Poggle the Lesser

"The Jedi must not find our plans for the Ultimate Weapon. If they find out what we are planning to build, we're doomed."

- Poggle the Lesser, in Geonosian, to Count Dooku

Poggle the Lesser is the Archduke of Geonosis and is a supporting antagonist of the Star Wars franchise appearing as a supporting antagonist in Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones, a major antagonist in Star Wars: The Clone Wars serving as the central antagonist of the Geonosis arc, and appearing in Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith as a minor antagonist.

He was the Archduke of Geonosis and was the public leader of the Geonosian race during the Clone Wars. He was a servant of the Geonosian Queen Karina the Great and was nominally in control of the Stalgasin Hive. He was in control of the Baktoid Droid Factories on Geonosis which  made him a powerful and high-ranking figure within the Confederacy of Independent Systems and he joined the Separatist war effort and served as a member of the Separatist Council and lead the Confederacy against the Republic throughout the war.

Geonosian Revolt
Poggle grew up on Geonosis where he was born into a lower cast of the Geonosian race, hence his name "the Lesser" comes from. He was envious of Geonosian Archduke Hadiss the Vaulted and he sought after his position and thus, plotted a revolt to overthrow him. Hadiss had given little concern to Poggle and his rebels and would easily crush them that is until, the Sith Lord Darth Sidious had came in and aided his revolution with financial support.

The Revolution was a success and Hadiss was overthrown and Poggle assumed control over the Stalgasin Hive and became the new archduke. After usurping power, Poggle became the new leader of the Geonosian people and had Hadiss executed in the Geonosian Arena.

Archduke and Creating Grievous
After Poggle the Lesser had became the new archduke, he was greatful towards Sidious and further aided in his plans as componsation for his aid in having Poggle take over Geonosis. Seeing how he was in control over the planet's droid factories, Poggle made a deal with Sidious to help produce Battle Droids for the Trade Federation to aid in their planned invasion of Naboo. Poggle agreed and he struck a deal with the Trade Federation and its viceroy Nute Gunray. Despite both men hating each other, the fact that they put their hatred aside was a show of how powerful the influence of the dark lord was. Poggle had created the droids needed for the Trade Federation and they soon landed on Naboo in 32 BBY when the company blockaded and occupied the planet and had the droids maintain their grip on the world.

Following the Trade Federation's defeat at the Battle of Naboo, Poggle was approached by the rogue Jedi-turned Sith Lord Count Dooku who revealed himself to be Darth Tyranus. He had made a deal with Poggle that Geonosis would become one of the founding worlds of the Confederacy of Independent Systems and would supply a large bulk of the Separatist Droid Army. In exchange, Poggle would pay a large sum of money for his trouble and Grievous would earn a place in the Confederacy's military. The partnership was very lucrative so much so that Poggle personally developed the Super Battle Droids on the Geonosian droid factories himself.

The Archduke then assisted Count Dooku and InterGalactic Banking Clan Chairman San Hill in the rehabilitation of Kaleesh warlord Qymaen jai Sheelal after he suffered from a shuttle crash. Poggle had his engineers develop the cybernetic inplants that the Kaleesh warlord had needed and he soon rose up and was reborn as the ruthless General Grievous and became the Supreme Commander of the Droid Armies.

Separatist Crisis
During the Separatist Crisis, Poggel stood out as one of the first and arden supporter of the Separatist cause. He pledged the Geonosian people and their army to Count Dooku in service of the newly formed Confederacy of Independent Systems and met with Dooku and Mandalorian Bounty Hunter Jango Fett. Poggle then gathered with the other Separatist leaders on Geonosis where they had all pledged their support to Dooku and signed their treay effectively announcing their secession from the Galactic Republic. During this time, Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi was captured by the Geonosians and eventually, the Separatists had captured his apprentice Anakin Skywalker and Senator Padme Amidala where they refused to release them unless Naboo had joined the Separatist cause and seceeded from the Republic.

Padme had refused and so, she and her secret wife Anakin were brought before the Geonosian people in court where they were put on trial for espionage and conspiracy and were sentenced to the arena for execution. Padme then said that Poggle was commiting an act of war to which the archduke arrogantly replied that Geonosis was already prepared as they were building weapons since before the crisis.

First Battle of Geonosis
After Padme, Anakin and Obi-Wan were brought before the Geonosian people in the arena for execution, Poggle had attended the event leading it and was accompanied by Count Dooku, Bute Gunray, and Rune Haako as they all oversaw the event. After the three of them broke free and overcame the beasts that were supposed to execute them, a team of 212 Jedi had arrived and landed in the stadium where they engaged in battle with a legions of the Separatist Droid Army. Over the course of the battle, the 212 Jedi were withered down to only a couple dozen and were on the verge of all being killed when the Grand Army of the Republic lead by Jedi Grand Master Yoda had arrived and saved them.

