Form DCLXVI: Atra-Manua

Form DCLXVI: Atra-Manua or the Way of the Black Hand was the primary lightsaber form for the Hand during the Successors War.

History
Although originally an experimental form created by the Jedi Knight Jasca Ducato Atra-Manua was instantly recognised as one of the hardest forms to master. Following Jasca's fall to the dark side, the new Darth Abeonis decided that he would not teach the form to his followers so that they could not challenge him in a duel effectively.

However he did realise that if he remained the only practioner of the form that it would die out, yet he was still reluctant to even contemplate teaching it to another. And so it would remain until the year 74 ABY when a Sith Knight and hand named Darth Krayt requested tutelage in the form from his Emperor. Although reluctant at first, Abeonis realised that this was the chance to secure the survival of the combat form for years to come, and he agreed on the condition that Krayt didn't even mention that he was being trained in the form. Krayt agreed, and his training began.

Securing the line
And so, for many years it would be that only two men in the entire galaxy knew the Atra-Manua form &mdash; Abeonis and Krayt. By the year 189 ABY Krayt had been informed that Abeonis would be training more hands in the form, and so began the training of Darth Wyyrlok.

Following the death of Darth Abeonis in 121 aBY it was widely known amongst the "hand" that Atra-Manua was by far the most practiced lightsaber form amongst their ranks.

Practioners of the form included Darth Nihl and Darth Talon, as well as Krayt, Proditor and Wyyrlok. With so many practioners it was hard to even think that the form was at risk of dying out. In fact the form was so successful that &mdash; by the Zao tenj War &mdash; it was the only form taught to the hand during their training.

Each practioner added his or her own preferences to the from making it an extremly dangerous form, and very difficult to learn. Darth Nihilus was widely considered the most practiced in the form during the Zao tenj War, something further supported by his skills shown during the battles of Korriban and Yavin IV (although Nihilus knew that his knowledge of Atra-Manua was limited compared to his Emperor Darth Wyyrlok.

Behind the scenes

 * The words Atra Manua(lis) are a directly translated from Latin into Enlgish as "fitted to a dead black hand".
 * The Roman numerals DCLXVI equal the arabic numerals "666".