Mandalorian Wars

"The Mandalorian Wars were a series of massacres that masked another war, a war of conversion. Culminating in a final atrocity that no Jedi could walk away from&hellip; save one."

- Kreia referring to the Exile

The Mandalorian Wars erupted after two decades of relative peace following the Great Sith War. The conflict was set in motion by the ambitious Mandalore the Ultimate, who reconsolidated the Mandalorian clans under the Neo-Crusader banner.

Due to contradictory historical accounts from the period, the exact date of the war's beginning would remain a point of contention among historians. The wars could be said to have begun in the year 3,976 BBY, as it marked the start of Mandalorian aggression along the Outer Rim.

The first skirmishes between the Mandalorian and Republic fleets occurred as early as 3,965 BBY, but many published histories tend to emphasize the time period after the Mandalorians invaded the Galactic Republic proper, circa 3,963 BBY. After the invasion, the Republic Military and a faction of the Jedi Order entered the war. The wars concluded in 3,960 BBY with the Republic victory at Malachor V.

Origins
"Exar Kun was a Jedi who fell to the dark side and led an army against the Jedi and Republic. Exar Kun was defeated, but the war left both the Republic and our own Order severely weakened. For twenty years, we struggled to rebuild, trying to erase the scars of the terrible conflict."

- Dorak

The roots of the Mandalorian Wars lay buried deep in the turmoil of the Great Sith War. At the outbreak of that conflict, the Mandalorian clans had roamed far from their homeworld as they scouted the known galaxy for worthy foes. The nomadic warriors revered combat, and for centuries, they had dedicated themselves to waging holy wars of conquest&mdash;known as crusades&mdash;against their celestial neighbors. In the year 3,996 BBY, the Mandalorian Crusaders sought a new adversary against which they could test themselves, and thus they voyaged to the Empress Teta system, which was, at that time, ruled by a Sith sect know as the Krath.

Mandalore the Indomitable, the Lord of the Mandalorians clans, had heard rumors of the military exploits of a young Krath commander, a fallen Jedi named Ulic Qel-Droma. On the world of Kuar, Mandalore challenged Ulic to single combat, and he was defeated by the Sith Lord. After the duel, he pledged his loyalty to Qel-Droma and thus allied the Mandalorian clans with the Sith. Under orders from Ulic Qel-Droma and his Sith Master, Exar Kun, the Crusaders laid waste to numerous worlds and earned the enmity of the Republic and its Jedi defenders.



In the waning days of the Great Sith War, as the Brotherhood of the Sith hovered on the brink of defeat, the Mandalorians took part in a disasterous campaign known as the Fourth Battle of Onderon. Mandalore staged a surprise assault against the city dwellers of Iziz, but just as the tide of battle turned in the Crusaders' favor, Republic reinforcements arrived in the system. The Republic commander informed Mandalore that his master, Ulic Qel-Droma, had been captured and he demanded the Mandalorians' immediate surrender, but Mandalore refused to concede the battle. Caught between the incoming Republic fleet and the native Beast Riders, the Mandalorian warriors were devastated.

Mandalore ordered a rapid retreat to Onderon's nearby moon, Dxun, believing that he could lose the Republic pursuit in its dense jungles, but that was not to be the case. While withdrawing, a Republic frigate fired upon his Basilisk droid mount and he crashed into the canopy far from friendly aid. Rising from the wreckage, Lord Mandalore was immediately attacked by a pack of ravenous Drexl and he was devoured.

Initiating a search of Dxun's dangerous forests, the remaining Mandalorian Crusaders scoured the landscape for signs of their leader. In a fateful moment, one Crusader stumbled across Mandalore's mask hanging, snagged in a patch of nearby foliage. In accordance with the laws of his people, he claimed the mask and became the new Mandalore, Mandalore the Ultimate, whose legacy would affect the galaxy for years to come.

The war in the Unknown Regions
"We started by conquering worlds just outside the Republic. We did it quietly so the Republic wouldn't really know what was going on until too late. When we finally did hit the Republic worlds, they had no idea we were coming."

