Siege dug this up for me, I have plans to rework it, but here's the original, for anyone who wishes to reminisce.
In the bleak white light of a Tibetan day, two men stood, facing one another. The tempestuous gusts of wind stirred up constant eddies of snow and ice, dancing around their ankles. Neither man noticed, for after some sixty years of life in the monastery, both were well acclimatized to the weather. The air was thin and cruel, yet the men breathed slowly and easily, having long adapted. Or perhaps it was their indelible connection to Nimaru that sustained them in such an inhospitable place. One of the men shifted slightly, tightening his grip on his blade. He radiated calm from his deeply-lined, weathered face, which had become brown from the amount of time spent outside the monastery’s walls, training with nature as his accomplice. His tightly braided hair was bound back behind him, and his beard was wrapped around his neck, shielding it from the bite of Tibet. His right foot slid backwards and turned out slightly as his blade swung cleanly from the belt it was hooked to, to be held loosely at the side, pointed down in front of him. A traditional defensive opening stance of the Sky Hawk discipline.
The other man pursed his lips, his cleanly shaven face twitching silently. From beneath great bushy gray eyebrows, his tired, pale blue eyes scanned his opponent. He withdrew his hands from the warm folds of his alpaca-wool tunic and settled them on his sword, drawing it out and holding it tightly in both hands. His ancient hands trembled slightly in the cold, but within moments he felt the warmth and surety of Nimaru caressing him softly and the shaking ceased. Without a word, he lifted his arms to the side of his head, holding the blade so that it crossed in front of his head and angled down across his chest. Already he was beginning his combat meditation, letting the world join with him. Such preparation was essential for true mastery of the Desert Fox discipline.
The two combatants sized each other up once more, as both of them began to feel Nimaru act within them, sharpening their reflexes, relieving the infirmities of age and readying them for the Grand Challenge. The rules were simple. The first to draw blood would become the Grand Master of the Warrior Monks of Nimaru. A shrieking gust of wind kicked up a momentary blizzard, and in that hazy moment, the sun was blocked out and the warriors began.
The Warrior Monks of Nimaru
The warrior monks of Nimaru are an ancient culture, dating back to times ancient. Possible references to them have been found in records of ancient Greek and even ancient Egyptian origin, so it is unknown exactly how long this cult has lasted, but one thing is sure, it has endured. The cult was founded by a band of spiritual men who had discovered the secrets of Nimaru, the life energy that existed in every living creature on earth. Nimaru circulated through the beings, into the planet itself, and from there flowed out into the great cosmos, to be absorbed by the universe. In return, the cosmos showered the purified and radiant energy back to Earth and all other planets, in an ever continuing cycle. To be touched by Nimaru was to be part of the universe itself.
These spiritual scholars devoted their lives to the study and understanding of Nimaru, and with understanding came knowledge. Knowledge of Nimaru and how to utilize it for one’s own means, to will the universe unto yourself. With such a gift, the monks found that they were able to sense the universe to a degree, to understand the past and the future, to enhance their own physical abilities as Nimaru itself reinforced them. Practitioners of Nimaru found they were able to sense what they should not be able to, to subtly manipulate the universe in ways impossible. Such things were not unusual of course, ancient priests and priestesses and later martial art disciplines also learned to tap into Nimaru as well, in various ways, but it has always been the warrior monks of Nimaru who have strived for learning, understanding and unity with the universe.
Having stumbled onto such a secret of the universe, the scholars traveled to Tibet to study in isolation. In addition, being pretty well the highest-altitude permanent colony on Earth, Tibet receives the most pure and energetic currents of Nimaru of anywhere on Earth, from where it filters down to the rest of the world. For this reason, a monastery was constructed in Tibet and this is where the monks went to learn the mysteries of Nimaru. The path of enlightenment via Nimaru was one of purification of the body and mind, purging oneself of needlessly complex emotions and thoughts, and by strengthening the body to its peak perfection by rigorous training. For this reason, the monks began to select their novices carefully and deliberately, using the advice of Nimaru to guide them. Selected at the young age of seven, the novices were returned to Tibet and began their training. The process was long and hard, with great focus being placed on the minds of the young, and learning to exercise their will over the universe.
