#satele shan's dualsaber

[rajakaen]

Have T's reference sheet WIP in low quality (w/out armour plating)

for those who want to read the written notes >> click here << for higher-quality

I'm still trying to figure out how to press his character, personality & background into this single sheet for quick reference. Still, to fully understand T (if that's even possible) his character profile is needed.

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[sullustangin]

Fluffy February Day 6:  Stretch

Rating: PG

Fandom: SWTOR

Time:  3676 BBY/23 BTC

Pairing: Jace Malcom/Satele Shan, unrequited

Words:  1289

~~

“So… the Force doesn’t make all that acrobatic stuff possible by itself?” Jace asked.  “Like, if I was a Jedi, I’d have to be able to do a backflip anyway?”

Satele shook her head as she continued to limber up for her morning routine.  “Not quite.  Yes, you do have to stay fit and maintain some physical prowess, but the Force helps you defy gravity for a little longer, have just a bit more endurance in a sprint, a little more strength in your swing.  Think of it as an extra set of hands or guidance.”

Jace sat on a bench just a few feet away from Satele’s gymnastic mat.  “But it’s 100% the Force when Jedi lift stuff, right?  It’s not like ‘bro, you gotta lift this much on the bench or you’ll drop that rock on your foot,’ right?”

Satele’s laugh jingled in his ear, like the tiny bell on top of an old-fashioned swinging door.  “Yes, that is more rooted in the person’s discipline and concentration in the Force.  Word to the wise, all the same : don’t put bets against Jedi in benchpressing competitions.”

“Like I’m betting against the Jedi for anything.”  Jace sipped his caf as he watched Satele finish up her stretches.  “You really put yourself through the paces.  I hurried over here because I thought you’d run through warm-ups and be swinging your dualsaber in minutes, and if I sat around eating my waffles, you’d be done.”

Satele tossed her braid over her shoulder as she stood up.  “Believe it or not, Jace, Jedi are mortals.  We get charley horses too!”

Just as Jace sputtered into his coffee – because hearing prim Satele say ‘charley horse’ was somehow hysterically funny to him – Satele launched into her routine, activating her dual saber as she vaulted into the air.  

Stars, she could fly.

At the time he’d met her over Korriban, he hadn’t had a lot of time to watch her – he knew what she and her master had been doing was beyond his imagining.  Watching her practice her katas was far lower stakes but no less amazing, here on Coruscant.

Over the last five years, since… everything… started, Jace and Satele had been pretty faithful pen pals (in a way; neither of them used pen, praise be the Holonet).  Sometimes it took awhile: she had to go through her trials with a new master, he ended up on a cereal box because it was good for recruitment and he was apparently cute enough, then she and Dar’Nala (her new master) had been sent around the galaxy on diplomatic service.  Jace understood the logic: Satele had gotten to know the battle side of the Jedi Order a lot sooner than she did the peacekeeper end.  

Then Jace got promoted and was sent off to officer school – who’d’ve thunk it, a kid form Bacaria like him? That was almost as impressive as the cereal box, according to Kal.

Kal would be a higher rank and would probably have his own cereal box if he wasn’t so dead-set on being a maverick and a joker.  He just had to defy authority in some way, even if it was just wearing non-regulation socks.  And not taking every double-dog dare his stupid company threw out there.

So, five years into this war with the Sith, and here were Satele Shan and Jace Malcom, hanging out. Like normal people.  Well, if normal people could swing a dualsaber and do backflips at the same time, Jace supposed, as he watched her.  As if they weren’t the two kids who brought news of Korriban to the galaxy.  It was a weird way to start a friendship.

Jace was coming to a pretty rapid conclusion though.  He didn’t want it just to be a friendship.

Satele was the most amazing woman he’d ever met, and he’d covered a lot of planets since he first met her.

Scratch that from the pitch; that sounded way raunchier than he thought it would.  And yeah, he’d gone out with other women but not that many.  He didn’t know every—

Ok, this whole ‘I think we should be more than friends’ skit he’d mapped out needed about fifteen more drafts before he tried it live with her.  He didn’t want it to sound like he was infatuated (he totally was), and he didn’t want it to sound like he didn’t have enough experience to make the comparison (he did), but he also didn’t want it to sound like ‘out of the hundreds of women’ (which was NOT the case; Kal would rat him out to his mother for not respecting women or himself, and then there’d be holy wrath over the holocomm).

His chain of thought broke off as Satele nailed her landing at the edge of the mat, then detached her dualsaber into two parts, so now she wielded one shorter lightsaber in each hand. He watched as she went through the movements, fighting an invisible foe –

And great galaxies, she was fierce.   There was some sort of channeled rage in her, something that might have darkened another’s soul… but instead, she pushed it out and away from her heart, throwing it into her efforts against foes, for the Jedi, for the Republic, for the Light --!

