True Mandalorians

Following Tor Vizsla's attempts to create division among the Mandalorians and take Jaster Mereel's place as leader of the warrior culture with his radical and violent offshoot group, known as the Death Watch, the True Mandalorians were a group of Mandalorian supercommandos who united behind the cause of Mand'alor Jaster Mereel. The True Mandalorians backed Mereel's efforts to reform the more brutal elements of the Mandalorians and followed the teachings of the Supercommando Codex that Mereel authored. The Codex detailed honorable conduct through a modern interpretation of the ancient Canons of Honor and an expansion on the Resol'nare, the six fundamental principles of Mandalorian culture, which the True Mandalorians followed.

The True Mandalorians were highly skilled and well-organized soldiers. They were primarily formed from the full-time army of the planet Mandalore, and also included members from several of the homeworld's most prominent Mandalorian clans. Despite their high level of organization, the True Mandalorians' rank and unit structure remained somewhat unclear beyond their loyalty to the Mand'alor's authority. This was because most Mandalorians of that time had little regard for formal rank and preferred an informal command structure. Instead, the True Mandalorians organized their forces based on the tactical requirements of a given mission, selecting trusted and respected soldiers to serve as squad commanders for the duration of combat.

The True Mandalorian army's main purpose was to fight and eliminate the threat posed by the Death Watch, whose members were deeply hated by the organization's members. When they were not fighting their rogue Mandalorian enemies, the True Mandalorians sometimes offered their military services to interested parties as a mercenary company. Jaster Mereel believed there was an honest nobility in mercenary work, which had become a common part of Mandalorian culture over the centuries. Within their own ranks, the True Mandalorians cultivated a strong sense of camaraderie, respect, and concern for each other's well-being, demonstrating the Mandalorian tradition of supporting their comrades both on and off the battlefield.

Like the majority of members of the Mandalorian warrior clans, the True Mandalorians wore personalized sets of Mandalorian armor with plates colored in a variety of shades and combinations. Common designs often featured palettes of greens or grays, colors that traditionally represented duty and mourning, respectively, in Mandalorian culture. Other Mandalorians decorated their armor with paint schemes that included red, yellow, silver, and blue. Some True Mandalorians also chose to display the faction's unique identifying symbol on their armor and decorated their torso plates with personal symbols. Utility belts with multiple pouches and capes of various sizes were common armor accessories among the True Mandalorian ranks. Many True Mandalorians customized their armor with modular weaponry, including gauntlet-mounted flamethrowers, vibroblades, and rocket launchers, while others chose to wear jetpacks for the added ability to fly.

The True Mandalorians were equipped with a range of blasters, from rifles to carbines. Some preferred to carry blaster pistols, and some were known to use dual pistols in combat. Certain True Mandalorians attached combat knives to their blaster rifles to create improvised bayonets. The True Mandalorians transported their forces into battle using Meteor-class dropships, which were often launched into a planet's atmosphere from larger carrier vessels in orbit. These dropships, which could operate in both air and the vacuum of space, had heavily armored hulls and twin blaster cannons to protect the soldiers on board until they could be deployed on the ground.

Before battles, the True Mandalorians gathered for mission briefings where intelligence was shared, strategies were discussed, and assignments were given. The True Mandalorians preferred to conduct their own first-hand reconnaissance rather than rely on information from other sources, and they maintained constant communication with each other in the field using their helmets' built-in comlinks. When attacking a ground-based target, the True Mandalorians would quickly insert their troops from the air in Meteor-class dropships, around which they would quickly establish a secure landing zone. Recognizing the advantage of air support in combat, the True Mandalorians often assigned some of their forces to provide aerial cover for their ground units using jetpacks.

The True Mandalorians were known for planning and executing tactical ambushes, using the element of surprise and their surroundings to their advantage. They would use confined spaces like narrow streets or elevated positions like overhanging balconies to trap and eliminate their enemies. They were willing to use various deceptive tactics to gain an advantage over their enemies, including disguises to blend in with crowds and feigning weakness to lower an opponent's guard. Armored enemy transports were destroyed using mines that were secretly attached to the vehicle's outer hull and detonated remotely. When facing Force-sensitive opponents, the True Mandalorians understood that blaster weaponry was less effective against a lightsaber's ability to deflect energy bolts. Instead, they preferred to use projectile and explosive weapons, as well as close-quarters unarmed combat.