Poggle and the other Separatist leaders then retreated to the war room they had and oversaw the battle errupt. Poggle and the other Separatist leaders were taken by surprise at how the Jedi were able to amass such a large army and how they overpowered and outnumbered their droid forces according to Dooku. Eventually, Dooku and the other members of the Separatist Council had decided to withdraw and escape but not before leaving without one crucial detail. Poggle quickly went over to a consol and gave Dooku the plans for their Ultimate Weapon, the Death Star and gave it to him so that the Republic wouldn't find out about it.

Dealings with Rush Clovis
Sometime during the war, Poggle had collaborated with Trade Federation Senator Lott Dod and Scipio Senator Baron Rush Clovis to rebuild the primary droid foundry on Geonosis. Clovis then met with Lott Dod in his palace on Cato Neimodia where the senator and Poggle had demanded a greater share of the profits from the foundry and the droids that it would produce. Clovis declined their offer and so the two ended up poisoning Padme in an attempt to sawy Clovis to meet their demand. Padme was cured and left Cato Neimodia but not before she took the holodisc that housed the droid foundry plans and of which Clovis was confronted over by Dod due to its disappearance.

Second Battle of Geonosis
Poggle later returned back to his homeworld of Geonosis where he lead his people to rise up against the Republic. He set up shop in the foundry where the archduke oversaw the production of battle droids for use against the Republic forces and was supported by a tactical droid advisor, TX-21, who also oversaw the construction of new battle droids and the new Super Tanks. Poggle remained in the foundry as the Geonosian warriors waged a brutal counter attack and offensive against the Republic forces. He remained there while his people attacked the Republic troops and inflicted heavy casualties on the Republic forces but were beaten back despite their efforts and defenses.

Poggle eventually set up defensive positions in his factory as the Republic forces lead by Jedi Generals Anakin Skywalker and Luminara Unduli gathered outside of the facility and marched to the bridge. Poggle then had garrisons of droids sent out to keep the Republic forces at bay while the Super Tanks were still in production and the droid forces were supported by local Geonosian warriors who supported the droid forces via attacks from the air. The Super Tanks were eventually deployed and they began wipping out the Republic forces, decimating their infantry, and destroying their heavy canons and walkers which forced them to fall back. Seeing that the Clones couldn't destroy the tanks, Anakin and Luminara instead snuch under the bridge between the foundry and the other side and planted explosives under the bridge so that the tanks would be destroyed.

While he was in his factory, Poggle was informed that two Jedi Padawans, Barriss Offe and Ahsoka Tano, had secretly snuck into the factory via the catacombs and were heading towards the main reactor of the factory. The archduke and TX-21 eventually arrived at the reactor room accompanied by a small group of Geonosian warriors with a Super Tank backing them and he had them and his advisor deal with the Padawans while he withdrew and escaped from the facility. The foundry was eventually destroyed and the Padawans had survived but Poggle wasn't in the ruins of the foundry and was already on the run. Poggle then retreated in an Armoured Assault Tank and headed back towards the Stalgasin Hive to regroup with Queen Karine the Great knowing that Geonosis had fallen. The Republic starts a manhunt for him while they begin regrouping their forces and prepare to withdraw from the planet.

Returning to the Hive
Poggle had later returned to the hive and met with Karina the Great who was hiding underground throughout the entire invasion. There, brain worms were collected and would later be snuck onboard a Republic ship after they infected a clone trooper and he later sent out other worms to infect the rest of the squad. Luminara had went on her own search and eventually made her way to the hive that Poggle was at and she was eventually captured by Geonosians that were resurrected and undead and the same undead Geonosians would later fight against Anakin and Obi-Wan along with their clone task force during a mission to locate and rescue Luminara. They eventually found Poggle in the chamber of the queen where Luminara was being held and was planning on using the brain worm to infect her when the two Jedi arrived.

Both of them had gotten their lightsabers taken away while Obi-Wan conversed with Karina the Great but eventually they got their sabers back and began to bring down the pillars supporting the chamber and killed the queen and many undead Geonosians in the process. Before that however, Anakin found and cuffed Poggle and brought him to the surface during their escape and escorted him to a venator-Class Star Destroyer, the Resolute, and put in a prison cell. On board the Resolute, Poggle was left in his cell with his only ocmpany being a tactical droid there to translate and he was interrogated numerous times by Ki-Ai-Mundi and Luminara Unduli but, he didn't cooperate at all. When the news broke out that brain worms had infected almost all personal on Ahsoka's ship, Anakin faced Poggle and forced choked him into complying and eventually got the answers he needed.