…Most of all, nobody Jace had tried to date had understood what his service meant to him. They thought it was a ‘do your time, and then do what you really want to do.’  Get that veteran’s discount.  Get a leg up in hiring.

This was what Jace wanted to do.  He wanted to be career military.  It made him happier than grunting it out on Bacaria, where physical labor with zero intellectual engagement was still a top feature of any career there.  He didn’t want to get into a rat race or be once of those inspirational talk jackasses.  Credits wouldn’t make him happy.  This would.

And Satele – as devoted to the Jedi Order as she was – would get that.  And…

He really had to draft this next part out, maybe thirty times, and wait another five years, but… he was pretty sure he could marry her if she promised to pick the Order and the Republic over him no matter what, if it came down to it.  It would sting but… valid?  

But then there was the whole “I have aspirations for having my own Huttball team, composed entirely of our children (adopted and biological)” thing he had going on.  He and Kal were brothers and it was fine, but…

Ok, scratch that entire paragraph until Satele married him.  They could talk about it then, because, well, if she didn’t/couldn’t/wouldn’t have kids… he still wanted to be with her.  

Because she understood duty and a calling.  This wasn’t killing time.  This was life, period.  And she understood what it was like to change the galaxy by the news they brought. What it was like to go from 18-year-old dumbass (well, maybe Satele was never a dumbass like he was, but whatever the Satele equivalent was) to galactic celebrity to the leader of tomorrow to... whatever was next for them.  If they lived that long.

It might not last.  It might not work as well as he imagined it. But Jace wanted to give it a shot, to say ‘we tried.’

For now, all he said was “Water?” and offered her a bottle when she walked over to the bench, looking radiant (or sweaty. But to Jace, radiant).

~~

@fluffyfebruary

[corsair-princess-nenime]

/ I have Satele Shans dualsaber in my swtor jedi toon and apparently it’s no longer available in the game store, so it’s now it’s rare and worth 800,000,000 game currency?

Lol it’s a very Nenime thing to happen

[greyias]

Oooh can we get the backstory to the dualsaber thing? Sorry if I've just missed the story before </3

Certainly! If you prefer backstory in fic form, it's delved into a little bit here and here, buuuut the simpler version is:

The out-of-game explanation is I'd had these items equipped for a while when I started seeing connections between them and the story, especially as I was going through Shadow of Revan and the first half of KotFE.

Items in question: Twin Satel Shan dualing sabers paired with purple-black striated crystals

In-universe expalnation, I kind of have a thing for weird connections in the Force and them weaving their way into characters' lives in subtle ways. And there's two explanations that sort of go together.

First off, the hilts (which is why I have such a mighty need for the dualsaber version)!

We see Satele's original dualsaber broken in the "Hope" trailer when she and Jace face off with Malgus during the Battle of Alderaan. This battle is what leads Satele and Jace to having the affair that produces Theron. In my headcanon, she keeps the ruins of the hilt*. Vague handwavey “the Force said so” (or the fact that she does seem to be a bit of a packrat when you poke around her camp on Odessen. Her mother’s journals, mementos of Ngani Zho, mysterious childrens’ toys, pictures of beautiful mountains, a locket with a picture of teenage Theron she in theory shouldn’t have, etc)

* -- this may actually be quasi-canon(ish)? If you're a Force Sensitive character and run through Chapter 12 of KotFE, look very closely at the hilt that Satele gives you in the cutscene. While there's a bit of a gilded color to part of the hilt, the swirls are the exact same on the above. Ergo, Satele does give you her hilts at some point... (at least as force sensitive baby, I'm sure the gun/cannon/etc you get are equally pretty. But obviously that kind of throws the "gives you her old lightsaber" bit out of the water if you're not actually building a lightsaber)

When Grey is forced into being a thrall for Vitiate at the end of Chapter 2, it’s implied by the game that the Knight, or rather, the Knight’s body was forced to do something very bad, as indicated by Orgus’s dialogue when he helps breaks Vitiate’s hold over them. (Not to mention the whole Orgus sidequest on Rishi). After escaping the fortress, Grey keeps trying to clean her original lightsabers, but she can never seem to get the bloodstains out (even though they’ve been scrubbed clean).

She can’t even wear them or look at them anymore, something that Satele picks up on during the debriefing with Scourge and the Council regarding Vitaite’s “NomNom the Galaxy” Plan**.  Before Grey and company depart for Belsavis, Voss, and beyond, Satele takes her aside and helps her craft new blades, helping providing the hilts as well as offering some calm/meditation help. The idea being that what was once broken can still be mended into something new, something stronger.

