General Grievous was once a respected warrior named Qymaen jai Sheelal before becoming the iconic cyborg villain. He was manipulated by Count Dooku and led to a cybernetic transformation, fueled by revenge against Jedi and the Republic.
In the Star Wars Legends continuity, General Grievous' first lightsaber originally belonged to the Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas, and appeared in the Star Wars: Visionaries comic strip The Eyes of Revolution, published on March 16, 2005.
General Grievous Wasn't a Sith - But He Learned Certain Skills From Them. General Grievous never became a Sith in the Star Wars Universe. But his time with them made him one of the scariest enemies in the franchise.
Grievous utterly hates the Jedi and their evil Order for committing genocide on his people when he was a warlord. He exploited the Jedi's "compassion" for the clone troopers under their command, exemplified during his attack on the Kaliida Shoals Medical Center.
How General Grievous Became a Cyborg and His Past Life - Featuring Fact Free
Why can't Anakin meet Grievous?
There is also an in-universe reason that Grievous and Anakin never met each other. Anakin was instrumental in Darth Sidious' plan to overthrow the Republic and the Jedi. He needed Anakin for his machinations, but he also needed General Grievous to keeping razing the galaxy. He couldn't afford to lose either of them.
Count Dooku was certainly aware of his master's identity and while it isn't clear if Grevious was aware or not, in the original 2003 series which came out before the Revenge of the Sith it made it clear that Grevious was unaware of Palpatine's identity to the point that Grevious threatened his life.
While the Jedi would remain his sworn enemy, Grievous was a threat to Force users outside their order as well. In fact, perhaps his greatest kill was not a Jedi at all, but a dark side adherent of such immense power that even Emperor Palpatine feared her as his equal.
Grievous Hero commanded the heroic Subjugator-class heavy cruiser Malevolence and followed Dooku's orders. Dooku later got fed up with Grievous's "failures" (due to plot armor) and tried to kill the heroic General by having a trap set up for him to "test his skills" in Grievous's castle.
It appears rarely in the Star Wars universe—so rarely, in fact, that the current canon recognizes only one carrier of a white lightsaber. Ahsoka Tano, the former Jedi Padawan who aided in the rebellion against the Galactic Empire, is acknowledged as the sole possessor of the white lightsaber.
He developed a habit of collecting weapons as trophies from numerous enemies. Like others of his species, he became known for his lack of mercy and obsession with the glory gathered in war, valuing bravery in combat above all else.
Palpatine carried the lightsaber for a great deal of his life afterward, though he only rarely wielded it in combat, as his position as Emperor made battles with other Force-users few and far between, and he preferred to rely on his raw ability with the Force in any case.
Grievous was originally a Kaleesh from the planet Kalee, where he lived his early life. During the Kaleesh conflict against the Huk, Sheelal quickly learned the art of war, specializing in a slugthrower rifle. Quickly amassing a great number of Huk kills, he soon became seen as a demigod among his people.
Grievous did not always have four arms, but the reason he got them wasn't for a reward for killing Jedi. Before becoming a cyborg, Grievous was a Kaleesh Warrior. The Kaleesh were humanoids, so they only had two arms.
Although he couldn't apprehend the kidnapper, Mace used the Force to crush Grievous' chest cavity. This injury resulted in the asthmatic cough that would remain with him until his death.
Qui-Gon is one of the most powerful Jedi in the saga: highly skilled in the Force and mastering abilities that other Jedi couldn't, including the ability to consciously manifest after death. But more than his abilities as an individual, it was his maverick philosophy that the Emperor feared.
The death of Gallia and the defeat of Grievous demonstrates the latter's greatest strength and weakness: intimidation. Most Jedi cannot help but fear Grievous, but Mace Windu does not, allowing him to defeat the General twice.
Grievous -- always a tool for the Dark Side and ultimately in the Emperor's thrall -- may have lacked his master's attention when he most needed it. And, like all of Palpatine's servants, he became superfluous after serving his purpose.
Even as the hundreds of Jedi fought valiantly on Geonosis, they still didn't know. It wasn't until after Yoda, Obi-Wan, and Anakin had fought Dooku one-on-one that they found out he had been training as a Sith. As Yoda says, The dark side, I sense in you.
Indeed he did. Dooku (aka Darth Tyrannus) knew his master's identity. At this point the Jedi thought Dooku was the Sith Master. The kidnapping was planned to reinforce public support for Palpatine while further confusing the Jedi about his true identity.
