Introduction
The culture known as Mandalorian has been around longer than almost any in the galaxy. The Mandalorians predate the Republic and the Jedi Order, though the Mandalorians have often found their history intertwined with the Republic and the Jedi through the millennia. Mandalorians are moreover, not a single species, nor are they tied to a particular planet though they do acknowledge Mandalore as their capital and "homeworld." To truly understand this culture we need to look at the epic sweep of its history and the ways it has changed as it has evolved. The first course will cover their history from the beginning of recorded history until the War of the Fiitest (200,000 BBY — 2,000 BBY).
The Beginning
In 200,000 BBY the civilization that would become known as Mandalorian arose on the planet Coruscant. A humanoid species known as the Taung had developed there. The Taung engaged in intense fighting with the human nations of Coruscant and were eventually driven off the planet. The Taung fled to the planet Roon in the Outer Rim and stayed there until 7,000 BBY. In 7,000 BBY a Taung warlord known as Mandalore the First led the Taung to conquer the planet that is named after him. It was at this time that Mandalorian culture began to develop into what it is now. The Taung renamed themselves Mandalorians and became known as some of the most formidable soldiers in the galaxy. The Taung were known as the Mandalorian Crusaders at this time and this is also when they began wearing armor as a society, though it was a much more individualized set of armor than the distinctive armor of current times.
The Mandalorians then began expanding outward in a war of conquest, though initially they limited themselves to the Mandalore Sector. The planets Shogun, Ordo, and Gargon fell before their forces, but they were repelled on the planet Mandillia by the natives. The Mandalorians were so impressed by the Mandillian warriors that many were accepted into Mandolorian culture as fellow "Mandalorians", and the planet Mandillia was absorbed rather than conquered. This marks the first instance of the Mandalorian practice of defining themselves by culture rather than race.
Shortly before 4,000 BBY the Mandalorians began expanding outward from their sector and encountered a species known as the Nevoota who were exterminated by the Mandalorians. It was during this conflict that the Mandalorians developed a religion based on worshipping war as personified by their god Kad Ha’ Rangir who was locked in eternal battle with the Sloth God Arasuum. This religious development would shape the Mandalorians through the rest of their history. Even after they had turned their backs on their religion in later years, the Mandolorian culture still strongly believed in the ideas of bettering themselves by change and conflict and saw peace as passive and stagnant.
Another notable planetary conflict during this initial expansion by conquest was at the planet Basilisk. This was the first encounter between the Mandalorians and Jedi and the conflict went badly for both sides. The Mandalorians won a military victory, overwhelming the native Basiliskans and their Jedi allies sent from the Republic; however the Basiliskans seeing their defeat poisoned their entire planet in order to keep the Mandalorian forces from taking possession of it. The Mandalorians pillaged what they could, including all the flying Basilisk War Droids, which would later become synonymous with Mandalorian forces. The Mandalorians also took the Basiliskans themselves. Eventually, after centuries of warfare the reptilian natives of Basilisk would actually devolve into animals that served as beasts of burden and war mounts and became known as "War Dragons."
The Great Sith War
Around 4,000 BBY the Mandalorians initiated a war of conquest that would embroil them in the struggle between Jedi and their darkside foes. Mandalore the Indomitable, led his people into the Deep Core regions, with the ultimate goal of conquering the Empress Teta system which was led by the Krath sorceress Aleema. Ulic Qel-Droma the fallen Jedi led the Krath forces there and responded to a challenge from Mandalore by meeting him for a duel on the Plains of Harkul on the conquered planet Kuar. Qel-Droma defeated Mandalore and as a result Mandalore swore fealty to Qel-Droma and through him to Exar Kun, Qel-Droma’s Sith master. This marked the first Mandalorian-Sith alliance. Some of Mandalore’s supporters balked at this and refused to serve the Sith, the most notable leader of these rebellious Mandalorians was a Zeltron named Antos Wyrick.
Now a combined force, the Krath, Sith, and Mandalorians assaulted the Republic shipyards at Foerost. Mandalore the Indomitable personally led his ground troops in an assault on the Foerost command center, destroying all opposition. This combined with the space forces of the Sith and Krath led to a quick and decisive victory over the Republic. The republic lost the shipyards and the three hundred ships docked there to the Mandalorian-Sith Alliance.
