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ranahan · 5 months ago

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The Mandalorian Proletarian Uprising

Disclaimer: this post is 100% headcanons. I support your fandom-ordained right to make whatever kinds of headcanons and interpretations you want, even if they annoy me. That being said… I have some of my own.

You know how there’s a fraction of fandom who hold that the Old Mandalorians were a warrior elite who were oppressing the masses, and the New Mandalorians were the people rising up against their overlords? At least I’ve been getting those posts on my dash.

And at first I was annoyed, because that’s mushing together two completely different periods of Mandalorian history. And I have a half-written essay in my drafts about the demographics of historical warrior societies and how Mandalorians aren’t all warriors, actually.

But then I changed my mind. Because you know what? The Taung do seem to have been exactly the kind of bastards who committed several genocides and enslaved entire planets to their war machinery, either as soldiers or for churning out weapons and ships in factories. And yes, they do seem to have held that only Mandalorians had real souls. And that one had to be a warrior in order to be a Mandalorian, and the plebs aren’t mentioned. Which absolutely does make it seem like they were an oppressed and possibly (probably) an enslaved class.

So instead of brushing all that under the rug and crying about how my favourite blorbos aren’t imperialist assholes acshually, let’s say all that bad stuff happened. Let’s engage with it. Because there could be an interesting story here—good stories are all about conflict, after all.

So when did the people rise up?

So the first question is to ask when. And this is the part where I’m going to swerve left from the narrative I presented at the beginning of this essay. Because those genocidal warrior elites that annoy some fans? They were Taung. Who went extinct near four millennia ago. So that rather pushes back the date of our uprising.

Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like the masses rose against their evil overlords during the heyday of the Taung—they seem to have been going strong right up to the Battle of Malachor V, after which they are supposed to have gone extinct.

But then I remembered this little aside in this other headcanon essay of mine (which is also a good background to my headcanons):

As an aside: do you think the Mandalorians had a civil war afterwards? Now that these armies non-Taung Mandalorian warriors settle on Mandalorian worlds, where the previous non-Taung populations were little more than slaves? Did they fight it out or did they open up the clans again, for anyone willing to join?

So what if they did fight it out? Imagine this:

The Mandalorian Uprising after the Battle of Malachor V

The aftermath of the Battle of Malachor V is said to have been 300 years of diaspora and disarray for the Mandalorians. Let’s imagine what might have happened during those years:

The Mandalorian Empire has swept through the galaxy, gobbling up worlds and turning them into cogs for its hungry war machinery. Citizens of conquered worlds have two choices: join the Mandalorian armies or become a slave in their factories churning out ships, weapons, and munitions. The first option is presented as a chance to become a Mandalorian warrior yourself, to become one of the elites and find fame and glory and gold on the battlefields. The truth is that most of the press-ganged soldiers are little more than canon fodder.

The Mandalorian plague has seemed like an unstoppable tide, but suddenly Malachor V happens. Entire Mandalorian fleets have been vaporised, along with the Mand’alor himself and his top brass. The tide turns. The Mandalorian succession is in the air; their leadership in disarray. The Republic starts swiftly taking back the recently conquered worlds. The Mandalorian armies splinter.

And now many soldiers leave to find their fortunes among the wider Galaxy. But more of those ragged armies limp back to the Mandalorian home worlds and what territories they can keep a hold of. And now they try to settle down to governing them, according to their ancient laws and practices.

Only during the Mandalorian wars, the Mandalorian armies have grown exponentially. And they were grown almost entirely from the non-Taung populations. At the start of the war, clear majority of Mandalore’s citizens were Taung. At the end of it, they’re a small minority.

Many newly-minted Mandalorian warriors do buy into the warrior elite’s way of life—it benefits them, after all. But there are still huge tensions between the wish to return to the ancient ways of the Taung and the need to change how their society works in order to adapt to their completely different demographics. And maybe that tension holds for a while, maybe even decades. But eventually it snaps and a civil war boils over, because the warrior elite—now a small minority—cannot suppress their conquered masses forever.

And maybe that’s another reason why the Taung went extinct. They can’t have been all present at Malachor V, so I’ve previously suggested that they were effectively absorbed into the population, until a multitude could claim Taung ancestry, but there were no pureblooded Taung left. But maybe that extinction was helped along by the guillotine à la French Revolution. Maybe their oppressed subjects finished the job.

