Roy Teda was the corrupt dictator of the planet Romin a number of years before the Clone Wars. He was an associate of the galactic criminals Granta Omega and Jenna Zan Arbor and, as such, became an enemy of the Jedi Order.
It is unknown exactly when Teda became the ruler of Romin, but it is possible that he gained power with the help of Senator Sano Sauro, whose views he strongly supported. Upon his control of the planet, Teda declared Romin a safe haven for criminals from all corners of the galaxy, protecting them from warrants for their arrests, as long as they didn't mind paying the large fees in exchange for the cover-ups. With the vast amount of credits he was earning, Teda created a seemingly Utopian society for his unlawful citizens, while leaving the rest of Romin's innocent workers or children in poverty. These actions led to a strong underground movement against his rule.
Teda, being the egotistical man that he was, had numerous monuments and buildings built in his honor, such as the Teda Landing Platform, situated high in the clouds above Romin's capital of Eliior. Other attractions carrying his name included Teda Park, the Teda Institute for Advanced Study, and the Roy Teda Colored Fountain of Lights. Giant laserboards that dotted the countryside, with the monumental image of a noble-looking Romin in profile, broadcast "Great Leader" Teda's great "progressive" benevolence, protection, and love for his people.
In about 25 BBY, the criminal scientist, Jenna Zan Arbor, sought refuge on Romin, after fleeing from the Jedi on Vanqor. Teda, who issued her the invitation, welcomed Zan Arbor with open arms (ready to collect her payments), and the two became close partners. Through Zan Arbor, he was introduced to Granta Omega, who was also in recent altercations with the Jedi. Together the three of them began planning a major attack on the Galactic Republic.
About six months after Zan Arbor relocated to Romin, the Jedi tracked her down. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Siri Tachi, and their apprentices, Anakin Skywalker and Ferus Olin had to infiltrate Romin to find her by posing as criminals seeking refuge on the planet. However, before they could capture Zan Arbor and Teda, civil war erupted. The underground movement made their first attempt at overthrowing Teda, and even though they tried to make the uprising as non-violent as possible, it ended up being a bloodbath. In the midst of this chaos, Zan Arbor and Teda fled, even leaving behind leaders of Teda's government to be taken hostage.
Thinking that the Jedi were really the criminals they were impersonating, Zan Arbor and Teda contacted them, looking for safe passage offworld. However, upon meeting the Jedi, they discovered their true identities, after Zan Arbor recognized Anakin from her meeting with him months earlier. Teda ordered his men to seize the Jedi, but a team of Jedi led by Mace Windu arrived and arrested him and Zan Arbor. However, in order to negotiate with Joylin, the leader of the citizen rebellion against Teda, they needed to release the hostages; but, in releasing them, they also knew that the two criminals could lead them to Omega. Zan Arbor was able to bribe Joylin to set her and Teda free, and they escaped the planet, but with a tracking device placed on their ship by Skywalker.
Escaping Romin, Teda and Zan Arbor fled to Falleen, where Zan Arbor and Omega had already established the Blackwater Systems Facility. The two criminal masterminds were now able to mass-produce and mass-transmit Zan Arbor's drug, the Zone of Self-Containment, thus accelerating their plans of attacking the Republic. Tracking them to Falleen, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker investigated the Blackwater factory, which resulted in Teda fleeing Falleen, and Zan Arbor and Omega being forced to destroy their extensive Zone-production and transmission facility through a massive triggered implosion.
Teda headed for Coruscant, where he testified before the Galactic Senate in its Hearing Chamber for Senator Sano Sauro, who organized a group of anti-Jedi politicians, led by Senator Bog Divinian, who, through lies and half-truths, sought to discredit the Jedi Order by making the Jedi appear disloyal to the Republic, or as immorally interfering in galactic political matters by making them worse. Teda claimed that the situation on Romin weeks earlier showed that the Jedi were trying to overthrow the governments of "innocent" worlds: he implicated the Jedi as the masterminds behind the plot to remove him from power, twisting the events of the citizens' uprising of 24 BBY, when he was ousted.
In coming to Coruscant to give his testimony as a key witness against the Jedi, Roy Teda believed himself to be reuniting once again with Jenna Zan Arbor and Granta Omega, themselves having just arrived on Coruscant to set in motion final preparations of their long-incubated catastrophic plan against the Republic. Through its unwitting intake of an airborne form of the Zone of Self-Containment, the Senate would be lulled into an intoxicated, apathetic, almost comatose state. This would facilitate, at least in Sauro's mind, achieving a majority consensus for adoption of the Anti-Jedi petition, but also acceptance of Divinian's nomination of Sauro to the Supreme Chancery. Most importantly, for Omega and Zan-Arbor, it would make it easy for them, through their use of an army of seeker droids pre-programmed with vital information on specific targets, to assassinate not only Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, but thousands of Senators and their advisors—to the utter destruction of Republic governance as it was then known, but also (by its intimate association with the Senate) the utter decimation of power and galactic influence of the entire Jedi Order.
The Grand Convocation Chamber was the setting of the attack on the Senate Building, which, though not without casualties, was ultimately foiled by the Jedi. Twenty-one Senators, along with 14 Senate aides and guards, were killed. What Teda did not know, however, was that Omega and Zan Arbor no longer had any use for him, and a seeker droid killed him as well. At the moment the fatal blaster bolt hit him, Teda was in the act of attempting to assassinate the Supreme Chancellor: Teda realized he'd been betrayed by Omega, and was intent on, since he'd been marked for death, bringing down Palpatine with him.
Roy Teda was described as a short Romin man (which meant very short indeed, as the Romin were a short humanoid species to begin with) with chubby fingers. He dressed in flowing multicolored robes, and his manner of speech was flowery and redundant. Many there were, including Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi, who assessed the Romin dictator as not being "very bright."
But what Teda lacked in brightness, he made up for in cruelty. At an extravagant reception he staged at his grand palace for the world's wealthy denizens, he brutally struck a server across the knees with an electro-jabber—a violent action performed with such casualness that it even shocked Kenobi, who was there present in an undercover capacity.
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
- The Essential Reader's Companion