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The Great Purge of Mandalore—also known as the Great Purge or the Purge, the annihilation of Mandalore, and referred to as the Siege of Mandalore by Moff Gideon—was the genocide of the Mandalorians during the Imperial Era by the Galactic Empire between 4 ABY and 5 ABY in an attempt to punish the Mandalorians and wipe out their memory. During the Purge, the Empire bombarded Mandalore, slaughtered most of the Mandalore population and collected beskar. The Purge forced Mandalorian survivors, such as sects, akin to the Tribe, to operate in secrecy. The Mandalorians became scattered throughout the galaxy, and some believed Mandalore had become cursed.

Prelude[]

At the end of the Clone Wars, Mandalore was liberated from the rule of the former Sith Lord Maul by an intervention force of Galactic Republic clone troopers, led by former Padawan Ahsoka Tano and Clone Commander CT-7567 "Rex," who had allied with Lady Bo-Katan Kryze's Mandalore resistance.^[12] Kryze was appointed as regent by the Jedi^[13] before the majority of the Republic troops left, and Maul's Mandalorian commanders, such as Gar Saxon, were taken into Republic custody. In addition, a clone peacekeeping force was left behind on Mandalore to ensure a smooth transition of power. However, within hours of the siege's end,^[12] Chancellor Sheev Palpatine transformed the Republic into the Galactic Empire, appointing himself as its Emperor.^[13] Using the troops still stationed on Mandalore, the Emperor ordered the occupation of the planet.^[14]

Kryze refused to obey Imperial rule, so the Empire installed Gar Saxon, one of Maul's former commanders, as governor of Mandalore.^[13] They allowed him to create a cadre of Imperial Super Commandos, Mandalorian warriors loyal to the Empire.^[13][15] Thus, the Empire ruled Mandalore, its houses, and its warrior clans for years.^[16] The Empire backed Clan Saxon^[17] and offered military support.^[13]

Eventually, a student named Sabine Wren created a superweapon that targeted beskar known as the Arc Pulse Generator,^[13] which the Empire turned against the Mandalorian people. Horrified by what she had done, Wren spoke out against the Empire, though her family and clan, Clan Wren, sided with the regime.^[18] Before escaping Mandalore with her friend Ketsu Onyo,^[19] Wren destroyed her weapon, although the Empire eventually managed to build a copy with a limited range. In time, Wren joined a rebel cell called the Spectres.^[13] In 2 BBY,^[20] Imperial rule of Mandalore was threatened when Wren claimed^[16] an ancient symbol of Mandalorian rule known as the Darksaber^[18] from Maul in the abandoned Nightsister lair on Dathomir.^[21]

After training with the blade,^[18] she returned to her clan on Krownest, where Saxon also arrived to take the Darksaber for himself. After Wren's mother, Ursa Wren, killed the viceroy to protect her daughter,^[16] Clan Saxon and Clan Wren began a civil war amongst the Mandalorian people.^[17] During a mission to Mandalore in 1 BBY,^[20] Clan Wren united with Kryze and her clan. After they destroyed the copy of the Arc Pulse Generator developed by the Empire, which the replacement leader of Mandalore—Governor Tiber Saxon—had hoped to use against the population, various Mandalorian clans united to form a Mandalorian resistance against the Empire. Kryze accepted leadership of this resistance movement, and Wren gifted her the Darksaber.^[13] The rogue Children of the Watch were appalled that Kryze had taken the Darksaber as a gift instead of winning it in combat, believing it cursed their world to fall.^[6] Mandalorians killing each other made them weak, leaving no hope of resisting the fist of the Empire.^[22]

The Purge[]

Realizing they would never be able to control Mandalore and wanting to make sure no other faction could,^[4] the Empire instead set out to punish the Mandalorians, wipe out their memory,^[22] and deter unrest on other worlds^[23] by 5 ABY.^[5] Joined by the Imperial Army, the Imperial Navy launched an assault,^[24] later dubbed the "Great Purge of Mandalore,"^[11] with the aim of destroying the entire Mandalorian people^[23] as a warning to the whole galaxy.^[7] TIE/sa bombers laid waste to settlements on Mandalore by dropping^[6] fusion bombs^[22] that destroyed cities,^[24] including the capital of Sundari^[25] and its Civic Center,^[22] in what became known as the Night of a Thousand Tears.^[6]