And unfortunately—like is often the case—it’s not just a single civil war. Like is won’t to happen, many people try to climb to the top and become the new king to replace the old one. So for decades or centuries, the Mandalorians suffer intermittent power grabs and uprisings, until they eventually settle on a new form of life and government.

Effects on Mandalorian culture

So why didn’t the Mandalorian culture go extinct? A large part of that is because the oppressed people, after throwing down their oppressors, adopted their customs as a mark of their new station in society. For better or worse, they too have been living in Mandalorian society and those are the customs of the free elites they know. If their own customs have been sufficiently suppressed, it might be only culture they know. This is not unusual if you look at irl history either.

Another part is that large parts of the Mandalorian armies (the cannon fodder) joined in on the fight. And many of them had been living as Mandalorian soldiers for years or even decades. It is their way of life too now, for better or worse.

The Mandalorian culture survives, but it is completely transformed. Anyone can be a Mandalorian now, regardless of blood. The old gods are abandoned in favour of belief in shared oversoul. Old philosophies and values are reinterpreted, and conquest is abandoned in favour of survival.

One of my favourite fanons is that Mandalorians have an abiding hatred for slavery. But I never knew how to justify it. And this here could be where it started—this slave revolution on Mandalore. Henceforth no Mandalorian would ever be a slave again.

And this could also help explain one of the dichotomies of the Mandalorians: how are they such consummate soldiers, yet have such problems with being governed? And this could be where the ethos of accepting no overlords could have been born. Mandalorians know having a tighter chain of command would make them more effective—but they also know what it would cost. And they would never take that bargain. It’s forged into the very soul of their national ethos, just like liberté, égalité, fraternité is forged into the French: Vode An.

Vode An makes for such a good working class motto, doesn’t it?

tldr:

Yes to Mandalorian peasant uprising against their warrior-elite overlords. But make it happen after the Mandalorian Wars, not in the modern days. Although you could certainly still see some ripple effects, internal tensions and biases to this day; just look at USAmericans, slavery and racism.

As always, this is just one possible way things could have gone down (and of course there can be more than one civil war in a people’s history). But I rather like it because it could explain some of those seemingly incongruous parts of the Mandalorian culture.

#mandalorian headcanons #the taung were jerks actually: the essay #blanket permission #mandalorian history #mandalorian culture #meta: mandalorians #mandalorians

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cienie-isengardu · 16 days ago

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Cienie's take on Mandalorian Culture: Arasuum, the God of Death, not Sloth #2

The Funeral Rites of Taungs and later Mandalorian Warriors. <> Kad Ha’rangir and Mandalorian traditional weapons (part 1 — part 2 — part 3 – part 4 – part 5) <> Arasuum, the God of Death, not Sloth (part 1 — part 2 — part 3 — part 4)

The first part was an introduction to my theory that Arasuum is not the god representing laziness, but death. I based my reasoning on the Mandalorian language that distinguishes between stagnation and laziness, as one word is not derived from another but also pointed out a visible correlation between gods names and their roles, in which laziness does not fit what the sources provided so far for Mandalorian gods. Thus laziness as Arasuum’s attribute seems to me more like modern interpretation than the original meaning behind the myth.

Establishing those two important nuances, it is time to look closely at the source material and their nature. In advance, I must warn that this part is focused on examining the sources as much as the religion itself, as text critical analysis is a natural part of widely understood research.

Keeping in that mind, let’s talk about source material.

Ancient Mandalorians were presented as religious society that once worshiped many gods before the war became a divine itself - the claim dates at least to “History of the Mandalorians” from Star Wars Insider #80, 2005. From 2005 to current day, there are three main sources that influenced fandom’s idea of Arasuum and his role in mandalorian mythology:

Mandalorian: People and Culture [Star Wars Insider #86, 2006]

Industry. Honor. Savagery: Shaping the Mandalorian Soul [The Essential Guide to Warfare, 2012]

Death Watch Manifesto [The Bounty Hunter Code, From Files of Boba Fett, 2013]

The Star Wars Insider’s article was written by Karen Traviss, whose Republic Commando book series shaped and popularized the modern Mandalorians[1]. This piece was published on February 21, 2006, which chronologically predates Republic Commando: Triple Zero, released on February 28, 2006. A lot of presented here ideas were either already part of the author's previous work (Hard Contact book and Omega: Targets short story) or will be exploited more in further novels. Understandably then, Mandalorians: People and Culture is more of an introduction to the world of Mandalorians than an ultimate guide - though a great chunk of presented in article material built the ground for writing of other authors and fans alike, it is hard to miss how it contradicts itself on some vital matters.

