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Neko Martial Arts

Reynolds

Reynolds

Well-Known Member
After a sudden inspiration, I have been working on the idea of a Neko-focused (although Minkans and other digital-brain types would qualify) martial art, specifically a sword style. Here are the basics I have so far, although I have some more ideas in my head:

https://wiki.stararmy.com/doku.php?id=members:reynolds#mugen_yoshu_senko

This was inspired by a few things.

Basically the idea is that by looking to these poems for inspiration (like the colorful names of WoT forms) their style is both beautiful and deadly. And it allows for naming techniques and being flashy, without having to totally break suspension of disbelief by actually yelling things out constantly. It's also another fun use for volumetric displays on skin and armor, and introduces a specific martial art for melee power armor combat. As well as a martial art specifically for Neko/Minkan. I originally designed it for my sword-wielding character on the Heartbreaker, but then I though it might have a broader appeal.

I thought this might be interesting for the Ketsurui Samurai, although I did not intend for it to be their main style. I thought it could have been developed by one of them and be used by a small minority of them. Or maybe a few of them splintered off and started this group. Still loyal to Yamatai with members serving in the military, but with their own teaching style. I was going to ask here for more input, specifically from @Wes and @Doshii Jun and anyone else who is familiar with older Yamatai history and the samurai in particular.


Things I would need more info or clarification on to move forward:
  • How old could this style be?
  • Who might have created it? An old, first generation Samurai Neko? Could it be a named NPC that fits this aesthetic, or should I create a new one? I would love to have an old hand who was around when this would have been created to help out here.
  • When and where would these poems have been created and the poets lived? Old Earth/Japan and discovered when this is created? From Yamatai pre-RP? I need history help here.

I was also planning to set up a few example poems/lines to start us of during submission, then have it be open for anyone to submit new ones as they are used in RP. They'd just send me a PM or @ me and point out where it was used in an RP, and I'd add it to the page. Or they could just add to the page directly (just adding example poems/lines and the corresponding move, not editing the history or anything else).

Any input would be appreciated before I officially submit this. Thanks!
 
I would like to know that there would be kata made for this martial art. I do not know much about the sword arts, but this is a standard of measurement when ranking up belts. Black belt tests are primarily kata performances, in Goju Ryu, at least. I imagined my Neko practicing kata that the SA had trained her on when I was really new, for whatever reason, and would love to see every Neko know at least some. I have more to say about this, but prefer to be concise.
 
A Shigin would basically be a kata performance. You would start out by performing one Sedoka properly, then they'd link a few in a row as you progress. With that note that the higher ranked practitioners (people who would actually use this in a fight or be good enough to perform this as an art and not just exercise) aren't stuck to performing one rigid set of movements, and will rapidly shift between seemingly unrelated lines. While maintaining the 5-7-7 standard. So they're somewhat creating moves/poems as they got.

Fun bonus, shi gin is supposed to mean 'poem chant' but viewing it as 'death chant' helps blur that line between poem and combat, which I thought was a great fit for a 'martial art' like this.
 
Oh, so this in essence is an open call to create kata /shigin and watch their creation?
 
@Perilous Siege found this mention of a Yamataian martial art specific to enhanced fighters, although it doesn't have a wiki article itself. Tsubomi city might be an interesting place for the HQ of this school, too.

https://wiki.stararmy.com/doku.php?...ctivities#traditional_and_modern_martial_arts

@raz also mentioned creating a martial arts style on here at some point. This might be a good opportunity to create a 'canon martial arts styles' page on the wiki that links to all of these? With basic descriptions for the ones that don't have fully fleshed out articles.

Ametheliana said:
Oh, so this in essence is an open call to create kata /shigin and watch their creation?
Click to expand...

Yup, definitely! Preferably if you're using a character that uses this style, but even if you're just interested in poetry and/or martial arts, it would be fun to get lots of contributions.
 
Doshii swung by chat real quick to specify a few things, linking them here just for reference.

Sora-Mai was the baseline style of Samurai that exists in soft canon, but interest in the Samurai never quite took off that way.
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https://wiki.stararmy.com/doku.php?id=characters:yamatai:kosuka#ye_26_to_mid_ye_27

Sora-Mai has no wiki article, but does show up in the articles of a few Samurai or similarly skilled characters. Might be nice to have an official page for it, or at least mention it specifically on the Samurai page. Speaking of...

https://wiki.stararmy.com/doku.php?id=yamatai:ketsurui_samurai#classes

This also mentions that the Samurai teach multiple different forms/styles, but doesn't specify any of them further, not even Sora-Mai.
 
