Mandalorian/Legends

The Mandalorians—known in Mando'a as the Mando'ade, or "Children of Mandalore"—were a nomadic group of clan-based people consisting of members from multiple species and multiple genders, all bound by a common culture.

In their early years, the Mandalorian culture revolved around battle, with war being a source of honor and pride in their community. The leader of the Mandalorians was known as the Mand'alor, translating to "Sole Ruler" and was rendered as "Mandalore" in Basic. Throughout their history, the Mandalorians were frequently allied with the Sith, perhaps most notably the Sith Lord Exar Kun, and held a certain distrust and general dislike for the Jedi Order. However, they would not hesitate to cooperate with the Jedi if a partnership between the two groups was mutually beneficial. In later years, the Mandalorians moved away from their obsessively war-like and conqueror ways and instead, most became bounty hunters and mercenaries, selling their skills to various individuals and factions in the galaxy.

Mandalorians wore very distinctive battle armor, including helmets with T-shaped visors that covered the entirety of their faces, and would provide inspiration for the helmets of the Republic's clone troopers. These helmets would eventually become strongly associated with the Mandalorian people.

History
"Warmaster, we think too often in terms of dualism: Jedi or Sith, light or dark, right or wrong. But there are three sides to this blade, not two, opposed and similar at the same time. The third edge is the Mandalorian. All three sides care nothing for caste or species, only adherence to a code that unites. The Mandalorians remain the most formidable enemy of the Jedi: but the Sith are not always their allies. The Mandalorians even worshipped war itself, then simply turned their backs on their god. You might begin to understand them one day."

- Vergere, explaining galactic politics to the Yuuzhan Vong

Early history
The Mandalorians began as the Near-Human Taung species from the planet Coruscant. Intense fighting with the thirteen Human nations of Coruscant known as the Battalions of Zhell began in 200,000 BBY, and when a powerful volcano nearly wiped out the humans and darkened the skies over Coruscant, the Taung came to call themselves the Dha Werda Verda—the "Warriors of the Shadow". Despite the volcano's devastating effect, the Taung were eventually driven off Coruscant and took refuge on the world of Roon. Led by the warlord known as Mandalore the First, they would conquer another planet in the Outer Rim in 7,000 BBY, which they named Mandalore after their leader. The Taung took on the name Mandalorians and were seen by many as the most skilled fighters in the galaxy, thriving in battle. These Mandalorian Crusaders were known for their use of cutting-edge weaponry and held to a strict code of honor, and wore armor known simply as "Crusader Armor" that differed from one soldier to the next.

For thousands of years, Mandalore's new inhabitants would not stray far from the Mandalore sector, instead venturing on a series of further conquests to capture the worlds of Ordo, Gargon, and Shogun. When the Mandalorians came to the nearby Mandallia, though, the Mandallian Giant natives not only repelled the invaders' assault, but many came to join the Mandalorian culture, having impressed the Mandalorians with their strength and prowess. But nearly three thousand years after Mandalore's conquest, at a point prior to 4000 BBY, the Mandalorians began to expand their ongoing crusade outward and engaged the Nevoota species in a conflict that would lead to the extermination of the Nevoota and the deification of war in the Mandalorian culture, personified as the destroyer god, Kad Ha'rangir. Shorty before 4,000 BBY, the Mandalorians were led by a new Mand'alor, Mandalore the Indomitable, and in their continuing campaign of expansion, the Mand'alor led a raid on the planet Iskadrell. There, the Mandalorians freed the slaves of the Iskalloni, taking many of them into their culture, including a young Antos Wyrick. Another victim of the Mandalorian crusade was the planet Basilisk. As the Mandalorians invaded, the Galactic Republic sent a relief force, under the command of Jedi Master Sidrona Diath, to the aid of the Basiliskans. Even with Republic support, the Basiliskans found their lines being overrun by the more numerous Mandalorians, and upon realizing that the they were going to lose the battle, the Basiliskans decided to poison their own planet so that the conquerors would not be able to use the world. Basilisk fell, but because the planet's surface was virtually destroyed, the Mandalorians decided to abandon the world and move on, though not before pillaging a sizable number of Basilisk war droids for future use. The Mandalorians also captured a large number of the reptilian Basiliskans, and through centuries of warfare they degenerated into little more than war mounts and beasts of burden, becoming known as "Lagartoz War Dragons".

The Great Sith War
"My warriors need another crusade. The Empress Teta system is in chaos, overstretched by their many conquests. The witch Aleema and her Jedi devotee Ulic Qel-Droma will fall under the fist of Mandalore!"

- Mandalore the Indomitable

Seeking further challenges, the Mandalorian Crusaders moved toward the Deep Core. Setting their sights on the Empress Teta system, the Mandalorians conquered the rocky world of Kuar, and utilized the ruined underground cities as a staging ground for their attack on Empress Teta. When the Mandalorians destroyed a carbonite smelting station, it caught the attention of the fallen Jedi Knight-turned-Sith Lord Ulic Qel-Droma, who'd usurped control of the Krath forces in command of Empress Teta. Challenged to a duel by the Mand'alor, Qel-Droma traveled to Kuar where he faced off against Mandalore the Indomitable on the plains of Harkul. Despite the use of his Basilisk war droid, the Mand'alor was defeated, and in the duel's aftermath, swore fealty to Qel-Droma and his own Sith Master, Exar Kun. Thus was forged the first Mandalorian-Sith alliance, but while Mand'alor had accepted his defeat at the hands of Qel-Droma, several of his supporters had not, including the Zeltron Antos Wyrick; Mand'alor defeat at the former Jedi's hands would drive Wyrick to try and unlock the mysteries of the Jedi's power and the secrets of the Force.

Now allied with the Sith and Krath forces, the Mandalorian Crusaders joined in an attack on the Republic shipyards in orbit around Foerost. Mandalore the Indomitable led his warriors through the corridors of Foerost's command station, destroying all opposition before him. With the combined coordination of the space forces and the Mandalorians, Qel-Droma was able to quickly and decisively capture the Foerost shipyards, as well as the three hundred Republic starships that had been docked there. With their newly-acquired flotilla and the Republic fleet chasing false leads to the jump station at Kemplex IX, Qel-Droma and the Mandalorians invaded Coruscant. Basilisk war droids rained down on the planet from space, and the Mandalorian Crusaders poured into Galactic City. Qel-Droma was betrayed by the Krath witch Aleema Keto, who ordered a retreat of their forces and abandoning Qel-Droma to the Jedi; claiming the Sith Lord had died, Keto was able to sway Mandalore the Indomitable to pledge his loyalty to her. Upon finding out the truth of Keto's betrayal, the Mand'alor feigned loyalty and sent his Crusaders with her latest attack force while he personally boarded his shuttle and journeyed to Yavin 4 to seek the aid of Exar Kun. Arriving at the jungle moon, Mandalore explained to Kun what Aleema had done, and asked the Dark Lord of the Sith to lend him aid in rescuing Ulic from execution. Though Kun had warned Ulic that attacking Coruscant would end badly, he agreed to help Mandalore in rescuing his apprentice. Storming the Senate Building with Kun, Mand'alor rescued Qel-Droma and warned him of Keto's treachery.

After Keto had been dealt with by Qel-Droma, Mandalore the Indomitable had been tasked with capturing the Iziz Royal Palace on Onderon for the Sith. Ordering his fleet carriers to hold position in orbit over the planet, the Mandalorian Crusaders swarmed down atop their war droid mounts toward the city of Iziz. A vicious aerial battle ensued as the Crusaders and their Basilisks clashed against the Onderonian Beast Rider's and their flying Drexls. During the fight, the Beast Riders managed to get a call out to the Republic, explaining that the Mandalorians were attacking and requesting immediate assistance. It wasn't long before a Republic fleet, led by Fleet Captain Orley Vanicus, arrived to combat the Crusader attack. Realizing that the fight was over when he witnessed the destruction of his orbiting fleet carriers, Mand'alor wagered that there was still a chance to lead his Crusaders to safety; ordering his warriors to retreat from Onderon and make their way to the moon of Dxun—the atmosphere of which was currently touching Onderon's—Mand'alor planned to lose their pursuers in the moon's dense jungle. During their retreat, Mand'alor personal Basilisk war droid was hit by enemy fire and he crashed on the surface of Dxun, separated from the other Crusaders. Pulling himself from his war droid's wreckage, the Mand'alor soon found himself surrounded by a number of dangerous beasts native to Dxun's jungles. Though he fought the creatures, Mandalore the Indomitable was eventually overcome slain by the beasts. While combing the jungles for their downed leader, a Mandalorian Crusader came upon the Mand'alor mask and, in accordance with Mandalorian tradition, claimed the mask as his own to become the new Mand'alor.

The Mandalorian Wars
"The Sith came to us with an offer—to fight a worthy enemy in a battle that would be remembered forever."

- Canderous Ordo

During the next twenty years, peace prevailed and the galaxy began to slowly recover from the damage inflicted during the war, entering an era of rebuilding and renewal known as the Restoration period. On the Mandalorian side, the new Mand'alor—going by the title of "Mandalore the Ultimate"—undertook the task of rebuilding the Mandalorian clans that had been greatly diminished in the war. With many of the original Mandalorian species, the Taung, now dead, Mandalore the Ultimate aggressively expanded his recruiting efforts, welcoming members of all alien descent into the Mandalorian culture. To this end, the Mandalorians established bases such as Unity, constructed under the planetary crust of Caillte. While primarily built to serve as a forward supply post, under Feruun Lern it also became a recruitment center where numerous individuals were invited to learn the Mandalorian ways and become new Mandalorian warriors. As a result, the Mandalorian ranks swelled with an influx of warriors from countless worlds. In an effort to help cohesion and uphold order among the motley ranks, a new generation of more uniform armor was implemented at the suggestion of the Mand'alor closest advisor, Cassus Fett, thus forming a powerful new generation of warriors known as the Neo-Crusaders. However, as many Mandalorians rebuit, ten years after the end of the Great Sith War, dozens of Mandalorians were unjustly arrested and executed after a psychotic bounty hunter named Jigger Wraith preyed upon innocents using rare Mandalorian weaponry. At the same time, Antos Wyrick continued his research into the Jedi and the Force, constructing the New Generation Academy on Osadia where he attempted to form a sect of Force-using Mandalorians called the Mandalorian Knights. In a deal with the Crucible slave-trading organizion, the ruthless Zeltron traded his own daughter for more test subjects. But the Crucible would return while Wyrick was away, raiding the school and capturing its students. His experiments ruined, Wyrick rejoined the Mandalorians under the psuedonym of "Doctor Demagol".

