Eredin Dueling Lense.

[Corvinus]

Affiliation: Sith of the Saruthi lineage, and those Eredin gifts it to.

Ownership: Eredin Saruthi.

Intent: Many lightsabers are the same in basic functions, a beam of any color is projected from the tip of the lightsaber. Eredin is a specialist where lightsabers are concerned, preferring duels to large scale combat.

It is due to this specialization that Eredin is less than pleased by the lack of advancements with which to customize one's own lightsaber. In that vein he has sought to craft a lense to suit his needs.

Model/Name: Eredin Dueling Lense

Type: Focusing Lense for lightsabers.

Size: Two or three inches for basic lightsaber designs.

Composition: Mundane crystals with clear coloring.

Description: A flat circular crystalline shaped crystal through which the beam of plasma is directed from a lightsaber. It is cut in a fashion so that the beam is focused into a thinner shape. This concentrates the plasma giving it more potent cutting power. (+1)

This allows for tighter more complex movements that are required in some lightsaber forms that are more difficult with the wider emissions seen throughout all lightsabers.

 

[Elijah Brockway]

Just felt like it might be important to point out that "Giving a lightsaber more potent cutting power" isn't really a thing, given that all lightsabers are basically the same aside from colour. And that little "+1" definitely won't mean anything, given that this place isn't based around numbers, so that just seems pointless.

That, and making the blade thinner could probably be controlled just by modifying the magnetic field which contains the plasma, nor would it really do anything to make it easier to perform various movements. Dooku in the movies was considered the preeminent lightsaber duelist of his time, and his blade was just as goofy as everybody else's in terms of thickness. Lightsaber blades, essentially, have negligible drag...which wouldn't really cause trouble in making tight and complex movements anyways, as they'd just be slower than they otherwise might. It's not like you're dealing with a sword that is badly weighted or has a whippy blade or anything like that here.

And, lastly, there's nothing I can see about this that would make it anything more than generic if it were to amount to anything besides fluff, anyways. This could probably have been worked in just fine by you saying your guy made his lightsabers so that they produced a thinner than normal blade right in the profile and had done with it.

EDIT: That, and current canon actually doesn't give a precedent for a focusing lens being necessary, anyways. I'm sure you could make an assumption that lenses could be used to focus the energy further after it comes out of the kyber crystal (or before, I dunno), assuming that energy is transmitted by light, before it uses space magic to form the plasma blade. But I don't think that'd really lead to you having a specifically shaped blade aside from silly manipulation of the magnetic fields that actually define the shape of the blade. Or the emitter's shape itself.

 

[Corvinus]

I was applying physics to the blade. A more concentrated beam increases cutting power. This is seen with both lasers and plasma. From what I've seen with armour they do have a number of hits they can take. I inferred that numbers do matter.

It takes more than a magnetic field for that. Lightsabers by default require a lense if we want to follow how beams of any type work. It first needs to be directed by the lense then be contained by the electromagnetic field so it doesn't extend indefinitely. I would also argue the saber would be bulkier when you consider that his lightsabers already have a switch to extend the blade.

Its not about drag, but width. A larger blade requires larger movements, especially when your handling one that can cut through your body like a hot knife through butter.

A wider blade would be ideal for countering blaster fire since it covers more area. It would also require wider movements because of said area. Though I am beginning to get the impression that doesn't matter too much.

I am, and always have been bound by the laws of physics to a degree. I try to relax my standards a bit when it comes to fantasy, though I have a feeling my standards are a tad too high for this.

It could be placed in generic and taken only as fluff. My intent is to add more diversity abd complexity to lightsaber customizations.

 

[Elijah Brockway]

If you're worried about cutting off parts of yourself with a blade the width of a lightsaber - which is really no wider than that of many weapons that have been used to practice actual swordfighting (such as the singlestick, or some actual weapons, such as a quarterstaff) aside from the sword itself - then you just need to get better.

Concentrated cutting power won't mean anything, certainly not on this site, with lightsabers. Lightsabers cut through everything that isn't phrik or cortosis, or zillo beast hide, apparently. And maybe a few other things. But they're all specifically lightsaber resistant. Other than that, with armour taking a certain number of hits - that's so that people don't just pretend they're a walking tank who can take any shot or hit to their armour and just shrug it off like it's nothing. And if you think making your beam thinner is going to do anything about how lightsaber resistant armour can only take one or two hits before rendered useless, then you've got another thing coming.

And, lastly, if you want to discuss actual physics - plasma, being a state of matter very similar to a gas, cannot pass through a lens of the type you're writing about, which is a solid object. That's why plasmas are able to be contained when the heat level isn't as ridiculous as Star Wars lightsabers have, in toys like this. Now, there's been work about using a thin lens made of plasma to focus a particle beam, but that's not the same sort of thing you've got happening here, either. This is just called a beam due to the fact that it's long and straight, similar to a beam of steel used in construction - it's not like a beam of light, which more-or-less ignores physical matter (by which I refer to the way it can pass through said matter with little overall effect), it's a grouping of highly heated atoms similar in nature to a gas except for how susceptible they are to a magnetic field, due to the ionization of the matter.

One of the many instances where old legends canon ignored actual real life stuff, with the idea of how lenses could be used in lightsabers, although it was never really said that the lenses tried to focus the plasma (which would just burn through them) or if they somehow further focused the energy that was coming and going through the crystal prior to exiting through the emitter. Not that a lot of that really made a lot of sense overall anyways. If you want a thinner blade, the thing that would make the most sense would be to have a smaller emitter and use more Star Wars Pseudoscience to shape the magnetic field, but, I mean, meh.

Regardless, making your blade thinner isn't really going to make it easier to perform certain movements (the same as it doesn't really in real life swordplay, at least once you're using realistically made swords that aren't just steel bricks on a handle), nor is it going to provide some arbitrary increase to the cutting power to enable you to just ignore lightsaber resistant armour or anything like that. Which is why I say this would be more fluff than anything else.

 

[Corvinus]

I stand corrected also. I've confused a plasma lens for my intended purpose. Been a while and memory gets muddled with time. I've always wondered if it is actually plasma or not when it comes to lightsabers. I concede that point.

I've used real swords when I studied HEMA. The wider the blade requires wider movements, though weight is also a factor. This is why you cannot wield an arming sword in the same method as a renaissance rapier. Blade design dictates use. Arming swords are better a cutting while a rapier excels at thrusting. Like a hand-and-a-half is better on the cut but adequate for the thrust and a katana is better with slicing and decent on a thrust. I could go on.

In short is is extremely incorrect to even say that blade design doesn't matter. It does and always has, every tool is designed for a specific use.

Like I said, it could be only fluff, to add flavor and complexity to a lightsaber. It allows for more personalization aside from hilt shape and blade color. The plus one and the bit about cutting power could be easily removed if necessary.

 

[Elijah Brockway]

I also practice HEMA. Every different blade requires different styles of use and complex movements are to be found in all of them, and various weapons - such as in the field of longswords - are all quite different, but can all be used in primarily the same way (neglecting the difference between, say, the German and Italian schools of longsword use). The width really does not matter that much overall with the weapons, nor do the movements need to be particularly wider given that they're all roughly the same width (until you get to extreme examples, like the tuck vs. a normal longsword). With lightsabers, we have seven different lightsaber forms all devised around the same weapon with the same sort of blade, and in current actual canon, the only variation we see that is specific to one form is the curved hilt for form 2, which ties in to Form 2 (in a lot of the old Legends descriptions) actually being fairly close to classical sabre combat (especially with the grip). And in legends, the curved hilt is still used in other forms (like Darth Bane with Form V). And they all have fairly complex and tight movements you're expected to make.

But we don't see people tailoring their lightsabers to have thinner or wider blades in actual canon (really, nowhere except for the KotOR games, primarily) because it's not that necessary. The same as it isn't necessary to transition to a longsword with a significantly thinner blade if you're moving from German to Italian schools of fighting...

Which is much different than your comparison of an arming sword vs. a rapier, and is also much more similar to what we actually see in Star Wars if we look at the lore.

EDIT: Also this seems really rambly and nonsensical at first, but I have a disjointed way of thinking sometimes. Hopefully it makes sense by the very end. Whee!

 

[Corvinus]

Longswords can indeed be used the same way. There is very little variations concerning the German and Italian schools.

I concede you have a strong point. I got caught up with real world swords without much consideration to the simplicity of lightsaber combat. I am far more used to that combat that I've forgotten about the basic idea behind the lightsaber. The hilt.

You got me there. Maybe I'll design an emitter instead of a lense. Perhaps even one that may be more for aesthetics that practicality.

Would be nice to see a lightsaber with a conventional blade design.

 

[Elijah Brockway]

The darksaber has that, and there have been people in the past who just went with lightsabers made with ovular hilts and emitters that produced a mostly ovular blade that had actually defined edges. Doesn't really mean much with lightsabers, truth be told, but if it's your cup of tea, go for it.

 

[Corvinus]

Yes but you cannot use darksabers here. So the best method is to just alter the conventional lightsaber. I figured that during this discussion. I'm focusing solely on aesthetics now.

Aesthetics are an important insight to a character's personality outside of their profile. Gives them subtle expression along with the overt expression that is seen in character interaction.

 

[Clayton]

Archiving this. If you want a "thinner" blade like how the sabers in Rebels looks compared to, say, the Prequels, that's fine. But no boosting the lightsaber's "stats".