Sundari/Legends

Sundari was the domed capital city of the New Mandalorian faction of Mandalorians, located on the Outer Rim world of Mandalore, where it stood alongside Mandalore's traditional capital of Keldabe. Situated within one of Mandalore's white-sand desert regions, the bio-cube city of Sundari hosted a large number of New Mandalorians by the time of the Clone Wars, including the sect's leader, Duchess Satine Kryze. Automated transports ferried individuals from the city's docks into its interior, which was filled with high-technology structures that made widespread use of glass in their design. Sundari was guarded by its dedicated police force, and the city's skylanes were patrolled by their Buirk'alor-class airspeeders.

Around the second year of the Clone Wars, Sundari's Peace Park was the target of a terrorist attack, orchestrated by the radical and violent Mandalorian splinter group known as the Death Watch. Some time later, the city was struck by an epidemic of poisonings among its youth, the source of which was traced to a shipment of tainted tea delivered to Sundari by a contingent of Moogan smugglers. This incident was part of a larger trend of corruption among its government's officials, leading to the arrest of New Mandalorian Prime Minister Almec for his role in allowing the black market to operate on Mandalore, and his subsequent incarceration in a Sundari prison.

Description
Nestled within a vast, black-colored dome that protected against the inhospitable desert region of the planet Mandalore in which it was located, Sundari was a large bio-cube city, and the capital city of the New Mandalorian faction. Sundari was surrounded by a number of other cube cities, smaller in size than the large black dome, and constructed by the New Mandalorians to survive the harsh conditions of Mandalore's deserts. On its outer face, Sundari hosted shipping docks for receiving supply shipments to the city, and welcoming visiting starships; automated transports waited to ferry beings from the docks into the city's interior, and officers of the Mandalorian police patrolled the area.

Inside Sundari's black dome, the city was comprised of a complex series of rectangular and often cube-shaped buildings, constructed in close quarters and with sheets of glass that ranged from translucent to transparent. It's high-technology structures rose up from the ground and hung from the dome's vaulted ceiling, alike, maximizing the space available. Skylanes filled with airspeeders wove between Sundari's glass towers, patrolled by police-owned Buirk'alor-class speeders. Near the heart of the city stood the royal palace of Sundari's leadership, and the tranquil Peace Park that housed the memorial shrine, where numerous New Mandalorians could be found walking about. Sundari's most promising youths received an education at the Royal Academy of Government, which prepared them for leadership roles in the New Mandalorian government, while the city's criminals were held in a prison that stretched downward from Sundari's domed heights. By the year 21 BBY, a new hospital was opened in the city, with facilities to treat hundreds of patients, and a outdoor grounds large enough to accommodate several Aka'jor-class shuttles loaded with individuals in need of treatment.

History
In 738 BBY, following a significant growth in Mandalorian militancy that alarmed the Galactic Republic and its Jedi protectors, a brief and targeted conflict that came to be known as the Mandalorian Excision, broke out between the Republic and the Mandalorians, bringing devastation to several worlds within Mandalorian space. Along with Fenel, Ordo, and Concord Dawn, portions of Mandalore were transformed into deserts of white sand, while the Mandalorians were disarmed and their planet occupied by Republic forces for decades.

From the caretaker government that the Republic left in charge of Mandalore in the aftermath of the Excision, arose the New Mandalorian faction; a reformist political group, the New Mandalorians renounced violence and the warrior codes of Mandalore's past, while preaching peace, neutrality, and tolerance. The New Mandalorians used their talents as builders and inventors to create grand bio-cube cities in Mandalore's desert wastes, forging a new society isolated from Mandalore's warrior clans. They claimed the domed city of Sundari as their capital, which existed alongside Keldabe, Mandalore's traditional capital that had stood since before the Mandalorian Wars, thousands of years prior. Following their rise, the New Mandalorians exiled a number of unrepentant Mandalorian soldiers and mercenaries from their society to Mandalore's moon, Concordia, making traditional Mandalorian armor a scarce sight in Sundari. The New Mandalorians' dedication to peace and their love of advanced technology allowed for them to claim ascendancy over the disorganized warrior clans on Mandalore for centuries, leading the Republic to officially recognize Sundari as the capital of Mandalore over Keldabe, as Mandalore gained representation in the Galactic Senate. The city came under the protection of the Mandalorian police, as well as units of the Mandalorian Royal Guard.

