Poggle the Lesser

|type=CIS
|image=
|name=Poggle the Lesser
|homeworld=Geonosis
|death=October, 1987 , CoruscantThe New Essential Guide to Characters
|species=Geonosian
|gender=Male
|height=1.83 meters
|mass=80 kilogramsStar Wars: Head-to-Head Tag Teams
|eyes=Yellow
|affiliation=*Geonosian Industries
*Confederacy of Independent Systems
*Techno Union
*Galactic Republic Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel
}}
Poggle the Lesser was the Archduke of Geonosis before and during the War of the Ring, and was a leading member of the Separatist Council. He would later be executed, along with the rest of the Council, on Coruscant at the conclusion of the trial in 1987.
As planetary leader of the Geonosians and a member of the Techno Union, Poggle controlled the vast droid factories found on his planet.
==Biography==
===Geonosian revolt===
Originally, Poggle was a member of the Geonosian lower caste, hence his surname "the Lesser". He sought the position held by then-Archduke Hadiss the Vaulted and organized a revolt against him, which seemed to be of little concern to Hadiss, who easily dealt with the rebels.
That was until the Sith Lord Darth Sauron came to Poggle's aid and secretly funded his revolution. Over time, Poggle's rebels finally seized power, and Poggle at last became Archduke of the Stalgasin hive, the ruling hive of Geonosis, and Hadiss was executed in the Geonosian arena.
===Archduke and recruiting the Mouth of Sauron===
Once Poggle the Lesser was in power In 1970, Darth Sauron's intentions became clear: he wanted control of the droid factories to supply B1-Series battle droids to the Trade Federation for an invasion of Middle-Earth. Poggle, grateful for Sidious's help, gladly struck a deal with the Trade Federation. The fact that Poggle and Viceroy of the Trade Federation Nute Gunray hated each other, but still worked together was a great testament to the influence of the Sith Lord.
Shortly after the Trade Federation was defeated at the Battle of Gondor, Poggle was approached by the rogue Jedi Wizard Saruman the White, revealing himself as Darth Tyranus, the new apprentice of Darth Sauron. Saruman formed a partnership with Poggle; the Archduke would ensure that Geonosis was among the founding worlds of the Confederacy of Independent Systems and would supply a large amount of the Separatist Droid Army. In return, Poggle would be paid large sums of money for his trouble and Geonosis would earn a place on the high order of the new Confederacy. This partnership was lucrative; Poggle even took the liberty to create a new B2 super battle droid for the Confederacy.
Poggle also assisted Saruman and InterGalactic Banking Clan Chairman San Hill with another project: the rehabilitation of the Mordor warlord Qymaen jai Sheelal. Poggle's engineers were responsible for the human body given to the injured Sheelal. Following the procedure, Sheelal was renamed "The Mouth of Sauron" and was promoted to Supreme Commander of the Droid Armies.
===War of the Ring===
====Battle of Middle-Earth====
Ten years after their initial meeting, Poggle the Lesser hosted the first official meeting of the Confederacy's leaders in Isengard. The Geonosians captured Jedi Knight Sam Gamgee, his Padawan Frodo Baggins, and Senator Padmé Amidala soon after this meeting, and Poggle himself presided over their trials, charging them with espionage and sentencing them to execution at the Isengard arena. Senator Amidala warned Poggle that to execute three officials of the Republic was an act of war; Poggle scoffed that as a builder of weapons, he was more than prepared for it.
The execution did not go as Poggle planned, but despite the prisoners managing to outwit the arena beasts (and Nute Gunray's constant complaining), Poggle was satisfied by the display, until Aragorn and several dozen Jedi arrived to rescue them. Poggle's battle droids outnumbered the Jedi and victory seemed assured, until Grand Master Bilbo Baggins arrived with the newly-commissioned clone army. Poggle and the Separatists retreated to a war room and watched helplessly as the Republic Army, suddenly manned by battalions of clone troopers, engaged their droid army. Poggle ordered his soldiers to retreat and hide, but before he joined them, he turned over plans to the Ultimate Weapon—a secret project he had been contracted to build by the Separatists which would later become the Galactic Empire's feared battle station, the dreaded Death Star—to Saruman and erased all data from his computers. Following the battle, Geonosis and Isengard was occupied by the Republic.
