Mandalorian Wars
- "The Mandalorian Wars were a series of massacres that masked another war, a war of conversion. Culminating in a final atrocity that no Jedi could walk away from… save one."
- ―Kreia
The Mandalorian Wars was the term given to the sixteen years of conflict between the Mandalorian warrior culture and the Galactic Republic that began in 3976 BBY with the Battle of Althir. Occurring two decades after the end of the Great Sith War, the Mandalorian Wars spanned almost two decades themselves, though historians often disagreed on the endpoints of the conflict; the Mandalorians raided star systems in the Outer Rim Territories for over a decade before they actually came into conflict with the Republic Military in 3965 BBY. Led by Mandalore the Ultimate, who pioneered the Neo-Crusader movement with the help of his lieutenant, Cassus Fett, the Mandalorians conquered systems along the eastern edge of the galaxy. Though their conquests included the near-extinction of the Cathar species, it was not until their assaults on worlds near the planet Taris that they drew the Republic's attention. After a year of small conflicts known as the False War, the Mandalorians broke through the Republic's lines and besieged Taris in 3963 BBY, and then invaded the Republic through three separate corridors in what became known as the Onslaught.
The tide ultimately turned when a group of interventionist Jedi known as the Revanchists, led by the charismatic Revan and his friend Malak, joined the Republic Military in combating the Mandalorians. A tactical genius, Revan won several victories against the Mandalorians and began to reclaim lost territory, prompting Supreme Chancellor Tol Cressa to appoint him Supreme Commander in 3962 BBY. Driving back the Mandalorians, Revan forced a final showdown with Mandalore the Ultimate at the Battle of Malachor V in 3960 BBY. Revan personally defeated Mandalore in single combat as the Republic and Mandalorian fleets battled above Malachor V, and the activation of the superweapon known as the Mass Shadow Generator devastated both the planet and the participating fleets.
The Mandalorian Wars had long-reaching consequences: Revan forced the defeated Mandalorians to disarm and hid Mandalore's Mask, the symbol of their leadership, and both he and Malak were turned to the dark side of the Force while investigating the Sith influence that had caused Mandalore to go to war. Many of the soldiers and Jedi who followed Revan in the Mandalorian Wars joined the two new Dark Lords of the Sith as they formed their own Sith Empire and invaded the Republic in a subsequent conflict known as the Jedi Civil War.
Prelude[edit | edit source]
Reconstruction[edit | edit source]
- "Exar Kun was defeated, but the war left both the Republic and our own Order severely weakened. For twenty years, we struggled to rebuild, trying to erase the scars of the terrible conflict."
- ―Dorak
The Mandalorian Wars were named for the Mandalorians, a warrior culture that had clashed frequently with the Galactic Republic in the past. The Mandalorian Wars occurred two decades after the Great Sith War, a conflict fought between the Republic and the forces of two former Jedi: Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma. Both had fallen to the dark side of the Force and declared themselves to be Sith, and Qel-Droma earned the Mandalorians' loyalty after defeating their leader, Mandalore the Indomitable, in a duel on the planet Kuar. Mandalore's forces served Qel-Droma ably in the Sith War, but in the last days of the conflict, the Mandalorians' attempt to conquer the planet Onderon took a disastrous turn with the arrival of the Republic. Mandalore ordered his Mandalorian Crusaders to retreat to the moon of Dxun to lose their pursuers in the moon's fierce jungles, but the warrior's Basilisk war droid was shot down, and he was killed by predatory animals. Mandalore's Mask, the symbol of leadership among the Mandalorians, was discovered by a Taung soldier who succeeded the Indomitable as Mandalore. Most believed that the soldier assumed the name Mandalore the Ultimate,[1] but a few believed that Mandalore the Ultimate usurped the title from the true Mandalore who had found the Mask. Years after the Mandalorian Wars, that supposed "true Mandalore"—a Taung like the Ultimate—claimed that Mandalore the Ultimate had stolen the title and mask from him.[2]
In the decades that followed the Sith War, the Republic and the Jedi Order experienced an era of peace and rebuilding known as the Restoration Period. To restore the Republic's economy and infrastructure, a group of politicians decided to guarantee various corporations throughout the galaxy safe passage and trade along the hyperlanes in exchange for commercial investment in the Republic. As a result, the Republic was able to rebuild its military and economy, supplying much-needed goods to the rest of the galaxy, and hyperspace explorers resumed exploration of the galaxy to discover new routes. However, while the Republic Navy was bolstered by the influx of commerce and funding, taking the place of corporate defense forces, some groups attempted to manipulate the government for their own profit.[2] The city-world of Taris, an influential trade world in the Northern Dependencies region, was admitted to the Republic in 3966 BBY[1] after a number of corporations, including Lhosan Industries, bribed Republic senators into admitting the planet.[3]
The Mandalorians also continued their nomadic existence under Mandalore the Ultimate's leadership, rebuilding their ranks.[2] Less than a decade after the end of the Sith War, Mandalore the Ultimate was approached by the Zeltron scientist Antos Wyrick, who had been Mandalore the Indomitable's own student during the Sith War. Wyrick had acquired a genetic sample from the Arkanian Jedi Master Arca Jeth, Ulic Qel-Droma's teacher, and believed that he could genetically engineer Force-sensitives who could be used as a kind of Mandalorian Jedi. Mandalore agreed to Wyrick's proposal, and the Zeltron started the New Generation Project, which was headquartered on the planet Osadia and sought to produce Force-sensitive children from Arkanian Offshoot parents. However, Wyrick's dealings with the Crucible slaving organization led to the project's destruction, as the Crucible raided the Osadia School[4] around a decade after 3988 BBY[5] and kidnapped all of Wyrick's students. Wyrick was unable to recover his students after years of searching and ultimately rejoined the Mandalorian cause as Mandalore's chief scientist, torturing and experimenting on captured Jedi in order to discover the source of their powers. Wyrick became known as "Demagol," a contraction of the Mando'a term demar agol and a name that literally meant "the flesh carver." Another of Mandalore's lieutenants was Cassus Fett, a warrior who became Mandalore's aide-de-camp[2] and top strategist.[6]
Influenced to war[edit | edit source]
- "The Sith took the remains to give to his Master, and in exchange he told Mandalore of a vision his Master had of the Mandalorians rising up against the Republic. He told him they would conquer world after world, crushing their enemies until the Republic collapsed in on itself. He promised the Mandalorians a glorious victory, and Mandalore believed him."
