The Beginnings of the 8th form of Lightsaber Combat: Fulcrum
Yoda noticed many things about Alexander Wolf that simply wouldn't work with traditional Jedi training. First of all Wolf was strongly left hand dominant; a very rare trait among Jedi. Also Wolf's unique ability to manipulate gravity in cool and interesting ways opened up unique capabilities in lightsaber combat.
Alexander Wolf also showed an affinity towards lightsaber to lightsaber combat that Yoda hadn't seen in centuries. It reminded him of a Padawan that Yoda had taught several hundred years earlier. It was this observation that led Yoda to surmise that Alexander Wolf was in fact his old Padawan's son.
Yoda's small size and mastery of Ataru lightsaber combat style simply wasn't going to be advantageous for Wolf. Instead Yoda focused on helping him to develop his force powers. Especially, his unique ability to control gravity. Yoda did teach him the basics of Shii-Cho. Instead of rewriting Wolf's improvised lightsaber style which emphasized stability, torque, and reliability; he worked on incorporating and adapting Shii-Cho into Wolf's own style. This was the beginning of the creation of Form 8; Fulcrum, the Path of the Lighthouse.
From here Wolf had the unique opportunity to train with many of the best masters of the Jedi order. Yoda and his new apprentice cut short Yoda's sabbatical to join Kit Fisto on a "routine" mission. To say that Kit Fisto was surprised would be an understatement. Yoda emphasized that while Wolf was his apprentice he was not part of the Jedi Order. Despite the fact that Yoda knew he was creating tremendous waves with a new and unofficial padawan he asked Fisto to teach Wolf the style of Shii-Cho and help Wolf adapt the style to his rare abilities. Kit Fisto liked Wolf; and taught him form one. Fisto, better than anyone else was well suited to adapt Shii-Cho to Wolf being a southpaw. Alexander Wolf knew that he had been sent to the front of the line to study with a master like Fisto. It was an opportunity and an honor that he took very seriously.
As news came to Mace Windu that Yoda had acquired a new apprentice he contemplated how he was going to handle the situation. Yoda informed Windu that this apprentice in particular was gifted in lightsaber to lightsaber combat and he had an uncanny ability to fight his better fights against stronger opponents. Master Windu decided to let Yoda proceed as he saw fit with his full support; a wise decision indeed.
With the learning of Shii-Cho Wolf continued to expand his own lightsaber style in association with his force abilities. His ability to reverse gravity expanded with an ability to change density of an object or himself, and also the ability to change friction. In regards to his lightsaber fighting he practiced hand switches extensively learning every Shii-Cho technique both right handed and switching to left handed and doing so seamlessly. He favored a lightsaber that was longer in the hilt and slightly shorter in the blade giving an emphasis on leverage rather than on speed or power. The ability to switch from one type of blow to another, one side to the other, offense to defense; often within the same movement, and to somehow keep all these things in balance was where his focus took him.
It was at this point that Alexander Wolf began construction of his own lightsaber. He went through so many iterations that he scrapped at least a dozen perfectly good designs, and in some cases complete sabers; to learn all he could about lightsaber construction, each better than the last. While he experimented with different saber types and components one thing he did settle on was a longer hilt and slightly shorter blade.
During this time Kit Fisto decided that there was little more for him to teach Wolf about form one; not because there was nothing left to learn, but because further mastery of form one didn't fit Wolf's tendency to fight one handed, two handed, reverse grip, orthodox grip, right handed and left handed and everywhere in between.
It was during this time that Wolf had a few 'close encounters' with Darth Tyranus. Although the sith Lord was able to hide his true identity from Wolf he succeeded and scaring the hell out of him. Tyranus was taken totally by surprise by Wolf's force ability to alter friction on the ground. When the Sith Lord suddenly had trouble keeping his footing on what should have been solid ground he gave Wolf an opportunity. Tyranus had noticed a tremendous amount of aggression in him; for this reason Tyranus thought that Wolf would attack when he lost his footing and struck a defensive pose. Wolf instead turned tail and ran like his life depended on it.
Expressing his concerns to Yoda, who still oversaw and directed all of his training, Wolf was sent to train with Obi-Wan-Kenobi to address his concerns. Obi-Wan had begun his mastery of Soresu many years before and Wolf took to the form well. However, again instead of adopting the form he adapted it to his own unique emphasis on stability, reliability, mirroring right and left handed attacks and movements.
It was here that Obi-Wan-Kenobi further compared Alexander Wolf to a lighthouse. Obi-Wan noted that it was like instead of a Jedi mastering and moving in his environment, it was like Alexander Wolf through the force was forcing his surroundings to adapt to him; just like how a lighthouse seems to force the waves and the ocean to give way to the lighted tower.
It was during this time that Alexander Wolf constructed his most famous lightsaber, which he named "Slingshot" after his first dog. Slingshot was designed to take an inordinate amount of abuse.
The handle and grip was milled from a single cylinder. The metal used was a proprietary aluminum alloy, known only as AL1-CX-47g. The cylinder that was 1 & 1/4 inches wide and 18 inches long to begin with; cost more than most governments could afford. Wolf also used his unique force abilities in regards to density to make it even more durable. So durable it was that the company who did the milling required Wolf to supply them with steel blanks made with similar process to have dyes strong enough to mill the aluminum. Wolf took these dyes with him when the saber was finished. Also, Wolf had three handles constructed. After all if he was going through that much trouble why only make one?
The chassis on the inside of the blade was made from 4150 cold hammer forged chrome molly steel and case hardened with a special fenocite process and then it was nickel boron coated to keep any where and tear from friction between the handle and the chassis. Again, this process was extraordinarily expensive.
The cost mounting to construct Slingshot was rising faster than the Republic's new advanced joint space fighter project. However, Wolf had spent decades cheating at the dog and pod races and had amassed an immense fortune. No body really knew how much money he had. It has been suggested that Alexander didn't even keep good track of how much his investments were worth; but it was a lot. Yoda had seen Wolf drop millions on art works that were thought to be priceless. This was an inexpensive habit compared to how expensive his lightsaber was to build. For all the money he spent, however, Wolf didn't go out of his way to make the saber expensive. He simply believed that you got what you paid for and he got the best; the very, very best. The rest of the lightsaber construction was only revealed after he encountered Ahsoka Tano many years latter.
Mace Windu took an interest in Yoda's sponsored apprentice and saw an opportunity in him. When the clone wars began, hand to hand combat from opponents began to crop up quite a bit. Droids and enemy soldiers with sufficient staves to fight a lightsaber and other weapons were now becoming a threat. Furthermore, Dooku had been revealed as a Sith Lord. Windu started training Alexander Wolf with a heavy emphasis on lightsaber and hand to hand combat. Wolf became a "secret weapon" of the Jedi Order. For example: when a sect of Mandalorian warriors trained heavily in lightsaber combat Wolf was dispatched to eliminate that threat. These Madalorians had hoped to take advantage of the Jedi's neglect of lightsaber to lightsaber combat. Wolf's Fulcrum style of lightsaber combat proved to take them completely by surprise and they took very heavy casualties.
Fulcrum went on to be a rarely taught style. Its roots in Forms I, III, and VII were as opposite as the star is from the moon and Jedi who had the ability to seamlessly incorporate these styles were as rare as a blue moon. But when they did arise they became lightsaber combat specialists to be reckoned with. However, this style never did vanish from the galaxy. Someone always had a master to teach them and an apprentice to teach.
COMING SOON: Technical Description of Lightsaber Form 8: Fulcrum;
