Lit Kyber Technology and all its variations!

Kyber Crystals are used in a variety of devices and many arcane uses lost to history exist that you'd probably not immedeately think of, here you will find them all:

Weaponized Kyber Crystals:
-Lightsabers (blades cut through nearly anything)
-Proto Lightsaber (Art of TFA concept: A proto hilt with a kyber crystal sticking out on top instead of an emitter. More ancient even, a raw Kyber crystal wrapped in some cloth with not tech whatsoever!!! Apparently for the earliest kyberuses you did not need tech and energy cells but simply the Force and Kyber or powered it via your bodies touch and bodyenergy?)
-Another related Proto Saber (early ILMxLab experiences and Vader Immortal)
-Kyber-Saber (Lego Freemakers: Can shoot lightsaber blade-esque blasts that cut through anything they hit: The Saber actually had a permanent blade made from Kybercrystals instead of energy)
-Kyber powered guns and rifles (Marvel: Dr.Aphra comic as well as another item from Jedi Archives of Jocasta Nu: shoots powerful blasts similiar to the Kybersaber, highly explosive once hitting a target for Aphras Variant)
-Death Star Technology (exists scaled to various sizes, from moon sized battle stations to mobile tank-guns or stardestroyer-sized ones and can tear planets apart)
-Starkiller Base Technology (Advanced version of the above that can destroy entire systems and shoot directioneable blasts like intelligent homing in on target worlds)
-The Arrowhead (Lego Freemakers: Starfightersized ship using a lightsaberesque energyblade curving around its narrow arrowhead frame to allow the ship to cut and fly through solid matter like a butter knife!)
-Mustafar Sith Temple (planetsized superweapon able to be fired at far away targets which also hosted a Sith spirit voice and served as a cross between a planetsized lightsabergun and a temple sized Holocron)

Kyber Crystals in weaponized uses take in minimal amounts of energy and maximise its effect for destructive purposes.

Computerized Kyber Tech:

-Holocrons store huge amounts of information accessible via a K.I. esque gatekeeper that is created by a Jedi bonding with the crystal in a way that an imprint of the Jedi's personality, memories and knowledge is copied into the crystal matrix. Individual bits can be redacted, altered or left out, even added or several Jedi joined into one Holocron. Other non Jedi Holocrons simply had lore and K.I.s installed the old fashioned way but were less than Jedi or Sith Holocrons.
-Kyber crystals and devices are the only ones known to create unique blades that can f.e. bend back on themselves like lightsaber blades without harming the emitter and even saving energy by retourning to its source
-Kyber crystals are also used in the Death Star to direct, focus and scale energy beams, which may be handy for other uses as well aside weaponry
-Kyber crystals store huge amounts of information like a quantum computer, its ability to be imprinted with personalities might be useful if implemented in droids or HumanReplica Droids for more lifelike nonprogrammed entities. Though this is no form of virtual immortality but merely a copy of the original that can be altered as described above via the Holocron lore. (Hello Nichos Mar in Legends eh? or the Iron Knights?)
-Kyber has the ability to connect with its user and the Force, useful for meditation f.e. as well as maybe other interactive feats? Imagine Kybertech implemented into smarthomes and temple designs. Places that feel alive because they are?
-The Dark Side of Kyber Cybertech is that Sith can transfer their essence into a Kybercrystaldevice like a Sith Holocron. While some are imprinted only like in Jedi Holocrons above, Sith attempt a full escape of death by transfering their essence into a Holocron, which upon destruction releases the spirit to inhabit whoever smashed it (Exar Kun and Gang from Legends say hello!). More powerful Sith are known to inhabit masks and other objects or buildings even without Kyber, though Kybers bonding qualities make it easier to use a Kyberdevice for such purposes.


Know of more? Add!

 

As you mentioned, there's been a few lightsaber guns floating around the Darth Vader and Aphra comics which comes from good ole Kyber at it's core! need more of those, they seem to cause quite the kaboom.

It should also be noted that kyber seems to be "alive" inasmuch that for a Sith to make one they have to make the Kyber bleed and Vader went through a whole vision quest ruckus to get his to go red.

 

quoted from the headcanon topic...

This actually makes a lot of sense. Basically the planet itself below surface consists mostly of giant Kyber crystal matrices.

We know from lightsabers that a tiny energycell's energy can be multiplied by Kyber to create a deadly blade or in case of Kyberpowered rifles massive blasts. Kybersaber's even could shoot forth blasts far into space. So a planet-sized Kybermatrice would be able to fire across the galaxy easily! All they needed to add was a way to input energy: Sun-draining channeling a suns energy into the Kybercore. And then an apparature to focus and direct the beams to not have uncontroled radiating beams like in TCW when a giant kyber was hit by a blaster.