During the Night, gunships equipped with repeating blasters wiped out fields of Mandalorian recruits^[10] and those who had survived the TIE bombers. Imperial ground troops also killed any survivors they found,^[24] with KX-series security droids and Viper probe droids picking over the wreckage to kill any stragglers.^[6] The beskar armor of the Mandalorians provided no protection during the bombings.^[23] The Empire bombed every surface twice over, intercepted any ships they saw leaving, and took no prisoners.^[7] During the Purge, the Mines of Mandalore were said to be destroyed.^[6] In reality, the mines remained intact,^[22] but the bombings triggered seismic activities that made the Living Waters in the Mines become deeper.^[26] The fires of the Great Forge were extinguished after the bombings.^[7]

Kryze and her people attempted to fight the Imperial effort,^[4] living around the Great Forge on the planet,^[7] but Kryze would lose most of her forces in the Night of a Thousand Tears. Following the Night, Gideon,^[7] who participated in the Purge as an Imperial Security Bureau officer^[10] within the Advanced Weapons Research division,^[27] met with Kryze after the ISB reached out to her to negotiate a ceasefire. Gideon told Kryze that all Mandalorian lives, as well as all cities that remained at the time, would be spared if she agreed to submit to the Empire and disarm. Aware of the shame such an act would bring, but believing the survival of her people came first, Kryze gave up the Darksaber to Gideon as an act of surrender. However, Gideon would betray Kryze, continuing the purge while taking the Darksaber for his own.^[7] The purge led to the near-total genocide of the Mandalorian people.^[9]

Some Mandalorians, including Kryze, survived the Purge and fled Mandalore, though they scattered across the galaxy.^[4] The mass-bombing^[6] and fusion rays^[28] glassed the surface,^[29] turning the sand^[6] to trinitite, and disrupted the magnetic field around the planet, which made it impossible to scan the surface from above atmosphere.^[22] Dormant species were awakened from the bombings.^[7] As spoils of their victory, the Empire gathered Mandalorian beskar^[3] and cast the metal into Imperial ingots.^[11] Descendants of Death Watch^[23] known as the Children of the Watch^[4] survived the Purge by being cloistered on Concordia.^[6] The purge was what forced the Mandalorian group known as the Tribe to operate in secrecy, even after the fall of the Empire^[11] in 5 ABY.^[30] Members of the Tribe came to believe that Mandalore was a cursed world, fearing that anyone who traveled there would be killed.^[4] Some Mandalorians survivors stayed on the planet, and never left during the Purge. They survived by migrating along the surface in a Langskib until the war ended, remaining loyal to Bo-Katan.^[7]

Aftermath[]

Secrecy is survival[]

Although it had been reduced to a mere gang,^[31] Kryze continued to lead Clan Kryze, as well as the Nite Owls subdivision. Together with Axe Woves and Koska Reeves, she went on missions with the intent of reclaiming Mandalore and the Darksaber.^[4] Instead of again taking the Darksaber as the gift^[6] from anyone who managed to acquire it, she planned on taking the Darksaber in combat to cement her rule as legitimate.^[29] By 9 ABY,^[32] an Imperial remnant, which was led by Gideon, had quantities of beskar from the Great Purge, and used one piece as a down payment with the rest in a camtono for hiring the bounty hunter Din Djarin for a job. Djarin later brought the down payment of beskar to the Armorer of the Tribe, who stated that it was gathered in the Great Purge.^[3]

After Djarin completed the job and gave the bounty—a Force-sensitive infant named Grogu who was a member of a rare species—to the Imperial remnant, he was fully paid with the rest of the beskar. When Djarin brought the camtono of beskar back to the covert to give to the armorer, it captured the attention of the other Mandalorian warriors. There, Paz Vizsla confronted the Armorer and Djarin, and spoke about how the beskar was cast in an Imperial smelter, and reminisced about how the Great Purge was the reason the Tribe was operating in secrecy like sand rats.^[11] The Armorer countered that their secrecy was their survival and their strength, to which Vizsla said that their strength was once from their numbers, and now they were forced to go above ground one at a time. Vizsla then turned his attention to Djarin, and continued to say that the Empire shattered their world and that he was in cooperation with them. Vizsla then attacked Djarin, although the confrontation was quickly defused by the Armorer.^[11]

While Djarin was on a mission to rescue a prisoner with a team of mercenaries, the Devaronian Burg questioned why he was part of the team, to which fellow mercenary Migs Mayfeld replied the Mandalorians were believed to be the strongest warriors in the galaxy. Burg then asked why they had all died.^[9]

