Star Wars has revealed the deep backstory of Count Dooku, finally revealing the significance of his home planet. By the time of the prequel trilogy, the Jedi had come to believe the Sith were long extinct. They were wrong; for over a thousand years the Sith had been working in the shadows, preparing for the day of their revenge. Darth Sidious was the culmination of their millennia-long scheme, the Sith Lord who successfully established the Empire and came close to extinguishing the light of the Jedi forever.
Palpatine considered his Apprentices to be nothing more than pawns, and in fact Star Wars has suggested he began courting Dooku as a potential apprentice while Maul was still alive, despite the Sith rule of two.. Although Dooku was trained as a Jedi, he left the Order and returned to his homeworld of Serenno, where he reclaimed his family title and status as a nobleman. Dooku became the leader of the Separatist movement, and the primary instigator of the Clone Wars. In the end, though, Dooku was discarded in favor of a more promising apprentice - Anakin Skywalker, the Chosen One.
Charles Soule's novel Light of the Jedi has just revealed why Count Dooku was such an effective pawn for Darth Sidious. The novel is set during the High Republic Era, some 200 years before the event of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, during a time when the Outer Rim was still being explored. It seems Serenno was particularly important at that time, with the Republic Senator of Serenno, Izzet Noor, serving as spokesperson for the majority of the Outer Rim Territories. What's more, Noor appears to have been extremely ambitious, and Light of the Jedi hints he considered a run for Chancellor of the New Republic.
Serenno was the perfect power base for Dooku, historically an important and influential planet in the Outer Rim. It's easy to imagine Dooku exploiting this, reaching out to other Outer Rim worlds and telling them Serenno was assuming its place of leadership once again. No doubt many planets would have looked back at the High Republic Era with a sense of nostalgia, wishing for a time when the Republic had cared about more than just Coruscant and the Galactic Core, and Dooku would have been able to appeal to this.
This is the real magic of Star Wars; everything is connected to everything else. Charles Soule's Light of the Jedi may be set 200 years before the prequel era, but it has added new depth to George Lucas' story, revealing just why Count Dooku was so well-positioned to become leader of the Separatist movement.