They only had to build the focussing array and sundrenching as well as to make the planet mobile so it can move to different suns to drain and done!

Thus Starkillerbase unites Rakatan sundraining tech, Zonama Sekotian's planetsized hyperdrive (of Ferroan origin) or extrapolated from the moonsized Death Star on a larger scale. Rakatan tech was probably discovered during the First Orders sojourn through the Unknown Regions near Lehon, reverse engineering a starforge tech or implementing it as found on Ilum/Starkiller Base.

The hardest part probably was to carve the planet up without destroying it and preventing it to loose atmosphere. No laserbased cutting and mining gear could be used for it would set off the Kyber. Maybe they used a supereffective building force found in the Unknown Regions that had built similiar weapons before for ancients in the past? The Killiks had experience with Centerpoint Station etc.!

Sidenote: Rakatan tech might employ two minitature blackholes, artificially created to draw in the suns energy and have it pass between both their pulls, where they cancel each other out so it can pass through into the Kybercore.

Sidenote2: Killiks probably could hollow out the entire techsection of the planet and install the tech shaft without the surface scratched above. Only as last step the surface was removed on top of it with all else already inplace, so no destructive digging and all and atmosphere preserved.

So not only was building Starkiller effective and cheaper than a Death Star, it also allowed the First Order to use Unknown Regions terrors and their technology to their advantage before wiping them out with the finished product in testfires! They brought order to the Unknown Regions by destroying the Killiks and what was left of the Rakata Archipelago!

 

I still have mixed feelings about how Kyber is a macguffin that is needed for everything from sabers to superweapons. It also undermines Motti's argument with Vader that the Force is obsolete when Motti's basis relies on Force using crystals.

I feel there's a reason George discarded magical crystals to drafts that were used in Splinter of the Mind's Eye. I don't know if their return to prominence now was from him or someone else.

 

Since the importance of the Kyber comes from TCW (The Gathering, massive Kyber Crystals for the Death Star), I guess it was Lucas himself. Science and mysticism are also not at odds in SW either, especially when it comes to Kyber crystals. Galen Erso's research in Catalyst illustrates this pretty well. It also emphasizes the Lightsaber as a symbol of the Force, and not a simple weapon which the Jedi just happen to use. My favorite element that the inclusion of the Kyber crystals in the Death Star has brought into the new canon is how it connects the Death Star to the ancient Sith temples like the one on Malachor

 

I guess I'm coming at this from a scientific/harder sci-fi angle than is suited to Star Wars. Like when Roddenberry stated in Star Trek that dilithium was easily replicated and replaceable so it wouldn't become a MacGuffin.

And TCW could still mean it came from Filoni, not Lucas.

 

As for hard scifi, you can ignore the Force and see Kyber just as a crystal that has exceptional properties of storing information and amplifying energy. We know other non-Kyber crystals can be used to create lightsaber blades but Kyber is the prefered version. There even is fake-Kyber from Pijal.


Now for something else entirely: In Legends the Sharu hid a part of themselves in Lifecrystals from Rafa, which was needed to be released and to restore the race to the glory of the Sharu they truly were all along. So we got another crystal that can imprint a part of a person lifelike and return said imprint to the person it was taken from. Also the crystals were sold and seen as bringing luck, which Jedi would say is another word for the Force at work. So... are Lifecrystals actually another variant of Kyber?

Would a population living on a Kyber-rich world imprint itself automatically in the worlds Kyber indirectly due to living in close proximity? Could, once vanished or extinct, said imprint be used to learn about it via Holocron tech?

Bleeding a Kyber Crystal to turn it red: Does that actually mean to corrupt the imprinted personality matrix? Like torturing or convincing it to accept the dark? Is Kylo Ren's saber faulty because he himself is? When bleeding his Kyber, he never bled it fully and it stayed as torn and conflicted as Kylo himself, thus the erratic blade nature?

 

If it has anything to do with the Force in TCW, it was absolutely Lucas.

This idea reminds me of the old Marvel Star Wars series #65, where rock on the planet Golrath is shown to have the ability to "record" images and project them later as holograms. It's a little bit more literal than what you're suggesting, but it makes me wonder if that rather bizarre plot device could actually be rationalized by Golrath rock having embedded kyber matrices or some such.

 

Spoiler

Cal's lightsaber or half a lightsaber staff?

 

That picture seems to definitely confirm that its a cut-off piece of a larger weapon. Either used to be a double-bladed saber or a pike

 

Kybers are the infinity stones of Star Wars. From lightsabers to Death Star super laser, now then can be modified for sniper rifle like in Dr. Aphra comic, and Jocusta Nu found a kyber rifle in the archives and used it against Vader. So now you can create a special group of force users armed with kyber lightsabers, lasers, shields, power enhancers, kyber mech suit. Star Wars version of the justice league, legion of doom, avengers, or the sinister six. Take your pick

 

Some people certainly treat them as such and try to collect them all at Galaxy's Edge Baatu

Legends even had crystal-based lifeforms and sentient species. I wonder how they feel and interact with Kybers given they are closer to them in relation than to other meatbags. Iron Knights may know, where they still canon. Or maybe the stone people know.. like Mount Sorrow and others Marvel gave us.