In the decades since their defeat in the Great Sith War, many Mandalorians had become convinced that their once-prophesized "Great Last Battle" was soon to be at hand. Emboldened by an element of the "True Sith" in hiding, Mandalore the Ultimate launched a campaign into the Outer Rim, on the edge of Republic space. Conquering serveral independant planets outside of the Republic's interests, the Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders were able to amass a clan territory larger than that ruled by the Hutts in the short span of a decade. During this period of aggressive expansion, the Neo-Crusaders conquered the planet Cathar in an operation headed by Cassus Fett. Though already defeated, Fett herded what remained of the Cathar species after the battle, out into the sea and—although he was opposed by the outcry of a single Mandalorian female—gave the order to kill them all, and the Mandalorian traitor with them, as retribution for the Cathar's actions against the Mandalorians in the past. In the end, the Mandalorians had whiped out over ninety percent of the species. As the Republic refused to get involved in the Mandalorians' conquests, wary of being dragged into another war so soon after the last, the Mandalorians plundered resources from conquered worlds and stockpiled them in order to fuel the growing campaign. With each victory in this ongoing series of proxy wars and border skirmishes, the Mandalorian clans grew more powerful, conscripting conquered species into their ranks as they probed the Republic's military strength and resolve. Just as it appeared as though the Neo-Crusaders' appetite for conquest had been satisfied, with the Mandalorians having failed to conquer a populated system in over a year by 3,964 BBY, the Mandalorians struck out in force against the Republic. Striking swiftly from their outpost on Dxun, Onderon quickly fell to the Mandalorians, and it wasn't long before the likes of Vanquo and Taris soon joined it. The victory on Suurja gained serveral Jedi prisoners that were taken to a research station on Flashpoint to be experimented on by Demagol. The Jedi would be freed, although Demagol managed to escape in the guise of the renegade Mandalorian known as Rohlan Dyre, leaving Dyre behind for capture in his stead.

On the planet Serroco, the Republic military made the mistake of placing its defensive fortifications within the cities of the native Stereb, believing that the Mandalorians would not attack their bases housed amidst a civilian population. Unfortunately, the Mandalorians soon disuades them of this notion; disgusted by what he deemed a "defense without honor", Mandalore the Ultimate ordered a full-scale bombardment with nuclear weapons, destroying twenty-seven population centers. Neither Duro or Eres III would fare much better in the face of the continuing Mandalorian onslaught. Lord Arkoh Adasca of Arkania and the head of Adascorp, offered to sell a devastating bioweapon to the Mandalorians in the form of the enormous exogorths, under the agreement that the Mandalorians would spare Arkania from their crusade and adopt Adascorp as their main weapon supplier. Before the Mand'alor could arrange the deal, the exogorths were drawn out to Wild Space by Gorman Vandrayk, where neither the Mandalorians nor the Republic would be able to use them. Setting their sights on Alderaan as the target of their next conquest, the Mandalorians amassed their forces on the recently conquered planet of Jebble. At the same time, Demagol's former assistant, Pulsipher, had come into possession of the ancient Sith amulet known as the Muur Talisman. With it, Pulsipher unknowingly unleashed the Rakghoul Plague across their base, transforming Neo-Crusaders into the beastly Rakghouls. In order to prevent the spread of the plague to other worlds, Cassus Fett ordered the base on Jebble to be destroyed, ordering a nuclear bombardment not unlike that which occurred on Serroco.

The Mandalorians seemed on the verge of victory, with the Republic outmatched and overwhelmed by the sheer ferocity of the Mandalorian tactics. Finally, when the Jedi Revanchists unveiled the true events of the Cathar genocide in a tragic vision, hundreds of Jedi followed the Knights Revan and Malak into the war against the Mandalorians, no longer able to and watch without action. Revan proved to be an extremely capable commander in the field, masterminding a string of military victories, and rose swiftly through the ranks of the Republic Military; with his new-found authority to spearhead the Republic war effort, Revan spurred the all-but-defeated Republic Navy to push the Mandalorians back. In relatively short order, the Mandalorians were forced off of Taris, driven from Dxun—even Cassus Fett's victory at Jaga's Cluster could do little to halt the Republic's growing momentum. The year 3,960 BBY would usher in the ultimate battle of the Mandalorian Wars, as Revan forced a confrontation with the Mandalorians in orbit over Malachor V. Drawing upon the dark side energies of Malachor, Revan faced off against Mandalore the Ultimate in single combat, slaying the Mand'alor. The experimental superweapon known as the Mass Shadow Generator was activated by one of Revan's Jedi Generals, destroying the Mandalorian fleet, but at the cost of a significant amount of the Republic fleet as well. With their fleet in ruins and their leader dead, the Mandalorians transmitted their unconditional surrender.

Following their defeat, Revan stripped the Mandalorians of their armor and destroyed their stockpiles of weaponry and the war droids they'd ridden into battle upon. He also took the mask of Mand'alor, the relic that had been passed from one Mand'alor to the next and without it, a new leader could not be declared. With no Mand'alor, the Mandalorian clans fragmented and scattered throughout the Outer Rim. Beaten and embittered, many of the scattered Mandalorians took up professions as bounty hunters and mercenaries in order to make a living. Known informally as Mandalorian Mercs, these Mandalorians sold their skills to the highest bidder with morality a distant second-thought to credits. Worse still, others like Sherruk became pirates and bandits, troubling settlers on worlds such as Dantooine.

The Dark Wars
Canderous Ordo, who fought side by side with a redeemed Revan against Darth Malak during the Jedi Civil War, later claimed the rank of Mand'alor and led a small remnant of his followers on the moon of Dxun. It was again Ordo, who traveled the galaxy with the Jedi Exile, and gathered the scattered Mandalorians who became mercenaries. Ordo was also a key in defeating the Sith Lord Darth Nihilus on the battleship Ravager.

The Great Galactic War


Despite Canderous Ordo's attempts to unite the scattered clans during his time as Mand'alor, the Mandalorians would remain fragmented for nearly three centuries. That would change in the year 3,661 BBY, after the Sith Empire made an unforeseen return to the galaxy. In their war against the Republic, the Sith turned to the Mandalorians for aid, attempting to recruit the galaxy's most infamous mercenaries and bounty hunters to their cause. However, when most refused these offers, the Sith Empire decided upon a different course of action: on Geonosis, a successful young Mandalorian gladiator was chosen by Imperial Intelligence agents as a potential pawn. Working the crowds with whispers of "Mandalore" that grew into thunderous cheers, and drugging his opponents into submission, the Empire ensured that their chosen warrior would win every bout until the title of Mand'alor was thrust upon him. When the new Mand'alor called, many of the Mandalorians living in diaspora rallied to him as their culture's tenets dictated, following him in his fight against the knights of the Jedi Order. But even as the Mandalorians gathered to serve their new leader, their leader still served the Sith Empire and it was under their orders that he led a Mandalorian blockade of the Hydian Way. The Hydian Way was a major supply lane for the Republic, and blockaded, the Republic lost its ability to provide military support to its forces in the Outer Rim and to bring in raw goods to the Core Worlds. The Jedi answered the Mandalorians' challenge, striking back at the blockade, but the Mandalorian cruisers overwhelmingly crushed the Jedi forces and would continue to choke the Republic until a large undertaking of smugglers led by Hylo Visz managed to finally break the blockade and deliver goods to Coruscant.

With the blockade broken, the new Mand'alor—later known pejoratively as "Mandalore the Lesser"—sought to restore his support among the clans by calling for a galaxy-spanning competition for glory known as the Great Hunt. The champion of the Hunt, a Mandalorian warrior by the name of Artus, challenge the Mand'alor to a duel where he shot and killed the Imperial puppet. Taking his place as Mand'alor, Artus adopted the title of "Mandalore the Vindicated". In the process of consolidating his new power, Mand'alor quelled an uprising by a group of Mandalorians, led by Jicoln Cadera, who believed that the Mandalorians should follow in the footsteps of Mandalore the Preserver, supporting the Republic rather than the Sith Empire. Under Mandalore the Vindicated, the Mandalorians would continue to be the well-paid, albeit cautious, allies of the Sith.

The New Sith Wars
During the New Sith Wars, the Mandalorians would wage war against both the Jedi and the Sith. They opposed the mysterious Dark Lord of the Sith known as the Dark Underlord, having cut a deal with the Jedi Master Murrtaggh to assault the Dark Underlord's camp in a diversionary role, while Murrtaggh sneaked into the fortress of the Sith Lord to slay him.

The Mandalorian distraction was successful: they engaged the Dark Underlord's Zeltron general and drew off his forces while the Jedi Master assassinated the dark side master, giving himself over to the dark side in the process.

A Mand'alor during this era by the name of Ung Kusp was tricked into a war with the Sith; whether his war was the one against the Dark Underlord, and its result, are unknown.

Centuries later, Mandalorian armor was present at the Sith camp following the Battle of Ambria. Whether this meant that the Mandalorians had fought for the Sith at Ambria, that Mandalorians had attacked the Sith camp, or only that some Sith used captured or purchased Mandalorian armor, is unknown.

Cultural shift
In approximately 730 BBY, following a significant growth in Mandalorian militancy that alarmed the Republic and its Jedi protectors, a brief and targeted conflict broke out between the Republic and the Mandalorians that brought devastation to the Mandalore sector. While many of the warrior clans scattered, out of the ashes rose the New Mandalorian faction. Doing away with many of the old warrior codes the Mandalorians had historically followed, the New Mandalorians put forward the idea that the best opportunity for Mandalorian survival and prosperity would come through being peaceful, neutral, and tolerant. Clinging strongly to this belief in pacifism, nonviolence became a central tenet in their society. Upon instituting these changes, any of the Mandalorians in their society who refused the reform and insisted upon carrying on their warrior ways, were banished to Mandalore's moon, Concordia. Traditional Mandalorian armor became a rare sight in the New Mandalorian capital city of Sundari, and on the neighboring world of Kalevala, known to be a stronghold for the New Mandalorians.

Although a large number of Mandalorians joined in the New Mandalorian movement, other clans chose to continue on the path they'd walked for centuries. It was around this time that the Mandalorians began to move away from their large-army conqueror ways, and toward more mercenary-based fighting. Approximately 200 BBY, the Mandalorians were responsible for the genocide of the Ithullan race. Almost a hundred years later, the reigning Mand'alor of the time was murdered by the Gen'Dai bounty hunter Durge. In retaliation, the Mandalorians captured and tortured Durge to the edge of insanity; the bounty hunter managed to escape his Mandalorian captors, but it would take him the better part of a century to regenerate from his wounds. At some point in this era, Ranah Teh Naast became Mand'alor, known by the sobriquet of "Mandalore the Destroyer". She led a seige of Luon, giving the Consul of Luon a final chance to surrender before attacking. It was also likely around this time that a group of Mandalorians killed the family of a Wookiee by the name of Ryyk.

