KOTOR Line - HotG & MotF
Updated: Jan 5, 2022
Entry 1 Remember our friend who discovered and brought back the crystals from the mirror cave? Seems she's recovered and back on the hunt. Check out our latest message log below::
[START HOLO LOG] My crewmates tell me I’m still not the same as I was before Ach-To. I don’t know. It’s so hard to explain to anyone who wasn’t there—anyone who wasn’t in that dark. The dark. I still can’t wrap my head around the things I saw, the things I felt. I thought some R and R on Rodia with Suz would help, that maybe after her own adventures hunting down her ancestor’s body she could tell me I wasn’t going crazy. Instead, all I got was this damn data crystal. “I found Suvam with this information,” she said, pushing it into my hands. Maybe you’ll find what you’re looking for, too.” I seriously doubt it, but she insisted. “Payment for that thing back on Coruscant when we were kids.” Hell, she might be the Chair of Xenoarchaeology now, but I have saved her skin more times than I can count. I’m closing in on the wreckage of the Yavin station soon… I guess we’ll see how right she was. [END HOLO LOG]
Entry 2 As the days pass, our explorative friend has a moment of reflection on both the feelings of ages gone by and for what might lie before her.
[START HOLO LOG 2] I can’t help but wonder how Suz must have felt when she first saw the remains of Yavin Station. With the harsh preservation of the vacuum of space it’s easy to lose any sense of time out here. But to navigate through the bare-boned carcass of something your ancestor reclaimed and made their own - bold actions from your bloodline, some four thousand years back— that’s hard to imagine. Suz is one of the most passionate and determined archaeologists I’ve ever known. What secrets could I possibly unturn that she herself wasn’t able to pinpoint?
At least I have the benefit of stability. This system used to be crawling with imperial patrols, but it’s near empty these days. And the Gear Of Fate is a much more capable craft than that old skiff that she zipped around in. As I edge towards Yavin 9, the signal grows weak and suddenly vanishes. Just like she warned, this one seems to be aware of detection and shuts down. The only useful information I have is an old set of coordinates and a heavily distorted inventory scan. [END HOLO LOG2]
Entry 3 It certainly pays to have friends in academic circles. While this is a personal mission, our archeologist associate has sent us an update as well as a ‘sample’ payload to be made available to our most trusted buyers. We’ll be planetside for pickup on Monday. She's sent over a holo of the recovered specimen for us to see before pickup. Read below for her latest communication.
[START HOLO LOG] The last known beacon was on the meridian of Yavin 9. Not much to go on but after 4 days of searching, that’s the only lead I have left. Sometimes your instinct just pulls you strongly and you have to go. I set the craft down on the meridian line - no small feat, even with such a nimble ship - and after some interesting flight mechanics and some stunning vistas… I found it. At least I think so. See, Yavin 9 had an incredible magnetic core. It is locked with one perpetually hot side and one ever-dark side. Despite a lack of atmosphere, the magnetic dust particles rise up from the light and settle to the dark resulting in an absolutely beautiful shimmering aura. So for all these wondrous views, it’s no pleasure to fly in. Basically trying to land a chunk of metal between two magnetic poles. One side is blinding from the sun and the other pitch black. How I managed to see that faint, ancient casing, I’ll never know. This miserable moon is littered with craters and spires. Ore-rich asteroids have made their way here against their will over millennia and the landscape shows it. The payload was wedged into an outcrop of an impact. Essentially a sheer cliff overlooking a crater. The cargo pod was long since cracked open and the contents exposed to the vacuum, but this wouldn’t matter. While the cargo pod was empty, I found the contents scattered some 50 meters below it. The fierce yellow and orange was hard to ignore against the stone. With time being no limit, these crystalline rods have fused in with the local geology. Closest I can tell, this was a copper heavy asteroid that created this vista and it’s been tangled in with whatever this content was. Normally I can identify things but this is off the charts. To be safe, I’ve had DR-WN take the laser cutter down and remove some samples. It’s definitely not a skill set he’s well programmed in - a lot more burn marks and scoring than I’d like - but I wasn’t about to try and maneuver the laser cutter with this bizarre magnetism. They’ve been placed in a diag-crate and he’s loading them now. I hope to know more about these soon but good science can not be rushed. I’m attaching a preliminary scan now and hope to send the crate via courier once I know more. [END HOLO LOG]
Entry 4 Wow, what a tale! Our cargo has arrived, been inspected and is ready for your purchase. Eagle eyed customers might have spied it already as I've personally been testing them in the field of Batuu to ensure they are secure and ready for sale! Power and beauty should be showcased, not hidden inside a hilt. Legends deserve to be told, relics deserve to be shown. And now, that's an option. Heart of the Guardian and Mantle of the Force are now available for purchase. These 100% custom designed crystals function in a Savi lightsaber when placed as shown. The other end is magnetic and works with a necklace coupler, which is also available for purchase. https://www.etsy.com/.../custom-kyber-kotor-themed-magnetic
This release is one of our most adventurous in a few ways. We decided to release two crystals AND an add-on at the same time. This also featured a significantly more aggressive story telling component as we fleshed out our corner of the galaxy through a previously mentioned unique character. Taking this shadow of a story telling device and slowly adding history and making them a unique person in a lively universe was certainly interesting. All the while, we were planning a trip to do an in person release. What a whirlwind experience!
