Show Notes
The Cuy'val Dar were the one hundred trainers — seventy-five of them Mandalorians — handpicked by Jango Fett to forge the Republic's clone commandos in secret on Kamino. In this Star Wars Legends deep dive, Star Lores explores "those who no longer exist": Kal Skirata, Walon Vau, Mij Gilamar, Rav Bralor, and the mercenaries, bounty hunters, and assassins who shaped clone individuality, Mandalorian culture, and the elite soldiers of the Grand Army of the Republic. From the Republic Commando saga and the Clone Wars to Kyrimorut, Death Watch, and the legacy that echoed into the Yuuzhan Vong War, we break down the men and women who built an army and vanished.
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More from Star Lores - A Star Wars Legends Podcast
Part 2 of our deep dive into Star Wars Legends’ Rebel Alliance SpecForce covers the five regiments that rounded out the roster: Urban Guerrillas fighting block-by-block in Imperial-occupied cities, Wilderness Fighters (the Rangers) mastering every terrain from Hoth’s ice fields to Endor’s forests, Infiltrators running sabotage and espionage deep behind enemy lines, Heavy Weapons Specialists hauling the firepower to crack fortified Imperial positions, and the Technicians, drivers, medics, and scroungers who kept every taskforce running. We trace specific units and operations across the Galactic Civil War, including the Nishr Taskforce and Taskforce Shen, and close out with a discussion on real-world special-ops and intelligence parallels, plus a look at how Legends canon handles the Rebellion’s covert war.
Every fleet has an edge: special forces sent in when regular soldiers can't get the job done. This episode we break down the Alliance's SpecForce: brutal selection, grueling training, rigid division structure, and the petty rivalry with their SpecOps cousins. Then regiment by regiment, starting with the Marines who boarded enemy ships in zero-g and the Pathfinders who slipped in ahead of everyone else. Real mission case studies included, Operation Cobolt, the Nishr campaign, and the strike team at Endor.
Stranded on Endor, we uncover the Sanyassans — the reptilian "Marauders" behind King Terak's fortress in the Dragon's Pelt savanna. We trace their fall from an advanced civilization shattered by the Din supernova to a might-makes-right raider culture, their brutal reign over the Forest Moon under Terak, Charal, and General Yavid, and their sudden vanishing after Terak's death. Along the way: cargo-cult technology, exonyms and outsider naming, and what a fictional species' Legends history reveals about how real history gets written by outsiders.
Our ship went down on Endor, the forest moon that would one day decide the fate of the galaxy. In this episode of Star Lores, we explore the world beneath the canopy: the Ewoks of Bright Tree Village, the sinister Sanyassan Marauders and their Force-witch Charal, the spirits bound to Soul Trees, and the strange menagerie of boar-wolves, condor dragons, and Gorax that stalk its forests. It's a surprisingly deep corner of Star Wars Legends, shaped by decades of films, comics, and cartoons. And we're just getting started exploring it.
The origins of the clone troopers, Star Wars' Grand Army of the Republic: Jango Fett's genetic template, Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas' secret commission, Kamino cloning, the Null-class ARC troopers, Kal Skirata, Cuy'val Dar Mandalorian trainers, clone commandos, ARC troopers, Commander Cody, Captain Rex, and the road to Order 66 — all in Part 1 of our Clone Wars deep dive.