- Canderous Ordo

The Mandalorian Crusaders suffered a crushing defeat in the Onderon system, and their Sith allies met a similar fate at the hands of the Galactic Republic soon thereafter. Once they had captured Ulic Qel-Droma on Ossus, the Jedi rallied to defeat Exar Kun at Yavin IV. Bereft of leadership, the Sith were vanquished and the Great Sith War swiftly came to a close. During the next twenty years, an uneasy peace prevailed and the galaxy slowly began to recover from the deep scars inflicted by war. The Mandalorians, the Galactic Republic, the Jedi Order, and the scattered remnants of the Sith each entered a period of rebuilding and renewal known as the Restoration era. During these quiet years, Mandalore the Ultimate focused his attention on rebuilding his greatly diminished Mandalorian clans. By recruiting outside of his native Taung species, he was able to form a powerful new generation of warriors known as the Neo-Crusaders.

Humiliated by their defeat during the Great Sith War, many Mandalorian became convinced that their prophesied 'Great Last Battle' was at hand. Anticipating&mdash;and perhaps precipitating&mdash;this apocalyptic conflict, Mandalore the Ultimate prepared his clans for war once more. In the year 3,976 BBY, Mandalore launched a new Mandalorian crusade against an old foe; Conspiring with the Sith, he devised an ambitious scheme to overthrow the weakened and vulnerable Galactic Republic. Knowing that his people were not yet strong enough to challenge the Republic directly, Mandalore began his jihad by leading his renewed clans in a brutal campaign of conquest along the Outer Rim Territories, on the edge of Republic Space. Sacking independent planets such as Althir, the Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders were able to carve out a clan territory larger than that ruled by the Hutts in the span of little more than a decade.



During this period of rampant imperialism, the Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders conquered the planet Cathar. The operation was masterminded by Mandalore the Ultimate's chief strategist, Cassus Fett, who wished to exact vengeance on the native Cathar species for opposing the Mandalorians in past conflicts. In 3,973 BBY, Fett's forces viciously massacred the Cathar, driving the species to the brink of extinction. Years later, tidings of the event would bring about a major turning point in the Mandalorians' war with the Republic.

The Republic Senate initially chose not to intervene in the Mandalorians' crusade of conquest. The senators were wary of allowing the Republic to become embroiled in another galaxy spanning conflict; They still remembered the devastation wrought during the Great Sith War, and they did not wish to risk open warfare in the defense of planets located beyond their government's borders. They refused to take part in the ongoing conflict unless the Mandalorians threatened to invade the Republic itself. Meanwhile, Mandalore prepared to do just that. He plundered resources from his conquered provinces and stockpiled them in order to fuel his war machine. With each military victory, the Mandalorian clans grew more powerful; They assembled a massive slave labor force and conscripted conquered species into their ranks. As planet after planet fell before their advancing fleet, refugees began to pour into Republic space, flocking to border worlds such as Taris in the hopes of escaping the Mandalorians' wrath.

The border war
"Mandalore spends years picking off unaligned rimworlds&mdash;the Senate sits. Mandalore gets too close to one full of Republic business interests&mdash;and the Senate throws it Republic membership and a security cordon so long it would take five fleets our size to crew it. I'm sure Mandalore did a little dance when he heard the Republic had pledged to defend Taris. They've called these last few months "War." I think you can see it's nothing of the sort!"

- Saul Karath

The Republic Senate allowed the Mandalorians' crusade of conquest to continue, unchecked, for more than a decade, but as the Neo-Crusaders began to converge on Taris, the Senators chose to make a stand and defend their government's extensive commercial investments in the planet. In the year 3,966 BBY, Taris was granted Republic membership at the behest of the rich and influential company, Lhosan Industries. Soon thereafter, Taris's resource worlds of Vanquo, Tarnith, Suurja, and Jebble fell under the threat of Mandalorian attack. In response, the Republic deployed its Outer Rim fleets in a lengthy defensive formation which came to be known as the Jebble-Vanquo-Tarnith line. However, the Republic Navy was spread too thin over a vast area and it lacked the ships to truly defend the entire front; Thus, the line was more of a show of force than a practical military deterrent.