After a celestial era, generally expressed as around eight years, the novices were taken in for further training as apprentices of a Crafter. Crafters are the current masters of a particular subset of Nimaru understanding, and often included such areas as artesian, diplomat, scholar and the like. After a further decade of study in their chosen subset, the apprentices became acolytes, who then devoted a further five years of their life to the express practice of a chosen sword discipline, selected to match their own personality and resonance with Nimaru. Finally, after completion of the discipline training, the men and women would become fully-fledged Warrior Monks of Nimaru. Though a long and grueling path, once completed it bestowed great talents upon the disciples, such as telekinesis, precognition, enhanced reflexes, resistance to poison, enhanced stamina and resilience to physical damage and incredibly strong mind conditioning. It is worth noting that no man is equal, and so these qualities varied in strength and expression amongst the monks, but tended to be universally present. Other talents were accessible to the students of the various subsets and disciplines of the order.
The Warrior Monks of Nimaru have few customs, but of the ones they do have, the Forging is the most important. The Forging must be performed by each apprentice as he or she selects a sword discipline and becomes an acolyte. This ritual involves communing with the universe and forging a solid metallic blade from the energies drawn from the universe around the apprentice, and can take days of constant focused meditation to complete. Because these blades are woven from universal energies by the thoughts of the creator, each weapon bears a personality that resonates intimately with its creator, and restricts others from proficiently wielding them as weapons. A true molding of body and mind, the Nimaru-Kun, the blades of the living universe, are the most precious artifacts of the warrior monks, and are kept at their side for the rest of their lives, aiding in the focus of energy, acting as a nexus for willpower and spirit-binding, and holding a fraction of the soul of the creator within, making them truly sacred objects.
As cores of universal energy, when utilized by a monk and willed well enough, the Nimaru-Kun can cut through any matter in the universe, as all energy of the universe is one. Over the millennia of existance, it has been discovered that Forging with ill intentions or drawing on the Shrykar energy to Forge removes a segment of the Gate within the soul, to place in the item. While this enhances the item's power, it reduces the size of the Gate, which is the vital point where cosmic energy flows throughthe individual, in both directions. With the Gate reduced in size, the user cannot manage as large a flow of energy as previously, and becomes weakened in manipulation of cosmic energy. A small number of Forgings won't cause too great an adverse effect, but there have been rare cases of Shrykar becoming entirely cut off from the Nimaru by excessive Forging, at which point they rot and die a horrible death, seperate from the universe and whatever may lie beyond.
Because each monk has been training with swords of various forms since the age of seven, the Nimaru monks are recognized by those who know them as the most proficient wielders of swords in combat throughout the entire world, in general. The forces of Nimaru empower the monks in combat, enhancing speed, strength, reaction time, endurance and the like, and granting the warrior monks a sort of battle precognition, allowing them to deflect bullets and battle hordes of enemies at any one time. However, given that the majority of the warrior monks choose reclusive lifestyles, such combat is not often experienced. There are guardians, sentinels, watchmen and the like however, who travel the world and seek to rid the world of dark and corrupted Nimaru energy, which can clog the cosmic streams of power and cause dis-ease, darkness and hate if left to fester. Such monks often serve as meters of justice, facing off against corrupt agencies, slavers, pirates, criminals and the like. Despite this, the monks tend to adhere to a code of non-intervention, and since there are so few of them, no more than a hundred at any one time, they are a rather unknown group.
The warrior monks of Nimaru embrace the celestial energies, sometimes referred to as the Star, but there is another sect that has branched off from this culture, who embrace the Fire, the earthly energies, the passions and emotions that the warrior monks strive to abstain from. Seen as dark, violent and unsettling to the balance and flow of celestial energies, these Scholars of the Fire, these Shrykars, are the yin to the Yang of the Warrior Monks of Nimaru, and are in a constant subversive conflict with them. It is all too often a sad occasion when a warrior monk draws upon Nimaru too vastly, or inadvertently corrupts Nimaru energy with his emotions and falls to the Fire. Such Fallen Monks are looked upon with grave knowledge by the Crafters of Nimaru, and become examples to the rest of the monks of the dangers of Fire and the Shryke.