K's love for KOTOR took the lead on this. The original shapes for this release were designed with the original keystone Krayt Pearl shape. When the Pearl blew up in popularity, we didn't have the time to keep designing the KOTOR line while also producing fast enough for orders. What a fun problem to solve! Fortunately, that worked in our favor.
We wanted something new. Something different. The market was getting pretty crowded and recolors were getting hard to justify. The thought process was to identify and solve problems with the current variety.
- What good is a beautiful thing if you can't see it?
- How can a crystal be more than a hidden display piece?
The answer to both of these was jewelry. And that wasn't new at all. There are a vast variety of kyber necklaces on the market and we were too late to make any notable splash in that pool. Rather than set us back, we leaned into that full force. Most kyber necklaces are designed to let light through or have their own integrated light. What if instead of just being pretty or functional... we were both?
Weeks of rapid prototyping began and I dug out those old models I never could get right. Now we had a resin printer and the confidence of a couple successful product launches. I could do this. This would be easy. And the cap was. The crystals not so much. No matter what I did, the file just would not render properly or print accurately. Old knowledge and new knowledge conflicted and I had to ultimately scrap the first shape. Only three exist today and remain in our private collection.
So back to the drawing board. A quick exercise in geometry and strength lead to what would become The Heart of the Guardian. It wasn't meant to be anything more than a test but I couldn't shake it. A few adjustments and a late evening.... and there it was. The first of the KOTOR line. Borderlining as an accident, it fit perfectly to the already designed cap and to the mental image I was working with.
Seeing what could be done with the Heart, I decided a true redesign was not a bad thing. My mind was still working around the OEM design and product specifications here and that's what held me back. Any shape, any dimension under the max could work. The Heart proved that the material was strong enough to support more crystalline shapes and I used that to separate us from the existing rock-like shape of the Batuu crystals. And how better to embrace that than a literal crystal emerging from a rock. There we were. The Mantle of the Force was born. A polished crystal growing interlaced with a crystal spire, both protruding from a rock formation. Two crystals with no parallel - both in imagery and function. They could be placed in a saber or worn as an accessory.
New cards were needed so we went to the source material once again. Leveraging both the local and online games, a datacard design was made up. This also let us leverage our new character we were dreaming up. An academic researcher would certainly have a datapad. So we used it. We started to create raw material sources and reference designs that could be used both in story telling and in promotional material. Why waste it?
This came together with a full stress test in the parks. I went to Orlando wearing one of each as a necklace without so much as a hiccup. Feeling confident, we launched on the spot. Normally reserved, I approached people and started a more organic marketing campaign. I talked to fans of the games, fans of the genre and fans of just... things. It was a great experience to have these bottled moments of connection with complete strangers and talking on a common thread.
I came home and we saw the result. People were loving the new designs and the innovations. Our social media was getting traction and our Etsy numbers were through the roof. This was just one more step forward and a reminder that the work pays off and the effort is noticed in the details.
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