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The radical Mandalorian splinter group known as the Death Watch used this hideout on Mandalore's moon, Concordia, during their resurgence under the leadership of Pre Vizsla. Vizsla, the Governor of Concordia, established the Death Watch's base of operations within one of the abandoned mines left behind on Concordia from the days of widespread beskar mining. There, the Death Watch were able to make use of the old mining equipment in the manufacture of armor and weapons for their troops. Around 21 BBY, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi discovered the Death Watch's hidden base. He was captured and held within the base's attached mining and production facility, before being rescued by Duchess Satine Kryze, leader of Mandalore's New Mandalorian faction. During their escape, Kenobi fought against several Death Watch soldiers before engaging Pre Vizsla in combat, a fight the Jedi Master took the upper hand in until the entry of a trio of Death Watch troopers. Presented with overwhelming odds, Kenobi and Kryze were forced to retreat, but even after being discovered, the Death Watch continued to operate out of their Concordian base. It was there that Vizsla gathered a Death Watch army in preparation for a take over of Mandalore backed by Confederacy of Independent Systems leader, Count Dooku. However, when the Count's plan fell through, he ordered his Death Watch allies at the base to stand down and await a time when their forces would be better prepared to strike.
Description[]
Death Watch soldiers with an AAT at their base on Concordia
The Death Watch's hidden base on Concordia was located in one of the abandoned mines built on the moon centuries prior to the Clone Wars.[2] Consisting mainly of a group of curved-roofed buildings, the Death Watch's base sat at the bottom of a circular mining quarry. These buildings were equipped with holocharts[1] and holographic comm stations.[3] The Death Watch's numerous Kom'rk-class fighter/transports[4] could often be found resting on the ground around the main structure.[1][3] Attached to the above-ground base and accessible by a nearby lift, was a mining and processing facility, in which the Death Watch used the leftover machinery in the creation of armor and jetpacks for their troops.[1]
History[]
Pre Vizsla speaking with Count Dooku inside the Death Watch's base
Though Concordia had originally been a Mandalorian agricultural settlement, before the end of Mandalore's wars, the Mandalorians transformed their moon into a mining base[1] in search of beskar,[2] a nearly indestructible iron capable of withstanding blows from a lightsaber.[5] The extensive mining venture and the numerous mines were eventually abandoned, and over time, left silently inactive.[1] However, in the wake of the death of Death Watch leader Tor Vizsla at the hands of Mand'alor Jango Fett,[6] the radical and violent Mandalorian splinter group fractured and vanished from the face of the galaxy under the Mandalorian principle of ba'slan shev'la, or "strategic disappearance".[7] Years later, Tor Vizsla's fellow clansman, Pre Vizsla,[2] rose to become the new leader of the Death Watch as it began to make its return to the galaxy. The younger Vizsla was the governor of Concordia, and publicly an avid supporter of the peaceful New Mandalorian faction and friend of the New Mandalorians' leader, Duchess Satine Kryze. In truth, Vizsla despised both Kryze and her pacifistic government. In one of the abandoned mines that littered the surface of Concordia, Vizsla secretly established a base where the Death Watch could regroup and operate from, in opposition to the New Mandalorians. There, the Death Watch forces utilized the abandoned industrial equipment left behind by the miners in the process of creating Mandalorian armor and weapons for their men.[1]
While on an investigative mission to Mandalore during the early portion of the Clone Wars—a galaxy-spanning conflict between the Galactic Republic and the Separatist forces of the Confederacy of Independent Systems—Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi located the Death Watch's base while attempting to ascertain the functioning status of the believed inoperable mines. He was attacked, beaten, and captured by a pair of Death Watch soldiers. Before he could be executed, however, Kenobi was rescued by Duchess Kryze and the two made for the surface, unwittingly walking right into the main area of the Death Watch's base camp. The two ducked behind a pile of rocks for cover, while a number of Death Watchmen opened fire with blaster rifles and three more attacked the Jedi Master from the air with jetpacks. Kenobi defeated the jetpack-equipped commandos, as the rest of the Death Watch troops evacuated the area[1] aboard their Kom'rk-class fighter/transports,[4] only to be confronted by the Deatch Watch's leader, Pre Vizsla. Vizsla and Kenobi battled in a Lightsaber duel of lightsabers—Vizsla using the black-bladed Darksaber that had been passed down in his clan—and when Vizsla's skills proved unable to defeat Kenobi, three of his troops attacked the Jedi Master with jetpack-launched missiles. Faced with overwhelming odds, Kenobi fled the base with Kryze.[1]
The Death Watch army prepares to abandon the Concordian base
Despite Kenobi's exposure of the Death Watch's base, the Mandalorian radicals continued to make use of it later days. It was there that Vizsla assembled a Death Watch army in preparation for a masterminded, Separatist-backed takeover of Mandalore in which a Republic occupation of the planet would allow the Death Watch to appear as liberators of the people. To the Death Watch's displeasure and Pre Vizsla's great anger, the Republic did not send a force of clone troopers to Mandalore and knowing that the Death Watch did not have the strength to hold the planet for little more than a day against the Mandalorian people's will, Separatist leader Count Dooku ordered the base's assembled army to stand down until a later time.[3]
By the time of the Galactic Civil War, the Concordian base was no longer the Death Watch's main headquarters. The Death Watch had moved the majority of their operations to a new base, established within a bunker on the forest moon of the Outer Rim world, Endor.[8]
Behind the scenes[]
In Mando'a, "TARGET: PEACE PARK" is displayed on the holocharts in the base
The Death Watch's hideout on Concordia made its first appearance in the twelfth episode of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series' second season, entitled "The Mandalore Plot." The Concordia base is the second Death Watch installation introduced in Star Wars canon, after the Death Watch bunker on Endor, introduced in the online MMORPG, Star Wars Galaxies.
During "The Mandalore Plot"'s first scene at the base, a holochart inside can be seen behind Dooku's hologram on which the words "TARGET: PEACE PARK" can be seen in Mando'a letters, foreshadowing the destruction of the Peace Park's memorial shrine in the following scene.
Appearances[]
Star Wars: The Clone Wars — "The Mandalore Plot" (First appearance)- Star Wars: The Clone Wars — "Voyage of Temptation" (In flashback(s))
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars — "Duchess of Mandalore"
Sources[]
- The Clone Wars Episode Guide: The Mandalore Plot on StarWars.com (content now obsolete; backup link)
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9
Star Wars: The Clone Wars — "The Mandalore Plot"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Star Wars: The Clone Wars: New Battlefronts: The Visual Guide
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Star Wars: The Clone Wars — "Duchess of Mandalore"
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Star Wars: The Clone Wars Official Episode Guide Series 1 & 2
- ↑ Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice
- ↑ Jango Fett: Open Seasons
- ↑ Imperial Commando: 501st
- ↑ Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided