The tool of the Jedi

[Artifacts] [Members] [The Force] [Jedi Code] [Jedi Skills] [Jedi Paths] [Building a Saber] [The Dark Path]

The Jedi lightsaber, the product of an ancient technology, is an exquisite weapon; often the mere sight of the intensely-luminous blade and the unique, indescribable hum of that same blade slicking the air served to scatter most opposition.

The powerful yet elegant weapon of the Jedi Knights for thousands of years, these swords of power use blades of pure energy to cut through nearly any animate or inanimate object. By tradition, most lightsabers are built by their users as part of their Jedi training. They can be built in a few days if there is an emergency, or take up to a month or more to construct and fine-tune.

The essential elements needed for a lightsaber are as follows:

power cell
crystal, or crysallite lenses faceted to perfection
focusing core

Seemingly simple in design, a lightsaber has a handle about twenty-four to thirty centimeters long that is usually hung then from a belt. Inside are a power cell and multifacted Adegan crystals or jewels (usually one to three) that focus the energy from the power source and release it through a concave disk atop the handle, where it appears in a tight and steady colored beam of light and energy about a meter long. When they are activated, lightsabers hum with their coursing energy. Although considered archaic by some, lightsabers can be powerful weapons after their users undergo extensive training.

A saber with a single jewel has a fixed amplitude and blade length. Those with multiple jewels can alter their amplitude and change the light blade's length by rotating an exterior control to vary the distance between jewels. The emitted beam arcs back from its positively charged continuous energy lens to a negatively charged high-energy flux aperture set in the disk atop the handle. The power amplitude determines the point at which the beam arcs back, setting the blade's length.

A Jedi's Attachments:

You should not have a favorite weapon. Craft multiple light sabers and practice with them all. To become over-familiar with one weapon is as much a fault as not knowing it sufficiently well.

A student of the Force should use weapons which can be handled properly. You may customize your saber, but keep in mind that the saber you practice endlessly with may not be the one in your hand when you must ignite in the name of the Force.

On your journey to becoming a Jedi it may be wise to avoid likes and dislikes. The universe will provide what you need.

Step one

Collect the various parts for your lightsaber. Remember, its an elegant, deadly weapon, but not complex. You would need something to serve as a hilt, dimetris circuitry (like from the activation loop from an old capital-ship-grade ion cannon fire initiation controller), a recharger port, and some wiring from something as simple as a comlink. Also, you'd need a parabolic, high-energy flux aperture to stabilize the blade, and something to act as superconductor for energy transference from the power cell to the blade. Then some buttons and switches so you can turn on and make whatever adjustments necessary to the blade of your lightsaber.

The most difficult part of building a lightsaber would be producing/finding a power cell that stored and discharged the amount of energy necessary to energize a lightsaber blade. However, the nature of the battery is not as important as how it is integrated with the rest of the components.

Step two

The core of the Jedi ritual for creating a lightsaber came down to charging the power cell that first time. It is superstition that a Jedi channeled the Force through the lightsaber, which is tied to an misunderstanding of what it took to charge it initially and tie it to the rest of the weapon. A Jedi, carefully manipulating the Force, bound the components together--linking them on something more than a mechanical or material level, so they worked with unimaginable efficiency. Without this cafeul seasoning and conditioning of the lightsaber, the blade would be flawed and would fail the Jedi.

Haste is not what a Jedi wishes to include in this delicate process. Remember, it takes nearly a month for a Jedi apprentice to build a lightsaber; although, during the Clone Wars, emergencies arose where lightsabers were needed more quickly and therefore cut down to two days. Urgency without panic, action without thoughtlessness.

Step three

A Jedi must simplify their lifestyle. Drink only water and eat unflavored foods, such as noodles. Put away all distractions so focus remains on the tool in which you are about to create.

Step four

Sit in a relaxed position, perferrably sitting, with the components you have selected for your lightsaber in a semi-circle around you. Then study each piece in turn and use the Force to enfold it and take a sense of it into yourself, the Jedi. Then fit the pieces together as you have visualized, putting together each piece as though it had been grown together. Though it may seem like a jumble of hardware, the lightsaber is in fact parts belonging together.

Step five

This is the final step in building the lightsaber. When all the pieces have been fitted together go into a Jedi trance--do not try turning on the lightsaber yet. During this trance, a Jedi must then manipulate matter sufficiently to meld the part and forge the weapon. This has been studies and ritualized so even a student could manage such a task that would have been only possible for Jedi Masters otherwise.

Now you can press the button or flick the switch to allow the energy to fill the battery. Then a Jedi must open themselves up to the Force and bathe the lightsaber with the Force. Doing so will bring about subtle transformations within the weapon, allowing more and more energy to flow into the cell and throughout the weapon. Oft time a Jedi would also find that the senation of transformation wasn't in the lightsaber alone, but within themselves, letting a Jedi evolve and grow to the next level.

Finished product with internal design