JEDI HoloNet

The Jedi Order requires that its members all use the powerful and advanced weapon that has, over the course of millenia, undergone many changes with regards to appearance and modification, but has inevitably become the signature weapon for any trained Force User in the Galaxy. Inevitably, these are extremely complex articles to construct, although an advanced user can, in a hurry, create one over the course of several days, although generally such weapons will be of a lesser quality than a blade that has been constructed over the course of a few weeks to a month, the normal time necessary for the creation of a lightsaber.

Among both groups, it is expected that a student should create their own lightsaber prior to becoming a Jedi Knight, partly as a result of the complex ritual involved in building such a weapon, and also in part due to the connection formed between the lightsaber and it’s wielder in the course of building it, since they become not only intimately familiar with the parts used in the construction (and can hence modify it if they wish to do so), but also connected to the weapon through the Force as a result of the last part of lightsaber construction.

There are many parts required to build a good lightsaber, all of which will be detailed below:

Outer Casing

The casing for the lightsaber varies depending upon the person using it, in style and form. Most cases are metal, covered with a rubber or plastic coating to allow for better grip. The controls for the weapon are also placed on the casing, connected to the individual parts of the weapon. Although some cases are watertight, so as not to risk damaging the weapon should it come into contact with water or other fluids, not all of them are designed to be watertight, so it is recommended that the user keep this in mind when choosing a case. It is also the aesthetic appearance of the weapon that is determined by the casing – it should therefore be designed to reflect the personality of the user.

The choice of material is up to the creator, however: some Jedi have been known to use wood shaped to their specifications, while the Jedi Knight Tenel Ka (later Queen Mother of the Hapes Consortium) used a Rancor claw obtained from the Witches of Dathomir to house the components of her weapon. As noted before, however, most Jedi choose to use metal, since these are easier to shape and mould, but strong and durable once completed, and can have varying properties: flexibility, weight, durability, tensile strength, and of course more esoteric properties, such as the rare metals Mandalorian Iron, Phrik and Cortosis, which are resistant to other lightsabers and, thus, could not be cut in half by one if used. However, most Jedi will rely upon cheaper metals, in order to replace them should they incur damage: the outer casing is designed only to serve as a grip and to house the internal components, and as such is often modified and even replaced when the weapon is damaged.

Common materials used are Agrinium, Durasteel, Quadanium Steel, Titanium, Carbo-Plas and Lanthanide, since these are all cheap and easy to obtain. However, any metal can be used, provided it is not too dense or hard to manipulate.

Power Assembly
– Power Cell
– Field Conductor
– Vortex Ring
– Power Insulator
– Energy Gate
– Recharge Socket

The power assembly is essential to all lightsabers – without the energy necessary to create the blade that is purely reminiscent of the lightsaber, the weapon itself becomes useless. Generally, the assembly is installed in the lower half of the lightsaber, so that only the lower half of the casing stands between it and the air around the weapon. The primary reason for this is the use of the recharge socket which must be slotted in beneath the power assembly – in order to ensure that the assembly has sufficient power at all times, the owner of the weapon will have a socket located in the butt of the lightsaber into which a normal power cell can be slotted. When this is done, the power assembly can draw from the energy cell slotted into this socket in order to recharge itself. For this purpose, the user can either create a rechargeable energy cell that can be slotted into the socket, or at a pinch can even use blaster power packs to recharge the weapon.

When constructed, the Power Assembly must be made using several components. Firstly, the power cell stands in the centre of the assembly, and it is this which produces the energy needed for the lightsaber to activate and be used. Generally speaking, these cells only need to be replaced once every few years or so, depending on how much the lightsaber is used. Surrounding the cell is the field conductor, which causes energy generated from the cell to be directed parallel to the cell, so that no power is lost or redirected to the metal surrounding the weapon, or bled off to non-essential areas. The Vortex Ring surrounds the conductor and is used to contain all the energy produced by the cell within the lightsaber so that it is almost all used by the lightsaber to create a stable and efficient blade, with little energy loss. The Power Insulator is used to protect the weapon from power surges by use of an extremely high-resistance strip of shielding. Hence, this protects the weapon from being shorted out by power fields and extreme energetic feedback. Finally, the energy gate is located at the tip of this construct, right beneath the main focusing crystal of the lightsaber, which is where the power is conducted.