- ―Revan
In 3978 BBY, Mandalore was approached by a member of the Sith species who introduced himself as an emissary of a powerful Sith Lord, and the emissary enlisted the warrior's help in locating the tomb of his master's rival, Dramath the Second, on the planet Rekkiad. Upon discovering the tomb, the emissary told Mandalore of a vision that his master had experienced of the Mandalorians sweeping across the Republic and conquering many worlds before ultimately crushing the Republic in a glorious victory. Unbeknownst to Mandalore, the emissary was a servant of the Sith Emperor of a hidden Empire, and the warrior was being manipulated through the Force by the emissary—the Emperor sought to use the Mandalorians as a weapon against the Republic and thereby test the Republic's defenses. Completely under the Sith's spell, Mandalore took up the idea of invading the Republic as his own and began to reorganize and marshal the Mandalorian clans in preparation for the forthcoming battles.[7] Mandalore the Ultimate returned to Mandalorian Space and instituted a number of reforms: Firstly, the Mandalorians would begin to accept non-Taung warriors who proved themselves in battle and upheld the Mandalorian warrior code. Secondly, the Mandalorians would no longer pillage worlds and then move on to the next target; instead, they would hold their territory and build an industrial society based on the Mandalorian code.[1]
Mandalore's new vision of society was one where warriors would rule and be supported by farmers, artisans, and manufacturers who had accepted the Mandalorian way. As a result of his decision, the ranks of the Mandalorians rapidly swelled with all manner of Humans and aliens, primarily Mandalorian vassals, such as Mandallian Giants and Jakelians. This new system was dubbed the Neo-Crusader movement,[1] and with Cassus Fett's aid,[8] Mandalore the Ultimate pioneered the movement as a successor to the Indomitable's Crusaders. The Neo-Crusader name originated as an extremist cult that called for the reestablishment of the Crusader traditions, and Mandalore adapted their views to suit his own ends—the Neo-Crusader movement, though slow to take hold, gradually shaped the Mandalorians into a more disciplined and organized fighting force.[2] Fett spearheaded the movement in Mandalore's name while also serving his commander as a strategist and aide,[8] and the Mandalorians began constructing new warships at Breshig and Arda-2; these ships were built using war matériel stolen from the shipyards at Foerost and Abhean during the Sith War.[1] As the Neo-Crusaders expanded their domain, they inducted members from varying species, such as Hrakians, Togruta, Devaronians, Nalroni, Zygerrians, Drackmarians, and Elomin.[1]
The war[edit | edit source]
War in the Outer Rim[edit | edit source]
- "We started by conquering worlds just outside the Republic. We did it quietly so the Republic wouldn't really know what was going on until too late. When we finally did hit the Republic worlds, they had no idea we were coming."
- ―Canderous Ordo
In 3976 BBY, Mandalore the Ultimate's forces made their first move: a raid on the industrialized planet Althir III in the Outer Rim Territories. A fleet of Neo-Crusader warships stormed the world,[1] though the battle lasted a total of five days, as the Althiri managed to hold off the Mandalorians—a stalemate that was finally broken by the unit of a young warrior named Canderous Ordo, who was tasked with feinting against one of the enemy flanks in order to draw the enemy out of formation. However, Ordo saw an opening in the enemy ranks and took the initiative, forcing the Althiri to fend off assaults on two sides and exposing their vulnerable command ships. Ordo's forces quickly eradicated the Althiri fleet, which was ten times the size of their own, and Ordo was rewarded with command over an entire sub-sect of his clan.[9] Althiri became a productive part of Mandalore's war machine, and three years later, Mandalore's forces struck at another world—Cathar, home of the feline Cathar species.[1]
The Battle of Cathar[2] was led by Cassus Fett, who directed his forces to herd the defenseless Cathar population into the ocean. There, Fett's forces massacred the Cathar, despite the protests of a single Mandalorian woman, who was killed along with the Cathar.[10] Basilisk war droids swept across the planet, killing the remaining population—only a few hundred survived,[11] with over 90 percent of the Cathar population dying during the massacre.[12] The Republic learned of the event but chose to suppress news of the battle in order to prevent rioting and panic,[2] and it mobilized the Republic Navy to guard Dxun—still home to some defiant Mandalorian clans—and the planet Taris,[1] which sat along the trade route known as the Mandalorian Road and linked the planets Corsin and Mandalore.[12]
Over the next eight years, the Mandalorians also raided worlds such as Corsin and Azure, and Mandalorian warships expanded their territory into the Tion Hegemony and Hutt Space on the eastern edge of the galaxy. Starting with the capture of the Lianna system, the Mandalorians traveled up the Perlemian Trade Route and took the Makem and Quermia systems before heading southeast along the Overic Griplink hyperroute, conquering the Kaelta system and then taking the Florn system. At the same time, another campaign was launched from the Lianna system—the Mandalorians first took the Jaminere system, then headed south to the Sy Myrth system, and finally intruded on Hutt Space by taking the Taskeed system, capturing the Dennogra system, and then seizing the Dernatine system. The Hutts resorted to hiring mercenary armies to defend their territories, but frequently the Mandalorians simply recruited the mercenaries into their own ranks.[12] Some Neo-Crusaders suggested using kryotin, a powder from the planet Veroleem, as a bioweapon to soften up targets, but most Mandalorians were disgusted by the idea.[13] A forward supply post named Unity was established on the planet Caillte to support the planned advance into the Mid Rim.[14]
Commander Rohlan Dyre served in the early battles in the Outer Rim but began to question Mandalore's goals and reasoning for testing the Republic's defenses. When his questions went unanswered, Dyre responded by refusing to fight the next time he was called upon. Dyre was placed on the front lines anyway, so he escaped during the fighting and went in search of answers on his own,[15] investigating "Doctor Demagol's" history and talking to people who knew the scientist before he joined the Mando'ade.[4] "Rohlan the Questioner," as he became known, was eventually captured and placed back on the front lines, but he ran away again—a cycle that continued to repeat over the next few years. By 3964 BBY, Dyre had been caught and sent back to the front lines six times.[15] In 3966 BBY, when Taris's resource worlds of Jebble, Vanquo, Tarnith, and Suurja began to be threatened by the Mandalorians,[16] the Republic established the Jebble-Vanquo-Tarnith line, a protective cordon around Taris that linked those three planets; Admirals Jimas Veltraa and Noma Sommos were among the officers tasked with holding the line.[17]
The coming storm[edit | edit source]
The False War[edit | edit source]
- "Mandalore spends years picking off unaligned rimworlds—the Senate sits. Mandalore gets too close to one full of Republic business interests—and the Senate throws it Republic membership and a security cordon so long it would take five fleets our size to crew it. I'm sure Mandalore did a little dance when he heard the Republic had pledged to defend Taris. They've called these last few months "War." I think you can see it's nothing of the sort!"
- ―Saul Karath
The Mandalorians' progress came to a halt at the end of the year 3965 BBY—the Republic Navy's forces around Taris blocked the invaders' attempts to capture more star systems in the Outer Rim, and the Mandalorians went eight months without a victory. Finally, the Mandalorians made progress along the Mandalorian Road and captured the planet Flashpoint, home to the Flashpoint Stellar Research Station, after a brief skirmish with Republic forces.[18] Flashpoint Station was repurposed as a laboratory for Demagol, a place where captured Jedi were to be brought so that the scientist could experiment on them.[15] A few months later, the Mandalorians made an attempt to take the agrarian world of Suurja,[18] which sat along the cordon between Tarnith and Jebble,[12] but they were engaged by Republic forces under the command of Captain Saul Karath, and the battle was inconclusive. Over the next six weeks, three further battles were fought at Suurja, but all three of the skirmishes were likewise inconclusive.[18]
Around that time, a charismatic young Jedi began to move through the Jedi Order, calling for Jedi intervention in the conflict with the Mandalorians. He advocated revanchism, or the retaking of territories lost to the Mandalorians, and his views were met with suspicion and hostility by the increasingly conservative Jedi High Council, which remained wary of intervention due to the threat of the dark side. Encouraged by his Jedi Master, Kreia, the young Jedi began to openly challenge the Council and gathered a following of like-minded Jedi, including his friend Alek.[2] The movement became known as the Revanchists, and their leader was branded "the Jedi's own crusader" by the Republic media.[3] Defying the Jedi Council's wishes, the "crusader" led Alek and the other Revanchists on a scouting mission to the battlefront, and they stopped on Taris in hopes of recruiting some of the Jedi who were stationed at the planet's Jedi Tower. When the Jedi failed to sway any of the five Jedi Masters there or their Padawans,[19] they departed for the planet Suurja. However, the "crusader" left his followers on Suurja shortly afterward to investigate Mandalorian activity on Onderon and Dxun, and the Revanchists were unprepared for an ambush by Mandalorians led by Rohlan Dyre.[20] Alek and the other Revanchists were taken to Flashpoint, where Demagol tortured and experimented on them in hopes of determining the source of their powers.[15]
However, everything changed when the galaxy learned of the Padawan Massacre. Four of the five Padawans at the Jedi Tower were slain by their Masters, who were members of a secret Jedi Covenant dedicated to preventing the return of the Sith, and Master Lucien Draay's Padawan, Zayne Carrick, was blamed for the murders. Carrick and the Snivvian con man Marn Hierogryph evaded the Covenant Jedi and Taris's police officers, and their inability to capture Carrick sparked a public loss of faith in the Jedi Order's ability to police them. The same day as the Revanchists' capture on Suurja, Carrick was captured by a bounty hunter named Valius Ying and brought to the Jedi Tower. The news of Carrick's capture caused planet-wide celebrations on Taris, as companies such as Lhosan Industries had begun to pull out from the planet in light of the Massacre, but when Carrick escaped from the Jedi Tower with the help of his friends aboard the junk hauler The Last Resort, mass panic and rioting broke out over the following days. The police force was overwhelmed, with Constable Noana Sowrs's children being kidnapped in the chaos, and the five Jedi Masters were recalled to the Republic capital of Coruscant.[20]
The Onslaught[edit | edit source]
- "The prologue is over. We're breaking out on the Outer Rim—and more. The real Mandalorian Wars have begun."
