form the Confederacy, while the Commerce Guild pledged unofficial support to the fledgling government. Kenobi, still pursuing Fett, discovered this meeting and attempted to inform the Jedi Council. However, Kenobi was captured by the Geonosians midway through his transmission. He was accused of espionage and thrown into a prison cell.

Deciding to interrogate Kenobi personally, Dooku visited the cell where the Jedi was held. The Geonosians had placed Kenobi in a containment field to immobilize him and disrupt his access to the Force. The captive Kenobi immediately accused the Count of treason, but Dooku claimed the Jedi's capture had been a mistake. While questioning the prisoner, Dooku sifted through Kenobi's memories, looking for weak points in his defenses. The Sith Lord then attempted to sway Kenobi to his side, claiming the Republic was incurably corrupt and that Qui-Gon Jinn himself would have joined Dooku if he knew the truth. When Kenobi refused to believe that his former Master would have ever abandoned the Jedi Order and the Republic, Dooku told him that Darth Sidious, a Sith Lord, had control over the Senate. He made one last appeal for Kenobi to defect, saying that together the two of them could destroy the Sith. Kenobi refused the offer. Disappointed, Dooku left the Jedi in his cell and mentioned that it would be difficult to secure his release.

Battle of Geonosis

 * "Master Windu. How pleasant of you to join us."
 * "This party's over."
 * "Brave, but foolish, my old Jedi friend. You're impossibly outnumbered."
 * ―Dooku and Mace Windu

Obi-Wan Kenobi's transmission to Coruscant had reached Anakin Skywalker and Senator Padmé Amidala on Tatooine, and the two of them attempted to rescue Kenobi despite orders from the Jedi Council to stay put. Both were captured trying to infiltrate the Geonosian stronghold where Kenobi was being held. Dooku offered clemency in return for Amidala supporting the Separatists, but she refused. The two would-be rescuers were both sentenced to death in the arena by the Geonosians following a quick trial.

Kenobi had also been sentenced to death in the same manner, and the three of them met again in the Petranaki arena. They were chained to poles, and an acklay, a reek and a nexu were released to devour them. Dooku, Gunray, Fett, and others observed from a high balcony, while Geonosian spectators packed the stands. However, the execution did not go precisely as planned, and the three escaped their chains. Gunray was furious that the three prisoners weren't dying as planned and ordered Fett to shoot them, but Dooku advised patience and countermanded the order.The three prisoners were still dodging the arena monsters when the executions were interrupted by the sudden arrival of Jedi reinforcements. Anakin Skywalker had retransmitted Kenobi's message to the Jedi Council, and they had dispatched a strike team led by Mace Windu, who surprised Dooku on the balcony, but spoke with him briefly instead of ambushing him.

Dooku had been anticipating the arrival of the Jedi reinforcements and revealed that the captured Jedi were simply bait for a trap. Ten thousand battle droids awaited Windu's task force, as well as numerous Geonosian warriors. Jango Fett then fired a flamethrower at Mace who leapt off the balcony to the arena floor. The new Separatist Droid Army of the Confederacy overwhelmed the reinforcements, and many Jedi died while Dooku observed from the balcony.

The Count did not join the battle personally, though Jedi Master Coleman Trebor reached the balcony and attempted to attack him. Fett killed Trebor, but was slain himself by Mace Windu when he descended to the arena floor. After the Jedi had taken significant losses and were trapped in the arena, Dooku ordered the droids to cease fire. He then called on Windu to surrender, but he refused.

The remaining Jedi prepared to meet their fate, but their rescue was at hand. Dropships descended from the sky, carrying Yoda and many clone troopers. The Jedi Order had taken command of the clone army Dooku had helped create, just as the Sith had planned. The droids opened fire again, but the reinforcements provided enough cover for the arena survivors to escape onto the dropships.

Similar landings took place outside the arena, where Trade Federation core ships had been parked. A clone invasion swept across Geonosis, and the Separatist forces were forced into full retreat. The leadership of the new Confederacy regrouped in the Geonosian command center, and agreed to abandon Geonosis. Dooku pretended not to know how the Republic had gathered such a powerful army in so short a time, while Poggle the Lesser commanded his warriors to hide in the catacombs under the Stalgasin hive. Poggle also entrusted the plans of the Geonosians' Ultimate Weapon to Dooku to keep the Jedi from discovering them.