The article starts with the opening quote from in-universe “Mandalorians: Identity and Language”, published by the Galactic Institute of Anthropology:

In five millennia, the Mandalorians fought with and against a thousand armies on a thousand worlds. They learned to speak as many languages and absorbed weapons technology and tactics from every war. And yet, despite the overwhelming influence of alien cultures, and the absence of a true home world and even species, their own language not only survived but changed little; their way of life and their philosophy remained untouched; and their ideals and sense of family, of identity of nation, were only strengthened. Armor is not what makes a Mandalorian. Armor is simply a manifestation of an impenetrable, unassailable heart.

This passage gives us a sense of what the Mandalorians are - or rather how they are seen by the unnamed author(s). But this is a very romanticized if not outright idealized description, based more on wishful thinking than a “facts” (lore) itself.

For one, Mandalorians’ way of life did not remain untouched, as they changed from independent military force (Mandalorian Crusaders and Neo-Crusaders) into people mainly engaged in mercenary work due to lost Mandalorian Wars (3976-3960 BBY) and if we include much later New Canon, they changed from warriors to pacifist (738 BBY). Majority of Mandalorians’ inner conflicts were in fact about what Mandalorians should be, because there was no common, universal identity all people could cling to anymore. And yes, the majority of (Legends) Mandalorians saw themselves as warriors, but that was not enough to avoid schisms and civil wars.

To name the major examples, the first real friction happened just before and during the Mandalorian Wars, between traditional Crusaders and the New-Crusaders whose philosophy and purpose deviated from the universally accepted norms. Among those “oddities” was establishing color-themed armors and using them as official ranks or mass-forcing people into the Mandalorian army - something that more traditional Mandalorians like Mandalore the Ultimate or Gummig did complain about through the comics series of KotOR and spin-off sources. The Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide (2008) openly states that

The traditional Crusaders do not proselytize; rather, they attract others to their cause through the examples they set. Veterans see the later Neo-Crusaders movement, which actively converts outsiders in its hurry to conquer the galaxy, as a perversion.

After the war, a great number of Mandalorians became mercenaries and Canderous Ordo needed decades to rebuild the sense of warrior honor and reunite scattered Mandalorians under his banner. For his effort, he earned the name Mandalore the Preserver. And yet the discord between warriors following the old traditions and those turning into mercenaries or outright bandits preying on the weaker grew stronger. This cultural shift has never been fully merged back and so three to four centuries later, we have another ideological conflict between Mandalorians, this time those following Mandalore the Avenger (Shae Vizsla) and Heta Kol, the Field Marshal of Hidden Chain. The clash again came down to the mercenaries vs warriors/crusaders mindset that we could sum up with Heta Kol’s quote:

In Shae Vizla, I see only hypocrisy. She has driven out those who oppose her view, yet she has remade the Mandalorians into servants of anyone who pays her enough credits--no matter what they believe. Where is the honor in that?" [The Old Republic game]

Similar conflict happened decades before Clone Wars, between True Mandalorians under Jaster Mereel and later Jango Fett’s leadership and Death Watch led by Tor Vizsla. Depending on the sources, Jaster Mereel either saw Mandalorians just as highly paid soldiers (as stated in Jango Fett: Open Seasons) or brought reforms to bring Mandalorians back to the more honorable ways (as presented in majority of tie-in sources), while Tor Vizsla wished to bring back Mandalorians to their conquering galaxy roots[2].

If we include New Canon, the mandalorian conflict takes even more drastic shape, this time between exiled warriors and those who renounced their war culture for pacifism.

Which proves that in the main historic eras presented in lore, Mandalorians may share the same skills, be part of the same war culture, yet there is no “only right one” identity or philosophy that unites all people and during the inner conflicts, a great chunk of Mandalorians will consider their ideological opponents as “dar’manda”[3], or traitors regardless if they follow cultural norms or not. The Mandalorian style of life has changed and changed in a way that left their culture fractured and torn between seeking independence and rebuilding the Mandalorian Empire or accepting the life of mercenaries or even rejecting both ideologies for non violent, peaceful life.

