Mandalore the Lesser

Mandalore the Lesser was the title bestowed upon the Human male leader of the Mandalorian warrior clans during the Great Galactic War and the Cold War. Before becoming Mandalore, the man was a young member of the then-scattered warrior clans. He lived on Geonosis as one of the many Mandalorian gladiators who participated in arena fights for prestige. Although he was a proficient fighter in his own right, his rise to fame was dramatically accelerated by the intervention of Imperial Intelligence, an espionage agency of the reconstituted Sith Empire.

Agents of Imperial Intelligence identified the young man as a possible pawn they could use to reunite the Mandalorian clans and direct them into an alliance with the Sith. The agents fast-tracked his path to infamy by rigging his gladiatorial matches and spreading the word that he was to become the new warrior-king of his people, Mandalore. He accepted the title and the power it carried, but became subservient to the Empire that built him. As an act of loyalty, the new Mandalore directed his followers to blockade the Hydian Way. The blockade crippled the Galactic Republic against whom the Empire was fighting and placed the Sith as the apparent victors of the Great Galactic War.

Although the blockade on the Hydian Way lasted for a year, it was eventually broken by intrepid smugglers led by the Mirialan Hylo Visz. After the conflict, Mandalore needed to re-energize his people, and so organized the Great Hunt—a galaxy-wide competition for glory. The Hunt's victor challenged the Mandalore to a duel and won, killing the warrior-king and claiming the title for himself; becoming Mandalore the Vindicated. It was later revealed to the galaxy that the Mandalore who had risen to fame on Geonosis was nothing more than an Imperial puppet, and history remember him as "the lesser" of the Mandalores.

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