Blastsword

The blastsword was a lengthy metal sword, approximately the length of a Human man's arm, featuring a blade measuring about a meter. It possessed exceptional balance, allowing skilled users to wield it easily with one hand. The hilt included a pommel and a curved metal guard to protect the user's hand, with the blade's edge beginning a few centimeters above the guard. New Republic pilot Wes Janson also noted the guard's usefulness for bludgeoning. Unlike typical swords with sharp points, the blastsword had a flared nozzle at its tip. This tip was connected to a blaster mechanism, powered by a cell within the hilt. Activated by a switch on the pommel, the mechanism discharged an energy blast upon contact with a solid object. When activated, the blastsword's tip emitted a humming sound and glowed with energy, leaving behind colorful lines as it moved. Due to its unique design and function, proficiency in wielding the weapon required dedicated training.

While standard blastswords were common, polearm versions also existed. These were used by the honor guard protecting the perator, or ruler, of the nation of Cartann on at least one occasion.

The blastsword originated on the planet Adumar. By the time of the New Republic era, the weapon had been around for hundreds of years, enjoying greater prestige in earlier times. In 13 ABY, the weapon was a common sight among the Adumari, particularly within the aristocracy, but also among common people. It was frequently used single-handedly, with a knife or dagger held in the other hand. As time passed, the Adumari nobility developed a refined style of using the weapon, reducing the power of the blaster and prohibiting certain moves. As piloting and starfighter combat gained prominence among the Adumari, the status of blastsword duelists declined, though the blastsword remained the preferred weapon for resolving personal disputes in Cartann. The traditional Cartann salute used by pilots mimicked the hand motion of saluting with a blastsword, even when not carrying one. Furthermore, successful blastsword fighters, such as Cheriss ke Hanadi, could earn a living through endorsements from blastsword manufacturers like Ghephaenne Deeper-Craters Weaponmakers.

By 13 ABY, Hanadi held the title of Cartann Ground Champion in blastsword dueling. She drew on older styles of blastsword combat, enabling her to defeat larger, stronger opponents who used contemporary styles. Some of her duels were for entertainment, while others stemmed from personal reasons held by her challengers. As a popular and successful duelist, she faced many challenges. The weapons were widespread in Cartann and considered appropriate for polite society. Their primary use was in honor duels, where an Adumari who felt slighted or offended could challenge another to a duel to the death over the offense. In Cartann society, a challenge to a duel could be declined if only one party stood to benefit from the outcome. Once a challenge was accepted, the blastsword fighter could not withdraw without suffering a significant loss of face. Imposing conditions on a blastsword duel was considered an insult, implying the challenger was only interested in the conditions of the duel, and not in the honor to be gained from winning.

In duels where the outcome was not immediately decisive and the loser was defeated but still alive, the victor could choose an onlooker to determine the loser's fate through a hand signal. An upturned palm meant the loser would be spared; a downturned palm indicated the defeated combatant would forfeit their life. This occurred in duels fought over a title, as well as in more informal duels.

However, the weapons were not solely used for dueling and competition. While the New Republic pilots of Red Flight were on Adumar for a diplomatic mission, six Adumari men attacked them with blastswords in an assassination attempt, which the New Republic pilots, aided by ke Hanadi, thwarted. While one pilot, Major Wes Janson, began carrying the weapon soon after arriving on Adumar, the others armed themselves with blastswords in case of further assassination attempts. Later, after learning of the perator of Cartann's plan to unite Adumar by force, the leader of Red Flight, General Wedge Antilles, ordered his pilots to stop using the blastsword, believing that carrying the weapon legitimized what he saw as a disrespect for the value of life held by the Adumari.

Shortly afterward, upon learning that he and his men were to face a gauntlet of an armed mob through the streets of Cartann City, Antilles changed his mind about the Adumari weapon. He requested and received four blastswords from onlookers. They later used these blastswords with flatcam recording devices to create a decoy trail, luring away some of their pursuers by filming Janson attacking the camera holder with his blaster and indicating a direction of escape, while they actually went the other way.

