Raith Sienar / Legends Raith Sienar was a prominent engineer during the closing years of the Galactic Republic and early days of the Galactic Empire , producing countless highly advanced designs , most well - known among them the TIE fighter ; he was also the originator of the concept for the Death Star . Ambitious and keen , Sienar was raised inside the Sienar family , which had run the prominent shipbuilding concern Santhe / Sienar Technologies for thousands of years . Sienar struck off to prove himself as a teen before returning to the fold , where his father Narro Sienar trained him to take over the company . When Narro was killed by assassins seeking Raith , the younger Sienar , only in his twenties , took over the company . For the next decade , Sienar lived an aristocratic lifestyle , designing unique and cutting - edge ships on Coruscant for wealthy and secretive clients . He was purported to have been the designer even of the " Scimitar " for Darth Plagueis ( " alias " Hego Damask ) , which afterwards was gifted to Darth Sidious ' apprentice Darth Maul , but this was later refuted by Sienar himself ( for he was its builder only ) : the sleek Sith Infiltrator was actually the design of Plagueis ' Master , Darth Tenebrous ( " alias " Rugess Nome , a famous starship designer in his own right ) . In 29 BBY , Sienar ' s friend Wilhuff Tarkin recruited him into a scheme to take control of Zonama Sekot , a world producing advanced living ships . Sienar already knew of the world and had plans of his own , but acquiesced to Tarkin ' s demands . Sienar was given command of a squadron of ships and sent after Sekot , but Tarkin had designed the mission to fail , and swept in expecting to save the day with his own force . The Sekotans defeated them , however , and fled ; Zonama Sekot was equipped with enormous hyperdrive engines that allowed it to jump to hyperspace . Tarkin was only able to save himself from disgrace by presenting Palpatine with Sienar ' s plans for an Expeditionary Battle Planetoid ; Sienar had lost interest in the design , but it would form the basis of the Death Star years later . Sienar continued developing ships , and when Palpatine declared himself Galactic Emperor , he placed Sienar in command of a new company , Sienar Fleet Systems , where Sienar designed the iconic TIE fighter and became one of the new Empire ' s primary arms providers , a role he held until he was cut down by assassins financed by corporate rivals . Biography . Restless youth . Around 60 BBY , Raith Sienar was born to Narro Sienar , the Chief Executive Officer of the massive engineering firm Santhe / Sienar Technologies , and his wife . Sienar was raised among the wealthy and secretive Sienar clan , which had a history of starship design stretching back thousands of years . Sienar attended the Rigovian Technical University and the young man ' s mind quickly turned to engineering , developing an outlook that saw life as a series of engineering puzzles . He grew to be highly competitive , but eventually channeled that competitive streak into only those areas suited to his talents , competing only where he knew he could win . Quick to learn and with an overriding desire for intellectual stimulation , Sienar grew restless within the upper - class confines of his family , seeking to distinguish himself and be unpredictable and innovative . In his teens , he struck off on his own to make his mark independently . Sienar took his own personal funds and created his own scouting firm . The youth took to the star lanes , mapping new hyperspace routes and probing the Unknown Regions to find habitable and exploitable worlds . Some of his discoveries , such as one uncharted black hole that he found , Sienar kept to himself , seeing a possible future advantage in such personal knowledge . Others , he shared and sold , turning a tidy profit and becoming independently wealthy by the age of twenty . He had built a personal fortune without the aid of his family and untouchable by them . Feeling that he had proved his own independent worth , Sienar returned to his family at age twenty , where Narro was impressed by his son ' s accomplishments . The Sienar patriarch began to groom Raith as his successor in the prestigious family business ; Raith , as usual , felt the need to gain experience his own way . He wanted a broader knowledge of starship construction than that of simply his own family firm , and he wanted to make sure he would be ready for the pressures of upper management . To that end , Sienar assumed a series of false identities and took work with competing firms , moving through the management of the Corellian Engineering Corporation , Baktoid Armor Workshop , Incom Corporation , and even the Trade Federation . There , he gained firsthand experience undercover , without the distraction of his family name , and