I. The Book of Boba Fett. II. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. III. Edvard Munch. IV. Ernest Hemingway. V. H.D. VI. Brian Michael Bendis. VII. Unknown. VIII. Kiki Nicole. IX. George R.R. Martin. X. Chelsea Wolfe. XI. Claudia Dey. XII. Sun Yuan and Peng Yu. XIII. Florence + The Machine. XIV. Paramore. XV. Rumi. XVI. Billie Bond. XVII. Taylor Swift. XVIII. The Mandalorian.

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How many times can a heart break?

After so many years, so many losses, Marev Aranov Kryze has stopped keeping count.

Born a dutiful daughter of Clan Aranov, loyal vassal to House Kryze and the Duchess Satine of Mandalore, she was raised in the twilight years of an unprecedented era of Mandalorian peace, pacifism, and prosperity; never enduring the harsh realities of war and coming into her girlhood in the tranquil years of a belligerent world finally at rest. But peace was a fleeting thing for a people weaned on war and the Duchess's idealistic reign ended in bloodshed, claiming the lives of many whom Marev held dear and desecrating her glass heart with the first of many fractures. With her home world caught up in old, vicious cycles of violence and infighting, Marev clung to one desperate belief: that Mandalore would survive, that it always survived, as is their Way.

It is known across the galaxy that everything, even perennial stars, will one day burn out. This is the rule of the universe; the inevitable truth that binds all life together. Yet in spite of the violence that begot self-destruction, Mandalore appeared to be the one standing exception to that rule, enduring the brutality of ten thousand years of war without falling. Mandalore was a constant satellite in Marev's orbit; a safe place to land; the home she could always return to.

Until one day she couldn't.

At the height of its strength and cruelty, the Galactic Empire laid waste to Mandalore and its people, bombing the planet's surface into crystallized glass and slaughtering any survivors. A thousand tears seemed a pale representation of the grief that came from that night. For Marev, it had ripped the heart straight from her chest and shattered it into a million jagged pieces, too sharp to ever be put back together again without drawing blood. In the aftermath of its destruction, Mandalore became a cautionary tale to the rest of the galaxy; a fable told to children to frighten them into obedience and hiding. And Mandalorians, once famed and fearsome warriors, went from hunters to prey.

Even after the Empire fell, there was no triumph for the people of Mandalore. When the air cleared and the rebels proclaimed their victory, celebrating the fact that they could finally go home, there was no home for the Mandalorians to return to. No peace to be found in this new galaxy that had no place for them in it. Just a dead planet and a dying people scattered like distant stars across the cosmos. The New Republic offered its condolences and its sanctuary, but those of Mandalore who remained had no use for platitudes or assimilation into a system willing to grant absolution to the very enemies who had brought about the destruction of their home.

Only one path forward remained: retribution. Turning pain into purpose. Forging armor out of iron and wearing it like a second skin. Refusing to live as prey and resuming the role of hunter. Chasing down the ones responsible for the tragedy and making sure they feel the pain of it firsthand. Taking back a part of what has been stolen. Then, only then, would it be possible to find some semblance of peace. To build a new home and know there was no one left who might come to destroy it.

It is in this relentless pursuit that Marev finds a mirror in a man who wears armor of his own. A Mandalorian, but one unlike any other Mandalorian she has met before. One who bears the weight of his grief on his shoulders in the same way she does; who knows the loneliness of survival and what it costs to be the one left behind; who understands the fear that comes with having a child in a galaxy that has no qualms about making corpses out of children.

There are some wounds that will never heal. Some losses that will always ache. But it is with this Mandalorian that Marev begins to believe that perhaps someday, she might take her armor off and offer up her cracked heart to someone's waiting hands, trusting them not to break it.

And that even though all things end, (even perennial stars burn out...), they can always begin again.

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Rebecca Ferguson     ✹     MAREV ARANOV KRYZE

NOTHING CUTS LIKE A MOTHER.