Eventually, Djarin and Boba Fett attempted to recruit Kryze and her allies to help rescue a captured Grogu from Moff Gideon. To convince her to join him, Djarin informed Kryze that the Moff had a light cruiser that she could use in her fight to retake Mandalore. When Fett heard this, he expressed his disapproval, saying that the Empire "turned 'that planet' to glass". This upset Reeves, who attacked Fett. The fight was quickly broken up by Kryze, who claimed that had they shown that kind of strength to the Empire, then they would not have lost the planet in the first place.^[29]

Recounting the massacre[]

Sometime after Djarin's rescue of Grogu and the foundling being put under protection of Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker, Din Djarin found himself proactively partaking within the profession of bounty hunting once again – he collected on a bounty to attain information on how to reach the sub-strata of Glavis Ringworld. The contractor informed him that an access shaft was down Kolzoc Alley.^[6]

There, Djarin found the survivors of the Tribe—Paz Vizsla and the Armorer—in a new covert after they had been wiped out on Nevarro. Here, the Armorer took note of the beskar spear Ahsoka Tano had gifted to Djarin and, whilst it was being reforged, Djarin asked her of information on Bo-Katan Kryze. She stated that she considered Kryze and her adherents to be a cautionary tale because they "lost sight of the way," which resulted in the loss of Mandalore to the Galactic Empire, and the eventual eradication of "everything they knew and loved" on the Night of a Thousand Tears. She referred to the purge as a "curse, that was prophesied within the creed" and the scattering of Mandalorians across the galaxy. Djarin later admitted that he had removed his helmet, making him an apostate and exiled from the covert. The Armorer explained that the only way of redemption was to bathe in the Living Waters in the Mines of Mandalore, which were thought to be destroyed in the Purge.^[6]

Exploring Mandalore[]

Looking to redeem himself, Djarin eventually found a Mandalorian inscription from Jawas that came from Mandalore.^[28] Eventually, Djarin and Grogu traveled to Mandalore with the astromech droid R5-D4 on a mission to bathe in the Living Waters. There, they saw the ruins of Sundari, but found that the atmosphere was survivable. The Purge caused Alamites, who used to live in the wastelands beyond the cities, to move to the ruins of Sundari. Later, Djarin and Kryze discovered that the Mines and the Living Waters were not collapsed. Kryze also discovered a mythosaur in the Living Waters.^[22] The Mandalorian resistance and Children of the Watch set aside their differences to reclaim Mandalore from Gideon's Imperial remnant.^[33]

Known survivors[]

Some Mandalorians survived the Purge and fled Mandalore, though they scattered across the galaxy, whilst others never left Mandalore and migrated along the surface until the end of the Galactic Civil War:

• Bo-Katan Kryze: Survived and continued to lead Clan Kryze, as well as the Mandalorian resistance.^[4]
• Axe Woves: Survived and served under Bo-Katan Kryze after the Galactic Civil War.^[4]
• Koska Reeves: Survived and served under Bo-Katan Kryze after the Galactic Civil War.^[4]
• A Mandalorian fleet commander: Survived and served the Mandalorian resistance after the Galactic Civil War.^[3]
• "The Armorer": Survived by being exiled on the moon of Concordia along with the Children of the Watch.^[3]
• Din Djarin: Survived by being exiled on the moon of Concordia along with the Children of the Watch.^[3]
• Paz Vizsla: Survived by being exiled on the moon of Concordia along with the Children of the Watch.^[11]
• A Mandalorian judge: Survived and served with the Children of the Watch.^[28]
• A Mandalorian captain: Survived and migrated along the surface along with others until the end of the Galactic Civil War.^[7]
• A Mandalorian scout: Survived and migrated along the surface along with others until the end of the Galactic Civil War.^[7]
• A Mandalorian watchman: Survived and migrated along the surface along with others until the end of the Galactic Civil War.^[7]
• Sabine Wren: Survived by being off-world around the time of the Purge.^[34]
• Boba Fett: Survived by being off-world around the time of the Purge.^[35]

Casualties[]

• Most of Clan Wren:^[8]
  • Alrich Wren^[8]
  • Countess Ursa Wren^[8]
  • Tristan Wren^[8]

Behind the scenes[]

The Great Purge was first mentioned in "Chapter 1" of the 2019 Disney+ television series The Mandalorian,^[3] which aired on November 12, 2019.^[36]

Appearances[]

Non-canon appearances[]

• LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (Mentioned only) (DLC)

Sources[]

Notes and references[]