Mandalorian Culture

It’s even FUNNIER when one of them is a politician and the other is the fucking ACCIDENTAL KING OF A PLANET

Leia, already expecting yet another sleazy politician: *fake smile* it is an honor to meet you, Mand’alor

Din, glancing up from doodling grogu’s face on a bunch of paperwork: uh. It’s an honor to meet you as well, Miss . . . senator

Leia:

Din: *glances at Bo-katan* was that wrong? Am I supposed to bow or something

Leia, mentally rewriting all of her strategies: no you’re fine. Also, I now understand why your guards are so protective of you. We must not ever let you be corrupted by the horrors of the senate

Din: . . . Aren’t you part of the senate?

Like, a warrior is someone who fights for their honour and their clan, whereas a soldier is someone who fights for money or a greater cause?

Obviously this would still be an honourable profession, like bounty hunting, but I figure Mando'a needs some way to refer to someone who is a soldier and not just a warrior, since all Mandalorians are warriors in their own right.

My first thought for this was a translation of 'hired warrior', some combination of verborir, 'to hire, buy, contract' and verd 'warrior', but the two words were a bit too similar. To be fair, most 'modern' Mando'a, or post-crusade Mando'a, is likely cobbled together from soldiers' Mando'a (not my theory-- credit to @ranahan for this cool idea!), so it makes sense that the two words would be very connected. However, over time, as Mandalorians culturally leaned more into 'warrior' rather than 'soldier', they would need two distinct words for it.

Anyway. So, instead of verborir, I thought that maybe I could take from the word for 'job', bora, but that just kind of recreates verbora, which I take to mean 'contract'.

After that I decided to take a different route-- instead of calling them 'hired warriors', what if I went from the basis of akaan, 'war'?

All of this to say that I suggest that verd has a more 'honourable warrior' connotation, and posit that we use akaan'ad, 'child of war', for 'soldier' instead.

I’m going to go with a no. By analogy with Mandalorians not having a word for a hero, I think they wouldn’t have a separate word for a warrior, at least not in the sense of defending one’s clan and honour, because that’s expected of every Mandalorian.

It’s only someone who doesn’t fight that needs a separate word. And we do have two! Neverd ‘civilian’ (from ne + verd, “not warrior) and ne’kaan ‘non-combatant, civilian’ (from ne + akaan(ir), “no war” or “no battle”). Which raises the question of who are these words used for? Are they often—or ever—used for other Mandalorians, or only applied to outsiders? Do they refer more to one’s role in a particular situation or a permanent status? What’s the difference between the two?

And like @johamur said in the notes, there’s ver’verd ‘mercenary’ for someone who’s currently working as a soldier for pay.

In my mind, ramikade and ori’ramikade filled the role of ‘warrior’ (with verd being ‘soldier’ and all) because of the implications of extra skill/training/lifestyle surrounding it. Would akaanii/akaan’ad have that same kind of implied skill difference to it? Someone who is part of the fight but isn’t particularly trained/organized for it? A civilian who happens to be fighting?

As for verd, I think it comes from ver-ad, i.e. one who gets paid or earns a wage. Therefore it’s my interpretation that verd, at least in its original sense, meant a professional soldier or something like our enlisted troops. Rather than someone partaking in your regular inter-clan skirmishes without pay. (Though I think the original crusaders got paid in loot rather than money.) Perhaps it got shortened down from a longer compound word like *ver’traat’ade ‘the paid troops’ > ver’ade > verde. But that sense might have shifted later, because we also have ver’verd, which is clearly a later coinage (it’s tautological even lol).

But then again, all Mandalorians are expected to fight. I don’t think they have the same concept of civilian/non-combatant as we do, or the same idea of irregular forces that blend civilian and combatants, because all mando civilians can also fight and are expected to defend themselves and their clans.

But Mandalorians have also come into contact with multiple different societies who would have very different ideas and standards about soldiering, might employ unpaid conscripts (which outside of the Neo-Crusaders don’t seem to be a mando thing), etc. So perhaps a word like ‘combatant’ might be useful, to describe the various kinds of armed forces that might be found on a battlefield? As a sort of a descriptive wider catch-all term, hence literally fighter or someone who does war, paid or not. Personally I would use akaan’ad in a more respectful sense or in an identity sense, and akaanii in a more value-neutral sense. But that’s my interpretations again.