In the following years, Neo-Crusader and Republic forces fought the first of many skirmishes along the Republic border between Taris and the Mandalorian homeworld. A series of four minor battles took place on the agrarian world of Suurja, but the contest eventually ended in a stalemate. By 3,964 BBY, the war appeared to have ground to a halt; Apart from taking a stellar research station on the remote planet Flashpoint, the Mandalorians had not conquered a populated system in the Outer Rim for more than a year, but appearances were deceiving. As the two galactic powers sparred within the neutral Republic frontier, the Mandalorians were systematically probing the strength and resolve of the Republic Military in preparation for a full-scale attack.

Division within the Jedi Order
"We'll go to the front&mdash;and beyond it, if it'll save the galaxy. Sometimes you have to enter the darkness to save the light."

- Alek Squinquargesimus

Amid such uncertain times, radical new factions began to coalesce within the Jedi Order. An outspoken Jedi Knight, who would become known in the popular media as "The Revanchist," warned of the danger posed by the Mandalorian clans. He lobbied for the Jedi Order to take an active role in the Republic's war effort, but the Jedi High Council was hesitant to be drawn into an another armed conflict. Only thirty years earlier, the fallen Knights Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma had successfully led a host of Jedi to the dark side and thence to war with the Jedi Order. The resulting struggle with the Sith took a very heavy toll on the Order and it had yet to fully recover. In the face of a looming Mandalorian threat, the Jedi Masters grew cautious lest they repeat the mistakes of the past; They were wary of the dark side and they sensed that an unknown hand was at work behind the new war.



The Jedi High Council seemed content to watch and wait as the border war escalated along the Outer Rim, but a growing movement within the Jedi Order refused to stand idly by. The young and charismatic Revanchist began to recruit Jedi followers to combat the Mandalorians, and his friend Alek "Squint" Squinquargesimus was the first to join his cause. The two knights were well known and admired within the Order, and they were able to quickly enlist a number of like-minded volunteers, forming a faction that would come to be known as the "Revanchists." Anticipating a Mandalorian invasion, they scouted the battlefront without the knowledge or consent of the Jedi Council.

While the Revanchist concerned himself with the Mandalorians, the famed Jedi seer Krynda Draay focused her attention on the Sith. Draay was embittered by her failure to predict the reemergence of the Sith, and by the loss of her husband, sister, and former Jedi Master during the resulting war. She lived in self-imposed solitude for four years following the death of her spouse, but the needs of the Jedi Order eventually drew her out of isolation. The Great Sith War had gravely depleted the Jedi ranks and there were few remaining Masters who were capable of training the next generation in the ways of the Force. In 3,993 BBY, the Jedi were able to convince Krynda Draay to train a new class of seers for the Order, but she had greater ambitions. With the aid of Haazen, her husband's failed Padawan, she quietly founded a Jedi splinter group known as the Covenant. In the following decades, she and her students developed the organization into a vast, clandestine operation dedicated to preventing the Sith from ever rising to power again.

The Onslaught
"The prologue is over. We're breaking out on the Outer Rim&mdash;and more. The real Mandalorian Wars have begun."

- Rohlan Dyre

In the year 3,964 BBY, decades after Krynda Draay first founded the Covenant, the organization's first WatchCircle, stationed on Taris, received a disturbing vision that foretold the return of the Sith. Their brief glimpse of the future seemed to predict that one of their own Padawans was to become a Sith Lord&mdash;one who would be responsible for the collapse of the Jedi Order. Having dedicated their lives to the sole mission of safeguarding the Republic from the Sith, the WatchCircle decided that their students had to be sacrificed for the greater good. They massacred their apprentices within the halls of the Jedi Tower in an attempt to forestall the future that they had foreseen, but their plan was not entirely successful; One of their Padawans managed to escape the scene of the crime.

