Plasma

"Take a moment and look around this glorious city of yours. It wasn't long ago this was all plasma mines."

Vlcsnap-2017-10-11-22h41m38s679 — The blade of a lightsaber was made of plasma.

Plasma was a state of matter with unique electromagnetic properties. It was naturally present in the porous crust of Naboo,^[1] a pastoral planet^[2] located near the border of the Outer Rim Territories.^[3] Both the native Gungans^[4] and the human colonists of Naboo mined plasma from their homeworld's depths.^[5] The city of Theed itself, capital of the Nabooan Humans, had once hosted many plasma mines.^[6]

Refined plasma was often used in technology. The blades of lightsabers, the signature weapons of the Jedi Knights, were made of pure plasmic energy.^[7] At the time of the Clone Wars, many weapons of Umbaran make, including the MHC tank^[8] and the hover tank, made use of plasma-based technologies. Thanks to its electromagnetic plasma cannon, the latter could decimate entire platoons of enemy soldiers with one blast.^[9] Plasma could also be projected over a chasm to form a drawbridge capable of sustaining the weight of people, ground vehicles and landspeeders.^[10] The Wookiee bowcaster made use of quarrels that were charged with highly energized plasma when fired.^[10]