Another idea: real world esoterics have crystal skulls that have the shape of human(-oid) skulls with magical powers ascribed like continaining Holocron-like knowledge. Just see Indiana Jones 4 for details.

Canon needs a Kyber-Skull!

 

Only a matter of time before we get some kind of giant Mother Kyber that's like the center of their hive mind or something and can actually communicate via telepathy and has some kind of debate with darksiders and lightsiders trying to curry its favor or something. Seems inevitable to me, anyway.

 

Naga Sadow’s Corsair is known to be powered by crystals, so I’d say it’s a strong candidate for Kyber Crystals.

 

Found another one, in the TCW episode that has Mother Talzin and the Fangrawn cult attempt a ritual:

There is this structure that is said to harness the power of the sun by aligning several lenses in a certain way so that the sunpower can rip souls from bodies.

I pose now that the lenses are made from Kyber too. It would make sense, given Kyber reacts with souls, can be imprinted with them, etc. as in Holocrons and Lightsabers. Also This might have been one sneaky reference in TCW that may inspire yet another non-Rakata tied way on how to harness a suns energy as Starkiller Base later does large scale. Maybe it too aligned huge kyber lenses to draw in sunpower? Would give us finally some of the inner workings of said process aside using my proposed miniature blackholes (see other post).

 

And we have new Kybertechnology to discuss:

The recently leaked Trevorrow script for Episode IX, confirmed to be the real deal would have featured a mechanism of ancient technology on Coruscant within the Jedi Temple powered by a huge Kyber crystal.

The machine is a communication device based on light transmitted between worlds in direct beams carrying information encoded in lightbeams. The Resistance intended to send a holographic message of Leia to countless worlds to unite the galaxy and call it to arms. Rose repairing and powering it up would have been essential.

While unused it is not canon per se but an interesting idea that might resurface!

It clearly is inspired by medieval communication systems where line of sight lighthouse fires allowed a quick line of communication between far away kingdoms as seen in Lord of the Rings when Gondor called Rohan for help for Minas Tirith was under siege. Basically an emergency call system only, it worked and SW version is more advanced alloweing to encode entire messages within.

Coruscants device within the Jedi Temple would send the beam through a huge kyber crystal and out the top of the Jedi Temple spire (somehow!?!) to a nearby planet, whose reciever station would decode the signal and simultaneously send the lightbeam on to another planet and reciever station at a different angle. An entire connected network of worlds with ancient stations to recieve and redirect the beam. The beams message could then via computers be transmitted to every screen and holoprojecting droid on the recieving worlds.

Essentially I love this ancient tech gimmick and want it recanonised elsewhere. Visually it'd be interesting too given we'd have another case of lightbeams seen from afar through space (like Starkillers shots that found other explanations by now). Also Coruscant firing a huge lightbeam into space is remniscient of a Superlaserblast... minus the volatile part. Makes me wonder why nobody weaponised it... Palpatine could have had his own superlaser in the Imperial Palace hah!

 

Size matters not... or does it in case of Kyber?

It's been a while but I was thinking of an aspect not discussed in this topic yet. With a recent Marvel comic showing us Mimban, I am reminded once more of the Kaiburr Crystal of Pomojema and how later EU reduced this overpowered gimmick in power by explaining its power is greatest when on or close to Mimban, likewise it was broken up into shards and spread.

Does size of Kyber crystals increase their power? One would suspect that given how large the ones the Death Stars used were. Starkillerbase even used way more than any DS before it together leading to entirely new levels of possibilities, power and beam capabilities with split-beams and trajectory targeting beams to take out entire systems at once.

Another thing that like the Kaiburr power, a special type of Kyber, is said to decrease with distance from the homeworld is the power level of the Nightsisters of Dathomir who are strongest near or at home, yet out in the galaxy, still strong and scary yet less than they could be at Dathomir. Their powers, some at least that are tied to the green mist, fit into this where pure Forceuse like any Jedi or Sith do is not as limited. Thus, what is this mist made up of that it has this distance decreasing quality? And why is it green like Death Star Kyberblasts?

Is Dathomir rich in Kyber and is the Mist in part at least consisting of micro-Kyber particles in gaseous form?