Focusing Crystal Chamber and Assembly

The Focusing Crystal is that which is essentially used to turn the wide-spectrum energy of the power cell into a narrowly-focused tight beam, which enables the lightsaber to activate. It is also the crystal which serves as the heart and soul of the weapon – it is that which gives the blade its natural colour and energetic characteristics. Generally speaking, the main crystal will be an Adegans crystal, but variants can be used. Within most weapons, only one is used, but some lightsabers can be built using multiple crystals, to give different colour tints or to allow for certain modifications – the dual-phase modification is the result of multiple aligned crystals.

The energy gate of the Power assembly is directly beneath the main focusing crystal, and when the energy is projected to the crystal, the energy becomes tightly focused and is directed towards the emitter assembly further in the hilt. This crystal, as with any others in the blade, must be precisely aligned – the slightest misalignment could force the energy to be directed back to the hilt rather than to the emitter, causing the weapon to either malfunction when activated, or in some serious cases, explode upon the first activation. Consequently, care should be taken when assembling the chamber.

To use multiple crystals, it is necessary to build a multi-chambered assembly, whereby multiple crystals are contained, one after the other. Energy directed from the power cell then travels through the main crystal in a standard setting, but through use of an extra control, or by twisting the lightsaber’s hilt manually (depending on design), the additional chambers will move into line with the main crystal and be used to focus the energy alongside that of the original crystal, hence changing colour tints or initiating a length change. In some weapons, the additional crystals are fixed so that the user can change the length of the energy by using a small dial installed on the front of the lightsaber, increasing the energy channeled from the power cell to increase the length.

Immediately after the crystal chamber, energy channeled from the power cell through the crystals reach the focusing lens, a narrow, almost flat lens of variable material (some of which are specially made using focusing crystals) that continues channeling the energy along the lightsaber hilt. In curved weapons or those that do not have the standard straight hilt, multiple lens’ are used to bend the arc of energy, thus enabling it to move from the cell to the emitter matrix.

Lightsaber Emitter

– Blade Energy Channel
– Cycling Field Energisers
– Energy Modulation Circuits
– Focusing Lens
– Emitter Matrix
– High Energy Flux Aperture

The Emitter actually consists of several different parts that need to be built individually and connected before the lightsaber can be used. Firstly, energy entering the emitter moves into a long, narrow passage called the blade energy channel, whereby energy generated by the power cell is channeled through here to the Cycling Field Energisers, which converts the energy into arc wave energy, which is then essentially creates a feedback mechanism for the weapon, whereby energy not being used to cut or touch an object is returned to the power cell, so that the weapon only expends energy when put to use, thus making it extremely efficient. The Modulation circuits provide feedback to the energisers, initialising them when the power cell activates and channels energy from the lower half of the weapon. Finally, the emitter matrix is the point whereby the arc wave energy becomes visible, with the characteristic colours of the lightsaber.

The Emitter Matrix is also protected by a High-energy flux aperture, which produces a negative charge that is used to stabilise the positive charge of the lightsaber’s blade, so that the energy being emitted from the weapon does not start to eat it’s way through the hands of the user when they come into contact with the weapon, thereby grounding it. The focusing lens is often created using glass or a crystal ground down into a lens, and as such, can also be used to modify the colour created by the focusing crystal, since the blade will naturally alter tints if directed through a colour lens. Thus, this becomes as much an aesthetic choice as of necessity: the lens is designed to shape the energy once fed through the emitter, giving the blade the characteristic width seen in most lightsaber designs.

Controls

When the casing is pushed into place, the outer controls of the lightsaber should connect up to the appropriate internal wiring so that using them creates the desired effect. lightsabers can have many various controls – the activation plate/switch is essential, for this activates and deactivates the power cell of the lightsaber, thereby turning it on and off, while some weapons have controls to adjust the amount of energy being generated by the power cell, as well as one for extending blade length, for sabers of dual-phase design.