What I can provide is that the Ketsurui Samurai have at least five different 'schools' of combat, centered on five founding members whom mainly tutored/mentored. Most samurai end up dabbling in all of them, but usually end up having a 'major' in one. Then they adopt a bûdo, which is more or less their individualized combat style.

Two were named, two were hinted at:
  • Shadow Viper (Kusariebi-no-Kage)
    • This school centers mainly on the use of a nekovalkyrja's thermoptic stealth, how to lurk and how to ambush with it. They can move especially fast while in concealment thanks to well honed volumetric control, and their swordplay is specialized on drawcuts. Because thermoptic stealth demands a lot of exposed skin to be pulled off, they were also adept with ranged parries. Because skin vision is so often bared, extra attention is paid to being very alert. The founder of the school had mottos such as "one strike, one kill" and "a single blade works best". The transparent zesuaium blades were mainly used by them.
  • Twin Dragons (Nitô Ryu)
    • This school focuses on being the most skilled at dual wielding weapons independently. It is the most valuable one in facing multiple opponents, is considered a strong duelist due to its offensive/defensive versatility.
  • Unnamed Polearm School
    • Unpopular in spacy duty due to the encumbrance of the chosen weapon. Also involves chained weapons conveying extra reach. Common home of the more visible, more ceremonial Ketsurui Samurai Guards. Tend to work best in team tactics.
  • Unnamed Projectile School
    • Outwardly, the school is ceremonially represented by the Yumi Bow; but it has a heavy penchant concealed weaponry from spring-action sandal daggers to shuriken. Most samurai learn marksmanship with firearm, but these try to get very good at it - and they tend to have an easier time with Power Armor. They are commonly the 'visible bodyguards', made to look lightly encumbered, their ranged training oriented at taking down threats before they reach their charges; their strongest speciality being the gift of observation, to the point of having eyes able to look (and focus) on different things independently.
If the above are branches, Sora Mai is the trunk. As in, the base nekovalkyrja-created hand-to-hand martial art which heavily involves anti-gravity manipulation.
 
Thanks for that! So that's just from your private notes and not anywhere on the wiki it seems?

Looks like the basis for a good wiki article though.
 
So, if Sora-Mai is the basis of all the other Samurai forms...hmm...would it be fitting to have some sort of mention that the generic 'Star Army CQC' training you get in your standard Fighting skill is based on it as well? Since it always mentions being trained to fight hand to hand, firearms, armor and zero gravity. Like maybe the Samurai helped create the standard training programming Neko get and the basic techniques that are taught in SA training?
 
Neko Focused Martial Art. The correct answer is what Fred put, but if I were going to do it here is how:

There are of course, martial arts, we all know about those.

Then there is Krav Maga: Kicking and Punching, but also using whatever improvised weapons are around you.

So what if you're a soldier? And you know that you're going to have a gun on you? Well then you're looking at using SOCP. This is a martial art (of sorts) that focuses on building space so that you can shoot the other guy. You may remember this from the fun seasons of Deadliest Warrior
View attachment 6321

Ok, but what if you're Iron Man? Well maybe not Tony Stark but someone who's a skilled hand to hand combatant in Iron Man style armor? You could certainly throw a punch, but why not update your move list a bit and put those thrusters to good use?
View attachment 6322

Or consider if you had force powers. You could pull off a ton of crazy moves. There is a long list of 'advanced light-saber techniques' and some of them would certainly apply to Samurai.

View attachment 6323

Then of course there is Parkour and Parkata Urbatsu. While one is real and the other is made up, both have their roots in french martial arts designed around running away, and looking cool while doing it.

View attachment 6324


So if I were making Neko-Kung-Fu / Gun-Kata it would be built around using the equipment I had on hand and the abilities I have available to me. It would also be a bit of a grab bag of all of the above.

Melee training would be structured around building space so that you could shoot your target, or impale them with your energy sword. Nekos are never far from weapons after all. Basic hand to hand moves would also largely be lifted from the Nepleslian Marine Self Defense Guide as you may not always be fighting biologically similar opponents. You could also factor gravity manipulation in here and I think that would largely be built around delivering a powerful blow to the opponents head by lifting yourself up a bit, and then doubling down on gravity to maximize your kinetic energy. You could preform a similar technique with a sword.

