Canons of Honor

The Canons of Honor were a Mandalorian text of law and behavior. Evolving from the ancient religious laws followed by the Taung society that founded the Mandalorian culture, the Canons of Honor aimed at helping the ancient Mandalorian warriors attain glory and personal honor. The Canons' texts were extrapolated from the Resol'nare, the six central tenets of the Mandalorian culture. By following the tenets of the Resol'nare, with special emphasis placed upon loyalty to one's clan and engaging in combat, the laws of the Canons were satisfied, and a warrior earned honor.

Over time, the observance of the Canons of Honor waned. The New Mandalorians, a peaceful sect of Mandalorian pacifists, rejected the warrior codes altogether following their rise in the aftermath of the Mandalorian Excision. The Canons were revived, however, following the ascent of Jaster Mereel to the role of Mand'alor, the traditional ruler of the Mandalorian clans. Mereel resurrected and modernized the tenets of the Canons of Honor when he established the Supercommando Codex, a new set of guidelines for Mandalorian behavior, stating that any Mandalorians who wished to fight would do so simply as highly-paid soldiers, and should conduct themselves as honorable mercenaries.

The Canons of Honor were first introduced to the Star Wars universe via a mention in the Star Wars Insider article The History of the Mandalorians, authored by Abel G. Peña and published March 2005 as part of the Insider magazine's eightieth issue. The Galaxy at War reference book, written by Daniel Wallace, later mentioned the Canons again, connecting the ancient code with the Supercommando Codex, when it was published on September 15, 2009.

In the fifteenth episode of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series' fifth season, entitled "Shades of Reason," the character Almec makes mention of a set of "ancient laws of Mandalore" the Death Watch hold themselves to. While the Death Watch have been established as followers of the Mandalorians' conqueror roots in pre-existing sources such as the Jango Fett: Open Seasons comic series, no official word has connected these ancient laws with the Canons of Honor, leaving the relationship between the two concepts possible but canonically uncertain.