Modifications

There are several significant modifications that can be used in a lightsaber, dependent on the preference of the user. These usually make the lightsaber harder to construct, and will naturally alter the internal design to some extent, but since they have many uses, they are available for your consideration when designing and constructing a lightsaber. Be aware, this guide will not provide instructions on how to create them.

Dual-Phase Mechanism

This type of lightsaber, as noted, uses several focusing crystals, one after the other, to generate a much longer lightsaber blade, which can either be manipulated by use controls or movement of the hilt, or, for fixed dual-phase weapons, by the use of a control dial on the side of the weapon, which increases the power channeled from the energy cell to increase the length of the blade.

Lock-On Activation Switch

This type of activation switch means that the user cannot, once the weapon is activated, simply switch off their weapon by pressing the switch again. Instead, it must be held down or moved in order for the weapon to be turned off. This also allows the weapon to be dropped or relinquished with the blade active, since many Jedi choose to incorporate a deadman’s switch (see below) into the hilt, and thus cannot release their lightsaber without it deactivating. The lock-on switch is thus installed as an override to this modification, making it natural for the two to be added to the same weapon.

Pressure Grip/Deadman’s Switch

This particular modification requires that someone be holding onto the lightsaber in order for the weapon to remain activated, or serves as an internal switch that ensures that the weapon be held in order to activate, and will either prevent it from switching on otherwise, or simply cause it to deactivate should pressure be released from the hilt. This is typically designed as a safety mechanism – were a Jedi to drop a live lightsaber blade, it would cut through the floor on contact, or possibly harm another person simply in the absence of the usual control a Jedi would exert on their weapon.

Force-Manipulated Switch

These switches are found on the inside of the lightsaber, connected to the power cell, but without an activation panel on the outer casing. This requires that the user use telekinetic ability to activate and deactivate the blade, as well as to lock it on, should the switch contain a lock-on function. This is thus designed so that the weapon can only be used by a Jedi competent in the use of telekinesis, either to prevent civilians using it or perhaps to prevent someone inadvertantly activating the blade should they pick it up.

Cell Recogniser

These devices use primitive scanner technology to scan the handprint of the person using it. When first installed, the user must input their own handprint into the device’s software, so that only they can then use the weapon. If anyone other than the user touches the weapon and tries to use it, the weapon will either deactivate immediately if already on, or fail to activate when the activation switch is pressed. This also means that the weapon cannot be thrown, unless combined with a Lock-On activation switch.

CommLink

Some users also add a small commlink to their lightsabers, meaning that though they carry their weapon with them, they have no overt communication device on their person, which can be useful when all other items have been removed or lost, but the lightsaber remains with them. It is usually activated by a separate set of switches incorporated into the lightsaber, and a display is often added to ensure that the Jedi can alter the communications frequency as required.

Dataport

By modifying the internal mechanics of the lightsaber, a Jedi can incorporate a dataport with a memory function, thus using it to store information in the same way as a datapad, simply lacking a screen or input capability, and is often used by Jedi serving primarily as couriers in the field, since the only way to obtain the information they carry is by taking their lightsaber from them and downloading the data by interfacing it with a computer. This is an unusual modification, but considered to be a fairly useful one in the field.

Traps

Combined with the use of the Cell Recogniser, some weapons can use traps designed to deliver electric shocks, activate spikes etc when someone other than the wielder coded to the Cell Recogniser tries to pick up or use the weapon, dependent on design. These are dangerous, but do add some significant safety features to any lightsaber. Some will simply damage the lightsaber itself, such as causing some of the internal circuitry to become damaged, thus rendering the lightsaber completely useless until it is replaced. This particular feature should be used with care, however, since it is unethical and can also result in someone being hurt if they simply pick up your lightsaber upon losing or dropping it. That observed, a trap can also be incorporated such that it is rendered ineffective unless pre-activated: while turned off, it doesn’t function, but activated, anyone picking up the lightsaber will set off the trap.