picked up various techniques from his competitors . Sienar also spent time among the Xi Char , for whom precision engineering was a religion . Sienar studied their techniques deeply , seeking to master the engineering craft . Sienar picked up several advanced techniques , but eventually his true motives were exposed , and the Xi Char , feeling betrayed and sullied by the presence of a nonbeliever in their sacred workshops , turned against the faithless spy in their ranks . They exiled Sienar from Charros IV and then hired four bounty hunters to take Sienar ' s life . Sienar eluded them , leading them through a hyperspace chase until he emerged near an unrecorded black hole that he had discovered — but never reported — in his exploring days . Company man . With his corporate studies — some would say espionage — concluded , Sienar returned to Santhe / Sienar . Narro created an internal workshop for Raith to head ; Sienar Design Systems was to specialize in unique , personally - contracted work for the ultra - wealthy , and its clandestine Advanced Projects Laboratory worked on experimental , cutting - edge designs with a specialty in ion drive technology . Under Sienar ' s leadership , SDS ' s engineers designed new vessels as well as modifying existing ones for higher performance . The workshop tended towards unorthodox and unusual technology , especially cloaking devices , and armed all its ships , even if the craft ' s purpose did not call for it . Mysterious and secretive , its products were known to few . The workshop was a perfect fit for Raith Sienar , who always sought a challenge and looked to innovate . Around 39 BBY , Sienar made the acquaintance of Wilhuff Tarkin , a young man about his age and similar in appearance . A promising officer in the Republic Outland Regions Security Force , Tarkin occasionally visited Coruscant and , while there , befriended Sienar . At some point , they took a military training course together . Tarkin would eventually rise to the rank of commander within the Outland Regions Security Force before resigning to pursue a political career on his homeworld of Eriadu . The two still kept in touch , however , and Sienar considered Tarkin a valuable friend , whose skill in military and political matters complemented Sienar ' s own proficiency engineering and business . He also felt Tarkin to be rather simplistic in his brute - force preferences and thought that he would thus be manipulable to Sienar ' s advantage , and Tarkin used his position to ensure that Sienar ' s companies were awarded numerous Republic contracts . Also in that year , Sienar smuggled a squad of battle droids past Republic customs and onto Coruscant to be housed in his private collection of failed experiments — a private hobby to satisfy his " intellectual excesses , " a term he preferred to the more negatively connotative " eccentricities " . In 38 BBY , Sienar was aboard the family yacht with his father for a pleasure cruise . Over Dantooine , mercenaries hired by the Xi Char attacked ; after the failure of their first attempt only a few years at most previously , the religious engineers tried once more to end the life of the man who had stolen their secrets . Raith was able to make it to a smaller ship and escape , but Narro was killed in the destruction of the yacht . In the aftermath , Santhe / Sienar ' s board chose Raith , still only in his early twenties , to succeed his father as CEO of the corporation . The company ' s stolid , longstanding , and not particularly innovative contracts with the Republic and other major clients bored Sienar , and he continued to focus his efforts on SDS , giving the workshop additional funding and reserving most of his mental output for the corporate subdivision as well . Republic contracts came attached with specifications that limited his creativity and forced him to work with old , conservative Senate - approved engineers . Sienar preferred his contracts with wealthy buyers and corporations such as the Trade Federation , whose contracts allowed Sienar more leeway and more profit . Despite his disdain for the Republic contracts , however , Sienar maintained connections and contributed sufficiently to the Republic to merit its award of the right to wear the prestigious robes of senatorial favor , given for extraordinary service to the Republic . Sienar ' s criticism was known , though , and he was personally disliked by much of the Senate . Sienar was highly successful , however , paying minute attention to the market , closely and effectively managing his employees , and keeping his facilities small and centralized on Coruscant . Under his leadership , the company profited . One indulgence was his collection , over many years , of failed experiments . Sienar maintained a secret facility deep under his main Coruscant factory . Leading into it was