In the year 200 BBY, multiple Mandalorian clans engaged in a war with the Ithullan race over a narcolethe distillery. After winning, these clans committed genocide against their defeated enemies, wiping out almost the entire Ithullan population. Many Mandalorian soldiers were unhappy with the widespread brutality and banditry that had become common among some of their peers after what many historians considered to be the greatest crime of that era. Almost a century and a half later, in 60 BBY, Jaster Mereel, a charismatic soldier, claimed the title of Mand'alor, the traditional leader of the Mandalorian clans. Mereel was a respected and highly principled man who had previously been a Journeyman Protector of Concord Dawn. He sympathized with the clans' dissatisfaction and sought to implement reforms. He revived and modernized the ancient Canons of Honor that Mandalorians had followed in the past, creating a series of hundreds of commandments governing moral Mandalorian behavior, which he called the Supercommando Codex. Like the Canons before it, the Codex drew heavily from the Resol'nare, the six core principles of Mandalorian culture. Through the Codex, Mereel taught that Mandalorians who wished to fight would no longer be allowed to act as raiders and bandits, but only as highly-paid soldiers who should conduct themselves as honorable mercenaries.

However, not everyone agreed with the Codex or Mereel's reforms. The New Mandalorians, a pacifist political faction that had existed since the aftermath of the Mandalorian Excision of 738 BBY, believed in peace and non-violence above all else. Despite Mereel's reforms, any act of Mandalorian violence fundamentally opposed their beliefs. More dangerously, the immoral mercenaries whom Mereel had sought to control enjoyed their lives of lawlessness and unaccountability, and would-be revanchists conspired against the peaceful New Mandalorians, whom they saw as an insult to the Mandalorians' warrior traditions. Led by the barbaric Tor Vizsla, these outlaws united to oppose Mereel's reforms, calling their new offshoot faction the Death Watch. The Death Watch dreamed of returning to the ways of the ancient Mandalorians and overthrowing the hated New Mandalorians, and they planned to eventually launch a second war of conquest across the galaxy. Those who were most loyal to Mereel and his ideals rallied to their leader from various clans and Mandalore's full-time army, renaming themselves "True Mandalorians" to distinguish themselves from the Death Watch outcasts. Tensions escalated due to pressure from Mandalorian hardliners to destroy the Death Watch, leading to open conflict between the Death Watch and the True Mandalorians and the start of a civil war.

As the Mandalorian Civil War between the True Mandalorians and the Death Watch began in earnest, the New Mandalorians chose to remain neutral, with their government refusing to support either side. In 58 BBY, the war spread to Concord Dawn, an agricultural world in the Outer Rim's Mandalore sector and the homeworld of Jaster Mereel. There, the True Mandalorians engaged the Death Watch in a long firefight, but they were eventually forced to withdraw, scattering their forces as they retreated into the crop fields of the local farmers. Mereel and his troops sought refuge on the homestead of the Fett family, but the Death Watch soon followed, determined to destroy the True Mandalorians. They brutally interrogated the father of the family and threatened the life of his young son, Jango Fett, if he refused to reveal the True Mandalorians' location. Chaos erupted when the boy's mother tried to defend her son and husband with a blaster rifle, leading to the deaths of the young Fett's parents and the kidnapping of his sister, Arla, when the Death Watch retaliated. Amidst the violence, Mereel abandoned the True Mandalorians' cover in the fields to rescue Jango Fett, grabbing the boy as the True Mandalorians provided covering fire to allow them to escape further into the fields.

Not wanting to let the True Mandalorians escape a second time, the Death Watch set the fields on fire, hoping to use the flames against their enemies. As the fire closed in, Jango Fett led the True Mandalorians to a large irrigation pipe that they used to escape the burning field unharmed. With his parents dead, Jaster Mereel took Fett with his soldiers to the nearby town, where the True Mandalorians began to set up an ambush for the Death Watch. Believing that they had successfully eliminated the True Mandalorians, the Death Watch rode into the town intending to loot as they pleased before moving on. However, when a Death Watch soldier accosted an elderly man with a walking stick on the street, the man revealed himself to be a True Mandalorian in disguise, throwing aside his cloak and stick as he opened fire. From the overhead balcony of a nearby building, the True Mandalorian soldier Montross fired down on the Death Watch, providing cover as the young Fett planted an explosive mine on the underside of the Death Watch's armored transport. As soon as Fett was clear, the mine was detonated, destroying the tank. The remaining Death Watch warriors were picked off as Mereel and his troops moved in from the surrounding alleyways, while Fett himself killed the man responsible for his family's death. Although Tor Vizsla escaped with his life, the battle on Concord Dawn was a victory for the True Mandalorians. The Death Watch had been almost completely eliminated, and Jango Fett was taken in by Jaster Mereel, becoming a Mandalorian.

