Shikkar

"If you get to your rivals before they're ready, you can do anything you want&mdash;including assassination.''" "It sounds like a bloodbath." "Normally we keep it low-key, for order's sake. Poisonings. A shikkar'' blade in the gut."

- Orielle Kitai and Jelph Marrian

Shikkars were intricate, Force-crafted daggers made out of glass that were created and used by the Sith by the time following the Hundred-Year Darkness. Shikkars had long, elegant blades and were prized amongst the Lost Tribe of Sith on the planet Kesh for their artistic value as well as their role as weapons. They were made for one single usage&mdash;after a shikkar was used to stab someone, the hilt was broken off, leaving the blade embedded in the victim's body. The weapons were crafted and employed often by members of three rival glass-crafting guilds on Kesh. Tura Sanga was famous among the Sith Tribe for crafting shikkars, and the Sith Seelah Korsin owned a shikkar that had been made by Kesh's native Keshiri.

As the Dark Jedi Sorzus Syn noted in the Book of Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side, Shikkars were frequently used by Sith for assassinations. Even millennia after their invention, the weapons were still prominent&mdash;in 43.5 ABY, several members of the Sith strike team sent to kill Jedi Luke Skywalker carried shikkars, including Sith apprentice Vestara Khai and her Master, Lady Olaris Rhea. Later, in 44 ABY, several shikkars were specially crafted for the celebration that marked the Tribe's alliance with the dark side entity Abeloth.

Description
"The shikkar is the tool of assassins. It can be as long as a forearm, yet it is easily concealed beneath robes. A twist of the handle after stabbing a victim will snap the glassy blade off and leave it to fester beneath the skin."

- Sorzus Syn's diary entry on shikkars

Shikkars were daggers that were crafted from glass with the application of the Force. They had intricate, elegant blades that were up to at least ten centimeters in length &mdash;about as long as a Human forearm &mdash;and about the width of a Human finger. The hilt of the weapon was also designed to be long and narrow, and at least one shikkar was colored black and white. The weapons could easily be carried hidden beneath a being's robes. Shikkars were valued by the Lost Tribe of Sith on the planet Kesh for their artistic virtues as much as they were for their use as weapons.

The daggers were made to be used just once, and although the apparent frailty of the weapons as a whole was misleading, the point where the blade met the hilt was particularly fragile. After the weapon was used to stab someone, the hilt was twisted and snapped off, leaving the glass blade in the victim's body so as to cause as much pain as possible. Also, due to the fact that shikkars were made out of nothing but glass, they could pass through sensors undetected.

History
"I had to use his own shikkar against him, so the High Lords will assume this is a vendetta killing."

- Vestara Khai, after killing Ruku Myal

Shikkars were invented and used by Sith for assassinations by the time following the Hundred-Year Darkness, which ended around 6,900 BBY. The Dark Jedi Sorzus Syn, who lived in that era, made a diary entry that was included in the Book of Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side, a compilation of historical Sith writings, that mentioned the weapons.

In 5,000 BBY, a group of Sith crash-landed on the remote planet Kesh after their vessel, the Omen, was knocked off-course during a hyperspace jump. The survivors were stranded there, unable to call for help or rebuild their ship, and they quickly formed a new Sith Tribe. Shikkars were crafted and used by members of the Tribe; Seelah Korsin, wife of the Tribe's Grand Lord, Yaru Korsin, owned a shikkar fashioned for her by the Keshiri&mdash;the natives of Kesh. By 3,960 BBY, members of the Sith Tribe often used shikkars for advancement opportunities; Sith employed the glass daggers to subtly assassinate rivals in order to ensure their own rise within the ranks of the Tribe. Sometime before 3,000 BBY, one member of the Tribe tried to assassinate another Sith with his shikkar, but he had improperly constructed his sheath, and the blade fell into his ankle. The wound became infected, and the Sith died within a month.

