The TURBULENT and DARK history of the DARKSABER and Everyone who has held it!
The Darksaber is an incredibly ancient and unique black bladed lightsaber that was created by the first Mandalorian to ever be inducted into the Jedi Order, Tarre Vizsla. After it was forged by Tarre Vizsla and used by him until his death, it was stored deep inside of a secure vault at the Jedi temple on Coruscant for many years. Unfortunately for the Jedi Order, members of Tarre Vizsla’s Mandalorian House, House Vizsla, reclaimed the sacred weapon from the grip of the Jedi order during the fall of the Old Republic, bringing it back into the hands of House Vizsla for the first time in a long time.
The Darksaber is an incredibly unique, black bladed lightsaber, because there is only one of them in existence. The blade of this unique weapon is shorter than most other lightsabers, and is shaped like a regular sword, with a distinctly Mandalorian shaped hilt. The sound that the Darksaber emits is also a much higher pitched screech than regular lightsabers, in part because of it’s unique darkened Kyber crystal inside, which powers the blade and serves as a conduit for the force to flow through the weapon. Awesomely, the blade of the darksaber has a unique electrical effect which becomes extremely intensified when the user of the weapon becomes enraged or angry. Finally, the blade also becomes much lighter once it’s user gains more and more experience with it and attracts other lightsaber blades towards its core with an almost magnetic pull.
The Darksaber is respected by all Mandalorians as a symbol for the leadership of House Vizsla and also on most occasions, for all of Mandalore.
So, who was the first to hold the Darksaber after Tarre Vizsla?
After the darksaber was stolen back from the Jedi Order by House Vizsla, descendents of this ruthless Mandalorian house used the weightless blade to slaughter countless Jedi and rule the whole of Mandalore for many years, without challenge.
During the Clone Wars, the Darksaber came into the hands of the Governor of Concordia, which is the Moon of the ravaged planet Mandalore. Concordia’s Governor, Pre Vizsla was also the secret leader of an extreme Mandalorian Group known as the Deathwatch, who sought to overthrow the peaceful rule of Duchess Satine Kryze, who had come into power on Mandalore, through a peaceful form of Government, in stark contrast to Mandalore’s warrior past. Second in command to Deathwatch, also happened to be the sister of Duchess Satine Kryze, Bo Katan Kryze.
Eventually, Pre Vizsla’s affiliation with the Deathwatch group was discovered, causing a fierce confrontation between Vizsla and Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, where Kenobi came out on top after an intense battle in the Deathwatch hideout on Concordia. And for those of you who are watching this because you haven’t seen the Clone Wars, this Deathwatch group will be very important in the Mandalorian season 2 because they are the same group who rescued Din Djarin in his flashbacks.
Not long after the Deathwatch name becoming public knowledge to the citizens of Mandalore, Pre Vizsla and Bo Katan, went into exile and formed a new base of operations on the icy world of Carlac, before eventually discovering the two Zabrak brothers, Savage Opress and Darth Maul, who of course was no longer a Sith Lord.
Maul, Savage and Deathwatch then formed a strong alliance together, with Maul also creating a group of the galaxy’s most disgraceful and dodgy criminals, called the Shadow collective. This shadow collective included the Pyke Syndicate, the Hutt Clan and also the Black Sun Crime Syndicate. It also later went on to include the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate, which you will remember from Solo: A Star Wars story.
The goal of this group was once again to overthrow the duchess of Mandalore, Satine, and place it under the control of Pre Vizsla and the death watch. To do this, the shadow collective would fake an invasion of Mandalore, and then have the Death watch come to the rescue of the citizens in order to show that Duchess Satine, who of course was a pacifist, was extremely weak, and that the Death watch were the only ones strong enough to rule Mandalore.