- ―Rohlan Dyre
Seeing the Jedi's withdrawal as an opportunity to take Taris and begin the invasion of the Republic in force, Mandalore the Ultimate ordered his forces to attack the planet Vanquo, thereby ending the eight-month stalemate. At the Battle of Vanquo, Mandalorian forces overwhelmed the Republic Navy's forces and broke the Jebble-Vanquo-Tarnith line, conquering the mining world; at the same time, Mandalorian forces broke through the Republic cordon and headed toward Taris.[15] As the year 3963 BBY began, Admiral Veltraa withdrew his forces closer toward Taris and reformed the remaining fleets under his command into a new defensive line. Admiral Sommos was gravely injured during the fighting, and she was evacuated to the planet Wayland; however, Veltraa was killed when his flagship, the Reliance, was destroyed, and the Mandalorians besieged Taris itself.[17] Mandalorian dreadnaughts began to bombard the planet from orbit, beginning weeks of devastation as the Mandalorians began to invade the planet, though they were opposed by Taris's meager planetary defense forces, the Taris Home Guard.[16] A Taris Resistance soon formed from the remnants of the planet's police force, and swoop gangs such as the Hidden Beks fought the Mandalorian invaders as well.[21]
However, the Mandalorians also suffered losses on unexpected fronts—the Jedi Council ordered the "crusader" to rescue the captured Jedi at Flashpoint Station, but the Jedi were instead rescued by Zayne Carrick and his allies when Carrick's friend Jarael was herself taken. In order to rescue Jarael and the other Jedi, Carrick's group tricked the Mandalorians there into believing that the Republic was booby-trapping their ships with explosives and convinced them to flee the station. Demagol was also apparently captured,[22] but unbeknownst to Carrick and the others, the scientist switched armors with Rohlan Dyre—who had fled the Vanquo battlefront and joined forces with Carrick—and placed Dyre in a coma.[4] Alek and the Revanchists took "Demagol" back to Coruscant, while "Rohlan Dyre" slipped aboard The Last Resort.[22]
Not long afterward, the "crusader" reunited with his followers and continued his campaign for Jedi intervention but soon found himself to be a celebrity in the eyes of the Republic. Republic media cast "the Revanchist Leader" as a crusading savior who was wrongfully ignored by the Council, and he soon became known simply as the Revanchist.[3] The Revanchist continued to travel the galaxy and bring his message to all who would listen, and one of the Revanchist Jedi—a Cathar named Ferroh—brought to his attention the absence of the Cathar species from their homeworld. The Revanchists began investigating the planet, excavating and searching for evidence as to what had happened to the planet's population.[10] As they besieged Taris, the Mandalorians also attacked the Republic through invasion corridors[17] that ran through three adjacent sectors[9]—an offensive that became known as "the Onslaught."[17] The Mandalorians headed west along the Outer Rim and took the Zongorlu system before launching several offensives against planets along the Republic's northern rim:[12] Ord Mantell fell to the Mandalorians as they also attacked a number of colonies of the Zabrak species in the region, and they also attacked Ithor, though a Republic counterattack with the support of Zabrak military units repelled the invaders.[1]
The Mandalorians then attacked the Zabrak homeworld of Iridonia, which they conquered and occupied for quite some time, recruiting some of the natives into their ranks.[23] Republic and Zabrak forces ultimately liberated the planet, but a Mandalorian presence remained in Iridonian society.[1] A second invasion corridor saw the Mandalorians assault Wayland,[12] bombing the surface and wiping out colonists and factories.[24] The third invasion corridor was aimed Coreward—the Mandalorians captured Jebble,[12] building a war forge on the ice planet that supplied the Mandalorian offensive and also served as a staging point for a planned attack on the Core World of Alderaan.[25]
The Mandalorian Invasion[edit | edit source]
The devastation of Serroco[edit | edit source]
- "This… is a new phase of war. We're going to have change the way we look at things."
- ―Saul Karath, after the Mandalorian nuclear attack on Serroco
In light of the Onslaught, the Galactic Senate mobilized the entire Republic Navy to counter the Mandalorian threat.[9] Around the same time, Mandalorian forces struck at Onderon, besieging the walled city of Iziz with basilisk war droids. Onderon and its moon Dxun remained under extended Mandalorian control, serving as a staging point later in the conflict.[12] The remains of the Outer Rim fleets fell back to the Core Worlds, where Captain Karath was promoted to Rear Admiral[17] and a large battle group, designated Battle Group Serroco, was gathered at the planet Ralltiir. Given the Inexpugnable-class tactical command ship Courageous, Karath was placed in command of the battle group and tasked with the defense of the planet Serroco, which was the next world in the path of the Mandalorians' advance from Jebble. Karath's forces set up camps right next to the stone cities of the native Stereb, and the fleet formed up in a defensive formation around the planet. However, Mandalore the Ultimate viewed this tactic as a defense without honor, as it assumed that the Mandalorians would not attack the civilian cities, so he decided to teach the Republic a lesson.[26]
Zayne Carrick was on Serroco with Marn Hierogryph while staffing the Quartermaster-class supply carrier Little Bivoli, which was serving the Republic forces as a fringer provisioning ship on Serroco; the day before Mandalore's attack, Carrick experienced a Force vision of the forthcoming assault.[26] Carrick became determined to warn Karath and slipped aboard Lieutenant Carth Onasi's ship, the Deadweight, to reach the Courageous, but Karath refused to believe him: Karath had seen Carrick's ship, The Last Resort, fleeing the Battle of Vanquo for Mandalorian Space and believed him to be a Mandalorian spy. Ignoring Carrick's explanation that he had been heading for Flashpoint, Karath ordered Carrick's arrest, though he allowed Onasi to try and contact Alek, whom Carrick knew only as "Squint." However, the Mandalorian fleet arrived at the edge of the Serroco system only minutes after Onasi left the bridge, and Karath ordered his ships to raise their shields when the Mandalorians launched missiles.[27]
To Karath's shock, the nuclear warheads swerved around the Republic ships to slam into Serroco's surface, impacting near twenty-seven population centers and wiping away most of the Stereb cities. The devastation caught most of the Republic ships on the surface by surprise, destroying all but eight of them, and Jedi all across the galaxy felt the simultaneous deaths of thousands through the Force. Fortunately for the Stereb, Onasi had been able to call down emergencies to seventeen of the Stereb cities,[27] leading the inhabitants of those settlements to take shelter in the underground catacombs of the planet and thereby survive the nuclear devastation.[3] The Revanchist Jedi Meetra Surik,[28] who was on assignment at Serroco, managed to escape aboard one of the three military vessels that jumped out of the system before the devastation.[29]
The Battle of Serroco saw Karath's forces begin a slow retreat toward the Core as they came under fire from the Mandalorians, and the Admiral of the Fleet announced his intention to lodge an official protest with the Republic over the military's positioning of its forces near the Stereb cities. Karath sought to retreat to Myrkr or rendezvous with the Tremendous battle group near the Ryyk Nebula but was ultimately forced to fall back toward the banking planet of Telerath.[30] The Courageous was soon boarded by Neo-Crusader Shock Troopers, whose assault drove Karath, Onasi, and Captain Dallan Morvis to take up defensive positions in the ship's brig. They managed to escape the ship with the help of Carrick, who had created an escape route to the Deadweight in the hangar. According to Mandalore the Ultimate, the Courageous was melted down by the victorious Mandalorians, and Mandalore claimed that his battle axe was made from the hull of Karath's lost command.[8] Marn Hierogryph and his Trandoshan companion, Slyssk, barely escaped the bombardment when a panicking Slyssk seized command of a Republic ship that was slow to take off, inadvertently saving half a battalion that had been aboard. When they reached Chandrila, the two were approached by the Ministry of Defense, which convinced the pair to become propaganda figures: Captain Benegryph Goodvalor and his trusty Trandoshan sidekick.[31] Not long afterward, Jervo Thalien of Lhosan Industries hired Hierogryph and Slyssk to track down Senator Haydel Goravvus on Taris, which was still undergoing occupation by Cassus Fett's forces; Hierogryph teamed up with the Hidden Beks swoop gang and helped them join forces with the Taris Resistance.[24]
The First Battle of Omonoth[edit | edit source]
- "You've gone too far, Adasca! You don't have standing to offer a truce!"