In the year 60 BBY, a charismatic Mandalorian warrior by the name of Jaster Mereel ascended to the position of Mand'alor. In this role, he began to institute a cultural reform that many had been calling for since the Ithullan genocide nearly a century and a half earlier, eventually laying out a new guideline for Mandalorian behavior known as the Supercommando Codex. He asserted that the Mandalorians who still wished to fight would simply act as highly-paid soldiers, and should conduct themselves as honorable mercenaries. However, not all would agree with the Codex or Mereel's reforms. He was opposed by the followers of the barbaric Tor Vizsla, who desired a return to brutal savagery and the instigation of another galactic war of conquest. Skilled but undisciplined, these soldiers rallied to Vizsla and formed a splinter group that came to call itself the Death Watch, while those supercommandos who remained loyal to Mereel recast themselves as the "True Mandalorians". While Death Watch's goals were quite opposite to those of the New Mandalorians', they could not support Mereel's faction either, for despite his reforms, any act of Mandalorian violence was fundamentally against what the New Mandalorians stood for. While they remained neutral and removed from the conflict, the True Mandalorians and the Death Watch became embroiled in a bitter civil war.

The Mandalorian Civil War
"No true Mandalorian can live alongside the Death Watch."

- Kal Skirata

The Mandalorian Civil War, as it came to be known, swallowed up Mandalore's full-time army and several prominent clans, but the two factions were relatively small in comparison to the overall Mandalorian population. Mandalorians living away from Mandalore were scarcely affected, even those in the Mandalore sector. However, the ideological differences between Tor Vizsla and Jaster Mereel were central to the war and the path the Mandalorians would take for the foreseeable future. In the year 58 BBY, the Mandalorian Civil War spilled onto the agricultural world of Concord Dawn. During the fighting, Jaster Mereel and his soldiers were forced to retreat and seek refuge from the Death Watch on the farm of a local Journeyman Protector by the name of Fett. When the Death Watch found out Fett had been hiding their enemies, Vizsla brutally interrogated the man in front of his young son, Jango. Before Vizsla could kill the farmer, who refused to give up Mereel and his men, Fett's wife opened fire on the Death Watch with a blaster rifle. In the resulting chaos, both Fett and his wife were killed, although Mereel managed to rescue young Jango from the Death Watch. As the True Mandalorians fled into the fields, Vizsla ordered that they be burned to the ground in attempt to kill Mereel as he ran; Jango showed the Mandalorians to a large irrigation pipe that allowed them to escape the blaze, while Vizsla and his men ransacked Fett's home and kidnapped Jango's sister, Arla. Believing their enemies dead, the Death Watch moved into a nearby town for a celebratory raid before moving on to their next target. Unfortunately for them, the True Mandalorians had regrouped in the town and sprang an ambush on the unsuspecting Death Watch. Striking from protected alleyways and second-story windows, the True Mandalorians struck down nearly every Death Watch soldier there. However, Vizsla would manage to survive an attack on his armored speeder and escape Concord Dawn. His parents dead, Jango Fett was taken in by Jaster Mereel, joining the Mandalorians as Mereel's adopted son.

Six years later, in 52 BBY, the True Mandalorians believed the threat of the Death Watch to be over and returned their focus to acting as a mercenary army. Contracted by the Korda Defense Force, the True Mandalorians journeyed to Korda 6 to extract a team of rookie security personnel pinned down under fire by a group of local hostiles, supposedly poorly armed and with no formal army. Unfortunately, the intelligence reports were grossly inaccurate: when the Mandalorians landed, they came under heavy fire from the Kordan natives and in the resulting battle, took heavy casualties. Jaster Mereel ordered a retreat, but his second-in-command, Montross, refused and insisted they press on. When he was injured in a grenade strike, it was up to Mereel to provide rescue, killing no less than three enemy Kordan in the process. At the same time, Jango had used Montross' ill-guided attack as a diversion in order to move on the location of their original objective, the Kordan security team. But when he and his squad reached the site, they instead found a Death Watch ambush awaiting them. As Jango's troops fought back the Death Watch, Mereel and Montross came under attack from Vizsla himself. Mereel was wounded in a grenade blast that Montross used his jetpack to avoid, but when the injured Mand'alor called to him for an air lift, Montross turned his back on Mereel and left him to die on the battlefield, stating that he no longer wished to take orders from Mereel. Betrayed and abandoned, Mereel was helpless to defend himself and perished as Vizsla rained down laser cannon fire from his four-wheeled tank, killing his hated rival. At the Mandalorians' landing zone, Montross now urged the Mandalorians to heed Mereel's final orders and pull out, claiming that Mereel was dead and that Jango had perished trying to save him. However, Fett returned to the landing zone carrying with him Mereel's body, exposing Montross as a liar and a traitor. When Montross insisted that Mereel would have wanted him to take command, the other Mandalorians denounced Montross at blaster point and declared that they would only follow Fett, Jaster Mereel's chosen heir. Montross was grudgingly allowed to leave, slipping off into exile, while Jango became the new Mand'alor and leader of the True Mandalorians.

Under Fett's leadership, the True Mandalorians scored a significant victory against the Death Watch in the years leading up to 44 BBY, that left the Death Watch severely crippled. But rather than concede defeat, Vizsla turned to the Governor of Galidraan for refuge and his assistance in rebuilding the Death Watch. As per Vizsla's plan, the governor contracted the True Mandalorians to put down a local insurrection. The True Mandalorians traveled to Galidraan where they dealt with the rebels, and upon completion of their task, Fett went to the governor's estate to collect their payment; by that time, however, the governor had already contacted the Jedi Council with a request for aid, claiming that the Mandalorians were murdering "political activists" along with innocent women and children. In response to the governor's concerns over the lack of evidence, Vizsla assured him that his own men would supply the necessary body count. Fett had become aware of the governor's involvement with the Death Watch and while there, demanded to know the whereabouts of Vizsla. At that moment, Vizsla revealed himself there in the castle and attacked Fett with a cadre of Death Watch soldiers, forcing him to flee. Fett rushed to make it back to base camp, trying unsuccessfully to comm his second-in-command, Myles, and warn him of the inbound Jedi ships he'd spotted, but he arrived at the same time as a Jedi strike team lead by Jedi Master Dooku. Demanding that the Mandalorians stand down on charges of suspected murder, the innocent Mandalorians indignantly opened fire on the Jedi. In the ensuing shootout, eleven Jedi were killed—six of which were felled by Fett himself, following the death of Myles—along with every other True Mandalorian there, save for Fett himself.

In the battle's aftermath, the Jedi delivered the subdued Fett into the custody of Galidraan's governor, who in turn sold Fett into slavery. Though it seemed the Death Watch had won the war—successfully manipulating the Jedi into destroying their enemy for them—after several years spent aboard a spice transport in bound servitude, Fett managed to escape, recover his armor from the Governor of Galidraan, and track Vizsla's ship to Corellia where he killed Vizsla after a lengthy fight, avenging the True Mandalorians and dealing the final blow of the war. The remaining Death Watch members scattered, vanishing from the galaxy at large under the Mandalorian principle of ba'slan shev'la, or "strategic disappearance". Fett, scarred by the loss of his True Mandalorian compatriots and his years as a slave, grew distant from the rest of his people and his role as Mand'alor, turning instead toward the solitary life of a bounty hunter. As such, Mandalore's post-war reconstruction fell largely upon the New Mandalorian government, now under the leadership of Kalevala native, Duchess Satine Kryze.

The Grand Army of the Republic
In 32 BBY, Jango Fett was recruited by Darth Tyranus—in truth the former Jedi Master Dooku, now a Count of his homeworld of Sereno and a Sith Lord—to be the genetic template for an army of clones being grown on Kamino for the Republic. In addition to donating his genetic material, Fett would stay on with the Kaminoans as a military consultant for the Grand Army of the Republic, passing on many aspects of the Mandalorian culture to his clones; he assisted in the design of the armor worn by the clone troopers, evident in the similarities between their armor and Fett's own, including the distinctive T-visor of their helmets. Fett also helped to create the flash training regiment used to instruct all of the young clones, including in it the traditional Mandalorian song Vode An as a useful tool to help instill within them a sense of purpose, modifying it slightly in order to give it meaning for soldiers serving the Republic. While Fett trained the Alpha-class ARC troopers personally, he recruited a team of one hundred other training sergeants collectively known as the Cuy'val Dar—seventy-five of whom were other Mandalorians—to train the Grand Army's clone commandos. These Mandalorian sergeants, including the likes of Walon Vau, Kal Skirata, and Rav Bralor, were responsible for a massive influx of Mandalorian culture into the clone ranks. Several clones took Mandalorian names for themselves, while others appropriated Mandalorian slang and curses. Others took to Mandalorian songs and chants, like the Dha Werda Verda, as morale boosters. Kal Skirata made a point of teaching his clones about their Mandalorian heritage, and even adopted the six Null ARC troopers and several commandos as his sons per Mandalorian custom. Some clones, however, did not take to their Mandalorian heritage and even came to resent it after Mandalore aligned itself with the Confederacy of Independent Systems and began fighting against the Republic and its clone army. In addition to those clones produced professionally for the Grand Army, Jango Fett had also commisioned a single clone for himself, possessing none of the genetic modification found in the standard clone troopers, who would act as his son and heir. Fett's son, Boba, would go on to have a major impact on Mandalorian history.

Mandalorian influence within the Grand Army began to wane with the production of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine's second clone army. Created on Coruscant and it's moon, Centax-2, these troopers were bred using Spaarti cloning cylinders, reaching maturity within a year and received a shortened flash-training regime which resulted in the loss of their Mandalorian heritage and less proficiency in key areas such as marksmanship. Under the Galactic Empire, the clones' Mandalorian heritage was gradually phased out as future clones were grown from a variety of other genetic templates. However, following the Clone Wars' end, many clones deserted and fled to Mandalore, where Kal Skirata had set up a haven for clones who wished to leave Republic/Imperial service for a new life.

Mandalorian peace under fire
"For generations my ancestors fought proudly as warriors against the Jedi. Now, that woman tarnishes the very name Mandalorian."