The Covenant members framed the lone survivor, Zayne Carrick, for the murders that they had committed, but Carrick repeatedly escaped capture and fled the system. As a result, the Tarisian citizenry lost faith in their Jedi protectors and civil order began to deteriorate. Prominent business interests, such as Lhosan Industries, announced their intentions of pulling off the planet, citing security risks. Three weeks after the Padawan Massacre, the embarrassed Jedi Order also decided to cut its losses; Taris slowly descended into anarchy and the Jedi chose to abandon it to its fate.



In 3,963 BBY, Mandalore the Ultimate received word of the chaos that had consumed Taris. Understanding that the planet was the key to the entire sector, he took advantage of the situation and signaled his long-prepared forces to attack en masse. The invasion of the Republic began with a rapid conquest of Onderon which staged from nearby Dxun. Soon afterward, the Mandalorian fleets in the Outer Rim began to pour into Republic space through three invasion corridors in adjacent sectors. The Republic was caught completely off-guard by the sudden Mandalorian break out&mdash;an event that the popular media would refer to as "The Onslaught." Overwhelmed, the deployed battle groups of the Republic Navy did their level best to counter the massive Mandalorian assault while the Galactic Senate prepared to retaliate with the entire Republic fleet.

The primary Mandalorian invasion force, commanded by Mandalore himself, began a major push towards the Republic security cordon surrounding the Taris system. Splitting his command, Mandalore simultaneously attacked Taris and the nearby planet Vanquo, thereby forcing the Republic defenders to divide their efforts. While Captain Saul Karath of the Courageous oversaw the defense of Vanquo, the Admirals Jimas Veltraa and Noma Sommos commanded the defense of the Jebble-Vanquo-Tarnith line surrounding Taris. When the line became indefensible, Admiral Veltraa reformed the remnants of the Outer Rim fleets into a new defensive line around the planet Taris itself, but that formation also fell before the massed Mandalorian assault. During the battle, Admiral Sommos was gravely injured and Admiral Veltraa was killed when his flagship, Reliance, was destroyed. Once the dust had finally settled, Taris found itself under siege and the remnants of the Republic fleets in the region were in full retreat.

Flashpoint
In the wake of the Mandalorian Onslaught, the Jedi High Council learned that many of the Revanchists were captured during the Fourth Battle of Suurja. The Council lectured the Revanchist leader for bringing Padawans and fellow Knights to a war zone without permission, and for leaving them to fend for themselves on Suurja while investigating events on Dxun and Onderon. Master Vrook Lamar of the High Council ordered the Revanchist to recover the captured Jedi and return them safely to Coruscant. Ultimately, however, it was Zayne Carrick who would accomplish that feat. Implementing a plan concocted by his con-artist employer, Marn Hierogryph, he rescued Alek Squinquargesimus, Cale Berkona, and the rest of the captive Revanchists. He and a renegade Mandalorian named Rohlan Dyre infiltrated the Flashpoint Stellar Research Station and liberated the Jedi from the clutches of Demagol, a Mandalorian scientist who conducted torturous experiments on his subjects in an effort to divine the nature of their Force abilities.

Serreco, Omonoth, and Jebble
"Anyone who put up a fight&mdash;or wouldn't fight&mdash;was crushed. We razed entire worlds trying to provoke the Republic into fighting us."

- Canderous Ordo



After retreating from the front, the remnants of the Republic's Outer Rim fleets eventually regrouped and resupplied on the backwater world of Serreco. The battle group was under the command of Saul Karath, who had been promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral following the Battle of Vanquo.

The Mandalorian veteran Canderous Ordo would later reminisce that the Republic initially utilized "shameful" defensive tactics such as placing military installations adjacent to major civilian population centers. He believed that the Republic felt that his people would not use "appropriate force" against their bases in major cities. The Mandalorians quickly disabused them of such notions. On the planet Serroco, the Republic military made the mistake of placing its defensive fortifications within the cities of the native Stereb. Disgusted by what he called a "defense without honor," Mandalore had the cities completely annihilated with nuclear devices. The Mandalorian war machine proved to be ruthless, tenacious, and largely unscrupulous&mdash;willing to achieve victory regardless of the cost. In the battles of Serroco, Duro, and Eres III, they shocked the galaxy with the sheer carnage they were willing to inflict upon any worlds that dared to fight back.

