Mandalore's Mask and the Ordo's...

[Hondo Karr]

Yup, I used to own one of those when I had my Mand'alor the Indomitable costume. It's a beautiful piece but, not the mask Im making here. 

[Peregrinus]

Plus in all fairness, the jaing skull (both the mask and sigil are/were the kre'bes) has become a bit watered down in the EU. It started as being worn by ONLY the Mand'alor and no one else. It is what set him apart from everyone. By the Modern Era/Fett times, the EU show's every other Mandalorian wearing one which has dramatically lowered it's value as a sign of authority or rank.

I'll disagree with that slightly. We saw the CW era Supercommandos, the Protectors, wearing it, but they were formed by Spar in his capacity as Mandalore, so their wearing the sigil makes sense. Jodo Kast was a non-Mando poser. And apart from Jaster's True Mandalorians (would he be considered Mandalore?), I don't know of anyoneelse wearing the skull badge...

--Jonah

[Hondo Karr]

1/2 the Mandalorians in action figures and LFL licensed art have a Jaing skull on them somewhere. Even if they are Ori'ramikad, that stillw aters it down.

[Jacad Adfai]

You were Mandalore the indomitable? 

That's a must-see if you have any photos

[Blackbird]

on the topic of the Ordo mask, I found what appears to be multiple Mando's wearing that mask in the same issue of the KOTOR comic.
First, we have the dropship guy.  He's kind of a khaki color and has a single stripe on his armor.  If you look a little to his right, you see a top of a helmet that looks very similar.  (For some reason photobucket won't let me post this pic right now)

Next is a guy with a yellow "T" on his chest and blue accents.

Next is a guy who is all yellow.

Here is the all yellow guy again, but it's possibly a different Mando since he is mostly an orange color.  You'll notice another armor to our right that looks the same, but it looks blue, green or gray.

Here's another, better shot of the blue guy to our right.  Note another yellow and blue guy, this time with a completely different set of body armor but the same helmet.


Some of these can be explained as coloring errors, but not all.  It looks like there are at least 3 distinct sets of armor with helmets that are very close to the same design Canderous wears.
I've only played parts of KOTOR2, but does he say he's wearing the mask or that he owns it?
If he says he's wearing it, then there's really no discussion to be had there.  It's the mask and it's been re-forged to look like a more common mask.  But if he's ambiguous about it or says he has the mask, I think he probably has it stashed somewhere.  Maybe more like the pic from galaxies, he has it on his command ship or home base or something and has decided not to wear it.

And we know sometime in the 150 years between KOTOR 2 and SWTOR, the Mandalorians split up again and there was no Mandalore until the Lesser came around.

Drew Karpyshyn wrote the Revan novel, where Canderous got the mask, and was the lead writer on SWTOR.  He knows why the Mandalorians split again and I think it's safe to assume he'd know if the Mask was still around during TOR.  I bet he has plans for this somewhere.  He wouldn't include all of that stuff in the book then contradict himself in the game, especially when the book is a game tie-in.

[Hondo Karr]

Those look like helmets more than masks to be. COuld be though. I just hope someday we get more, some clarity and maybe some new images.

On a note, got a test pull from the mask mold last night. Looking good may have to play with the amount of resin though. came out a little thinner than expected.

And finally, I had mentioned my Mand'alor the Indomitable earlier in the thread and it had been asked to see it... keep in mind, I did this almost 4 years ago, my skills have greatly improved since then, not that it's bad it's just not up to par with how I would make it now. The mask is from wicked masks I think it is, the rest is scratchbuild from leather, metal and fiberglass. I sold it after SDCC 09, I took it with me and the day I was going to suit up I wasnt thinking and didnt put on my contacts that day so I couldnt wear it. It never got an event appearance. It sold to a guy in NorCal and I never heard from him or the costume again. A shame cus all he really had to do was put it on and apply.

Anyway, here it is...

[Blackbird]

Those look like helmets more than masks to be. COuld be though. I just hope someday we get more, some clarity and maybe some new images.

Here's a pic of Canderous from the side.

His doesn't look much like a mask.  It appears to be built the same way or pretty similar to the ones from the KOTOR comic.
I'm going to look around to see if there are copies of the script or transcripts of his dialogue anywhere online.  There are a lot of videos on youtube and I've watched a few but that's pretty time consuming.  There may be hints in the dialogue.