Then you'd load everyone up on Parkour (Spaceour?) training. "Buy why?" you ask, as Nekos already have anti-gravity. I mean yes this is true, but being able to levitate is only half the battle. You want to train your neko to conserve their momentum as they move about. It would do wonders for moving about in Zero G and with getting yourself into position to strike with your sword / gun / swordgun. This type of training would also do double/triple work as power armor movement training and zero g movement training.

Instead of training to fight like a swordsman, you would be training to fight like a fighter-jet. Stay aware of your surroundings, move efficiently, and position yourself to kill your target. The classic OODA, Observe, Orient, Decide, Act.
 
Thanks for that info, Zack! Definitely gives us some things to think about while working on this. I also thought you'd be interestd in exploring other uses of volumetrics.

raz said:
It's actually really interesting that you want to codify a Neko Martial Art. The way martial arts work in SARP now is a lot like they did in feudal japan, as Doshii Jun hinted at about Samurai: A successful warrior will have a very custom style and pass it on to handfuls of students.Reynolds wants now to introduce a uniform style for mass instruction, which reflects the real live evolution of martial arts after the Meiji period, but more ironically since the end of WW2. This mirrors the 2nd Mishhu War having pretty recently ended and peace largely reigning in the galaxy.
Click to expand...

Good point he brought up in chat, about how this somewhat mirrors real life, although I didn't actually plan it like that! But it makes sense to see a bit of fighting 'for fun' during more peaceful times.

Also wanted to mention that I posted an interest check for a new RP based on some talk in chat related to all of this martial arts discussion.

https://stararmy.com/roleplay-forum...rfering-with-my-school-romantic-comedy.34126/
 
I concur with Zack.

Also, I figure that not every soldier can afford training in Sora Mai, which is why it goes unmentioned in the soldier training program.

It may however be a very good asset to someone whom happens to be infantry-oriented in occupation, doubly so if you happen to use power armor since the training will translate well.
Just like a Kessaku certification will look good for a technician whom wants to be able to do IES computer maintenance, something few techs have.
 
I know we have a few characters that are ex-Samurai or were trained by them, although not all wound up in Infantry. Maybe the whole rigorous training and discipline thing winds up making good officers...

It seems like I'm definitely going to have to expand this to a bigger article that just happens to have this one style as one of the new ones linked/codified.
 
I'm going to admit I'm not familiar with Neko's volumetrics but my thought process on that is fairly straight forward.

1: Stay Invisible
2: If you can't be invisible, blind your target. Either use your volumetrics to shine a bright light right in their eyes, or project a solid black bar over their eyes.

You may emphasize a few hand to hand moves you can use while staying invisible like a punch to the throat or eye gouge so that you don't have to draw a weapon that you can't cloak, but the basics are the same. Don't show off, go for the kill right away, don't waste your energy.

Edit: Can volumetrics make solid objects or exert force? If so then some green-lantern options are opened up.
 
The stealth aspect definitely falls under the Shadow Vipers thing Fred mentioned, yeah. Not all Neko have the stealth features, although they could all make a black ninja outfit without much difficulty.

It only works a few inches away from their bodies, but it might be used to conceal footwork or punches? Could display a hypnotizing/distracting swirl of colors like that one octopus? Concealing very small weapons has been brought up before as well.
 
It is my understanding that Volumetrics involves light, I assume nekos can make a flashlight out of it, as well as a strobe light or some other kind of blinding projection.

The effectiveness of hypnotizing patterns is debatable, and ultimately I don't think it will be that helpful, especially if your baddie has a digital brain.

Concealing a small weapon? I'm not sure small weapons are going to be very useful even if concealed though certainly it may be helpful in very specific situations.



I would think the best use of the ability would be to just make a black square as close to the enemy as possible to block off their sight.

---

Of course if we want to talk about VERY specific situations. Lets assume you're going up against a very specific type of enemy. Maybe they have a pre-programmed kill-code? You could flash that on your screen like uploading a virus.

#Flatlander_Woman

Or you could make yourself look like the person you're fighting, and make their friends have to think twice about which one they shoot.
 