- Pre Vizsla, speaking about Duchess Satine Kryze

By 22 BBY, the Republic had come to accept the peaceful New Mandalorian government as the dominant Mandalorian faction, and Mandalore had been welcomed as a Republic member world, represented in the Senate by Senator Tal Merrik. Under the New Mandalorian government, many areas of Mandalore including the New Mandalorian capital of Sundari, had flourished, yet some more neglected provinces still remained destitute and starving for funds. When the Clone Wars had broken out between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independant Systems, the leader of the New Mandalorians, Duchess Satine Kryze, declared Mandalore neutral. Over a decade after the loss of their leader and their subsequent fragmentation at the end of the Mandalorian Civil War, it was into this environment that the Death Watch made a return to the galactic scene. Unlike the other clans who merely stood apart from the New Mandalorians, the Death Watch despised the peace-loving government the New Mandalorians had established, viewing it as weak, and Kryze as a disgrace to all Mandalorians for her pacifist views. They allied with Count Dooku—now leading the Confederacy of Independant Systems—to gain the means necessary to remove them from power. The Death Watch sent an operative to conduct an attack on a Republic cruiser, while spreading rumors that the New Mandalorians were secretly raising an army to fight for the Separatists. When these rumors reached Republic ears, the Jedi Council dispatched Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi to Mandalore to investigate the validity of these claims. Landing in Sundari, Kenobi met with Duchess Kryze and the New Mandalorians' Prime Minister, Almec, to discuss Mandalore's stance in the war.

Kenobi and Kryze were old friends, having met years earlier when Kenobi and his master had been sent to Mandalore in the months after the end of the Mandalorian Civil War, to protect the Duchess from lingering Death Watch insurgents and bounty hunters. During the course of his investigation, Kenobi bore witness to the Death Watch's bombing of the memorial shrine at the heart of Sundari. When he attempted to apprehend the culprit, the man chose to commit suicide by leaping from a balcony Kenobi had trapped him on. As he lay dying, Kryze stooped to comfort him and listened to his final words; spoken in the Concordian dialect, Kenobi turned his investigation toward Mandalore's moon, Concordia. While welcomed by Concordia's governor, Pre Vizsla, Kenobi arranged for Kryze to distract Vizsla while he investigated the moon's abandoned mines. There, he found that the mines were not abandoned at all, but actually quite active, churning out helmets, jetpacks, and sets of Mandalorian armor for the Death Watch. Kenobi was attacked by a pair of Death Watch soldiers, and knocked unconscious. Though Kryze managed to rescue Kenobi, they inadvertantly stumbled upon the Death Watch's hideout where the benevolent Governor Vizsla revealed himself to be leading the Death Watch. A battle ensued between Kenobi and Vizsla, ending with Kenobi and Kryze's retreat when Vizsla's troops stepped in to attack the Jedi Master.

With the Death Watch's plot revealed, the Republic Senate began to draft a defense initiative that would send a contingent of the Republic's Grand Army to occupy Mandalore as a peacekeeping force. The New Mandalorian government was highly opposed to the idea, wishing to maintain its neutral status instead of becoming a military target in the war, and Kryze journeyed to Coruscant aboard her private starship with Senator Merrik and a retinue of other sympathetic senators—along with an escort comprised of Kenobi, his former Padawan Anakin Skywalker, and a detail of clone troopers—to plead the case before the Senate that the Death Watch was a rogue element, and did not speak for the whole of Mandalore's population. During the trip, Merrik proved himself a traitor to the New Mandalorian cause and an ally of Pre Vizsla when he attempted to have Kryze killed, although this plan was foiled by her protectors, and Merrik slain by Skywalker. On Concordia, Death Watch soldiers new and old rallied to Pre Vizsla and, in conjunction with Confederacy forces donated by Count Dooku, formed an army poised to "defend" Mandalore against the Republic's occupation, believing that the Republic's unwanted presence would sway the population in support of the Death Watch. On Coruscant, things seemed grim for Kryze as falsified testimony from New Mandalorian Deputy Prime Minister Jerec turned the Senate against her, and a Death Watch assassin made repeated attempts on her life. But when Jerec's genuine testimony, proclaiming the truth of the situation on Mandalore, was uncovered and brought before the Senate, the occupation initiative was overturned and Mandalore allowed to remain an independent and neutral world. When the news reached Pre Vizsla he prepared to launch an attack in spite of these events, intent on overthrowing the New Mandalorian government, but Dooku was able to convince him to instead wait and bide his time, knowing that to strike then would be to endure another devastating Death Watch defeat.

Resurrection
"So, who's to know whether Jango had more than one son or not, or even how old he is? Come on now, Spar, it's time to be doing your bit for Manda'yaim. You don't have to lift a finger.  Just act like Fett's heir while we sort ourselves out, so everyone knows we're still in business."

- Fenn Shysa

In the years leading up to the Republic's clone army first being deployed at the Battle of Geonosis, an elite ARC trooper known as Alpha-Ø2 began to experience headaches, backaches, and, most extraordinarily, memories of Jango Fett's life —or so he claimed. Whether he possessed the memories of Fett or not, the ARC trooper known by the nickname "Spar", developed a friendship with Doctor Mij Gilamar after repeated visits to his Tipoca City offices. Gilamar, one of the Mandalorian Cuy'val Dar training sergeant and a medic who also tended to the clones, learned of Spar's interest in deserting the Grand Army and getting off Kamino. To that end, he called in a favor owed to him by Fett, and Spar was smuggled off-world in the cargo hold of Fett's ship, Slave I. While at first taking odd jobs as he traveled the galaxy, specializing in capturing live bounties, when Jango Fett was killed at Geonosis, Spar journeyed to Mandalore. There he met a local constable and clan chieftain by the name of Fenn Shysa. Shysa, who saw Jango Fett as a symbol of Mandalorian strength due to his infamous history as a bounty hunter and Jedi killer, convinced Spar to act as Fett's heir, a claim given credence by Spar's status as a clone and one Shysa spread across Mandalore. Winning out over the New Mandalorian faction, Spar became the new Mand'alor in 20 BBY, taking the sobriquet "Mandalore the Resurrector". Spar overturned the New Mandalorians' position of neutrality for Mandalore, instead allying with the Confederacy of Independent Systems in order to oppose a Republic he viewed as oppressive, and the Jedi Order whom he blamed for their part in destroying the True Mandalorians at Galidraan and their willingness to lead the Grand Army. The New Mandalorians would never manage to reclaim their lost dominance, and under Spar, dwindled in power while the other clans and Jaster Mereel's Supercommando Codex returned to prominence on Mandalore.

As Mand'alor, Spar turned to the teachings of the Supercommando Codex and forged a new army of supercommandos in the image of the fallen True Mandalorians, which he dubbed the "Mandalorian Protectors". Numbering two-hundred and twelve-strong in total, the Protector army was comprised of recruits from the local police forces—including among them Shysa and Shya's lifelong friend, Tobbi Dala—even a dozen former members of the Death Watch. Spar and his Protectors captured the facilities of the MandalMotors company in the Mandalorian capital city Keldabe for the Separatists, and put the Pursuer-class enforcement ship into use among his forces. In memory of the Mandallian Giants that had been used by the Mandalorians on the front lines of the New Sith Wars, as well as Fenn Shysa's encounter with the droid C-3PX, Spar also commisioned the Separatist droid foundries to produce run of one thousand BL-series Battle Legionnaire droids to supplement his army. Spar and the Mandalorian Protectors clashed with the Republic on several worlds. On New Holstice, the Protectors faced off against the Grand Army's 327th Star Corps and although they were driven to retreat, they brought the 327th down to 60 percent strength. They fought on the planet Null, where they defeated the Republic soundly, and on the snow-covered world of Zaadja. When a prominent Separatist commander was killed, the Mandalorians and their Battle Legionnaire droids retaliated at New Bornalex and with an attack on Kamino that devastated a portion of the cloning facilities.

Their deadly blitzkrieg came to an end when the Protectors were selected for a special mission. Darth Sidious, the secret leader behind the Confederacy, ordered the Protectors on a mission to the planet Norval II. The group's objective was to capture Senator Padmé Amidala of Naboo, but after arriving they were ambushed by Republic forces as part of a great deception engineered by Republic Supreme Chancellor Palpatine—the public alter-ego of Darth Sidious. The Mandalorians were almost entirely wiped out, including nearly all their Battle Legionnaire droids. Of their entire force, only three Mandalorians escaped the slaughter: Shysa, Dala, and Spar. Shysa and the others returned home to Mandalore where a shell-shocked and psychologically scarred Spar stepped down from his position as Mand'alor, though Shysa would make repeated attempts to persuade Spar to reclaim the title. Shysa believed that without a proper Mand'alor, the Mandalorians would look weak in the eyes of the galaxy, and he didn't want to create another gap that the Death Watch might attempt to fill. However, his attempts to sway Spar would be unsuccessful.

The Dark Times
"The Empire gutted us. You've got a short memory. Or maybe you were still in diapers when Shysa had to kick some pride back into us."

- Baltan Carid

As the Republic made it's transformation into the Galactic Empire and the Great Jedi Purge began, the newly-crowned Emperor Palpatine turned his sights on Mandalore. Appearing to forgive the Mandalorians for their actions during the Clone Wars, the Empire had begun offering mercenary work to the people and even offered a large sum of credits in order to lease land for the creation of an Imperial base with garrison on the planet. Although there were those who believed any deal with the Empire to be a bad idea—such as Kal Skirata, who had gained a certain understanding of Palpatine's manipulative capabilities during his time in service to the Republic's Grand Army, and cited Palpatine's carefully planned destruction of the Jedi as proof that "Palpatine never did anything temporary in his life"—the Mandalorian clan leaders met and decided in favor of leasing the land to the Empire. However, as Imperial forces began to arrive, the post of Mand'alor that had been vacant since Spar stepped down, was reluctantly assumed by Fenn Shysa. Shysa had been a favorite among the Mandalorian people for becoming the next Mand'alor, but it was his negative feelings toward the Empire that influenced his decision: Shysa had been against allowing the Imperial garrison, but felt that should the clans turn the Empire's offer down, they would the much-needed credits and the Empire might well have came to Mandalore anyway, under much less friendly circumstances.

In the months prior to the Empire's arrival on Mandalore, an enterprising Mandalorian believed the planet had an untapped potential for adventure tourism. With that in mind, he constructed an oversized replica of a mythosaur skeleton on the outskirts of Keldabe, intending to build an amusement park in and around the structure. The park, which came to be known as the "City of Bone", never opened, but the Imperial commander in charge of the Mandalore operation—a human male from Kemla—was convinced by the creator of the park's brother, Hayar, and his friend Jarkyc, that the failed amusement park was actually an ancient Mandalorian temple of great spiritual importance to the people. Wishing to make a show of dominance toward the Mandalorian population, the Imperial commander actually bought the worthless structure and decided to locate the garrison withing the Mandalorian "temple". While the Mandalorians who'd profited from the exchange found the situation quite hilarious, the Empire now it's base and began to move in the garrison. They were helped in this effort by the former Cuy'val Dar members Dred Priest and Isabet Reau. Priest and Reau had been hardliners for years, believing in Mandalorian supremacy and the need for the Mandalorians to regain their lost martial strength through conquest, but now they had found a place for their radical views among the ranks of the Death Watch, now in the employ of the Empire and on the return yet again. As Reau and Priest helped the Imperials secure their base outside Keldabe, the Empire offered MandalMotors eight hundred million credits for exclusive mining rights in the Tokursh region, an area rich in beskar ore. In addition, the Empire was interested in acquring prison ships with beskar enhancements, refurbishing older model prison ships, and obtaining special beskar equipement, including beskar manacles and cages, for the ongoing Jedi Purge. Priest was killed not long after his Death Watch ties became known; he was stabbed to death and his body dumped in the Kelita River by fellow ex-Cuy'val Dar Mij Gilamar, who believed that the Death Watch could not be allowed to return to Mandalore.

