Almec/Legends

"I welcome you as a servant of the people, but I am troubled by the false rumors that brought you here."

- Almec to Obi-Wan Kenobi

Almec was a male Human Mandalorian from the planet Mandalore, and a member of the peaceful New Mandalorian faction. During the Clone Wars, Almec served the New Mandalorian government as Prime Minister, taking up residence in the New Mandalorian capital city of Sundari. A supporter of New Mandalorian ruler, Duchess Satine Kryze, Almec was a firm believer in the New Mandalorians' peaceful ways and did his best to watch over and represent the interests of Mandalore. His dedication to his people would be his undoing, however, as when Mandalore was cut off from Republic aid, Almec took it upon himself to establish a black market trade network of illicit smugglers to bring much needed goods to the New Mandalorian people. These smugglers poisoned the people of Sundari with slabin-tainted tea, putting numerous children in the hospital. Almec was exposed as the leader of the black market network, and the one responsible for the children's poisoning, and was imprisoned for his crimes.

Biography
"Mandalore would never turn against the Republic. The Duchess Satine values peace more than her own life."

- Almec to Obi-Wan Kenobi

A native of the planet Mandalore, Almec was a member of the pacifistic New Mandalorian faction of Mandalorians and a strong supporter of their peaceful ways. By the time of the Clone Wars, Almec had become the New Mandalorians' Prime Minister, and around 22 BBY, he met with Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi upon his arrival on Mandalore, in the New Mandalorian capital city of Sundari. Kenobi had been sent by the Jedi Council to ascertain the truth behind rumors that Duchess Satine Kryze, leader of the New Mandalorians, was building a Mandalorian army to fight for the Confederacy of Independent Systems, although Almec assured the Jedi that these rumors were false. He wholeheartedly believed that Mandalore would never turn against the Galactic Republic, stating that the infamous violence of the Mandalorians was confined to their past. When Kenobi mentioned his encounter with the Mandalorian mercenary Jango Fett, Almec—either unaware of, or unwilling to accept the fact that Fett had been the Mand'alor —dismissed him as nothing but a mere bounty hunter who'd acquired his armor by unknown means.

During Kenobi's audience with Duchess Satine Kryze, Almec spoke out when the Jedi Master presented a recording of a Mandalorian saboteur responsible for an attack on a Republic cruiser, declaring that no Mandalorian would perpetrate such an attack. Although the Prime Minister expressed interested in the whereabouts of the Mandalorian in question, he seemed quite shocked when Kenobi revealed that the man had chosen suicide rather than submit to questioning. Following the revelation that the saboteur was a member of the resurgent group known as the Death Watch—a Mandalorian splinter-faction intent on returning the Mandalorians to violent savagery, with the ultimate goal of starting another war of conquest —and that trusted ally Pre Vizsla, the Governor of Mandalore's moon Concordia, was now leading the Death Watch, Almec was part of the cadre of retainers and guards that escorted Kryze to her personal starship, the Coronet, for her trip to Coruscant. There, she would attempt to convince the Senate that the Death Watch did not represent the views of the entire Mandalorian community.

While the Duchess spoke on behalf of her people in the Senate chamber, Almec remained on Mandalore. It was there that he received a report from a Mandalorian scout: the Death Watch was amassing an army at their base on Concordia. Almec agreed with the scout's assessment that the Death Watch would be unable to take over Mandalore without popular backing from its residents, although he also surmised that were the Republic to deploy a military force, as they planned to do, it would drive the people to support the Death Watch as "liberators". Left with no other recourse, Almec could only place his trust in Duchess Satine's efforts, trust that would be rewarded when the Duchess convinced the Senate against sending an occupying force of clone troops to Mandalore.

