Author: stcrmpilot

I have a character who is mute, and uses a form of sign language to communicate with people they know. I was thinking of having them have an arm brace thing with a keyboard and a holoprojector that displays text as their way to communicate with people who don’t sign, would this make sense in-universe? I’m writing between Revenge of the Sith and New Hope, if that helps.

Yes, there seems to be nothing stopping you from doing this. I would guess that the holoprojector would need to be modified in some way to display text from a keyboard. I couldn’t tell you exactly how because I am not an expert in real-life technology and I don’t know of a case like this being mentioned in-universe. Just keep in mind that in the time period you’re writing in, a holoprojector cost somewhere around 1000 credits. If your character can afford this, you shouldn’t have a problem.

I hope that helps a bit!

~ Jacen

If a character is giving written stuff to somebody else (with no expectation of getting it back), would it be on a datapad or a flimsi? What’s the plural form of that latter word, anyways? What’s the primary method of personal data storage? What form would “books” be in?

For your first question, it’ll depend on the context. Both are quite popular (although flimsi declined in use through the time that the Empire was in charge), but if your character isn’t getting it back then I would say a flimsi would be better than a datapad, especially if you don’t want a trace of the information. Flimsiplast dissolves, by the way. However, you could use a datacard for the other character to put in their own datapad instead of giving them an entire datapad, that would probably be much more common.

The plural of flimsi (referring to the sheet, not the material) is not mentioned as far as I know. I believe the word itself is never actually pluralized, so you might say “sheets of flimsi” rather trying something like “flimsis” which is kind of awkward.

Data storage is mostly digital, be it personal or on a government-wide level. Most people own a datapad because they’re pretty cheap, and datacards are very widely used. Plenty of people do still keep stuff around in a hard copy form, like flimsiplast journals, but most day-to-day things are done digitally. It’s basically a lot like how we store our data today.

Books as we know them are considered pretty archaic in Star Wars. When printed, books and other large compilations of data are done on flimsi, but these are rare. Holobooks are much more popular, and those are stored on thin crystalline boards or, if you don’t want to be so official, in the form of a file on a datapad.

Hope that helps!

~ Jacen

Thank you for answering that! Is there any type of “ceremony” that either is a thing, or could be repurposed? The non-Mando has been having a VERY bad time of things, and the Mando wants to distract him with excessive pomp.

The closest thing I can find is a few old songs and chants that the Mando could preform. None of them are very relevant to your specific scenario, but your non-Mando doesn’t have to know that. Ka’rta Tor is one that’s a nice length, you can look at it here. Naasad’guur mhi – Mhi n’ulu (the “official” name of the song is unknown) is supposed to sound pretty solemn even though it really isn’t, so that could be a pretty convincing stand-in. Here’s the link to it. And a few more songs if you want more options. As for actual, full-on ceremonies, I couldn’t think of or find any that would work. There aren’t many records of ceremonies, besides the death ceremony. Sorry :/

A lot of these songs were preformed with some kind of drum or instrument, though, so there’s no reason why you couldn’t spice it up a bit. Hopefully one of these will work alright for you!

~ Jacen

I’m having a Mandalorian character swear, to a non-Mando, that they will not perform a certain action. Is there any type of oath that would work for that in Mando culture? And if there isn’t anything in sources, what might it be like? The non-Mando character hadn’t been serious in suggesting a formal oath, but the Mando character decided to take him up on it for lulz, and to make it as fancy/formal/etc as possible.

Haat, ijaa, haa’it is something said to seal a pact, meaning “truth, honor, vision.” It’s not that fancy, but I figure it would still throw your non-Mando character a bit. You could also develop your own little phrase to suit the conversation more specifically, in which case you might want to use ori’haat (it’s the truth, I swear) somewhere in there. An ending like oya! could serve to add a little humor and further confuse your non-Mando. Anyway, if you do want to make up your own saying I would give this Mando’a dictionary a shot, and the Wookieepedia artice on grammar.

Feel free to ask again if you get stuck. Good luck!

~ Jacen

So I’m planning to write a Star Wars crossover fix and I’m having trouble deciding a characters weapon. She fights with a staff and I would like to give her a saber but a saberstaff just feels to deadly for her. I’ve given some thought to a light saber pike. Do you have any suggestions?

I certainly do! Let’s see if we can find a weapon that works.

