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cienie-isengardu · 10 months

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Cienie’s take on Mandalorian Culture: Kad Ha’rangir and mandalorian traditional weapons, p.3

part 1 --- part 2

In contrast to previous sources that with no doubt tried synthesizing Legends with The Clone Wars lore, the Collapse of the Republic Roleplaying Sourcebook (2019) seems to be written first and foremost with New Canon in mind, at least in regard to Mandalorian culture. While understandably a main focus was put on the conflict between New Mandalorians (pacifists) and Death Watch (traditionalists) just before and during Clone Wars, the history of Mandalorians was presented there in a general, not really detailed way - the Mandalorians were warriors for generations and that is basically the summary.

The two vital data about Mandalorian weapons are:

the importance of Darksaber (a sword not exactly needed to lead Mandalorians, but an important heirloom of Vizsla clan and cultural item nonetheless)

the traditional swords made out of Mandalorian iron are known as beskads and their shape was based on ancient Taung design.

The second point is especially interesting because the visible lack of connection to “ancient time” lore makes the mention of Taung a surprising addition. As I do not have any insight into legal restrictions or demands put on authors, I can only speculate if the authors of this Rulebook couldn’t refer openly to Legends sources which is why this small callback is sneaked into the text without a proper context? Whatever the truth is, Bounty Hunter Code already had similar information, and the same as with the older source, I do not think Collapse of the Republic contradicts what original The Sith War comics presented.

Logically thinking, the metallurgist knowledge needed to be passed down from Taungs to humans and other assimilated Aliens before the original Mandalorians died out. The existence of Mandalorian traditional sword design however is not exactly the same as direct proof the said swords had any real religious importance in their culture. Even more, the lack of proper context who Taungs actually were for (human) Mandalorians raises a question, did Sourcebook mean ancient Taung as the pre-Mandalorian (Roon) culture or indication for original Mandalorian era? Because there is possibility that modern warriors based their beskads on archaeological findings from burial sites on Roon or alternatively, Taung!Mandalorians forged swords in the manner their own forefathers did before Mandalore was colonized. And so we come back to burial sites mentioned in Author’s Cut and a religious/cultural aspect of swords that may or may not survive to the Sith and Mandalorians Wars era. Similarly, we can’t cross out the possibility that Taung metallurgist created swords either for export[5], as gifts and/or sacred items or as equipment for their (non-Taung) vassals before those were acknowledged as equal to warriors and maybe even for Neo-Crusaders who in great numbers came from Republic (thus may be more familiar with sword fighting than more typical Mandalorian axes).

The same as Death Watch Manifesto, "Collapse of the Republic" puts a great importance on the modern conflict over mandalorian “national” identity; however in contrast to the earlier source, the provided knowledge is pretty much separated from warriors’ ancient (alien) origin and it does not even clarify which Taung design - of Roon or Mandalorian culture - it refers and this detail makes a great difference.

Another source worth to examine is one of Mandalorian songs - “Vode An” (meaning: Brothers All), the best known from Republic Commando Game Soundtrack. Years ago, Lucasart.com published the ancient Mandalorian text and English translation of chants used in the game - for those interested, an archived version is still available.

Part of this song, although not specified by name, was also included in Republic Commando: Hard Contact as a little in-universe snippet added to chapter 7:

Bal kote, darasuum kote, Jorso ‘ran kando a tome. Sa kyr 'am Nau tracyn kad, Vode an. (And glory, eternal glory, We shall bear its weight together. Forged like the saber in the fires of death, Brothers all.) ” — Traditional Mandalorian war chant

Republic Commando: Triple Zero’s glossary calls the same song as “ancient Mandalorian war chant”.