A similar thing may be said about language, because the way people speak naturally evolves with passing time and is a reflection of their culture and historical period they lived in. For Mandalorian language to remain the same for such a large period of time - five millenia, as quote states - its speakers would need either to die out or at least live in isolation, cut off from the rest of the galaxy. Which in both cases we know is not true.

We need to remember that the post-Mandalorian Wars era is a time in which the original Mandalorians (Taungs) died out, replaced by human and non-human people adopted into culture before and during war. As then-current Mandalore the Ultimate noted himself, Mandalorians faced problems they never before had, including the new wave of recruits and not enough time to teach them their culture:

“So many new recruits. Different species, different armors, different languages - and not enough time to learn our ways”. [Knight of the Old Republic, #20]

Which is a valid reason to assume that original mando’a at some point was influenced by new recruits’ native languages, especially Basic. Because if there was no time or opportunity to teach a mass of people (often forced into the Mandalorian army against their will), then naturally all the gaps in linguistic knowledge will be filled by things “newcomers” actually knew and understood.

Going further, The Mandalorians: People and Culture provides information that:

Mando’a is predominantly a spoken language, and contractions and pronunciation variations occur much as they do among Basic speakers

and that

The infinitive ends in -ir, -ar, -ur, -or, or -er. Removing the “r” usually produces the stem, e.g.: jurir - to bear or carry. Sometimes an apostrophe separates the terminal vowel, to indicate the slight glottal stop of some Mandalorian accents. This apostrophe, known as a beten, or sigh -- as in Mando’s -- can also indicate breathing, pronunciation, or dropped letters. So ni juri kad (I carry a saber) or even ni jur’kad is a correct as ni juri kad in some communities.

Spelling and punctuation have optional forms so it’s hard to get it wrong. What other species might take for sloppy grammar, Mandalorians embrace as the right of the individual Mando’ad (son or daughter of Mandalore) to add their own touches to their language, much as they customize their armor.

If we agree that mando’a words can be pronounced however each Mandalorian feels like, then it is natural the language may vary from one speaker to another, and with passing time creating specific dialects for individual clans or even the whole region. For example, Concord Dawn is part of the Mandalorian Sector. The article noted

[Mandalorians] are still predominantly human, and a large percentage of the population shows genetic markers typical of the peoples of Concord Dawn and nearby planets. Although there is no true Mandalorian ethnic type, the prevalence of common gene clusters indicates that specific populations were either absorbed by the Mandalorians or joined them.

and yet, Concord Dawn, despite such historical and cultural strong ties to Mandalorians, has its own dialect[4] that is apparently still close enough to mando’a to be understand by Mandalorians however it has its own distinct words that make communication difficult.

“It wasn't Mando'a, but it was close enough for any Mandalorian to understand”. (Republic Commando: Order 66)

Commander Bacara was originally trained by one of the few non-Mandalorian instructors, an ex-Journeyman Protector named Cort Davin from the Concord Dawn system. [...] Bacara found it difficult to converse in Mandalorian with his brethren as he learned the peculiar dialect of Concord Dawn, which used words like “tat” instead of “vod” for “brother”. (Guide to the Grand Army of the Republic, published in Star Wars Insider: 84)

The moon of Mandalore, Concordia, apparently also has its own dialect[5], as mentioned by The Clone Wars in The Mandalore Plot episode:

Satine Kryze: He was speaking in the dialect they use on Concordia, our moon.

A dialect that the Duchess of Mandalore recognized easily and was capable of understanding and speaking it(?).

Additionally, the Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia’s entry for mando’a states:

At its core, Mando’a was a spoken language, because many different groups spoke it with enough subtle variation that writing it down became problematic [...].

As much as I agree it is impressive for Mandalorians to cultivate their culture for millenia despite many historical setbacks (including devastating military defeats) that influenced their political-economic standing in the galaxy, saying that language did not change for such a long period of time is both wrong and surprising for an in-universe academic claim officially published by the Galactic Institute of Anthropology.

I assume the author’s intent was to praise Mandalorian’s unshakable sense of identity. However, looking at it from the perspective of time and expended lore, this statement puts into question not Mandalorian history but the Republic (galactic)’s knowledge about the Mandalorians. It does not help that we have no time frame in which the in-universe academic text was written, as in how out-dated could be the source.

The main part of the Mandalorians: People and Culture is not free of inconsistency and some parts contradict each other within the same article. This is the most seen with gender norms, a topic to which we will soon come back in regard to Mandalorian religion.

