Mr. Save-The-Galaxy
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To create a weapon that this character (and, well, the author behind him) have been meaning to make for quite a while.
- Image Source: Valiant Armoury
- Primary Source: Force-Imbued Blade, Mono-Molecular Edge, Pontite crystal, Kasha crystal, Adegan crystal, Phrik
- Name: Balance's Edge
- Manufacturer: Cotan Sar'andor
- Affiliation: Cotan Sar'andor
- Production: Unique
- Modularity: No
- Material: Durasteel, Kyber Crystals, Phrik (crossguard)
- Classification: Force-imbued Sword
- Size: Average
- Weight: Average
- Color: Icy Blue aura; Brown scabbard and hilt wrap.
- Force-Imbued Weapon
- Molecularly-Altered Lattice
- Integrated Mono-Molecular Edge
- Kasha Crystal; blended with blade blank during forging process
- Pontite Crystal; blended with blade blank during forging process
- Blade super-cooled by the Force
- Extremely potent against Force Spirits.
- Capable of cutting through most materials with relative ease.
- Highly resistant to Lightsabers.
- Super-cooled when wielded by Cotan, due to the inclusion of a Pontite crystal in the construction of the blade.
- Functions as an external tool to allow Cotan to more easily focus on and use the Force, due to the inclusion of a Kasha crystal in the blade.
- Balanced for use in either one or two hands.
- The last quarter of the blade has a false edge sharpened along the back, enabling some alternate techniques than would otherwise be available were the blade truly single-edged.
- Constructed in a traditional Je'daii manner, with balanced use of the Force, making it equally resistant to light and dark side powers.
- Not invulnerable to powers from either side of the Force; while it is more resistant to Force Light and similar powers than a Sith sword, and more resistant to Force Destruction and similar powers than a weapon imbued exclusively with the light side, it can be equally damaged by either side.
- Unmistakable Presence; Negates Force Cloak, Art of the Small, and similar stealth powers.
- Any Force-derived effects of the weapon are nullified when in the presence of Ysalimiri, Voidstone, and other Force-nullifying materials or effects.
- Cannot Redirect or Reflect Plasmatic Projectiles, or Energy Weapons.
- Cannot instantly cut through reinforced materials, requiring more effort and strength to do so, unlike lightsabers.
- While it is balanced for use in either one or two hands, it is still primarily designed as a two-handed weapon—so single-handed use is more awkward and hard to work around than two-handed use.
Some time after he left the New Jedi Order, Cotan Sar'andor eventually ran into a young woman by the name of Asha Hex, who would be the catalyst of his later joining the reborn Je'daii Order. These new Je'daii retained the traditions and views of their earlier incarnation, from aspects such as focusing on a balanced connection to the Force instead of the light-or-dark-aligned teachings of the Jedi and Sith, to the training path taken by those who graduated from the rank of a Je'daii Padawan to the path of a Journeyer. One aspect of this path related to the ancient temple of Vur Tepe—the Forge of the Je'daii.The Trial of the Forge, in ancient times, was for a Journeyer to successfully construct their own Force-imbued blade, and was the predecessor to the ritual of lightsaber construction for later Jedi. In the modern Je'daii, this could be done in other methods; construction of a lightsaber, or for the non-martially inclined, demonstrating their mastery of the Force through the creation of a work of art or similar object that was still imbued with the Force. As Cotan had already constructed a lightsaber, and didn't really consider himself a martial artist, he made plans to construct a Force-imbued blade.
He acquired the Cerean Kasha crystal he intended to use for the weapon fairly quickly, as that was one of the first items on his list. Having devoted the vast majority of his practice to combat with weapons, his skills in the Force were fairly limited and undeveloped; with the Kasha crystal aiding his focus, he could draw more deeply on the Force than usual in battle, aiding both his control of his powers, and the strength of them. However, other duties quickly drew him away, throwing him into combat with the Sith and other nefarious types through the galaxy.
It was in combat with one Sith, [member="Joycelyn Zambrano"], that he determined what else he needed to do for this blade, what would set it apart from the other Force-imbued weapons he'd encountered. Darth Vornskr II's blade could wreathe itself in flame, fitting the fiery temper that many Sith ultimately showcased. Cotan saw fit to create a weapon that would be the foil to such hellfire, seeking to achieve, through the Force, an effect similar to Echani super-cooling of their melee weapons.
His research yielded a crystal that would enable him to do what he sought; Pontite crystals, a rare type of Kyber crystals that could be found on Ilum or in the Adega system, were known to have a calming, cooling aura—for both the mind, and the body, as even the lightsaber blades produced with such crystals felt preternaturally cold. With this knowledge in hand, he made a trip out to Ilum, seeking out the crystal caves, where, eventually, he managed to find one of the crystals he sought.
With each of the crystals in hand, as well as the metal he would forge the blade from, it became a task of merging both crystals into one blade. Even among the masters of the ancient Je'daii, such a thing was unheard of; marrying crystal and blade into one was difficult enough with only a single crystal being used. Utilizing more than one would complicate the process far more. Thanks to the aid of the Kasha crystal itself, however, granting Cotan greater focus and control than he normally possessed, as well as [member="Caedyn Arenais"] helping him maintain the stability of both blade and crystals through the process, he was successful; as soon as he laid his hands upon the completed blade, before even putting a full hilt upon it, it began to glow icy blue, a thin sheet of frost forming along the flat of the blade as it came alive in his hands.
Thanks to the Force-imbuement in its construction, the blade is far more durable than a normal weapon might be; it will never rust nor dull, and it is so powerful in the cut that it can force itself through many materials with ease, though reinforced metals and similar materials will require more effort. Thanks to its construction using the Force in balance, it was more resistant to targeted attacks of a light or dark nature than similar weapons forged using the light or dark sides of the Force; however, for this rounded resistance, it lost any semblance of being impervious to either.
Lastly, during the forging process, Cotan engraved the blade with the likeness of the extinct Tythonian Heron—a close relative of the Tythonian Hook Hawk—a symbol of grace and calm, which was used among ancient Je'daii blademasters as both a charm of luck (that the wielder could be as graceful, calm, and precise as the heron) and as a symbol that the wielder of such a blade was a devotee of Stav Kesh, and the path of the blademaster.
