A training lightsabre combat program specifically designed for the Dark Brotherhood which derives it's name from the Cerean word "to learn". A lightsaber is a deceptive item. To the average person, they see a weapon that anyone can press a button and whirl around with ease. The truth is far more complex. So complex, in fact, that the Jedi, both light and dark, utilize a training tool called a 'training saber'.
A training lightsaber is made using a mass-produced hilt and a low-quality Adegan crystal. The result is a weapon that produces a blue blade that, while painful to touch against flesh, is not nearly strong enough to cut. The sensation of being hit with a training saber is a burning pain that goes away after a day or so. Training sabers allow for students to learn how to handle a lightsaber. When activated, the power cells charge the Adegan crystal, creating the 'arc-wave' of energy that comprises the blade. This also has the unfortunate effect of generating a gyroscopic effect, which makes the hilt resist any movement whatsoever. It takes long hours of training to learn to overcome this issue in order to utilize this weapon with any level of proficiency.
Training sabers have sometimes been used by cocky Journeymen against more experienced Jedi. Those that survived learned several important lessons. Chief among these is that while the Training saber can parry and block other training sabers, they do not fare so well against regular lightsabers. A regular lightsaber's blade is far more focused and intense and will disrupt a training saber's blade on all but the slightest of blows. Another unfortunate student discovered that a training saber could not be used to absorb the energy of an Elder's Force Lightning. Another found that while the training saber was able to deflect the bolts of a relatively weak blaster pistol, it did not hold up against a disruptor.
It is important to realize that while a training saber looks like a lightsaber, and acts like a lightsaber, it is not nearly the equivalent of one. It is, in the end, a training tool more than a weapon.
Banlanth Training Objectives
- Two handed grip, ignition, and maintenance
- Vertical movement, horizontal movement
- Slow strike, slow jab, slow block
- Basic Velocity, Single handed grip, strike
- Defensive velocity, Offensive velocity, block, jab
To attain your training sabre, you must complete the following:
- Gain the rank of Acolyte
- Gain the rank of [CL:1] (Neophyte) in the ACC
- Take the Training Saber Test
The training sabre test can be taken before you Qualify in the ACC. However, if you do that, you must request the sabre for your dossier from the HRLD. If you do it in that order, the sabre won't be added automatically.
- Training sabers can not cut. They singe, sting, and otherwise annoy, but they cannot cut anything.
- Training sabres cannot 'kill' based on the strike of the blade.
- Training Saber blades can be cut by regular lightsabers.
- The unfocused power beam of a training saber is vastly inferior to the intense power beam of a 'regular' lightsaber.
- Training saber can parry and block other training sabers, they will only be successful against regular lightsabers for limited durations before shorting out.
- If by some sick twist of fate one gets used against an elder, they can not block Force Lightning [FL].
- Training saber *can* block regular weapons, like swords. However, prolonged exposure may see the sabre blade's disruption.
- Training sabres may only be used when they are awarded and added to the combatant's dossier as well as allocated on the CS.