Dooku himself fled to his secret hangar on a speeder with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker in close pursuit. They arrived as Dooku was preparing his solar sailer for launch and confronted him. Kenobi instructed Skywalker to be cautious in his approach, but Skywalker charged at Dooku. The young Jedi Padawan was unprepared for Dooku's resulting blast of Force Lightning that hit him and telekinetically threw him against the wall of the hangar. Skywalker collapsed to the floor, temporarily incapacitated, leaving Kenobi to face Dooku alone.

Kenobi easily absorbed Dooku's next blast of Force Lightning so Dooku ignited his lightsaber and faced the Jedi in a lightsaber duel. Kenobi resisted the Sith Lord for a few minutes but was ultimately no match for Dooku who slashed him on the arm and then on the knee defeating him. Dooku didn't even have to try his hardest, though this was partly because Kenobi was exhausted from the fight in the Petranaki arena. Just as the Sith Lord was about to finish the Jedi however Skywalker used the Force to propel himself across the room and block the blow.

Kenobi then tossed Skywalker his own lightsaber and the Padawan attacked Dooku with both lightsabers but his use of Jar'Kai was no match for the Sith Lord's mastery of Makashi and Dooku quickly sliced one of his lightsabers in half. Skywalker attempted to overpower Dooku using Djem So but even his proficiency at Djem So wasn't enough to defeat Dooku who outmaneuvered him and severed his right arm before Force pushing him to the ground. Dooku just had time to catch his breath before being confronted by Master Yoda.

Dooku started off by throwing peices of machinery at the Jedi Master followed by part of the ceiling but Yoda telekinetically deflected the assaults. Dooku then tried to blast the diminutive Jedi Master with Force Lightning but Yoda deflected it back at him. Dooku tried again but this time Yoda absorbed it in his bare hand. Realising that his Force powers would not be enough to defeat Yoda Dooku suggested they settle this with a lightsaber duel. Yoda complied and the two of them leapt at each other and landed in the middle of the hanger where they began to duel.

Although Dooku's Makashi would usually be effective against an Ataru user, Yoda was considered the Jedi Orders most powerful master of Ataru and was able to fight the Sth Lord as an equal. Despite being tired Dooku proved himself capable of holding his own against the diminutive Jedi Master and Yoda later claimed that he might have been able to defeat him if he had been at full strength, but Dooku was unable to overcome Yoda. Realising that this was a fight he couldn't win Dooku telekinetically brought a large column down towards the injured Kenobi and Skywalker forcing Yoda to telekinetically move the column away from the two Jedi while Dooku made his escape in his Solar Sailor.

Having fled the battle, Dooku set his course for Coruscant, landing undetected on the Republic capital with his solar sailer. In The Works he met with his Master and informed him that events were moving forward and the long-planned war had begun. Darth Sidious was pleased with what his apprentice had accomplished.

Duel on Bakura
Immediately after reporting to Sidious in the wake of the Battle of Geonosis and the beginning of the Clone Wars, Dooku headed to his secret base on Bakura to regroup the scattered Separatist forces. However, Jedi Master Tholme anticipated Dooku's journey to Bakura, and lay in wait with Jedi master Sora Bulq. The pair hoped to capture the Sith Lord, and confronted Dooku while he was still fatigued from the events on Geonosis.

The three combatants engaged in a ferocious lightsaber duel. At first it seemed the Jedi had the upper hand, mainly because of Sora's use of Vaapad but then Dooku used Force lightning to take down Bulq. He then tried to bring Tholme over to the dark side, but Tholme refused. Dooku attacked Tholme, stabbing through his shoulder before removing the Jedi's left eye. Finally, Dooku brought the roof down upon Tholme, leaving him under a vast pile of rubble. He then left with the unconscious body of Sora Bulq.

Dooku tended to Bulq's wounds and converted him to the dark side of the Force through persuasion. Sora Bulq would become a loyal ally to Dooku and a valuable asset for the Confederacy during the war. The Count dispatched Bulq to rescue the injured Tholme from the rubble, so that Bulq would be able to work within the Jedi Temple on Dooku's behalf without suspicion.

The loss of Sev'rance Tann
Over the next month Dooku's most trusted General was Sev'rance Tann. Shortly after the start of the war, Dooku ordered Tann to invade and capture the Republic energy world of Sarapin with her army. While Tann succeeded in capturing the world, she did not hold it for long. The Republic struck back, and the Clone Army led by the former Padawan of Mace Windu Echuu Shen-Jon and retook Sarapin. Later Enchuu Shen-Jon defeated and killed Tann at the Battle of Krant. The Decimators were destroyed in the process, removing the advantage the Separatists had gained from their possession.

