In the Star Wars Galaxy, Kaminoans are the most famous cloners but not the only ones. The Clone Armies of the Republic too, are famous. But again, they are not the only clones.
Clones:
Jango Fett clones:
While the first clones were born on Kamino and trained by mostly Mandaloreans, later clones were born on Centax 2. The latter were grown using a different method with Spaarti cloning cylinders. They had less physical training and more flash imprinting to get them ready for the job. They were trained differently, without the respect for the Jedi as leaders and even led to believe that Centax 2 was Kamino. This led to the realization by some of the early Mandalorean trainers that the someone in the government was about to pull something, while the Jedi seemed not to notice.
Some of the original clones, resentful of being used as a slave army, realized the threat would affect them as well and deserted. They had the aid of their own trainers as well as a few Jedi who had decided on their own that the Jedi relying on ‘bred for war’ clones was a violation of their beliefs. On their own, these clones sought out a cure for the Kaminoan genetics that sped up their aging for a cure.
Eventually some of the Kaminoans, realizing the Empire were a threat to them, created some of these with loyalties to the Kaminoans. This led to the Imperial Fleet and the Vader’s Fist Imperial 501st to do battle with the Kaminoan clones. It also led to the clones being phased out and different clone ‘templates’ being used for the DNA. The Spaarti method proved to have downsides as well, as the forced speed of growing clones often led to mental instability.
Jango Sources:
Attack of the Clones
Hero of Cartao – Timothy Zahn, Star Wars Insider 68 Short Story – 2003
Republic Commando – LucasArts Video Game – 2005
Republic Commando Series by Karen Traviss, Del Rey Books -2004
Battlefront 2 – Pandemic Studios & LucasArts Video Game
Blood Ties: Jango and Boba Fett, comic series/graphic novel by Tom Taylor, 2011
Morgukai Clones:
The Morgukai Nikto were born and bred to fight Jedi. Their numbers were few, so the Separatists grew clones of them on Saleucami into a Shadow Army. They were stopped by the Republic and Jedi from leaving the planet. They were trained by the Anzati.
Morgukai Sources:
Republic Trackdown – John Ostrander & Duursema, Dark Horse comics
Republic Seige at Saluecami – John Ostrander & Duursema, Dark Horse comics
Starkiller Clone:
Galen Marek was cloned by Vader and the Empire as his secret Apprentice. Until this time, cloning of Force Sensitives had repeatedly failed, always ending with a mentally unstable clone.
Starkiller Sources:
The Force Unleashed 1
Book by Sean Williams – 2008 – Del Rey Books
Graphic Novel by Haden Blackman, Brian Ching, Bong Dazo, Wayne Nichols – Dark Horse Comics -2008
Video Game by Lucasarts
The Force Unleashed 2
Book by Sean Williams – 2010 – Del Rey Books
Graphic Novel by Haden Blackman, Omar Francia, Manuel Silva – Dark Horse Comics 2010
Video Game by Lucasarts – 2010
Thrawn clones:
Thrawn had himself cloned in case anything happened to him, with the goal of defending the Empire from threats in the Unknown Regions. The timer was set to not release the clone unless the timer ticked down 10 years.
Mount Tantiss Clones: Thrawn chose the best of his troops for the Mount Tantiss cloning project, in order to have a ready made fleet for his captured Katana fleet. This would have proven a huge threat the New Republic but for his error in relying on his ability to control the discovered clone of Jedi Joruus C’baoth, who subverted his efforts by easily breaking the mind’s of the clone templates. Ultimately the entire cloning chamber was destroyed by a New Republic strike team.
Thrawn’s Jedi Clones: Thrawn’s purpose for these is as yet unknown. However Jaden Korr discovered Clones that apparently combined Palpatine’s Sith DNA with those of numerous Jedi of the new Order, including Kam Solusar, Mara Jade, Kyle Katarn and others. It’s unknown how he got all of this DNA, though some was certainly from former Imperials. Katarn, Mara and Solusar had once served the Empire. These clones proved to have a serious genetic illness. They also proved mentally unstable, killing the scientist who created them.
Thrawn Sources:
Dark Force Rising – Timothy Zahn – Bantam Books 1992
The Last Command – Timothy Zahn – Bantam Books 1993
Vision of the Future – Timothy Zahn – Bantam Books – 2013
Crosscurrent – Paul S. Kemp – Del Rey Books – 2010
Riptide – Paul S. Kemp – Del Rey Books – 2011
The Emperor’s Clones:
Emperor Palpatine discovered how to clone Force sensitives with Vader’s experiments using Starkiller, along with his own Master Darth Plagueis’ training. The ability for the Sith to transfer their spirit to another had originally been lost, but he reclaimed that knowledge from a Jedi called Ashka Boda and a Jedi holocron. Using the cloning, he planned to ‘jump’ to a new body when the old wore out or was damaged. This was foiled by treacherous doctor’s paid off to sabotage the clone DNA as well as Luke Skywalker destroying the inactive clones.
Emperor’s Sources:
Dark Empire – Tom Veitch & Cam Kennedy, Dark Horse comics – 1991
Crimson Empire – Mike Richardson, Randy Stradley, Paul Gulacy – Dark Horse Comics, 1997
Crimson Empire 2 – Mike Richardson, Randy Stradley, Paul Gulacy -Dark Horse Comics, 1998
Khommites
Khommites froze their culture at the level they felt was ‘perfect’ by using cloning. Rather than procreate as other species, each individual was cloned and trained by their predecessor. They were differentiated by a number. Rarely did things change, even under the Empire.
A massive change occurred when Dorsk 81 found that he was Force Sensitive and went off to become a Jedi. He successor also followed in his wake. Khomm civilization received a serious cultural blow when the Imperial Remnant led by Admiral Daala attacked their world, causing damage to the cloning facilities and stored clone DNA.
Khomm Sources:
Jedi Academy Trilogy – Kevin J. Anderson – Bantam books – 1994
Darksaber – Kevin J. Anderson – Bantam books – 1995
The Hazards of Cloning
Ultimately, cloning is a complicated business in any galaxy. Cloning a person has moral implications that in all probability, they will question if misused. Cloning for slave labors doesn’t mean they are not sentient with rights, intelligence and feelings.
The Kaminoans also bred the shovel handed miner slaves of Subterrel, they had no ‘moral’ problems as they considered all species but their own inferior. Using cloning even to clone oneself has problems as well, what if your ‘double’ does not wish to be a true duplicate? At least one clone of Jango Fett had no interest in the career he was forced into and fled. Others of his clones came to question later.
Basing an entire culture and society on cloning risks stagnation, which will be threatened when the unexpected (such as Imperial attack or unavoidable natural disaster) occur. The expedience of using a mysterious clone army nearly brought about the end of the Jedi Order in the prequels. The blind belief that paid for Kaminoan scientists would never question the danger to themselves caused the clone on clone battle for Kamino.