The conquerors quickly moved on Coruscant and invaded Galactic City itself, with the Mandalorians once again sweeping the Republic and its Jedi from their path, but Aleema Keto the leader of the Krath betrayed Ulic Qel-Droma and withdrew her forces from Coruscant along with the Mandalorians. Leaving Qel-Droma to the Jedi and convincing Mandalore the Indomitable to switch his loyalty to her after claiming that Qel-Droma had died.
Mandalore the Indomitable was in turn deceiving Aleema though. He had learned of Aleema’s betrayal of Qel-Droma and journeyed to Yavin 4 to enlist the aid of Exar Kun while sending his forces with Aleema’s attack forces. Exar Kun agreed to assist Mandalore in rescuing Qel-Droma from execution by the Jedi and together they journeyed to Coruscant and stormed the Senate Building to free Qel-Droma and advise him of Aleema’s treachery.
Qel-Droma dealt with Aleema’s treachery personally and tasked Mandalore with capturing the Royal Palace on Onderon. The Sith fleet carriers held position in orbit while Mandalorians riding Basilisk War Droids dropped down on the capitol city. The mandalorians were caught in a vicious aerial battle with the native Onderon Beast Riders and their flying mounts. During the battle Onderon called to the Republic for help dealing with the Mandalorian invasion. A Republic fleet responded and wiped out the orbiting carriers. Mandalore knew victory was impossible at this point, but refused to surrender himself to the Republic. Instead he took advantage of the peculiar cosmology of Onderon and led his warriors in a retreat to the moon of Dxun which had an atmosphere that overlapped with Onderon’s every year for a short period during Onderon’s summer season.
Mandalore ordered his forces to lose their Republic pursuers in the dense jungle covering Dxun. During the withdrawal Mandalore’s Bailsik war droid mount was hit by enemy fire and he crash landed deep in the jungle. He was quickly surrounded and attacked by a variety of the incredibly deadly native predators and though he fought and killed many, he was eventually overwhelmed and slain by the creatures. The Mandalorians combed the jungle for their leader and a lone Mandalorian, who would become Mandalore the Ultimate, found his dead leader’s mask and claimed the leadership of the Mandalorian people in accordance with their traditions. This effectively ended the Mandalorian participation in the Great Sith War.
The Mandalorian Wars
The galaxy was at peace for twenty years after the Great Sith War, but in 3,976 BBY the Mandalorians rose again under Mandalore the Ultimate and began attacking Outer Rim planets. Mandalore had made Dxun his stronghold for this "Neo Crusade" and once again led the Mandalorians in a war of conquest. Since the Mandalorians had been decimated in the Great Sith War, Mandalore the Ultimate began recruiting from across the galaxy to swell the ranks of his army. This new practice greatly increased the ranks of the Mandalorians and effectively created the racially diverse culture we now know. To give these new forces a sense of identity Mandalore created a standardized armor style adaptable to each species at the suggestion of Cassus Fett. Thus was born the tradition of Mandalorian armor, featuring its prominent "T" shaped visor.
Even with these new recruits though Mandalore the Ultimate knew he wasn’t ready to engage even a weakened Republic. Instead after conspiring with the Sith that remained after the Great Sith war he set out on a war of conquest across the Outer Rim, aided by his chief strategist Cassus Fett. In ten years time the Mandalorians had carved out a territory that was larger than that ruled by the Hutts. One notable conquest during this period was the taking of the planet Cathar. This invasion was planned and led by Cassus Fett and was particularly brutal. As punishment for past opposition by the Cathar in previous conflicts, Fett enacted a near genocide on the species, massacring them in battle and driving them to the brink of extinction.
The Republic Senate which was war weary and afraid of entering another galaxy spanning conflict chose unwisely to refrain from intervening in the Mandalorian conquests as long as the Mandalorians didn’t invade Republic space. Mandalore the Ultimate seized the opportunity offered him by this lack of action and used his war of conquest as a means to fuel his war machine in preparation for an invasion of the Republic. He plundered every conquered planet for both its resources and people using them all to increase the size of his forces through slave labor and conscription.