Around 21 BBY, in the midst of the galaxy-spanning between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems known as the Clone Wars, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi journeyed to Sundari on behalf of the Jedi Council in order to ascertain the truth behind rumors claiming that Mandalore—a staunch political ally of the Republic since the rise of the New Mandalorians in the wake of the Mandalorian Excision —was secretly assembling an army for the Separatists of the Confederacy. When he touched down at the Sundari docks, Kenobi was taken by automated transport to the royal palace, where he met with the New Mandalorians' Prime Minister, Almec, and their leader, Duchess Satine Kryze of the neighboring world, Kalevala.

While taking a walk with Kryze in the nearby Peace Park, Kenobi witnessed a terrorist bombing of the memorial shrine housed at the park, by a member of the violent Mandalorian splinter group known as the Death Watch. Kenobi attempted to apprehend the bomber, taking part in a lengthy chase that ended at a dead-end balcony; after a brief struggle, the bomber took his own life by leaping from the balcony's edge. Together with Duchess Kryze, Kenobi accompanied the deceased man's body to his home of Concordia, where he discovered the hideout of the Death Watch among the Concordian mines that had been previously thought abandoned. Kenobi and Kryze escaped a skirmish with the Death Watch's troops, returning to Sundari where they boarded the Duchess' personal star yacht, the Coronet, bound for Coruscant to explain the truth of current Mandalorian affairs to the Republic senate. While Kryze spoke before the Galactic Senate, a New Mandalorian scout reported to Prime Minister Almec in Sundari, informing him of the army Death Watch had amassed on Concordia. Before they could mobilize an attack, however, Death Watch's leader, Pre Vizsla, was ordered to stand down by his ally and benefactor, Count Dooku of the Confederacy of Independent Systems.

Following Duchess Kryze's proclamation that Mandalore would remain a neutral entity in the Clone Wars, Republic funded trade routes to the Outer Rim world were largely severed, and re-prioritized elsewhere. Having cut themselves off from Mandalore's farming communities]] in the parts of Mandalore unspoiled by the Mandalorian Excision, Sundari began to suffer from food shortages without Republic aid, leaving many of its residents starving. To remedy the dire situation, Prime Minister Almec took it upon himself to establish a black market trade network in secret, in order to get food to the New Mandalorian people.

The illegal intake of supplies to Sundari came at a dangerous cost: Moogan smugglers arrived in Sundari, bribing their way passed a customs official in order to unload shipments of Ardees Beverage tea. Seeking to increase their total profits from the shipment, the Moogans diluted the tea with the chemical slabin from a warehouse at Sundari's docks, but instead of a harmless mixture, the slabin dosage was incorrectly calculated, contaminating the tea. The tea was distributed to a number of New Mandalorian schools, resulting in hundreds of children becoming violently ill, and many were taken to a recently opened hospital in the city. The hospital was set to be toured that day by Duchess Kryze and her offworld guest, Senator Padmé Amidala of Naboo, and upon discovering the outbreak of poisoned youths, Kryze and Amidala set out to discover the source of the illness plaguing Sundari's schoolchildren. Upon visiting one school that had been affected, the two politicians discovered the Ardees bottled tea to be the source of the poison, and traced the shipment back to the Sundari warehouse from which the Moogan smugglers were operating out of. Following a brief shootout between the smugglers and several officers of the Mandalorian guard, the operation was dismantled and an antidote was provided to the hospitalized children.