"Don't I? I told you, gentlemen, this changes everything. Adascorp was a major corporate player. Now it is a galactic player. We no longer seek contracts. But we may accept allies." - ―Admiral Saul Karath and Lord Arkoh Adasca
Not long after the bombardment of Serroco, Lord Arkoh Adasca of the Adasca BioMechanical Corporation of Arkania forced the scientist Gorman Vandrayk to complete his work on the weaponization of the enormous space slugs known as exogorths. Believing that possession of the exogorths, which were essentially a galactic plague that could destroy entire planets, made him a galactic power, Adasca arranged for an auction of the exogorths aboard his ship, the Arkanian Legacy, in the Omonoth system.[32] Adasca contacted representatives of the major players in the conflict—the Revanchist, Mandalore the Ultimate, and Admiral Karath—and requested their presence at his auction. The Revanchist was unable to attend in person, but after he and several Jedi foresaw that Adasca's offer could change the course of the war, he sent Alek in his place and instructed his friend to ensure that the danger they posed was eliminated.[33] The planet Telerath was caught up in mass panic upon the news that the Courageous was lost at Serroco, as Telerath was the next planet in the Mandalorians' path.[32] In the march to Omonoth, the Mandalorians ravaged the planet Nouane and then took Dagary Minor.[12] Meetra Surik participated in the fighting at Dagary Minor, as did a soldier named Xaart.[34]
By the time he reached the Omonoth system, Mandalore had used Rohlan Dyre's apparent death on Flashpoint as propaganda, using the Questioner as a martyr to advance the adoption of the Neo-Crusader cause. "Dyre" was the one who contacted Mandalore on Adasca's behalf, as he was accompanying Vandrayk's friend Jarael, whom Adasca was holding hostage to motivate Vandrayk, and upon meeting the warrior aboard the Arkanian Legacy, Mandalore instructed the Questioner to remain "dead" for the cause.[8] Karath offered Adasca a seat on the Senate, but Mandalore countered with the offer of making Adascorp the sole weapons manufacturer of the Mandalorians. However, Adasca quickly became power-hungry and declared himself to be a new galactic power—but Adasca's auction came crashing down, thanks to the efforts of Onasi, Carrick, and Lucien Draay, who had been imprisoned by Adasca with Carrick upon his arrival at the Arkanian Legacy in order to keep Draay away from Adasca's plans. Donning the set of Neo-Crusader armor that Mandalore had given "Dyre" as a reward for his continued silence, Carrick staged a fight with Onasi, and then he and Draay revealed themselves as Jedi and declared that the entire affair had been a trap for Mandalore. Despite Adasca's protests, Mandalore believed their claims, and chaos broke out aboard the Arkanian Legacy between the Mandalorians, Adasca's security forces, the Republic personnel, and Jedi.[35]
Amid the chaos, Carrick informed Vandrayk that Jarael was safe, prompting the inventor to seize control of the exogorths. Vandrayk used the exogorths to attack the Arkanian Legacy, killing Adasca, before he took the exogorths with him to Wild Space in order to remove their installed hyperdrive units and eliminate the threat they posed. All of Adasca's "guests" managed to escape the doomed Arkanian Legacy, and while Carrick was called to Taris to meet with Hierogryph,[35] Karath returned to Coruscant. Karath promptly resigned his commission over the loss of Battle Group Serroco, but the Admiral of the Fleet refused to accept it and publicly commended Karath's performance; Karath was ultimately given command of the newly-built Inexpugnable-class tactical command ship Swiftsure.[36] On Taris, the Taris Resistance attempted to bomb the Jedi Tower, which Cassus Fett had been using as a command post, but Fett had already abandoned the Tower and attacked the Resistance in the Lower City.[37]
The advance is halted[edit | edit source]
- "Alderaan? We're gonna knock over Alderaan!"