a hall filled with holographic representations of Sienar ' s various triumphs — successful designs , accolades from his customers and the Republic , and prototype vessels . In the main chamber , Sienar had collected a massive museum of his competitors ' failures . Buying up droids , ships , and various other items of technology that had failed — sometimes spectacularly and even dangerously — Sienar indulged his intellect , examining mistakes and learning what to avoid . Sienar considered the area his sanctum , going there to make important decisions ; he found that the reminders of missteps technological , economic , and political helped clear his mind and keep him from making his own errors of judgment . By 29 BBY , Sienar had amassed two thousand twelve exhibits of failure , his favorites among them being the squad of intellectually underpowered battle droids he had brought on - world ten years prior , a droid - making asteroid miner that made malfunctioning product , and an assassin droid made by — and the cause of death of — a former classmate of his from the Rigovian Technical University . Another luxury was his collection of three expensive trith prancer s , which he loved to ride and had highly trained . Sienar entered them into competitions across the galaxy , taking several prizes . Around 32 BBY , Sienar was approached by a shadowy figure — in fact the Sith Lord Darth Sidious at the behest of Darth Plagueis — to build a high - performance courier ship based on the starship design of Darth Tenebrous ( Rugess Nome ) . Sienar did not know the client ' s identity , but suspected that he was extremely highly placed and knew that he had made an important connection that would last him through the coming turbulence . Sienar brought together a hand - picked group of trustworthy engineers and led the construction of the ship that became the " Scimitar " , Darth Maul ' s personal Sith Infiltrator . Sienar started with an advanced armed courier from his laboratories and equipped the ship with a stygium crystal cloaking field , exceptionally high - yield sensors , and an experimental high - temperature ion engine system — which required a special cooling system — among other optimizations . When the ship was fully completed to Sidious ' s specifications , he hired Fa ' ale Leh to deliver it ; with its delivery , most of those with the most sensitive knowledge of the ship were killed , though if by Sidious or by Sienar it was unclear . Later on after Maul was believed to have been killed on Naboo in 32 BBY , the " Scimitar " was found , with investigators linking it to Sienar Design Systems . Sienar flatly rejected accusations of his involvement , but the political uproar forced him to close the SDS imprint . However , it was more a change of name than one of practice ; the secret Sienar Advanced Projects Laboratory survived , and Sienar took its existence public a few years later , presenting it as a new unit of the company and using it for the same purposes as SDS . Found along with the " Scimitar " was C - 3PX , a droid modified to serve as a guard unit . Palpatine had its memory wiped to keep its knowledge of the Sith from becoming public , then remanded the droid to Sienar ' s custody . Sienar then modified the droid , encasing it in new 3PO plating , to serve as a top - notch espionage unit for him and his companies , in which the droid was highly successful . Sienar had heard rumors of a world called Zonama Sekot , a remote and mysterious world whose inhabitants constructed organic , living ships with incredibly advanced technology and extremely high - speed hyperdrives . Fantastically expensive and rare , they were a technology he desperately wished to study . He put out feelers , seeking to even merely inspect such a ship , but the owners were under obligation to keep their purchases secret . In 31 BBY a gang of thieves approached Sienar ; they had captured a pilot and his ship , though both were wounded . Sienar bought them and then had the thieves killed . The dying Gensang who owned the ship was subjected to truth serums in order to pump as much information about the world from the man as possible before he died . Upon the owners ' deaths , the Sekotan ships died as well . Sienar learned much , surmising that the Sekotans were desperate for money , quickly , but was not certain why . Sienar did all he could to preserve the ship , which was subject to decomposition , deep - freezing it among several other preservation techniques . He had it flown to one of his old facilities on Coruscant , deep in an abandoned industrial area where he kept various illegal or highly sensitive purchases . There , it remained in a refrigeration field , but offered Sienar few answers . With the pilot was a droid certified to sponsor clients for the Sekotan manufacturers , but Sienar waited to take advantage