Nick "Nicodemus" Dalton (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nick_garou) wrote2008-01-15 08:49 am
nick_garou) wrote2008-01-15 08:49 am
Entry tags:
An elegant weapon for a more civilized time.
I pushed the limits of my capabilities for months, working on weaving complex and vulgar magics like I've never done before. In the process of creating a specific ritual focus for this powerful rote, I learned a great deal about The Force(s).
The Emperor Palpatine comment initially took me back. He's a bad guy, and I don't consider myself a bad guy. And in Jedi Outcast you can learn some of the Dark Side powers. But are certain types of magic inherently evil? Or do these magics simply appeal more--or have more utility--to certain types of jedi/sith/mages? A gun in the hands of a murder is bad, but the same gun in the hands of a police officer apprehending a dangerous criminal is good.
I watched the entire Star Wars movies again. Three times. To see if any of the jedi used force lightning initially, but I kept beind drawn back to the lightsabers. Pause. Zoom, zoom, zoom. Advance by frame. Google searches for more information. Wikipedia (and wookiepedia) was useful in revealing sources from books and technical/theoretical discussions as to how they are made and work. Plasma that arcs in a flat loop projected from the handle.
I wondered: could I build a lightsaber?
Plasma was right out: too complicated, chaotic, and powerful for me to handle. But what about light? If light could be bent backwards.... But I don't have the skill to bend forces in reverse--just deflect and manipulate them. Dead end. I should have given up, but it just sat there in the back of my mind percolating.
A couple days later, I had an epiphany while playing a video game: Portal. I was playing around with the portal gun--which can use two portals to link a space together. I was really amused with how it was such a beautiful metaphore for correspondence magic. Then it hit me as I had my video game self falling an infinite distance in a confined space with a portal in the ceiling and one directly beneath it in the floor.
I didn't need to bend forces 180 degrees. I could correspond light back to the source via a portal-like magical effect.
I went to Peter's sanctum with a tactical flashlight and an idea. Turn the flashlight on. Open an "in" correspondence point for the light beam about 4 feet in front of the flashlight beam. Open an "out" correspondence point for the light beam an inch in front of the bulb. The beam of light instantly looped on itself and created an extraordinarily bright beam, but it was obvious there was a lot of diffusion going on. It looked like a lightsaber with a see-though white blade.
I scoured Amazon.com and eBay to acquire all the Star Wars books that contained lightsaber references. I ordered a Force-FX lightsaber replica (Mace Windu's of course). I also decided I needed a light source that would not diffuse like a flashlight, so ordered a 200mW Elite Series green laser from wickedlasers.com. Green is the color used by jedis who specialize more in force powers than lightsaber fighting (called Consulars), which seemed appropriate in my particular circumstances.
A week later, I repeated the flashlight experiment with the single green laser. Looping the laser worked far better than the flashlight. I wanted to move much faster, but knew that I was playing with vulgar magic, even though I was limiting my experiments to the sanctum where vulgar magic is easier and paradox is generally held at bay. In hindsight, it's extremely fortunate that this is the sanctum created by a Master of Forces.
Personal note: Go pay Mr. Kenward a visit at the asylum. It's been a few months since the last visit, and would be a good idea to check on him in the event he needs something or is coming out of his nearly decade-long Quiet. Yet another cautionary tale for playing around with vulgar magics.
But yes, the looped green laser worked exceedingly well and created a beam of green light that resembled a lightsaber's blade. It was not very effective in terms of cutting power, but would set things on fire. More power was needed. Also, when I picked the laser up and moved it while activated, there was a slight deviation in the relocation of the two correspondence points which resulted in the laser hitting the points at a slight angle. Multiplied a couple hundred times, this resulted in a single exiting beam coming off the end of the lightsaber as the slight imperfection of the right angle entry multiplied over distance. This would not do.
There were two issues to address:
(1) Increasing power, and
(2) Keeping the laser beam within the two correspondence points while the lightsaber was moved.