At the start, the article points out unknown origin of Mandalorians

[...] they’re probably not even the original Mandalorian race. Anthropologists disagree about their roots; did they begin as humans or, as a few academics still claim, a gray-skinned non-human species? Whichever theory you find most convincing, they became a species of predominantly human nomadic warriors

while the “as a few academics still claim” statement sounds dismissive toward original Mandalorians (Taung species) and the connection between them and now predominantly human Mandalorians[6]. A connection that is confirmed in lore since at least 1995. This uncertainty of historical background acknowledged by the author puts into question further information about their religion.

Let’s take a look at the paragraph of Mandalorian religion:

Mandalorians were once intensely religious but disillusionment with the old fanaticism and worship of war itself gave way to a far less supernatural belief system among modern Mandalorians. They now regard creation tales, such as Akaanati’kar’oya (The War of Life and Death) as parables to illustrate a deeper philosophical meaning rather than literal supernaturalism. The stars were mythologized as fallen kings of Mandalore, and there are tales of the mythosaurs, but the pragmatic and skeptical Mandalorians look for allegory in these stories. The manda - best described as a combination of the collective state of being, the essence of being Mandalorian, and an oversoul - is not viewed as a literal heaven. Traditionally, the Mando afterlife is seen as a plane of spiritual energy in constant conflict between stagnation, and the opportunity for change brought about by destruction - a parallel with modern theories of cosmology. In Mandalorian myth, this conflict is symbolized by the eternal war between the sloth-god Arasuum - the personification of idle consumption and stagnation - and the vigorous destroyer god Kad Ha’rangir, who forces change and growth on the universe. Every Mando warrior who dies is said to add to the army of the afterlife, defending wives and children living in its permanent, peaceful homestead - the only place Mandalorians believe they can ever reach a non-transitory state of existence.”

The change from deeply religious society to less concerned with gods and religion feels like a natural order of things, especially when we remember that the original Mandalorians died out around four thousands years ago and their legacy was influenced by many factors since then. However, the aforementioned uncertainty of historical background for Mandalorian culture forces us to ask, to whom and which era refer to the term of traditional belief? By “traditionally” does the author here mean the already predominantly human Mandalorian culture or consider it as something passed down by “unknown” predecessors? Should we see the faith in Arassum and Kad Ha’rangir as the original religion practiced by Taung!Mandalorians or something that was created by an influx of human and other alien species that dominated the culture at some point? And it is not just a question related to Arasuum and Kad Ha’rangir, who to this day are the most prominent gods we know about but also to the concept of afterlife itself.

For one, Arasuum and Kad Ha’rangir are said to be part of the same myth, the Akaanati’kar’oya that means The War of Life and Death. Since Kad Ha’rangir is connected to growth, change and vigor it feels natural to associate him with Life, as those attributes represent the nature of living. If we agree that this god represents Life, then it is logical to assume Arasuum’s connection should be to Death, the opposed force. Arasuum name literally means stagnation and from it comes the word arasuumir - to remain the same, so this is one attribute we have no reason to question about him. However, the author calls Arasuum also the personification of idle consumption, and at first look this may sound weird, as idle or not, consumption itself is part of living. That way, both gods are tied to an aspect of Life, while the myth supposedly presents them as opposites forces, the Life and Death.

But, as the paragraph explains, Mandalorians believed that afterlife mirrors their mortal life - wives and children are living in its permanent, peaceful homestead, defended by warriors. Thus we could theorize that Arasuum’s “idle consumption” may refer to those who after death became part of “homestead” and choose(?) peace over serving in the afterlife army.

At the same time, the text presents us two separate ideas of the afterlife. One, mentioned above, mirrors mortal life. The other is a concept called MANDA, “best described as a combination of the collective state of being, the essence of being Mandalorian, and an oversoul - is not viewed as a literal heaven.” As the article stated, at some point Mandalorian people changed from a deeply religious society to one disillusioned with supernatural beliefs and that modern Mandalorians regard mythology as “parables to illustrate a deeper philosophical meaning rather than literal supernaturalism.” A change that has reflection in their funeral rites[7]. Thus we can theorize that afterlife mirroring mortal life is older than the manda itself that may be even unknown to original Mandalorians (Taungs). What brings us back to the vital questions: what era and which historical Mandalorian people fall under the “traditional” term?