Another mystic mist of similiar qualities is the Soup-Mist of Anzat and the Anzati, which is supposed to contain all souls they drank. I previously theorised it is a locally bound Force phenomenon entrapping any Force essence that died by Anzati lifesucking. What though if that was only half the truth and actually, if such Mist like the Dathomiri one is micro-Kyber based, the Anzati have a way of transferring souls when drinking into micro-kyber-dust on their world? We know kyber is also used in Holocrons and other Force-technology and can store Forceuser imprints or souls. Rakatan Soultraps/Mindtraps probably work on a similiar level. Is it possible we just figured out how it works? Could Nightsisters weave the Kybermist on other worlds like on their own, basically offering them countless similiar structured worlds that would not decrease their power far from home? Equally mystical Endor and other worlds witches visited might also share these features. Are we looking at a web of Dathomiri witchcraft able worlds? The Rakata had their Forcestrong worlds they homed in on. The Nightsisters might have the same now.

 

Posted this in another topic too because it fit both, so sorry if you read it already there:

Just a quick thought I had befitting this old topic of mine:

With the Rakata homing in on Force strong worlds only for their Infinite Empire, could one assume that these worlds might align with the Chainworlds theorem and World between Worlds maps? Why are some worlds more strong in the Force than others? Because of their nature and wildlife whereas others are wasted and ruined already? Or because of something deeper down, Kyber in their crust? Are the Forcestrong worlds Kyberrich and the Kyber enhances the natural forcepresence like a kaiburr crystal so they are easier to be found by Force Astrogators? Given the Rakata used supertech that based in Kybertechnology like Starforges and the sunenergy collecting even Starkillerbase used, there may be something to this assumption.

Is Kyber thus the basis of the Rakatan Infinite Empire and its map may give us lots more Kyberrich worlds? And if the World between Worlds is a special dimension only special portals can access, are Kybers energetic qualities in play here too to open a portal into the Force? Bending space and time?

 

Another crazy thought to keep you awake at night:

If Beskar can resist a lightsaber blade, and kyberpowered superlaser blasts are like lightsaber blade shots tearing through planets, might a Beskar rich planet be immune to destruction if its surface and shell contain a high amount of Beskar? even if unrefined? Or does only refined Beskar have that quality?

I kinda theorize that that is what happened to canon Concord Dawn which was still liveable in TCW but torn apart but much less so than Alderaan. Depending if Concord Dawn had any Beskar that is, but given its Mando settlements I'd not rule that out.

Also more countermeasure ideas for superlasers:

- spread Cortosis dust in your upper atmosphere... shorts out any superlaser and Death Star trying to blow you up! (sideeffect, Lightsabers may no longer work on the surface too if the cortosis amount in the atmosphere gets too high.

- Beskar shield ships that move into the firing angle of the enemy to block any blasts

-on a similiar note, no more exhaust port crazy shots needed, just place a single Mando in full Beskar armor inside the Superlasers path or have him fly right into the superlasers nozzle.

 

I think what should not be forgotten is that Kyber is not just a ressource like any other. Kyber is a living crystal in communion with the Force that a Forceuser like a Jedi goes into symbiosis with.

Chirrut Imwe: "The strongest stars have hearts of kyber" quote can be read many ways, but what if it literally means that the worlds strongest in the Force have a rich amount of Kyber below their crust? This could go all the way back the the Rakatans homing in on Force/Kyberstrong worlds and the Force forming a galaxywide network of Kyberrich planets (galactic leylines kinda from the Midichlorian Forceworld to the farthest reaches along the Force Compass galaxy map grid?).

As established in "Star Wars Archives: The Prequels" Lucas microbiotic world, the Force, symbiosis is an interesting and rich concept that may tie into these living crystals and living worlds. Something which Zonama Sekot might have tied into in Legends with the NJOs own tale about symbiosis and biology.

Hence I do not want to see the galaxy stripmine Kyber and use it in more tech. That was the past, the wrong way, the dark side. Why not learn how to live in symbiosis with it, be it its small shards in lightsabers or large depositories in planets? After all, balance needs to be restored not just between Jedi and Sith or politically but every single person and nature.

In that regard, what if Bendu is not an ancient creature of incredible Force strength but the visual apparition of the planet Atollon itself taking form to interact with its residents? Akin to Zonama Sekots intermediaries?

 

By the way, are Adegan crystals still (or again) canon?

If yes, are they a special kind of Kyber crystals or just an alternative to be used for Lightsabers?

Could they have used them for the DS, if the Empire had run out of Kyber?

 

Wookieepedia thinks so (that they're kyber crystals from the Adegan system) - on the "all late-period FFG splatbooks are part of the newcanon" principle.

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Adegan_crystal

 

Aren't the jedi fighters in High Republic armed with Kyber blasters?

 

Yes and no. In Phase 2, Prequel to Phase One, they had been equipped with them but by Phase 1 later that has been discontinued and forbidden as per some Phase 1 books remniscing about why it was abandoned, I think Midnight Horizon was the book that mentioned it.