Mandalore

Mandalore was the fifth planet in the Mandalore system of the Outer Rim Territories, not far from the Hydian Way trade route. The homeworld of the multi-species cultural group known as the Mandalorians, the planet was known as Manda'yaim in the Mandalorian language, and was named after the legendary conqueror of the vibrant world, Mandalore the First. Mandalore the First's Taung warriors slew the indigenous mythosaurs and tamed the savage landscape, solidifying Mandalore's place as a powerbase and the center of Mandalorian space for millennia to come. Mandalore was covered in a rich natural landscape, largely unspoiled due to its sparse sentient population. The world was blanketed in lush veshok tree forests, dense jungle, sprawling hills and grassland well suited to farming, inhospitable deserts of white sand, and numerous rivers, lakes, and seas. It was also the only known world in the galaxy, with the exception of its moon Concordia, to possess the unique, nearly indestructible iron ore known as beskar, an element capable of withstanding blows from even a lightsaber.

An independent world ruled by the Mand'alor—the leader of all the Mandalorian clans, following the tradition established by Mandalore the First—the planet Mandalore found itself the ally and enemy of numerous galactic governments and groups throughout the years. Though largely abandoned by the early Mandalorian Crusaders, who continuously sought fresh conquests, Mandalore became the fallback point for many defeated Mandalorian Neo-Crusader warriors after the end of the Mandalorian Wars. With the rise of the pacifist New Mandalorian faction and their efforts to reform Mandalore's warrior ways, distancing themselves from the violent past after the disastrous events that lead to their formation, Mandalore was accepted by the Galactic Republic and was known as New Mandalore throughout the isolationist society that the New Mandalorians created. Originally neutral during the Clone Wars, after the New Mandalorian capital fell to the machinations of the Death Watch, the pacifist faction's influence dwindled. Later, when Mandalore the Resurrector came to power, the planet broke from the Republic and joined the Confederacy of Independent Systems against the oppressive Coruscant regime, only to come under the heel of the Galactic Empire following the end of the Clone Wars.

With the fall of the Empire, Mandalore began a steady period of recovery up until the Yuuzhan Vong's invasion of the galaxy, and the devastation the extragalactic invaders wrought upon Mandalore. The resilient world did not yield to the Vong's attempt at destruction, however, and by the Second Galactic Civil War, Mandalore was in the midst of a prosperous resurgence brought on by the discovery of fresh lodes of beskar iron that had been exposed during the Yuuzhan Vong attack. Mandalore suffered an attack by elements of the Imperial Remnant loyal to the Sith Lord Darth Caedus near the war's end, yet persevered, continuing to grow and developing ties with the Verpine and the Galactic Alliance. Under the leadership of Mand'alor Yaga Auchs, the Mandalorians withdrew from the Sith–Imperial War and remained on Mandalore throughout the Second Imperial Civil War, focused on bettering their world.

Text and facts from the “Mandalore/Legends” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.