In a play for power, Arkoh Adasca set up a bid between the two sides, offering them gigantic space creatures called exogorths, which he considered to be the ultimate bioweapons that can multiply faster than ships can be built. The representatives of the bidding factions were Saul Karath for the Republic, Mandalore himself for the Mandalorians and Alek of the Revanchists. Though all sides despised the use of such creatures, they could not let one party get away with them.

The Mandalorians soon began conscripting recruits to prepare for the attack on Alderaan. As they massed their forces on Jebble, the unexplained Rakghoul Plague began spreading throughout the base. To prevent the infection from spreading to the rest of the galaxy, Cassus Fett had no choice but to obliterate the base. Soon after, reports from Republic Intelligence say that the Mandalorians suffered an insurrection, convincing the Jedi High Council that the Revanchist's path was wrong.

The Jedi intervene
"We fought against the Republic forces for some time, over the course of many battles. At the start, they were not much of a threat to speak of, but once the Jedi Revan had taken charge, things began to turn against us."

- Canderous Ordo

In the opening stages of the war, the Republic military proved to be outmatched by the sheer ferocity of the Mandalorians' attacks. Time and again, the Republic navy was soundly beaten. In desperation, the Republic petitioned the Jedi Council for aid, but the Council urged patience as they assessed the Mandalorian threat. The revelation of exactly what had occurred during the Battle of Cathar, several years earlier, would mark a turning point in the conflict. After learning of the genocide of the Cathar, Revan and Malak openly defied the Jedi High Council and led their Jedi followers to war. The Jedi Crusaders joined the Republic fleets battling the Mandalorians and they quickly became vital to the Republic's war effort.

Revan and Malak proved to be extremely capable commanders in the field of battle and they rose swiftly through the ranks of the Republic military. Soon, they were given direct control over one-third of the entire Republic fleet. Revan used his new-found authority to spearhead the Republic war effort and under his enterprising leadership, the all-but-defeated Republic Navy began to push the Mandalorians back. The Jedi Masters, however, believed that Revan and Malak were only offering easy solutions to the galaxy's problems and they feared that much woe would result from their recklessness.

The tide turns
"Two Jedi Knights, Revan and Malak, defied the Jedi Council. They challenged the Mandalorian fierceness and brutality with a viciousness of their own. Revan's entrance into the conflict marked the true beginning&hellip; and end&hellip; of the war. It was Revan who drove the Mandalorians back into the Unknown Regions."

- Kreia

Revan's keen tactical abilities completely turned the Republic's war effort around, but he did not achieve such success without paying a heavy price. As the war dragged on, Revan began to take certain moral shortcuts&mdash;committing several "unsavory" acts, such as leaving "non-strategic" planets completely undefended in order to accomplish the "greater goal" of speedily winning the war. Revan and Malak adapted to their enemies' merciless tactics by simply co-opting them&mdash;fighting fire with fire. In time, they developed a cold and calculating disposition uncharacteristic of Jedi; They grew to despise weakness and indecisiveness in all its forms. Though Revan's tactics were flawless and Malak's righteous fury was unmatched, the pair slowly began to mirror the callous Mandalorians they were fighting.

Revan and Malak led the Republic to victory after victory. They pushed the Mandalorians back to Taris, off of Dxun and Onderon, and back into Mandalorian space. Even Cassus Fett's impressive victory at the Battle of Jaga's Cluster could not turn the momentum back in the Mandalorians' favor. Pursuing the roving Mandalorian fleets, Revan and Malak ventured into the Unknown Regions beyond the Republic's borders. In an effort to draw their enemies out, their forces assaulted the Mandalorian regime on Althir, and in the resulting battle, much of the remaining Mandalorian army was decimated. Yet for all their success, the Republic took enormous casualties while the two young Jedi were in command. During the assault on the Mandalorian Outpost on Dxun alone, as many as ten Republic soldiers died for every Mandalorian slain.

