Separatist Alliance

"Your lightsabers will make a fine addition to my collection!'

-General Grievous, to Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker
Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Declaring their independence from the bloated and decaying Galactic Republic, the Confederacy of Independent Systems - commonly called the Separatist Alliance - sought to establish a new government in the Outer Rim. That was the official story; in truth, the Separatists were unknowing pawns of those galactic corporations who sought to prolong the Clone Wars to increase their profits. The Trade Federation, Commerce Guild and Banking Clan played both sides of the war, and supplied the C.I.S with its infamous Droid Army; a near-limitless horde of troops that kept the Clones besieged on hundreds of fronts. But even these puppet masters were themselves pawns in the hands of the Sith, as they would discover on Mustafar, when it was far too late.