The Combat Disciplines of Nimaru
The life preparation of a Nimaru monk requires that they become proficient with a sword early, training for a period of time each day from the age of seven. For this reason, all monks are adept at utilizing swords of many types, as they do not Forge their own Nimaru-Kun until they are twenty five, or thereabouts. However, at the age of twenty-five, the Forging is performed once the monk has selected which discipline he or she will focus on for the next five years. Each monk generally selects a discipline that either resonates with their particular personality, or compensates for a flaw the monk may possess. There are ten recognized disciplines within the canon archives of the Nimaru monks, each catering to a differing style of combat. It should be noted that while acolytes, apprentices and a reasonable number of monks stick to the textbook styles, you\'ll never see a master of a combat discipline utilizing that form in an absolutely pure manner. Each of these disciplines, when tailored creatively to a particular personality, resonate with that personality, and the triad of connected fighter, weapon and discipline create a force to be reckoned with. Because of this, there are many minor variations on each discipline, though few differ significantly enough to become an Apocryphal Form.
Discipline I: River Fish - The Flowing Discipline
This is the first form of the Nimaru monks, and has been honed for thousands of years. It is an ancient tradition, and houses the greatest number of rituals, idiosyncrasies and the like of any of the disciplines. Despite this, this discipline is often recognized as the most simple and reliable form of swordplay taught by the monks, as it is the form that is used to ground the novices and apprentices in the basic techniques, strategies and tactics of swordplay. For this reason, every monk is at least proficient in River Fish.
This discipline utilizes simple, basic techniques that link together in a fluid manner, allowing the user to flow, and when the user is fully immersed in Nimaru, he can twist and contort his body and react with incredible speed whilst remaining stable, simple and reliable in combat. Because of its simplicity and its fluid nature that utilizes enemy momentum against them, this technique is best utilized against a larger number of less capable sword wielders, as a single masterful user of a blade can read the simple, connected movements of a River Fish combatant and capitalize on this.
However, as there is an additional eighteen years of training that every monk receives in River Fish, those that choose to follow this discipline often find that after the five years dedicated training, they are far more adept at their chosen discipline than other monks may be. As such, monks who may have a desire to serve as a diplomat or scholar may select this form as a discipline, as after the compulsory training, it is unlikely that they will see much action, nor devote as much time to continued practice.
Discipline II: Sea Turtle - The Endurance Discipline
Sea Turtle came soon after River Fish, when practitioners of Nimaru began to fall to the Fire, and when other practitioners began to encounter warriors utilizing bows and arrows. This form was developed to counter the fast, flowing, connected nature of the River Fish form whilst also serving as a masterful defense against arrows. This discipline encourages survival over all else in combat, and is almost purely defensive in nature. The motions of a trained Turtle practitioner occur as close to the body as possible, as this provides the fastest movement for total coverage of the body and expends the absolute minimum of energy. The fact that this discipline provides such little exposure and expenditure means that a well-trained practitioner of this style can maintain combat for hours or even days with the blessings of Nimaru.
The defensive nature of Sea Turtle means that practitioners could stay on the defensive for far longer than the opponent could maintain an effective offensive, and would allow the user to survive until the enemy slipped up and left an exploitable opening in their attack, which could be utilized in any number of ways. Because of this drawn-out nature, Sea Turtle practitioners are trained extensively in endurance, with much physical preparation being done, such as carrying sacks of stones and long-distance running and the like. It also involves concentration training, as successful use of Sea Turtle in combat requires utmost focus and allows the user to watch the opponent and learn about him, this knowledge able to be applied later.