"As soon as Cassus Fett brings the troop transports from Taris. The Republic won't expect a raid so far within their area of control. You scum like to steal? Now you can do it for a cause!" - ―Wargo and a Rally Master
Not long after the First Battle of Omonoth, as the Adasca affair came to be known, the Republic and Mandalorians both attempted to salvage the remains of the Arkanian Legacy and clashed in the Second Battle of Omonoth. The skirmish was inconclusive, and the concurrent battle on Myrkr[29]—the continuation of the Mandalorians' campaign from Wayland[12]—saw the Republic suffer approximately 2,000 casualties overnight. However, the Republic was able to secure a set of Neo-Crusader shock armor on Myrkr and began to study it for weaknesses.[29] From Myrkr, the Mandalorians moved on to conquer the nearby Thustra system and then took the Obroa-skai system.[12] However, their Coreward advance was brought to a halt after a series of events on Jebble, where the Mandalorians were preparing for their assault on Alderaan. Pulsipher, Demagol's former assistant, uncovered the Sith artifact known as the Muur Talisman in the Undercity of Taris[25] and brought it to Jebble—but on the way there, the Talisman "bit" one of Pulsipher's subordinates. The Jedi Shadow Celeste Morne, along with Carrick and Hierogryph, stowed away aboard Pulsipher's ship, and upon uncovering the Mandalorians' plans on Jebble, Carrick decided to warn the Republic.[38]
Before Carrick could do so, the "bitten" Mandalorian transformed into a rakghoul, a fearsome creature that spread the rakghoul plague; the rakghoul quickly infected several other Mandalorians, and the plague began spreading like wildfire.[38] Carrick managed to make contact with Cassus Fett, who had moved on from the Taris offensive, and warned the Field Marshal of the events on Jebble. Pulsipher lost control of the Talisman, which held the spirit of its original owner, the Sith Lord Karness Muur, when the Talisman attempted to take the Force-sensitive Carrick as its host, though Morne sacrificed herself in his place.[39] Under Muur's influence, Morne took control of the rakghouls—the Talisman was the original source of the plague—and quickly infected the entire Mandalorian army stationed on Jebble. However, Carrick eventually brought Morne to her senses, and Morne agreed to be locked inside an oubliette, or stasis casket, to contain the Talisman's power. As Carrick and Hierogryph escaped from Jebble, Fett's forces arrived in the system and, to Carrick's horror, bombarded the planet with nuclear warheads as they did Serroco. The assault wiped out the rakghouls on Jebble,[40] and the loss of the Mandalorians' infected forces put an end to their planned Core World offensive.[1]
Around that time, the Republic arranged for Jedi Master Dorjander Kace—one of the Jedi Council members who was most strenuously opposed to the Revanchist's interventionist philosophy—to step down from the Council. Disillusioned with the Republic, Kace—who had fallen in love with a Mandalorian named Varda before her death in the Sith War—decided to join the Mandalorians, believing that he could change them for the better. Kace formed the Mandalorian Knights, a group of like-minded Jedi who fought alongside the Mandalorians.[41] However, Kace was succeeded by the similarly anti-interventionist Lucien Draay, who issued arrest warrants for the Revanchist Jedi.[42] Shortly afterward, Coruscant was thrown into chaos by Vindication, a pre-planned insurrection among the Jedi Order by the Jedi Covenant. Vindication was ordered by the Covenant's true leader, Haazen, who had been manipulating the group for his own ends, and Haazen seized control of the Republic blockade around Coruscant, whose tactical computers were linked by a tactic known as the Vanjervalis Chain. Haazen used the blockade's firepower to bombard Coruscant, eliminating the members of the Jedi Order who had been attempting to seize the Draay Estate just before Vindication;[43] the entire affair finally ended with Haazen's death and the destruction of the Draay Estate. The incident was covered up as a Mandalorian terror plot, and Carrick's and Hierogryph's names were cleared of all charges relating to the Padawan Massacre.[44]
The Revanchists join the fight[edit | edit source]
- "We began with nothing but a leader and a purpose—now we have an army. And sanction! The High Council fell in line as soon as word spread—and the Republic is overjoyed! The Cathar didn't die in vain. Their fate, long ago, may have saved the galaxy!"
- ―Malak
Sometime after the Covenant affair, the Jedi Council arrived in force on Cathar to confront the Revanchists, who had ignored the Council's demand that they stand down.[10] Master Vandar Tokare had foreseen a great destruction that was to come to the galaxy in war, but the Council misinterpreted the vision—which actually referred to the forthcoming Jedi Civil War—as a warning against engaging Mandalore the Ultimate in battle.[2] The Council warned the Revanchist and his followers that the Mandalorians were nothing special and ordered the movement to disband—but its tirade was interrupted when the Revanchist discovered a Mandalorian mask underfoot. As the Revanchist picked up the mask, all of the Jedi present were suddenly enveloped in a shared Force vision of the past: They witnessed Cassus Fett herd the defenseless Cathar into the ocean and massacre them, despite the protests of the woman whose mask the Revanchist had found. Disgusted by the genocide, the Revanchist donned the mask and, adopting the simpler name of Revan, vowed to wear it until all of the Mandalorians were brought to justice.[10] In light of the vision, the Jedi Council begrudgingly sanctioned the Revanchists' intervention into the Mandalorian Wars,[10] though it still publicly denounced Revan's actions as unwise and too hasty.[9]
Revan soon came up with a solution that appeased the Council and allowed the Revanchists to join the war: He revived the idea of a Mercy Corps from the Sith War, in which Jedi were deputized to serve alongside the Republic Military allegedly as healers. The Council reluctantly agreed to Revan's request, and the Revanchists—now an official Mercy Corps—were placed under Revan's direct command. Revan and Alek, who by that time had adopted the name Malak, were appointed as generals, and they worked with Captain Telettoh of the Hammerhead-class cruiser Testament.[10] In the following months, the Revanchists joined the Republic in battling the Mandalorians openly, and Revan proved himself a capable military leader by winning several victories against the Mandalorians.[9] As the year drew to a close, "Demagol" awoke from his coma and was put on trial for his crimes, though Rohlan Dyre's claims as to his true identity were ignored. Fortunately for Dyre, he was rescued by Carrick and Hierogryph, who had realized that Demagol had switched places with Dyre.[31] In order to save his friend Jarael from Demagol, Carrick called in the favor that Cassus Fett owed him from Jebble: Carrick arranged for Fett's forces to encounter Admiral Karath near the Ithor system to draw out Dace Golliard, a member of the Crucible slaving organization. Fett's forces staged an attack on Karath only to jump to hyperspace, and Golliard—who had been lurking nearby in order to capture the survivors of the battle—was captured by Karath, allowing Carrick to learn Jarael's location.[4]
The Mandalorian Triumph[edit | edit source]
Mandalorian Knights[edit | edit source]
- "I know it offends some of you to have former Jedi in your ranks. Mandalorians win with arms, not tricks and magic! But that's why we joined your movement. My friends believe in a fair fight—not a corrupt Republic that leans on Jedi for protection! So this time, when some Jedi began fighting for the Republic, I didn't just mouth objections, like the Council. I set the balance right—by giving the Mandalorians their own Jedi!
" - ―Dorjander Kace, addressing his Mandalorian soldiers on Halthor
As the year 3962 BBY began, Dorjander Kace developed a plan to give the Mandalorians their own Jedi by kidnapping younglings from the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine.[41] His plan was approved by Mandalore the Ultimate, who agreed to let Kace keep the younglings and train them on the planet Ordo, and Mandalore assigned a detachment of his warriors to assist Kace.[45] With Mandalore's support, Kace continued the campaign on the northern edge of the galaxy; once the Mandalorians captured the planet Essien, he lured the Republic into an attack there. As the Republic lacked a regular army in that region, it was forced to rely on local militias to fight, and the militia from the planet Phaeda was placed under the command of Captain Morvis and tasked with liberating Essien. The Republic was unaware of Kace's defection, and he and his Mandalorian Knights led Morvis's men—including Zayne Carrick, who had been drafted into the militia—in a charge against the Mandalorian bastion underneath Mount Savage. After "securing" the beach at the foot of the mountain, Kace ordered Morvis's forces to root out the Mandalorians in the forests, though Morvis chose to burn them down with Tibanna Six shells instead. Carrick attempted to warn the Mandalorians, as his pacifist nature would not let him stand by and allow the retreating Mandalorians to be massacred, but discovered that it was a trap—just as a swarm of Basilisk war droids descended on Morvis's command and captured them, with Kace's Mandalorian Knights at the lead.[46]
Morvis's militia was drafted into the Neo-Crusaders despite the protests of his men, and Kace's Mandalorian Knights led their forces in a campaign northward toward Dantooine. The planet Halthor was one of the first targets, and the Mandalorian Knights led an assault on a signal station manned by members of the Gran species.[47] Kace blackmailed Carrick into helping his plans—Carrick could either help Kace capture the Phaedacomm relay station or watch the Mandalorians devastate his homeworld of Phaeda. Carrick developed a scam to get Mandalorians aboard the station by staging a fake viral outbreak aboard Morvis's captured ship, the frigate Reciprocity, which was diverted to Phaedacomm, and the Mandalorians quickly captured the station. Upon discovering Kace's intended target,[41] Carrick recruited Morvis's crew to help him steal the Mandalorian dreadnaught Parjai as Kace's Mandalorian Knights took the Reciprocity to Dantooine. Carrick scammed Field Marshal Garon Borm and the Parjai's crew into fleeing the dreadnaught by repeating the viral outbreak scam, and he took the commandeered Parjai to Dantooine.[48]
The Mandalorian Knights quickly took control of the Enclave and secured the students, and Carrick's attempt to con Kace into leaving ended in failure. Exposed, Carrick destroyed the ship on which Kace intended to extract the younglings, and Morvis's troops evacuated the younglings to the Reciprocity. Carrick and Kace dueled in the Enclave when the latter tried to stop the escaping younglings, but when Kace learned that the Mandalorians had withdrawn support of his plans, Carrick managed to convince the former Jedi Master to surrender. Kace and his Knights were put on trial, where the former Jedi preached for nine hours straight about the righteousness of his cause; with the loss of the Mandalorian Knights, Mandalore the Ultimate abandoned the northern offensive and withdrew his forces from Halthor. In the aftermath of the campaign, Carrick secured a position as a lieutenant and special diplomatic agent attached to Morvis's Reciprocity. In his new post, Carrick sought to serve as an "official conscience" for the Republic, teaching the military restraint in hopes of saving lives and bringing a peaceful end to the conflict.[45]
Coreward-bound[edit | edit source]
- "You were at Serroco, when they turned the Stereb cities into glass craters. At Duro, when Basilisk war droids rained like meteors onto the orbiting cities, and when the Mandalorians set fire to the Xoxin plains on Eres III—the fires that burn still."