Akalinad might work for a conscript. Literally, it means someone who is requisitioned & comes from the same word I coined for requisitioning materiel/ordnance (akaline, lit. “war needs/necessities”). Tbh kind of derogatory lol.

by Senator Leia Organa

Bo-Katan during her Death Watch years, taking care of Sabine while Ursa’s busy

mandalorians, first and foremost, practice pretty straight-forward ancestral veneration. codes of honor are formed around the idea of “not offending the ancestors”, and family shrines are in almost every home and are one of very few times beskar is used to make anything outside of armor and weaponry

very large clans, like clan kryze and clan wren, have dedicated temples to their many powerful ancestors. i can imagine satine moving the family temple from kalevala to sundari when the seat of power of clan kryze (and mandalore) shifted there

mandalorian cosmology is pretty vague in how, exactly, the universe came into being. most believe in some sort of supreme cosmic force, but it would more readily be called “fate” than as a deity

the closest thing to a supreme diety in mandalorianism, then, is mandalore the first, who is essentially considered the ancestor of the collective soul of the mandalorian people and the founder of their faith system (kind of a mix between zoroaster and jesus). the fact that he is honored by all mandalorians as an ancestor gives him the greatest power, and the idea of potentially inflicting his wrath on all your people because of your personal screw-up is a great deterrent against turning on traditions

Ancestral veneration and worshipping deities can and do coexist in several cultures. For Mandalorians (especially in the modern days), the gods are more like distant personifications of natural forces, or dangerous and fickle to deal with if they are believed in as more than abstractions; their personal ancestors are who are venerated and prayed to in their everyday lives. Even a religious, god-fearing mando probably prays directly to the deities only a few exceptional times in their lives, and it would be much more common to ask for one’s ancestors to intervene on one’s behalf than to pray to the gods directly.

This is why the Mandalorian pantheon also includes a slew of semi-mythical cultural heroes in addition to the deities. These are by convention treated as historical/ancestral Mandalorian ancestors of some distant eons past, even if their actual historicity may be about the same level as Achilles or King Arthur. They may well have existed, even if all records have been lost and their deeds have been exaggerated and embellished.

In many cases, the ancestral shrines were originally connected to forges. But in time, the forges moved to more practical locations and the shrines stayed. Smaller families who have no dedicated family forges have a small shrine in the karyai, with the rest of the family.

Family shrines are typically very practical. They might contain some heritage weapons, historical artefacts like war banners, etc, but full sets of arms and armour are usually stored more practically. Mandos aren’t too precious with their armour and weapons—they’re meant to be used, not displayed. So what ends up on display is usually something that’s old, but no longer usable or not fitting any current living clan members.

Armour of course, is circulated and worn amongst one’s descendants, so your ancestors are always with you whether you have a shrine or not. Helmets and other armour pieces that end up on display in the family shrine are those that don’t fit any current members of the clan, but are readily taken back into use when needed. Helmets are not uncommonly displayed—they’re also not coincidentally pieces that in multi-species clans often require significant alterations from one member to another. Inheriting someone else’s troan can also be bit more significant than inheriting another piece of armour (although it can also be just because they happened to be the same species).

There’s usually some kind of a live fire element (candle, or just a light when shipboard), to recall the fires of the stars and ancestral forges. Symbolical offerings of food and drink (like tipping a bit from your tihaar cup to the ancestors, or offering a share of a feast by e.g. leaving the new year’s feast on the table overnight so the ancestors may also partake) are also not uncommon. But the main element is of course saying one’s remembrances. The whole litany would also include one’s entire line of ancestors, not just those one personally knew and lost. The entire ancestral litanies are often recited only during festivals and special days, not every single day.

In addition to Mandalore the First, most clans also revere their founders. For very old clans, this might be the clan head at the time of the clan’s settling on Mandalore, whether historical or legendary. But even clans that are later offshoots or splinters, still trace their lineages back to the original Taung that settled Manda’yaim. Many clans also revere their clan head during the Mandalorian Wars, who opened the clan to adoptees. And later ancestors of famous deeds are of course also remembered.

Founding one’s own clan is thus a bit of a clean slate, but potentially a very prestigious position. Many of the cultural heroes of Mandalorian legends are also the founding parents of their clans. And vice versa, many clans like to claim those heroes as their ancestors for more prestige.