Years passed without Vizsla reappearing, and the True Mandalorians believed that the Death Watch was gone after the battle on Concord Dawn. With no enemy to fight, Jaster Mereel reinvented the True Mandalorians as a mercenary army. In 52 BBY, six years after the Death Watch's defeat, the Korda Defense Force hired the True Mandalorians to rescue a team of rookie security personnel who were pinned down under fire on the planet Korda Six by a group of local hostiles. Intelligence gathered by the Kordans indicated that these native fighters were poorly armed and lacked a formal army. After accepting the job, the True Mandalorians traveled to the Korda system in the Inner Rim. On the way to their destination, the members of the True Mandalorians were briefed on the upcoming mission, first by Jaster Mereel, who outlined the objective and mission parameters, and then by Montross, who assigned tasks to the troops. For the Kordan job, the True Mandalorians' forces were divided into three units: Vertigo Company, an aerial unit equipped with jetpacks under Montross' command; Headhunter Company, the armed extraction team under Jaster Mereel's command, tasked with rescuing the security personnel; and Jango's grunts, a rear-guard unit under Jango Fett's command, assigned to defend the landing zone and provide covering fire. After the briefing, the True Mandalorians arrived in orbit over Korda Six, boarded Meteor-class dropships, and disembarked from the carrier toward the surface below.

As the True Mandalorians entered the atmosphere, their fleet of dropships was overwhelmed by a barrage of ion cannon fire. Several dropships were hit and lost power, forcing them to make a series of rough crash landings with varying degrees of success. The ships that managed to land and deploy troops did so under heavy fire from a large and heavily armed hostile Kordan force, which the True Mandalorians' intelligence had not anticipated. The Mandalorian troops were forced to take cover in trenches to survive the powerful onslaught, while those who could not reach cover in time were killed by enemy fire.

With reports of increasing casualties and the realization that their intelligence was woefully inaccurate, Jaster Mereel ordered all units to meet at Jango Fett's position at the landing site and commanded Vertigo Company to abort their planned attack run on the Kordan hostiles. However, Montross insisted that the True Mandalorians push forward, refusing Mereel's orders to retreat as he led Vertigo Company to press their attack. Montross and his soldiers attacked an enemy emplacement at the top of a large ridge but were met with heavy blaster fire and a sudden grenade attack. While his troops retreated to the True Mandalorians' landing zone, Mereel personally attacked the Kordans alone, rescuing Montross. At the same time, Fett decided to use Montross' misguided assault as a diversion to reach the security team with his own troops in an attempt to complete the mission. However, when Fett's True Mandalorians arrived at the forested extraction point, they found not a team of security personnel in need of rescue, but a Death Watch ambush. A firefight broke out, and Fett tried to counter the Death Watch's initial surprise advantage with a stream of fire from his gauntlet flamethrower, but the skirmish quickly turned into close-quarters combat due to the confined space of the trees.

With their presence on Korda Six revealed, the Death Watch moved to confront Jaster Mereel personally on the battlefield. From the troop bay of an armored tank, Tor Vizsla launched a wrist-mounted rocket at Mereel, which the Mand'alor barely dodged, while Montross leaped away with his jetpack. As the tank's blaster cannons opened fire, Mereel called to Montross for an airlift, but Montross refused his request. Dissatisfied with taking orders from Mereel, Montross left the Mandalorian leader to the Death Watch and flew back to regroup with the other True Mandalorians. Although Mereel tried to return fire before retreating on foot, and Jango Fett rushed to help him, Mereel was overpowered and mortally wounded by the tank's sustained attack. Fett arrived in time to see Montross leave, but he could only comfort Mereel as he died and then carry the Mand'alor's body back to the True Mandalorian extraction point. There, Montross had claimed that both Mereel and Fett had died in combat as part of a plan to claim the title of Mand'alor for himself. When Fett arrived carrying Mereel's body, he informed the others of Montross' betrayal. Montross was exiled, and Fett succeeded Mereel as Mand'alor with the support of the True Mandalorians.