- ―Atton Rand, to Meetra Surik
Meanwhile, in the rest of the galaxy, the Mandalorian Wars entered a phase known as the Mandalorian Triumph—a campaign that first saw the Mandalorians conquer the border world of Eres III[12] and set fire to the planet's Xoxin plains, driving back Meetra Surik's forces from the world. The plains continued to burn over a decade afterward, earning the battle infamy.[34] Also during this time, the Mandalorians continued their offensive from the Dernatine system, heading along the Lesser Lantillian Route to conquer the Charros system, and then along the Great Kashyyyk Branch and the Randon Run in an attempt to conquer the strategically-valuable Randon system. However, the Mandalorians' attempted conquest of Randon, which sat at the intersection of numerous routes, was defeated by the Republic. From Eres, the Mandalorians raided Azure and subsequently the planet Contruum, and then headed south along the Vaathkree Trade Corridor to take the Gizer system. The Nazzri system was next to fall, followed by the Vena system;[12] after meeting up with additional forces at Dxun,[1] the Mandalorians took the Ambria system and then the Zel system.[12]
With the advent of Jedi involvement in the war, the Republic unveiled the multitude of warships that they had been constructing in the shipyards of the Core and Trailing Sectors, such as Centurion-class battlecruisers and Hammerhead-class cruisers. The Interdictor-class cruiser was also introduced at this time, a concept that had been pioneered by the late Admiral Veltraa.[1] A number of manufacturing companies designed and marketed various new battle droid models in hopes of cashing in on the war effort, but the droids were not as successful as the companies had hoped.[49] From the Zel system, the Mandalorians headed Coreward to Commenor, where they smashed a Republic task force,[1] and then conquered the Quellor system. After taking the Exodeen system, the Mandalorians moved on to the shipyard world of Duro,[12] whose orbital cities and shipyards were bombarded by Basilisk war droids.[34] Sometime around then, the Mandalorians also attacked the Lantillies system, though the Republic repelled their assault.[12]
Duro's infrastructure was devastated by the attackers, who destroyed many of the orbital space platforms in order to cut off the Corellian Trade Spine.[2] However, Revan, Malak,[1] and Meetra Surik[34] managed to save the Battle of Duro from becoming even more of a disaster. They arrived with a fleet of Interdictor-class cruisers, thereby stopping the Mandalorians from escaping with war matériel stolen from Duro's shipyards. Bowing to public pressure, Supreme Chancellor Tol Cressa appointed Revan Supreme Commander of the Republic Military.[1] Sometime during the course of the conflict, a fleet of Mandalorian warships attacked the Tibanna-mining planet of Bespin, which hosted a mining infrastructure built by the distant and carbonite-rich planet Empress Teta. The attackers destroyed most of the mining operations in orbit of Bespin, hoping to break the Republic's supply of Tibanna gas.[2]
Republic counteroffensive[edit | edit source]
Driving them back[edit | edit source]
- "It was not your ships or your men or your vaunted 'fight for freedom' that won this, the final battle of the war. It was by the actions of one person–the Jedi Revan–that you prevailed. Revan's strategies and tactics defeated the best of us. Even Mandalore himself was taken aback by the ferocity, the tenacity, and the subtlety of Revan's plans."
- ―Canderous Ordo
Over the course of 3961 BBY and 3960 BBY, Revan directed the Republic Navy in taking the offensive against the Mandalorians. During that period, the Republic liberated Taris, ending the lengthy siege and occupation of the world. Revan himself spearheaded the charge, leading a group of Jedi into battle in Taris's Undercity. While there, Revan freed a group of slaves who were about to be sold on the slave market, and one of them—a Force-sensitive Cathar named Juhani—was encouraged by one of Revan's compatriots to join the Jedi Order. Revan's tactical prowess saw the Republic achieve victory after victory, but it was not without a cost: Revan became increasingly willing to sacrifice populations and key planets in order to win victories elsewhere,[9] and Revan understood that the Republic's industrial might was the key to victory.[1]
"Moral shortcuts" became common under Revan's leadership as he and Malak began to adopt a policy of victory at all costs. Early in 3961 BBY, the pair discovered an ancient ruin of the Rakata species on Dantooine, where they found a Star Map—a relic of the Rakata that showed part of the location of the Rakatan space station known as the Star Forge.[9] Revan soon discovered another Star Map on the planet Kashyyyk,[2] and not long afterward, he briefly visited the Sith tombworld of Korriban. Revan's visit to the planet of Malachor V saw the Jedi discover the Trayus Academy, a temple of Sith learning, and Revan began to be seduced by the dark side of the Force as he learned from the Academy's knowledge.[9]
Though under the thrall of the dark side, Revan and Malak did not renounce the Jedi ways initially, and he and Malak continued to lead the Republic against the Mandalorians.[9] From the Perlemian, Republic forces attacked planets in Mandalorian Space—the Vorzyd system was first to fall, and from there the Republic split their forces on two offensives. The attack on the Lucazec system saw the Republic driven back, but the Republic was successful in taking the Stenos system and then the Elom system. From the Elom system, the Republic moved to Jaga's Cluster.[12]
However, the Battle of Jaga's Cluster ended in disaster—despite the presence of Revan and Malak, Cassus Fett's forces still managed to emerge victorious, and Fett gained notoriety for personally boarding one of the Republic flagships and killing the captain himself.[50] Not long after, at the Battle of Althir, forces under Revan's command annihilated most of the Mandalorian ground forces, reclaiming the industrial world after around twenty-five years of Mandalorian control.[12] Late in the Mandalorian Wars, Revan ordered his forces to retake the planet Onderon and its moon Dxun, which was a heavily-fortified Mandalorian stronghold. A large-scale assault was organized to take Dxun, though the offensive was incredibly costly to the Republic—the enemy had decades to fortify the moon, with defenses that included minefields, traps, anti-air turrets, and the jungle beasts themselves.[34]
Revan's battle plan called for battle droids to be deployed on the moon to take out the anti-air turrets, and then his forces—under the command of the Jedi General Meetra Surik—undertook hundreds of small-unit feints to probe the Mandalorian defenses. Surik lost most of her forces when they charged across a minefield in an attempt to strike at the Mandalorian emplacements, but she carried out Revan's plans regardless. The battle lasted for months as the Mandalorians refused to give in, resulting in incredibly high casualties—veterans of the battle stated that the Republic lost ten soldiers for every Mandalorian killed. Despite the cost, the Republic ultimately captured the moon, driving the Mandalorians back toward the Outer Rim.[34]
Showdown[edit | edit source]
- "I remember the ships. The last stand of the Republic. The tattered remnants of our fleet, the largest we could gather, but it was damaged, weakened and vulnerable. The Mandalorians couldn't resist. They tore into us like beasts, shredding our ships to scrap as we fought back. I remember the look you had when you turned to me. It was the longest you'd ever looked at me. You didn't say anything—just a nod. Events move quickly then, even in my dreams. Flashes, explosions, you—falling. I could feel the pain around me. And then the memory. The drifting hulks of the Mandalorian ships, the dead—allies, friends, strangers. And then the echo. Lingering. The sound I awaken to in my nightmares."