Seen as incredibly passive, Sea Turtle generally requires that the practitioner be incredibly patient and able to maintain prolonged periods of concentration, but provides opportunities against less patient opponents for counterattacks of varying damage, for negotiation or simply to buy time for other events. However, the greatest value of the Sea Turtle technique in the modern world has evolved to be the capacity for reliable, nigh-guaranteed bullet deflection. Bullets have become a bane to many of the Nimaru monks, and while all have some capacity for bullet deflecting, none perform so well at the task as a Sea Turtle student. Such a student can draw insight from Nimaru and effortlessly deflect bullets from multiple angles in a small amount of time.
Though a true master of the Sea Turtle became effectively untouchable in combat, there are disadvantages to it. For one, it doesn’t so much ensure victory as it does minimization of damage and maximization of survival. While defensively such a discipline is almost perfect, without considerable training and practice it can be hard for a student to learn to see the opportunities and strike out offensively, or to engineer such situations if need be. Constant vigilance is a necessity, as the proximity of the blade to the body means that when attacks are stopped, it is at the last moment and so leaves little room for mistakes. Sea Turtle is also not designed to press the offensive, simply capitalizing on openings with a quick strike before returning to the defensive state.
Discipline III: Sky Hawk -The Duelling Discipline
Sky Hawk evolved as combat between Star and Fire became more common, especially during the dark eras. This discipline is engineered specifically for combat between monks, and as such, the blades of practitioners tend to take forms similar to dueling sabres or foils. This discipline is described as being elegant, graceful and precise and it allows a student of the art to expend a minimum of energy while attacking, seemingly taking a page out of the book of Sea Turtle. Similar in many ways to traditional dueling styles, Sky Hawk relies on quick, one-handed movements, parries and thrusts and footwork, footwork, footwork. Sky Hawk requires a reasonable capacity for concentration, as a good Sky Hawk user must always know where every part of his body is in relation to his opponent.
Drawing somewhat from both River Fish and Sea Turtle, Sky Hawk relies on small, precise movements and intentions and fluid movements, as opposed to the wide strikes, powerful blows and surprise stabs seen across other forms. A user of Sky Hawk also requires a degree of combat intelligence, as it was common for Sky Hawk users to dissuade combatants with taunts and queries, often serving as a mere distraction for the better performance of feints, which also play an important role in Sky Hawk. These feints are vital for moving in for attacks, or utilizing such an opportunity to move backwards, as the defence of a Sky Hawk practitioner involves having space from the other combatant.
Being a dueling style, manipulation of the blade is vital, and the blade must act as an extension of your own arm, as timing and accuracy of strikes are everything in this style, given that there is little opportunity to generate power in the attacks. Because of this, the focus required for this discipline is rather high, only behind that of Sea Turtle and Raging Tiger. Another weakness of this style is the inability to generate strength or power in the strikes. As combat is almost entirely one-handed and focused on small, precise movements, a Sky Hawk student is not able to generate kinetic energy, inertia or momentum with wide swings and the like, and is also ill-equipped to defend against such strikes directly, relying on footwork to avoid such attacks. Often, the stronger disciplines can simply force the blade of a Sky Hawk user into a position that is very much a hindrance for the Hawk, by the mere kinetic force of a strong, large body behind a blade.
Another weakness is that this discipline is solely designed for combating a single sword-wielder, and so with two or more opponents, or opponents with ranged weapons, a Sky Hawk user can find his discipline being somewhat less than useful. However, given the fact that there are few practitioners of this style any longer, those who utilize it can often overwhelm an underprepared opponent who is not able to comprehend the precision of the form.
Discipline IV: Desert Fox - The Environment Discipline
The Desert Fox discipline utilizes a factor in combat that none of the other disciplines to at any comparable level, the battleground itself. Utilizing Nimaru, the practitioner is able to sense the strong and weak points of the landscape, and can utilize it in various ways during combat. This discipline relies on movement greatly, and is highly evasive, utilizing rolls, cartwheels and jumps to avoid the opponent’s attacks and cover more ground. These quick, distance-travelling movements are utilized in order to position the user in the advantageous landscape, or the opponent into an inferior position with regards to the environment.