I don't think they can make something bright enough to dazzle/blind or use as a flashlight, as far as I know. It's never been presented in that way, but that might be something for Wes or Doshii to weigh in on.

Using it to project something like shorts or pants but having a knife stuck to your leg is what I meant by concealing. Or a palmed knife/shuriken. Holding them there with gravity manipulation helps, too.

I think the disguise idea is possible, although you'd probably have to have the relevant skill in acting/impersonating or whatever, and be smart enough to duplicate their appearance properly. Something a SAINT might pull off but not your average Neko.
 
You can call the martial art I described "Sesshoku Sentō Ichi-Kai (First Association for Contact Combat)." It's essentially a lot like Krav Maga or Systema. Here's the OOC overview:
  • It started out in 2012 when I was updating my SAINT character's skills based on RP experience. The text was "As a SAINT field manager, he learned the intelligence service's school of fighting martial arts, specializing in grapples and holds focused on breaking an opponent's bones."
  • This further evolved into "... school of fighting martial arts, additionally specializing in grapples and holds focused on breaking an opponent's bones or—in the case of enemies with reinforced skeletons—attacking limb joints."
    • Which totally makes sense because the top Geshrin secret agent in the Star Army had better know how to mess up all-comers.
  • That character was assigned to the 10th Fleet as SAINT Liaison before Helen Klein took over.
    • It was here that he passed it on to my samurai Tokuko, who was approved with the following as part of her fighting skill:
      • "Often, Tokuko will fight unarmed using a style of jiujutsu that focuses on shattering the opponent's bones, detaching their tendons, and uncoupling their joints with specific braced strikes for the purpose of immediately disabling them and destroying their will to fight. Other practitioners of the style include SAINT's 482nd Strategic Operations Battalion and a tradition of Kodian warrior-mystics."
      • This is because she was the first Fukei/Samurai Cop character. What other budo would Judge Dredd use than Krav Maga?
  • So, overall, the evolution seems to have been: SAINT, or at least the SAINT command I controlled then, learned some crazy Kodian jazz that works well to disable even opponents who basically can't be killed. Those operatives developed it into a style that incorporates general Yamataian jiujutsu and practical combat fighting (I assume SAINT operatives fight dirty like the Spetznaz stereotype). From there, the Qui-Gon Jinn of KetSams learned it and probably taught it to other Fukei.
    • This is why it is called an "association," reflecting real world martial arts naming conventions: it was developed from many sources coming together.
    • If Samurai Master Doshiington wants to let Tokuko be a Sensei-no-Budo and have taught it to other whipper snappers, he's more than welcome.
Whew lads. I didn't even know my skill descriptions could make that thorough a story. It's not Neko specific, but feel free to talk about it in whatever you make, Reynolds.
 
Reynolds said:
@Perilous Siege found this mention of a Yamataian martial art specific to enhanced fighters, although it doesn't have a wiki article itself. Tsubomi city might be an interesting place for the HQ of this school, too.

https://wiki.stararmy.com/doku.php?...ctivities#traditional_and_modern_martial_arts

@raz also mentioned creating a martial arts style on here at some point. This might be a good opportunity to create a 'canon martial arts styles' page on the wiki that links to all of these? With basic descriptions for the ones that don't have fully fleshed out articles.



Yup, definitely! Preferably if you're using a character that uses this style, but even if you're just interested in poetry and/or martial arts, it would be fun to get lots of contributions.
Click to expand...

"It should be noted that the use of gravity manipulation and other enhanced abilities vary, and are sometimes not accepted as legal in traditional arts. This is especially the case if the opponent lacks such ability. When restricted, these abilities are watched for carefully with sensors and may permit disqualification. No such restriction exists, however, in the collective forms referred to loosely as Yamataian Martial Arts – the modern forms used by the police and military forces of the Empire. It should be noted that those who train in Yamataian Martial Arts also often take Marksmanship training."


From the article, I do note that while the list only shows Yamataian Jujitsu the description implies their are a great deal of different styles in the same vein, that probably incorporate a lot of what Zack said regarding utilizing anti-gravity, gun kata, ect that make use of Minkan and Nekovalkyria 'natual' abilities and whats expected to be available to Yamataian Military/police into otherwise tradational martial arts styles, using the suffix Yamataian to denote these substyles.
 
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