- ―Bao-Dur
In 3960 BBY, Revan drove the Mandalorians increasingly farther back, and the Republic retook the Lianna system.[12] Revan then forced a final confrontation at Malachor V, deploying a massive fleet to the planet in order to lure the Mandalorians into attacking. Revan also deployed a superweapon that he had prepared in secrecy: the Mass Shadow Generator, a gravitational weapon designed by the Zabrak engineer Bao-Dur. The generator was intended as the centerpiece of the trap at Malachor, where Revan hoped to bring an end to the conflict. Revan split his forces in two, giving half to Meetra Surik to lure the Mandalorians into range of the superweapon and tasking her with the activation of the Mass Shadow Generator. However, Revan himself was delayed outside of the Malachor system by a Mandalorian scouting party, and by the time he arrived in the system, a massive naval battle was underway between Mandalore the Ultimate's fleet and Surik's ships.[7]
Mandalore, realizing that defeat was inevitable due to the Republic reinforcements, challenged Revan to single combat aboard his flagship. Revan accepted his challenge and boarded the vessel, where he engaged in a duel to the death with the warrior chieftain. Despite Mandalore's strength, he was eventually overcome by his Jedi opponent; Revan struck down Mandalore, who ended up dying at the Jedi's feet. As the Taung coughed up blood, he removed his mask and began to speak to Revan about how he had been betrayed. Mandalore explained how the Sith had manipulated him, as the Sith's spell had broken in Mandalore's last moments, and in order to prove his story, he gave the coordinates of the planet Rekkiad to Revan. As Mandalore died, Revan picked up Mandalore's Mask, the symbol of Mandalorian leadership, and took it as his spoils of war, preventing a new Mandalore from being chosen.[7]
With Revan's victory over Mandalore, the Republic forces began to press the Mandalorian fleet ever closer to Malachor V, but they also suffered heavy casualties in the process, prompting Surik to command Bao-Dur to activate the Mass Shadow Generator. Both Revan and Surik's ships were out of range of the weapon, and they watched in horror as most of the Mandalorian fleet and a large part of the Republic fleet was drawn toward the planet into a massive gravity vortex. Tens of thousands died as hundreds of vessels collided with Malachor's surface, devastating the once-lush world and fracturing its core as the ships were crushed into the planet. The Republic suffered incredible casualties, though nowhere near as many as the Mandalorians, and the sheer number of deaths caused a substantial wound in the Force. Surik was the closest Jedi to the vortex to survive, and she instinctively severed her own connection to the Force to avoid being killed by the resulting shock wave. In the wake of the utter devastation, the remaining Mandalorians transmitted their unconditional surrender to the Republic.[34]
Aftermath[edit | edit source]
The Republic[edit | edit source]
- "When they left after the Mandalorian Wars ended, they were Jedi. When they returned… they were something else."
- ―Carth Onasi, regarding Revan and Malak
In the aftermath of the war, the Jedi Council demanded that the remaining Revanchists—namely, Revan, Malak, and Surik—return to Coruscant and face judgment for their actions during the end of the war. Revan and Malak refused and took the remainder of their forces into the Unknown Regions to the north, claiming to be pursuing the remaining Mandalorians. Surik chose to return to the Council, as she was bereft of the Force;[9] Malak urged Revan to use his new HK-47 assassin droid to eliminate Surik, but Revan refused, claiming that she was "already dead."[34] Revan had created HK-47 to assassinate selective opponents, as he sought to prevent the need for battles like Malachor.[9] Revan and Malak soon left their forces behind as they traveled to Rekkiad alone, seeking to confirm Mandalore's story. There, the two Jedi discovered Dramath's tomb and a datacron describing Dramath's history and the existence of a hidden Sith Empire; before departing Rekkiad, Revan chose to leave Mandalore's Mask in Dramath's tomb.[7]
Revan and Malak followed the trail of the hidden Sith to the Empire's capital of Dromund Kaas, where they attempted to kill the Sith Emperor and prevent him from invading the Republic; however, the Emperor dominated their minds and turned them fully to the dark side, making them his servants. Respectively anointing them Darth Revan and Darth Malak, Dark Lords of the Sith, the Emperor sent the two back as his advance agents to invade the Republic, tasking them with locating the Star Forge. Unbeknownst to the Emperor, the two broke free of the Emperor's control not long after departing Dromund Kaas, and they unknowingly adopted the Emperor's commands as their own desires.[7] Locating the Star Forge in the Unknown Regions, Revan and Malak used the space station to produce a massive fleet of warships, which they combined with their followers from the Mandalorian Wars, and they formed a new Sith Empire. Admiral Karath was one of a number of high-ranking Republic officers who joined the new Sith, and in 3959 BBY, Revan led his Empire in invading the Republic. This subsequent conflict, which became known as the Jedi Civil War, lasted until 3956 BBY, when a redeemed Revan defeated his former apprentice at the Battle of Rakata Prime.[9]
A group of refugees, including a number of wealthy businessman, crash-landed their transport on the planet Makeb while fleeing Mandalorian raiders during the war. Makeb was located off major hyperspace routes, and over the next fifty years, the survivors—led by business magnate Semako Thalien—built settlements and re-established contact with the galaxy, using the planet's rich mineral deposits and their own credits and influence to transform Makeb into an immensely profitable world. Remaining largely independent from the Republic, Makeb attracted corporate leaders, banking enterprises, and wealthy tourists, and soon developed a number of luxury resorts.[51] The Interdictor technology, the basis for the Interdictor-class cruiser and the Mass Shadow Generator, was developed by Zabrak engineers during the conflict, and it became a frequently-used tactic in the millennia after the Mandalorian Wars. Interdictor technology, particularly ship-based gravity wells, gave rise to a spiral of advances and countermeasures over the course of thousands of years; the relatively weak Interdictors of the Mandalorian Wars were soon rendered ineffective by better hyperdrive sensor suites and multiphase null field units, and the Clone Wars almost four thousand years later inspired new research into the technology. Ion blasters also saw increased use during and after Mandalorian Wars, as they proved effective in disabling the weaponry of the Mandalorian raiders.[1] Thousands of years later,[6] in the era of the Galactic Empire, scientist Bevel Lemelisk included the Mass Shadow Generator in a list of historical superweapons in Imperial Handbook: A Commander's Guide. However, by that time the exact details of the weapon's effect on Malachor V were unknown, though the planet had long since been destroyed.[52]
The Mandalorians[edit | edit source]
- "The war we had with the Republic was supposed to be the most glorious battle of our history but… it was a very costly one. I guess we didn't think of how much we could lose in it."