(** - That’s the canon name for it, I’m sure. No need to look it up on Wookieepedia).

And because I’m a bit of a sap, it has this roundabout way of connecting her to Theron, as the action of the blade being broken led Jace to make his mad dash, suicidal charge with a grenade to save the woman he loved, and ultimately led to Theron being born. And Grey’s love for Theron is part of what leads her into darkness, but also what pulls her out of it again and again.

SO.

If Grey is to have a dualsaber when the game lets me add a secondary combat style (which is definitely going to be Shadow, because I need stealth like burning on her when running dailies. Seriously it would make my life so much easier) -- then she needs to be able to attach her current two lightsabers back into the original dualsaber form. It just makes sense, yannow?

Now the crystals... that’s a bit more complicated and I haven’t quite explained it in full. But it’s a mix of a bunch of headcanon and lightsaber crystal lore from old and new canon. 300 years prior, perhaps riiiight about the time a certain Pureblood Sith literally stabs Meetra Surik in the back and turns on Revan, a twin pair of lightsaber crystals begin to grow on Ilum, facet by facet. Huh. Weird.

A few years prior to the Treaty of Coruscant, a little baby, pre-Padawan Grey starts having nightmares and visions of something calling to her in the dark. The Force being, well, the Force, is murky and not super clear in all of this, and eventually her guardian figures out that the Force is calling her to Ilum to claim her lightsaber crystals. This opens up a can of worms for him unrelated to this story, but she enters the crystal caves and follows the crystal’s songs to what look like ordinary, clear crystals.

The moment she touches them and pulls them from their resting place, they turn a deep, dark purple hue with black streaks running through it. Naturally, as a child that’s already been a bit traumatized by an encounter with the Sith, she freaks out and begs her guardian to hide them away, as she thinks it means she’s somehow tainted and dark. She puts them to the back of her mind, and almost forgets about them. And I mean, Orgus Din gifts her all of the components she needs to make the pair of sabers on Tython, so no one has to know about those dark crystals she’s got hidden away.

Until years later, she’s put under the thrall of the SIth Emperor. And those colors the crystals took on seem almost familiar:

Almost fated to be. Don’t they?

But yeah, not sure if the devs meant for the purple-striated crystals to resemble ValkyVitiateTenepants creepy dark-side power so much, but since they do (especially if you use his teleport ability in Chapter 9 of KOTET, the smoke is almost the exact same color), but since it does? In a way, for my little headcanon verse anyway, the crystals sort of represent that connection between Grey and Vitiate in the Force. That future that Scourge forced by grabbing onto one vision in a thousand and deciding to make it happen.

It’s not all him of course, she has her own issues, beyond him and even Theron, the color is also a reflection of her own inner demons. She still has lingering issues from losing her parents and with her family. At some point, I’m thinking possibly after whatever Legacy of the Sith throws at her (I haz fears after that Dantooine Flashpoint), she is reunited with both of her brothers, and all three of them eventually wind up confronting the man that murdered their parents. It’s all very dramatic, in typical Highwind fashion.

When Grey killed Vinn Atrius after he stabs Theron, the guilt almost drove her to the breaking point, and it took her a very long time to work her way through it. When the confrontation with their parents’ murderer happens, the man is unarmed, and she sees that Draike is about to drive himself off that same edge, she basically steps in to deliver the killing blow on Draike’s behalf, intending to spare him from that. It’s what finally breaks through her brother’s bloodlust, and other than Draike maybe, er, kneecapping the guy, he decides that his love for his estranged sister is stronger than his need for revenge.

(Meanwhile, this is like the second or third time their poor baby brother Ben has met his older siblings and he’s just all “?????” over the whole ordeal. )

TL;DR -- this incident is what finally mends the fence between Grey and Draike, and they develop a much healthier sibling relationship after it. It also allows them both to close the door on what happened to their parents and move on. The next time Grey is taking apart/maintaining her sabers, she meditates on the crystals, and the change from the deep, dark purple hue to a soft, purpleish gray that is almost white***.

*** - This is similar to what happens to the crystals that Ahsoka obtains from the Inquisitors hunting her. Meditating and healing the crystals that had reflected the darkness of their owner.

So uh... that might have been a more in-depth explanation than you were hoping for? 😅 Apparently even when I’m trying to write short, I can’t help but create super lengthy explanations.

[motheatenscarf]

The Closet of Kiran Hannan

Researcher: This isn’t what you probably thought the boy who eats ghosts for shits and giggles would wear, but he doesn’t like to be labeled.

