General Grievous was an infamous Jedi killer
who led the droid army during the Clone Wars.
At first, many believed that he was just an advanced droid
but he was actually a cyborg.
So how did Grievous become a cyborg?
And who was he before all these cybernetic enhancements?
Although we don't currently have a definite answer in canon,
we do have one in Legends.
Originally, General Grievous was a Kaleesh male named Qymaen jai Sheelal.
He grew up on a world torn by the Huk War.
In which, the technologically advanced Huk
sought to enslave the Kaleesh people.
During this war, Sheelal rose up as a demi-god among his people,
and led countless campaigns that freed his people from the Huk's chains.
During one of his battles, Sheelal's best friend, and possibly lover, died at the hands of the enemy.
This drew Sheelal into deep depression, causing him later to change his name to Grievous.
This depression transformed into hatred, to which Grievous began to employ vicious attacks on the remaining Huks.
Eventually, driving them off of Kalee.
But he didn't stop there; driving the slaving scum from his homeworld wasn't enough.
No, he sought to exterminate them all,
to make them all pay for the suffering they had caused his people.
Grievous began an offensive on the Huk, wiping them out on all their colony worlds.
As he got closer and closer to the Huk homeworld,
the Huk began to freak out, and sought outside assistance.
Using their connections to the Trade Federation,
The Huk were able to gain support from the Galactic Senate,
convincing them that the Kaleesh were the one to start the war in the first place.
This caused the Republic to send a team of Jedi to intervene and push the Kaleesh back to their homeworld.
On top of that, the Galactic Republic implemented sanctions on to Kalee.
Resulting in poverty and starvation among the Kaleesh people.
Such actions made Grievous despise the Jedi and the Republic they served.
Viewing the entire Galactic Regime as a corrupt entity
that only served the few in power.
Grievous' success in his early campaigns made him famous in his corner of the galaxy.
Which brought the attention of the Sith Lord Darth Sidious
believing he would make an excellent pawn in his greater scheme.
Sidious ordered his apprentice, Count Dooku, to acquire the Kaleesh warrior into their services.
Around this time, Grievous and his people discovered that the Huk were destroying their sacred burial grounds.
This propelled Grievous and his men to get back involved with the Huk.
Seeking to destroy them once again.
Unknown to them, the shuttle they boarded was rigged to explode
causing it to crash over a body of water.
This bomb was planted by Dooku, who then retrieved the severely injured Grievous.
After framing the incident as an attack done by the Jedi, Dooku then took Grievous' body to Geonosis
where he placed him within a bacta tank.
When he awoke, Grievous was met with San Hill, the chairman of the InterGalactic Banking Clan.
Initially, Grievous was furious, demanding to be brought to his people, so he could die with his men
as a tradition of his warrior culture.
But San Hill had other plans.
He told the injured Kaleesh General of how he planned to rebuild him into a vicious killing machine
that was capable of even surpassing Jedi
and that he would lead the largest droid army in galactic history,
paving a way to a new order.
At first, Grievous didn't care about his whole grand scheme
to instill a new order.
And he also viewed leading a droid army as something beneath him.
But he was finally convinced when San Hill offered pay off his people's debts
and reverse the crippling sanctions placed on his homeworld.
Once Grievous' transformation began, Dooku had Sifo-Dyas' blood transfused to the Kaleesh Warrior.
Altough the midi-chlorian rich blood kept Grievous alive,
it did not unlock any force sensitivity within him.
Dooku also had Grievous' mind tampered with
increasing his hatred for the Jedi, while making him more compliant to his new masters.
After all the surgery was complete, Grievous was more machine than reptilian.
Only his brain, heart and a few other vital organs remained.
The rest of him was cold, hard metal.
His cybernetics enhanced him like no being before,
giving him the speed and reflexes of a Jedi and the durability of an armored tank.
He was truly a killing machine.
Once Grievous settled into his new body, he was trained by Dooku and his Magna Guards
in the ways of lightsaber combat.
Once the time came, Grievous would be unleashed into the Clone Wars,
where he would take the lives of countless Jedi
collecting their lightsabers to add in his ever-growing collection over the course of the war.
And that's the story of General Grievous prior to his cybernetics.
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And as always, may the Force be with you.