What is Beskar?
Image Source: Wookieepedia
Beskar hardly needs an introduction to Star Wars fans of recent years, thanks to The Mandalorian. The material of choice for the legendary warriors of the Mandalorian Creed, beskar has also appeared in a handful of other places, showing its importance to the Mandalorian people but also just how highly sought after it is as a resource. Today on CultureSlate, we break down beskar and its significance to the universe of Star Wars.
Beskar is a later addition to Star Wars lore, arriving in Legends shortly after the final film of the Prequel Trilogy. Before that point, Mandalorian armor, while distinctive for its design and those who wore it, was made of substances like durasteel. However, Star Wars canon has made the choice to emphasize the significance of Mandalorian iron to the warrior culture, though still allows for other metals to be used in one’s armor with subjects like metal purity and more coming up on occasion.
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Beskar’s purity helps to define how much force objects made from it can endure, as high-purity beskar can deflect most blaster shots and also stand up to lightsabers. As a result, how much is in a piece of armor is essential for the warrior culture’s members to survive.
Image Source: Wookieepedia
We currently don’t know how beskar was first discovered, and there is also some question as to its nature. We hear about and then see the Mines of Mandalore in The Mandalorian, yet beskar is described as an alloy, meaning a mix of at least two elements. What makes up beskar is not currently known, but the process likely involves at least one rare material given the reverence and limited supply of beskar that seemingly exists in the galaxy though this may be as a result of historical events we’ll explore shortly.
Beskar’s history in-universe is fairly low-key, with individual pieces of it appearing in the possession of non-Mandalorians during the High Republic era. However, this doesn’t tell us much as there seems to be an overall moratorium on new storytelling involving the Mandalorians in any era except for the Mandoverse. It is possible they hate the use of their sacred metal by outsiders, and its acquisition is an enormous crime, but we will likely have to wait a few years to learn this. Proper storytelling around the Mandalorians and their iron picks up in the era of Star Wars Rebels.
There, we saw a critical weakness in beskar, though it took an incredibly advanced machine called an arc pulse generator developed by the Mandalorian Sabine Wren to exploit said weakness. Due to beskar’s unique nature, it was able to be targeted by the generator to superheat the metal causing the death of any user or wearer in the case of Mandalorian armor. Sabine sabotaged this weapon twice, first in her initial escape from Mandalore and its Imperial academy some point prior to Rebels beginning, and later when Imperials had cobbled together enough information to reforge her lethal machine in the show’s fourth season.
Image Source: Wookieepedia
Despite the destruction of the generator and the leverage it brought, the Empire would not allow Mandalore to continue its defiance. Following the Battle of Hoth, they inflicted the Great Purge of Mandalore upon the culture’s homeworld, killing a huge percentage of the population and stealing vast quantities of beskar before forging them into ingots stamped with the Imperial cog.
These ingots ultimately became a source of payment and wealth in the immediate months and years. For instance, Kay Vess, the protagonist of Star Wars Outlaws, is promised a share of such ingots held in the personal vault of a major criminal for completion of a heist.
Image Source: Wookieepedia
But after the fall of the Empire, beskar ingots became crucial. A form of payment used by at least one Imperial Remnant faction to ensure Din Djarin completed the crucial task of recovering their asset, the bounty master of Nevarro Greef Karga is paid in the same material, and its purity saves his life when Din Djarin shoots him. We do not currently know what happened to the rest of the Empire’s ingots, but they are surely swirling around the economy of the galaxy to the disdain of the Mandalorians.
The future of beskar in Star Wars is almost certainly a topic future Mandoverse stories will tackle, and it will be a great day when the metal’s past is also further explored! A material used in all sorts of ways by a legendary culture, beskar is a part of the lore that isn’t going to be forgotten anytime soon!
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