Darksaber/Legends

"This lightsaber was stolen from your Jedi Temple by my ancestors during the fall of the Old Republic. Since then many Jedi have died upon its blade. Prepare yourself to join them!"

- Pre Vizsla to Obi-Wan Kenobi

The Darksaber was an ancient lightsaber that was stolen by the Mandalorians during the downfall of the Galactic Republic. It was eventually passed down to the Mandalorian Death Watch member Pre Vizsla. It had a unique black blade that was flattened and came to a point like a traditional vibroblade, rather than the rounded beam of more standard lightsabers; it also hummed at a higher pitch than a standard lightsaber.

Unique features
This lightsaber had many unique features that distinguished it from almost all other known lightsabers. The hilt was slightly longer than the standard saber length. The blade was flattened and pointed making its general shape closer to a vibroblade in appearance. The blade color was black which is unique in itself. However, more peculiarly, the core of the blade was black and the edges glowed white. This is opposite to all other known blade colors, where the central core is white and the edges glow in the specific color. Along with the unusual appearance of the blade go unusual audio effects. The ignition sound, and hum the blade produced seemed to be higher pitched and softer than usual. Interestingly, unlike most sabers, when the darksaber struck another lightsaber, it did not produce a clashing sound. Instead the blade seemed to make a twang or whistling sound when the two blades came apart. It seemed that many aspects of the darksaber were diametrically opposed to regular sabers. the differnce between the darksaber and lightsaber is the name

History
This black-bladed lightsaber was stolen from the Jedi Temple by the Mandalorians. By the Clone Wars, it was in the possession of Death Watch member Pre Vizsla, who used it during a duel with Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi on Concordia.

According to Pre Vizsla, the weapon had been used to kill many Jedi.

Behind the scenes
Originally intended to be a vibroblade, George Lucas decided that, to preserve the uniqueness of the Jedi weapon, a lightsaber should not be seen to be blocked by sword-like weapon that is not a lightsaber. With that in mind, Lucas and the show's crew conceived of an ancient precursor to the lightsaber which they named the Darksaber.

As this weapon did not feature a hip-mounted power supply, it is possible that it did not pre-date the Protosaber design. However, as seen with Vima-Da-Boda's lightsaber, protosabers could be updated to modern specifications using modern parts. Such updated lightsabers should not be confused with "retrosabers", which were lightsabers of modern make that were fitted with a hip-mounted power supply.

A black-bladed lightsaber was previously seen as an unlockable item in The Force Unleashed video game, but its canon-status was ambiguous as it was never wielded by Galen Marek according to in-game cut-scenes or other Force Unleashed media.

Notes and references
Dunkelklinge