Sifo-Dyas/Legends

"Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas is still a leading member of the Jedi Council, is he not?"

- Kamino Prime Minister Lama Su, to Obi-Wan Kenobi

Sifo-Dyas was a male Human Jedi Master who served the Jedi Order as a member of the Jedi High Council during the last decades of the Galactic Republic. When the Sith were revealed to have returned during the Invasion of Naboo in 32 BBY, Master Sifo-Dyas secretly commissioned the creation of a clone army, placing an order with the Kaminoan government before he was murdered by his friend, Master Dooku.

Jedi Master
A Force-sensitive Human, Sifo-Dyas was raised by the Jedi Order and taught the ways of the Force at the Coruscant Jedi Temple. Attaining the rank of Jedi Master after constructing a blue-bladed lightsaber, Sifo-Dyas became a close friend of Master Dooku and the two were both given temporary seats on the Jedi High Council. Gifted with precognition, Master Sifo-Dyas' relation with Dooku is unclear, though Grand Master Yoda would later theorize that the Count of Serenno was manipulating his friend. At a formal gathering upon Perlemian Orbital Facility, Hego Damask&mdash;the Sith Lord known as Darth Plagueis&mdash;following up on a previous conversation with Sifo-Dyas suggested to him that he should seek the cloners on Kamino and have them grow a human army. Therefore, in order to defend the Republic, Master Sifo-Dyas secretly commissioned a clone army from the aforementioned cloners. Falsely claiming to be a leading member of the High Council while dealing with the cloners and backed financially by Hego Damask, the Kaminoans, using Jango Fett as a template&mdash;hired by Dooku&mdash;began cloning and training soldiers for the Republic.

Unknown to Sifo-Dyas throughout this time, Master Dooku had fallen in league with Darth Sidious, Dark Lord of the Sith. Revealing Sifo-Dyas' plans to his new Master, Dooku pledged himself to the Sith and began to carryout his Master's bidding. Erasing all records of Kamino from the Temple Archives, Dooku's final test his Master provided him was to murder his old friend, Master Sifo-Dyas. Executing the man, Dooku usurped all control of the project for the Sith, using Sifo-Dyas as a cover.

Legacy
Instead of disposing of the body, Dooku preserved his old friend's body in a cryogenic hibernation capsule for years until the InterGalactic Banking Clan initiated their plan to turn the Kaleesh warlord, General Qymaen jai Sheelal, into a great cyborg supreme strategist. Transfusing Sifo-Dyas' blood into the veins of the cyborg, Grievous would go on to become the Supreme Commander of the Confederacy of Independent Systems' droid army. Once Grievous' transformation into a cyborg had been successfully completed, Dooku gave him the very special gift of Master Sifo-Dyas' own lightsaber.

When Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi traveled to Kamino to investigate the source of the saberdart that silenced Senator Padmé Amidala's attempted killer Zam Wesell, the Kaminoan Prime Minister Lama Su informed Kenobi that Sifo-Dyas had ordered the creation of a clone army on Kamino at the request of the Senate, in order to help the Galactic Republic. Realizing that a discrepancy in the timeline may exist, Master Kenobi contacted the High Council and revealed the existence of the army.

In 22 BBY, Sifo-Dyas' army was eventually revealed and used at the behest of the Galactic Republic. Three years later, it would be used to destroy the Jedi Order in accordance with a Sith plot a millennia in the making.

Behind the scenes


In early drafts of Attack of the Clones, the name of the Jedi who contacted the Kaminoans was Sido-Dyas, pointing to a likely early conceptual connection to Darth Sidious. However, interestingly, "Sifo-Dyas" appears in one place, apparently as a typing mistake (as the D and F letters are located next to each other on a QWERTY keyboard) that Lucas later preferred to the original name.

In addition, "Sido-Dyas" was originally only a false identity for Sidious&mdash;Obi-Wan Kenobi claimed never to have heard of him, and Mace Windu confirmed that there was no Jedi by that name.

His backstory was promised by George Lucas to be revealed in Revenge of the Sith, but instead was explained in the lead-in novel Labyrinth of Evil.

The character's name was changed to Zaifo-Vias in Brazil. The original name is phonetically similar to a slang term in Brazilian Portuguese, so this was done to prevent confusion with it.

The first visual appearance of Sifo-Dyas was in The Eyes of Revolution comic featured in Star Wars: Visionaries. The story was written and drawn by ILM concept artist Warren Fu and as a little easter egg, or inside joke, Fu used himself for the face of the Jedi Master. Artist Chris Trevas noticed Fu's likeness in the comic while doing research for his own illustration of Sifo-Dyas in Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force. For the sake of continuity, and respect for a fellow artist, Trevas contacted Fu to reprise his role for the Jedi vs. Sith illustration as well.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Darth Plagueis
 * The Eyes of Revolution
 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones novel
 * Boba Fett: The Fight to Survive
 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones junior novel
 * Episode II: Attack of the Clones Movie Storybook
 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones PhotoComic
 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones 2
 * Labyrinth of Evil
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith junior novel
 * Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader
 * The Life and Legend of Obi-Wan Kenobi