Who created the light saber?

Who/how was it created?
Why was it picked as the go to weapon for Jedis? Were they using other wespons prior to the LS?
Was there a time (in their past) when they used swords?

Yes theyre stupid questions every real fan should know the answers to, but i'm not a huge enough SW fan to know.
I like the franchise but am in no way an expert.

The first "lightsabers" were used by the Rakatan Infinite Empire, they were called Force Sabers, blades of pure Dark Side energy. Later on the Jedi created protosabers, essentially lightsabers with batteries on the outside connected via cable to the hilt.

Huh!
Thats cool; they evolved the weapon!

Also yes, they did use actual swords prior to the lightsaber.

Did they? Thats really neat.
I'd like to see pics of that; need to Google.

Thanks for the positive feedback, guys.

Naga Sadow vs Ludo Kressh:

Random pics from the days of the Je'Daii Order:

Odan-Urr wielding a Proto Saber, one of the lightsabers with the cable db77 mentioned:

And here's the Force Saber he also mentioned, which had no button to activate the blade, it had to be brought out via tapping into the Dark Side:

Oh man, I'm so saving these pics, thanks! 😱

People who wielded lightsabers before Naga Sadow was even born:

Those were early-construction weapons, not legitimate lightsabers.

^^^Doesn't matter to me; its what i was hoping for, really.

Lightsabers were around as long back as King Adas.

The ancient Sith opted to use Sith swords instead.

Originally posted by DarthAnt66
Lightsabers were around as long back as King Adas.

Originally posted by MythLord
Those were early-construction weapons, not legitimate lightsabers.