Recruiting Asajj Ventress
Six weeks after the Battle of Geonosis, Dooku traveled to The Cauldron, a gladiatorial arena on Rattatak. He was hoping to find a new servant to carry out his wishes. Upon his arrival, he was greeted by his host and taken to watch the contest. He soon sensed a disturbance in the Force as Asajj Ventress, a Rattataki warlord, silently assassinated his guide, seeking to impress him. Dooku praised her skills, but told her he wasn't looking for a spy.

Ventress then jumped down into the arena, slaughtering the other gladiators under Dooku's watchful gaze. When she had finished, Dooku applauded her, telling her she was more powerful than he had sensed. Ventress claimed in turn to be a Sith, but Dooku laughed at her before leaping into the arena and denying her claim. Ventress angrily attacked Dooku, but before she could reach him he incapacitated her with Force lightning.

Dooku brought the unconscious Ventress to a room on Rattatak and waited for her to wake up. When she did, he attacked her as she was exploring her surroundings and they engaged in a vicious lightsaber duel across the room, taunting her as they fought. Ventress was skilled, able to hold her own against the Sith Lord long enough to impress Dooku and Darth Sidious. However, Dooku brought her down, disarming her of her two lightsabers and then sundering the weapons. Ventress admitted defeat, but instead of killing his opponent, Tyranus introduced her to his Master, Darth Sidious, who was impressed by her skill with her lightsabers. Sidious then set Tyranus's new servant on a mission to find and kill Anakin Skywalker. Ventress was eager to kill a Jedi, and Dooku gave her a pair of lightsabers that had once belonged to his fallen apprentice, Komari Vosa.

Tyranus was confident that she would quickly dispatch Skywalker; Sidious said that it did not matter either way, as she was only an instrument of their plans. Asajj Ventress would encounter Skywalker many times throughout the Clone Wars, though she never did succeed in killing him. She also served Dooku as a commander and acolyte.

The war intensifies
Meanwhile Dooku had replaced Sev'rance Tann with General Grievous who first revealed himself six weeks after the beginning of the Clone Wars. Grievous proved a worthy choice as Supreme Commander. He was revealed to the Jedi on Hypori to devastating effect, outmaneuvering five Jedi at once. His emergence as the commander of the Confederacy's droid armies changed the course of the war from then on, and he slew many Jedi personally

During the first few months of the Clone Wars, Dooku spent much of his time inciting systems to rebel and preparing strategies against the Republic. However, mindful of the ultimate goals of the Sith, he also sabotaged some of their potential victories. The Battle of Kamino was designed by Dooku and Sidious to prolong the Clone Wars and scupper any advantage that the Separatists initially had. Commander Merai, a Mon Calamari idealist and one of the Confederacy's best tacticians, planned an assault on the planet Kamino to wipe out the cloning facilities. Jedi Knight Aayla Secura discovered this planned attack, and relayed the information to the Republic. Dooku's agent Tookarti informed the count of these events, but Dooku told him that they did not matter.

The battle went just as the Sith Lords had planned. The Republic fleet ambushed the Confederacy's ships and destroyed many of them. Furthermore, Merai was killed and his fleet routed. Despite the losses the CIS sustained, this was a victory for the plans of the Sith. While Dooku regretted the loss of Merai, Sidious was pleased with how their strategy had effectively ruined all hopes of an early end to the conflict. The critical Kamino cloning facilities had been saved, maintaining the balance of power between Confederacy and Republic forces.

Prevented by Darth Bane's Rule of Two from taking his own Sith apprentice,Dooku instead built a cadre of Dark Acolytes. Along with Asajj Ventress, Sev'rance Tann and Sora Bulq, Dooku enlisted former Jedi Tol Skorr and Kadrian Sey. He honed their skills but taught them few, if any, of the Sith secrets.

On the galactic scale of the war, Dooku's charisma swayed many to the Confederate cause—whole star systems pledged themselves to the Separatist cause on the former Jedi's words alone (though this may have partly been because of his skill in Mind Tricks). In addition to his Force adepts, Dooku recruited warriors like the mercenary Cydon Prax to augment the Confederacy's already potent arsenal. Even the Jedi Order was not initially united against the Separatists, as a few Jedi even joined Dooku's forces, while others had refused to join their comrades in the war. One Jedi allied with Dooku, Sora Bulq, exploited the Republic's ignorance over his true allegiance and attempted to convince more Jedi to ally with the Separatists at a meeting at his family estate on the moon of Ruul.

