Mandalorian warrior custom figure and an english article about him

The Mandalorians (called Mando'ade in Mando'a, meaning "children of Mandalore") were a warlike, nomadic group of clan-based people consisting of members from multiple species. We meet them often serving as warriors, or being mercenaries, and bounty hunters. Their culture revolved around that of battle and war being a source of honor and pride in their community, and also for the individual. The leader of the Mandalorians typically took on the title of "Mandalore". He rises from the Mandalorian warriors, proving himself the best of all, becoming their leader. Mandalorians were frequently allied with the Sith, most notably Exar Kun, but much later one of them (Jango Fett) provided the genes for the future clone troopers, becoming the prototype for the Clone trooper for the request of Darth Sidious, the secret Sith leader of that Galactic Republic era. Though the Mandalorian mercenaries would not hesitate to cooperate with the Jedi, too if it suited them.

In later years Mandalorian Warriors wore very distinctive battle helmets with T-shaped visors that covered the entirety of their faces, which become almost a registered Mandalorian trade mark by Jango Fett in a funny way, but anyway, in fact it provided inspiration for the helmets of the clone troopers. These helmets eventually became strongly associated with the Mandalorian people.

Almost three thousand years after the conquest of Mandalore, the Mandalorians wandered the Galaxy far from their home systems hoping to begin a new crusade against worthy foes, who could fight back with enough strength, and who could be a challenge as the next target. The Mandalorian clans became allied with the Sith, and they laid waste to countless worlds in the years that followed, gaining the enmity of the Republic, and, most crucially, the Jedi Order. The Mandalorians were reformed under Mandalore the Ultimate and begun constructing a large assortment of forces from their scattered forces, like a janissary contingent, integrating the human resources of the occupied worlds into the Mandalorian army. They reconstructed defenses on Dxun as well as other Mandalorian-held worlds in order to build a mass stockpile of equipment and vessels and weaponry, and other armaments. With this, they almost became invincible. They were eventually approached by the Sith and persuaded into attacking the Republic for the honor of facing the only remaining "worthy foe".

So the Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders joined together under the lead of Mandalore the Ultimate, and started a "crusade" that is known as the Mandalorian Wars. The troops wore the Neo-Crusader armor, which can be seen on that custom figure, which is the protagonist of this article. During this time, the Mandalorians caused chaos upon the Old Republic, committing atrocities such as wiping out most of the Cathar race, and reducing the surface of the planet Serroco to glass with nuclear bombs. The Mandalorians' victory seemed assured, until the Jedi Knights Revan and Malak led a large portion of the Jedi Order to war, (although the Jedi order forbid to do so) no longer able to sit back and watch the Republic crumble under the Mandalorians vicious attacks. From this point, the Mandalorians were then slowly but surely pushed back to the Outer Rim, where Revan lured them to Malachor V, where they suffered the last, and the most critical lost battle, and they were defeated. Revan personally killed Mandalore the Ultimate in close combat, and utterly destroyed the Mandalorian Fleet, along with a large part of the Republic's as well with the Mass Shadow Generator. After their defeat in the Mandalorian Wars at the hands of the Jedi Revan and Malak, the Mandalorians went into a long decline. Revan destroyed their stockpiles of weaponry and battle droids, and exiled the Mandalorian clans into the Outer Rim.

Some Mandalorians were unable to accept the terms of their defeat, and turned to piracy, brigandage, and mercenary works. Canderous Ordo, who fought side by side with a redeemed Revan against Darth Malak during the Jedi Civil War, later claimed the rank of Mandalore and led a small remnant of his followers on the moon of Dxun. It was Ordo, who traveled the universe with the Jedi Exile, and gathered the scattered Mandalorians who became mercenaries. Ordo was also a key in uniting the alone, exiled Mandalorians, seizing every opportunity to make the scattered Mandalorians join him under his flag. Ordo dreamt the a united, independent, large, and powerful mandalorian nation again, sometimes in the future. And he seemed too be right, since in the the of Clone wars Mandalore is an independent system under the rule of Princess Satine. You could read an article about the mercenary Canderous Ordo, and about the Mandalore Canderous here at Customstarwars.

Famous Mandalorians beside the well known Boba Fett and Jango Fett from the movies, and Durge from the cartoon:

Mandalore the First: The first warlord, he led the Mandalorians on their first crusade. Around 24,000 BBY they conquered a planet in the Outer Rim, which they named Mandalore after their leader. That became their home planet after this point. These Mandalorians wore crusader armor that differed from the Neo crusader armor, that I introduce in this topic, and also they were differed from one soldier to the next. In this picture you can see the ancient crusader armor on the left, the Neo crusader armor in the middle, and the modern armor in the right, which is very similar to Boba Fett's future armor. But interesting, an other Fett, namely casus Fett wore the middle neo-crusader armor, however in a yellow color.

