Flashback shows a kenetic, underground explosion cracking the ground. The cracks continue to spread until the entire Wakandan nation is sunk underground. Through the dust of the explosion, a flag carrying white and red stripes flies in the wind and more flag with it.
"No!"
The flashback fades. A close up of the mask Black Panther wears takes the place of imagaination.
Wind escapes from a closing door marked with the symbol of the Black Panther, the king of Wakanda. To behold his sight was enough to drop a man to his knees. A true kings aura indeed. A man approaches his throneas he sits patiently, eerily, as if waiting for a ghost to speak.
The Mandla representative bows his head and begins.
"My king, it was not the intentions of the Mandla to bring worry."
He raises his gaze again to lock eyes with the king himself.
T'Challa, still calmly waiting for the man to finish, adjusts in his seat.
"Our miners were on a mission to attempt an extraction on the Southern Vein. Our inability to successfully extract the vibranium from the vein proved to be our greatest failure. As I'm sure you know, this led to an underground explosion collapsing the entrances to our main tunnels and those running along the southern vein. Also a large potion of our village has been sunken deep underground. This truly is a setback for the Mandla tribe, although I believe it can be overcome with help from the Royal families."
A deep hush enters
A repetative scratching he hadn't noticed begins to stand alone in the silence.
The scratching stops, Black Panther rises from his throne and approaches T'Kari Mandla, the representative.
"T'Kari do you see where you stand? Do you understand what an explosion of that caliber could trigger?
T'Challa pauses his speech and advances closer. As he finally approaches T'Kari he continues
"I try to show mercy. I know your village was once the mainland for the Black Panther. Why, our earliest defenses were even in the name of Mandla.
Black Panther observes his claws. Seamlessly, his nanotech suit disables around his head, uncovering the face of T'Challa, king of Wakanda. His eyes roll to T'Kari while his head slowly catches up.
"No doubt the Mandla was once the most influential family in Wakanda. But—"
T'Challa builds a strong fist before letting it go, falling to his side. As if releasing built up tension for the Mandla.
"Low…you have fallen."
Reacting his suit, his face is masked again. As if the entity of the real Black Panther had taken over his body again. His voice continues in a lower tone as he places his hand on T'Kari, walking him out.
"The once renowned Mandla tribe has expired its formal glory. The recklessness and greed of the Mandla is apparent and unmatched. You all single-handedly put the entire Wakandan nation in harms way, and as a king I will meet any problem where it stands."
In a lower and slower tone
"Without hesitation."
"T'Kari, I'm sure you can tell I have no good words for the Mandla at this moment. In the coming years I will see to new lands for your tribe. Lands more fitting for the misfortunate Mandlan's. I'd suggest you prepare."
And with a strong knock, the decorated door again opens, allowing the whispers of life entry, and an exit for T'Kari Mandla.
Headed back to his throne he thinks.
'Prepare my friend'
Almost one hundred years later, the Mandla tribe is fifty years into its new lands, now staying in the poor border regions, only miles away from literal exile.
The new lands were unproblematic for the Mandla. Any land they had, the Mandla tribe could find its full potential. Not to mention they had already come from a low status. Fraud, theivery, and other major crimes were the more reliable choices for making money in Mandla.
Since the great explosion, mining wasn't their biggest industry anymore. Instead, most Mandlans used their exponential gardening knowledge to change the dry dirt into usable soil which they could now grow fresh vegetables and other crops with. It wasn't until the other tribes completely disconnected from Mandla that crime started to run rampant in Mandla
During this time, a boy named N'Karo is born. T'Karo, his grandfather, gave the boy great lessons. And with low income, the families in Mandla had poured all their combined wealth into a schooling system. A last attempt to save futures of the youth in Mandla .
Many times N'Karo had to defend himself against bullies. They'd insult his late father for being a drill operator during the time of the explosion. And his mother for dying and leaving him to be raised by his grandfather.
"I bet his dad was the one who did it"
"You think his grandpa hates him for killing his daughter?"
"I bet his mother was glad she didn't have to go a life looking at the child of a failure."
N'Karo had grown to ignore the insults. But, violence couldn't be ignored. Upon reaching the point of puberty there was a time N'Karo stood up to a boy named T'Kari. This boy was born into the representative family. Related to the representative who spoke with T'Challa a century ago. Even in the Mandla tribe there were differences in privilege amount the families. The representatives would fall on the higher end on privlage in Mandla.
Nonetheless, N'Karo won the fight, dispite being younger and a bit smaller. And from then on, T'Karo showed his grandson combat rituals he had learned from the Jabari Tribe.
His traning would go as such. The first week required him to knot his hands with heavy rocks and perform slow, sharp movements.
Next week he'd handle heavy logs. Picking them up over his shoulder and slamming them to the ground.
The last week built indurace. After a mile sprint, his grandfather would take an arm's length, wooden pole and smash it against the boy's frame.
By the age of eighteen, you can imagine the monster of a young man he had been disciplined into.
Growing up, seeing advanced Wakandan technologies fly overhead, made N'Karo very fascinated with technology. Often he would also help his grandfather repair old mining gear.
At the ripe age of 14 he could completely comprehend vibranium infrastructure blueprints and advanced crafting techniques needed for building with vibranium.
A bright future laid out for N'Karo, but his past was much more somber. With parents who were both dead by the time he was born. His father was a mine worker who died during the Mandla Explosion. And when his mother gave birth to him the Mandla Medical Group couldn't provide her with necessary medicines.
T'Karo, is the father of Z'Kari, N'Karo's mother. T'Karo was a prominent figure in vibranium crafting. He secretly worked on vibranium infrastructure projects across Wakanda and was an ultimate help to the stabilization of vibranium structures, mining equipment and energy channels. Unfortunately being from the Mandla, his genius ideas were usually discredited. He was like a shadow engineer, and he was also the one to raise N'Karo.
Again, by the age of eighteen, N'Karo had been across Wakanda and in other African countries gathering research. Years later, N'Karo would find a village that was know for strong herbal medicines. Outside the village of Warkar, not far from New Mandla. There's a hidden jungle area where an assemblage of unique plants grow.