This plot to divide the Jedi failed due to the intervention of Mace Windu, who unmasked Bulq as a traitor. Sian Jeisel, one of the wavering Jedi Bulq had invited to Ruul, even agreed to lead clones in the war. She and two other Jedi, Masters Kai Justiss and Tsui Choi, were on a Republic troopship that was captured by Dooku's forces. The Jedi expected to be killed, but Dooku unexpectedly ordered their release, claiming that all Jedi were his brothers and sisters. Bulq questioned him about this approach in private, and Dooku said that the purpose was to sow dissension among the Jedi, and that even mercy had its uses.

The corruption of Quinlan Vos
Four months after the beginning of the war another Jedi, Quinlan Vos, had originally been dispatched by the Jedi Council to infiltrate Dooku's inner circle. This was a risky gamble by the Jedi, as Vos was dangerously close to the dark side, and Dooku knew this, hoping to use it to his advantage. Vos, on his mission to get closer to the Count, dealt with Dooku's agent Tookarti, offering Republic holocomm codes. Tookarti then framed Vos as the one who had betrayed the Republic at the Battle of Brentaal IV. Only a few of the Jedi knew of Vos's undercover mission, so Agen Kolar was sent to hunt the supposed renegade Jedi down. Vos escaped Kolar and continued on his mission.

After gaining admittance to the Count's headquarters by fighting his personal guard of Tol Skorr and Kadrian Sey, Vos was accepted as an acolyte. His skills were tested by Dooku and Sora Bulq and found satisfactory, so Dooku asked Vos to accompany him on a mission to Tibrin, the planet of the Ishi Tibs. There, Dooku and his minions met with the leader of Tibrin, Suribran Tu, a notorious dictator hated by the populace. Suribran Tu offered to defect to Dooku and rule Tibrin for the Confederacy.

Dooku asked Vos and Sey what he should do with the Ishi Tib ruler. Sey argued that they should accept Suribran's offer, while Vos said that since he was willing to betray the Republic he could not be trusted and allowing his oppressive government to remain would only prove that the Confederacy was no better than the Republic. Dooku accepted Vos's argument and beheaded the Ishi Tib ruler. The population of Tibrin then hailed Dooku as a liberator.

Vos soon had another mission: to kill Senator Zurros, a Falleen who had earned Dooku's disfavor. Instead of killing the senator, Vos intimidated him into submission. Zurros promised not to betray Dooku again, and Vos took his topknot and a recording of him begging for forgiveness back to the Separatist headquarters.

The Count and his minions were otherwise occupied when Vos arrived. Jedi Master Shylar had been captured trying to infiltrate Dooku's headquarters, and he was interrogating her with the assistance of Sey and Skorr. Shylar was a childhood friend of Vos's who had once held romantic feelings for him, and she condemned him as a traitor, but Vos did nothing to save her, mindful of his cover. Dooku accepted Vos's creative interpretation of the orders he had been given about Zurros. He then returned to the torture of Shylar, who died believing Vos had betrayed the Jedi.

The next mission Dooku invited Vos on was to Vos's own homeworld of Kiffu. The Count had been negotiating with Sheyf Tinté Vos, Quinlan's great-aunt, in order to establish a Separatist base on Kiffu's twin planet of Kiffex. Tinté refused to accept Dooku's monetary offer for basing rights, and Dooku ordered her killed. While the Sheyf's guards were slaughtered, Vos rescued his great-aunt and led her to safety, killing Kadrian Sey in the process.

Dooku pursued Vos and caught up with him and Tinté Vos. His cover blown, Vos attempted to defend his great-aunt, but was quickly defeated by the Sith Lord. Dooku urged him to read the woman with his Kiffar psychometry. Vos did so and learned that his great-aunt had sacrificed his parents to the Anzati to seize power. Overcome by rage, Vos cut down his great-aunt and became submerged in the dark side of the Force. As a reward for Vos genuinely giving into the dark side Dooku gave Vos the power crystal of Darth Andeddu's lightsaber.

Dealing with Hutts
Shortly after the corruption of Quinlan Vos, Dooku, with the help of Ziro the Hutt, arranged the kidnapping of Rotta the Huttlet, the son of Ziro's own nephew Jabba the Hutt. Dooku went to Tatooine to negotiate with Jabba in order to get him to join the Separatists.

Personality and traits
Count Dooku was an accomplished philosopher, orator, polititian and warrior and was regarded as one of the greatest Jedi ever for his strength in the Force, skill with a lightsaber and his strength of character. Yoda considered him one of the Jedi Order's greatest Jedi but after his betrayal he considered him one of his greatest failures.