Both Republic Commando game’s tie-in sources and book series note the old origin of the song and its traditional aspect. On the first glance, it is easy to assume this war chant could be created by Taung!Mandalorians and thus be a proof of swords' importance or presence in the pre-human culture era, especially if used as poetic metaphor. However we need to take two things into account:

First, as I mentioned before, with a culture that has existed for over 7,000 years the term “traditional” may easily refer to various stages of Mandalorian history. If we look closely at the all presented songs, Vode An share a lot similarities - if not the same lines - with other pieces, like:

Bal kote, darasuum kote (And Glory, Eternal Glory) with the first line of “Kote Darasuum” (the difference is addition of “and” in Vode An)

Motir ca’tra nau tracinya // Gra’tua cuun hett su dralshy’a // Aruetyc runi solus cet o’r. (Those who stand before us light the night sky in flame // Our vengeance burns brighter still // Every last traitorous soul shall knee) share the same lyrics with

🔶"Rage of the Shadow Warriors" (later officially named Dha Werda Verda):

Duum motir ca’tra nau tracinya // Gra’tua cuun hett su dralshy’a (Let all those who stand before us light the night sky in flame // Our vengeance burns brighter still.)

🔶 "Gra’tua Cuun":

Motir ca’tra nau tracinya // Gra’tua cuun hett su dralshy’a // Aruetyc runi solus cet o’r prudii an. (Those who stand before us light the night sky in flame // Our vengeance burns brighter still // Every last traitorous soul shall kneel in our shadow.)

From the perspective of making music for a Republic Commando Game - and to my understanding, the lyrics were first created by Jesse Harlin and later official mandalorian language came to life thanks to Karen Traviss and her book series - it makes sense that all songs have the same lyric “core”. However, from the perspective of in-universe culture, the similarity either implies a very limited creativity (artistic needs) of Mandalorians or those songs drew inspiration from the same source but themselves may not be created in the same era. Alternatively, one of them is the original version that inspired the later variants who naturally differ from each other due to isolation and cultural (clan) differences, as Mandalorians lived in various enclaves across the galaxy and clans did not always reside in close proximity to each other. Another possibility is that some of the presented chants were adopted by Mandalorian groups as their specific symbols, similarly as happened with clone troopers using Vode An as their army’s anthem and Kote Darasuum as their motto[6].

Frankly, from the all named songs, only for Rage of the Shadow Warriors - in later sources known also as Dha Werda Verda - we have premises to assign it to a specific era. Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Warfare Author's Cut, Part 2 - Ancient Coruscant places its origin to regime of Mandalorian the Ultimate and its role as a plea of dying out Taung species to be remembered by new, non-Taung Mandalorians:

Hu Jibwe, scholar of military history at the Salmagodro Grand Academy, notes that there is another song popularly known as “Dha Werda Verda” -- the Mando’a war chant known as “Rage of the Shadow Warriors.” During the Clone Wars, some Mandalorian trainers taught this chant to their clones, and it became a hallmark of those units. It’s rarely performed today, so if you have a chance to see it, take advantage: The chant and ritual dance are mesmerizing, particularly if the dancers follow Mandalorian tradition and drum out the rhythm on the chest or back of those next to them: The ash of the Taung beats strong within the Mandalorians' heart. We are the rage of the Warriors of the Shadow, The first noble sons of Mandalore. Let all those who stand before us light the night sky in flame. Our vengeance burns brighter still. The gauntlet of Mandalore strikes without mercy. We are the rage of the Warriors of the Shadow, The first noble sons of Mandalore. Let all those who stand before us light the night sky in flame. Our vengeance burns brighter still. But as Hu notes, “Rage” is far more recent than Dha Werda Verda. The best-preserved record of the Taung epic poem, written in Notron Cant and housed in the Baobab Archives on distant Manda, contains none of the verses of “Rage.” “It’s my belief that ‘Rage of the Shadow Warriors’ dates from the reign of Mandalore the Ultimate, when the Taungs knew they were being eclipsed,” Hu explains. “I’ve always thought it a poignant work -- a plea that the Taungs not be forgotten by the newborn culture they knew would outlive them.”

Mind you, this is just (in-universe) researcher’s opinion and the man may be wrong about the song's true purpose as this is only his academic assumption. However the mention of differences between the epic poem and the chant is a strong indication that the song was created much later[7]. Interestingly, Rage of the Shadow Warriors, if truly composed by Taungs in the period of (pre?) Mandalorian Wars, does not use a metaphor of “forged like the saber” while at the same time is the longest and most complex piece. Looking at the similar lyrics between Rage of the Shadow Warriors, Gra’tua Cuun and Vode An, one may wonder if the “saber” part wasn’t added in human!Mandalorians era where such a type of edged weapon became much more popular.