Finally in 3966 BBY the Republic acted. The Mandalorians had begun to converge on resource worlds claimed by Taris. A Republic corporation based on Taris spurred the Senate to action and they sent a fleet to oppose the Mandalorian conquest of Taris. The effort was quite simply a wasteful sham. The fleet had been sent to defend so vast an area of space with no additional troops to be sent, they were completely ineffective at destroying the Mandalorian forces and securing a victory. They did manage to halt the Mandalorian advance to minimal gains though.
This was all a part of Mandalore and Fett’s plan though. This border harassment was designed to test to the strength and resolve of the Republic, while keeping them ignorant of the true threat the Mandalorians posed. Mandalore withheld the largest portion of his forces and maintained the façade of a weaker force during this indecisive period of conflict that would later be known as the False War. Mandalore gathered intelligence while lulling the Republic into a false sense of superiority and complacency; meanwhile, he also used this conflict as a way of harassing Republic trade, draining the Republic’s resources. All along he secretly prepared for a full-scale invasion the Republic would be totally unprepared for.
This conflict led to some events that would later haunt the Mandalorians though. A Jedi who realized the true threat posed by the Mandalorians arose and became known as the Revanchist, a name he shared with his followers. This created a splinter group within the Jedi Order and greatly worried the Council as it was just such a Jedi, namely Exar Kun, that had fallen to the dark side and created the Great Sith War. Further complicating the situation was another Jedi splinter group, known as the Covenant composed of Masters with great ability to see the future. They joined together due to a vision of a Sith lord in red armor similar to the training armor worn by padawans on Taris. The Covenant seeking to avoid this future Sith Lord massacred their apprentices and then framed the lone survivor for the deed. Though he was captured, he repeatedly escaped from the Jedi and vowed revenge after fleeing the system.
The Tarisian citizens rejected the Jedi for this event, in many cases violently, and eventually the Jedi withdrew from the world and Taris descended into riots and anarchy.
In 3,963 BBY Mandalore learned of the chaos on Taris and decided to invade. The conquest of Taris took a matter of hours and soon after Mandalore began a three pronged invasion of the Republic, pouring in his previously concealed forces and catching the Republic and the Jedi off guard.
The Republic Fleet fled before the Mandalorians and regrouped at the Core world of Raaltir to be resupplied. Meanwhile the Republic decided on a set of defensive tactics that would ultimately prove futile and disastrous. They located defensive facilities and emplacements near and inside of major population centers, believing this would protect them from the Mandalorian invasion. It decidedly did not do so. The Mandalorians obliterated these facilities and the populations around them without hesitation earning the Mandalorians a truly fearsome reputation for ruthlessness that echoes even in present times. They shocked the galaxy with the carnage they were willing to inflict in the name of conquest. The Mandalorians themselves merely saw this as an appropriate response to "dishonorable" defensive tactics.
The tide of the war turned when two past actions came back to haunt each side. The Revanchist now known as Revan, and his fellow Jedi Malak led a mission to Cathar. The Council had sent a force to disband the Revanchist faction and order Revan and Malak to return to Coruscant. However; while on Cathar, Revan and Malak uncovered the secret of the earlier Mandalorian genocide and spread this information. The Council was forced to condemn the Mandalorians and finally allow the Revanchists to join the war against the Mandalorians. Revan and Malak rose rapidly through the Republic military ranks and soon commanded a full third of the Republic Fleet. They did this by copying the tactics of their Mandalorian foes and became ruthless and calculating, sacrificing entire worlds in order to secure victory against the Mandalorians. They also adopted the Mandalorian practice of looking down on weakness and became cold and calculating, traits that were opposed to their Jedi philosophy. They won victory after victory employing these tactics, eventually pushing the Mandalorians back into Mandalorian space. The price they paid was enormous though. For every Mandalorian killed, ten Republic soldiers died, making this one of the bloodiest and most costly conflicts in galactic history. This conflict led to what was to be the decisive battle of the war, the Battle of Malachor V.
