Mandalorian Creed

The Mandalorian Creed was a creed followed by the Mandalorians, although some Mandalorians viewed it as stories for children. It consisted of several rules and was the definition of what it meant to be a true Mandalorian. It embraced loyalty, solidarity, helping fellow Mandalorians, and keeping your word. It required Mandalorians to take care of foundlings until they were reunited with their own people or came of age. Saving foundlings was considered as the highest honor of the Creed. The Creed contained songs of eons past, and prophesized curses that foretell destruction in case of straying away from the Creed. Mandalorians who came of age had performed a Mandalorian initiation ritual and recited the words of the Creed.
==Description==
The Creed required Mandalorians to take care of foundlings until they were reunited with their own people or came of age. Saving a foundling was considered the highest honor of the Creed. Loyalty and solidarity were important to the Creed, in seeming opposite to the Jedi who were called to sacrifice having certain kinds of personal relationships in their commitment to studying the Force and serving the galaxy. Mandalorians who followed the Creed helped their brethren, and kept their word even at the risk of death. One of the lessons of the Creed was the phrase "one does not speak unless one knows."
When foundlings who follow the Way came of age, they performed a Mandalorian initiation ritual for the foundling's swearing of the Creed. The ceremony included banners with clan signets and drummers. The foundling had to stand in water, recite the words of the Creed and to swear to walk the Way of the Mandalore. A helmet is placed on the foundling's head, and the tribe joins to say "This is the Way." The foundling then swears to never remove his helmet from this moment on. Followers of the Way who were too young to speak the Creed cannot wear a helmet. By Creed, followers of the Way had to vow when asked if they had removed their helmet. According to Creed, after one had taken his helmet off, the only way to be redeemed was in the Living Waters beneath the Mines of Mandalore.
According to the Creed, if the Darksaber was won by battle, whoever wielded it could lead all of Mandalore. According to the Armorer, the Great Purge of Mandalore was a curse prophesized in the Creed, and happened because those born on Mandalore strayed away from the path and lost their way, and when the Darksaber was gifted to Lady Bo-Katan Kryze, it went against the Creed. Those that walked the Way escaped the curse prophesized in the Creed.
==History==
The ancient Mandalorians, which were the ancestors of the Mandalorians who lived during the time of the Clone Wars, took the Creed. However, by time it was considered ancient, and some Mandalorians did not follow it.
When Lady Kryze was a child, she performed a Mandalorian initiation ritual in the Living Waters in front of her father and the subjects of the Mandalorian royal family. She was showered with gifts and made her father proud. Kryze considered the Creed as stories for children, and the ritual as just theater for their subjects. She also believed there was nothing magic about the Living Waters.
The Creed required Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin to take care of the foundling Grogu until he was reunited with his own people, namely the Jedi. Djarin, who was unknowingly a Child of the Watch, also followed the Way, mandating that he never removed his helmet in front of another person. However, Kryze and her unit did not wear their helmets in front of Djarin, while discussing a plan to take back Mandalore. They viewed the beliefs of the Way as superstitious. When Djarin was asked by the Armorer if he had removed his helmet, and Djarin hesitated to answer, the Armorer stated that by Creed, he had to vow. Djarin, who removed his helmet, became an apostate and could be redeemed only by bathing in the Living Waters beneath the Mines of Mandalore.
After Djarin agreed to help Daimyo Boba Fett in his war against the Pyke Syndicate, he refused to abandon Fett, even when Fett suggested that he should leave because their forces were drastically outnumbered. Djarin stated that it was against the Creed to go back on his word, and he was willing to stay even if it resulted in his death.
Later, Ragnar recited the words of the Creed on a desert planet. Djarin eventually bathed in the Living Waters and recited the words of the Creed. Kryze also bathed in the Waters to save Djarin from drowning, making both of them redeemed according to the Creed. After rejoining the Tribe, Djarin wanted Grogu to participate in a training session, although he was too young to speak the Creed and wear a helmet. Ragnar claimed that if he was too young to wear an helmet, then he was too young to fight, to which Djarin quoted from the Creed: "one does not speak unless one knows." Grogu eventually had beaten Ragnar, and Ragnar's father Paz Vizsla repeated the phrase "one doesn't speak unless one knows" as a lesson for the foundling. Kryze later saved the foundling Ragnar from a shriek-hawk, which earned her the highest honor of the Creed, saving a foundling.
==Behind the scenes==
The Creed first appeared in "Chapter 8: Redemption," the eighth episode of the series The Mandalorian.
==Appearances==
==Sources==
*The Star Wars Book
*Star Wars: The Mandalorian: Guide to Season One
*
*Star Wars Encyclopedia: The Comprehensive Guide to the Star Wars Galaxy
==Notes and references==
Category:Mandalorian laws and acts