Model: Jaro Tapal’s Lightsaber
Type: Powered Melee weapon
Scale: Character
Skill: Lightsaber: double-bladed
Cost: Not Available For Sale
Availability: 4, X
Difficulty: Difficult
Damage: 5D (see notes)
Game Notes: Proper use of a double-bladed lightsaber requires the specialization Lightsaber: Double-Bladed Lightsaber. Without the proper specialization, the difficulty to use a double-bladed lightsaber is very difficult, and none of the special benefits of the double-bladed lightsaber may be used.
Background: This lightsaber was first used by Jedi Master Jaro Tapal. Just before Tapal’s death, he passed the weapon to his padawan, Cal Kestis, who used the weapon until its crystal broke while Kestis was on Dathomir.
At some point during his tenure as a Jedi, Jaro Tapal constructed a double-bladed lightsaber. He had it on hand shortly before Order 66—a contingency order that forced all clone troopers to execute their Jedi superiors—was enacted, drawing it in defense of himself and his Padawan, Cal Kestis. Despite his efforts, Tapal’s considerable skill with the weapon was not enough to fend off the concentrated gunfire of numerous clones while simultaneously defending himself and his Padawan, and the lightsaber was damaged when a bolt sundered the weapon in two. Fatally wounded, Tapal gifted Kestis his lightsaber, knowing that Kestis had lost his own. With his last breath, Tapal told Kestis to trust in the Force.
Kestis kept his fallen master’s saber with him during the five years he spent in hiding on Bracca, until he exposed himself to the Second Sister and Ninth Sister following Prauf’s execution, drawing it in a vain attempt to avenge his death. He would continue to use the weapon throughout his adventures with the crew of the Mantis, putting it to good use against the various threats he faced and eventually repairing the damaged half, until it was damaged on Dathomir when a Force vision involving his master resulted in the shattering of the saber’s crystal. Keeping the remnants of the weapon with him, Cal would eventually integrate them, along with elements of Cere Junda’s lightsaber, into the new lightsaber he constructed on Ilum.