Revan had visited Malachor early in the war and found the place so steeped in dark side energy that merely landing there nearly killed him. Only by feeding on the dark side energy there was he able to survive, though this in turn "tainted" him and led to his eventual brutality and ruthlessness which in turn led to his fall from the light. He devised a plan to lure the Mandalorian forces to Malachor V where he could draw upon this energy to ensure his victory. Revan also planned to employ a super weapon known as the Mass Shadow Generator to obliterate the Mandalorian forces and end the war once and for all. Mandalore the Ultimate met Revan’s fleet there and was defeated in single combat by the Jedi that was drawing on the near infinite dark side energies located there. In addition, the other Jedi in the Fleet were tuned to the dark side by the allure of its power while in battle and fought back against a slowly winning Mandalorian force with renewed vigor by drawing on the dark side energy. The Mandalorians were battled into a stalemate by this newly empowered force of troops and slowly pushed back toward Malachor V. Revan’s forces activated the Mass Shadow generator and the results were literally apocalyptic. The device created a gravity vortex of incalculable power that drew almost all of the Mandalorian forces down to the crust of Malachor where they were crushed instantly as well as a few ships of the Republic Fleet. The gravity storm was so intense that it actually cracked the planet to its core. In the wake of this horrendous devastation the remnants of the Mandalorian fleet transmitted their unconditional surrender.
This was a battle from which the original Mandalorian culture never truly recovered. It wiped out the original Taung species but for a few survivors, and Revan took possession of the Mask of Mandalore which denied the Mandalorians the ability to choose a new leader. In addition, Revan took their armor, disarmed, and disbanded the Mandalorian clans causing them to spread into disheartened groups across the Outer Rim where they degenerated without their culture of leadership and honor. Some few returned to Mandalore and swallowed their pride and became mercenaries for hire. Others scattered and became gladiators, or even pirates and bandits.
Revan disappeared with his forces after this crushing defeat of the Mandalorians, but this was cold comfort to the dispirited and scattered Mandalorians and was to last only a short time before Revan returned and worked further changes on Mandalorian Society.
The Dark Wars
Revan returned to the galaxy as a Sith Lord with his apprentice Darth Malak at his side. They were waging a campaign to gain control of the Star Forge. Revan however was captured by the Jedi and his memories erased, after which he began roaming the galaxy. It was during these travels that he encountered the remnants of the Mandalorians. Revan met Canderous Ordo, a Mandalorian mercenary that had survived the Sith Wars. Ordo joined Revan in his travels, seeking to escape the life of a Mercenary and earn greater glory by helping to oppose Malak. During these travels, Revan and Ordo encountered and defeated several groups of Mandalorians that had fallen from their warrior past and become bandits and slavers. After Malak had been defeated, Revan left the galaxy once again seeking the "True Sith" he believed were hiding in the Unknown Regions. Before Revan left he recovered his memories and returned the Mask of Mandalore to Canderous Ordo and instructed him to reunite the scattered Mandalorian Clans. Revan also revealed that the Sith had manipulated the Mandalorians into fighting the Republic during the Sith Wars.
Ordo named himself Mandalore the Preserver and revived the position of Manda’lor with the mask. Ordo encountered what was probably the last living Taung in the galaxy who was dying when Ordo met him. The unnamed Taung gave Ordo his armor and his Clan, and told Ordo to continue with his quest to reunite the Mandalorian Clans. Ordo took his new clan to the old Mandalorian outpost of Dxun. On Dxun Ordo issued a call to the Clans but unfortunately not all the scattered Mandalorians heeded his call. The Clan on Dantooine going so far as to openly rebel against Ordo and attempt to overthrow the Mandalore, a first in Mandalorian history. Ordo defeated this challenge but was again caught up in the struggle between the Jedi and the Sith, when the Jedi Exile, a former general of Revan’s enlisted his aid in opposing the Sith Triumvirate. Since the Triumvirate posed a threat to his plan of reorganizing the Mandalorian Clans Ordo committed his forces to the struggle. The Mandalorian forces entered the Onderon civil war fighting at the Republic’s side. They contributed troops to the Onderon government’s struggle against the Sith backed coup by General Vaklu. Then, Mandalorian forces seized control of the tomb of the Sith Lord Freedon Nad, from the Sith forces that had occupied it. Finally the Mandalorian forces assisted in the assault on the flagship of Darth Nihilus, the Ravager, during the Battle of Telos IV. Ordo himself joined the assault and fought Darth Nihilus at the side of the Jedi Exile. Once Nihilus was defeated, Mandalorian forces scuttled the ravager with proton charges they had planted aboard during the battle.