In today’s politics, common ancestors have less practical meaning than in times before, but they are still named and recalled e.g. when making pacts with other clans and during ceremonial occasions. Two unfamiliar Mandalorians meeting are also very likely to start naming their lineages to find common ancestors/relatives as a way to find common ground and a reason to ally rather than kill each other. Any time you meet some unfamiliar clan elder, you’re guaranteed to be expected to recount your lineage. Yes, your own actions define your honour, not the actions of your ancestors; but your lineage is still the thing that practically defines who’s who and where one comes from.

When a person is adopted into a Mandalorian clan, they of course also acquire a whole army of venerable ancestors! Blood is not important to Mandalorian lineages, only the spiritual bonds and vows that bind clan and souls together. Therefore adoptees are equally part of Mandalorians lineages and are expected to hold the same duties towards their ancestors.

Can I just say I love every Mando in this covert. Everything we see about the absolutely insane way they go about their day is just - joyous.

But this Mando, right? Looks down at the baby, clenches his fists and then - pulls a passive posture, clasping his hands like that and I can hear this man internally screaming a sigh, going, no no no, Djarin, I am not dealing with your bullshit today.

Like this man tried, okay? An effort was made.

Just... imagining what goes on in this covert as far as interpersonal relationships goes is hilarious. And you gotta imagine that Din is like... their feral cousin. He’s obviously one of their best combatants ( i think thats why he was the one who got to go outside at the beginning?) and given the 'odds' he likes I imagine Din must have been a competitive little shit growing up and like - the last few years this man has seriously wrecked some shit for this covert. Repeatedly.

But he’s still one of theirs. Gotta love Mandalorian loyalty.

And now he’s bringing in his little gremlin child and all the other adults are just like.... 🙄

Thing is though, he… keeps finding more Jedi. None of them are the right choice to train the kid, but it slowly, steadily becomes apparent to those he’s found and the people he’s talked to that this Mandalorian has found a dozen Jedi within the span of a year and he’s got leads on several more? Any Jedi who escaped during Order 66, any Force sensitive who received training afterwards however partial or complete that may be, any of those who’ve connected with Quinlan Vos or others through the Hidden Path, children now grown who were at one time abducted by Inquisitors and bounty hunters, even ex-Imperial Force-sensitives themselves—

This Mandalorian bounty hunter has somehow accidentally located more Force-sensitive people himself than anyone has in years. Nobody has any idea how he’s doing it (“You just do the work,” he says dismissively, assuming they’re asking how he finds people in general) and when they realize that he knows very little about the Jedi at all, only recently familiarizing himself with the Force and its different followers, they’re even more baffled because how? And then he’s talking about locations that have provided clues through other means, codices and cave drawings and long-lost temples and did he just say he found a cave of crystals?? On a planet nobody’s ever been to or has ever been considered a nexus of the Force? Just who is this guy?!

Is some of it influenced by the kid somehow being able to zero in on locations across the galaxy that may house former Jedi? Do they happen across more holy sites like the henge on Tython that provide answers or directions? How many Force-related experiences has this guy had that he’s entirely unaware of because he has no basis for comparison and figures “The galaxy is full of all kinds of unexplainable phenomena, how am I supposed to know if it’s the Force. Also didn’t one of you just say it surrounds every living thing and connects the universe together, couldn’t ANYTHING be because of the Force at that point”

People are finding old friends and allies and mentors (and enemies!) and connecting with one another for the first time in over two decades and it’s all because this one, regular, entirely non-Force-sensitive guy with a very adorable Force-sensitive child have somehow managed to be the connecting thread between them all

or perhaps a wedding gown, with the thread tracing and forming flowers from long ago that used to bloom on Mandalore's surface, before war desecrated the landscape and erased them from memory. Maybe a tapestry, belonging to a noble house, that has been so well maintained over the years that it mysteriously vanishes right before the Night of a Thousand Tears.

Chapter Eight: The Bedrock of Our Home

Warnings: mostly fluff, some xenophobia

Word Count: 2.1k

Not A King Masterlist

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Many cycles passed, each one gradually closer to revealing the entirety of the surface of Mandalore to the suns. Strangely, the removal of glass helped to clear the storms and interference. The planet could finally be connected to the rest of the Galaxy. 