The user of Desert Fox often utilizes Nimaru during combat to trigger environmental changes, such as shifting sands, collapsing walls, mudslides and the like, and is trained to be able to divide concentration between physical combat and stirring up such events mentally. This means that such a user has an obvious advantage when the environment is less than desirable for combat, such as a storm, where visibility may be obscured or any number of other distractions may exist. Desert Fox users also have an implicit understanding of the tactical advantages of the environment, and will often subconsciously lead themselves to the best positions, the high ground or some such, even when entirely focused on the combat.
The swordplay elements of a Desert Fox’s combat style involve fast attacks at opportune moments, often striking out of the beginning of a distance movement, such as turning a lunging strike into a defensive tumble, or converting an upper parry into a cartwheel. The attacks tend to be unconnected and capitalize on access to vital areas on the body of the enemy, often utilizing stabs and slashes for fast incapacitation.
The disadvantages of such a form are obvious, in that this type of combat is restricted in narrow, confined areas such as hallways or small rooms, and in overly uniform or stable areas, such as an area of solid rock, an open plain or a steel room, it requires too much concentration and energy to be able to alter the environment enough to seize an advantage.
Discipline V: Steppe Viper - The Grappling Discipline
Steppe Viper is a discipline that has existed in various forms for thousands of years, but has come back into vogue recently with Trackers, Explorers and Watchmen in particular, as these are the monks who must travel and interact with the world at large, where quite often there's a tendency to frown upon possession of a sword. Steppe Viper proves to be a valued discipline for such people, as it combines the use of smaller blades with aspects of unarmed combat, making full use of hand and foot strikes, as well as grapples, throws and the like, allowing the monk to capitalize on all his advantages.
There are two standard grips for this discipline, depending on how a monk’s Nimaru-Kun was Forged. If the hilt of the Nimaru-Kun is a standard style, like a sword or standard knife might have, the weapon is held in a reverse grip, backhand style. In this manner, when the fist is held out in front of the user the blade points towards the ground. This is known as the Backgrip. The second grip is for monks who have Forged weapons that have a hilt perpendicular to the blade, such as a katar or a push-dagger. These are held in their standard manner and are known as Thrustgrip weapons. Both grips utilize very similar types of attacking, with the combatant throwing forceful punches as they might when unarmed, and making arcing hooks with the fist, creating sweeping slashes, especially when used with Backgrip weapons.
This punching discipline is developed to feel more natural and deliver more force behind stabs than regular grips and sword styles might be able to generate, and given the generally smaller nature of the weapons allows for greater movement and endurance, as well as a distinct advantage in tight spaces. The powerful stabbing motions allowed, especially by Thrustgrip weapons, can puncture armour far better than slashing motions would allow, and impart far more of the kinetic energy at impact, and the fact that the training involves utilizing the whole body as a weapon means that a Steppe Viper disciple is never without some means of physical defence.
However, as with all the other disciplines, there are clear weaknesses to Steppe Viper alongside the advantages. Firstly, the biggest issue with most Steppe Viper weapons is range. The weapons are generally much shorter than regular Nimaru-Kun, the blades generally not exceeding a foot in length, which means that in more open areas where a larger blade can be skilfully applied, a Viper student must be wary. In addition, the use of unarmed aspects of combat must be carefully planned, as an extended leg or arm, an unbalanced grapple or an open bodycheck can be turned against the user with a simple flick of a blade, and the smaller size and altered grips of the Steppe Viper discipline means that generally it is rather difficult to parry blade slashes, especially when they have plenty of momentum behind them.
Discipline VI: Jungle Lemur - The Spatial Discipline
The sixth style of combat, Jungle Lemur, is designed for those who want to combine speed, power, evasiveness and aggression into a powerful combat style. This discipline utilizes all three dimensions of space and a constant siphon of Nimaru to create a whirling dervish of bladed justice. This highly offensive style requires that the disciple be constantly on the offensive, utilizing fast, powerful, kinetic sweeps and agile movement like universe-empowered flips and leaps. By drawing actively upon Nimaru in a physical strength, the Lemur can become capable of feats no regular human is able to perform, moving at blinding speeds, leaping tens of meters and overcome any physical limitation, like age, frailty and injury.
