Cobb Vanth

**Canon** | Legends

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**"Not everything in life is about blood my friend. I an old man has beaten a strong, powerful force-sensitive sith lord without even using my title as Mandalore to my advantage. That my friend, is what true power is."**

*Cobb Skirata & Ari'Jak, 69 ABY*

Cobb Vanth was a clone trooper made in Kamino. He was bred to be a Null Class Recon Commando with genetic enhancements. However, due to his disobedience and distaste for the Kaminoans he escaped with his brothers and Mandalorian instructor, Kal Skirata to Mandalore and was trained from a young age in Mandalorian combat and skills quickly becoming the best in Skirata's clan. At the age of 18, he was adopted by Kal Skirata and became the heir to the Skirata lineage. Once Kal died though, Cobb fled Mandalore and became a bounty hunter not feeling prepared to take on such responsibility. However after meeting Din Jarrin and almost killing notorious bounty hunter Cad Bane, Cobb decided to take the darksaber and reunite Mandalore providing justice to his family's legacy.

## Biography

### Early Life

Cobb Skirata was made on Kamino being one of the first successful clones with physical and mental enhancements that made him far more skilled and stronger than regular clones. He was put through mental and physical preparation and agility training by his Mandolorian instructor Kal Skirata. A 'side-effect' of his strength and enhancements was that he and the rest of the null-class commandos would be far less obedient than regular clones and they were one of the only units in the entire army without an A1-Class Inhibitor Chip. These commandos had an early prototype B3-Class Enhancement Chip which weren't nearly as effective. This chip also did not change behavior but rather just skill.

One thing Cobb disliked was his accelerated aging and from a young age he set to disabling it somehow. He was definitely seen as a favourite by Kal in the group due to his calm, collected, independent and sassy nature which reminded Skirata of himself. Due to his enhancements and training, Cobb was perhaps one of the strongest, smartest and most powerful clones in the entire army of the republic. That being said, the armour of these clones were different to regular ones. At age 7 (Clone age 14) Skirata brought Cobb and the rest of his trainees to Mandalore for a whole year to collect enough pure beskar to forge unbreakable and extremely durable armour for the group. The commandos complied finding enough beskar within a couple of months. Once done, an armourer forged a set of beskar steel armour for each member which was so strong, it would take an explosive or lightsaber to damage it.

Also during this time, Cobb educated himself on the state of the galaxy and political entities such as Emperor Palpatine, He'rgo de Mask and Finnis Valorum. He hated every single one of them viewing them as power hungry madmen who would do anything for power. He viewed the Galactic Empire as a force of evil and prejudice but didn't view the Republic as much better thinking it could also become corrupt quite quickly if the wrong person were to be put in charge.

### The Clone Wars

About a year before the Clone Wars in 9 ABY, at the age of 18 Cobb and the rest of the Null-class commandos were visited by Chancellor Arya Skywalker of the Republic they were to be soon fighting for. The chancellor explained how grateful he was for their dedication and hard-work to help the republic and that they were to be the strongest the army had to use and to be sent on special operations to serve the republic. Cobb respected Skywalker like most other clones in the army accepting he was a skilled politician who cared about the clones.

Due to this, Cobb began fighting in the Clone Wars with a burning rage to destroy enemies to the republic, joining his brothers in special ops missions across the galaxy. Cobb grew quite close to a clone recon commando by the name of Scorch and he even tried to get him reassigned to his group but Skirata denied stating he didn't have qualifications for the group. It was quite obvious that Skirata saw the null-class commandos as his own sons and treated them so recognizing them as human beings.

### Deserting the Republic

A year into the clone wars, Cobb started realizing how corrupt the republic he sacrificed his life for truly was. He began to stream live senate sessions and saw the true morals the senators had for him and his brothers viewing them as dispensable slaves easily replaceable. Cobb and his brothers confronted Kal Skirata of this and he accepted their claims telling them he knew of this corruption before the war even started, during the Old Republic. Cobb and his squad then told Skirata of their plans to desert the clone army which he accepted. A week later they all fled to Mandalore to Clan Skirata's headquarters.

In this new life, Cobb and his squad were taught ritual combat with beskar staff's and mandolorian blasters. By the third year of the clone wars in 12 ABY, the squad became targeted on achieving something thought impossible. To stop their accelerated aging. By this time in clone years, Cobb was 24 and intended to live a prosperous long life not restricted by being a clone. They notified Skirata of their plan and he accepted, telling them he knew someone who could do the job.

