- "Shotan sword technique pre-dates the lightsaber by millennia, although an effective method of use for the weighted blade, it can be subtly adapted for use with lightsabers to deadly effectiveness by a skilled duelist."
- — Raynard Quinn
The Shotan Sword Technique was developed, practiced and used extensively for millennia on the island of Shoto on Iridonia.
The technique was taught to the Shoto nobility and included fighting while mounted and a complicated and strict honour code. The warriors who were accepted into this elite were known as the Zamai and were respected swordsmen and feared soldiers. The Zamai protected Shoto from foreign invasion for decades and even in the modern era Shotan sword technique is taught, and ceremonial steel Shotan Korvana and Juta are made.
Shotan sword technique involves the use of two swords, sometimes but not always simultaneously. The longer sword is called the Korvana and is treated as the main sword, the shorter is called the Juta, or companion sword. There are also historically longer variations and a shorter sword - or long dagger known as a Zai, shaped like a shorter, light weight Juta. The Zai was more commonly associated with the Kinja.
Raynard Quinn's curved blade lightsaber, in the shape of a traditional Shotan Korvana.
The Kinja were a different group to the Zamai, not elite or born from nobility, they relied on stealth and skill and wore no armor. The Kinja were deadly assassins, having knowledge of poisons, stealth, and the ability to climb sheer faces and escape undetected. The weapons of choice for the Kinja were Shotan Juta, the shorter Zai, blow darts, throwing stars and nunchaku - two wooden weights held together by a chain that could be swung with speed and forced by a skilled Kinja. Some nunchaku even had blades attached., making them more deadly, not just to the opponent but also the wielder.
Shotan sword technique is largely practiced as a hobby in Shoto, and to a lesser degree on other areas of the Zabrak homeworld. Notably, Raynard Quinn, a Jedi of the Galactic Republic, studied Shotan technique extensively and also some Kinja technique to a lesser degree and combined this with his lightsaber mastery to create a unique style all of his own. He even engineered some incredibly difficult to manufacture curved bladed lightsabres in the fashion of a Korvana and Juta to complement his unique style.