Hello Everybody, today I venture to the world of video games once more and the sequel game to “Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic” which I have mentioned recently. The game made by BioWare and LucasArts continues the story of the SW universe and centres around a character named Satele Shan. Satele Shan is a female Jedi who is a direct descendant of the characters Revan and Bastilla Shan. Satele however is very definitely her own Jedi and had some controversial beliefs that Jedi could “draw strength from attachments” i.e. using compassion and love to draw on to gain strength through the Force. This was frowned upon as it was a technique dangerously close to the Dark Side of the Force where the Sith gained power through anger and hatred…the opposite of love and compassion. Always a balance and opposites in the Force there is! And so too did Satele’s famous weapon have balance, a double bladed staff! I decided to build a staff inspired by Satele’s hilt and I have had to learn some more new skills, see if you can spot anything new that catches your eye as I present Satele-ite Staff…
As you can see (hopefully!) this weapon consists of TWO hilts…double the work yes? Well, no actually! There is a clever feature of Blender 3D that allows you to make duplicates of an object or model so that helps cut down my workload but I still had a lot to do. If you look very carefully these hilts have a smooth, rounded look, but there are still some sharp edges. This was achieved by using clever functions called “Edge Split Modifier”, “Smooth Shading” and “AutoSharp”. The smoothing function does as it says and rounds everything so the model looks less blocky. However there are fine details that need sharp edges and this is where “Edge Splits” and “AutoSharp” come in useful. They help identify and isolate ridges and edges preventing them from being smoothed out making the model look more realistically solid. But enough about the techniques, I hear you cry “this isn’t a staff!” Well I have a few more pictures for you to enjoy…
Using a further modifier called the “Mirror Modifier”, I can position the two hilts end-to-end and form the formidable staff weapon. In the pictures above you can see I also added some nice little detailing such as the gold support rods on the emitter and the buttons on the pommel area that form the staff coupler release catch. Inbetween the emitter and pommels you will have noticed that this staff is also etched with a tribal wing-like emblem. The yellow bladed version shown above is an early build I did before I learnt the smoothing and edge enhancing techniques to show how clunky it looked before! And to acknowledge BioWare and LucasArts who produced the game and art, here is a picture of Satele Shan and her staff (well you can see half of it!) taken from a famous screenshot of the game…
Satele became a legend when she was appointed as the Grand Master of the Jedi Order after helping save the galaxy around 4000 years before Luke Skywalker. With this staff I have built I hope to be on the path to being a Grand Master saber designer 😀 !
So with that I think I have covered everything and I can bring this post to an end. I hope you enjoyed this tribute to a Grand Master’s weapon and check out the games “Knights of The Old Republic” and “Star Wars: The Old Republic”. I’d just like to let you know I have a series of sabers coming up based on various Stormtroopers, a hilt for a Senator, a very large saber based on a very large ship and if that isn’t enough there is an extra special saber for a Norse God! I sincerely hope you will return to check all those out but for now it’s thank you time. Whether you are a first time viewer or a regular visitor to my site, thank you ALL for looking in on my work and for all the support you give me, I really appreciate it. Till Next Time…..
“Satele-ite” staff is a For Tyeth Edition design and is ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2019. It is inspired by works created by BioWare and LucasArts. All images, names and related material to those works are Trademarks/©Copyright of BioWare/LucasArts.
FTSabersite 
I didn’t know about the character Satele. She seems a formidable Jedi, and I like how she uses the power of love and compassion as one of her strengths.
Bravo! The saber is pretty stunning, especially the glow pics! My favourite touches though are the embossed/etched tribal patterns, a very cool addition – I have a couple of tattoos in a very similar style 🙂
Hi TVTA, Satele Shan (and her ancestors, Revan and Bastila Shan) was a very formidable Jedi. She managed to gain the respect of the other Jedi of the time to become Grand Master of the Order. Sadly as these characters are part of a video game Disney/LucasFilm don’t recognise them as “fully canon” having not appeared in an official film, cartoon or book released by them.
And the tribal art etching is one of the new “tricks” It looks as if the etch is three dimensional but it is a flat monochrome pattern overlaid onto the model then Blender applies some visual magic to shade the pattern so it appears carved in. So glad you like it and learnt a bit about the Expanded Universe of Star Wars. Thanks once more!
smooth as a babies bum. I fired up Blender earlier, first time in months. Cant remember how to use it mind you. Will show all the Star Wars to my 13 year old Grandson over the next few months of cold dark evenings. Should be interesting. Good work FT I enjoy reading your posts and seeing your work.
Hi Neil, I’m sure you would pick Blender back up quite quickly again but it is something you need to keep working on…a bit like your muscles 😀 !
And I’m so glad you enjoy my work. (Smooth as a baby’s bum….I haven’t heard that in a Loooong time! Made me chuckle big time!)
Love Satele! Very cool saber.
Hi Mei-Mei, thanks so much, I put quite a bit of work into it over a few weeks. I wanted a close resemblance but not a carbon copy which was tricky. I used two emitter support rods instead of three and altered the profile overall making it more straight edged rather than having the subtle curves of the central section. I am also proud to say a member of the Ultrasabers’ forum gave it the greatest compliment and said “This is the weapon of a Jedi. Less clumsy or random than a blaster, an elegant weapon for a more civilised age” I couldn’t have been more humbled.
Elegant indeed!
Not too familiar with the game, but the saber looks sweet! Sort of archaic and futuristic at the same time
Hello Master Caldara, thanks for the comment. I have only played the game a few times but it is a good way to spend a spare hour or so (but I don’t get much spare time now because of designing!) So glad you like the design as I am really proud of it myself. Thanks for taking a look around my site today and please call back for more new stuff soon. MTFBWY.