Though the True Mandalorians were initially ambushed by the Death Watch upon their resurgence, Jango Fett's leadership enabled them to not only survive Korda Six with most of their warriors, but also to relentlessly pursue the Death Watch across the galaxy. In 44 BBY, eight years after the Korda Six incident, the True Mandalorians tracked the Death Watch to Galidraan in the Thanium sector. Upon hearing reports that the Governor of Galidraan was giving refuge to Tor Vizsla and funding his efforts to revive the Death Watch, Mand'alor Fett made an agreement to assist the governor in suppressing a group of local insurgents in return for information regarding Vizsla's and the Death Watch's location.

Using jetpacks, the True Mandalorians descended upon the Galidraan rebels' base, launching an aerial assault before landing to engage them on the snow-covered terrain. The attack was swift and overwhelming, with the Galidraan rebels unable to withstand the True Mandalorians' array of blasters, wrist-rockets, and flamethrowers, resulting in their complete annihilation. With their mission accomplished, Fett instructed his forces to return to their established camp on Galidraan, while he personally went to the governor's palace to receive their promised payment. Upon meeting the governor, Fett informed him of the rebels' defeat, but when he requested the agreed-upon intelligence about Vizsla's location, the governor denied Vizsla's presence on Galidraan. Suddenly, Vizsla and a squad of Death Watch soldiers emerged from their concealed positions within the palace and attacked Fett, forcing the Mandalorian leader to escape the governor's palace through a large window using his jetpack. Vizsla fired his blaster at Fett, hitting and damaging his jetpack, causing him to crash land in the snow far from the True Mandalorian camp.

Despite successfully locating the Death Watch, the True Mandalorians unwittingly walked into another trap set by their adversaries. While the True Mandalorians were occupied with the rebels, the governor of Galidraan had contacted the Jedi Council on Coruscant, the capital of the Galactic Republic, requesting the Jedi Order's assistance in dealing with a Mandalorian army that he falsely claimed was massacring political activists. Almost as soon as Fett discovered Vizsla's presence on Galidraan, Consular-class cruisers carrying a Jedi task force arrived on Galidraan. Vizsla ordered the governor to direct the Jedi to the True Mandalorians' camp and falsely accuse Fett's troops of murdering innocent women and children—Death Watch would provide fabricated evidence of the True Mandalorians' supposed atrocities. Although Fett spotted the Jedi ships, his helmet's comlink was damaged during the crash, forcing Fett to run through the snow to the camp in order to warn his comrades.

Jango Fett reached the True Mandalorian camp just moments before the Jedi arrived. The Jedi task force, led by Jedi Master Dooku, believed the governor's lies and demanded the Mandalorians' immediate surrender to face murder charges, with Dooku's Padawan Komari Vosa adding that resistance would result in their deaths. Innocent and enraged, Fett ordered the True Mandalorians to fire upon the Jedi, specifically targeting Vosa. While their blasters were initially effective in holding the Jedi back, the energy bolts deflected by the Jedi's lightsabers proved dangerous and costly to the True Mandalorian ranks, leading Fett to order his soldiers to switch to projectile weapons that were harder to deflect. As True Mandalorians launched volleys of wrist-fired rockets at their Jedi opponents, Fett ordered several jetpack-equipped soldiers to provide aerial support and cover for the troops on the ground. Several Jedi were killed in the attacks, but numerous Mandalorians also died due to the Force or the slash of a Jedi's lightsaber. An airborne True Mandalorian named Myles was cut down in midair by a Jedi's lightsaber while Fett could only watch. During the chaotic battle, Fett personally killed six Jedi using only his hands, feet, and armored body; the Jedi responsible for Myles' death was disarmed and violently subdued by Fett, before the Mandalorian leader ended his life with a fibercord garrote.