This is indeed an important question, because of Mandalorians: People and Culture’s inconsistency, especially with the gender norms. For example, in paragraph MANDALORIAN SOCIETY, article claims

There is no gender in the Mandalorian language. This mirrors the equal status of men and women and the general flexibility of societal roles, despite what appears to many to be a traditional division of tasks along gender lines.

yet

Men are expected to be warriors and to raise and train their sons to be the same. Women maintain the home wherever the nomads happen to travel, and raise daughters. But women also are expected to have the combat skills of a man in order to defend the homestead when men are away. Women also fight alongside men on battlefront. If they have no dependent children to care for, they're expected to share the responsibilities of defense and warfare."

If the first child is a son, parents may wait eight years before having another child so that the first is old enough to accompany his father and be trained as a soldier for five years until he reaches adulthood at 13. Then his father is free to train a younger son. At 13, both girls and boys undergo a rite of passage in military and survival skills that makes them legally adults. If the firstborn is a girl, the couple may try for a son soon afterwards. A daughter will usually stay with her mother until she marries. But if a couple has only daughters, the girls will be trained as warriors by their father exactly as boys would be. Boys learn their earliest lessons from their mothers before the age of eight, so her fighting skills are critical; a couple pledges to raise warriors, and this is a joint commitment

which is far from gender equality (something mentioned by author also in her book series), as girls are treated as second-rated members of family compared to male descendants, while there is much more demanded from women than from men - to take care of children and train them nevertheless of their gender (while men should focus on sons first and foremost and may not be involved in their daughters’ training IF they already have a male descendant), maintain and protect home, be skilled a fighter with expertise in military and survival skills - even if it is boys that should be educated by both mother and father in combat, while girls may be trained just by mother and usually stay with her until marriage. A mother that is supposed to maintain the home (staying behind) while father takes sons with himself.

This statement[8] reflects traditional afterlife presented in the same article but makes little sense from the perspective of lore. Because we do in fact have a chance to see Mandalorian family dynamic during Mandalorian Wars, an era in which Taungs were still around. Knights of the Old Republic: War (2012) introduced us to Ko Sornell, a female Devaronian, who raided basilisk droid with her young son into battle

and who in general was deeply involved with ongoing military operations as warrior and comm specialist and simultaneously raising her children on frontlines

while there is no information about her husband's military position; we do see them together during mission - on one frame - standing arm to arm and that is all. As the couple together raised their children on frontlines, and Ko Sornell joined another mission instead of staying with her family in the detachment on Phaedacomm (thus being far away from the makeshift house for at least a few days)

until the comics again presents her with family (the last 5th issue),

it's logical to assume husband was the one that took care of their younger children[9] in the absence of their mother. Alternatively, children were under another clan member’s care when both parents were involved with a special mission on which they could not bring their kids.

What is even more interesting, Zayne Carrick - an outsider - upon meeting the Devaronian family pointed out that in the Devaronian culture, women stay at home with children while only males wander through galaxy.

and was assured by the Mandalorian family they indeed are fine with being nomads and raising children on the frontline.

This supports the statement of Mandalorians: People and Culture that “a couple pledges to raise warriors, and this is a joint commitment” but it undermines the division of adult responsibilities and the different treatment of children based on gender alone. Because a mother is not by default relegated to defending a homestead even though there are children under her care.

This is further backed up by Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide’s description of Mandalorian Crusaders

Mandalorians place great emphasis on the family, prizing chastity before marriage and fidelity thereafter. Children are trained from a young age, and all members of the family share an equal role in its preservation against enemies

and The Old Republic Encyclopedia (2012):

CLAN SOCIETY Mandalorian society operates with a minimal and largely informal power structure. Every Mandalorian is a member of a clan, either by birth or recruitment. Although different clans often disagree and even fight one another, they treat their own members like family, regardless of whether they’re related by blood ties or oath. Other than the clan chieftain, members have no official ranks or positions unless organized into a fighting unit where chain of command has a valuable place. Each man or woman is expected to contribute however they can, with those who achieve great things gaining increased respect and new responsibilities. Although clans may have ties or rivalries with other clans, there is no formal hierarchy. All chieftains report directly to the Mandalore The families of Mandalorians are close-knit and remarkably affectionate, despite the culture’s propensity for violence. Marriage is considered a lifelong commitment, and both biological and adopted children are raised with equal love. Sons and daughters are raised as warriors, as gender has little bearing in Mandalorian culture, so much their language hardly distinguishes between male and female.