Concealed: Sneaky son

Jedi Casual: When your mama is a famous Jedi who raised you right

Sithy Casual: But your DAD is one of the scariest Sith who ever lived

Weapon: Satele Shan’s Dualsaber (Almond Blue Crystal/Volatile Weapon Tuning)

It’s just pretty and looks good with his piercings, no relation to Satele whatsoever

1. Researcher

Chest: Gifted Shadow’s Jacket

Hands: Imperial Advisor’s Gloves (match)

Waist: Imperial Advisor’s Belt (match)

Legs: Gifted Shadow’s Greaves

Feet: Dramatic Extrovert’s Boots (match)

Wrist: Non-Visible

Head: Disabled

2. Concealed

Chest: Ascendancy Outcasts Breastplate

Hands: Lucien Draay’s Gloves (match)

Waist: Imperial Advisor’s Belt (match)

Legs: Ruthless Scion’s Greaves (match)

Feet: Carth Onasi’s Boots (Seconday Dark Gray)

Wrist: Non-Visible

Head: Temple Guardian’s Helmet (Secondary Light Gray)

3. Jedi Casual

Chest: Vrook Lamar’s Tunic (Black/Deep Blue)

Hands: Juhani’s Gloves (match)

Waist: Juhani’s Belt (match)

Legs: Force Apprentice’s Pants

Feet: Noble Councillor’s Boots

Wrist: Juhani’s Bracers (match)

Head:

4. Sithy Casual

Chest: Guerrilla Tactician’s Breastplate (Black/Black)

Hands: RV-03 Speedsuit Gloves (match)

Waist: Port Nowhere Mobster’s Clasp (match)

Legs: Guerrilla Tactician’s Greaves (match)

Feet: Noble Councillor’s Boots (match)

Wrist: Non-Visible

Head: Disabled

[rajakaen]

While constantly coming back and drawing on Tahr'rys' Ref sheet I've been also working on fleshing out his (back-)story, addressing inconsistencies and refining his overall character profile. Last weekend I thought about Tahr'rys' fighting style and the design of his knife.

Tahr'rys capitalizes on Force Speed and Force Concealment as vital elements of his combat strategy. These techniques enable him to swiftly close the gap with opponents, optimizing his unique method of deploying Force lightning. Rather than casting broad, destructive arcs of energy, Tahr'rys excels in delivering targeted, swift discharges to incapacitate foes or induce cardiac arrest. This tactic necessitates close-quarter combat, thus making his Force Speed and Force Concealment all the more critical. Despite his physical constraints and limited Force powers, Tahr'rys turns his shortcomings into strategic advantages. His emotional detachment, coupled with the precise wielding of his saberstaff and the pragmatic use of his military knife (a practical alternative when igniting his lightsaber isn't viable), further refines his highly adapted combat style. An adjustment inherited from his past as a Sith Assassin, where strategic analysis, stealth and the element of surprise outweighed brute force.

[rajakaen]

Have some latest WIPs of Tahr'rys :> It's midst ambient occlusion render and therefore has no lighting and no shadows - still, I like how it seems to develop…

I had to realize that I don't own a single completed picture of my OC that I've drawn myself. Only sketches and concept designs… Never really thought about it until some days ago ^^;

The WIP features a diversity of available armour sets and some design choices and tweaks like the glasses, the knife on his leg or the pattern of his pants. Satele Shan's Dualsaber is available but I prefer to see T holster his saberstaff on his back instead of his side. That thing is huge! Why put it on the belt? (insert bike fall meme here)

Ingame T is a Sith Inquisitor and, haha yes, an Assassin (solely) Tank. But I prefer to explore his own story, away from the game but inside its timeline. What you see here is part of what I imagine for him after he burned bridges with the Sith Order and managed to gain (at least) parts of his mental health back.

T ran away from the Sith (you read that right - though it’s an understatement of the events) and spent years on his own, trying to come to terms with himself but failing. Instead, he managed to force himself (unintentionally at first) into a shutdown process from which he couldn't emerge on his own. The Force™ and some plot twists ensued until T was captured by the Mandalorian Bounty Hunter Neo. Over time (this is also an understatement), they became friends.

There's an iceberg of information behind that char trust me - I simply don't like to tell his story to the vastness of the Internet. It's untypical and faces some unpopular truths about our own society, war and psychological impacts on individuals themselves. My OC is more like a vessel to explore arising questions and developed into a fledged-out character :o

Anyway… per se, T is still a Sith and uses his powers, but he prefers to remain unnoticed. Therefore he tends to obscure the colour of his eyes with some fancy droptacs ;) His ember-like eyes would give him right away, you know?