Despite his valiant efforts, Fett couldn't alter the battle's outcome: although the Jedi's forces had been reduced by half—eleven of their original twenty killed by the True Mandalorians—every True Mandalorian on Galidraan, except for Fett himself, was killed by the Jedi. With his comrades dead, a defeated and emotionally drained Fett knelt in the Galidraan snow and allowed the Jedi to apprehend him. He was stripped of his Mandalorian armor and handed over to the authority of Galidraan's governor, who subsequently sold Fett into slavery while keeping his armor as a prized possession. The Mandalorian Civil War had effectively ended, with the Death Watch triumphing over the True Mandalorians through their deceitful schemes.

With the True Mandalorians no longer actively opposing them, the Death Watch was free to target the New Mandalorians. While Fett was enslaved, Death Watch instigated a violent conflict on Mandalore that became known as the Great Clan Wars. This second civil war divided many clans, turning family members against each other, as some supported Death Watch's objectives while others remained loyal to the True Mandalorians' ideals. Many Mandalorians perished in the conflict, but Death Watch ultimately failed to overthrow the New Mandalorian government. Several of the chieftain warlords who had been swayed into war by Death Watch went into exile on Mandalore's moon, Concordia, along with several defeated Death Watch warriors. Tor Vizsla and his remaining Death Watch troops retreated to regroup and rebuild their forces.

In his training manual titled Ba'jurne Kyr'tsad Mando'ad, Death Watch leader Tor Vizsla instructed his soldiers to remain vigilant for signs of the True Mandalorian remnants reforming. He emphasized that they must remember that those who escaped Galidraan were as familiar with the Mandalorian principle of ba'slan shev'la, or "strategic disappearance," as they were.

For two years, Jango Fett endured slavery aboard a spice transport, until the day the transport was attacked by pirates. Amidst the chaos of the assault, Fett liberated himself, killed his captors, and fought his way off the transport. Returning to Galidraan, Fett infiltrated the governor's palace, reclaimed his stolen armor, and threatened the governor with death to reveal the Death Watch's location. From there, Fett tracked Tor Vizsla's ship, the Death Rattle, to the planet Corellia. Attacking the vessel with his own starfighter, Fett destroyed the Death Rattle's engines in an unmanned ramming maneuver, while he personally blasted his way into the ship through the Rattle's forward viewport using a pair of wrist-launched rockets and relying solely on his armor for protection against the explosion and the vacuum of space.

Once aboard the crippled Death Rattle, Fett pursued Vizsla, who was attempting to escape to the vessel's escape pods, leading to a brief hand-to-hand confrontation in which Vizsla temporarily gained the upper hand. However, as the Death Watch leader attempted to board an escape pod, Fett pursued him, and their battle continued from orbit down to the surface of Corellia. Upon exiting the pod, Fett and Vizsla engaged in a fierce duel—their struggle attracted the attention of a pack of nearby dire-cats—before Vizsla stabbed Fett in the torso with a poisoned blade from his gauntlet. Although the toxin was nonlethal, it weakened Fett and left him vulnerable to Vizsla, who seized the opportunity to beat and berate his opponent, unaware of the approaching dire-cats that Fett had noticed. Before Vizsla could deliver the final blow, Fett slashed the Death Watch leader across his stomach, cutting between the gaps in his armor's plates and drawing a significant amount of blood. The scent of the blood triggered the dire-cats to attack, mauling and killing Vizsla, while leaving Fett unharmed due to the poison in his bloodstream. With Tor Vizsla's death, Fett avenged his fallen True Mandalorian comrades and completed the mission of his surrogate father, Jaster Mereel.

The loss of his comrades and his time as a slave embittered Jango Fett, causing him to distance himself from the Mandalorian people and his role as Mand'alor. With the True Mandalorians gone, Fett embraced the solitary life of a bounty hunter. The destruction of the True Mandalorians at Galidraan haunted Jedi Master Dooku for years afterward. While he was initially appalled by the carnage, he later privately considered it a pivotal moment in his life, the event that prompted him to question the Jedi Council's decisions, as Dooku and his Jedi task force had killed the True Mandalorians based on a lie told to the Council by the corrupt Galidraanian governor. The events of Galidraan partly influenced Dooku's decision to leave the Jedi Order, eventually falling under the influence of the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious, becoming his Sith apprentice, Darth Tyranus. Having witnessed the ferocity of Mandalorian soldiers firsthand, Tyranus captured the only surviving True Mandalorian besides Jango Fett, a soldier named Silas, who had been absent from the battle on Galidraan and thus survived the massacre. Using the information on Fett he obtained from Silas before killing him, Tyranus recruited Fett to serve as the progenitor of a clone army intended to one day destroy the Jedi. Fett claimed the first clone for himself, a child he named Boba and raised as a son, passing on the True Mandalorian teachings of Jaster Mereel until his death at the Battle of Geonosis.