Whatever shards that could be recovered were used to help rebuild the capital. Still a shell of what it formerly was, but they had to start somewhere. 

So for a nomadic people accustomed to being able to make do with the ABSOLUTE minimum, I would assume Mandalorian kitchen implements are going to be basic. The words we have in Mando'a that refer to them also refer back to armor- helmet and pot, plate and frying surface, etc.

I have some experience with camp cooking. The same pot you use for boiling will probably go towards baking. You really just need a Deep Vessel and a Flat Surface to make just about anything you want. You're just limited by what fuel source you've got for the kind of heat you'll have- hot and fast fires are things you can flash-fry on, but not bake, for example. Boiling, at least, will never fail you, so soup is always on the menu. More on that later.

I have a thought that at home, slow-cookers and griddle surfaces are king. What would be lacking, that we Earth natives might find strange, would probably be the bakeware. Not baking- surely Mandalorian homes have ovens, which can conveniently double as dehydrators. No, I mean all the fancy things for pastry work. We're accustomed to cake tins, pie tins, casseroles, cookie cutters, muffin tins, etc. Mandalorians would likely just use the same implements for different purposes. One or two good sized baking dishes or sheets will make a multitude of things. Nothing is stopping you from baking a rectangular pie in your 9×13. Nothing is stopping you from baking "muffins" in that same tim all in a big rectangle and cutting it into servings, or baking it in pucks like extra fluffy cookies.

But things that would really dominate in Mandalorian cooking? Boiling. Dumplings, noodles, soups, stews. There is a REASON for this, and it is that water regulates temperature really really well. It boils at one temperature under our atmosphere's pressure and has wicked high specific heat, so an unreliable fuel source is less of a problem. So the stock pot in a Mandalorian household and camp alike would see a lot of use.

Mandalorian kitchens would also have ample pantry space- there would be cold storage at home, yes, but also shelf-stable staples, like flours and beans, dried milk, cooking fat, gihaal and other meat meals and extracts used like bouillon. A highly anachronistic space, indicative of the Mandalorian resistance to relying on goods and services that could be taken away.

To summarize:

By that I mean that Bo-Katan, like Brutus, fully believes that the awful things she's doing are for the benefit of her state and people, and that she can square off the possibility of hurting her sister because she honestly thinks that it would ultimately lead to a better Mandalore. It isn't that she wants to do it but rather that, in her mind, she has to.

"As Caesar loved me, I weep for him [...] but, as he was ambitious, I slew him" (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, III.II. 24-27). These two things are not contradictory in Brutus' mind; he can mourn Caesar because he loved him despite having been the one to kill him, because one of those things is personal and the other is politics and so they have no bearing on each other, therefore these two sentiments can co-exist. Brutus loved Caesar-the-friend and hated Caesar-the-dictator, and as there was no way for him to separate the two in practice, he did what he believed he had to do.

OKAY THIS POST HAS BEEN SITTING IN MY DRAFTS FOR AGES BUT HERE IS MY TIINGILAR (MANDALORIAN STEW) RECIPE!!!!!

Please riff on this recipe as much as you want because I'm a firm believer in measuring with your heart and improvising with what's in your cabinet and I know for sure that's the spirit of any Mando recipe. I used a combination of other people’s recipes (all credits included) to make my own (vegan) Mandalorian tiingilar, leaving it on the slow cooker overnight each time. I mean it’s truly hard to go wrong with a stew or curry dish but I read some fantastic suggestions in starwarsanthropology’s post on layering spices and making it interesting and it inspired me. So the recipe I finally settled on after experimenting with a few versions is below the cut. This is just based on what I enjoy and my preferences, so check out the other recipes linked here in case you want to try something different.

injury rate in mandos is extremely high (naturally) and their understanding of injury, recovery, and trauma is excellent. so naturally, they’d adapt their armor to help them with lasting medical problems…..

mandalorians who have lost an eye having an hud setup that gives them video feed from their blind side in a small popup. its not as good as having two eyes, but no one can sneak up on you from that side. adapted hud control commands, since traditional setups rely on blinking. additional reliance on voice recognition and spoken commands. overlay grids and interactive ai to help with depth perception

mandos with tinnitus from ear damage having constant background noise filters to help distract from the ringing

vitals monitors such as constant heart activity monitoring, blood glucose levels, etc. if you go critical, the system will alert the closest select number of people from a list that you give the program to come help you.

