What's a mandalorian?

According to what my brother told me, (he's a huge fan of them) Madalorians are.....well, they are several things.

There's a planet in the Star Wars galaxy called Mandalore, where a very strong, unusually resilient race of humans evolved, who have a warrior culture/religion. They consist of a loose collection of clans who all are taught survival and fighting. They are raised from birth to know how to fight. They have a very long, complicated history. Part of their culture involves never taking their helmets off in public or in front of strangers (outsiders), and they keep their weapons close at hand at all times.

However, you do not have to be born a Mandalorian in order to be one. You can prove yourself in combat to them, and they will make you one of their own, or they take in Foundlings (orphans). This is why you see "Mandalorians" who are not human, or came from other planets besides Mandalore.

Most Mandalorians work as Bounty Hunters. It's a very dangerous job, but reaps very big rewards for those who are good at it. Basically, it goes like this:

Let's say, some gambler has borrowed a ton of money from a crime boss, lost all of it in the games, and then ran away when he couldn't pay the boss back the loan. The boss puts a price on the gambler's head, and puts it out on the galactic net. It's pretty common for several bounty hunters to show up if the price is substantial, and the boss gives whatever tools and clues the hunter(s) would need to find the escaped gambler. If more than one hunter has been sent, competition occurs, usually with the best hunter killing the other ones. Price varies on whether the boss wanted the gambler dead or alive, and chances are, the price is higher if he wanted the gambler brought back alive, because it's more difficult for the bounty hunter not to kill the more difficult target.

So the hunter(s) go out, one usually comes back with either a body part, a dead body that can be verified as the gambler, (DNA scans), or, they can bring back the gambler alive and frozen in carbonite to collect the bounty. The boss pays and the bounty hunter leaves. End of story.

But not all bounty collections are the same, if you read into the Star Wars Expanded Universe, or play the Bounty Hunter storyline on Star Wars the Old Republic. Some bounties are so dangerous, that many hunters have been sent and don't come back, because the target in question is extremely dangerous, or is guarded by something dangerous, or is on a very dangerous planet. Other bounties get too complicated, particularly if they involve someone political, or worse, someone who attempts to kill the Bounty Hunter after they have brought the target back, so they won't tell any one.

It's fascinating stuff to read.

In a word, they are fairly mysterious and badass warriors (who wear the coolest distinctive armor and go on bounty hunts) from a galaxy far, far away. :>

Although it’s also just the name for someone who’s from the planet Mandalore, the name in general is associated with the aforementioned warriors.

i've heard a lot of people talking about the mandalorian, i've been wondering ... what are mandalorians ?