Another thing worth considering is the periodization of Mandalorian culture. More precisely what in-universe researchers and Mandalorian people themselves describe as ancient times? This is a very important question as sources often use “ancient” and “traditional” interchangeably yet those two terms are not the same and may indicate different meanings (the word ancient itself is more chronology based, the traditional - culturally). Secondly, our idea of an “ancient” and “modern” era in a technologically advanced galaxy far far away may be misleading because really, at which point antiquity officially ends? The best example for this problem is Darksaber itself.

The Armorer and Fenn Rau claimed Tarre Vizsla created this one of kind lightsaber around one thousand years ago which is of course impressive amount of time, but also a relative small part of overall long Mandalorian history (and even longer culture if we take into account the whole record of Taung species). And yet starwars.com’s databank still calls this item “An ancient lightsaber that serves as a powerful symbol of leadership to the Mandalorians”.

In Legends, one thousand years before the events of the Original Trilogy, the Republic and Jedi Order went through a great reconstruction known as the Ruusan Reformation that started the Republic Golden Age. Maybe the New Canon too uses similar periodization or its antiquity ended at a different, much later time?

Even if we narrow down the mandalorian antiquity from The Sith & Mandalorians Wars era to creating Darksaber, it is still three thousand years - a great period of time to which the term “ancient” will refer to. Which of course does not help to examine source material, especially related to traditional songs and items passed down from one generation to another for centuries.

So, how important were swords in Mandalorian culture and how does this weapon relate to Kad Ha’rangir?

Next part: Final conclusions and potential explanations of the problem.

SIDENOTES:

[5] In Tales of the Jedi: Dark Lords of the Sith #2 (1994) - a year before the TotJ comic series even introduced us to Taung!Mandalorians - for the first time Mandalorian iron is presented as a material that can withstand even a lightsaber cut.

Master Jedi Arca Jeth used Mandalorian iron to secure a Sith tomb of Freedon Nadd, build in 3998 BBY on Dxun, Onderon’s dangerous moon (Uprising of Freedon Nadd #2) . The duel of Ulic Qel-Droma and Mandalore the Indomitable happened in 3996 BBY (The Sith War #1) and Mandalorians up to this point weren’t well known force within Republic border - they did conquered many worlds and their attention at some point was focused on Teta Empress and similar strong regions of this galaxy, yet for example Exar Kun - who in general was knowledge seeker - had literally no idea what the tomb was made of to whistand lightsaber which suggest Mandalorian Iron wasn’t worldwide known yet. This of course raise a question then how Master Jedi Arca Jeth even get his hands on such precious material - something rather hard to get by different means than from Mandalorians themselves, as:

A) beskar is found only in Mandalorian system

B) without a proper metallurgist knowledge beskar won’t be indurable

C) sources like Bounty Hunter Code states betraying the secrets of beskar and mandalorian metallurgist technique is punished by death and of course, this could be more modern nuance (especially when facing extermination of warrior culture) but definitely beskar had a special place in Mandalorian culture.

Sadly, the issue of Master Arca using Mandalorian iron is, as far as I know, unresolved.

[6] The Guide to Great Army of Republic (Insider 84) states:

[7] The use of the word “Mandalore” also supports the theory that the song Rage of the Shadow Warriors is a much later creation than epic poem. The version known and used by clones (as presented in Republic Commando game) has changed the original line to “Coruscanta kandosii adu.”, as reference to the capital of the Republic. This raises question though, if “forged like the saber” could be also changed from original into something more familiar and Republic/Jedi alike?

#star wars #mandalorian culture #cienie's take on mandalorian culture #mandalorians #mandalorian songs #uff i'm almost done #and a bit shorter part compared to the previous ones lol #anyway I DEMAND DO KNOW HOW IN-UNIVERSE LOOKS PERIODIZATION OF MANDALORIAN CULTURE #is pre-The Sith War era considered ancient time or prehistoric due to limited written / material sources???#the reason i think modern (human) mandalorian could use archaeological findings is the feeling that with warrior culture being destroyed #on purpose they could try to look for their ancient roots for propaganda and ya know culture that lasted for more than 7000 years #sounds better than pacifism that lasted max 700 years #anyway i have few pages of conclusions and theories to present lol

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