Early Imprisonment
After the Second Battle of Geonosis, Poggle was brought back to the Republic capitol of Coruscant where he was imprisoned in the Republic Center for Military Operations. He would remain in custody for the next thirteen months while being subjected to interrogation by Republic intelligence numerous times with one of the main topics being the subject of the "ultimate weapon' designed by the Stalgasin Hive and was thought to be under construction for the Confederacy. Poggle had denied the Geonosian association and denied the existance of such a project, even though the plans were secretly in possession by the Republic Special Weapons Group.

Dealings with Krennic
During his time in prison, Poggle was eventually approached by Lieutenant Commander Orson Krennic of the Special Weapons Group in an attempt to get more information about the battle station intended for use by the Confederacy. Krennic, who wanted to work on the project and spearheaded its production, had appealed to the archduke by appealing towards his allegience to the Geonosian people and convinced him to hand over the Geonosian population to help work on the Death Star and Poggle ended up joining the Republic once more. Poggle returned back to Geonosis on the day of Meckgin and convinced the worker population to assist in constructing the Death Star.

Defecting from the Republic
Despite working for the Republic, Poggle secretly had alterior motives for wanting to assist Krennic in the Death Star's construction. While on Geonosis, Poggle had secretly gathered the Geonosian people and started an uprising comprised of the Geonosian workers who helped construct the Death Star. With the contruction halted and sabotaged, Poggle stole a modified shuttle and broke through the Republic flotilla and escaped into hyperspace.

Rejoining the Confederacy
After the uprising, Poggle escaped the Galactic Republic and returned back into territories controled by the Confederacy of Independent Systems. With Poggle back in Confederate space, he returned to the Separatists and once more lead the war effort. In 19 BBY toward the end of the war, Poggle and the other members of the Separatist Council were sent to Utapau as a safe haven while General Grievous and Count Dooku lead a massive invasion of Coruscant in response to a series of Republic victories to turn the tide of the war back into the Separatists' favor. While there, Poggle oversaw the Separatist attack on Coruscant and celebrated along with the other Separatist leaders over there appearent victory but, the chancellor was saved, Dooku was killed, and the Separatist forces retreated.

Evacuation to Mustafar
Following the Separatist retreat from Coruscant, the war turned sour for the Confederacy as Count Dooku, the Confederate Head of State, was killed over the planet and Grievous assumed the title as the new head of state. The Geonosian Archduke appeared at a meeting where Grievous adressed the members of the Separatist Council on how it wouldn't be long before the Republic would find them on Utapau and how the Separatist leaders would have to escape and he sent them all to the Outer Rim in Mustafar to hide out. Poggle remained silent as Nute Gunray voiced his distrust with the general over his failed invasion of Coruscant but he agreed with the general's idea and he joined the other council members and all went on their ship and fled to their facility on Mustafar deep in the Outer Rim Territories.

Massacre on Mustafar
Poggle had arrived on Mustafar and remained the war room as the Separatist Council oversaw the last moments of the war. After hearing the news about the death of General Grievous on Utapau, the Separatist Council assumed control over the Confederacy and Nute Gunray, the council leader, became the new head of state. Sometime following the instigation of Order 66, Darth Sidious adressed the members of the Separatist Council, Poggle included, where he congraduated them for their service to Sidious and how he would sent his new apprentice, Darth Vader, to "take care" of them. Poggle remained there and awaited for the arrival of Darth Vader after the Jedi Order was destroyed by the Clone Army and all the Jedi Commanders and Generals were being gunned down by the Clone Army. Vader arrived on Mustafar and the Separatist Leaders greated him but were then shocked when he shut the room's doors and began cutting them down one by one. During the massacre, Poggle held up his staff in defense but, it didn't do anything and was quickly sliced in half by Darth Vader.

Legacy
After the Separatist Leaders were all killed on Mustafar, the shut-down order was activated and the droid army was shut down and the Confederacy had dissolved shorlty after the Republic was as well during the Decleration of a New Order. Following the end of the Clone Wars, Geonosis was one of the many planets and Confederate worlds that were annexed into the newly formed Galactic Empire and they began constructing the Death Star over Geonosis with the enslaved Geonosian race which was handed over as a result of Poggle's actions during his time in Republic prison. Poggle's actions lead to the return of the Sith and his entire species was one of many enslved by the empire, but was nearly exterminated in a sterlization campaign shorlty before the station's completion.

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