Pedro Pascal / DIN DJARIN

Sam Claflin / KORKIE KRYZE †

Katee Sackhoff / BO-KATAN KRYZE

Josha Stradowski      /      JORAD KRYZE

Emily Carey      /      BEVINN KRYZE

Walker Scobell      /      MEELO KRYZE

Sian Brooke      /      SENAAR ARANOV

Golshifteh Farahani            NOEMI AMIR

Marwan Kenzari            ENZO BURUN

Arsema Thomas            MINA ROOK

Li Bingbing            CA'TRA WREN

Luca Marinelli            LORAS KAST

Fabien Frankel            KEIRAN SHONAR

Bryan Tyree Henry            VERNE ELDAR

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Thandiwe Newton            AHSOKA TANO

Stellan Skarsgard            PAZ VIZSLA

Daniela Vega            CARA DUNE

Lucy Liu            URSA WREN

Kevin Costner            FENN RAU

Temuera Morrison            CODY / REX

Max Lloyd-Jones            LUKE SKYWALKER

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AUTHOR'S NOTES.

I. me coming back to this fandom like: WELCOME HOME CHEATER!!! 🫣🫣 it's been over two years since i last touched anything to do with star wars on this app and i honestly thought i was done with this fandom but alas! this dumb plot would not leave my brain and so here we are.

II. if you have followed me since my original star wars days, you may remember a mando fic i published in december of 2020 called mirrorbright. i never ended up getting past the summary for that book but i really liked the foundation of that story and still wanted to do something with it. however, there were a few things i no longer vibed with and, after watching s3 of mando, i knew the direction i wanted this new fic to take. i ended up repurposing a lot of the things i liked from my old fic and combining them with the new plot, so if you thought this summary sounded familiar, that's why!

III. this new plot led to the creation of a new oc: MAREV ARANOV KRYZE. her name is from the handy dandy mandoa.org dictionary, as are all of her family members. marev is an amalgamation of many characters that i love. her biggest inspirations are: Sansa & Catelyn Stark from ASOIAF, Lady Jessica from Dune, Circe from Madeline Miller's Circe, Sarah Connor from the Terminator series, and Elizabeth Woodville's characterization in The White Queen.

IV. her clan, CLAN ARANOV, is made up entirely by me and essentially is a house stark / house atreides hybrid. the aranovs are very loyal to the kryzes and one of their oldest allies on mandalore. if it wasn't obvious from the cast list, marev marries into the kryzes by marrying korkie, satine's "nephew", and they have three kids together before his death.

V. re: KORKIE K̶E̶N̶O̶B̶I̶ KRYZE. if i am being 100% honest, korkie is essentially an oc in this fic. we know veeery little about him in canon and he is honestly a very unimportant character. that being said... i will be subscribing to the satine + obi-wan = korkie theory in this book. 🫣 sorry to anyone who hates that theory (personally idrc for it) but in this case it's for THE PLOT!!!! obviously korkie is not around by the mando timeline (bo-katan tells din she is the last of her line, implying that he is dead) and that will be true here as well. so Yeah.

VI. i'm still working out the timeline for this fic. i don't want to get super hung up on the backstory and let that take away from the plot, but it is sort of important for marev's character and glossing over it entirely feels like it would be a disservice for her. most likely there will be a few (long) chapters covering her life from The Clone Wars era through The Great Purge before getting into the timeline of the show, starting with Season 2.

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TRIGGER WARNINGS.

this story will contain subject matters that may be triggering to some readers, including but not limited to:

adult language, mature themes, character deaths, graphic depictions of violence, references to genocide, mental health issues (PTSD, depression, anxiety), complicated family relationships, and other potentially triggering topics.

always make sure to prioritize your mental health while reading. if you need further explanation of any of the listed triggers or if you feel there are any i should add, please feel free to message me and i'd be glad to discuss them.

DISCLAIMERS.

this is a work of fanfiction made purely for entertainment purposes. all rights belong to the original author. i own nothing aside from my original characters/ideas. plagiarism of any of these elements will not be tolerated.

TAGS.

wulfhall soulofstaars stxrmborn bayports sweetjawregui
ptolomeae

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STARTED:     05 / 08 / 2023

COMPLETED:  ?? / ?? / ????