It was around this time that the Empire showed itself as a true threat during a dispute with the planet Gibad. Gibad, a world that had been aligned with the Separatists prior to the Clone Wars' end, had refused to accept the new Empire. In response, Emperor Palpatine authorized the use of the FG36 nanovirus. Created by Gibadan native, Doctor Ovolot Qail Uthan, during her time working with the Separatists, the FG36 virus had been designed to kill the Republic's clone troopers by targetting the Fett genome and the inherent rapid-maturation gene they possessed. Captured during the Clone Wars by a Republic commando squad, Palpatine had kept the virus as insurance should he ever need to remove the Grand Army. But he found that in its unfinished state, the virus could be released onto a world, killing every sentient being, and leaving its infrastructure intact—Gibad's ultimate fate. In order to ensure that Mandalore wouldn't share that same end, the Mandalorians of Clan Skirata—already holding Doctor Uthan for her assitance in reversing the rapid-aging of the clones who'd deserted to Mandalore and become a part of the clan—developed an immunogen for the virus, communicable by airborne transmission, and which with the Mand'alor permission, they spread throughout Keldabe and eventually across Mandalore.

As the Empire slowly consolidated its holdings on Mandalore, Shysa began to covertly assemble a resistance force to "respond in kind" should the Imperial presense turn hostile. Shysa's fears were realized as the Empire's foothold on Mandalore became an iron grip; the Imperials began to stripmine the planet's beskar deposites, and enslaved large portions of the Mandalorian population to do the work. Shysa's resistance—a reborn sect of Mandalorian Protectors including the first-generation Protector, Tobbi Dala—fought against the Imperial occupation for close to twenty years, drawing the ire of the Empire. The Shimholt known as the Suprema, had replaced the Imperial commander from Kemla, and under his leadership, the Empire's grip on Mandalore only tightened. Around 3 ABY, Tobbi Dala undertook a mission to infiltrate the City of Bone, where many of his enslaved kinsmen were being held, with the intent to rescue them. However, the mission proved to be a disaster, and Dala was captured by the Imperials. Although his comrade was now out of action, Shysa continued the fight, utilizing hit-and-run operations against the slavers. A bounty was placed on Shysa's head, one that the bounty hunter Dengar came to Mandalore in order to collect. Dengar was unable to capture Shysa, however, and soon found himself in the clutches of the Protectors. In an effort to retrieve Dala, Shysa made a deal with the Imperials: he would turn Dengar over to them in exchange for the release of his friend. The slavers agreed to the deal, but before the exchange could be made, there was another unexpected arrival to the planet. By this point in time, the Empire was in the midst of a war with the rebellious Alliance to Restore the Republic. Princess Leia Organa, one of the Alliance's most prominent leaders, came to Mandalore chasing rumors that Dengar had aided Boba Fett in capturing Han Solo, another Alliance leader. She landed on the planet and became immediately involved in a shoot out between the Mandalorians and Imperial slavers. After initially confusing Shysa with Fett, Organa learned of the Mandalorian's true identity and his purpose on Mandalore. Shysa mistook Organa for her mother, Padmé Amidala, whom he had been sent to capture during the war, though that, too, was shortly cleared up.

After giving Organa a false testimony as to his exploits in the Clone Wars, including mentioning that Boba Fett had been his commander and not Spar, Shysa brought Organa and her droid, C-3PO, back to his base camp, lodged deep within the Mandalorian forest. Upon finding Dengar as their prisoner, Organa to bring the bounty hunter back to the Alliance for questioning, but Shysa would hear nothing of it, determined to get his friend back from the Imperials. Taking Shysa for a walk away from the camp, Organa left C-3PO to free the bounty hunter. On their walk, Organa seduced Shysa, using a kiss to put him off guard before knocking him unconscious. With Shysa incapacitated, Organa released Dengar, hoping that he would repay her with information about Fett. However, the bounty hunter double-crossed her, betraying her to the Imperials for the bounty on her head. As the princess was taken into the City of Bone, Shysa took out one of the perimeter guards and assumed his identity, donning his stormtrooper armor and infiltrating their base. Shysa freed Organa from her cell and made a deal with her: if she would help him free Dala, he would help recapture Dengar and let her take the bounty hunter back to the Alliance. After Organa agreed, they managed to free Dala and Shysa gave the order for his troops to attack; Mandalorian slaves rioted, striking back at their Imperial captors as stormtroopers rushed to defend the base. During a confrontation with the Suprema, Dala was mortally wounded. Shysa viciously attacked the Suprema, but before he could kill him, Organa convinced the Mand'alor that they may yet need him. Wounded beyond saving, Dala directed his friend to leave him, and ensured that Shysa and Organa escaped the base in a stolen airspeeder. When the Imperial forces gave chase, Dala slammed the hangar doors shut; moving too fast to break off their pursuit, the Imperials crashed headlong into the blast doors, creating a massive explosion that ignited nearby fuel and ammunition, and consumed the entire city in flames, killing all the Imperials, the Suprema, and Dala himself. Though Shysa mourned the loss of Dala, the Mandalorians celebrated their regained freedom and a large number of the former slaves joined the ranks of the Mandalorian Protectors. With the Suprema dead and their numbers bolstered, the Protectors took their fight to Imperial Grand Admiral Miltin Takel, who had been placed in charge of the Mandalore sector, and drove him from Mandalorian space.

After the Empire
"I came to tell you that your people can expect to be busy in the next few months. A war is coming.''" "''You must be new in this galaxy. There's always a war going on somewhere, always has been, always will be. It's why Mandalorians have never gone out of business."

- Nom Anor and Boba Fett

With the destruction of the second Death Star at the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY, a year after Mandalore's own liberation, the Alliance to Restore the Rebublic formally became the Alliance of Free Planets, an interim government on the way to a new Republic. As Mand'alor, Shysa led the Mandalorians as an ally of the Alliance of Free Planets during the Nagai invasion of the galaxy after a few battles in the Mandalore system. However, when it became clear that the Nagai were looking to escape from under the heel of the barbaric Tof, the Mandalorian Protectors agreed to help the Nagai liberate their own homeworld, Nagi. Although Mandalore was not part of the New Republic that was formed shortly after, the Mandalorian Protectors and Fenn Shysa would again offer their aid during the Battle of Mindor against Lord Shadowspawn. Shysa's stint as Mand'alor would come to an end in 21 ABY. When an aging Boba Fett returned to Kamino to attain a cloned replacement for a near-cancerous leg, the Kaminoan named Taun We sought to enlist Fett in her revenge against the last living Mandalorian Protector who'd been responsible for the attack on her world during the Clone Wars: Shysa. Fett hunted Shysa to the planet Shogun, but before Fett could kill Shysa they were surrounded by Sevvets. Shysa, still of the belief that a member of the Fetts would make the best Mand'alor, saved Fett's life but recieved severe wounds in the process. Rather than leave Shysa, who was too badly wounded to escape, to the Sevvets to die what he felt was a "rotten death", Fett killed Shysa out of mercy, but not before agreeing to Shysa's dying wish that Fett succeed him as Mand'alor. Taught from a young age that his word was his bond by his father, Jango, Fett returned to Mandalore with Shysa's helmet and took over as the new Mandalorian leader. Under Fett, the Mandalorian Protectors would cease to be a force strictly for home defense, and became a mercenary army, while Shysa was memorialized in the Keldabe suburb of Bralsin.

Nearly thirty years after the Battle of Yavin, the Mandalorians would be among the first groups to become aware of the extra-galactic invaders known as the Yuuzhan Vong. This interaction all began in 24 ABY, when the Mandalorian bounty hunter Goran Beviin met with an individual by the name of Udelen at Bar Jaraniz on Nar Shaddaa about a job. Udelen was in fact a spy for the Yuuzhan Vong, disguising his true appearance and looking to use the bounty hunter's skills to destabilize the government on Ter Abbes by assassinating the politician Tholote B'Leph. Though Beviin normally stayed away from political hits and kept to the domain of arresting criminals, his farm was having trouble making ends meet, and he agreed to take the job. Beviin was well paid upon accomplishing his task, but his actions had attracted the Mandalorians further attention from the Vong and Nom Anor offered work to other interested Mandalorian mercenaries, even speaking with Boba Fett on at least one occasion. A year later, Nom Anor—still operating under the identity of "Udelen"—traveled to Mandalore to meet with Boba Fett in person. Arriving in Keldabe, Fett and Nom Anor arranged a rendezvous in the Outer Rim; although Fett disliked Nom Anor's tendency to withold information and his subtle threats, he did not wish to deny the Mandalorians needed credits and agreed to Nom Anor's request. Arriving at the rendezvous point with six of his supercommandos including Beviin, Tiroc Vhon, Cham and his brother Suvar Detta, and Briika with daughter Dinua Jeban, Fett and his forces bore witness to the arrival of the massive Yuuzhan Vong fleet. Invited aboard one of the miid ro'ik warships, Fett and Beviin learned the true identity of "Udelen" as Nom Anor, a Vong Intendant. Nom Anor would also share the Yuuzhan Vong's plans for the galaxy with the two Mandalorians, even brutally demonstrating the fate of those individuals who might oppose them. Knowing that the Mandalorians stood no chance against the Vong in a direct confrontation, Fett made a deal with Nom Anor: using clever word games to circumvent his own moral code, Fett agreed to continuing Mandalorian service in return for the Mandalore sector being spared, when in actuality, Fett planned to sabotage the Vong from the inside at every available chance while buying Mandalore time for the Vong's inevitable betrayal.