The scattered Death Watch continued their plans to overthrow the pacifist New Mandalorians in secret, without interference from the True Mandalorians. Over time, Death Watch rebuilt their forces in hiding, finally emerging at the start of the Clone Wars to again attack the New Mandalorians, and in 20 BBY, the rogue Mandalorian sect finally succeeded in overthrowing the New Mandalorian faction.

When Spar—an ARC trooper deserter from the clone army Jango Fett had created for the Republic—succeeded his progenitor as Mand'alor, and proceeded to raise an army of Mandalorian supercommandos, his new Mandalorian Protectors were modeled after the True Mandalorians. Similar to the True Mandalorians who came before, the Protectors emphasized high moral standards and followed the teachings of Jaster Mereel's Supercommando Codex. The destruction of the True Mandalorians at the hands of the Jedi on Galidraan, along with the oppressive nature of the Republic, prompted Spar to align the Mandalorians with the Confederacy of Independent Systems during the Clone Wars.

Despite their relatively brief existence, the True Mandalorians left a significant mark on the galaxy's history. The New Republic Historical Council documented the rise and fall of the True Mandalorians during the Mandalorian Civil War in their historical chronicle, The New Essential Chronology. The Jedi historian Tionne Solusar briefly mentioned the True Mandalorians in her compendium, The Essential Guide to the Force, and the historical scholar Vilnau Teupt discussed the True Mandalorians during his keynote address at the our-hundred-twelfth Proceedings of Galactic Anthropology and History at the Brentaal Academy, titled "Industry, Honor, Savagery: Shaping the Mandalorian Soul."

Hailing from Concord Dawn and a member of the world's law enforcement Journeyman Protectors, Jaster Mereel was an exceptional soldier and a respected figure known for his strong moral principles. These principles led Mereel to kill a corrupt superior officer, resulting in his exile from his home. Mereel later joined the Mandalorians, and sensing widespread dissatisfaction with the declining ethics among the more dishonorable members of the warrior culture, he fought to become the new Mand'alor and introduce a new ideal to the clans, defeating the barbaric Tor Vizsla in the process. Through the Supercommando Codex, Mereel declared that any Mandalorian who wished to fight would do so as honorable, highly-paid soldiers. Opposed by the pacifistic New Mandalorian government and Vizsla's radical followers, who called themselves the Death Watch, a civil war erupted between the violent Death Watch and Mereel's loyal soldiers, who identified as the "True Mandalorians." Mereel led his True Mandalorian soldiers against the Death Watch on his home planet, where they were rescued by the young Jango Fett, and managed to severely wound Vizsla in a skirmish that resulted in the Death Watch's defeat. After his family was murdered by Death Watch, Mereel became a surrogate father to Fett, inducting the boy into the Mandalorian culture.

Believing that the Death Watch had been eliminated following their defeat on Concord Dawn, Mereel began leading the True Mandalorians as a mercenary army. In 58 BBY, Mereel and the True Mandalorians were hired to extract an inexperienced security team from hostile fire on Korda Six. Based on Kordan intelligence suggesting minimal resistance, Mereel considered the mission "easy credits" and deployed his army, only to discover that the Death Watch had set up an ambush. When Mereel's second-in-command, Montross, refused to obey the Mand'alor's order to retreat and found himself surrounded by enemy forces, Mereel was forced to rescue his disobedient subordinate, only to be attacked by Tor Vizsla himself. Montross abandoned the Mandalorian leader, using his jetpack to escape Vizsla's assault while Mereel was left to die. Jango Fett attempted to rescue his adoptive father but couldn't reach the Mand'alor in time; mortally wounded, Mereel died in the arms of his surrogate son, and Fett returned the fallen Mand'alor's body to the True Mandalorians' extraction point. There, Montross argued his claim to the Mand'alor title, but when the truth of his betrayal was revealed, the True Mandalorians rallied behind Fett as their new leader. Montross went into exile, as Fett succeeded Mereel as both Mand'alor and the leader of the True Mandalorians, in accordance with what his troops believed Mereel would have wanted.