specially designed combat-level prosthetics built into armor. you have your casual every-day wear leg, and your Armor Leg. it’s got a rocket launcher.

support ai and hud grids/horizon lines etc for vertigo, balance problems, etc

sure, you can build a hearing aid into your audio system, but why not also have live subtitles?

i fully believe sign language is a common skill for mandos (and not just for combat) but you could also have a text-to-voice feature that lets you write out what you want to say and have a computer say it for you

Consider: Tar Vizsla, Mandalorian who fought his clan to leave home to be trained by the Jedi, because during those times mandalorians and Jedi were not on good terms, and no self respecting Mandalorian would allow a Jedi to take their child and divorce them from their culture.

But Tar Vizsla had the long sight, had wanted to see what he could be, and thought he could return.

Consider: Tar Vizsla, through wit, or skill, in combat or diplomacy, working to unite the scattered and warring clans on Mandalore.

Consider: Both the Jedi and the powerful Mandalorian clans actively working against him — unity among all of Mandalore does not serve either powers’ interests.

Tar Vizsla, beloved, belonged to both — belonged to neither.

Tar Vizsla left the Jedi to become a man of the people, to return home to Mandalore where they needed him most, and his very existence a slight against any who he would call home.

Consider: All the politics of the times involved. How was he killed, why was his saber taken to be held by the Jedi — to later be stolen back by the Mandalorians?

An interesting parallel with the Mask of Mandalore. It does put a different spin on stealing back his sword, doesn’t it?

Arthurian legend

Knives

an entire aisle devoted to spices

the entire supermarket smells like spices and it is homey and nostalgic even to outsiders

less than a fourth of one side of an aisle devoted to “intergalactic (aka western) food.” This includes the three kinds of cereal they have in that supermarket.

the entire produce area smells like spiced fruit despite the fruit not being cooked yet. bc obviously mandalorian fruit is naturally spicy right?

one side of an entire aisle dedicated to their equivalent of rice

the other side of that same aisle dedicated to instant noodles

another aisle dedicated to various mandalorian alcohols

mandalorian equivalent of durians

mandalorian equivalent of durians

THE PRODUCE SECTION

always fresh, (unless you’re in the dried fruits/vegs section). SOMEHOW.  could be a Shakraan (that’s the word i’m using for MandoMart now) out in the middle of whoknowswhere where imports are v expensive, and yet … they have fresh produce. every day

towards the end of the day, if they’re receiving a fresh shipment tomorrow, prices are slashed to move inventory out quickly. 

only local mando’ade appear to be aware of this, and it is always mayhem the last two hours before closing (or mayhem to aruettise B’), probably bc everyone is speaking some dialect of mando’a, either “standard” or a local dialect )

GOOD FUCKING LUCK if you’re not wearing armor at this time

mandalorian coconuts that they whip out a huge butcher knife out of nowhere to crack open on the spot for you to drink on purchase. They literally crack it open in their hands.

SEAFOOD

there’s a section completely dedicated to gi/gi’e/gise. Fish. Under the crushed-icetrays holding displays of fish, are tanks where live fish are swimming in. you can get them whole, or butchered on the spot. they butcher them right there, in plain view, so good luck if you’re squeamish.

kids love those tanks btw. be careful not to trip over them when ordering. the fish are usually incredibly terrifying to look at, and large enough to feed a family, and sometimes fight each other. 

shellfish, also huge. live space-lobsters big enough to eat a child. barrels of space crabs. No warning signs — you should know the risks.

if asked, they also have dried and spoiled/rotting fish/fish products in a dedicated back area. they have to be asked for, specifically, as they’re not openly accessible to the public — and only mando’ade know to ask.

every Shakraan family (as most of these diasporic stores are family or clan/house run) has their own unique method and recipe to gi’haale reflective of their family history, origins and location

but the smell is strong and especially pungent from this end of the store

there’s also a frozen fish/seafood section, separate from the live section.