### Accelerated Aging & Adoption

Skirata and his 'family' visited head clone engineer Taun We and agreed to pay her 4.56 billion credits to stop the commandos accelerated aging. The Kaminoan eagerly accepted and began the operation successfully halting Cobb and the rest of his squad's 2x aging. Skirata was happy for the squad declaring he saw them as his sons and he truly did love them. Cobb swore that he and his squad would protect Skirata to the end of the line to show how grateful they were for everything he did for them. Skirata suprised the clones by adopting them all into his clan with Cobb being next-in-line to rule Clan Skirata which was highly respected within all of Mandalore. Cobb was now Cobb Skirata.

### Death & Escape

In 15 ABY, tragedy struck for Cobb and his brothers as their now father Kal Skirata, had succumbed to his old age passing peacefully in his sleep. The 1,000+ members of the clan looked to Cobb Skirata as their new leader. With all this pressure on him, Cobb renounced his family and betrayed his brothers by leaving Mandalore and traveling to Nevaro and became a feared bounty hunter. Skirata always felt guilty for his choice and had nightmares of his brothers and what they would think of him now. He'd use his skills as a commando to his advantage by pretending to be a clone trooper to his targets and then surprising them. He was feared and well-respected but had to keep a low profile to avoid being hunted for desertion.

### Meeting the Mandalorian

In 16 ABY, Skirata was notified of a bounty by his employer from the Empire and the price was 4.2 million credits. Although hesitant to do deals with the Empire, Skirata ended up going a long with it due to the pay. His bounty's name was Din Jarin and as he found him he witnessed imperial stormtroopers ambushing him. Then however he recognized that his target was a Mandolorian and had a change of heart. He shot down all the troopers and saved Jarin's life. Skirata told him that he was also mandolorian. Upon being asked of his clan, Cobb replied truthfully and said "Cobb Skirata, house Skirata". Din told Cobb how he was an embarrassment to his clan stating his brother Jaing Skirata had taken the throne of their house and Mandalore was under sith control with the purge having killed many of his people. Cobb and Jarin then entered a somewhat uneasy alliance helping eachother out on ocassional missions.

### After the War

In 25 ABY, after the war, Skirata decided to stay neutral in the republic's fight against imperial reminants but he ensured Chancellor Skywalker that if any Sith were involved, he'd happily send a few Mandolorians to 'beat them up.' Also, Skirata was allied with Boba Fett's criminal syndicate which they aided in time to time. Moreover in 27 ABY, Skirata rewarded Jarin with the role of Mandalorian Super Commando which was indeed a very prestigious role in the military.

Cobb had numerous children with different wives but only 2-3 were legitimate heirs to the mandalorian throne. The Republic however did 'rent' around 100+ Mandalorian commandoes to assist them in defeating imperial reminants. When the Clone Wars finally ended in 32 ABY with Galius Rex's death Cobb decided to enter an alliance with the Republic with troops from both sides in a new alliance army. This combined would eventually be the foundations for the Galactic Alliance.

### Galactic Peace (32 ABY-44 ABY)

With a new era of peace, Skirata set about with expanding Mandalore's military ensuring it would be optimal in-case there was any invasion. Now that his accelerated aging was halted, Skirata set about to stop his aging as a whole investing in stasus chambers and solutions to stop his aging. Apparently these operations were quite succesful with Skirata having developed a stasus chamber that would stop his physical aging for a specific amount of time, however it is unknown if he ever used it. With no threat to Mandalore, Skirata could relax and watch his empire grow and expand across the entire sector which was allowed by the Republic.

By 41 ABY, Mandalore & The Republic were the strongest forces in the entire galaxy.

### Yuhzan-Vong Wars (45 ABY-59 ABY)

The very technologically advanced Yuhzan-Vong surprised the entire galaxy with their ships, weapons and very hostile nature with them having developed the only such weapon in the galaxy to cut through pure beskar. Realizing how dangerous the Vong could be to his people, Cobb immediately declared neutrality in the war. This greatly damaged the Republic resulting in around 1/5 of their army deserting due to their Mandalorian lineage. Skirata garnered much hate and despair from the rest of the galaxy as trillions of innocents were murdered by the invaders. Skirata even considered allying with the Vong to stop Mandalorians from being massacred by them if they were to defeat the republic. With the first year of the war seeing over 2.5 trillion casualties in clones and citizens Skirata had much guilt on himself.

By 50 ABY, Republic forces were very depleted and the Vong were most likely to win the war. There were massive riots by non-mandalorians on the streets of the planet criticizing Cobb and calling him pathetic for his bloodline. After his own military began to help secretly in the war despite it being against the law, Skirata finally declared war on the invaders restarting the combined army sending over 1.56 billion soldiers to help the Republic. Due to this, the Vong bombed the capital of Mandalore seeing hundreds of thousands of deaths. Skirata even led Mandalorians into battle slaying thousands of Vong soldiers single-handedly with the darksaber. The war was pretty much a stale-mate for the next couple of years because even though the Vong were slaughtering millions of innocents each day, the military failed to give up.