The Duchess' efforts would be successful in allowing Mandalore to remain free of entanglement in the Clone Wars, but it's neutrality would come at the cost of losing vital Republic aid in the form of supply shipments. In response, Almec took it upon himself to establish a network of black market trade in order to ensure the continuing importation of much needed supplies for the New Mandalorian people. At a later point in time, Republic Senator Padmé Amidala came to Sundari to assure the New Mandalorian government that aide would come from sympathetic parties in the Senate. During her stay, Amidala, together with Kryze, discovered the illegal smuggling ring circumventing the previous loss of Republic trade, when it was revealed to endanger the lives of Mandalorian children. The Moogan smugglers moving the goods had inserted the toxic chemical slabin into tea that was poisoning its consumers. Almec was informed of this development by Amidala and Kryze, and he deflectively implicated the Death Watch as the party behind the illicit activities. When the duchess and senator shut down the smuggling ring and brought the issue of the corruption growing in the New Mandalorian government to Almec's attention, the New Mandalorians' Prime Minister offered to investigate the issue.

Not long after, Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano was invited to Mandalore, in order to lecture at the New Mandalorian Royal Academy on the perils of corruption. She was met at the landing platform in Sundari by Almec, Kryze, and a retinue of New Mandalorian academy cadets. These cadets—Amis, Lagos, Soniee, and Duchess Kryze's own nephew, Korkie—along with Tano, uncovered Almec's involvement in the black market trade network, and thus his complicity with the poisonings of Sundari's school children. Using the New Mandalorian Secret Service, Almec had the cadets and Tano arrested, in addition to Duchess Kryze herself upon learning that she had been informed of his involvement as well. He attempted to have the duchess sign a confession of conspiracy, but upon being denied, Almec used a shock collar as a means of persuading her. When Kryze would not yield, he turned his attention to her nephew, Korkie; Tano and the cadets fought back, managing to overpower Almec and his guards until he could be fitted with a shock collar, himself, forcing the Prime Minister to surrender. Almec and his conspirators were placed under arrest, and subsequently imprisoned.

Personality and traits
"Master Kenobi, Mandalore's violent past is behind us."

- Almec to Obi-Wan Kenobi

Almec was a believer in the peaceful ways of the New Mandalorians, and took great pride in the success the New Mandalorian government had in renouncing the violent reputation Mandalore had held in the past. He came to resent the opinion of offworlders who associated Mandalore only with the warrior clans rather than the progressive New Mandalorian government. While he held a high-ranking office in the New Mandalorian government, Almec was a humble man, preferring simple clothes and considering himself a servant of the people. That did not change the fact that Almec was a dignified diplomat and shrewd politician, able to correctly deduce the Death Watch's plans to rally favor for their cause by instigating a Republic invasion in order to appear as liberators to the Mandalorian populace. Almec was a friend of Duchess Satine Kryze, and placed a great deal of faith in her leadership abilities.

When the New Mandalorian people were threatened with starvation after the Republic shut down trade routes to Mandalore in the face of the planet's declared neutrality, Almec took it upon himself to find a solution to the problem plaguing his people. To that end, he established an illegal black market trade network to smuggle the needed goods from the galaxy into Sundari, but in doing so, opened himself up to the risk of greed and corruption. In trying to help his people, Almec instead made it possible for Moogan smugglers to poison innocent children throughout Sundari with toxin-laced tea, and in trying to cover it up, turned on his long-time friend and ally Duchess Kryze and betrayed his pacifistic beliefs by torturing Kryze and threatening to do the same to her young nephew, Korkie.

Behind the scenes
Almec first appeared in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season Two episode "The Mandalore Plot," the first in a trilogy of episodes featuring the Mandalorians. He would appear again in the flashback reel at the start of the subsequent episode, "Voyage of Temptation," before making his second true appearance in the final episode of the trilogy, "Duchess of Mandalore." Almec received entries in both the The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia and The Clone Wars Character Encyclopedia.

Almec's hair and clothing incorporate the same hexagonal design of the small, center plate of Mandalorian chest armor, and in elements of Sundari's architecture.

Almec is potrayed by voice actor Julian Holloway.

Notes and references
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