SNACKS AND DRINKS

dried fruit. cookies. candies, usually flavored in mandalorian-specific spices or teas. dried sweetened roots. meat jerky. dried fish cut into thin strips. fish-flavored chips. everything has a spicy variation.

they all can be threatening-looking to aruettise (you got the standard snacks, and then some … weirdly shaped ones. fish shaped ice cream sandwiches. caramelized insects. cookies filled with some kind of flavored creams shaped like native mandalorian wildlife — even extinct ones).

nothing is in standard alphabet — everything is labeled entirely in mando’a. everything.

pastries have their entirely own section, separated by savory or sweet and shelf-life. also has spiced/spicy variations. 

they have (non-alcoholic) drinks that are really popular among mando’ade — and they’re always referred to with a soft nostalgic sigh. 

they’re usually softly spicy and/or sweet, with different flavor variations on top of the base sweet-or-spicy, with a unique opening mechanism that requires significant force to open the bottle in some way.

sometimes with a knife. sometimes with a fist. never simple — to those not used to nor expecting it.

all of the above is organized by shelf life, specifically, even if the local diaspora is considered a fixed community, mandalorians were once a nomadic culture and thus food culture still carries this idea of longevity.

TEA AND SPICES

mandalorians are HUGE on tea and spices, btw (they have at least two words for tea, and the implication is that tea is very common part of the culture. I’ll compile a post discussing this in the future) in addition to spices. they have at LEAST one long aisle dedicated to tea, and another to spices if not an block of the store. sometimes it’s the whole Shakraan, depending.

the labels are entirely mando’a, again

separated by type, originating locale, and price

if a dedicated tea section, will have a local expert with vast knowledge in multiple areas (including traditional remedies). he can assist if asked.

dedicated section is also close/near dedicated spices section. sometimes the experts of both work in tandem with each other to assist customers.

HOW COULD I FORGET THE LIVE SEAFOOD TANKS

gotta remember the free samples on weekends

the free sample people probably don’t speak any basic at all, so the mando kids who didn’t learn the language 100% are struggling to communicate

would there be bartering or are prices set hmmmm (open markets definitely barter. idk about supermarkets tho)

some of the herbal tea packets don’t even have a little slit to tear the package open, you’re expected to have something to cut it open on hand

all the cashiers speak at least two dialects of mando’a. few speak basic, either. the younger ones do, the older ones don’t.

you get funny stares if you aren’t mando and you walk into one of these supermarkets

like, “who the kriff is this aruetii doing here”

They probably lurk in the fish section.

I got to visit a Moroccan medina once and there were cats everywhere. I have a photo running around of one very clever (and smug) fuzzball who had set himself up right next to a fish seller.

Now, the feel I get from the above post is definitely an Asian market sort of setting. I was in and out of a big Asian grocery store called Uwajimaya when I lived in Seattle all the time, and I witnessed/experienced quite a lot of those things. 

(I friggin’ loved it. I made a point of always finding and trying one new thing every time I went in. 9 times out of 10 whatever new thing I found was delicious. 1 time in 10 I picked something that was just a little too out there for my weak white ass XD But it was fun anyway)

Never saw a cat lurking in Uwajimaya, I’m sad to say.

( @izzyovercoffee, don’t mind me, just gonna run off with your headcanon here.)

Prefacing this with ‘I am new to digging into the Mandalorian culture stuff and don’t actually know their cultural relationships with animals but if they are inclined to liking and co-habitating with small fuzzy self-domesticating murderbeasts then this is what I envision’

A shakraan cat probably looks smug as fuck, is never seen during the two-hour pre-closing rush, and is a common sight in the fish section. Skakraan employees probably spend a lot of time shooing them away from the tanks (except the lobster tanks, the cats all know not to mess with the lobsters) but the cats just go ‘nah fuck you I do what I want’ and keep coming back.

They probably don’t protest too hard when one of the gutsy little fuzzballs actually manage to make off with a large/armored/toothy enough to eat it whole fish. Because that takes skills.

Shakraan cats work to keep rodents away from the store and recognize regular customers and will go right up to regulars they like insisting on being petted and twining around ankles.

You can recognize a shakraan with very friendly cats by the fact that there are many more jetpacks in use than usual as customers try not to trip on them.

This place is in a kind of terrible neighborhood (okay, no joke a really BAD neighborhood) but it’s been there for like 50 years and they’re not gonna move.

They were having trouble with people breaking in at night, so the owner started leaving his massive Shar Pei in to guard the place. Unsurprisingly, the break-ins stopped.

