Clone Template

The Clone Template is the name of both the original human from whom the Grand Army of the Republic was cloned, and the genetic material used to manufacture the army itself. Little is known about the origins of the template himself, except that he was popularly believed to be a bounty hunter known as "The Last Mand'alor", any other information is presumed either destroyed in the immediate aftermath of the Clone Wars or still classified by the Galactic Empire that succeeded the Galactic Republic.

Inyear -25, Jedi Master Bodo Baas discovered that an army of clones were being created on Kamino on behalf of the Republic. The Kaminoan scientists claimed members of the Jedi Council placed the order, although Master Baas couldn't find to evidence to support the claim.

The Clone Template

There are no available records confirming the identity of the donor, nor how he was recruited, but rumor abound throughout the galaxy. Most theories involve the template being taken from a bounty hunter, but others still insist that the template was synthesized from several different genetic donors. While the face of the clone soldier became a ubiquitous image galaxy wide, the true origins of the template from which he was created might be forever lost to history.

Once news of the Grand Army of the Republic was made public, scientists on Arkania, a Republic world also famous for its cloning technology, offered its services to Supreme Chancellor Drayson. When Drayson's office declined their assistance, the people of Arkania lobbied and petitioned to be able to contribute clones to the war effort. The Supreme Chancellor again insisted that Kamino was a much safer and thus more strategic location to base the Republic's cloning operation. A faction of researchers took great offense at having their services, which they believed were far superior to Kamino's, snubbed, and began to attempt and replicate the clone genetic template for themselves. This small group of scientists hired bounty hunters to scour battlefields for any remains of fallen clones not collected by the Republic. While the genetic code itself was relatively easy to isolate, the biochips in their brains were difficult to duplicate. Clones grown on Arkania without the chips, or with substitute chips, had either short life spans or developmental disorders if their growth was accelerated. Only by the end of the war did they manage to synthesize a stable, healthy clone soldier of their own.

After the Galactic Empire succeeded the Republic the Arkanian kept scientists kept their copy of the template secret, even from the Mandalorian government that took Arkania after the war. Con Semper and House Arkoh began their effort to revitalize the waning Arkanian race through their Arkanian-Offshoot program, and established the Legacy Colony on Arkania for their newly grown and processed Arkanians. As an show of good will between the native Arkanians and the new arrivals, researchers gave a copy of the clone wars genetic template to Semper for use by the House Arkoh cloning facilities. Semper's is the only known effort to reproduce the original clone template.