First, I think a lightsaber pike would likely fit well with your character’s background with a staff. You could give her either a double or single-bladed one; the double-bladed ones are typically associated with the Jedi Temple Guards of the Old Republic, and the single-bladed ones are used by Sith and associates. That’s just historical, though, and I don’t think your character’s alignment with either side has to influence her weapon if you don’t want it to. If you went with a traditional lightsaber pike, with two blades, there might be some question as to how she got it, just because it was used pretty much exclusively by the Temple Guard. Also, the fighting style is nearly identical to that used with a double-bladed lightsaber (saberstaff). Really, the only difference between the two weapons is the length of the hilt and blades, so if you think a saberstaff would be too advanced then the double-bladed pike might not work. A single-bladed one might be used more like a lightsaber than a staff, so take that into consideration as well.

Something else you might want to look into is a force pike. They’re somewhere between a lightsaber and a staff, with a vibro-edged tip to deliver strong electric shocks. The settings can be adjusted; at the lowest, it’ll give a very painful shock, higher settings can cause paralysis or death. Turning it all the way up will let it slice through bone and thin armour. The style of fighting required by a staff, which involves a lot of stabbing motions, would fit well with this weapon. It’s also a whole lot cheaper than a lightsaber pike, if that would be an issue for your character.

And perhaps one of my personal favourites, a vibrostaff could also suit your character well. Like other vibroweapons, the vibrogenerator in the hilt causes the blade to vibrate so fast that a glancing blow could take a limb off. Most are double-bladed, but you can get single-bladed versions, and while it is a light weapon, you’re not going to get the problem where a staff-wielder has to get used to the weightlessness of a plasma blade. A lot of them also have cortosis weaves, which allow them to block blows from a lightsaber or deflect a blaster bolt. It’s not deadly in the way one would consider a saberstaff deadly, but it would definitely get the job done. It is quite long, though, with a three-foot hilt and a two and a half-foot blade, so consider if your character might be too short for it.

This has gotten long, but I also want to propose an electrostaff. If you’ve seen The Clone Wars, they’re the things that Grievous’s droid guards carry. They can block lightsaber strikes, and they have emitters on each end with different power settings, ranging from incapacitating to deadly.

So yeah. There are tons of options for you to choose from. Feel free to ask for specifics or more recommendations if you want, I could probably talk about this all day. A lot of these weapons are very similar in design and/or purpose, so consider the image you want for your character and pick something to match.

I hope that helps!

~ Jacen

darth-lumines:

→ Great Temple of Massassi on Yavin IV (Complete Star Wars Locations)
     (Rebel base in Rogue One + A New Hope)  
     (Clearer images here and here.)

→

Great Temple Layout (Geonosis and The Outer Rim Worlds)

    (Clearer image here.)

→ Interesting notes: While no longer canon

(as of April 25, 2014) it still provides a useful diagram of the rebel base in 0 BBY.  It includes the locations of the hangars and the medallion ceremony and mess hall and barracks/sleep quarters and the main briefing rooms.

The Rogue One characters spend some time here, where Cassian and the other Rebels are operating out of when the movie starts, and it will be used through the time of the destruction of the Death Star.  If you want to have a better idea of what’s available there or the layout for ficcing purposes, this may help!

Hey so uh, is there anywhere else in the galaxy besides thyferra that makes/produces bacta? Or is that the only place?

This is actually something that can be unclear within the EU. Much of the time, Thyferra is referred to as the main source of bacta in the galaxy, or it is said that almost all bacta comes from Thyferra. It is possible that it can be produced on another world, but it would be too expensive, and probably low quality, to buy from anywhere else. No other world is specifically named, either. Thyferra is definitely the only world that has an abundance of the materials needed. You probably wouldn’t ever come across bacta produced anywhere but Thyferra, if such a thing does exist.

Do let me know if you need more information about bacta, its one of my favourite things to talk about. Good luck!

~ Jacen

rswtotd:

Bacta was a synthetic chemical substance that consisted of gelatinous, translucent red alazhi and kavam bacterial particles that were mixed within a colorless, viscous fluid known as ambori. When a patient was exposed to bacta, the bacterial particles within sought out wounds and promoted rapid tissue regeneration while preventing the emergence of scar tissue. Bacta was often thought of as a “miracle fluid”, and seemed to be effective against almost every type of injury and ailment across an incredible cross-section of species throughout the galaxy. It was considered to be the best medicine available anywhere, replacing the previously-used kolto.