While they look cool, all the guns and knives that look fanciest are mostly cheap knockoffs for the gullible or the cheap looking for a quick weapon.

For safety purposes, the owners of the shop aren’t officially “Mandalorians”, just pawn shop owners who happen to collect a lot of “Mandalorian” weapons.

But if you want the real shit you gotta have a calm disposition, speak a little bit of Mando’a, and maybe have a clan signet to prove you’re not gonna immediately use those weapons on an immediate family member.

When you prove you’re on the up and up…and that you can pay…then they take you out back, or to the basement, where you’ll find stuff that’s a lot less flashy, but a helluva lot more functional. Old clone wars guns that can still knock a droid down from half a mile away. A knife that isn’t beskar but the shopkeep swears on his life is almost as good. Maybe not a jet pack, since those are hard as hell to find, and ain’t no mando giving that shit up without a fight, but maybe a pair of rocket boots that some old friend of the clan sold off a while back for booze money.

Payment’s in whatever barter system the galaxy is working on at the moment, or in favors. Family discounts apply, clan members get 5% off, first cousins or closer get 25% off and a power pack, siblings get 30% and first dibs, siblings you like get gear for free.

But if you’re shopping and you don’t have the credits, spice, or hypermatter to bargain with, be warned, you trade a favor for something good, and the shopkeep is going to collect with interest. And Mandos have LONG memories. Even if the guy you owe dies, your debt goes to the clan, so if you borrow a gun from some mando with a fur cape, don’t be surprised if 10 years later another mando with a tiny green child running from the law cashes in that check.

The system works, though occasionally non-mandos work their way into the system.

Sometimes internal forces shift the market. House Kryze may have been pacifist, but they traded their share of favors to keep it that way. Many a “Mandalorian” knife shop was quietly bought out by a government shell company during Mandalore’s pacifist era, though most came back by the end of the clone wars.

Sometimes external forces step in. The Empire, while always glad to gain Mandalorian assistance in its wars, much preferred that the Mandalorian people used Imperial weapons. This was the point where most shops developed their more…touristy…fronts, to better avoid having stormtroopers knocking at their door.

And sometimes…there are just wanderers. People here and there with just enough Mando’a and clan knowledge to access the real market, and just little enough connections that nobody’s quite sure what clan they actually belong to. Every shopkeep worth their salt has at least two things they keep close to their chest if they want to survive. One, a good gun under their counter, because the galaxy is a dangerous place. And two, in a locked box, or in a breast pocket, or in a locket, a holo-number with a fake name attached to it. It’s not always something particularly interesting. Sometimes it’s a friend, or next of kin, someone they can trust will bail them out if things get rough. But nine times out of ten, it’s a favor. Someone who walked in, looking just desperate enough to promise something important in exchange for what they need, looking just honorable to agree to terms, and looking just hardened enough that they could follow through on that promise.

It’s their version of a Hail Mary pass if all else goes wrong. Often those favors lie in wait for years, decaying and rotting, until their owners are nigh certain that nobody is left to cash it in.

…but shopkeepers tend to be good judges of characters. And Mandalorians aren’t the only ones who believe in repaying their debts.

On one of the less flashy, but more reputable parts of Nal Hutta, a cashier had the name “Fett” and a number scrawled onto her arm for thirty years. When the owner of the shop finally hit her one too many times, she called the number begging for help. The broken man she’d clothed and fed was long gone, but families pay debts on Mandalore, and the shop owner had a mysterious accident within the week.

On a distant moon near Lothal, there’s a shopkeep who has a comm code and the name “Fulcrum” locked in a safe near his back door. When the Empire came for him, he barely managed to call the holo before he was thrown into a prison transport. The Torgruta he’d hidden from the Empire never showed. But Mandalorian fighters bearing the insignia of Clan Wren did, knocking his transport out of the sky and freeing him. He would later learn that his was not the only debt that was settled that day.

On one of the driest, most desolate parts of Mandalore, a street vendor of particularly poor disposition had a communicator inscribed with the word “Duchess” on it. When his daughter caught an disease, of which there was no cure in the entire city, he used it, even though he full well knew the young woman who he had loant a speeder to decades ago was long dead. To his surprise, his daughter’s case was miraculously elevated to top priority, and she was shuttled offworld to Coruscant, where she made a full recovery. His daughter never had to set foot in his plague ridden city again, thanks to a recommendation to an arts college with the singular of House Kryze and House Vizla stamped on it. He never questioned his miracle, and he never found out that his favor was fulfilled less because of obligation, and more out of a guilt that only family can possess.