Having acquired sample's from the living miid ro'ik ship's internal walls, and records of everything they could see from recorders in their helmets, Fett and Beviin planned to make contact with the New Republic, but knowing that the Vong could disguise themselves as human, they would have to tread cautiously. One week after the fall of Helska IV and the beginning of the Yuuzhan Vong War, Fett and his commandos travelled to Birgis, the next target the Vong had given the Mandalorians. Equipped with the data Fett and Beviin had gathered on the Vong ship and information on their next two assignments, the Mandalorians stormed a spaceport and did enough damage to appear convincing while they were really looking for someone to relay the information to the New Republic. Finding a female pilot still in the main complex, the Mandalorians managed to subdue her and give her the information to pass on to her superiors. When asked whose side the Mandalorians were on, Briika Jeban stated that they were on their own side, offering the data to the New Republic because no one stood to benefit from a galaxy under Vong control. Though the pilot would escape Birgis and deliver the data to her superiors, the New Republic would believe the information provided by the Mandalorians to be false and New Holgha fell to the Vong. However, another opportunity would arise when, while on New Holgha, Fett was contacted by the Vong subaltern Bur'lorr, in pursuit of a Jedi. Knowing the Jedi's Force senses would allow him to detect the truth of the Mandalorians' intentions, Fett told the Vong to leave the Jedi to them; Beviin was ordered to stall the subaltern, while the others tracked and managed to incapacitate the already injured Jedi with a stun dart. The Jedi accused Fett of delivering misinformation to the New Republic, but the Mand'alor explained that he was trying to save his and had to make the Vong believe he was on their side; with the Force's assurance, the Jedi—introducing himself as Kubariet—believed Fett's claims and was rushed to his vessel with the data. No sooner had Kubariet departed, Subaltern Bur'lorr arrived, suspicious of the Mandalorians. With no other option, Beviin attacked, destroying the subaltern's villip and burying his beskad saber in the Vong's jaw. Still thrashing, Beviin leaped on top of the Vong, crushing its throat with the illegal Mandalorian crushgaunts he wore. In all the thrashing, however, Briika had been pierced in the chest by one of the spikes on the Vong's armor and although the Mandalorians fought desperately to save her, she died in Fett's ship, Slave I; her now orphaned daughter, Dinua, was adopted on the spot by Beviin.

Two weeks later, Fett met with Kubariet on Vorpa'ya. There, they solidified the terms of the improptu partnership, with the Mandalorians forced to continue to act as the New Republic's enemy and the New Republic to respond in turn. Fett handed over what information and bio-samples he had available, with the only thing he asked in return being the recognition that a Mandalorian had died to save a New Republic citizen. In order to secretly build Mandalore's forces against the Vong, Fett established a Mandalorian training ground on Raxus Prime for the Mandalorian Protectors. A few months into the war, Han Solo came to Raxus Prime to investigate a rumor, and was shot down by one of the Mandalorians. Fett sent his new recruits—at first mistaken to be Fett by Solo—after the New Republic hero in order to test them, leaving Solo to weed out the weaker ones. Eventually Solo and was confronted by the real, who told Solo to return to Coruscant and tell his wife that the Mandalorians were working for the highest bidder, the Yuuzhan Vong, furthering their cover. But the deception would not last forever. When the Vong discovered that the Mandalorians had betrayed them, they brought their vengeance down on Mandalore, ravaging the world: bombarding the planet, flattening its woods, poisoning its soil, and even killing a third of its population. Many Mandalorians took shelter in the underground tunnels of the planet's countryside, allowing them to survive the initial stages of the Vong attack and eventually fight off the invaders. The ruse brought to light, Fett now led the Mandalorians to strike directly at the Vong, liberating Tholatin and crushing the Vong forces on Gyndine. The Mandalorians also helped to defend Caluula, headquartering themselves in the orbitting Caluula Station. A month of Vong attacks passed, until Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo arrived on the station aboard the Millennium Falcon. With the Solos' arrival, Vong interest in the planet was redoubled and they struck heavily at Caluula Station. The Mandalorian Protectors fought back, with Fett even saving Solo, his one-time enemy and rival, from the Vong. Several of the Mandalorians scalped the Vong they killed, as they went; meanwhile, the Vong sent out alerts that the Mandalorians were warriors worthy of captivity, and they strengthened their focus on Fett and his soldiers. Two Mandalorians fell as the rest were backed into the corner of a hold, and Fett shot up on his jetpack toward the ceiling, firing on the Vong below, before an amphistaff knocked him down and against a bulkhead. As the Vong closed in on him, Fett was in turn saved by Han Solo. With more reinforcements on the way, the Mandalorians blew a hole in a bulkhead and retreated through it, with the Solos and Caluula's soldiers following, although the Mandalorians would soon split off from the others. Fett eventually reached Slave I, and along with four Mandalorians in Gladiator assault fighters, he once again came to the rescue of the Solos, blowing apart a Vong coralskipper pursuing the Falcon. Fett and Han exchanged jibes over the comlink before parting ways. Though Caluula was ultimately lost to the Vong, the Mandalorians and the new Galactic Alliance would prove victorious in the Yuuzhan Vong War.

Restoration
"No Mandalorian soldier should have to fight an aruetii war for the price of a day's food. No Mando'ad should have to fight at all, except to defend Manda'yaim, his home, or his family, or because he wants to. We have to stop being the tool of governments that don't care if we live or die so long as we do their bidding."

- Kad'ika, also known as Venku Skirata, addressing a gathering of clan leaders

Ten years after the end of the Yuuzhan Vong War, Mandalore was still recovering from the damage dealt by the vengeful Vong. Many of their best soldiers had fallen to the Vong attack, and even after ten years, much of Mandalore's soil remained poisoned and its infrastructure in disarray. At the same time, Boba Fett, who was still the reigning Mand'alor but had been living on Taris, found that he was dying: the tumors in his old leg, a result of his time spent in the Sarlacc and worsened by his nature as a clone, had begun to spread. His doctor, a man by the name of Beluine, gave him a prognosis of a year or two to live, possibly less with overexertion. Determined not to die without a fight, Fett set out on a quest to find long-missing Kaminoan scientist, Ko Sai, and her data in order to combat the spread of his degenerating tumors. Enlisting the help of Goran Beviin—who had become something of an unofficial second-in-command to Fett—the Mand'alor found that rumor held Ko Sai was dead, but that her data had never surfaced. Shifting his focus, Fett planned to track down another Kaminoan, his childhood acquaintance, Taun We. Before he could leave Taris, however, Fett was confronted by a girl named Mirta Gev who possessed the heart-of-fire gemstone Fett had given to his dead ex-wife, Sintas Vel, when they were married. Like Fett, Mirta was a bounty hunter, claimed that she'd retrieved the stone for Fett's estranged daughter, Ailyn Vel, and for a fee, would bring him to her. Agreeing to the deal, Fett took Mirta along with him as he tracked Taun We to Arkanian Microtechnologies on Vohai; during the trip, Mirta revealed that she had met another clone recently, one who had apparently managed to halt his accelerated aging. His hope renewed that Ko Sai's research was still out there, Fett was left with a third target: a Mandalorian clone with grey leather gloves. Upon infiltrating Arkanian Micro's headquarters, Fett met with Taun We and stole a copy of her data, using the threat of selling it in order to ransom information about Ko Sai from her. Taun We informed Fett that Ko Sai had fallen victim to Kal Skirata and the Null ARCs during the Clone Wars, information that fit well with Mirta's tip that the clone she'd encountered bore the clan name "Skirata". With this new lead, Fett was about to continue his search when he was contacted by Corellian President, Thrackan Sal-Solo.

Sal-Solo informed Fett that he wished to enlist the aid of the Mandalorians in order to defend Centerpoint Station as it underwent reconstruction. Fett had Beviin gather what supercommandos he could to meet him on Drall. Although many were unable to get away from their farms as it was now harvest time on Mandalore, when Fett arrived at Zerria's Bar on Drall, he was joined by six Mandalorians: Ram Zerimar, Briike, Novoc Vevut and his son Ghes Orade, Isko Talgal, and Beviin. The general consensus among the commandos was against taking up arms for Corellia in the growing tensions between Corellia and the Galactic Alliance, stating that they were less interested in credits as they were in tending to their farms, and in a private conversation with Beviin, Fett learned that a Mandalorian known as "Kad'ika" was spreading the sentiment that Mandalorians should stop fighting outsiders' wars and strengthen themselves, though he wasn't looking to replace Fett as Mand'alor. Despite the Mandalorians' general disinterest in the prospective Corellian contract, Fett had other motives for traveling to Corellia: Sal-Solo had put a bounty on the head of his cousin, Han Solo, and Fett's daughter Ailyn had taken the job, tracking Solo to Corellia. The Mandalorians in their Gladiator assault fighters would distract the Alliance blockade around Corellia, allowing Fett to land on the planet's surface and meet with President Sal-Solo. Although the two came to no agreement—Fett demanding more money for his commandos than Sal-Solo was willing to pay—on the way out, Fett was approached by Dur Gejjen with a proposal to assassinate Sal-Solo. Fett took the job, and with the help of a vengeful Han Solo and Mirta Gev, killed Sal-Solo and escaped the presidential offices to await Ailyn's arrival. Unfortunately, Ailyn had been killed by Solo's son, Jacen, a fact revealed after the arrival of Solo's wife, Leia, and one that drove Mirta to out herself as Fett's granddaughter before trying to kill him for her now dead mother. Her attack was blocked by Leia, and Mirta would give up her desire to kill her grandfather after Fett demanded the return of Ailyn's body. The two would develop an uneasy peace between them as they brought Ailyn to be buried on Mandalore, with Fett stopping briefly on Geonosis to collect his father's remains as well.

Soon after Fett's return to Mandalore, a gathering of the clans was called at MandalMotors Hall, a stone communal building donated by MandalMotors CEO, Jir Yomaget. There, the leaders of the clans looked to Fett as Mand'alor, to determine whether or not the Mandalorians were going to get involved in the escalating war, and which side they would fight for if they did. After a lengthy discussion, Fett decided upon a compromise: while Mandalore took no official position in the war, individuals who wished to sell their services as private mercenaries were free to fight for whichever side they desired. The idea was derided by the Mandalorian known as Graad, a proponent of kadikla—the name of the "Mandalore-first" movement that was being spread by Kad'ika—and who felt that a situation that could have Mandalorians fighting each other on opposite sides was the last thing that Mandalore needed. He was opposed in this view by Baltan Carid, who was a strong supporter of Fett's idea, and felt that kadikla was too far in opposition to the Mandalorians nomadic roots. But when Graad suggested that some Mandalorians out in the galaxy be called to return to help rebuild Mandalore, Fett latched onto the idea and made it policy, asking for two million Mandalorians to come back to Mandalore in order to raise the population back to pre-Yuuzhan Vong War levels. In order to help with the economical deficit brought on by the need to import outside food, Jir Yomaget pledged half of MandalMotors' profits to the restoration effort, and Fett added an additional multimillion credit offering from his own accumulated wealth. As the meeting wound down, Fett declared Goran Beviin as acting Mand'alor during the period of time he would be gone, back on the hunt for the grey-gloved clone named Skirata. Fett would eventually find this clone—who turned out to be the former Null ARC Jaing Skirata—on Kuat, after a brief skirmish at the Tekshar Falls Casino in Kuat City. Skirata agreed to help the ailing Mand'alor on the condition that he listen to Kad'ika advice and forge Mandalore into a stronger, more stable state, just as Shysa had done before him. In Fett's absence from Mandalore, a large deposit of beskar ore was discovered to the north of Enceri by two off-world Mandalorians, a geologist and a minerals engineer, returning to Mandalore on Fett's order. By the time Fett made his own return to the planet, drilling had already commenced under site foreman Herik Vorad, and samples were being taken. Since the beskar had been found on land with no owner, Fett decreed that the lode would be a resource for all of Mandalore.