"Oh look, this dude looks like an anaemic vampire and has orange eyes and wields a lightsaber - he is a Sith! Oh no!" (don't mind the repost - my stuff simply doesn't appear in the tags and I don't know why)

[rajakaen]

Got some new followers lately 👀 Thanks everyone for stopping by. This means a lot to me 😍🥰

Over the weekend I had some time to work on Tahr'rys' RefSheet. Currently the chest plate is in progress. Still missing is the sketchy lineart though 👀

Also tinkering on his Saberstaff. The base is, of course, unmistakable "Satele Shan's Dualsaber" and will be changed only minimally. I love its design and own one made by Korbanth Sabers by myself. So why not use it :)

Tahr'rys has a large burn on his right arm that extends down his back. I'm still working on its saturation and opacity. The scar is old and should have faded a bit, but since this save I decided to make the scar a bit darker. Just currently have no picture of the change 🤔🙈

Don't mind the oversaturated violet armor - it'll be fixed when I clean up the whole ref somewhen. The different colors help me to keep track of the individual parts of the complex lineart - I simply didn't care about the hue when I started and now it's a bit tricky to change because of the layering of this Ref... 🤷🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️

Yep. Work still in progress... ♥️

[rajakaen]

A wish came true :D

This replica was made by Korbanth Sabers. It consists 2 etched metal hilts each with a fully customizable ProffieBoardV2, 28mm speakers & NeopixelBlades.

My wish to own a lightsaber is older than this millenium. Next step Aduino - it has to have turquoise blades.

Satele Shan's Dualsaber FTW

[greyias]

👏🏻give👏🏻us👏🏻more👏🏻shan👏🏻trivia/facts👏🏻☕️ :’) I love your posts on all the disaster family that are the shans

I’ll give you one for each member of the Disaster Space Family!

Theron:

Before the age of 23, Theron had earned the regard of the Skyraiders of ThonBoka to the point where he had a standing invitation to go fly around with them (very likely as a result of a previous assignment with the SIS). Considering he mentions that they fly in a saddle, and the most famous flying creature in the ThonBoka nebula grows between half a kilometer to over 1.5 km long, one has to wonder exactly what sort of insane vacation our favorite disaster spy princess was supposedly considering before plot purposes took him in another direction–

—just kidding, we all know Theron never takes vacations.

Jace:

Page 44 of the SWTOR Encyclopedia tells us that Jace was a stereotypical, small-town, All-AmericanGalactic good ole boy. His parents owned a ranch on the planet Bacaria that he worked on while growing up, and was also a big fan of grav-ball. He was just a small town boy wanted to see the galaxy, so he enlisted as soon as he came of age (and possibly escape the noxious fumes of his home planet’s main export, “Bacarian claw salt”, as far as I can tell, a stinky salt that somehow looks like eyeballs WTF STAR WARS YOU’RE SO WEIRD). 

The status of Jace’s parents as far as I can tell are not confirmed one way or the other — so it’s possible Theron’s paternal grandparents are still around.

Satele:

Kao Cen Darach, the Battlemaster of the Jedi Order, was Satele’s last master as a Padawan. She began training under him to learn about the dangers of the dark side, something that was slightly more academic in the time of relative peace that Satele had grown up in to that point. He’s the one who taught her in the art of the dualsaber, and was apparently so uptight about the Dark Side he got on the nerves of some Republic politicians and got assigned to go patrol this nearly forgotten outpost above a planet called Korriban. This of course is ironic because everything about this mission introduced Satele to the dark side (Jace, the return of the Sith Empire, her first real lightsaber battle), and sadly led to the death of Master Kao as depicted in the Return trailer. 

According to The Journals of Master Gnost-Dural, the death of Master Kao left a lasting impression on Satele, and she had vowed to make sure his sacrifice wasn’t in vain, a promise that as of the beginning of the Vanilla game, she was still striving to keep.

Tasiele:

The fate of Tasiele (Satele’s mama) is interesting —  she was exiled on an unnamed planet in the Outer Rim, but when the Jedi later went to retrieve her years later they found no trace of her “except for her clifffside dwelling and a set of journals dedicated to her daughter Satele”. One of these journals, Aspects of the Force, The Light and the Dark, can be found in Satele’s camp in KotFE Chapter 12. However, it should be noted, they never found any actual proof that Tasiele perished on the planet. She was simply… not there.

[angstmongertina]

Well, apparently Satele Shan's armor is on direct sale and I have plenty of CC so I guess it's time to make and run Sith!Satele! Probably on Begeren because I also have her dualsaber on that server.