If the Mandalorians in the twilight of Taung hegemony and relatively shortly after their extinction are presented as those who treat their sons and daughters as equally valued members of the community, then we should ask what caused such discord between this image and the one presented in Mandalorians: People and Culture. If we agree that the term of traditional Mandalorians from mentioned article is not about people from Sith Wars - Mandalorians Wars era and following conflicts but about those between the ancient and modern times, then once again we must determine how much the values of the original Mandalorians have been distorted through the millennia and how trustworthy is our narrator.

As the sources of widely understood lore were examined, let’s look again at the “traditional” afterlife and Mandalorian gods involved with the creation myth. As the article proclaims, “every Mando warrior who dies is said to add to the army of the afterlife”, thus we should assume it includes warriors of all genders. But then the army’s purpose is “defending wives and children living in its permanent, peaceful homestead” yet there is no information against whom the presumably non-combatant inhabitants must be defended. If said army takes part in the eternal conflict between Death and Life, an army of dead wouldn’t then serve Arasuum rather than Kad Ha’rangir, whose connection is to life and change?

There is no explanation why only wives and children are excluded, since children were meant to learn the art of war from their parents, thus logically should join their family in the ongoing battle from age of 8. We should also ask what about professions like blacksmiths or farmers who in life provided vital support for the army by making armors and weapons or producing food. Are they too enrolled into the army of the afterlife if they weren’t nomadic warriors or professional soldiers or allowed to stay in a peaceful homestead? What about those who never could become warriors due to physical or mental illness? Or the same-sex couples with their children? Article described afterlife as the “plane of spiritual energy”, but there is a gender division (women staying in safe homestead), age division (adults and children) and profession division (warriors and non-combatants/mothers/wives), wouldn’t that suggest that Mandalorians at some point believed that afterlife will to some degree mirror their mortal life? If the family bonds stay the same (marriage even in the death and children to take care of), it is not so difficult to imagine the army’s need for armor, weapons, maybe even food and clothes to continue the eternal battle.

Going further with that thought, Arasuum is the one that “remains the same”, while article adds “sloth-god, the personification of idle consumption” and the homestead located in afterlife is described as “permanent” and “peaceful” while the role of Kad Ha’rangir - the Destructor - is definitely much more aggressive in nature. I believe this could reflect the belief that life is a constant battle and struggle that every person at some point will lose, while death is the non-transitory state of existence that offers both a place of peace and an eternal army to join, thus fulfilling the religious purpose Mandalorians dedicated their life to.

Thus Kad Ha’rangir and Arasuum ties to each other may be more complex than we are led to believe because the sense of original mythology either got lost or has changed with Mandalorians over the millenia. Which is why I believe that Arasuum as sloth-god may be an effect of misinterpretation of modern Mandalorians who are disconnected from the original faith of Mandalorian!Taungs as they rejected religious fanaticism and worship of their predecessors.

It won't be an exaggeration to say that the Mandalorians: People and Culture is an important source that both helped popularize modern Mandalorians in star wars fandom during Prequels era and served as an useful introduction to their culture. However, from the perspective of widely understood lore and passing time, this article does not reflect the complexity of Mandalorian culture nor its religion. Arasuum and his opponent, Kad Ha’rangir, is only briefly introduced here but this introduction will influence other authors' take on mandalorian religion.

And those additional tie-in material will be the subject of the next part.

SIDENOTES:

[1] Karen Traviss popularized Mandalorians, however this faction was already expanded by tie-in materials in the past beyond Boba Fett’s character. Other Mandalorian human people for the first time were introduced in Star Wars 68: The Search Begins (1982), while the ancient Mandalorians (Taungs) came to life in The Sith War comics (1995), as part of Tales of the Jedi series. The game Knights of the Old Republic (2003) exploited Mandalorian Wars, and the post-war era, when Taungs died out and their legacy was passed on to the humans. Jaster Mereel’s True Mandalorians and Tor Vizsla’s Death Watch were introduced into lore in 2002, as a way to expand Jango Fett’s backstory for Attack of the Clones film, while the Death Watch name alone has been part of lore since 1989(!). Finally, the Republic Commando book series shaped and popularized the modern Mandalorians (2005-2009), before The Clone Wars animated series (2008-2020) explored the conflict between Death Watch and New Mandalorian, followed by animated TV series Rebels (2014-2018) and Disney made a whole mandalorian-focused TV series (2019-present day).