And on one of the quietest, most remote parts of the outer rim, at a market on the edges of Mos Eisley, there was a quiet Mandalorian vendor. She’d outlived the Republic, and while she didn’t know it, she would outlive the Empire too. She’d never sold guns, or knives, not like other members of his clan. She only sold what little durian fruit she could get, and eked out a meager living. One wouldn’t expect a woman like that to hold too many favors, and those she did, she let drift away. No point holding onto gold if you never intend to use it, after all. But there was…one…thing. For almost twenty years, an old man in a robe had walked into Mos Eisley. He never seemed to have a job, yet never seemed to go hungry. He could convince a man of almost anything, but he almost never spoke. And he never carried a blaster, yet never seemed afraid of journeying to the seedier parts of town.

And he LOVED durians.

So every week, for almost twenty years, this stranger came to buy one ripe durian from her, and chat. His Mando’a was impeccable, too impeccable to have not been taught in the Core, and his memories of Mandalore were too vivid to ignore. The first time he came to buy a fruit, the vendor asked him how he’d gained a taste for durians. They were mandalorian, after all, and were a bit of an acquired taste for outsiders. After a bit of quiet consideration, the man answered with a story of, princesses, knights, and a desolate world split asunder.

The vendor gave him a fruit for free.

Once turned into a habit. Stories for fruit. An equitable exchange in the vendor’s opinion, and the man seemed to think so too, as he kept coming back.

For almost twenty years this fruit vendor listened to this strange man tell him stories, that were just accurate enough to be true, and just fantastical enough to keep the vendor from repeating them.

But then the Empire came.

The man was…not skittish, skittish gets you mugged in Mos Eisley, but he was unnerved by the presence of stormtroopers. The man no longer wandered freely in Tatooine’s streets. Where before he barely talked in public, now he never did.

…but the man still loved durians. So every week, he’d appear, almost out of thin air, always when the stormtrooper patrols were gone, and he’d spin his stories for durians.

One day, the man looked at her strangely after their exchange of fruit and prose, and expressed that he really didn’t think their exchange was fair to the vendor. The vendor waved him off, her old growly dialect of Mando’a telling him to think nothing of it. Stories were worth their weight in spice anyway. The man still looked perturbed though, and instead of disappearing like he normally did, he quietly reached into his robe, and placed a crystalline cube on his table. “If you like stories.” The man stated cryptically “Keep this safe. If you ever find someone who can open it, then you will know you’re in a story greater than yourself.”

Another day, the man stopped coming. A planet was destroyed, the empire was burned, and life continued much as it always had on Tatooine.

The vendor was disappointed, but all things must come to an end, so she continued on with her life, selling fruit.

Except…one day…an orphan boy was running though the street, chasing a loth cat, as the vendor was lazily about to doze off. Suddenly, the cat was pulled through the air, into the boy’s arms where he cuddled it. The vendor double checked that her eyes hadn’t deceived her, and that the boy had levitated the cat, before she quickly gestured for the boy to come over. She quietly rummaged about for the cube, and she she brought it out, asked the boy to concentrate. To the surprise of both of them, the cube flared to life, and the image of a very confused young man appeared in front of them, where the three of them had a lovely conversation.

Within a day, the young man had returned to his forgotten homeworld, and confirmed what she already knew about the boy. Preparations were made, and the boy was returned to Coruscant, where he would never have to think of sand or hunger again.

The vendor quietly handed the crystal cube back to the young man. Debts had to be repaid, after all, and the artifact belonged to his order, not her.

He refused. “Why would I need it back? I’ll be visiting soon enough anyway.”

He took off with the boy without explaining, and the vendor was left confused.

She returned to her quiet life, selling her fruit.

…until a month later, when she looked up, and lo and behold, the young man was standing in front of her.

He proposed a deal. He’d pay her for two durians, and she’d only need to give him one, if she told him a story.

She agreed.

After all, it seemed reasonable to her.

She was a Mandalorian, and debts had to be repaid.