The Art of Battles

Return to the Life in Celegia page.

The Art of Battles

As you would expect in a culture as old and militant as the Celegians, a great deal of time and thought has gone into the skills of slaying your enemies. Surprisingly enough, relatively few of the fighting styles involve a great deal of unarmed skills. The Empire has only rarely barred the common folk from bearing weapons, and indeed in the modern era even potently magical weapons are unrestricted as long as they are strictly of a melee nature. The presence of magic also tends to discourage the use of advanced unarmed fighting styles, as those who would historically benefit the most from those types of arts simply learn to defend themselves with magic instead. The number of fighting styles is beyond counting, and it is possible to learn nearly any method of killing your opponent somewhere in the Empire. That said, it must be pointed out that there are certain styles which are very much in vogue at the current date and which are used by many of the warriors in the Empire.

The most common form of technique is called simply the Nine Ways of War. This is an armed style of fighting with swords, and is best suited to long, pointed blades, such as long swords, two handed swords, spears, many pole arms, etc. It is an adaptive art, and is equally suited to one handed and two handed weapons. The use of a shield in combat is viewed as detrimental, since hands should be used for destroying, not defending. The Nine Ways is a very aggressive art, with practitioners relying on strong armor for defense, leaving the weapon free for killing. It emphasizes speed in dispatching foes, since that same heavy armor is too heavy to be worn for overlong. It is a linear, direct, and deceptively simple style which is purely lethal in its effects. A Master, High Master, or Grand Master of the Nine Ways of War is simply too dangerous a foe to be treated lightly, and should not be engaged directly no matter what art the opponent is using, since the attacks will be incessant and lethal.

Another popular style is the Three Circles Path. The Path is a more defensive armed style with many unarmed elements in it. The motions of the weapons are very often feints or distractions, and are often circular orbits, with a portion of each swing used for attack and another used for defense. Tripping, dodging, and kicking are a large part of the Three Circles Path, and much less reliance is placed upon armor, with defensive techniques and mobility being upheld as supreme. Use of a shield is readily incorporated, although it is used for attack as much as for defense. Often, the endurance of a Pathwalker is called into question, as in a long fight fatigue can be a great problem, due to the almost constant motion of weapons and body. The Three Circles is suited to short sturdy blades or longer, lighter ones, and point attacks are minimized, with most attacks being made with the edge.

A rare but powerful style is the Blowing Sails style of the Grimlanders of Pastene. This is an extremely ancient art that requires the use of curved blades for proper execution, and is a much more extreme form of the Three Circles Path. It is a very aggressive art, but a large part of that aggression is directed into the avoidance of damage through extremely exaggerated movement, with flips and leaps common. Blowing Sail also advocates the use of a blade in each hand, and whips, nets, and ropes are also used a great deal. The Blowing Sail style is almost guaranteed to kill an opponent, but all of the most powerful attacks involve sacrificing protection for offense.

Plunging Stone is a highly defensive style, emphasizing economy of motion, blocking of attacks, and counterstriking after a defensive motion. Surprisingly enough, Stoners tend to win a lot of fights quickly, since most of their defensive actions meld seamlessly with an attack at the out of position enemy, and many of those attacks score. Its great weakness is the fact that it requires an active attacker, and a softer defensive style is lethal to Stoners, as they need attacks to trigger their own attacks. Plunging Stone Masters or High Masters or Grand Masters are also incredibly dangerous to attack, as they can weather attacks for a long time and still be unhurt and ready to fight. Many underestimate a Stoners ability to inflict damage, but it should not be taken lightly.

The Five Rings of Perfection is a nice, well balanced style which was popular in the early Empire. The Five Rings refer to the five main areas of attack and defense of the style, and the main weakness of the art is the predictability of the motions which it espouses. It is also a "soft" art, meaning that it is not highly aggressive and has many attacks which are actually defensive in nature. A Five Ringer is a dangerous opponent who will not be tricked or drawn out easily and can inflict heavy damage quickly when the opportunity presents itself, while being nearly impossible to harm if he decides to go on the defensive. A master or better in the Five Rings has a unique ability, which is the fact that since the art is so old it has elements of many other arts in it and can effectively mimic several of the other styles.

The next style is actually a large family of related arts, known as the Fundamentals of Battle. These styles all profess to draw inspiration and power from the Fundaments of the universe, and range from very agressive stlyes such as Fire and Death to very defensive styles such as Dark and Air. Only two styles are currently common, those being the so called Tangible Opponents styles. The more moderate and easier style is the Fire and Water style, which is a moderate style with many fluid body motions combined with quick, agressive weapon work. The more powerful and difficult Air and Stone style requires strength and speed of almost superhuman levels to accomplish, and is extremely dangerous because of it. It is a combination of quick darts, runs, and rolls combined with very powerful vertical weapon strikes, attacking either from directly above to the head or from directly below to the legs and groin. Both of the Tangible Opponent styles are classed as soft styles because the emphasis on movement is highly defensive in nature.

Another older but still effective art is the so-called Standing Mountain style. Standing Mountain emphasizes the attack and has very little to do with movement. Indeed, the doctrine of Standing Mountain holds that no attack should be made unless the warrior is properly anchored in his stance. While this seems ridiculously limiting, the bladework styles of the art are truly amazing. Standing Mountain emphasizes the weapon as the instrument of defeating your opponent and is a weird mixture of soft and hard elements. It has fallen into disfavor due to it's static nature, but a Standing Mountain practicioner is one of the most lethal foes it is possible to cross swords with, and if a warrior can attack a Mountain practitioner from range, or draw him into a running batle, do it, because once he has settled into his chosen fighting stance there will be no beating him.

If you ask warriors from across the Empire who are the best fighters, you will probably get a mixture of answers,all saying that their style is the strongest. But there will be one style which everyone classes as the one they would not wish to face, and that is the Art of Majesty in Motion. The art is odd in that it teaches that the weapon is the least part of the battle, and the ability to manuever an opponent into situations is the supreme art. Majesty of Motion is an agressive art, and it is definitely one of the most dangerous to face, as the Majestic users are able to attack from the most odd and extreme of positions. One of the tenets of the art is to attack from a place where your opponent can neither resist or counterattack. If there is one style which could be said to be the most dangerous and difficult, Majesty in Motion is it.