I broke into my savings and ordered four more of the 200mW green lasers and some fiber optic cable. (Ouch. Lean times ahead and a nasty credit card bill coming soon.). That will help to boost the power substantially, but not enough to create a lightsaber level of cutting power. I was going to have to boost the power output using Prime and Forces to supercharge the lasers with an infussion of raw quintessence. That should do the trick--and result in some extraordinarily dangerous and vulgar magic.
Keeping that dangerous magic focused into the blade would thus be critically important. A failure might result in a hole being blasted through something--or someone. I could keep the energies focused by creating a "sleeve" in the fabric of space, encouraging the lasers to subtly warp within their confines and stay between the two correspondence portals.
Obviously, this is a damn complex piece of magic. I hadn't realized it at the time, but I was actually in the process of creating a very specific ritual focus: a lightsaber hilt. In "Return of the Jedi," Vader examines Luke's new lightsaber and comments "I see you have constructed a new lightsaber. Your skills are complete." In hindsight, I see what that meant. But what I knew at the time was that I needed to construct my own lightsaber. My light saber had to be just that: it had to be personal.
I'd initially wanted to just take apart the Mace Windu replica saber, but it just didn't feel right. I needed to make my own. I ordered a Maglight 4D cell flashlight, which would be big enough to house the five lasers. This would be the base from which I started. I also ordered another defensive flashlight designed to also be a clubbing instrument. I liked the bezel design and wanted to mate that with the rather plain metal maglight. Also, I wanted to better conceal the bulb area, because it was not going to look like a flashlight from the front--the less attention the better. I fitted the lasers with fiber optics, rigged them up to a flat piece of metal, and used the Order of Hermes pentagram formation on the front: a traditional symbol of the power of Forces. Traditionally, there's a candle at each point of the pentagram, but I used a fiber optic cable strand channeling green lasers. All the literature and video games talk about crystals being used to focus the energies of the lightsaber. I think running the lasers through fiber optics counts, but I attached some crystals I bought at a hippie-type store to each laser near the battery sources. Aditionally, I used a paint brush with an angled brush tip to paint the inside of the maglight tube with a triple integral formula for calculating the volume of the cylinder equivalent to the 4' length of the saber blade with a diameter equivalent to the cross-section of the circle around the pentagram at the "nozzle" end. After completing all these attunements and modifications, I took it to the sanctum to give it a test run without using Prime enhancement.
Without any magic in use, the 5 laser beams scatter--they aren't perfectly aligned or focused. I added in the two Correspondence portals and got 5 beams scattering downrange. At this point, I decided to stand the lightsaber on end so that any stray beams would hit the ceiling. I didn't want to take the chance of a laser beam later on accidentally blasting a hole in someone if things got out of control. At this point, I added in some Forces to subtly coax all the beams into bouncing around inside an imaginary tube. This worked beautifully and resulted in what truly resembled a green lightsaber. I stuck a pencil into the light beam and it quickly ignited. Still not cutting like a lightsaber, but the combined and looped lasers now packed a brief punch. At this point, I noticed that the lightsaber hilt was becoming very hot and I shut it down. I added in some vents at the base of the hilt in order to allow for air flow to help keep the lasers inside cool.
Rather than start the lightsaber up again, I decided not to tempt fate and paradox and spent about a week tinkering with the lightsaber's design.
First off, I didn't like the glossy black of the Maglight's paint job. I repainted the whole thing a matte black. All the lightsabers in the movies are gloss black and chromed metal, but color of the handle doesn't matter and each lightsaber is supposed to be unique. So I deviated significantly from the mold with the color scheme. The matte black looks sinister, but it also still looks like a flashlight that won't attract too much attention--at least until that green blade comes out. But it was still missing something: sound.
I took apart the Mace Windu replica and ported the internal speaker and microchip into my saber. Now when I turned my lightsaber on, it actually sounded like a lightsaber with the ignition sound, low idle hum, and swooshing sound when it moved. Before, the lightsaber was totally silent and it just didn't feel right. Now it sounded like a real lightsaber. This made me think of an additional effect to add to the device. Using some Mind magic and the sight and sound of an active lightsaber, I could send out a subconscious impulse of fear to enhance the "holy shit!" reaction someone would have to seeing an honest-to-god lightsaber firing up or being swung. That alone might help to prevent any actual need to use it.