- ―Canderous Ordo
In the weeks that followed the Battle of Malachor V—which became known as Ani'la Akaan, or the Great Last Battle, in Mando'a—Revan ordered that the remaining Mandalorians be stripped of their weapons and armor, and also that they dismantle their basilisk war droids. Knowing that they would only resume the fight if a new leader arose, Revan kept Mandalore's Mask, its loss greatly demoralizing the Mandalorians. Most of the warriors soon became mercenaries or bounty hunters as the clans largely fragmented—without the Mask, the various clans fought amongst themselves for power. Over the following years, some Mandalorian clans, such as Clan Ordo, began searching for the Mask, identifying all of the possible worlds Revan could have reached in the three days during which he and Malak disappeared after Malachor. Less than fifty Mandalorians were part of the search on the first world, taking them two years, but as they moved from planet to planet, their numbers grew as more clans joined them. The search for the Mask united the Mandalorian clans behind a common cause, and by the time they started searching Rekkiad in 3954 BBY, over a hundred clans had joined the search.[7]
Revan, who had lost his memories during the Jedi Civil War, sought the help of his friend Canderous Ordo—who had fought alongside Revan as one of his companions during the Jedi Civil War—to investigate his returning memories in 3954 BBY, and the two traveled to Rekkiad to join the search. With Revan's help, Clan Ordo discovered the Mask in Dramath's tomb, and Revan convinced Ordo to take up the Mask as Mandalore the Preserver. Before departing to retrace his and Malak's steps into the Unknown Regions, Revan asked the new Mandalore to restore the strength of the Mandalorians in order to protect the Republic from the mysterious Sith threat.[7] The Preserver spent the next few years reuniting the clans and rebuilding their military strength, establishing a headquarter on Dxun as he restored the Neo-Crusader movement. In the Dark Wars that followed the end of the Jedi Civil War, one of the new Sith Lords that rose to power was Darth Nihilus, a survivor of the Battle of Malachor who was transformed by the experience, becoming a being who craved Force energy, as well as a living wound in the Force. Nihilus pulled the Ravager, one of the Centurion-class battlecruisers destroyed in the Battle of Malachor V, from the planet's surface using the Force and appropriated it as his own flagship. The Ravager was ultimately destroyed by both Republic and Mandalorian forces, with Mandalore the Preserver accompanying Meetra Surik—by then known as the Jedi Exile—in a final assault on the ship as his forces fought alongside the Republic.[34]
Despite the failure of the Mandalorian Wars, Mandalore the Ultimate's reforms had lasting effects on Mandalorian society—the Taung species became virtually extinct, with the clans becoming Human-dominated and accepting of those warriors who proved themselves worthy.[1] In Mandalorian culture, a ritual known as the Geroya be Haran, or "game of annihilation," developed in the centuries following the Mandalorian Wars. The loser would have his entire legacy erased, and many believed that the tradition was a symbolic retelling of the Neo-Crusaders' greatest victories during the Mandalorian Wars.[53] However, Mandalore the Preserver was the last known Mandalore to wear Mandalore's Mask, which disappeared after the Preserver's death.[11]
Behind the scenes[edit | edit source]
- "So there's war, and then there's war — and there's something like that going on here. People on Taris, near the frontier where #0 established that the Republic and Mandalorians have been quibbling inconsequentially for more than a year, feel they're at war. Regular folk on Coruscant? Not so much. What results is a more nuanced picture for those looking to put events into a simple timeline — as with a lot of Earthly wars, there's more than one starting date. There's when the Mandalorians started attacking non-Republic worlds; there's when the Republic intervened in one of those attacks; and, now, when the Mandalorians attacked the Republic in full force."
- ―John Jackson Miller, in his production notes for issue 8 of the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic comic series
The Mandalorian Wars were first mentioned in the video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which was released by BioWare in 2003. The conflict was created as backstory for several of the main characters in the game, such as Darth Malak, Revan, and Canderous Ordo,[9] and it was expanded upon in the game's 2004 sequel, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords.[34] Other than material related to the video game, the conflict was not touched upon in many sources until the end of 2005, when it was discussed in The New Essential Chronology.[6] The Knights of the Old Republic comic book series, which started in 2006, was the first to visually depict the conflict; various battles appeared in different story arcs of the series, starting with the conflict's first appearance in issue 6.[20] John Jackson Miller, the author of the series, used the comics to develop the Mandalorians as a fighting force, evolving them from the individualistic warriors who appeared in the Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi comic series and the uniform, color-coded soldiers who appeared in the Knights of the Old Republic video games.[54]
The starting date of the conflict has varied between sources—the Knights of the Old Republic game itself gives two dates for the conflict's start, with the Mandalorian Wars beginning in 3976 BBY, according to the Mandalorians, and 3963 BBY, according to the Republic.[9] However, The New Essential Chronology and The Ultimate Visual Guide respectively placed the endpoints at 3995 BBY[6] and 3961 BBY.[55] The Knights of the Old Republic comic series reconciled the conflicting Mandalorian and Republic accounts of the start date, explaining that the Mandalorians had been raiding for years before the "False War" of 3965–3964 BBY, after which armed conflict broke out between the Republic and Mandalorians in 3963 BBY.[56] The Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide, released in 2008, placed the Battle of Malachor V in 3960 BBY rather than 3961 BBY, and also included the False War in the main Mandalorian Wars by placing the start date as 3965 BBY. The Campaign Guide explained that the Mandalorians had been raiding Outer Rim worlds since 3976 BBY, though the Republic did not actually engage the invaders until 3965 BBY, and the true invasion of the Republic began at the end of 3964 BBY.[2] The 2009 reference guide The Essential Atlas reaffirmed the Campaign Guide's dating and also gave a further breakdown of the main Mandalorian Wars, introducing a number of new battles on a map of the conflict.[12]
The three invasion corridors that the Mandalorians use during the Onslaught have been a subject of some confusion among various sources. The Essential Atlas features a map of the Mandalorian Wars, and the three invasion corridors are shown to be three campaigns spreading out from Taris, matching up with Canderous Ordo's statement that the Mandalorians invaded the Republic through three adjacent sectors.[12] The 2012 reference guide The Essential Guide to Warfare identifies the corridors as the northern campaign, the Coreward campaign that includes Serroco, and the southern campaign that starts with Eres II.[1] However, Eres is part of the Mandalorian Triumph, which does not begin until 3962 BBY.[12] As Warfare's section on the conflict is presented as an in-universe oral presentation given thousands of years afterward, the account is not necessarily perfectly accurate.[1] The Atlas's map also introduces a campaign on the eastern edge of the galaxy, set in 3963 BBY, that was not mentioned in any other source. However, the text indicates that those battles actually occurred beforehand, during the decade-long buildup to the main conflict,[12] and the text is backed up by Warfare[1] and The New Essential Chronology.[6]
The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, published in 2008, mentions the conflict in a variety of entries,[50][57] though there are some errors.[58] Cassus Fett's entry erroneously states that the Battle of Jaga's Cluster occurred before the Mandalorian Wars, which is contradicted by the other entries and material in which the battle is mentioned.[59] Another dating issue centers around when the Revanchists actively joined the Republic Military. According to Bastila Shan's dialogue in the first video game, the Revanchists joined the Republic five years before the game, which is set in 3956 BBY—thereby placing the Revanchists' entrance into the war in 3961 BBY.[9] However, subsequent sources have instead placed the Revanchists' entry in 3963 BBY.[2][10] The Essential Guide to Warfare attempted to reconcile the contradiction, explaining that Revan was appointed Supreme Commander of the Republic Military in 3962 BBY.[1]
Appearances[edit | edit source]
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This page was moved from wook:en:Mandalorian Wars. It's edit history can be viewed at Mandalorian Wars/edithistory
- Pages with reference errors
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- Pages with missing permanent archival links
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- Battles of the Mandalorian Wars
- Conflicts of the Colonies
- Conflicts of the Core Worlds
- Conflicts of the Expansion Region
- Conflicts of the Greater Javin
- Conflicts of the Inner Rim
- Conflicts of the Mid Rim