The son of a Journeyman Protector, Jango Fett spent his early years on his family's farm on Concord Dawn. However, his peaceful farming life was disrupted when he was still a child, as the civil war between the True Mandalorians and Death Watch spread to his home planet. Fett's family was killed by Tor Vizsla and his Death Watch soldiers, and he only survived due to the intervention of Jaster Mereel, Mand'alor and leader of the True Mandalorians. Fett was taken in by Mereel, who raised the boy as his surrogate son and trained him to be a Mandalorian. When the True Mandalorians were contracted to rescue a security team under fire on Korda Six, Fett was given his first command role; at the age of fourteen—now considered an adult in Mandalorian society—Fett led an infantry unit of True Mandalorian troops on Korda Six, where they discovered that the entire mission was a ruse orchestrated by the Death Watch. Overwhelmed by the native Kordans and ambushed by Death Watch, the True Mandalorian forces suffered heavy casualties, including the death of Jaster Mereel. With the support of the other True Mandalorians, Fett succeeded his surrogate father as leader of the True Mandalorians and Mand'alor.

Under Fett's leadership, the True Mandalorians retaliated against the Death Watch, pursuing Tor Vizsla to the Outer Rim world of Galidraan. Fett and his soldiers suppressed a local rebellion against the governor of Galidraan in exchange for information on Vizsla's whereabouts, but when Fett went to collect on the governor's part of the agreement, he was ambushed in the governor's palace by Vizsla and a cadre of Death Watch troops. Simultaneously, a Jedi task force arrived on Galidraan, seeking to arrest the True Mandalorians due to false information provided by the governor as Vizsla's proxy. The True Mandalorians resisted, and a battle ensued between their forces and those of the Jedi; half of the Jedi strike team was killed, with Fett personally killing six of them, but by the battle's end, the True Mandalorians on Galidraan had been annihilated, with Fett as the only survivor. Subdued by the Jedi and handed over to the custody of Galidraan's governor, Fett was subsequently sold into slavery, until he escaped two years later to complete the True Mandalorians' mission and eliminate the Death Watch. Tracking Death Watch to Corellia, he crippled their ship and engaged Vizsla in a prolonged fight that spanned from orbit to the surface of Corellia. There, he critically wounded the Death Watch leader, and Vizsla was devoured by a pack of nearby dire-cats drawn by the scent of blood. With the True Mandalorians gone, Fett distanced himself from the Mandalorian people and his role as Mand'alor, embracing a solitary life as a lone bounty hunter until his death.

A Mandalorian soldier with a formidable reputation, Montross was among those who rallied to Mand'alor Jaster Mereel when the Death Watch formed in opposition to him, proclaiming themselves to be the True Mandalorians. Montross was among the Mandalorian hardliners who urged Mereel to take decisive action against the Death Watch, and as civil war erupted, Montross followed Mereel into battle against Death Watch. On Concord Dawn, Montross participated in an ambush that devastated Death Watch forces and nearly resulted in the death of their leader, Tor Vizsla; even as the victorious True Mandalorians prepared to leave the Outer Rim world, Montross lingered behind, shooting down fleeing Death Watch stragglers until Mereel ordered him to stand down. Montross and Mereel frequently clashed over tactical issues and Montross' tendency to cause unacceptable levels of collateral damage.

Years later, during the True Mandalorians' mission to extract a security team under fire from local hostiles on Korda Six, Montross was placed in command of Vertigo Company, a unit of jetpack-equipped troops tasked with providing air support for True Mandalorian forces on the ground. Although the True Mandalorians incurred heavy casualties due to the overwhelming hostile Kordans, Montross and Vertigo Company pressed their attack, disobeying Jaster Mereel's orders to retreat. Mereel personally rescued Montross from the Kordans, but when the Death Watch revealed their presence on the planet and attacked the True Mandalorians, Montross abandoned Mereel to die to enemy fire, having grown tired of taking orders from him. Retreating to the True Mandalorians' landing zone, Montross insisted that the Mandalorians retreat in accordance with Mereel's last order and presented himself as the best choice to succeed Mereel as leader. However, when Jango Fett—Mereel's surrogate son and fellow True Mandalorian—returned to the extraction point carrying Mereel's body, he revealed Montross' betrayal. The True Mandalorians rallied behind Fett and appointed him the new Mand'alor, while Montross was forced into exile. Banished from Mandalorian society, Montross became a bounty hunter known for his ruthlessness. He later competed with Fett for a bounty on the leader of the Bando Gora cult after Fett, too, became a bounty hunter following the destruction of the True Mandalorians on Galidraan. In a final confrontation between the former allies-turned-enemies, Fett defeated Montross on Bogden's moon of Kohlma, and left him to be torn apart by mindless Bando Gora cultists.

