Satele-ite Saber Staff – Inspired by Star Wars The Old Republic game

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…

Satele-ite Staff hilts in studio

Satele-ite Staff with textures

Satele-ite Staff hilts lit up.

Satele-ite Staff hilt activation switch and grip

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…

Satele-ite Emitter detail

Satele-ite Coupler and Etching

Satele-ite Staff 1

Satele-ite Staff 2

Satele-ite Staff 3

Satele-ite Staff fully assembled and lit

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 Shan and staff. Image Copyright of BioWare/LucasArt

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.

Opela Moraf – A saber for a follower

 

Hello Everybody, thank you for joining me once more as this is my 400th post since starting this blog. In that time I have posted some sabers I liked and then there is my next design which I am particularly fond of. I designed this hilt in conjunction with the Alex Khaar “Khaarnage” saber after being inspired by a story written by a member of the forum I belong to, The young lady is called Lady Revan and her story, “Only Light Can Cast Shadow” (contains some Adult themes) revolves around a character named Halin Chan, who defies the Jedi Council to defend her homeworld during the Mandalorian War. Halin Chan’s disobedience led to a revolution of sorts and she inspired a group of other Jedi to join her cause and this saber is for one of those followers…Opela Moraf. I imagined that Opela would already have a saber but maybe modified it to display her fealty to her leader Halin Chan. Halin by this time had taken on a new name and was known as Revanchist or Revan. This is Opela’s saber with the modifications to show her allegiance…..

Opela Moraf Saber simple but…

deceptively complex!

This saber may seem simple at first glance and it is, sort of. It is basic in that it is a symmetrical cylindrical shape with clamshell shaped emitter and pommels, but this hilt is very multifaceted. Literally, it is covered with many tiny ridges that give the saber a rippled, knurled look almost like diamond cut and that makes this hilt stand out. I created this effect when I discovered I could edit the edges and vertices (lines and corners) of the model with the same techniques as the flat faces of the model. This meant I could select the lines and points of the model to form a mesh or “net”, then I stretched that net outward and thickened it to form ridges and depressions. I think the resulting effect is beautiful but I’ll let you decide as I have a few “Glamour Shots” for you to look at…

Opela Moraf saber pommel

Revenchist Logo

Opela Moraf saber switch

Opela Moraf saber 1

Opela Moraf saber 2

Opela Moraf saber 3

I think you will forgive me for not having many “work in progress” pictures after seeing these glamour shots. I think the hilt looks soo much nicer all painted up and with the lighting effects. The pommel and switch are modelled on the Revanchist logo and are the badges of honour this saber wears. The white blade represents the fact that Opela aligns herself with Revan, and not the Jedi or Sith but somewhere inbetween. The red and black bands are also the colours of Reavn’s battle mask on which the logo is based on. The hilt has a basic D-Ring loop for hanging it off your belt as most sabers from this era of the Star Wars story had. The clamshell emitter and pommel bookend the most striking feature of this hilt…the handgrip! As you can see all those ridges and depressions created an ornate diamond-like pattern that glints and shines from every angle!

A simple and yet complex saber for Opela. I hope you liked it and I hope Lady Revan also likes the full finished design. I did send her an initial sneak peek of the first unedited model but this is the final specification…well almost! I have one final picture of the hilt and I used a blade colour that Lady Revan developed for her own saber, and it looks a bit like this….

Lady Revan owns a custom saber with special electronics that allow you to create different blade colours and this is the colour she created and I have been able to recreate in Blender. So again I hope this meets approval!

I am running out of time once more, but I am not running out of designs. I still have the “Glamorous Lady Detectives” saber, one for a lady called Alice, some more KOTOR?SWTOR inspired staff sabers and I cross franchises once more when I show you some “sabers on the starboard bow!” Finally I have a hilt for a Norse Marvel superhero god…and it’s a 3 BLADED CROSSGUARD!

As always before I go I want to thank Lady Revan for sharing her writing talents and story. And I can’t forget to say a big thanks to you all for the support you have given an old saber designer. It means a lot.

“Opela Moraf Saber” is a For Tyeth Edition design and is ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2018. The names “Revan” and “Revanchist” are elements from the BioWares computer video game “Star Wars Knight of the Old Republic” aka KOTOR 2003.

Dark Khaarnage Saber- Will Alex Khaar turn?

Hello everybody, today I return to the fantastic fanfiction story I told you about written by a member of Ultrasabers’ Saber Forum, Lady Revan. I won’t go too far into the story as I am still reading through it and don’t want to spoil it for myself! However as I mentioned before, the story revolves around two main characters named Halin Chan and her companion Alex Khaar. The two are young Jedi knights who have to defy the Jedi Council to take part in a war to defend Halin Chan’s home-world. This obviously causes a disturbance and Halin begins to change personality the deeper into the battle she progresses. But does her right hand man Alex Khaar suffer these personality changes also? I don’t know but I built him a saber for his Lightside but should he turn he’ll need a new Darkside weapon. This is how I imagined his hilt may look if he was consumed by evil…this is Dark Khaarnage….