Bendak Starkiller: Starkiller was a professional duelist who lived on Taris, who also wore a yellow mandalorian armor. Bendak often fought in the gladiator arena owned by Ajuur the Hutt, but later he was willing to be fight only when an opponent had beaten all the rest of Ajuur's gladiators, and became such a ace, that Bendak was. A legend on Taris, Bendak retired from the sport of dueling when death matches were banned, simply because he thought non-death matches were boring and unchallenging. But when Revan arrived, and became the dueling champion of Taris, Bendak came out of retirement, wanting to duel Revan in a death match, for his doom, since he was killed by Revan.

Mira: A famous female bounty hunter and assassin, who worked mainly in Nar Shaddaa. You will be informed, when an intro would be published here at Customstarwars.

Mandalorian culture

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) were adopted into Mandalorian society, and brought up as Mandalorian children, maintaining the Mandalorian traditions.

Mandalorian armor

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. They was found of their armors. However, there was a Mandalorian saying, meaning a warrior is more than his armor. 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. However when in war, thew wore uniformized armors, like an army should do, so blue was the color of the common warriors, while red and yellow always represented a higher rank, some kind of commanders, and officers, and that is how we saw them in KotOR 1 and in KotOR 2, too. Only the Mandalore wore a very unique, special armor, which you could see in the previously published article, on my custom Mandalore figure.

In the KotOR series, Mandalorian warriors have a cloaking device built in their armor, very similar that the Predators had in the movie, so they can often ambush the prey undetected. This is weird for me, I found it very a coward way of warfare, especially for a so called heroic nation, that the Mandalorians were supposed to be. What can be so glorious in killing an unaware wookie using a cloaking device, slaughtering them down with heavy fireweapons? Simply, it is opposite with the Mandalorian disciples. Also, this is such a misunderstood way of honor and glory. This can be slaughter, assassination, or murder, but we can not say that is a glorious fight, and because of that, there is absolutely nothing lofty in it. We witnessed a similar hunt in KotOR1, when 3-4 Mandalorian warriors killed several wookies down at the Shadowlands, until Revan and his company stopped them. (To say the truth, not all of them. The last, severely wounded wookie was kept alive, and a brave Mandalorian volunteered to duel with him the same way, as General Grievous fought Eeeth Koth, who was hit in the hand previously with a laser rifle, and was tightly surrounded by many magnaguards, for extra safety. Although the General was still bested by the injured Jedi, the Magnaguards shocked him with their vibrostaffs, so to Grievous can collect himself, and so to he can get back in the fight.) Interesting, these Mandalorians were not brave enough to attack the unaware human warriors neither, and they won't uncloak themselves until Revan and his party was armed, they only attacked when Revan put away his weapons, and came bare handed with his companions. Then the Mandalorians launched a surprise attack in the dark, first throwing some adhesive grenades towards the prey, forcing them stay stationary in the blue glue, and with this handicap, they started shooting them from distance. But this is unusual, most Mandalorians are much braver, and very probably would declare these guys murderers, not heros. The average Mandalorian warrior used the cloaking only to gain the advantage, so to the unaware opposition walk in their trap, and when they got surrounded, and the fight was inescapable, they uncloak from their invisible state, and took the risk of an open fight. We saw the same in the game, for example the Mandalorians surrounded unseen Revan, Zaalbar, and Jolee Bindo on the Rakata world, and when attacking them, they uncloaked, and rushed the Jedi with swords and rifles.

The Mandalorians were nomadic warriors. However, all Mandalorians were warriors at heart, and all knew how to fight, not all Mandalorians fought, and they have to live in peacetime, too. They had farmers, factory workers, engineers, and doctors too, as all other nations. But besides the civilian education, and the civil profession they taught every children for martial arts, and warfare techniques, very similar way as the Spartan civilization did in our history. Physical education, and fencing was a part of their educations, and was the daily routine of their everyday life, almost equal to the work, and the family. There were six acts one needed to follow to be a Mandalorian, known as the Six Actions. They consisted of: wearing Mandalorian armor, speaking Mando'a, defending themselves and families at any costs, raising children as Mandalorians, helping the clan succeed and sustain itself, and when called to arms by the Mandalore, rally to his cause. Many of these are noble things, which has value even in our society, and although I could not accept fully some of the Mandalorian ways, to have a memory of these great armored warriors I bought some mandalorian miniatures figures, and made a custom figure of them.