mandalorians
Latest
Hyperspace Beacon: Enter the Mandalorians
Welcome, fans of Star Wars and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Some would say you cannot be a true Star Wars fan unless you are a fan of Mandalorians. Followers of these space-Spartans bury themselves deep in the warrior culture. The bearers of the iconic T-shaped visor have inspired costume after costume, scores of fan sites, collections of comic books, and bunches of books. The author of many of those books, Karen Traviss, created a whole independent language called Mando'a. The Mandalorians' history starts with a species called the Taung, who were renowned throughout the galaxy for their amazing conquests and advanced war technology. Calling themselves Mandalorians after their leader, Mandalore the First, these crusaders conquered all of what would be known as the Mandalore Sector, assimilating the native species into the culture of war and honor. The depth of the Mandalorian culture cannot be covered in one article, but I would like to take a few key figures from the culture, study them, and contemplate their role in shaping Star Wars: The Old Republic. Let us explore this together after the break. Ib'tuur jatne tuur ash'ad kyr'amur!
Latest lore update for The Old Republic chronicles shadowy Imperial spies
A few of us on the Massively team are fans of the Lance Henriksen-narrated lore updates for Star Wars: The Old Republic that explain the MMO's timeline in video. The guy was Bishop, after all! So far these videos have given us a good idea of the game's backstory and have dropped some clues as to what we may see in the title. One of the more recent episodes was Return of the Mandalorians which focused on the independent warrior nomads who rose to challenge even the Jedi. While they aren't evil, war is their way of life and they thirst for conquest. According to the latest timeline update, "The Empire Changes Strategy", the Mandalorians had some help along the way from the Imperial spies who orchestrated their ascent to power. Henriksen narrates a tale of Imperial intelligence operatives pulling strings from the shadows for their Sith masters, and of the rise and fall of Mandalore himself. We think this continuation of the Star Wars: The Old Republic story is worth a look, and you can find it on the game's official site.
Mandalorians smack down the Jedi in SWTOR's new timeline update
One of the most common questions asked regarding Star Wars: The Old Republic and the easily accessible Jedi is, "Who's going to take on an army of Jedi?" We've long since had the answer tucked away here at Massively, but now BioWare has been kind enough to illustrate it for us in their latest timeline update, which features the fearsome Mandalorians.The nomadic Mandalorians are strikingly unique and much like the Jedi and Sith in that sense they're not an actual species; yet war is their singular goal in life. Their mantra is that strength is not merely good, it is great, it brings honor through battle. Thus, it's no surprise that Mandalorians are generally opposed to the Jedi and get along better with the power hungry Sith. At this point, the Republic Trooper's coutnerpart is pretty obvious. That powerful Jedi army doesn't seem so intimidating against legions of Sith, Bounty Hunters and bred-for-war Mandies, now does it?We highly recommend you check out the timeline video. It's not only informative, but quite entertaining if you've got even the slightest amount of interest in Star Wars: The Old Republic.
E3 2009: Star Wars: The Old Republic demonstration
The trailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic blew nerds around the world away, and has managed to build some of the greatest hype possible for an MMO in just a few short days. The question has been asked whether or not a trailer which contains absolutely no gameplay footage should be producing that sort of hype, but that trailer wasn't all that we saw of the upcoming MMORPG at E3. A panel dedicated to The Old Republic had much more to say.The panel opened up with the stage being set: The Old Republic begins 3,000 years before the rise of Darth Vader, 300 years after the events of Knights of the Old Republic, which would give BioWare an excellent opportunity to define and expand upon key events of Star Wars "pre-history."The entire presentation laid a significant emphasis on story and story elements. Right from the beginning, the developers lay out it: RPGs have four primary elements. Exploration, combat, progression, and story. The story element is the one most overlooked in MMOs, and The Old Republic intends to address that head on. They intend to embrace story right alongside the other RPG elements. It will be a major player, and not something just used to justify the other elements. %Gallery-35033%
