Mandalorian

The most well know symbol of the Mandalorians, And no one knows where it comes from. a mythosaur skull.

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Mandalorians are a culture (or group of cultures) in the Star Wars universe centered around the planet Mandalore. The Mandalorians have incorporated numerous species into their ranks and there is a lot of variation among them, but they are famed for being a (mostly) warlike culture and for their highly distinctive armor, which is made of one of the few materials in the known universe that can resist lightsabers, and usually has a big assortment of different gadgets.

History

Talking about the history of Mandalorians is tricky because in addition to the Legends/Canon split, which is already contentious, you have the issue that a lot of the Legends lore about Mandalorians was invented by Karen Traviss, who is kind of the Matthew Ward of Star Wars (and Halo) novels - she absolutely loves the Mandalorians, since they push her "hard(ish) sci-fi badass military faction, yay!" love button, but she also loathes the Jedi and by extension all Force users, which often results in her turning the Mandalorians into the Star Wars equivalent of the Ultramarines.

The basic idea, boiling it down short, is that the Mandalorians are a warrior culture who arose in the far-flung past of the known galaxy. Whilst originally they were a distinct species known as the Taung, they were also an "assimilationist" type of nomadic empire-builder, striving to actively integrate conquered races into their culture by basically wiping out their old beliefs and making them follow the Mandalorian way. It technically paid off, because even though the Mandalorian species is long-extinct, the Mandalorian culture has remained in existence for thousands of years. Unfortunately that history was tossed out once Disney drew a line between EU and Canon lore. In Disney Canon, the Mandalorians remain a warrior culture but are now a mostly-human culture (with open customs of adopting other species into their ranks) tied to the planet of Mandalore (before the Imperials scattered them in a purge against a rebellious uprising and bombarded their planet to oblivion). Due to their warlike natures and ambitions of conquest, they have frequently fought against the Jedi, and in fact they usually allied themselves with the Sith in just about every one of the major Jedi/Sith wars - this is why they invented beskar, a mineral that can actually negate lightsaber energies, and made armor out of it.

Shortly before the time of the Clone Wars, there was an active civil war amongst the Mandalorians over whether or not their traditions of conquest and warmongering were worth keeping, considering it had consistently resulted in them getting the shit kicked out of them by the rest of the galaxy. This resulted in the pacifists temporarily taking over and booting the traditionalists off the homeworld, causing them to largely scatter across the galaxy as mercs and bounty hunters. Then the Clone Wars happened and a traditionalist terrorist group, the Death Watch, discredited the pacifists, assassinated their leader, and took over the planet again... which just led to more or less another civil war, resulting in Mandalore staying out of everybody's way during Palpatine's reign over the newly fledged Galactic Empire, save for the aforementioned legions of Mandalorian mercs and bounty hunters still roaming the galaxy and continuing fighting for money and kicks as if nothing had changed.

Publication History

What needs to be understood is that the Mandalorians are a lorepoint from old (pre-Thrawn Trilogy and therefore debatably canonical) Legends elaborating upon an aspect of the OT (Boba Fett) that spun off to be one of the more expansive, complicated and liked additions to the Lore. The Mandalorians became the go-to warrior culture of the franchise, and Traviss' revamping of them is actually a relatively late addition. Whenever someone needs a warrior culture not (directly) associated with the Force, they usually tap the Mandalorians for it.

Another complicated issue is the relationships of the Fetts to their race: Boba Fett is the ur-Mandalorian, and many concepts are at least somewhat based on his character desing or earlier Legends extrapolations of it.

This results in there being multiple primary sources of Mandalorian lore:

• Old Legends: Primarily The Empire Strikes Back novellization and Marvel's early comic book run. Established Mandalorians as the Boba Fett lookalikes (and therefore Fett as a Mandalorian), and their defeat by Jedi during the Clone Wars, the planet Mandalore, and some of the elements of its culture. Dark Empire established the idea of Mandalorian Iron being impervious to lightsabers, altough the idea didn't really take hold until much later.
• The Old Republic-subfranchise: shows Mandalorian pre-history as nomadic conquerors, the local Proud Warrior Race, and unwitting servants of the Dark Side. This is where some of the least skubby lore originates.
• Karen Traviss: Fleshed out the Mandalorians a lot, including language and several cultural concepts. On one hand a lot of those additions are contentious, on the other hand when divorced from her particular tastes many of the additions are worthy (counter-Jedi doctrines make sense in the Republic, particularly with pre-established history of the Mandalorians). Made Mandalorians into a Force in-sensitive third party in post-RotJ lore, and Boba and Jango into central figures in pre-PT and post-RotJ eras.
• George Lucas, Dave Filoni & John Favreau: George Lucas has this thing where he kinda created and used to own Star Wars, and has pretty strong (if changing) views about it that frequently contradict Legends lore. Filoni not only directly tapped that, he also had Lucas' blessing to ignore and/or adapt Legends. As a result TCW's depiction of the mandalorians is about as irreconcilable with Legends as everything else in the show. This pissed off a lot of the fans of Traviss' version. Lucas' original concept of Boba Fett was an Imperial supercommando turned Bounty Hunter, and he kept that with Jango Fett. As a result Filoni changed Jango and Boba Fett to mere bounty hunters. Under Favreau Jango was later confirmed as a foundling, however most of Boba's role in Legends was transplanted into Din Djarin. Under Disney Filoni & Favreau began to implement aspects of Legends with new additions making Mandalorians a warrior culture once more.

Mandos of note

• Jango Fett - Mandalorian bounty hunter who served as the genetic template for the Clone Troopers used by the Galactic Republic.
• Boba Fett - A clone of Jango that wasn't hyper-aged to serve as a disposable soldier, but instead given to Jango as a surrogate son as payment for his part in the Clone Troopers. Outlived his father and became a bounty hunter himself.
• Duchess Satine Kryze - Leader of Mandalore during the time of the Clone Wars, a representative of the pacifist movement that temporarily took control of the Mandalorians.
• Bo Katan Kryze - sister of the former, was a Death Watch henchwoman and tried to keep Mandalore afloat after her sister's death. Has failed three times already, making her the Mandalorian equivalent of the Armless Failure. Currently on her fourth attempt.
• Pre Vizsla - Leader of Death Watch, a Mandalorian terrorist group focused on forcibly overthrowing the pacifist government of their people.
• Din Djarin - The Eponymous Mandalorian of the tv-series. Boba Fett clone made during the last years of the Disney Trilogy when Disney's track record of bringing back old favorites was at its worst.

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