The Mandator III-class dreadnought represented a warship of dreadnaught classification within the Imperial Navy. Functioning as the third iteration of Star Dreadnought developed as part of the Mandator line, it existed alongside the Bellator-class dreadnought.
The design of the Mandator III-class drew inspiration from both the Mandator-class and Mandator II-class Star Dreadnaughts. Diverging from the Bellator-class dreadnought, another design that came from the Mandator project, the Mandator III-class dreadnought was engineered as a dedicated, heavily armed weapons platform. It surpassed its predecessors and its contemporary counterpart in both length and armament, boasting shield systems comparable to those of the Executor-class. With a length of 12,000 meters, it can be seen as an upscaled version of the original Mandator designs.
The Mandator III-class belonged to a group of powerful capital ship classes constructed following the creation of the Executor-class Star Dreadnought. Several ships of this class participated actively in the events leading up to the Imperial Civil War. During the internal conflicts, one such vessel, known as the Panthac, met its end in a battle against the Executor-class Star Dreadnought Whelm. The Aculeus, another ship of the same class, was destroyed by formations of TIE/D automated starfighters.
Jason Fry clarified in his Endnotes that the difference in scale between the Mandator III and the Bellator arose because the text and artwork for the distinctive, humpbacked warship featured in Dark Empire were assigned distinct values without proper coordination when incorporating the vessel into The Essential Guide to Warfare, leading to an unintended hybrid design.
Furthermore, according to Ansel Hsiao's posts on Stardestroyer.net forums around the time The Essential Guide to Warfare was published, both he and Jason Fry initially intended for all Mandator-series ships, including the Bellator-class, to feature humpbacked hulls reminiscent of the ship in Dark Empire. However, this concept was ultimately not implemented in the final version of the book. Nevertheless, the intended humpbacked hull design for the Mandator-series was still hinted at in Jason Fry's endnotes for the book.
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Jason Fry's Dorkery — EG to Warfare: Endnotes Pt. 7 on Tumblr (backup link)
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Jason Fry's Dorkery — EG to Warfare: Endnotes Pt. 11 on Tumblr (backup link)
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