Silas, a male Mandalorian of the Human species, spent his formative years amongst the ranks of the True Mandalorians. In his youth, he forged a bond of friendship with Jango Fett, the adopted son of Mand'alor Jaster Mereel, holding him in high regard and admiration. When the True Mandalorians were hired to rescue a security team trapped under intense enemy fire on Korda Six, Silas and Fett joined forces in the ensuing intense combat, striving to extract the security personnel while the majority of the True Mandalorians confronted the native Kordan warriors. However, at the designated extraction point, Silas and his fellow unit members were caught in an ambush by a revitalized faction of the Death Watch splinter group. Although Silas was unfamiliar with this group, having enlisted with the True Mandalorians after the presumed annihilation of the Death Watch on Concord Dawn, he swiftly adjusted and engaged the new adversary.

As Jaster Mereel became the target of a Death Watch assault, Jango Fett raced to the aid of his adoptive father, with Silas closely trailing behind. Upon arriving at the combat zone, the two warriors discovered that they were too late: Mereel was felled by Death Watch leader Tor Vizsla in a barrage of cannon fire from an armored vehicle, while Silas was compelled to prevent Fett from rushing to Mereel's side and sharing the Mand'alor's fate. After Vizsla departed, satisfied with Mereel's demise, Fett and Silas retrieved Mereel's remains and transported them back to the True Mandalorians' landing zone. There, they encountered Montross, Mereel's treacherous second-in-command, attempting to seize the mantle of Mand'alor. Fett protested, citing Montross' abandonment of Mereel on the battlefield, and Silas stood by his comrade, asserting that Fett was the rightful successor. Supported by Silas and the other True Mandalorians, Fett ascended to the leadership of their group, becoming the new Mand'alor. Silas remained a loyal follower of Fett, but he was not present at the battle of Galidraan, where the True Mandalorians met their end. Years later, the former Jedi Master Dooku captured him and subjected him to brutal torture to extract information about Jango Fett. After finally yielding and recounting his experiences with Fett to Dooku, Silas was subsequently executed.

The initial appearance of the True Mandalorians within Star Wars canon occurred in the 2002 comic book series Jango Fett: Open Seasons, penned by W. Haden Blackman and brought to life by the illustrations of Ramón F. Bachs. Open Seasons, which centered on Jango Fett's early life and his integration into Mandalorian culture, showcased the True Mandalorians throughout all four installments of the series. Subsequently, the True Mandalorians received a reference in the LucasArts video game Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, which saw its release on December 5, 2002. Karen Traviss' 2009 novel, Imperial Commando: 501st, and James Luceno's 2012 novel, Darth Plagueis, both contained mentions of the organization and its actions. Further elaboration on the True Mandalorians and their position within the broader Mandalorian culture was provided in the Star Wars Insider article titled The History of the Mandalorians, authored by Abel G. Peña. The information entry dedicated to the Mandalorian Protectors in the Galaxy at War sourcebook alluded to the True Mandalorians, as did The New Essential Chronology, and the online role-playing guide for the Star Wars Galaxies video game, titled The Way of the Warrior: A Guide to becoming a Mandalorian Soldier. In their comprehensive exploration of the history of the planet Mandalore and the Mandalorian culture, both The Essential Atlas and The Essential Guide to Warfare made mention of the True Mandalorians.

During a conversation within Karen Traviss' Republic Commando novel Order 66, veteran Mandalorian soldiers Kal Skirata and Walon Vau remarked that they should have been present with Jango Fett during the battle of Galidraan. Although this might imply an affiliation with or connection to the True Mandalorians on the part of Skirata and Vau, neither character has been officially linked to the group at this point in time.

A Mandalorian banner displayed in Dok-Ondar's Den of Antiquities features the group's sigil in the new Star Wars canon.