of it until he knew more . A new age , a new scheme . In 29 BBY , Sienar began devising designs for an Expeditionary Battle Planetoid , a gargantuan three - sphere battle station with a tremendously powerful turbolaser powered directly from the station ' s core reactor . Highly expensive but , Sienar was confident , technologically executable , it could serve as a fleet in and of itself . Sienar intended it more as a proof of concept and a grandiose showpiece to awe potential clients ; the Trade Federation was not interested and he did not particularly expect to be able to build such a thing . He did think that the design might prove popular in the future among the new elites he felt would arise . However , he ultimately abandoned pursuit of the scheme , as he came to the conclusion that significant advances in hypermatter technology would be required for the project to be viable . Sienar had become contemplative , smelling political change on the wind . He was a man who preferred elegance and finesse , but he felt that a new ruling class was coming , one which would prefer sheer power and brutality . Sienar was deeply concerned that he would not prosper under such a system and was worried that he had grown too rigid in his thinking to deal with it and too attached to luxury over the past years . Even though he was only in his early thirties , he thought he had become too entrenched and soft since his rambunctious youth , ever since he had taken the helm of the company . Later that year , Sienar was approached by Tarkin , who informed Sienar that , through highly - placed contacts , he had learned that Supreme Chancellor Palpatine had finally forced sanctions against the Trade Federation , which was to be disarmed and have its forces absorbed by the Republic . Tarkin intimated that Sienar would lose a significant customer , but Sienar had had some notion of the coming decision himself and was not concerned ; he had many clients willing to pay , and in any case he did not feel the Trade Federation would be as easily diminished as his friend suggested . Tarkin then turned to the true reason for their meeting . He had made new and valuable allies , though he refused to say any more . They proceeded from Sienar ' s factory to a secure conference room , filled with furniture and security measures of Sienar ' s own design . Tarkin revealed that his new friends had a grandiose plan for the galaxy , a Humanocentric one , and implied that Sienar would do very well to be allied with them when they made their move . In the conference room , Tarkin told Sienar of legends surrounding a world called Zonama Sekot , a world that manufactured living starships of extremely advanced design , and suggested a plot to take control of that valuable resource . Sienar was furious that what he had thought to be his own secret was now out in public , but accepted that there was little he could do to change the situation ; he simply had to deal with the present circumstances as best he could . To distract himself , he turned on the display of the plans for his Expeditionary Battle Planetoid , which attracted Tarkin ' s interest . He explained the basics of the design to Tarkin , who had been assuring Sienar of his own rising influence , and Tarkin was quite taken by the design . Tarkin departed , but Sienar remained torn about the proposition . Sienar had a comfortable and profitable life and worried that Tarkin ' s scheme was too vague and risky . His instincts , however , told him that it was indeed an opportunity to grasp . Tarkin ' s statements had seemed to confirm Sienar ' s own intuition that a new , brute - force elite was on the way , and that too unnerved him . Sienar proceeded to his museum of failure to contemplate the issue . There , Tarkin , accompanied by a Blood Carver bodyguard , surprised him ; the man had used a tracking device to follow Sienar into his sanctum . Tarkin told him that time had suddenly grown short , and he required information of the engineer . If Sienar turned it over , he would not kill him . Sienar quickly saw that Tarkin was desperate and had no wish to push him . He volunteered the information ; Sienar had participated in a refit of multiple YT - series vessels and planted tracking devices in them without the knowledge of their owners or the authorities , and Tarkin wished to have the code to a tracking device Sienar had planted in a particular freighter . Sienar also volunteered his participation in Tarkin ' s scheme . Tarkin revealed that he knew of Sienar ' s familiarity with the world and wished him to command an expedition to it . Sienar was shocked that Tarkin ' s information sources were so good , but Tarkin assured him that Sienar had always underestimated him and that their combined resources in the project could make them both even more powerful men . They moved to Tarkin ' s Coruscant apartment , where Tarkin explained the plan in greater depth . A pair of Jedi had departed from Coruscant on a mission to find Zonama Sekot , and the tracker Tarkin and Sienar had activated would give them the world ' s location . Tarkin would remain on Coruscant , where he had duties to attend to , while Sienar would lead a small expeditionary force consisting of Trade Federation warships the Republic had not yet confiscated . He would proceed to Sekot and take control of the world for Tarkin ' s secretive new masters . Sienar returned to his quarters to await the signal from the tracking device and began putting his affairs in orders for a prolonged absence ; he resented Tarkin ' s sudden and presumptive interference in his schedule . He remained of two minds about the undertaking , as he had since the beginning ; he accepted that it was probably a fantastic opportunity , but knew Tarkin was manipulating it for his own gain . Within a few days , he went riding on one of his trith prancers and enjoy one last ride before he left while he contemplated the situation . Tarkin intruded on Sienar ' s arena , however , demanding that Sienar show him the Sekotan ship . Sienar acquiesced , displaying the rotting hulk . He lied to Tarkin about the circumstances of its acquisition , however , telling him he had bought , at the cost of one hundred million credits , a dead ship from a Trade Federation lieutenant who had killed the ship ' s original owner . Seeking Sekot . At last , the Jedi ship left hyperspace and the tracking device sent its signal . Tarkin had the location and summoned Sienar , who gathered his personal effects , left instructions with his protocol droid should he not return , and embarked . Sienar was given the rank of commander and a squadron of light capital ships with Ke Daiv , Tarkin ' s Blood Carver bodyguard , as his assistant . His flagship was an antiquated munitions carrier dubbed the " Admiral Korvin " , and the three other ships of his task force were no better — a diplomatic boat , a " Taxon " - class probe ship , and a mobile astromech repair station . None of Sienar ' s own designs were among the ragtag fleet . The three thousand droid complement the squadron carried , though , was of the newer E5 make , designed to operate independently of the central control computers upon which the Trade Federation ' s battle droids had previously depended . The droid starfighters were also so modified . Sienar did not like droid armies , despite his love of droid security guards , considering them inflexible and unintelligent , but had little choice in the matter . He was bitterly disappointed in his fleet , which he did not consider nearly enough to hold the world . He increasingly suspected that Tarkin was using him as a fall man if the expedition were to fail and said as much to him . Tarkin maintained that the fleet was all he could get at the moment and that Sienar was lucky to have as much as he did . Sienar still felt the mission was deliberately doomed , but it was too late to back out . He did not depart immediately , but instead spent time running final systems checks and dealing with equipment breakdowns . After six hours , he finally ordered Captain Kett to enter hyperspace . With three days of travel to cover , Sienar ordered continued defensive drills and requested the complete records of his senior officers , then spent time examining the droid complement . The long journey bored Sienar , and he found his duties as commander tedious . After a day , he had an E - 5 combat droid sent to his quarters , where he replaced its verbobrain with a highly modified one of his own design , giving him complete control over it , and maintained the droid as a personal bodyguard . He then sent for Daiv . With the droid in his quarters as security , Sienar attempted to make Daiv feel comfortable before questioning him about the mission . Sienar wished to have an ally on the mission , as he still felt there was a secret agenda at work . More importantly , he wished to make sure Daiv would not assassinate him if he took unusual action . He was quick to remind Daiv of his superior status , but persuaded the Blood Carver that Tarkin did not have his best interests at heart ; that he was , in fact , paving the way for a future of Humanocentrism ( what would actually prove to be its extreme manifestation , Human High Culture ) . Sienar presented himself as a compelling alternative whose interests were more mutually compatible with Daiv ' s . By the end of the discussion , Sienar had the assassin ' s loyalty . Just before the squadron came out of hyperspace , Sienar ordered Kett to upload an entirely new set of programming to all the battle droids , one he provided . Kett objected , but Sienar made it clear that his orders were to be followed , then had his battle droid step onto the bridge . He did not trust his subordinates and wished to have a reminder of his position present . The squadron then reverted to realspace and took up a far orbit in Sekot ' s system . They remained standing off while Daiv and a pilot took the squadron ' s scout ship in . After listening to the Blood Carver ' s report , he decided to send Daiv down in a personal ship he had stowed and present him to the Sekotans as a prospective client . To that end , he provided Daiv with the Sekotan droid agent . What he did not tell Daiv was that , if he returned with a ship , Sienar would have the assassin ' s mind wiped and make him his servant while he studied the ship ' s secrets . With that knowledge , Sienar felt he would be in a position of incredible power . If Daiv failed , Sienar would make a show of force ; he wished he had a more powerful force , but did not think that relatively undeveloped Sekot could muster a serious defense . He was concerned , however , that there was more to Sekot than met the eye . Daiv was rejected for the shipbuilding process , and at the same time Tarkin sent a message requesting an update on the situation . Sienar sent a response saying that Daiv had tried and failed to assassinate him and consequently been sent on a suicide mission . He then told Tarkin he had discovered something fantastic , but would need no assistance . He was sure that message would bring Tarkin to the system in a few days with all the forces he could muster . In the meantime , he expected to follow other strategies ; Daiv had a last - ditch plan to attempt to capture a pilot and ship . In the middle of the next night , however , Sienar was suddenly awakened by unusual noises from his guard droid . He found it shuddering and ordered it to stand down ; Kett then reported to him that five droid fighters had left for Sekot without authorization before the rest were locked down . Sienar ordered Kett to destroy them , but only one was destroyed before they were out of range . Sienar quickly grasped that Tarkin had had subroutines inserted that were able to override Sienar ' s own programming ; Sienar had underestimated Tarkin and not looked for them . With their presence revealed by their fire , Sienar had Kett perform a full active sensor sweep of the system while he himself shut down his guard droid and set to work finding the hidden code . Tarkin had brought a stronger fleet to the system and issued orders to place Sienar under arrest and take command of his fleet . Sienar calmly complied , but refused to aid Tarkin in taking control of the droids , which he warned were set to self - destruct if tampered with . He realized he had been set up to fail from the beginning , allowing Tarkin to sweep in as the hero and solve the problem with brute force . Meanwhile , the runaway fighters attacked Zonama Sekot , stirring up its inhabitants . Tarkin arrived aboard the " Admiral Korvin " and had Sienar accompany him to his own flagship , the " Rim Merchant Einem " . The two argued in Tarkin ' s cabin , and Tarkin played innocent , suggesting Sienar ' s tampering with the droid intelligences had caused them to attack . Sienar knew he had been outplayed . Tarkin deployed sky mine s and fighters to take control of Sekot in the name of the Republic . Sienar , resigned , merely watched passively as Sekotan ships outfought Tarkin ' s fighters . He also did not bother to mention the mesas he saw rising from Sekot ' s surface . Meanwhile , Daiv tried to execute the contingency plan to steal a ship , but was killed by Anakin Skywalker . Tarkin had his forces seize a lone , seemingly abandoned ship from Sekot . Sienar went down along with him to take control of the ship , where they found Skywalker and Daiv ' s body . Sienar suggested they take Skywalker , who was the pilot of the ship . Skywalker and the Sekotan ship were loaded , then the mine - laying ship they were using returned to orbit . While they flew , Sienar examined the ship and Tarkin questioned Skywalker about it . Skywalker ' s master , Obi - Wan Kenobi , was able to cut his way into the ship , forcing Sienar to retreat . He freed Skywalker and escaped in the Sekotan ship . The ship Kenobi had arrived on set a charge , and Tarkin and Sienar , sharing an escape pod , evacuated for the " Einem " . Zonama Sekot itself jumped into hyperspace ; the money Sienar had suspected it needed had gone into the purchase of massive hyperdrives . Tarkin ' s fleet was scattered and badly damaged in its wake . The pair limped home , where Tarkin salvaged his position by secretly presenting Palpatine with the plans for Sienar ' s Expeditionary Battle Planetoid ; Sienar was wary of the idea , deciding it was too dangerous , and allowed Tarkin to take full credit . In time , Sienar ' s design would evolve into the Death Star in the hands of Tarkin ' s