Dark Khaarnage 1

Dark Khaarnage 2

Dark Khaarnage Pommel end

Dark Khaarnage No Claw

This is believe it or not the same hilt but with a menacing black colour scheme with silver accents. A helpful member of the forum named Lord_S_Gray, suggested I add highlights on my black hilts so I added pinstripes of silver around the edges of the bands on the grip section. The skullcrusher pommel also gets a coat of black with the stud like protrusions being highlighted silver. I described the “Khaarnage Claw” beneath the blade as having a set of indentations to assist grip, well I had been wracking my brain to think what the technical term for the grip was.. Fortunately another member came up with a suggestion. My friend Infinit01 described it as the “knuckle grip” which kind of suited it perfectly. The last picture shows a slight variation to the hilt. Some custom lightsaber owners like to use their sabers to do “Spinning” which is a semi choreographed routine of twirling the saber around in an impressive dance like way. Spinning requires a particular style of hilt that is balanced and has a “Choke Point”. The choke point is the section of the handle that narrows near the emitter (it is coloured silver on this hilt) and the wielder’s thumb and forefinger grip around this point and allows the hilt to pivot. However the  Khaarnage Claw would get in the way so I was asked to make a “clean” version without it.

But then some folks asked “What about a double bladed weapon Tyeth?” so I assembled a Darth Maul Staff like version…

Dark Khaarnage Staff 1

Dark Khaarnage Staff 2

I apologise this post is much more typing and fewer pictures but the Work In Progress pictures are the same as the ones for the Lightside version, all the work involved was in re-colouring the hilt …oh and adding a red switch and blade. I will have more pictures next time as I have a final variant that goes all out EVIL!

I hope you liked this potentially Darkside design and will call back to see more new hilts (including a hilt for three female detectives and one for an Agent Alice). Thanks to all of you for checking this saber out whether you are a first time visitor or a returning regular, you are appreciated……Till next time…..

“Dark Khaarnage” is a For Tyeth Edition design and is ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2018.

“Khaarnage” a saber for Alex Khaar – Inspired by Lady Revan’s FanFiction

Hello Everybody, I have a quick bonus post today as I have recently been working on a design inspired by a talented storywriter I have met on the Ultrasabers’ Forum you may have seen me mention. One member, named Lady Revan wrote a piece of Fan Fiction based on a Star Wars computer game. The game is a first person style RPG with missions and objectives…oh and you have to build a lightsaber! Well Lady Revan’s story includes a character named “Alex Khaar” a Jedi Knight who joins forces with a female Jedi (Halin Chan) who vowed to protect her homeworld. This however brought the pair into conflict with the Jedi Council. In a passage of the story Alex Khaar is teaching some youngling Jedi learners, but all the children could do was ask him questions about how big he’d grown. Now I know Alex is BIG….so I decided to design a hilt for him based off this very limited description! This is what I came up with, this is “Khaarnage“….

Khaarnage build 1

Khaarnage build 2

Khaarnage build 3

Khaarnage build 4

Khaarnage build 5 (D-Ring)

As I mentioned Alex was described as BIG and so I felt he would need an equally powerful lightsaber. This I accomplished by giving it an aggressive forward looking claw, complete with integrated indentations to assist grip when performing power strikes. This is however still a weapon of a Jedi so can’t be too evil looking so I kept the colour scheme of the hilt as classic silver with black accent highlights. It also has the Jedi blue blade and a matching lit activation switch. The banded lower grip section allows Alex to use this hilt two handed as well as single grip. The hilt is finished off with a skull-crusher style pommel used as a counterbalance weight. However, there is a neat addition of a D-Ring loop used to attach the hilt to a hook on your (or Alex’s) belt. But of course if you are a big guy then one blade may not be enough for you so….how about TWO blades!

I removed the pommels from two hilts and screwed the two sabers together and made a Darth Maul style lightsaber staff!

I posted this design on the Ultrasabers forum as I now have a sanctioned Gallery section on their forum (Thank you Ultrasabers!) and it was warmly received by it’s members including Lady Revan herself (thank you LR!) The link to this saber on Ultrasabers’ SaberForum.com is here:

“Khaarnage” saber on SaberForum Gallery

Well this just about wraps up “Khaarnage” except to say I have also built Darkside versions of this saber and staff which I will display in a future post. I will have to finish here because I am also posting a SECOND post today where we will be going “retro computer ganing” and paying tribute to a fantastic 1980’s film! Thanks to everyone who checked in on this design and I hope you will call back for part two of today’s posts. Till next time…..

“Khaarnage – a saber for Alex Khaar” is a For Tyeth Edition design and is ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2018.