I actually hadn't considered making use of the weapon in the construction of the lightsaber: would I ever use it as a weapon? Could I bring myself to use it? I've never killed anyone before. I don't want to ever kill anyone--I'm not sure where that might lead me. I've shot someone with rubber bullets before and once killed a couple.... mutated fish things. And a sword--that's up close and personal. But.... I guess this might be similar to what the scientists working on the nuclear bomb felt: they might have just been interested in the make-it-work aspect, never expecting it to ever be used. I can't see myself ever using it on people certainly. My lightsaber is like the jedi force powers: neither good not evil. It all depends on who wields it and how. Even though I may never use it, its creation has become an obsession. It has a life of its own.
I also realized that I was going to need some tass on hand in order to power the lightsaber beyond what I could funnel into it myself. I've been harvesting tass from a couple nodes using "lucky pennies". I rigged up a spot to hold six pennies in the hilt. If I'm ever in a situation where I've got to hit something with a lightsaber seven times, I'll probably be dead before I get near to running out of juice. An unpleasant thought, but there it is.
This and the thought of what I might use the saber for got me to thinking that it might be a good idea to give the blade a spiritual resonance. I decided to add Spirit into the rote so that the lightsaber could be used to attack a spirit in the astral plane. That I could stomach hacking apart. A person, not really.
I went back to the sanctum to fire up the lightsaber again. Mind to create the fear effect. Powered up the lasers and the FX sound component along with the Correspondence portals to loop the lasers. Forces to focus the lasers and prevent stray beams. Spirit to create astral resonance. Everything worked fine.
Moment of truth.
I kicked in Prime and tied it in with Forces and energy coming the five lasers chained into a self-feeding loop.
Mother. Of. God.
I used metal fire tongs to pass a pencil through the beam. It cut it in half instantly. Then I passed the metal fire tongs through the beam. It too was cut in half, the severed ends molten from the heat.
I shut it down. I'd put together a fuctioning lightsaber. I have no idea how long I sat there, stunned at what I'd created over the past two months.
Eventually, I fell asleep at the sanctum's workbench. I dreamed. I talked with my Avatar, Mr. Abernathy. I won't go into details here, but between my work with the lightsaber and the discussion we had, I'd progressed in my skill with The Force--and Forces. And I now posses a greater understanding now of both the light and dark sides of Forces magic.
"I see you have constructed a new lightsaber. Your skills are complete."
I watched the entire Star Wars movies again. Three times. To see if any of the jedi used force lightning initially, but I kept beind drawn back to the lightsabers. Pause. Zoom, zoom, zoom. Advance by frame. Google searches for more information. Wikipedia (and wookiepedia) was useful in revealing sources from books and technical/theoretical discussions as to how they are made and work. Plasma that arcs in a flat loop projected from the handle.
I wondered: could I build a lightsaber?
Plasma was right out: too complicated, chaotic, and powerful for me to handle. But what about light? If light could be bent backwards.... But I don't have the skill to bend forces in reverse--just deflect and manipulate them. Dead end. I should have given up, but it just sat there in the back of my mind percolating.
A couple days later, I had an epiphany while playing a video game: Portal. I was playing around with the portal gun--which can use two portals to link a space together. I was really amused with how it was such a beautiful metaphore for correspondence magic. Then it hit me as I had my video game self falling an infinite distance in a confined space with a portal in the ceiling and one directly beneath it in the floor.
I didn't need to bend forces 180 degrees. I could correspond light back to the source via a portal-like magical effect.
I went to Peter's sanctum with a tactical flashlight and an idea. Turn the flashlight on. Open an "in" correspondence point for the light beam about 4 feet in front of the flashlight beam. Open an "out" correspondence point for the light beam an inch in front of the bulb. The beam of light instantly looped on itself and created an extraordinarily bright beam, but it was obvious there was a lot of diffusion going on. It looked like a lightsaber with a see-though white blade.