Malachor V
"It was what we had wanted all along, in a way. We wanted to fight the best in a battle that would be remembered for centuries. And we did."

- Canderous Ordo

Early in the war, at some point in the year 3,963 BBY, Revan visited the ancient Sith world of Malachor V while scouting for new outposts along the embattled Outer Rim. Word had reached him that Malachor was anathema to the Mandalorians and he wished to know the reason why. Upon landing on the planet's surface, he was nearly destroyed by the resonance of dark side power and he only managed to survive the encounter through sheer force of will. He fed upon Malachor's dark side power, and in so doing, avoided being utterly consumed by it, yet he did not escape unscathed. The dark side beckoned and Revan fell under its influence.

A year later in 3,960 BBY, Revan forced a final confrontation with the Mandalorians above Malachor V. He deployed a massive fleet to the planet consisting mostly of those whose loyalties to himself remained in doubt. In utter secrecy, he had prepared a superweapon, known as the "Mass Shadow Generator," which had been designed by the Zabrak engineer Bao-Dur. The weapon was the centerpiece of a trap with which he hoped to bring about a conclusive end to the destructive conflict. Commanding the fleet and overseeing the device's use was a capable and jaded Jedi General (later known as the Jedi Exile) who had taken part in the recent bloody campaign on Dxun. Revan lured the Mandalorians to the planet and a massive fleet battle ensued in orbit.



Revan himself was delayed outside the system by a Mandalorian scouting party. He eventually arrived at Malachor and entered the fray, but he was late and the Mandalorian fleets were far from defeated. In that moment, he drew upon the Sith energies haunting the surface below to augment his power. Soon thereafter, Revan pressed Mandalore into a direct confrontation and the fallen Jedi struck the great Mandalorian leader down in single combat. Meanwhile, more and more of the Jedi fighting in orbit found themselves unable to resist the call of the power emanating from the planet below and were thus drawn to the dark side. With renewed vigor, Revan's forces pressed the attack. They soon achieved a stalemate and then slowly began to push the Mandalorian fleet back towards Malachor V.

Finally, as the fighting grew intense, Revan's Jedi general observed that the Mandalorians had taken the bait and that her trap was set to spring. With a nod of her head, she commanded Bao-Dur to activate the secret weapon. Moments later, she watched in horror as a significant portion of both fleets were suddenly drawn from orbit into a vast gravity vortex that was powerful enough to crush the countless ships into the planet's crust and fracture the world to its very core.

After slaying Mandalore the Ultimate and winning the war with a sweeping victory at Malachor V, Revan and Malak were hailed as heroes and saviors of the Republic, yet at that time, Sith teachings were already sweeping through the ranks of their command. Soon after that final battle, they led the remainder of their forces into the Unknown Regions under the pretense of tracking down the remnants of the Mandalorian fleet, but they did not return and they sent no word of their whereabouts. In time, the Republic feared that the Jedi and their followers had been lost in a tragic, unknown disaster in the depths of unexplored space.

Aftermath
"The war we had with the Republic was supposed to be the most glorious battle of our history but&hellip; it was a very costly one. I guess we didn't think of how much we could lose in it."

- Canderous Ordo

Few ships from either fleet survived the battle of Malachor V unscathed, but the Mandalorians sustained the worst damage and the highest casualties. The few shell-shocked survivors rapidly transmitted their unconditional surrender. After the battle, Revan had a singular opportunity to put an end to the threat of the Mandalorians once and for all, but he chose not to take advantage of it. He merely disarmed and disbanded the clans, allowing them to splinter into disheartened groups which scattered across the Outer Rim. There, devoid of leadership and honor, they degenerated. A few Mandalorian survivors returned to the Mandalore system, but many, including Canderous Ordo, humbled their pride and became mercenaries for hire. Other groups became outright bandits, in a futile effort to relive their glory days.

"Many believed the Mandalorians were defeated at Malachor V. But the Mandalorians taught the Jedi much through battle. And so it was that Malak, Revan, and the Jedi that followed them discovered their true natures in the Mandalorian Crusade."