[2] It is worth keeping in mind that all information about Jaster and Tor’s ideology comes from Count Dooku’s narration. Death Watch has never stated their goals in the comics alone, while Dooku’s opinions were based on information delivered by Jaster & Jango’s allies (including Silas, True Mandalorian tortured by the Sith Lord for information about Jaster’s death). So though Jango Fett: Open Seasons with no doubt is not an objective in its narratives, it gives some credibility to Dooku’s claim about Jaster and True Mandalorians as he sought out Fett's allies in his research about Jango’s past.

[3] dar’manda means a state of not being Mandalorian - a person that is not an outsider, but one who has lost or given up on their heritage, mandalorian identity and the soul.

[4] The dialect was first presented in The Cestus Deception book (2004) as a Mandalorian language but Guide to the Grand Army of the Republic by Karen Traviss and Ryan Kaufman published in Star Wars Insider #84 (september 2005) retconned it as a separate dialect. The “mistake” made in the book is however easy to explain - Sheeka Tull knew Jango Fett personally, after he freed himself from slavery but between he went full into the bounty hunting profession. As she herself was not a Mandalorian and she and Jango met in the Meridian sector, she could mistake Jango’s native language for the mando’a. Fett, as a person born and raised on Concord Dawn could even mix his native language with mando’a. Understandably, Sheeka couldn’t see the difference if she had no other ties to mandalorian culture than one year of dating (post-Galidraan) Jango Fett.

[5] The Behind the Scenes section of wookiepedia’s page for Concordia dialect states that:

At least one Concordian phrase from "The Mandalore Plot"—specifically the line exclaimed by the Death Watch bomber before leaping to his death, and featured as this article's main quote—appears to have been drawn from a 2007 post on the Empire at War forum, in which a user had compiled a list of fanon words and translations for the fledgling Mandalorian language. The aforementioned quote, "Calhava bru'chun dralshye'ran," was translated in the post as "Compassionate leaders will burn." Although the translation would seem contextually appropriate to the episode's storyline, to date there has been no official confirmation that this is the canonically accepted translation.

[6] The part of article focused on language acknowledged the similarity between mando'a and the language of the Taung "from whom the original inhabitations of Mandalore were thought to be descended", yet still does call mando'a origins as unclear.

[7] There is a visible difference between ancient and modern Mandalorians in regard to their dead. Ancient Mandalorians took time to perform proper funeral rites for warriors killed in fight and even have special Death Ceremony for the most brave while modern people have less strict approach. Partially due to the nature of mercenary work (when sometimes the body of fallen comrade could not be brought back to home) and partially due to believing in Manda, in which soul is more important than the body.

[8] The presented idea of Mandalorian fathers training sons may in fact be based on Attack of the Clones Visual Guide (2002) and not be Karen Taviss' own invention. I think the presented informations in her article could be an attempt to keep lore intact. Below the AotC Visual Guide's description for comparison:

Like Father, Like Son In Mandalorian tradition, fathers were responsible for training their sons in combat skills. At age 13, boys had to face the trials of manhood. Although these rites could be fatal, actual deaths were extremely rare because candidates were so well prepared. The close father-son bond, built on respect, trust, and discipline, produced highly capable and confident individuals.

[9] The presented frame with Ko Sornell's family forgot include the small baby presented in issue #2 (the frames as reference were included in the analysis). Considering the mentioned baby and how the daughter is much smaller than the son at least in the one frame we see the kids close-up,

I think it is safe to assume there were two younger children most likely left under father's care while Ko Sornell was raiding the basilisk droid with her son (and three kids to take care of when Ko was far away for at least few days).

#star wars #cienie's take on mandalorian culture #arasuum #kad ha'rangir #mandalorian culture #mandalorian religion #I’m fully aware that Mandalorians: People and Culture (2006) predates a great number of tie-in material. that expanded our knowledge about #but it was important to establish how outdated the article is from the perspective of time.#i tend to see M:PaC as a good start into basic idea of culture but told from the perspective of modern mandalorians #while the knowledge about ancient times may be misinterpreted by “modern narrator”#also trust me to write a long post and add another wall of sidenotes lol #i know i'm pretty critical to KT's take on gender norms and some aspect of mando culture but the focus on father-son bonds #may be in fact influenced by earlier estabilished informations #but then taungs are pretty much ignored by the author when the religion definitely was affected by taungs

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