This channelling of Nimaru allows the user to become like a blur, raining down lightning fast power strikes from all angles, through the use of backflips, somersaults and other fantastic acrobatic feats. Watching a Lemur Master in action is similar to watching a ridiculous kung fu sword film in extreme fast forward, with the human eye pretty well unable to track such movements. The greatest masters of Lemur have been known to be able to rain down over thirty strikes per second, in a full 360-degree coverage around a target, creating an offensive that is nigh on impossible to defend against. The continuous movement of a Lemur combatant also means that even if you defend against the flurry of strikes, it is almost impossible for a counter-attack to be planned or even performed effectively.
However, the offensiveness of this discipline is where its weaknesses lie. The constant assaults of this style can lead to reckless and aggressive behaviour, leaving openings for counterattacks. Also, this style is founded on movement, and requires that the blade be in constant motion, meaning that the users tend to spin and twirl to land strikes, and so a skilled enough combatant can identify the openings where a Lemur would have his back to them and strike then. Interrupting the flow of a Lemur’s combat proves to be a great impediment to their concentration, and in tighter areas the advantages of this form become almost obsolete. It is also worth noting that this form is highly energetic and probably the single most energy intensive discipline utilized by Nimaru monks, and drains stamina and endurance far faster than the more moderate sword styles.
Discipline VII: Bayou Crocodile - The Power Discipline
Bayou Crocodile developed concurrently to Jungle Lemur, and shares many of the same philosophies, though applied in very different ways. This discipline is highly aggressive and very attack-oriented, utilizing the physical strength of the user to overwhelm the opponent. Bayou Crocodile aims to be the first to land a hit, and for that hit to be enough to seal the match. To this end, the practitioners of Bayou Crocodile use their entire body, including forward momentum, the arms, shoulders, waist and knees to impart the maximum amount of force to a strike that they can possibly gather, oftentimes smashing straight through a parry or guard and either breaking the other blade or forcing it back onto its owner, with Bayou users commonly locking their swords against those of their enemies and forcing them back into more exploitable positions.
Crocodile draws on the energy of emotions for strength, and requires that the user enjoy the thrill of the fight, the fury of the battle. This requirement means that once steeped in emotion, the user can become a truly deadly force, but treads the borders of the Fire, and even when avoiding such darkness, the user can become very reckless and transparent. In addition, the standard practice for a Crocodile is to continuously be approaching the enemy, swinging and striking with each forward pace. This is a technique used to build up the forward momentum of the user, as it is the user and not Nimaru who must provide the majority of the crushing strength of this style. Because of this static strategy, Crocodile fighters can become predictable without some ingenuity, but it is important to remember that the raw passion that this style evokes can easily overwhelm even the most prepared opponent.
Students of the Crocodile are known to be some of the most vulnerable to the influences of the Fire, and as such tend to fall under great observation and scrutiny by other monks while in training. However, as emotional control is essential for a Nimaru monk, a Crocodile disciple who successfully manages to shear away from the lures of the Fire tend to emerge, Forged anew, as some of the most powerful and adept Nimaru monks around. The Crocodile is often embodied in the larger swords, great swords, claymores, bastard swords, and most conclusively in the huge zweihanders of the Crocodile masters.
Discipline VIII: Mountain Goat - The Balanced Discipline
Over the past thousand years, the first seven styles of combat have become studied less comprehensively, with many Nimaru monks instead dabbling in multiple disciplines, looking for versatility and adaptability in combat. For that reason, Mountain Goat has become one of the more common disciplines in modern times, what with the more varied scenarios one might find oneself in. The Mountain Goat simply attempts to balance out speed, power, defence, offence, agility and the like from the previous seven disciplines to create a well-rounded, adaptable style of combat.