Soon after the discovery of the beskar lode, MandalMotors began producing a prototype starfighter that began as the Kyr'galaar, but would ultimately become the Bes'uliik assault fighter, planing to incorporate the new beskar in the airframe and armor of the powerful vessel. When Jir Yomaget unveiled the prototype to Fett, he was given full approval to begin production, with fifty-percent to be marked down in performance and weaponry for export, while the other fifty-percent was for the Mandalorians themselves, and to be built top of the line. Fett also decided that the fighters would be sold to the fledgling Confederation or the Galactic Alliance, or anyone else who could pay. When word of the Mandalorians' new supply of beskar got out, the Verpine speaker for Roche, Sass Sikili, got in contact with the Mand'alor to acquire a shipment of the metal and to see if the resurgent Mandalorian economy might lead to aggressive outward expansion. Glimpsing an opportunity, Fett proposed a pact between the Mandalorians and the Verpine: exclusive Verpine weaponry for exclusive beskar shipments, and use of Verpine facilities in exchange for military aid in times of need. Sikili agreed to the pact on behalf of the Roche hive, and a Mandalorian–Verpine alliance was forged. At the same time, Fett's granddaughter Mirta had entered into a romantic relationship with Ghes Orade. Mirta and Fett had developed a more normal, albeit strained, relationship by this point, with Mirta even attempting to help Fett connect with his Mandalorian herritage that he'd been estranged from for nearly his entire life. As Mandalore's economy surged, Jaing Skirata felt that Fett had fulfilled his end of their deal and sent a cure for Fett's condition to be delivered by Skirata's nephew, Venku Skirata, who was in fact none other than Kad'ika and the son of a clone deserter from the Clone Wars, making him the equivalent of Fett's own nephew as well. Fett was treated by a local veterinarian, and during his recovery, the Mandalorians were offered twenty million credits per month by the government of Bothawui to provide the services of an assault fleet and infantry force, in addition to offering a premium price in order to obtain exclusive purchasing rights for the new Bes'uliik fighters. Shortly after Fett had regained his strength, he led a Mandalorian assault on the factory complexes on Murkhana as part of their agreement with the Verpine, protecting the copyrights established by Roche.

In 41 ABY, Mandalore would play host to Jedi Knight Jaina Solo when she came to the planet to seek the help of Boba Fett in order to capture her brother, Jacen, who had embraced the dark side and become Darth Caedus. Fett agreed to Jaina's request, and began training her in bounty hunting and anti-Jedi combative techniques. Thousands of Mandalorians were also arriving on Mandalore, heeding the Mand'alor call. Baltan Carid's clan was put in charge of allocating unused farmland to any of the returning Mandalorians who wished to farm it. At the same time, Mirta Gev had been able to locate her grandmother and Fett's ex-wife, Sintas Vel, who wasn't dead, as previously believed, but frozen in carbonite. Upon recovering Vel, Mirta and Fett brought her back to Mandalore where they released her from her carbonite prison, and at the advice of Jaina, enlisted the help of the former Jedi turned Mandalorian, Gotab, to heal her carbonite-induced blindness and repair her damaged memory. Meanwhile, MandalMotors continued mass-production of the Bes'uliik fighters, and also introduced the considerably more low-tech vehicle known as the Tra'kad—or the "Star Saber", a veritable flying tank that could be operated entirely by manual controls—in a move that left Mandalore's new Verpine allies baffled. On his way back from inspecting one of these vessels at MandalMotors headquarters, Fett received a transmission from Admiral Natasi Daala, who had an offer of mercenary work for Fett and his commandos: with Admiral Gilad Pellaeon's forces moving to Fondor to support Darth Caedus' campaign there, Daala wished for Fett and the Mandalorian supercommandos to act as a standby team should Pellaeon require assistance. Fett agreed, and within twenty-four hours, the Mandalorians Fett had chosen, in addition to Mirta, Jaina Solo, and himself, were stationed near the Tapani sector awaiting word from Daala. Things would not go according to plan, however, as Caedus' Sith apprentice, Tahiri Veila, murdered Pellaeon aboard his vessel, Bloodfin, in the middle of the Battle of Fondor. The Mandalorians were then re-tasked by Daala with taking the Bloodfin back from the onboard coup of Moffs and Imperial officers loyal to Caedus, and so they assaulted the Star Destroyer, breaching the hull and killing every stormtrooper and officer who opposed them until finally reaching the Moffs at the ship's inner sanctum. During the commando raid, Mirta and Jaina engaged Tahiri Veila as she attempted to flee the besieged Star Destroyer, in a skirmish that left Tahiri retreating while bleeding profusely from a severed femoral artery after Mirta stabbed her in the leg. Caedus managed to rescue his severely wounded apprentice, but not before being caught by Baltan Carid and Novoc Nevut; Carid crushed Caedus' ankle with a Mandalorian crushgaunt before shooting the Sith Lord in the knee, letting Caedus go only due to Fett's orders. Fett believed that Caedus should be dealt with by his sister, Jaina, alone, not by the Mandalorians despite his own hatred for Caedus spawned from the loss of his daughter. With Caedus and Tahiri's escape, the Mandalorians finished their work and returned to Mandalore following a brief discussion between Admiral Daala and Fett on the nature of galactic politics and the involvement of Force-user therein.

A week later, Mirta and Ghes Orade were married and a celebratory feast was held in Keldabe with several dozen guests turning out to congratulate the young couple. Jaina Solo continued her training under Fett, even journeying with him to Roche when the Mandalorians took up arms for the Verpine again as the Galactic Alliance forces loyal to Darth Caedus moved to conquer the Verpine. Mandalorian casualties were high, with losses including the deaths of Vatok Tawr and Roegr, and the capture of Mirta by Caedus. During the fighting, Jaina faced off against Caedus aboard the Anakin Solo, using her training under Fett to defeat and kill her Sith brother. Mirta was soon rescued, but before Caedus' death, he'd ordered a nanovirus designed to kill Fett and any who shared his genes be released on Mandalore. While it appeared that Fett and Mirta would never be able to return to Mandalore, because the nanovirus used was derived from the FG36 nanovirus developed years earlier, the immunization that had been spread across Mandalore in secret by Clan Skirata during the early days of the Galactic Empire put this in doubt. When Natasi Daala was instated as the new Galactic Alliance Chief of State, her old alliances and working relationships with Boba Fett proved beneficial for the Mandalorians as they were provided with a greatly increased role in government and galactic affairs as elite security and intelligence operatives. Daala also used them as Galactic Alliance forces against rogue Jedi, such as Seff Hellin in 43 ABY, much to the concern of Grand Master Luke Skywalker and the Jedi Order.

Sith-Imperial War
"There's more at play here than you can guess and my master wants the Mandos out of it."

- Yaga Auchs

By the year 127 ABY, the Sith–Imperial War had broken out, with the Fel Empire turning on the Galactic Alliance. The Mandalorians, now under the leadership of Mand'alor Chernan Ordo, had been contracted by the Galactic Alliance to hold the planet Botajef and its shipyards against the Imperial Army until the Galactic Alliance Fleet arrived with reinforcements. However, there was a traitor in their midst by the name of Yaga Auchs; Auchs served an unknown master and it was in his service that he sabotaged communication with the Alliance fleet and betrayed his comrades, leading to the Mand'alor death. Usurping the title for himself, Auchs used his authority as the new Mand'alor to order a retreat, leaving Botajef to the Empire and taking his people out of the war. As Auchs pulled out, Hondo Karr and Vevec—the father of Karr's wife, Tes―were left stranded on Botajef. With Imperial soldiers closing in, Karr removed his Mandalorian armor and replaced it with the armor of a dead stormtrooper. Vevec refused to hide in the enemy's armor, and instead gave his life to help establish Karr's cover as the last survivor of his unit.

Karr masqueraded as a stormtrooper for ten years, until the Battle of Borosk in 137 ABY, where he attacked the Sith Lord Darth Maleval in defense of a superior officer. Maleval was killed by another trooper in Karr's unit, and Karr abandoned the Empire to join the Galactic Alliance Remnant, becoming a member of Rogue Squadron. During a mission to Napdu, Tes Vevec finally tracked down her now ex-husband. Tes believed Karr had been the Mandalorian traitor, and that he was the one responsible for her father's death. The two engaged in a brawl, during which Karr was able to disarm Tes and convince her of the truth. Reunited with his wife, Karr left Rogue Squadron and donned a new set of Mandalorian armor painted in black and gold—the traditional Mandalorian colors for justice and vengeance—with the intention of hunting down Auchs and gaining his revenge.

Culture
"You can't rule Mandalorians. You just make sensible suggestions they want to follow. And since when have Mandalorians needed to be told what makes sense?"

- Boba Fett's view on Mandalorians.

Mandalorian culture consisted of a very straight-forward nomadic society, influenced by many other cultures around the galaxy. As a whole, Mandalorians were not prejudiced of any species, but tolerated all Mandalorians, as long as they followed Mandalorian principles. Many war-orphaned children (such as Jango Fett and Mira) would be adopted into Mandalorian society, and brought up as Mandalorian children.

The Mandalorians were nomadic warriors, despite the fact that they had the home world of Mandalore. The Mandalorians kept their nomadic ways so that in the event of attack, there would be no easy way to exterminate the Mandalorians. Traditional Mandalorian houses, called vheh'yaime were built in such a way as to be quickly and easily evacuated. They also built no straight roads on Mandalore in order to make it much easier to ambush and pin down any invaders. Tactics such as these contributed to the Mandalorians' survival over thousands of years. This also meant that many Mandalorians had never visited Mandalore.

Individual Mandalorians were independent warriors, bound together by the same culture. Each piece of Mandalorian steel was created, chosen and customized by a Mandalorian to their level of skill. The armor had great cultural significance for the Mandalorians, and each set told about the Mandalorian underneath. However, there was a saying in Mando'a: Verd ori'shya beskar'gam, meaning a warrior is more than his armor.

