Cobb Vanth is the marshal of Mos Pelgo on Tatooine, created by Chuck Wendig for the Aftermath trilogy (Del Rey, 2015–2017) and introduced through an interlude chapter — one in each of the three novels — before ever reaching the screen. Timothy Olyphant plays him in The Mandalorian from 2020.
The armour
StarWars.com is careful about how he got it: "Vanth, at one time, was custodian of Boba Fett's Mandalorian armor, which he bought off of Jawa traders." He is not a Mandalorian, makes no claim to be one, and uses the suit for exactly what it is good for — making one man look like an army in a place with no law. The armour's return to Boba Fett is negotiated rather than taken.
Government by absence
His whole reason for existing is to show what the fall of the Empire meant to people who never saw a Star Destroyer. The Empire left, the Hutts were gone, the New Republic never came, and mining collectives and raiders moved into the gap. Vanth is what a community improvises when nobody is coming: a man with a gun who has decided to be accountable.
The dragon, and after
His introduction in the series — negotiating with Din Djarin to kill a krayt dragon in exchange for the armour, and getting the Tusken Raiders to join the hunt — is the clearest statement The Mandalorian has made about coexistence on Tatooine. He is later shot in the street by Cad Bane and survives through cybernetic modification.