This ideal of a balanced nature in combat makes allowances for any number of scenarios, and allows a Mountain Goat to handle any situation with a modicum of proficiency, but as a jack of all trades, the Mountain Goat is a master of none. This means that although this is well suited to dealing with multiple lower-tier swordsmen, or a couple of gunmen, or even a single swordsman of roughly equal skills, this discipline often falls prey to any combatant who has taken the time to master his or her preferred fighting style, as any highly-experienced combatant is able to note the overall lack of strength in the Mountain Goat form. On the plus side, the Mountain Goat discipline is one of the best for creative users, as it can be combined and altered at will, and is also useful for surprising opponents, by utilizing one particular tactic, only to change midway through combat.
Discipline IX: Rock Scorpion - The Duality Discipline
This discipline is one of the less common ones to Nimaru monks, purely because of the difficulty faced when having to perform two Forgings back-to-back, as is required of those dedicating themselves to this form. This discipline is designed to cater equally to offence and defence, with the main weapon serving as the offensive weapon, while the off-hand is most commonly used for defensive purposes. This technique, while sounding similar to the ideals of Mountain Goat, is in fact substantially different, as it is highly focused and relies on a great deal of training to be effectively utilized. The weapons used generally differ physically, with the defensive weapon generally being shorter and sturdier, most commonly being only single-bladed and designed for ease of use in the off-hand.
This discipline requires deep meditation and concentration in order to unlock its innermost potential, that of your duality, your Star and your Fire. Once capably unlocked, focusing on Nimaru can allow you to divide yourself in combat, each hand working independently of the other, yet with a cooperative prescience which is unnerving to any beholder. This dual-mindedness channels Star energy, in a manner similar to the Lemur, to enhance movements and coordination, but in a rare display for the warrior monks of Nimaru, also takes back the energy once it has been used and converted to Fire energy, and loops it back into the body. This process of subsuming recently converted energy has a unique effect on any being, totally separate from the normal coaxing dangers of Fire energy. The user becomes a whirlwind, a bastion of conscious calm while the emotional energy of the Fire empowers the blades and the hands, causing the combatant to become eerily supernatural in combat, and allowing access to a greater array of preternatural abilities.
Rock Scorpion is generally combined with another form for combative purposes, and throughout history it has been River Fish that has been the most combined, due to the standing proficiency all monks have at River Fish by the time of learning their new disciplines. However, Rock Scorpion is unique in that it blends equally well with almost any style, the only discipline that is generally acknowledged as a weak choice for Scorpion being that of the Sky Hawk. With twin defensive blades, a Scorpion/Turtle master can become almost invulnerable in combat, while a combination with Crocodile or Lemur results in powerful offensive capabilities. Because of the dual nature of this style of combat, it is the only form taught by the rogue Star-Fire sect, which blends it with aspects of Raging Tiger.
Discipline X: Raging Tiger - The Unity Discipline
The final form recognized as canon by the warrior monks of Nimaru, Raging Tiger is the rarest and most frowned-upon combat style in the whole sect. It takes aspects of Lemur, Crocodile and Scorpion and creates a whole new form, focused entirely on treading the line between Star and Fire. This form is incredibly difficult to learn, as it requires a deep understanding of the Nimaru as well as a proficiency in the first seven disciplines of combat. Raging Tiger embraced the philosophy of Bayou Crocodile of ‘Enjoy the battle’ and took it to the next level, requiring the user to actually lust for combat, to derive absolute, pure bliss from the vagaries of combat. Only by offering oneself so freely to the Fire could total mastery of your own physical, emotional, mental and spiritual states be obtained. To do this, the bliss experienced has to be tempered by intense concentration and focus, and an iron will, so great that not only must you be able to will the universe to do your bidding, but you must will yourself to do the bidding of the universe. These conflicting ideas are of course immeasurably difficult to sustain with any great coherency simultaneously, and so most people who attempt Raging Tiger fail and are consumed by bliss, feeding the Fire and becoming Shrykar.
