The Spirit of Vengeance

Mandalorians. An ever-present community in Star Wars lore, they have seen many iterations across films, games, and TV shows. Few of these interpretations have been particularly interesting, and I feel it has been years since the last time any content featuring or focusing on them has been anywhere near "good".

So it is that SWTOR is now turning back to them now that the war between the Empire and Republic is taking somewhat of a backseat and the Emperor is dealt with. Again. Shae Vizla, the current Mand’alor, is of course standing by our side as an ally and potential companion of the Alliance, but as this story delves into she has a fair bit of opposition amongst the other clans.

This is the focus of 6.2’s secondary storyline. A new faction of Mandalorians, known as the Hidden Chain, has emerged to challenge Vizla’s right to rule. The Chain is made up of a rogue’s gallery of Mandalorian clans – clan Varad return after almost nine years having last been seen under the thumb of Mavrix in Mandalorian Raiders, while both the Ash’ad and Dar’manda were last seen on Onderon and Mek-Sha, respectively.

The three clans are united under Field Marshal Heta Kol, who has a personal vendetta with Shae for turning the Mandalorians into “servants”. We shall have to wait and see whether there is more to it, of course, but for now this is all we know.

This storyline takes place in the form of a new Flashpoint, this being the third such instance to be themed around Mandalorians. 

Joy.

~~~

The story starts with us catching up with Jekiah Ordo, who we had been hearing from back in November. Supply runs have been targeted by unknown assailants, and Jekiah is concerned about the danger these attackers represent. A short while later, we learn that he has come under attack in Shae’s new flagship by these same forces, and so it is up to us to help bail him out.

Upon arrival at the Spirit of Vengeance II, we are met by the sight of the dreadnaught tethered by three freighters. We crash-land spectacularly in the hangar of the clan Varad ship, Champion’s Glory. Shae has despatched the younger brother of Jekiah, Rass, to help us clear out each ship in turn.

Not a lot notable happens while clearing out each ship, which is pretty much rinse, lather, repeat. Board each ship, take out the defenders, and defeat the apparent captain of all three. The captain of the second ship, Bask Sunn, however, bails and is permitted to leave by Rass without giving us any option to kill or imprison him.

Finally, we reunite with Jekiah aboard the Vengeance II before Heta Kol herself emerges onto the scene. Shae arrives soon after, but only has a brief verbal spat with her before she randomly takes off to hold off forces of the rebellious clans while we take on Kol ourselves. Despite being defeated, she ultimately claims a form of moral victory by announcing that her forces have captured the Cadera banner.

Jekiah, Rass, Shae, and Torian if he is alive all ponder exactly what this means; the consensus is that, since Cadera were known for disobeying the call of Mand’alor the Vindicated to fight for the Sith Empire, stealing the banner makes it a symbol for other sceptics of Shae Vizla’s tenure to rally around. Jekiah is promoted to Arbiter by Shae, and she orders the clans that support her to prepare for war.

Meanwhile, Kol convenes with Bask Sunn and the actual leaders of both the Ash’ad and clan Varad: Durn Wynnward and Tyrus Brokenblade. Varad is blamed for not containing us and Rass, and Kol responds by throwing a thermal detonator at Tyrus. 

He manages to restrain it from detonating, leading Kol to give a speech about how they need to start trusting each other, as their conviction for reputation, honour, and credits gives them cause to stick things through. In this instance, they need to trust that Tyrus will not let his grip slip on the detonator and cause it to blow.

'Tis but a scratch!

To further emphasise this point, she stabs him twice in the side. He still manages to keep the detonator pinned to the table, and a satisfied Kol deactivates it. She then sends the three clans to fulfil their assignments while she makes an oath of remembrance to the Mandalorian flag hanging in the chamber.

~~~

I shall start with the biggest positive from this Flashpoint: Rass Ordo. Quite honestly, apart from his surname and armour you would not take this chap for a Mandalorian. No Mando’a phrases, no silly soundbite-like creeds, and no wishing for warfare or braying about brawniness. For all intents and purposes, Rass is just a normal person who happens to be a Mandalorian. 

The only thing he does which is “remotely” Mando is just refer to his clan once after permitting Bask Sunn to leave just in case he fails to get the necessary codes to fly the Stardust Glider.

Player-version on the left, Rass's on the right

I have to comment on his helmet. As you can see in the image of them both, Rass and my Powertech use the same helmet, the Charismatic Mandalorian, except that his variant has the undyeable orange splotch covered up. I point this out because BioWare included the following statement about the armour in question in an article about the Dar’manda of Mek-sha before 6.0 launched:

“The Charismatic Mandalorian has a splash of orange on it that cannot be changed”.