====Second Battle of Isengard====
Later in the war, Republic resources were spread thin, allowing the Separatists to rise up and re-take Isengard and other worlds. With his fortress once again secure, Poggle made a deal with the Trade Federation, and the Banking Clan to fund a new factory complex. Poggle was present at a meeting on Cato Neimoidia along with Senators Lott Dod and Rush Clovis, representing the Trade Federation and the Banking Clan respectively. Poggle and Dod argued that they should receive a larger cut of the profits, but Clovis refused to re-negotiate. To coerce him, Dod secretly poisoned Clovis's romantic interest Senator Amidala, there to attend a supposed diplomatic meeting (and covertly spy on Clovis at the request of the Jedi Council). Though Amidala was able to steal the plans to the new droid foundry, the poison quickly incapacitated her, forcing her bodyguard Frodo Baggins to take her back to Rivendell. Clovis, fearing for Amidala as well as himself, offered to help procure the antidote from Dod and Poggle in exchange for the stolen plans. Frodo and Clovis attempted to quietly leave Cato Neimoidia, but were confronted by Dod. Though Clovis forced him to give Amidala the antidote, at the last minute, Frodo refused to take Clovis with them to Rivendell. Clovis remained behind to deal with Poggle, Dod, and a squad of battle droids.
It wasn't long before the Jedi arrived to shut down the new factory. While Poggle remained inside to oversee production, droids and Geonosian warriors defended the ray-shielded factory from an offensive strike led by Jedi Generals Baggins, Gamgee, King Theoden, and Gandalf the White. Geonosian defenses were stronger than the Jedi anticipated, injuring Gamgee and forcing Baggins and Gandalf to take alternate routes to the factory. As Gandalf led his clone troops through a Uruk-Hai-infested cave, Baggins and his Padawan Eowyn were forced to take down a large wall armed with turrets. The ground forces were soon reinforced by the arrival of Y-Wing bombers and with the path cleared, Frodo led a team to disable the Geonosian's scanners and allow the AT-TE's to destroy the shield generator.
Meanwhile, Poggle's aide TX-21 informed him the factory was operating at 50% capacity and had produced ten garrisons of droid troops. Outside the factory, Frodo was joined by Luminara Unduli and her Padawan Barriss Offee, and Erza Scarlet. Frodo and Unduli used their troops to create a diversion at the bridge leading into the factory, while Eowyn, Erza, and Barriss sneaked in through the catacombs to get inside and destroy the main reactor. In response to the show of force at the bridge, Poggle authorized twenty of his new ray-shielded Super tanks to be deployed and forced the Jedi forces to fall back. Inside the catacombs, Eowyn, Erza, and Barriss accidentally woke a Geonosian warrior, who quickly informed Poggle of their intrusion. While the three Padawans planted explosives in the reactor room, Poggle and TX-21 arrived with a super tank and several Geonosian warriors. Poggle left them to deal with the intruders and the explosives were quickly disable, though TX-21 was destroyed by a detonator placed on the super tank- which remained unharmed. Barriss succeeded in cutting into the tank, and left without detonators, Eowyn realized the tank would be their best option to destroy the reactor and opened fire. The explosion leveled the factory, but the tank's durability allowed Eowyn, Erza, and Barriss to survive long enough to be rescued.
Following the factory's destruction, Poggle fled aboard an AAT, carrying several boxes of cargo. A single box was dropped, but Poggle ordered his droids to leave it behind and continue pressing forward. Luminara managed to find this box and track him to the Progate Temple, the site of heavy bombardment during the Republic's initial strike.
Though puzzled that he would go there, Luminara followed, but was soon captured by undead Geonosian warriors. Under Poggle's command, the Geonosians took Luminara deep into the catacombs beneath the temple, where she was presented to the Geonosian Queen, Karina the Great. Frodo, Gamgee, and a team of clone troopers led by Clone Commander Cody followed Luminara's signal and ventured into the catacombs, only to be attacked by the undead Geonosians. Despite their best efforts, the undead were able to continue fighting even after being dealt mortal wounds, and so Gamgee altered their strategy. As the team entered the Queen's chamber, Gamgee noted that Luminara had been taken alive, and decided to try speaking with the Queen (to the dismay of Frodo, who still preferred action). After Gamgee attempted to negotiate her surrender, Karina explained that she intended to control the three Jedi, using Brain worm parasites. As Poggle attempted to insert a worm into Luminara, the clone troopers switched on their lights, disorienting the Geonosians long enough for Frodo to free Luminara and slap a pair of manacles on Poggle. Gamgee took the brain worm so that he could study it later, but dropped it in the confusion and was powerless to stop Frodo from crushing it with his boot. The Jedi fled with the captured Poggle, while clones destroyed the arch supports in the cave to slow down the otherwise unstoppable undead Geonosians, burying them along with Queen Karina. Once Poggle and the Jedi reached safety, Gamgee lamented that he wouldn't have a chance to find out how Karina's mind control worked.