I scoured Amazon.com and eBay to acquire all the Star Wars books that contained lightsaber references. I ordered a Force-FX lightsaber replica (Mace Windu's of course). I also decided I needed a light source that would not diffuse like a flashlight, so ordered a 200mW Elite Series green laser from wickedlasers.com. Green is the color used by jedis who specialize more in force powers than lightsaber fighting (called Consulars), which seemed appropriate in my particular circumstances.
A week later, I repeated the flashlight experiment with the single green laser. Looping the laser worked far better than the flashlight. I wanted to move much faster, but knew that I was playing with vulgar magic, even though I was limiting my experiments to the sanctum where vulgar magic is easier and paradox is generally held at bay. In hindsight, it's extremely fortunate that this is the sanctum created by a Master of Forces.
Personal note: Go pay Mr. Kenward a visit at the asylum. It's been a few months since the last visit, and would be a good idea to check on him in the event he needs something or is coming out of his nearly decade-long Quiet. Yet another cautionary tale for playing around with vulgar magics.
But yes, the looped green laser worked exceedingly well and created a beam of green light that resembled a lightsaber's blade. It was not very effective in terms of cutting power, but would set things on fire. More power was needed. Also, when I picked the laser up and moved it while activated, there was a slight deviation in the relocation of the two correspondence points which resulted in the laser hitting the points at a slight angle. Multiplied a couple hundred times, this resulted in a single exiting beam coming off the end of the lightsaber as the slight imperfection of the right angle entry multiplied over distance. This would not do.
There were two issues to address:
(1) Increasing power, and
(2) Keeping the laser beam within the two correspondence points while the lightsaber was moved.
I broke into my savings and ordered four more of the 200mW green lasers and some fiber optic cable. (Ouch. Lean times ahead and a nasty credit card bill coming soon.). That will help to boost the power substantially, but not enough to create a lightsaber level of cutting power. I was going to have to boost the power output using Prime and Forces to supercharge the lasers with an infussion of raw quintessence. That should do the trick--and result in some extraordinarily dangerous and vulgar magic.
Keeping that dangerous magic focused into the blade would thus be critically important. A failure might result in a hole being blasted through something--or someone. I could keep the energies focused by creating a "sleeve" in the fabric of space, encouraging the lasers to subtly warp within their confines and stay between the two correspondence portals.
Obviously, this is a damn complex piece of magic. I hadn't realized it at the time, but I was actually in the process of creating a very specific ritual focus: a lightsaber hilt. In "Return of the Jedi," Vader examines Luke's new lightsaber and comments "I see you have constructed a new lightsaber. Your skills are complete." In hindsight, I see what that meant. But what I knew at the time was that I needed to construct my own lightsaber. My light saber had to be just that: it had to be personal.
I'd initially wanted to just take apart the Mace Windu replica saber, but it just didn't feel right. I needed to make my own. I ordered a Maglight 4D cell flashlight, which would be big enough to house the five lasers. This would be the base from which I started. I also ordered another defensive flashlight designed to also be a clubbing instrument. I liked the bezel design and wanted to mate that with the rather plain metal maglight. Also, I wanted to better conceal the bulb area, because it was not going to look like a flashlight from the front--the less attention the better. I fitted the lasers with fiber optics, rigged them up to a flat piece of metal, and used the Order of Hermes pentagram formation on the front: a traditional symbol of the power of Forces. Traditionally, there's a candle at each point of the pentagram, but I used a fiber optic cable strand channeling green lasers. All the literature and video games talk about crystals being used to focus the energies of the lightsaber. I think running the lasers through fiber optics counts, but I attached some crystals I bought at a hippie-type store to each laser near the battery sources. Aditionally, I used a paint brush with an angled brush tip to paint the inside of the maglight tube with a triple integral formula for calculating the volume of the cylinder equivalent to the 4' length of the saber blade with a diameter equivalent to the cross-section of the circle around the pentagram at the "nozzle" end. After completing all these attunements and modifications, I took it to the sanctum to give it a test run without using Prime enhancement.