A lot has happened in the past fifteen months since that article was posted, so it seems that since that point BW found a way to negate the apparent restrictions which meant that they "can still only change two of the colours on [an] outfit" just like us players. Regardless, it is nice to see a version of this helmet which lacks that annoying tertiary orange. I am now curious to see if they can also do something similar with the associated breastplate.

Rass doesn't look half bad with the helmet off either

While it is quite surreal to hear Noshir Dalal's voice coming from a character in SWTOR now, having also heard him in Squadrons, I look forward to seeing Rass again. I am curious to see what becomes of him and Jekiah as the story unfolds. 

I do not have very many things to say about Jekiah himself, as despite him being around for three missions now I still do not feel we have seen “enough” of him to get a proper feel for his character. He certainly spouts too much Mando'a for me to be fond of him right now.

"I have the triple-claw-slash scar over my eye to show how edgy I am! Is it working?"

I do not know quite what to make of Heta Kol at this juncture. Since we do not really know the extent of her grudge against Shae currently it is quite hard to really gauge her as a character at this stage. The whole “I am stabbing this person who is stopping this grenade from exploding and killing us” scene did have a certain gravitas about it which shows that she is at least quite serious about her actions.

I do find it just a tad suspicious that “Kol” is a backwards version of “Lok”, the surname of the former Mand’alor. It would make a lot of sense for a clan-sister of the former leader to be the one to lead the charge against Shae, and this would put the theft of the Cadera banner into greater perspective. Then again, since Mirli Lok led the Ash’ad on Onderon it does not make a lot of sense why Kol would change her surname (especially in such an obvious way) since the clan is known to still be active somehow.

At the same time, Mirli was just an Elite mob whose only role was to be optionally killed by Republic players and had no story relevance whatsoever, so it cannot really be gauged from her appearance what the standing of the Lok clan really is. It might have retreated into shame from the death of Artus at the hands of mere Skytroopers and subsequently being unable to stand up to an “inferior” leader, thus suggesting that several clan members altered their own clan names to remove all association. Alternatively, it might still be doing quite well and there is no such damnatio memoriae taking place. 

All conjecture at this point, but I sincerely doubt that it is a coincidence that both surnames are so similar.

Bask Sunn is the only leader of the clans who we meet as part of the Flashpoint proper and, as such, is the only one I can make any comments on. He seems like a relatively decent character, and like Rass is refreshingly “anti-Mando”. Indeed, the very first thing he says about the Dar’manda is that they do not care for “Mando politics”. As long as he gets his credits and all deals are stuck to, he is a happy man.

Granted, since Heta announces her fury at Shae for turning the Mandalorians into servants it does seem a little strange that she would recruit a clan who is pretty much just there for the money. Could he potentially be bought out by us? Unlikely, as he does not seem like the sort of guy who would betray who is essentially a business partner without an incredibly special reason. I can still see it being tried, though.

The Ash’ad and the Varad clans are… tedious. Because of course they are. The Ash’ad are focused on the honour and legacy of Mandalorians, leading one of their number, Troya Ajak, to steal a bunch of relics relating to the clans to preserve them away from Shae and the warring clans. The Varad meanwhile are just concerned with how much their reputation increases from engaging in warfare and fighting powerful enemies.

Essentially, pretty much what you might expect from Mandalorians. 

The final thing to touch on is what this may mean for the Alliance. The primary thing to comment on here is whether Torian is alive or not, as his clan’s history is integral to this entire story-arc. Ultimately, despite him being around to make comments, I do not really see his presence as being much of a game-changer.

Then there is Shae Vizla. Since she is a bonus reward companion for many players (as I have said before, I have a lot of issues with Mand'alor herself being a companion), I do not see BioWare pulling something which will result in her death. I can certainly see BioWare enabling players to choose which of Shae or Heta emerges victorious at the end of this storyline, however. We shall see what we shall see!

~~~

I felt that this was always going to be the lesser of the story updates from 6.2. It did not disappoint, but I am still intrigued by certain aspects of it. There is at least some potential here, but of course as I stated last week this is just one of a few story threads for BioWare to pursue. It will be some time before we learn exactly what’s what, but it would be nice if it were over and done with relatively quickly.

In terms of what else this may mean in terms of content, I imagine that we will probably see another Flashpoint continuing the story. I would much prefer to see a new planet be added as getting a fourth Mandalorian-themed Flashpoint would just be torture. I could just about stomach a Mando Operation as that would still be “different”, but there have been more than enough Mando FPs now.

As I say, we shall just have to wait and see what happens. I am not holding my breath for anything spectacular, however.