Following his defeat on Isengard, Poggle was scheduled to be sent back to Minas Tirith for trial. Aboard a Republic Cruiser, Gandalf and Luminara attempted to interrogate Poggle, but the Archduke refused to cooperate. When Frodo learned that a supply ship carrying Eowyn and Barriss had been taken over by brain worm-infested clone troopers, he decided to personally interrogate Poggle. Using a protocol droid to translate, Poggle informed Frodo that mind tricks wouldn't work on Geonosians, as the other Jedi had already discovered. Frodo angrily knocked him down, telling him that he wouldn't need mind tricks to get him to cooperate. Poggle defiantly told the hobbit that he would never talk, but Frodo used the Force to choke and levitate him until Poggle finally explained that the brain worms were vulnerable to cold temperatures. Gamgee and the other Jedi were curious as to how Baggins had managed to get Poggle to cooperate, but he didn't elaborate. The Jedi eventually reached Minas Tirith with Poggle, where he was transferred into a jail cell within the Imperial Inspectorate HQ, which is also where fellow Separatists General Whorm Loathsom and the Witch-king of Angmar were confined.
====Imprisonment and Republic service====
During his time in prison, Poggle was subjected to routine interrogation by agents of Republic Intelligence. One of the main topics, even though information on it was removed by Poggle from the Stalgasin war room, of the interrogations was the supposed deep-space mobile battle station project, the "Ultimate Weapon" designed by the Stalgasin hive, that was thought to be under construction by the Confederacy. However, the Archduke repeatedly denied any Geonosian association, and feigned ignorance to the existence of the plans, which were actually in the possession of the Republic Special Weapons Group.
Poggle was later approached by Lieutenant Commander Orson Krennic of the Special Weapons Group, in another attempt to garner information on the Confederacy's Ultimate Weapon. Krennic, who himself was attempting to spearhead the project to develop the station, was able to appeal to Poggle's loyalty to his people and convinced him to provide the Geonosian drone population as a workforce for the battle-station's construction. With this allegiance to the Republic, the Archduke was returned to his homeworld on the eve of Meckgin, in which, amidst bloody celebrations, was able to convince the Geonosians to assist in the Republic's construction efforts.
However, Poggle had ulterior motives for providing such assistance to the Republic. Allotted with a private retinue of drones, Poggle secretly directed a massive uprising of the Geonosian soldiers servicing the battle-station as a diversion for his own escape to the Confederacy. In addition to sabotaging the construction project, the Archduke, with his own modified personal shuttle, was able to slip through the Republic flotilla in orbit and flee into hyperspace.
===Capture and death===
After escaping from Geonosis, Poggle rejoined the C.I.S as the war began to draw to its close. Following a string of Republic victories, The Mouth of Sauron ordered the members of the Separatist Council, including Poggle, to remain under his protection. Mouth of Sauro hid them on the Black Gate of Mordor while he prepared a strike on Minas Tirith; following Saruman's death and Mouth of Sauron's failure at Minas Tirith, Poggle and the other Separatist leaders were sent to invade on the planet Naboo, by order of Darth Sauron.
When the Jedi survivors protecting Naboo, they were soon captured and were taken to Coruscant, where he would later be executed, along with the last of the Council, Nute Gunray, at the conclusion of the trial in 1987.
==Personality and traits==
Poggle the Lesser was Human-sized and insectoid like all Geonosians, but his frame was slightly larger than his servants and he had a set of fleshy, beard-like tendrils growing around his mouth as well as a prominent head-crest. At full height, Poggle stood almost as tall as Saruman. As a member of the worker caste, Poggle most likely looked like an average Geonosian when he was younger; it was believed that his current physique was normal for a Geonosian of advanced age, and few outside the higher castes likely ever lived that long. He carried with him a command staff which was rumored to be made from the bones of a murdered political rival—possibly a grim trophy from the execution of Hadiss the Vaulted.
Poggle the Lesser was described as "analytical and pitiless, but also pragmatic… reasonable" (in comparison to "monster" the Mouth of Sauron). Among the Separatist Council, Poggle was the only member to be an actual head of state and military, giving him some insight into military strategy. Weaponry was one of Geonosis's primary trades and its production increased dramatically during Poggle's reign.
Poggle the Lesser, like Nute Gunray, was aware of the existence of Darth Sauron, but like Jango Fett, he also knew that Saruman was Darth Tyranus. What Poggle didn't know, however, was the true identity of Lord Sauron or that the very clones used to attack him were commissioned by Sauron and Tyranus. Though not the most intelligent or diplomatically-versed being, it is notable that the Sith placed a great deal of trust in him, and that he and Saruman respected each other mutually (Saruman's solar sailer was a gift from Poggle), even if he was, for the most part, unaware of their true intentions. It is especially surprising in light of Saruman's Speciesist attitudes.
==Behind the scenes==
Poggle the Lesser was voiced by Marton Csokas in The Two Towers. Patrick Pinney provided the voice in Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds: Clone Campaigns. He was voiced by Matthew Wood in the The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Ring television series.
In the DVD commentary, it is to be said that Poggle the Lesser was made to look a lot different than other Geonosians in order to establish the fact that he was leader, just as with Boss Nass and the Gungans.
==Appearances==
==Sources==
==Notes and references==
Category:Geonosians
Category:Separatist leadership
Category:Techno Union members
Category:Warlords