The corruption that Kryze and Amidala exposed among Sundari's officials—with the superintendent of a school afflicted by the poisoned tea, and the head of the shipping company responsible for dealing with the Moogans among the guilty —the New Mandalorian Duchess requested a member of the Jedi Order come to Mandalore in order to help stop the black market trade network, and lecture against the perils of corruption at the Royal Academy of Government. Agreeing to the request, the Jedi Council dispatched Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano to Mandalore; Tano landed at the Sundari docks with her master and a detachment of clones from the 501st Legion. Though her master and the clones departed Sundari shortly in order to return to the war, Tano was welcomed to the city by Kryze, Prime Minister Almec, and a group of cadets from the Academy.

For two days, Tano lectured at Sundari's Royal Academy, speaking on the subject of corruption among government leadership, and the duty of the common citizen to ensure lawful behavior among society's rulers. Taking the Jedi's words to heart, a group of cadets aware of Sundari's food shortages, decided to investigate the city's warehouse district for signs of improper conduct. There, the children discovered a government warehouse being used to store black market goods, and a group of smugglers meeting with Prime Minister Almec. Fearing the repercussions of his discovery, Almec moved against the cadets and had them arrested by the New Mandalorian Secret Service, in addition to Duchess Kryze, who had been informed by her cadet nephew Korkie of their findings. Almec incarcerated the Duchess and the students in a Sundari prison, only for Padawan Ahsoka Tano to mount a rescue that resulted in Kryze and the students being freed, while Almec and his conspirators were jailed for their crimes. With the black market network shut down and its orchestrator in prison, Tano departed Sundari to return to her duties under her master.

Later in the war, Sundari hosted a conference at the royal palace, between a delegation from the Republic and Confederacy of Independent Systems seeking a peaceful end to the Clone Wars. Proceedings broke down, though, when the disenfranchised Separatist senator Lux Bonteri stormed into Duchess Kryze's throne room accusing the Confederate leader Count Dooku of murdering his mother, Mina Bonteri. Bonteri was forcibly removed from the hall by a cadre of Separatist BX-series droid commandos, and taken to the Confederacy's ship at the Sundari docks where he would have been killed were it not for the intervention of Togruta Padawan Ahsoka Tano, who had returned to Mandalore as part of a security detail for the Republic's diplomats. Tano rescued Bonteri, and fled Sundari aboard a Republic vessel.

Behind the scenes
"Hoping to alleviate some of the tensions rising in the capital city of Sundari, Satine has called upon her friend Padmé Amidala to make a diplomatic visit."

- Newsreel for "Corruption"

Sundari was first introduced to Star Wars canon in the 2009 The Art of Star Wars: The Clone Wars reference book. The city subsequently appeared in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series second season episode, "The Mandalore Plot", the newsreel of the following episode "Voyage of Temptation", and again in the "Duchess of Mandalore". The series' third season episodes "Corruption" and "The Academy" again featured Sundari, as did the fourth season episode "A Friend in Need."

The city of Sundari shares its name with the mining planet Sundari, first introduced to the Star Wars universe in the Star Wars Adventure Journal story Turning Point, authored by Charlene Newcomb and published February 1, 1995.

Since the release of The Art of Star Wars: The Clone Wars reference book, the Star Wars: The Clone Wars series has referred to Sundari as the capital of the planet Mandalore, a role previously filled by the city of Keldabe, since the release of the sixty-eighth issue of Marvel's Star Wars comic series in February of 1983. With the release of The Essential Atlas by Jason Fry and Daniel Wallace, Keldabe was again named as the capital of Mandalore, while the pacifist Mandalorians that appeared in the television show were retconned to be members of the New Mandalorian faction, with Sundari as the capital of their political faction.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Darth Maul: Shadow Conspiracy
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Darth Maul: Shadow Conspiracy
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Darth Maul: Shadow Conspiracy
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Darth Maul: Shadow Conspiracy
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Darth Maul: Shadow Conspiracy
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Darth Maul: Shadow Conspiracy
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Darth Maul: Shadow Conspiracy
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Darth Maul: Shadow Conspiracy