Following the Adumari Civil War, the new perator of Cartann, Balass ke Teldan, demanded a blastsword and pistol before his honor would allow him to accept his father's abdication and claim the rule of Cartann. After Adumar joined the New Republic, the weapon's use spread to other worlds, becoming popular on several planets with established dueling traditions. On Adumar itself, a trend of non-lethal honor duels grew due to the New Republic's cultural influence.

Many Adumari carried the blastsword, especially the nobility. Some, like Thanaer ke Sekae and Jeapird ke Fanax, were skilled users, though Cheriss ke Hanadi claimed that most Adumari pilots lacked proficiency in fighting with the weapon.

Wes Janson was a New Republic fighter pilot and member of Red Flight in 13 ABY. He, along with Antilles, Celchu, and Klivian, was part of a delegation of starfighter pilots on a diplomatic mission to Adumar. Upon learning about blastswords, Janson was eager to carry one and adopted it as part of his daily attire. He also briefly used his blastsword when Red Flight was attacked. However, as he later boasted in an interview with documentarian Hallis Saper, Janson's single honor duel encouraged the Adumari to shift towards non-lethal duels. After ke Hanadi fell to Thanaer ke Sekae, Janson challenged ke Sekae to a duel, insulting the Adumari noble by declaring that he was only worth fighting if ke Hanadi's life was spared. The offended aristocrat, eager to claim the honor of killing Janson, accepted the challenge. However, Janson first distracted and angered ke Sekae by drawing patterns in the air with the glowing tip of his blastsword, including a crude caricature of ke Sekae. The enraged Adumari charged Janson, who disarmed him and beat him with his fists and feet before slapping ke Sekae unconscious. Janson later claimed that this duel opened the Adumari's eyes and caused them to abandon their culture of lethal honor killings, a claim disputed by other members of Red Flight.

In 13 ABY, shortly before the Adumari Civil War, Cheriss ke Hanadi, a young Adumari woman, was the Cartann Ground Champion and considered one of the best blastsword duelists in Cartann. Due to vertigo, she could not serve as a pilot, so she escaped a life of drudgery in underground warrens and Adumar's subterranean industries to become a freelance duelist. ke Hanadi studied older blastsword techniques, including using the environment and alternate offhand weapons. She particularly disdained Cartann swordsmen, who she claimed were too focused on style over practicality. However, her style was considered impolite and low by Adumari nobility, according to New Republic diplomat Tomer Darpen.

ke Hanadi was assigned by the perator of Cartann to guide the members of Red Flight during their stay on Adumar, demonstrating her skill with the blastsword in duels and by helping defend them against assassins. During one set of duels while exhausted and emotionally shaken, she was defeated and struck by her opponent's blastsword in the upper left pectoral. Thanks to Red Flight, her life was saved when Red Two and Red Four, Tycho Celchu and Derek Klivian, ensured she received medical attention, while Red Three, Wes Janson, dealt with her opponent, Thanaer ke Sekae. After recovering, ke Hanadi joined the New Republic and, with her vertigo cured by modern galactic medicine, became a starfighter pilot. Trained in A-wing fighters by Celchu, she joined Moonlight Squadron aboard the Mon Calamari Star Cruiser Mon Casima. She was also granted a special dispensation to wear her knife and blastsword while on duty and was at one point the head vibroblade instructor for all of Starfighter Command. She later served in Rakehell Squadron and flew in the Battle of Centerpoint Station.

The Adumari blastsword was first introduced in X-Wing: Starfighters of Adumar by Aaron Allston. While the Adumar: Pilots Wanted article lists the weight of a blastsword as twenty-two kilograms, this article assumes that 2.1 kilograms, a figure given in both the Hero's Guide and The Unknown Regions, is the correct weight.