scientists and Geonosian weaponsmiths . In the face of his own failure , Tarkin ' s threats of an inquest of Sienar ' s conduct apparently did not materialize . A place in the New Order . Sienar continued in his corporate position much as he had before , producing custom designs ; the designation as a " Raith Sienar original " still commanded respect . The Trade Federation , as Sienar had predicted , retained its independence and power , and was a frequent buyer of Sienar ' s work . In fact , Sienar was able to maintain an address in the prestigious 500 Republica complex as well as a private spire of his own . Sienar Advanced Systems , under Sienar ' s personal lead , used precepts that had originated with the " Scimitar " prototype engines to develop the SIE - TIE twin ion engine design , which passed its initial evaluation with flying colors , highly unusual for such a radical design . Sienar announced its successful adoption by Republic Sienar Systems , the main Sienar shipbuilding company , in 22 BBY . The news was eagerly accepted by investors , who boosted Santhe / Sienar stock by fourteen percent ; Sienar ' s personal assets increased by six hundred forty million credits with that jump . The twin ion engine system would be implemented in , and give the name to , the T . I . E . starfighter , the prototype for the TIE Series . Shortly after that announcement , the Clone Wars broke out , during which Sienar supplied starfighters to both the Republic and Confederacy of Independent Systems , earning the Senate ' s disfavor . After three years of battle , shortly before the end of the war , the Republic dissolved Republic Sienar Systems and absorbed its assets . After peace was established , Supreme Chancellor Palpatine was declared emperor of the new Galactic Empire . The new regime Sienar had foreseen and Tarkin had aligned himself with was in place . Palpatine nationalized Santhe / Sienar Technologies within a month , but created a new corporation , Sienar Fleet Systems , to replace RSS and placed Raith Sienar in charge . SFS built the TIE / LN starfighter from the T . I . E . ' s foundation ; over time , the TIE line broadened to include bomber , interceptor , and various specialty and advanced models . In very short order , Sienar was already at work on a prototype fighter designed by Darth Vader himself in his Advanced Projects Laboratory . Soon after the establishment of the Empire , Palpatine called upon Sienar to design a successor to the successful Cygnus Spaceworks " Theta " - class T - 2c shuttle . Sienar spared no expense to hire away major designers of the " Theta " - class , who engineered the " Lambda " - class T - 4a shuttle using advances they had intended to implement under Cygnus . A powerful and secure shuttle designed to transport personnel or high - value cargo , it , much like the TIE , proved a widespread and iconic symbol of the Empire . Later , at Vader ' s orders , he engineered a starship for Imperial scientist Jenna Zan Arbor . Sienar Fleet Systems was under exclusive contract to the Empire and quickly became one of its primary arms suppliers . Its TIEs were the backbone of the Imperial Navy ' s starfighter corps , enforcing order across the galaxy . Starfighters were not Sienar ' s only contribution to the Empire , however , as Immobilizer 418 cruisers , Skipray Blastboats , and the " Lambda " - class variant " Sentinel " - class landing craft were also among his projects . The Death Star , which had started as Sienar ' s brainchild before he divorced himself from it , was another key Imperial project . When the Empire was confounded by hit - and - fade Rebel Alliance starfighter assaults , Sienar was called upon to engineer a faster , more maneuverable fighter that could counter the threat . Using advances pioneered in the TIE Advanced x1 that he had designed for Vader , he succeeded , producing the TIE / In interceptor . Sienar remained intelligent and involved as he aged , profiting greatly from the rise of the New Order of which he had earlier been so apprehensive . He kept Sienar Fleet Systems focused on producing designs that would please the Empire and interviewed all applicants for research and design jobs himself , focusing on potential employees ' ability to produce exceptional and useful designs . Sienar preferred to hire Humans due to the High Human Culture policies of the Empire , but was willing to put alien minds to work on non - Imperial contracts if they had the genius he looked for in his engineers . Sienar continued to maintain his collection of technological rarities , selling a Ssi - ruuvi battle droid to scientist Borborygamous Gog . By 3 ABY , though , Sienar was cut down by assassins , likely paid by factions within Sienar Fleet Systems itself . He was succeeded by Lady Valles Santhe of the Santhe family , who shared ownership of Santhe / Sienar with Sienar ; she had previously served as the company ' s president . Personality and traits . Raith Sienar was born into a wealthy , longstanding Core Worlds family and grew up as a member of the Core aristocracy , with all the expectations of luxury and culture that came attached to such a background . He was a highly competitive youth , but over time he began to concentrate his efforts only in those areas for which he knew he was suited , minimizing his chances of disappointment . Sienar developed a highly inquisitive mind that quickly turned to engineering ; he had a constant wish to innovate and fine - tune , and constantly thought up new designs . Sienar also strove to be more unpredictable than the other members of his staid family , and so pursued an adventurous scouting career as a teen to prove his own independent worth . After his exploration and his covert corporate tour , in which he accumulated yet more expertise in engineering , Sienar returned to Coruscant . After a decade there , he had become far more complacent , more accustomed to luxurious circumstances , attached to his possessions and position , and set in his ways , a fact that worried him . He began to be concerned about his ability to adapt and change , but his ultimate success under the Empire , a regime whose advent he had feared would displace him , showed that his worries were excessive . Sienar followed no moral code , instead approaching issues dispassionately ; he considered excessive emotion a weakness . He considered all life ' s challenges engineering problems , and worked to solve them for his own benefit . His goal was power — the ability to do and build as he wished . Sienar was not tempted by physical luxuries such as food , drink , or sex ; only those of the mind appealed to him . Sienar also approached friendship merely as another tool ; he preferred friends he could manipulate and turn to his own advantage , rather than companions . In fact , Sienar preferred his own company and spent much of his time alone with only droid systems around him . Despite his own moral neutrality , Sienar found the Jedi highly interesting and even honorable , though he ultimately had no problem in acting against them if required . Sienar was extremely confident in his own intellect and technological expertise , which could cause him to underestimate others , especially those whose preferences he considered less civilized . Tarkin ' s preference for brute - force solutions , for example , led Sienar to think him less politically and technologically capable than he ultimately turned out to be during the Zonama Sekot mission . He did in general strive to be cautious , though , and always think things through carefully and prepare multiple alternatives should any decision go wrong . He preferred a more elegant and aristocratic design philosophy in which ships were designed for maximum performance and beauty , pushing the envelope and delivering force with precision and finesse . He also preferred small , customized orders rather than mass - produced ships , and in his first decade with the company , he devoted his energies to that ideal and argued for it , complaining of what he perceived to be a coarsening of design ideals and , most importantly , lack of imagination . Sienar was not entirely averse to mass - production , however , but merely left that aspect of the business to others as he innovated and produced custom work . Sienar often drew inspiration from the mistakes of others and he would invest heavily in the failed schemes of his competitors , particularly in projects that were unsuccessful due to simple reasons , so that he could fix any design flaws and then use the failed projects for purposes of his own . Many galactic citizens believed that Raith Sienar designed every Sienar product himself , though that was not so ; he tinkered with all designs before approving them , but left much of the corporate product up to his engineers , whose hiring he oversaw to make sure they were worthy of his corporation . He made sure his engineers were kept comfortable and happy and paid all his employees well ; it was only the bureaucrats and accountants working for him that Sienar disdained and did not pamper . While his professional products consisted mostly of spaceships , Sienar ' s engineering skills were versatile , and he designed many products , from droids and droid - neutralizing systems to security systems to chairs , both for personal and corporate use . Behind the scenes . Raith Sienar was first mentioned in " " , and his first appearance was in " Rogue Planet " , released one year later . " Rogue Planet " remains Sienar ' s only appearance to date , however ; further in - universe works have only mentioned him or , in the case of HoloNet News , mentioned him in conjunction with an illustrated depiction .