In 3,000 BBY, Sith Caretaker Varner Hilts used a shikkar owned by fellow Sith Iliana Merko to cut into the command chair in the crashed Omen to retrieve a hidden message to the Yaru Korsin from his mother, Takara. Millennia later, in 41 ABY, shikkars were still owned by several members of the Lost Tribe, who considered them to be noble weapons. By that time, shikkars were commonly utilized by the members of the three Sith guilds that held an oligopoly on the profession of sculpting glass in the Kesh capital city of Tahv. Those guilds crafted shikkars and other valuable objects out of glass formed from the planet's lavender sands. Members of the guilds often used their shikkars in attempts to assassinate rival guild members; to counter such attacks, the guilds began employing bodyguards for protection.

When a Sith strike team was sent to kill Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker in 43.5 ABY, several of its members carried shikkars. During the strike team's battle with the Jedi at Sinkhole Station, a space station in the Maw, Master Yuvar Xal initiated a coup to take over command of the team from Lady Olaris Rhea. However, Rhea's apprentice, Vestara Khai, used her shikkar to kill Xal, throwing it into his abdomen and using the Force to break off the hilt. Later, when Rhea and Khai dueled with Skywalker, Rhea struck at the Jedi with her lightsaber while simultaneously using the Force to attack him with her shikkar. The blade was strong enough to rip a hole in Skywalker's combat vac suit before it snapped. The strike team failed to kill Skywalker, however, and Khai was the only Sith to survive the mission.

Khai's father, the Sith Saber Gavar Khai, owned a full personal collection of shikkars on Kesh. In 44 ABY, he presented one of his shikkars to Vestara in the hope that she would be able to use it to kill either Skywalker or his son, Jedi Knight Ben Skywalker. The shikkar that he gave to her had been fashioned by the Force-sensitive Tura Sanga, who was an exceptionally famous shikkar-craftsman and whose style of shikkars was decidedly unique. Gavar Khai attempted to kill the elder Skywalker with a shikkar when a duel broke out at the Pool of Knowledge Force nexus, but the attempt failed. Later, when the dark side entity Abeloth proposed an alliance with the Sith Tribe to defeat their mutual enemy, the Jedi, she was invited to Tahv. There, several shikkars were created specifically for the celebration that was held in her honor. However, Abeloth betrayed the Sith and attacked the capital, destroying buildings, killing thousands of residents, and using her Force powers to send shikkars flying through the city with the intent of causing harm. The Jedi later embarked on a mission to defeat the Sith on the galactic capital planet Coruscant; during the mission, Vestara Khai stabbed Sith Master Ruku Myal with his own shikkar.

Behind the scenes
Shikkars were first introduced in author Christie Golden's Omen, the second novel in the nine-part Fate of the Jedi series. The glass weapons subsequently appeared in the third, fifth, sixth, eighth, and ninth novels of the series, titled Abyss, Allies, Vortex, Ascension, and Apocalypse, respectively. Shikkars also appeared in Lost Tribe of the Sith: Paragon&mdash;the third installment in the ongoing Lost Tribe of the Sith eBook series, which serves as a tie-in to the Fate of the Jedi saga&mdash;and later received mention in the fourth, fifth, sixth, and eighth entries in the series, respectively titled Savior, Purgatory, Sentinel, and Secrets. Shikkars were also mentioned in Golden's short story, "First Blood."

Shikkars were later mentioned in the Book of Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side reference book by Daniel Wallace, which was published as an in-universe compilation of Sith writings.

Appearances

 * Lost Tribe of the Sith: Paragon
 * Lost Tribe of the Sith: Savior
 * Lost Tribe of the Sith: Purgatory
 * Lost Tribe of the Sith: Sentinel
 * Lost Tribe of the Sith: Secrets
 * Omen
 * Abyss
 * Allies
 * Vortex
 * Ascension
 * Apocalypse
 * Apocalypse