Dha Werda

"Sarge? Sarge! Want to show 'em the Dha Werda?"

―Fi

Origins of the Dha Werda

The "Dha Werda" is actually an ancient Mandalorian war dance/chant. Mando soldiers would perform this dance before entering into battle, as they believed to draw strength and courage from it. The creator of this dance is unknown.

Performing the Dha Werda

This dance requires much coordination and stamina. Soldiers line up in a square formation, about half an arms reach away from one another. A translation was made to from Ancient Mando'a to be more relevant to the clone troopers. The following is the wording of Dha Werda.

Taung—sa—rang—bro—ka! Je—tii—se—ka—'rta! Dha—Wer—da—Ver—da—a'den—tratu! Cor—u—scan—to—kan—dosii—adu! Duum—mo—tir—ca—'tra—nau—tracinya! Gra—'tua—cuun—hett—su—dralshy'a! Kom—'rk—tsad—droten—troch—nyn—ures—adenn!

The participants begin punching the person directly in front of them in the back (everyone faces the same direction). At the change of a verse or change of the beat (unknown as of yet), the participants then swiftly turn to their right, and begin punching the person now in front of them, just as they did the man before. However, the beat is so fast, and the punches must be exactly on the beat (which requires much coordination). If a man is one tenth of a beat off, he may succeed in having his jaw broken, or vice-versa

Dha Werda and the Clone Wars

Dha Werda was first taught to the clones by Sergeant Kal Skirata, a Mandalorian Bounty Hunter, who had been recruited by Jango Fett (a partner and mutual friend) to train an army of Clone Troopers for the Republic. Initially reluctant to work for the training program saying, "Mandalorian valor owes nothing to the The Republic," but eventually Skirata agreed to work for the clone training program. He first trained 6 Null-Class ARCs (Advanced Reconnaissance Commandos), and taught them everything he knew about the Mandalorian culture. After that, Skirata was known for his lessons on Mandalorian culture, teaching everything he knew, including the language, to any trooper who would listen. In this manner, the Dha Werda dance and its accompaning chant was spread into the Ranks of the GAR. After the start of the Clone Wars, Skirata was no longer able to continue his teachings as he was pulled into active duty by an agreement with Jedi General Arligan Zey.

Appearances

Video Games

The only two known appearances of the Dha Werda, is during the game "Star Wars: Republic Commando", where one of the sound tracks has a recorded audio of Dha Werda. This track is titled "Rage of the Shadow Warriors" (by Jesse Harlin) and can be downloaded at: LucasArts.

Books

The other appearance of Dha Werda is in the book Star Wars: Republic Commando: Triple Zero By Karen Traviss. Once on board RAS Fearless after Delta Squad and Omega Squad were extracted from a TIOPS mission, and another appearance inside the CSF Social Club after a black ops mission on Coruscant.