- Kreia

The Jedi general who had brought the war to its cataclysmic conclusion proved incapable of enduring the psychic backlash of the destructive energies that she had unleashed; she survived the ordeal only by unconsciously deafening herself to the Force. After the war, she would be the only Jedi out of all those who had served with Revan to reject the dark side and return to the Jedi Council on Coruscant for judgment. Before the Council, she was charged with following Revan to war in an act of rebellion and the Masters informed her that she was to be exiled from the Jedi Order as a result. Upon hearing her sentence, the Exile defiantly stabbed her lightsaber into the center stone of the Council Judgment Chamber. Her sentence was harsh but she chose to accept it nonetheless. Turning her back on the Jedi, she departed from known space to wander alone on the fringes of the Republic.

In 3,959 BBY, one year after their disappearance, the lost heroes Revan and Malak suddenly returned to the Galactic Republic at the head of a massive invasion fleet which consisted of commandeered Republic vessels as well as numerous vessels of unknown design. The armada was crewed by a host of experienced veterans and commanded by defectors such as Admiral Saul Karath, General Derred, and Mon Halan&mdash;some of the finest officers that the Republic had produced during the Mandalorian Wars. Calling themselves Darth Revan and Darth Malak, they declared war on the Republic. So began the Jedi Civil War&hellip;

Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders
"We've come so far, so fast, we have problems we've never had. What's the basic word Cassus Fett used? Ah, yes. Logistics. So many new Recruits. Different species, different armors, different languages&mdash;and not enough time to learn our ways. Cassus first suggested that the similar uniforms [...] could help get control of a force that has grown beyond control."

- Mandalore the Ultimate

In the years following the Sith War, Mandalore the Ultimate undertook the arduous task of reforging the Mandalorian clans. Upon assuming leadership, he recalled his scattered warriors, but few remained to heed his summons. Undeterred, he began to heavily recruit members of other species into the Mandalorian fold, and in time, the Mandalorian ranks swelled with warriors from countless worlds. Humans soon made up the majority, but races as diverse as Twi'leks, Togorians, Rodians, and Mandallian Giants were well represented.



Lord Mandalore's new recruitment policies gradually broadened the meaning of the term 'Mandalorian.' In addition to describing the dwindling Mandalorian species&mdash;known as the Taung&mdash;it now referred to the inheritors of their legacy; It became an umbrella term for a diverse sect of warriors who defined themselves by their devotion to the Mandalorian ideal of earning honor and glory through combat.

Prior to the reign of Mandalore the Ultimate, the Crusaders were a disorganized, rampaging horde, but the newly risen Lord of the clans enacted regulatory reforms which were aimed at correcting their perceived deficiencies. At the urging of Cassus Fett, one of his chief lieutenants, Mandalore selected a radical fringe movement known as the Neo-Crusaders as his vehicle for change. Plucking the sect from obscurity, he used it as a template for an entirely new generation of holy warriors. Under Mandalore's direction, the Neo-Crusaders became a favored elite within Mandalorian society. They were deployed to indoctrinate new recruits, and with time, more and more warriors chose to join their esteemed ranks&mdash;taking up the standardized Neo-Crusader armor and adopting a more regimented military structure. Thus, Mandalore was able to improve the discipline and cohesion of his warrior clans, and maintain control over his rapidly expanding armed forces.

Mandalore the Ultimate
Mandalore the Ultimate's unorthodox methods inspired suspicions concerning his identity and motivations. Contemporary observers noted that, for a Mandalorian Lord, his plans were uncharacteristically subtle and calculating. Years later, such concerns gained credence when a Mandalorian veteran named Canderous Ordo had a chance encounter with an ailing Taung who claimed to be the true Mandalore. Before dying, he informed Ordo that Mandalore the Ultimate was an usurper who had ties to the Sith.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: Crossroads
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: Commencement
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: Flashpoint
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: Homecoming
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: Days of Fear
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: Nights of Anger
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: Daze of Hate
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: Knights of Suffering
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: Vector
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: Exalted
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
 * Revelation