Without any magic in use, the 5 laser beams scatter--they aren't perfectly aligned or focused. I added in the two Correspondence portals and got 5 beams scattering downrange. At this point, I decided to stand the lightsaber on end so that any stray beams would hit the ceiling. I didn't want to take the chance of a laser beam later on accidentally blasting a hole in someone if things got out of control. At this point, I added in some Forces to subtly coax all the beams into bouncing around inside an imaginary tube. This worked beautifully and resulted in what truly resembled a green lightsaber. I stuck a pencil into the light beam and it quickly ignited. Still not cutting like a lightsaber, but the combined and looped lasers now packed a brief punch. At this point, I noticed that the lightsaber hilt was becoming very hot and I shut it down. I added in some vents at the base of the hilt in order to allow for air flow to help keep the lasers inside cool.
Rather than start the lightsaber up again, I decided not to tempt fate and paradox and spent about a week tinkering with the lightsaber's design.
First off, I didn't like the glossy black of the Maglight's paint job. I repainted the whole thing a matte black. All the lightsabers in the movies are gloss black and chromed metal, but color of the handle doesn't matter and each lightsaber is supposed to be unique. So I deviated significantly from the mold with the color scheme. The matte black looks sinister, but it also still looks like a flashlight that won't attract too much attention--at least until that green blade comes out. But it was still missing something: sound.
I took apart the Mace Windu replica and ported the internal speaker and microchip into my saber. Now when I turned my lightsaber on, it actually sounded like a lightsaber with the ignition sound, low idle hum, and swooshing sound when it moved. Before, the lightsaber was totally silent and it just didn't feel right. Now it sounded like a real lightsaber. This made me think of an additional effect to add to the device. Using some Mind magic and the sight and sound of an active lightsaber, I could send out a subconscious impulse of fear to enhance the "holy shit!" reaction someone would have to seeing an honest-to-god lightsaber firing up or being swung. That alone might help to prevent any actual need to use it.
I actually hadn't considered making use of the weapon in the construction of the lightsaber: would I ever use it as a weapon? Could I bring myself to use it? I've never killed anyone before. I don't want to ever kill anyone--I'm not sure where that might lead me. I've shot someone with rubber bullets before and once killed a couple.... mutated fish things. And a sword--that's up close and personal. But.... I guess this might be similar to what the scientists working on the nuclear bomb felt: they might have just been interested in the make-it-work aspect, never expecting it to ever be used. I can't see myself ever using it on people certainly. My lightsaber is like the jedi force powers: neither good not evil. It all depends on who wields it and how. Even though I may never use it, its creation has become an obsession. It has a life of its own.
I also realized that I was going to need some tass on hand in order to power the lightsaber beyond what I could funnel into it myself. I've been harvesting tass from a couple nodes using "lucky pennies". I rigged up a spot to hold six pennies in the hilt. If I'm ever in a situation where I've got to hit something with a lightsaber seven times, I'll probably be dead before I get near to running out of juice. An unpleasant thought, but there it is.
This and the thought of what I might use the saber for got me to thinking that it might be a good idea to give the blade a spiritual resonance. I decided to add Spirit into the rote so that the lightsaber could be used to attack a spirit in the astral plane. That I could stomach hacking apart. A person, not really.
I went back to the sanctum to fire up the lightsaber again. Mind to create the fear effect. Powered up the lasers and the FX sound component along with the Correspondence portals to loop the lasers. Forces to focus the lasers and prevent stray beams. Spirit to create astral resonance. Everything worked fine.
Moment of truth.
I kicked in Prime and tied it in with Forces and energy coming the five lasers chained into a self-feeding loop.
Mother. Of. God.
I used metal fire tongs to pass a pencil through the beam. It cut it in half instantly. Then I passed the metal fire tongs through the beam. It too was cut in half, the severed ends molten from the heat.
I shut it down. I'd put together a fuctioning lightsaber. I have no idea how long I sat there, stunned at what I'd created over the past two months.
Eventually, I fell asleep at the sanctum's workbench. I dreamed. I talked with my Avatar, Mr. Abernathy. I won't go into details here, but between my work with the lightsaber and the discussion we had, I'd progressed in my skill with The Force--and Forces. And I now posses a greater understanding now of both the light and dark sides of Forces magic.
"I see you have constructed a new lightsaber. Your skills are complete."