Kaiburr crystal

• Appeared in:
  
  I
  II
  III
  IV
  V
  VI
  CW

• Homeworld:
  Mimban

• 

From the Expanded Universe

The legendary Kaiburr crystal is an archaeological relic found on the planet of Mimban. Mimban lore says that the god Pomojema used the crystal to heal the wounded. The priests of the Temple were said to have mysterious healing powers that stemmed from the crystal. The crimson gem had the ability to enhance Force powers. The crystal resided in the jungle Temple of Pomojema, guarded by a sluggish yet deadly lizard-creature.

Shortly after the Battle of Yavin, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia Organa helped a Mimban local named Halla search for the crystal. Upon uncovering it, the Rebel heroes had to face Darth Vader before they could escape with their prize.

Removing the Kaiburr crystal from Mimban affected its mystical properties. Its power decreased in direct proportion to its distance from the temple. As such, the Kaiburr crystal became little more than a curiosity in Luke's possession, as he concentrated on the more pressing concerns of the Galactic Civil War. He would later use it as a teaching aid to his students in his Jedi Academy, and briefly experimented with using fragments of the gem as focusing crystals in lightsabers.

Behind the Scenes

The Kaiburr crystal first appeared in the early draft scripts of Star Wars, where it was the McGuffin for the heroes to retrieve. In the third draft of the script, Obi-Wan explains to Luke that the Force can be collected and amplified through the use of a "Kiber Crystal." The crystal had been stolen by the Sith Lords of Alderaan in the Battle of Condawn.

On Alderaan -- which in this version of the script was the Imperial capital -- Darth Vader and other Sith warriors would meditate within the "Crystal Chamber." Rather than seeking out the tractor beam controls, the early version of the script has Obi-Wan seek out the Kiber Crystal. Obi-Wan escapes his encounter with Vader, and Luke would use the crystal to enhance his own Force abilities during the final Death Star battle.

Subsequent script iterations did away with the Kiber Crystal, letting the Force exist without a focusing talisman. The crystal returned in the 1978 novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye.

During the making of Episode II, artifacts of this old storyline resurfaced. The Kamino saberdart was referred to as a "kyberdart" in the early drafts of the script.