Even as a Jedi youngling, Dooku felt driven to succeed. He was fully devoted to the ideals of the Jedi Order and the ideal of service to the galaxy. He sought to become a great Jedi Master, and did not even consider the possibility of a life outside the Order, though he knew of his heritage as a nobleman and at times felt self-conscious about it. Dooku chose Padawans he thought had the potential to become great Jedi themselves, and endeavored to teach them all he knew. Dooku had no known romantic relationships, but his Padawan Komari Vosa was infatuated with him. This was one of the factors that led to his recommendation that she be dismissed from the Jedi Order.

Even before his turn to the dark side Dooku did not forgive betrayal easily and became rather paranoid about it. An encounter as a Jedi Knight with Lorian Nod, his former friend who had once tried to frame him, nearly led to Nod's death. However, his Padawan Qui-Gon Jinn successfully appealed to Dooku's honor as a Jedi, and Dooku relented.

Dooku eventually began to lose faith in the Jedi Order and the Republic believing the Senate was corrupt and the Jedi Order little more than servants to the Senate. This largely influenced his fall to the dark side and he later came to believe that all Jedi should turn to the dark side and rule tha galaxy without the interference of the Senate. He believed that the sorrow and injustice of the galaxy could only be responded to with anger and hate and intended to turn the Jedi Order into a Sith Army. However, as he admitted to Sora Bulq, he couldn't just ask the Jedi to turn to the dark side and believed that he would have to increase the general anger of the Jedi Order in order to corrupt it and saw the Clone Wars as a perfect opportunity to increase the darkness within the Order.

Despite his turn to the dark side Dooku generally assumed a polite and civilised manner and was a good negotiator able to pursuade many planets to join the Confederacy of Independant Systems. However he would not hesitate to resort to torture and murder and even with his plans for the Jedi Order he wouldn't hesitate to cause the deaths of the Jedi. In combat Dooku often taunted his opponents in an attempt to make them lose focus.

Powers and abilities

 * "He is a fencer. Leverage, position, advantage—they are as natural to him as breathing." 
 * ―Qui-Gon Jinn

Count Dooku was a formidable master of the Force as well as lightsaber combat. Dooku was the only Jedi besides Yoda, Sora Bulq and Dooku's own former Padawan Qui-Gon Jinn who was able to defeat Mace Windu in sparring. Though he was skilled in most, if not all forms of lightsaber combat except Form VI: Shien, Dooku's preferred style was Makashi and he was generally considered the most powerful Makashi master alive. Dooku's style relied on his ability to outmaneuver his foes with footwork and to parry attacks and then strike back with precise counterattacks, rather than trying to overpower his enemies by brute force.

When facing blaster weilding opponents Dooku would generally resort to Soresu in order to fend off a large number of enemies. However Dooku started using Soresu less and less during his time as a Sith Lord as he rarely had to face an opponent who wasn't weilding a lightsaber. Dooku was also known to use the Djem So opening stance from time to time, notably using it during his duel with Anakin Skywalker on Geonosis before reverting to his preferred Makashi style.

Dooku displayed the ability to overpower Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi without much trouble during their duel on Geonosis and also held his own against Yoda who believed that he may have defeated him if he hadn't been tired out. Dooku was able to hold his own against the formidable lightsaber duelist Sora Bulq and fend of Tholme at the same time (though Tholme was considerably less powerful than Bulq). Dooku was certainly one of the most skilled duellists of his time and one of the very few who would have a reasonable chance of defeating Darth Sidious in combat.

Dooku also possessed a very strong connection to the Force and was a master of Telekinesis able to lift several objects at the same time. He sometimes used Telekinesis in the middle of a lightsaber duel, using it on Geonosis to bring a column down towards Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi while maintaining a bladelock with Yoda at the same time. Dooku was also able to jump long distances and even in his later years he was still capable of the speed and agility of a much younger man.

After turning to the dark side Dooku learned how to use Force Lightning, often using the power against his opponents. However Dooku's Force Lightning was weaker than Darth Sidious' Lightning as Yoda was able to deflect and absorb it with ease on Geonosis while he had considerably more difficulty doing it with Sidious' Force Lightning. Nevertheless Dooku was capable of a powerful blast of Force Lightning and could even combine it with Telekinesis as displayed on Geonosis when he Telekinetically threw Anakin Skywalker against a wall while using Force Lightning at the same time. Dooku also had the ability to use Force Choke.

Dooku was also a master of Jedi Mind Tricks and he was able to tame vicious animals and bend them to his will. He also had the ability to read minds and as Darth Tyranus he learned how to rip information out of the minds of others by using the Force. Dooku was also capable of using the Force to hide himself from enemies.