Not all Mandalorians constantly fought on the front line. There were farmers, regular factory workers, engineers, and doctors too. However, all Mandalorians were warriors at heart, and all knew how to fight.

There were six acts one needed to follow to be a Mandalorian, known as Resol'Nare (Six Actions). They consisted of: wearing armor, speaking Mando'a, defending themselves and families, raising children as Mandalorians, helping the clan succeed and sustain itself, and when called to arms by the Manda'lor, rally to his cause. Like the central tenants of most cultures, Mandalorian's differed on their interpretation of the Resol'nare.

The only leader of the Mandalorians was the Mand'alor himself, and he held his rank as long as he commanded the respect of his fellow warriors. In battle, Mandalorians would be assigned to different squads and jobs, depending on their area of expertise. The Mandalorians worked together to the best of their ability in battle. Mandalorians were not promoted to better jobs, since they did not have jobs&mdash;only in battle would some kind of organization need to occur.

The only exception to this would be the way Jaster Mereel ran the Mandalorians. He often diverted from the culture of the Mandalorians, but only slightly so. His armor was different from everybody else's, which was gold and red, perhaps signifying rank. His second in command, Montross, wore silver and blue armor. This armor-rank system was carried on by Jango Fett, who wore Jaster's armor, and had his second in command, Myles, wear the blue-silver armor. Like Jaster, Jango did not act like a traditional Mandalorian.

Sometimes the color of a Mandalorian's armor had a specific meaning. Black, for example, signified justice, while gold armor was for vengeance. Green armor signified duty. Blue was for reliability, gray for mourning a lost love, and red was to honor a father. Or the color of a Mandalorian's armor could signify nothing more than that they liked the look.

Despite their rather gruff appearance and style of combat, the average Mandalorian was more sociable and kind than many would expect. As long as individuals spoke their mind, accepted a meal when offered, looked them straight in the eye—or the horizontal section of their helmet visor—took off their boots when guests, paid their debts, fussed over their children, never made a pass at a Mandalorian of the opposite sex unless the individual planned to become part of the culture, and respected the elderly, anyone who encountered a Mandalorian outside of combat was not likely to be harmed.

Resol'Nare
The Resol'Nare was the most sacred law that all Mandalorians were expected to follow. It was:

Ba'jur, beskar'gam,

Ara'nov, aliit,

Mando'a bal Mand'alor&mdash;

An vencuyan mhi.

Translated:

Education and armor,

Self-defense, our tribe,

Our language, our leader&mdash;

All help us survive.

Family and gender roles
"Mandalorians are surprisingly unconcerned with biological lineage. Their definition of offspring or parent is more by relationship than birth: adoption is extremely common, and it's not unusual for soldiers to take war orphans as their sons or daughters if they impress them with their aggression and tenacity. They also seem tolerant of marital infidelity during long separations, as long as any child resulting from it is raised by them.  Mandalorians define themselves by culture and behavior alone.  It is an affinity with key expressions of this culture—loyalty, strong self-identity, emphasis on physical endurance and discipline—that causes some ethnic groups such as those of Concord Dawn in particular to gravitate toward Mandalorian communities, thereby reinforcing a common set of genes derived from a wide range of populations.  The instinct to be a protective parent is especially dominant. They have accidentally bred a family-oriented warrior population, and continue to reinforce it by absorbing like-minded individuals and groups."

- Mandalorians: Identity and Its Influence on Genome



Family was very important to the Mandalorians, yet when compared to most other cultures, they held very different beliefs as to what constituted a familial relationship. Despite the fact that fidelity and chastity before marriage was highly emphasized in species that practiced such, they were unconcerned about parentage. Believing that aliit ori'shya tal'din ("Family is more than bloodline"), it was common for orphaned children, and even adults, to be brought into the culture. The ceremony for adoption of a new Mandalorian was named gai bal manda, which meant literally "name and soul". For the Mandalorians, there was no difference between a biological child and an adopted one.

Traditional human Mandalorian children were usually raised by their mothers up to their third birthday, and then by their fathers, who would train them in the art of war until they became adults. Mandalorians were considered adults at the age of thirteen or it's equivalent, when they would undergo a trial (the verd'goten, or coming of age) turning them into warriors. This contributed to the fact that Mandalorians married and settled down earlier than most other cultures. Family bonds were a large part of the Mandalorian culture, and as a result, they felt more comfortable around each other than they did around strangers. The ceremonies for weddings or adoptions were very short, usually only requiring a spoken phrase or two with a witness, and it was then legally binding under Mandalorian law.



Mandalorian women were expected to have the same combat skills as men, in order to defend their homes when the men were away. Aside from this, Mandalorian women would cook meals and handle the farm. If they didn't have children to raise, they fought alongside men on the battlefield. The ideal Mandalorian woman was both physically and mentally strong and resilient.This was refered to as Mandokarla, or "having the right stuff".

Homosexuality and same-sex marriage were apparently accepted by the Mandalorians, as Goran Beviin and Medrit Vasur were an openly homosexual married couple living on Mandalore, who were fully integrated into Mandalorian society.

List of clans


Although there were thousands of Mandalorian clans, some notable clans were:


 * Clan Beviin
 * Clan Bralor
 * Clan Fett
 * Clan Ordo
 * Clan Skirata
 * Clan Vevut

Language
"The Mandalorian language has more terms of insult than any of the more widely spoken galactic tongues. But whereas most species choose insults that are based on parentage or appearance, the majority of Mandalorian pejoratives are concerned with cowardice, stupidity, laziness, dull conversation, or a lack of hygiene. It reveals the preoccupations of a nomadic warrior culture where bloodline matters less than personal qualities, faces are largely masked, and a clean, efficient camp is crucial to survival."

- Mandalorians: Identity and Language

Mandalorians had a language distinct from Basic, known as Mando'a. Although this was their main language, they knew many others, as they fought in many battles and on many planets and learned the language of that planet. The language was not complex, and many phrases in galactic basic were given their own word in Mando'a. It was said that they have or a hundred ways to say knife, and many curse words, but there was no Mando'a word for hero.

Religion
Mandalorians had no religion of their own. Mandalorians may have had various religions at one point, and as tolerance of people other based on their background was emphasized, but physical proof of the existence of "the Force" eventually lead them away from all religions.

Mercenaries
"So what's wrong with being a mercenary? Is your war worth fighting? If it is, then why does it matter who fights it for you? Aren't we imbued with the righteousness of your cause when we take up arms for you? Would you rather your own men and women died to make the point? And if your war is so noble, so necessary—why aren't you fighting it for yourself? Think of all that before you spit on us, aruetii."

- Jaster Mereel

Mandalorian mercenaries, known informally as the Mandalorian Mercs, were regarded as some of the finest soldiers-for-hire in the Galaxy.

After the Mandalorians were defeated by the Galactic Republic during the Mandalorian Wars in the year 3,960 BBY, the Jedi Knight Revan disarmed and disbanded the Mandalorian Clans, and allowed them to scatter in disheartened groups across the Outer Rim Territories. There, devoid of leadership and honor, they degenerated. A few Mandalorian Neo-Crusader survivors returned to the Mandalore system, but many veterans, including Canderous Ordo, humbled their pride and became mercenaries for hire.

The skilled Mandalorian Mercs became highly sought after in the aftermath of the Mandalorian Wars. During the Jedi Civil War and the Dark Wars, they gathered on Kashyyyk, Dantooine, Nar Shaddaa, Manaan, and many other worlds where they hired themselves out to the Sith, the Republic, and various criminal organizations such as the Exchange.

At some point between the years 3,955 and 3,953 BBY, Canderous Ordo returned to the former Mandalorian headquarters of Dxun and began to rebuild Clan Ordo. Through skill in arms and sheer cunning, he rose to the rank of Mandalore and began to gather the remaining Mandalorian Clans. While journeying with the Jedi Exile during the First Jedi Purge, he was able to convince several groups of Mandalorian mercenaries to give up their independence and join themselves to his cause.

It is unknown how many Mandalorians Canderous eventually managed to recruit, but in any case, Mandalorian mercenaries became a traditional part of Mandalorian society and they continued to operate for millennia.

Jaster Mereel, a later Mand'alor, would later try to purge the dishonorable brigandage adopted into their society by superceding their old code with the Supercommando Codex, bringing honor back to their society. The Death Watch, a splinter group, opposed such change and fought the True Mandalorians in a civil war to determine their future.

A later group called the Mandalorian Protectors, formed by Mandalore the Resurrector, would revive the honor-bound outlook of the Supercommandos.

Mandalorian mercenaries

 * Alfreda Goot
 * Boba Fett
 * Briika Jeban
 * Canderous Ordo
 * Cassus Fett
 * Ghes Orade
 * Goran Beviin
 * Gorse Bendak
 * Ergeron
 * Esok
 * Jaing Skirata
 * Jango Fett
 * Kal Skirata
 * Kelborn
 * Llats Ward
 * Mirta Gev
 * Montross
 * Walon Vau

Mandalorian worlds

 * Althir
 * Basilisk
 * Concord Dawn
 * Dxun
 * Gargon
 * Kalevala
 * Kerest
 * Kuar
 * Mandalore
 * Concordia
 * Ordo
 * Shogun
 * Togoria

Behind the scenes
Many of the Mandalorians on Dxun (in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords) speak with a New Zealand accent, following Temuera Morrison, who played Jango Fett. By the same token, Fett and all the Mandalorian characters in Legacy of the Force novels' audio adaptations are given approximate New Zealand accents by reader Marc Thompson.

Mandalorians have an idiosyncratic culture and were the first species/people in Star Wars to have their own fully-constructed language. Most of those elements were created and developed by Karen Traviss. Their idiomatic character and culture have their own fan following called Fandalorians.

Boba Fett&mdash;the first named Mandalorian&mdash;was not going to be a Mandalorian at all, but simply wear the armor. This idea might have been adapted with Jodo Kast.

In the Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back novelization, the Mandalorians are referred to as warriors wiped out by Jedi during the Clone Wars. While many Mandalorians were killed, they were not completely destroyed, nor did the massacre occur during the Clone Wars, but rather, a decade previous.

The name "Mandalorian" may come from the Latin word "Mando," meaning "order". In Sasha ot Sulem's dialect which could be related to Mando'a, the word 'Mandalorian' is translated as 'Manlorey'.

The Mandalorian warrior culture is based of the ancient Celts as said by Karen Traviss on the FAQ part of her web site.

When writing his X-wing novels in 1996, author Michael A. Stackpole was interested in involving the Mandalorians in the series. The idea was vetoed by Lucasfilm, however.