Aside from being a mental battle, Raging Tiger’s physical style is quite unique, drawing from Lemur for inspiration. However, where Lemur merely channels Nimaru, Raging Tiger requires that the user perform a brand new Forging within himself during each battle. This Forging is done on a spiritual level, converting the energy of the universe into an entity known as an Avatar within the Tiger user, who falls into a state known as Connectedness. Existing on an entirely metaphysical level, the Avatar is an embodiment of the universe’s will, operating in perfect unity with your own. Once this is done, the physical aspects take over. Tiger utilizes fearless and direct assaults, and draws on the Avatar within to perform physical feats similar to those of the Lemur. However, while the capacity is there, the style is not, as there is far less acrobatic movement within the Tiger discipline, instead utilizing highly technical free-wheeling movements that appear open and exploitable, whilst in reality being tightly controlled and precise. This style appears to be reckless, as it leaves open areas for the enemy to assault, but it is this recklessness and fearlessness that feeds the Avatar within. This open-ended style and erratic but precise movement results in a style of swordplay that is highly unpredictable, composed of disconnected strikes and a faltering flow of movement.
While these physical facets of Raging Tiger make it difficult to counter, the battle within is the most likely thing to conquer a user of Raging Tiger. The Avatar does try to assert the will of the universe, and this assertion, combined with the emotional lure of the Fire Within, means that the Tiger must concentrate all the time. Even worse is that the Avatar within is most often the result of a hurried Forging, and as such begins to decay rapidly after its creation. Even as it decays it continues to exert its will, but the decaying energy is bound to the spiritual energy of the user until the Avatar is banished and the discipline is halted after combat. While bound to the spiritual energy of the user, this decaying energy serves to corrupt the spirit and soul, making it harder and harder to resist the Fire Within as time goes by. Only those who are ridiculously strong with Nimaru or who have learned strategies for cosmic cleansing can unblock the spiritual channels and act to slow down or reverse this process while the Avatar remains within the body.
While all this is going on, the connection between the Tiger and the Avatar means that the user is essentially one with the universe, and thus occurs in multiple places in the stream of Nimaru at once. The result of this strange event is that anyone focusing cosmic energy against the user will find it dispersing out into the universe, absorbing into the Tiger, or even reflecting back to assault the user of the energy, in a cosmic irony of sorts. It also means that far greater preternatural power is bestowed upon a Tiger disciple while in the state of Connectedness, for better or for worse. Difficult to learn, more difficult to master, nigh impossible to utilize while remaining true to Nimaru, the Raging Tiger is a rare and powerful discipline indeed. In fact, there is currently a single master of this discipline within the ranks of the Nimaru monks, and there have been a total of five other such masters in the past millennium.
The Apocrypha
Cloud Form: The rare and underdeveloped Cloud Form is a style of combat that utilizes telekinetic manipulation of the blade, and is generally focused on manipulating between two and four blades at any one time. This form is actually not much of a physical sword style, and as such is most adequately performed by those who take the time to mediate, concentrate and most of all are willing to sit in the middle of whirling blades, serving as the eye of the storm of flashing blades. Because this form is mentally focused, it doesn’t have particular philosophies or ways of living that accompany it, rather it is just a philosophy of “lift with your mind”. This form is utilized most commonly when an aspect of ranged combat needs to be added to a style, as with the hand gestures and movements to channel focus it is relatively easy for a Nimaru monk to perform a single brief “throw”. However, some of the more spiritual monks relish the challenge this form provides them. The Shrykar Warriors have been known to use such a form for the frightening psychological edge it can provide in combat, as well as allowing multiple simultaneous strikes on a target, or a small group.
Lightning Form: Developed in rather recent ages, this form has evolved from Steppe Viper, and utilizes small blades, primarily as projectiles. Another form of ranged combat that is gradually being developed, this form can be truly deadly and effective without the vast concentration and masterful control of Nimaru, as the Nimaru serves only to enhance strength and accuracy of the throws, and to return the blades after they’ve all been thrown. This form has become popular with the Shrykar Assassins, who blend it with Cloud Form. In fact, the Assassin Lord has been known to use up to thirty four stiletto blades and flechette needles in a single lightning/cloud assault, for truly devastating and nigh-undefendable attacks.