Here's a vid where I got that screencap.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYsASQFQLR0&feature=related

[Blackbird]

What I'm getting at with this is that it doesn't look like he put a mask over a helmet.  If he reforged it, he did it in the form of a helmet and made it look like a pre-existing design.  This seems weird to me.  It always seemed weird that he would make such a big deal about the mask then modify it to something unrecognizable.  It would be like finding the Ark of the Covenant then melting it down to resemble a generic footlocker.  Or turning the Holy Grail into a coffee mug.

The helmet in the comics came post-KOTOR2 and may have just been based on the Canderous design without the artist knowing it's Mandalore-specific.  And it is just something in the background and surrounded by a sea of generic Mando characters.  It wouldn't be out of line to disregard the KOTOR comics entirely if there's a lot of evidence that contradicts it.

[Hondo Karr]

First, I will blaspheme....

I havent played the KOTOR games and have no intention to... I had both, I started playing KOTOR I and it was a freaking snore fest. I couldn't hang long enough to get into the good stuff so I got rid of both.

However, I do know the approximate but not exact timeline. Obviously the events of TOR Revan take place after KOTOR II,one would think? Based upon the end of the book I don't see it likely to be different than that. Once Canderous and Revan recovered the mask they parted ways forever, Canderous becoming Mand'alor the Preserver.

Now, having NOT played KOTOR II, I cannot say for certain but, was Canderous supposed to be Mand'alor at any point in the game or was that information, whether sourced in the game or not, from outside the game?

What Im getting at is I don't believe there are any images that are supposed to be Canderous as Mand'alor out there. If that's the case, one would assume the mask isn't reforged, and Blackbird, I totally agree that the likihood of it being reforged after the big deal made about is slim to none and a bit assinigne to be honest.

I woul dlike some clarification on that timeline from anyone in the know.

[Baelin Halon]

in KOTOR II, Ordo IS Manda'lor for the entire game. He is never referrered to as anything else in any of the release content.

[Hondo Karr]

in KOTOR II, Ordo IS Manda'lor for the entire game. He is never referrered to as anything else in any of the release content.

Interesting...

[Mayg Miit'ganard]

Timeline wise, I would guess TOR:Revan is between the two games. This is because revan had disappeared by the time of the second game, supposedly to go off and face something mysterious from his past. 

[Blackbird]

Alright, I've re-read through Revan a little bit and it briefly explains the timeline for KOTOR2.
About halfway through the book, Bastila notes that Revan and Canderous had been gone together for 3 years.  she also notes that the Jedi Purge has started and the Exile has come back to the republic (which is the plot of KOTOR2).  In the book, the story with Canderous had concluded by this point.  So yeah, the story of KOTOR2 takes place during the events of the Revan novel, after Canderous is Mandalore.

The KOTOR Campaign Guide offers clarification on this.
Revan and Canderous recovered Mandalore's mask in the Revan novel.  The guide says Revan told Canderous where to find it, which is true enough.
Canderous encountered a Taung who claimed to be the True Mandalore, and is sometimes called Mandalore the Unknown.  Canderous took the Taung's armor and integrated Mandalore's mask into a new helmet.
This armor and helmet is of a design used by Early Crusaders before the Mandalorian Wars.  Canderous traded the kind of flamboyant colors and unique design of previous known Mandalore's for something gray and common.  Mandalore's Mask became Mandalore's Helmet.
That doesn't really make a lot of sense to me and it kind of eliminates the importance of the mask.  I guess that's why no one seemed to care much about it after the KOTOR era.
This may have started a tradition of reforging the mask with each Mandalore, which is why they all have their own unique design and neither the traditional mask nor Canderous' helmet show up again.  But there's no real evidence for that. 
There may have been an attempt to re-forge the mask later, but that's kind of pointless.  You can't even tell it's of the same metal and since the design is so radically different, anyone can say any mask or helmet is Mandalore's.

I think that's pretty lame and I hope it's retconned soon.  I really hope this Taung Mandalore is erased and we learn Canderous had the mask on his throne or something and not turned into that helmet.