Form IX: Kadeesh

Form IX: Kadeesh was a form of lightsaber combat mainly focusing on the use of brute strength rather than Force-assisted movements or fancy and impredictable parries.

History
It is unknown which of the ancient Jedi Masters contributed to the development and refinement of this form, but records suggest that this form must have been used around the time of Darth Revan, or even before him, at the time of Exar Kun. Records are incomplete and Jedi historians are uncertain of many details: all Jedi that practiced Kadeesh were presumably killed during Darth Nihilus's attack on Katarr and the Jedi purge following it. Jedi historians around 2,500 BBY voice-recorded a thorough analysis of all known data about Kadeesh and concluded that whoever developed the basics of Kadeesh must have intended to keep all its details secret, presumably because he wanted to make it a complete (or nearly-complete) form before starting to teach it. This piece of information suggests that--because of the time required to practice a lightsaber form--whoever the developer was must have been of a species of a long lifespan. The most common and straightforward speculation is that he was a Wookiee.

By 2,000 BBY, there had been nearly two-hundred practitioners of Kadeesh, but given the number of Jedi Knights at that time, it can be said this form was unusual and rare.

Around the time of Darth Sidious's Jedi Purge, Kadeesh was even less common. It is known that Master Yoda knew the theoretical disciplines of Kadeesh and studied its users. However, because of his mere 0.88 meters in height, he could never make effective use for it.

Kadeesh in combat
Kadeesh has always been considered an incomplete and unusual form of lightsaber combat although in the right hands, it could be an effective and dreaded form.

Lightsaber vs lightsaber
The form's developer around 4,000 BBY seems to have concerned with lightsaber vs lightsaber combat even more than combat against blasters. This is understandable given that blaster rifles only began to emerge some time before Darth Revan's quest for the Star Forge.

Kadeesh practitioners often relied on their brute physical superiority over their opponents and used their overwhelming strength to unbalance opponents. This often resulted in slow yet powerful strikes that often slammed the opponent's weapon out of his hands. The use of phyisical strength often sapped the will of the opponent and gave an advantage to the Kadeesh user. Masters of Kadeesh even used the Force to enhance the power of their strikes even further which resulted in even more powerful parries.

For defense, a Kadeesh practitioner relied on utilizing the basic principles of starwars:Form I: Shii-ChoShii-Cho]]: preliminarily predicting the opponent's steps and put up a defense before he could complete the strike. As soon as the Kadeesh user blocked a parry, he was immediately ready for a counterstrike. This quick and powerful counterparry was effective against Shii-Cho, Ataru, Shien, Juyo, and Niman users, but Makashi and Soresu users seemed to have no particular difficulty in blocking these kind of parries.

Blaster bolt deflection
While Kadeesh was developed during a time where lightsaber vs lightsaber combat was more common, it did protect the Jedi to deflect blaster bolts. However, many other forms of ligtsaber combat (except for Makashi) were more effective against blaster-wielding opponents. Thus, Kadeesh users often completed their lightsaber finesse by learning another form of lightsaber for better defense against more advanced weapons. The most popular form to learn for a Kadeesh practitioner was Form II: Soresu, but many perfected their knowledge of Shii-Cho for the same reason.