Crafting: Artifice

General Overview:

Artificing is a long held tradition involving work with delicate materials to create the many artifacts that are used in the daily lives of the Sith. Items such as light-saber crystals, focuses, generators, and the like. This is an extremely important skill as the improvement of ones blade is paramount for the length of one’s life expectancy within the Sith ranks.

However, training in support skills is required to begin the path of artificing. These skills are Archeology and Treasure Hunting. Archeology involves the careful study of ancient ruins and the delicate work of extracting ancient pieces from dig sites. Treasure hunting is an exciting field where one must follow rumor and myth to uncover fantastical lost works of art and sparkling valuables.

Artificing uses a variety of materials in the process of production. Among these materials are a multitude of different forms of crystals, artifacts in the form of old pottery and etchings, gemstones, and fibrous materials used as binders. The bases for all light-saber crystals is a form of crystal called a color crystal.

Material Example: Color Crystals

Color crystals are typical in that the cleavage, crystal system or its geometric shape, habit, fracture, and transparency all affect the quality of the stone in its use for light-saber crystals. Color crystals are unique in that they react to the specific alignment of one to the force. Blue crystals for example are impossible for many well practiced users of the Dark side, while a simple padawan of the Jedi can use it easily. This is equally true in the case of a Jedi Knight using a traditionally Sith red crystal. Color crystals grow naturally in shades of red, yellow, green, and blue however, other shades are possible.

The weakest crystals, which are recommended for beginners, form crystals that barely break the surface of their rock groundmass. These weaker crystals usually have a orthorhombric structure, which means that their structure tend to be a flattened tabular in form. Their habit, or its appearance determined by its pre-dominate form, is reniform which means the crystals form rounded kidney shaped masses. Their fracture is conchoidal, or curved and flat. Their transparency effects the way they are able to allow for the refraction of power through the blade hilt. With the weakest crystals tend to be in a range between opaque and translucent, meaning that they pass very little power or light through them. These weak crystals are general labeled as Grade 1, and are typically found on the capital world of Drommund Kass.

As the grade of a color crystal goes up, designation all the way to Grade 6,the crystal characteristics will change. The most powerful crystals will have a tetragonal form. The habit of the greatest crystals will be acicular or slender needle like masses. The cleavage of the most powerful crystals tends to be more “prefect Basal” meaning that the crystal will break of parallel to its base, leaving a more intact material specimen. The fracture will become more uneven, which can leave a rougher surface to the crystal. The transparency change however if the most important change in the effect it was on the grade of a crystal. The highest grading will be completely transparent, allowing for perfect refraction of light through the crystal. The highest grade crystals are found on the less populated more dangerous fringe worlds, far from the empire center. The crystals tend to be less disturbed during their growing process on these worlds, which allows for the increase in their quality.