Ultimately Ordo failed at his attempts to reunite the Clans, despite his victories and the Mandalorian people would remain mostly scattered for the next three centuries.
The Great Galactic War
In 3,661 BBY the Sith Empire made a sudden return to the galaxy and once again assaulted the Republic. The Sith sought to enlist the aid of the Mandalorians in this conflict, who though they were scattered, were known as the best mercenaries and bounty hunters in the galaxy. However most of the Clans refused their offers. The Sith, determined to have the Mandalorian forces’ aid, resorted to manipulation once again. They found a Mandalorian fighting as a gladiator on Geonosis. Agents of the Sith Empire worked the crowds of the coliseum this Mandalorian fought in whispering that he was the Manda’lor. The agents manipulated his fights so his legend grew and the crowds actually began to believe that this warrior was the Manda’lor and eventually the warrior proclaimed himself Manda’lor and called the Clans. The Mandalorian people rallied to this new Manda’lor as they hadn’t to Ordo 300 years before. The Mandalorians once again began to fight against the Republic due to Sith manipulation. The Mandalorian forces moved in and blockaded the Hydian Way, a major supply route of the Republic. Jedi forces moved in to eliminate this blockade but were overwhelmingly defeated by the Mandalorians. The blockade endured for some time until a force of smugglers finally eluded the blockade and delivered desperately needed supplies to Coruscant.
The Manda’lor, who later was known as Mandalore the Lesser, sought to restore his loss of prestige from the failed blockade by calling a galaxy spanning competition for glory called the Great Hunt. A Mandalorian warrior by the name of Artus won the competition and then promptly challenged Mandalore the Lesser to a duel, where he shot and killed the Sith pawn. Artus assumed the position of Manda’lor, and named himself Mandalore the Vindicated. He was immediately faced with an uprising of his own by a coalition of Clans that thought that the Mandalorians should follow the traditions of Mandalore the Preserver (Canderous Ordo) and support the Republic rather than the Sith Empire. Mandalore the Vindicated decisively quelled the uprising and his forces continued to be the allies of the Sith, though they were much more cautious of the Sith and better paid than before.
The War of the Fittest (The New Sith Wars)
In approximately 2,000 BBY a millennium long conflict between the Sith Empire and the Repuiblic erupted. It was known as the War of the Fittest by the Sith and The New Sith Wars by the Republic. This conflict would lead to what many believed was the extinction of the Sith in the galaxy. During this conflict the Mandalorians would break from the common perception that they were Sith allies and vassals and wage war against the Sith. The Jedi Master Murtaggh approached the Mandalorians early in the conflict and offered the Mandalorians a large sum of credits to assist in the assault of the forces of a Sith Lord known only as the Dark Underlord. The Dark Underlord’s forces were headquartered on Malrev IV and the Mandalorian forces attacked riding Largartoz War Dragons. The Mandalorians engaged the Sith Lord’s forces while Murtaggh infiltrated the Sith headquarters and killed the Dark Underlord, though the Jedi fell to the dark side in the process.
Conclusion
As we have seen. The Mandalorians have a long history and by 2,000 BBY they had developed almost all of their core attributes, such as their culture of glorifying war as a way of life. Their long history of being entwined in the conflicts between the Jedi and various darkside groups, etc. The Mandalorians are not necessarily beholden to the darksiders either as they have been commonly portrayed. They have worked for both the Jedi and the Republic in opposing the darkside forces in the past, though they do tend to ally with the Sith or others against the Jedi.
Mandalorians serve the highest bidder as all good mercenaries do, though they will stick to a contract and show loyalty to an employer no matter how the conflict they are in may evolve. In the next course we will examine the history of the Mandalorians up to the present time and see how major figures and events in the galaxy have built on the history presented here to become the familiar Mandalorians we know today. The Mandalorians are known for being ruthless and barbaric in war, however as we have seen their actions are perfectly justified in their eyes and fit within their strong code of honor. Though they have committed genocides and repeatedly waged wars of aggression, these are all acts that in their culture are designed to strengthen them and those they oppose. To a Mandalorian, conflict is the only way to produce positive change and avoid stagnation and they subject themselves to the same conditions they inflict on the rest of the galaxy.
In the next course we will examine the historical figures and events that further refined this culture into the modern Mandalorians we know today…