### The Galactic Alliance

53 ABY saw the worst atrocities committed by the Yuhzan-Vong. Specially designed gas grenades the size of a small star-destroyer were developed and dropped on Torgutla (Republic-controlled planet) and Bongola (Mandalorian-controlled planet) which resulted in the entire population of both planets being obliterated resulting in approximately 2.53 trillion casualties. Skirata like the rest of the galaxy was terrified and disgusted when he heard the news and was immediately contacted by Chancellor Skywalker in hopes of permanently merging his mandalorian forces, the Republic, Imperial Reminants and Black Sun to form the Galactic Alliance. Skirata considered and was surprised to find out that his people were all for it. Finally, after long consideration Skirata accepted the offer and Mandalore became part of the Galactic Alliance with Arya Skywalker as it's official leader.

With the increase in morale and forces, the new alliance pushed back the Vong quite substantially to the mid-rim before they were able to take the capital, Coruscant and 54 ABY saw the biggest Vong casualties with billions of them being defeated to the Alliance. However, in 57 ABY a stale-mate was once again reached with the Alliance having pushed the Vong to the border of the unknown regions but due to their home-planet defences, they were unable to push them back further.

### Peace with the Vong

In 60 ABY, the Vong officially made peace with the new Alliance and Skirata as well as his Mandalorian super-commandos oversaw the treaty. Although he initially disagreed with the treaty viewing the Yuhzan-Vong as cruel, savage and evil monsters, Arya managed to persuade him stating that even if they were to continue fighting and defeat the Vong in a couple of years, more innocent lives would be lost which in his opinion was not worth. When Skirata accepted the treaty he made one adjustment, the Vong were not allowed to be situated anywhere near the Mandalore-system otherwise they'd face a jail sentence.

### Abdication & Later Life

After peace was made with the Vong, Skirata went back to ruling Mandalore. Immediately Skirata had to commission a 1.45 trillion credit rebuild fund since Mandalore was greatly affected by attacks from the invaders. Now, Skirata also had support from the Galactic Alliance and the Grand Army of The Alliance which contained approximately 72% Clones, 8% Mandalorian and 20% other conscripts. This in total made around 100 trillion troops. There were 8 trillion Mandalorians in this army.

In 72 ABY, Cobb had a change of heart about the rule of Mandalore and decided to abdicate. He passed the burden to the Ruling Council and they decided to introduce aristocracy to Mandalore with the King Nople initiated as king in 75 ABY. Most people on Mandalore accepted these changes but many traditional soldiers rebelled and deserted their roles. The orthodox extremist religions such as The Children of the Watch lost faith in Mandalore completely and left for Concordia or villages of Mandalore. The capital Sundarai reported a 70% decrease in military strength and 90% increase in GDP per capita most probably due to the influx of wealthy investors and citizens. Skirata stayed in the capital and resided in the Skirata clan sanctuary.

At around 68 ABY, Skirata commissioned a massive memorial to be made to his adopted father, Kal Skirata which he honored greatly and paid his respects daily without his helmet. He encouraged others of his clan to do the same.

It is somewhat unknown when Cobb Skirata died. We know he outlived Avatar Arya and was dead before Cade Skywalker began his training. This means he died sometime from 75-86 ABY. His last recorded activities were in a now non-canon comic set in 75 ABY.

### Legacy

Unfortunately, Skirata's legacy was very mixed. Even though most, if not every Mandalorian were united in supporting his claim to the throne, by the time he announced Mandalore's involvement in the Yuhzan-Vong war, his approval ratings declined dramatically. Extremist Mandalorians renounced him viewing him as open to Republic corruption viewing him as the Avatar's dog. Cobb tried to combat this sentiment by fighting in the battlefield himself with the Darksaber even being present at the final battle of the war, the Corridor of Elders. Regardless of this, many Mandalorians wanted to be isolated from the rest of the galaxy just like the ancient ways before the Old Republic Era.

Skirata was not personally responsible for plunging Mandalore in aristocracy but nevertheless, most citizens viewed him as the cause of this. Many troopers and veterans viewed him as a traitor to Mandalore. Even Clan Kryze, the clan of late Bo-Katan Kryze who was seen as a supporter of Cobb Skirata in his early rule condemned these actions and refused to acknowledge the new monarchy, causing their clan to be declared null and void by the new government as well as Clan Vizsla.

By the time of his death, the new monarchy planned a funeral but nobody notable attended. When Cass Wrenwood disposed of the monarchy and restored Mandalore to it's old ways in 103 ABY, Skirata's sanctuary was targeted and destroyed. The statue of his father Kal Skirata was also destroyed with the Watch viewing him as another traitor, aiding the republic in producing clones during the prelude of the Clone Wars.