#megil-aith

[shepherds-of-haven]

i swear i read somewhere that blade doesn’t really like using guns bc it goes against some ket principles. would you mind like… going into those a little more, for curiosity’s sake?

Hi there, this is sort of an obscure or complex thing to explain, but I'll do my best to do it succinctly!

Among the Ket, there are generally two categories of weapons/schools of thought. Megil-aith is the category consisting of "traditional" weapons, weapons and tools passed down through the ancient art of warfare like blades, bows, spears, and etc. Galvorn-aith are more "modern" weapons like guns, black powder, explosives, and etc.

It's kind of hard to explain, but in Ket culture, this division isn't simply the distinction between different types of weapons: the whole idea of megil-aith vs galvorn-aith is in itself a larger philosophy, school of thought, ideology, or guiding concept beyond just the weaponry. It's not a spiritualism, exactly: more like a code of principles, morals, and propriety that govern some Ket's way of life. In certain circles, some schools of thought consider megil-aith to be the only "honorable" or right way to engage in combat and warfare. To these proponents, modern weaponry is considered anathema; to touch them is to dirty oneself, and combat utilizing them is antithetical to the Ket's principles and the "proper" way to wage war. Some purists even believe that crossbows do not fall under megil-aith. The proponents of this philosophy tend to be old-school traditionalists and conservatives who find it shameful for a Ket to just pick up a gun and mow people down with it; they place a lot of stock in skill, honor, and risk, and think that those who use galvorn-aith either cut corners or are cowards who aren't engaging in "honorable" combat.

Those who believe in galvorn-aith, on the other hand, claim that change is neither morally good nor bad: it simply is, and a Ket must adapt constantly if he wishes for the success of himself and his city-state, since the rest of the world won't stop for him. Proponents of galvorn-aith believe that failure to adapt and stubbornly clinging to the old ways is foolish and small-minded, and that a dedicated warrior uses all of the tools available to him rather than turning up his nose on the basis of arbitrary snobbery. This is sometimes interpreted by opponents as equating to loose morals, as "anything" under the galvorn-aith philosophy should theoretically be subject to change, including (hypothetically) one's deepest convictions and beliefs.

In short, proponents of galvorn-aith push open-mindedness and progress, while naysayers believe it promotes subjectivism, relativism, and nihilism.

Blade himself doesn't hold any strong personal beliefs about this dichotomy either way: he will still pick up a gun if he has to, and he knows how to use one. He's not really interested in the whole debate. However, his training took place under Ket masters who believed in megil-aith, and Ygrath itself has a strong megil-aith culture, so he's just not as naturally comfortable with it as he is with a traditional weapon like a sword or a knife (or even a bow). It's not his go-to weapon of choice, but it's not anathema to him, either!

I hope that makes sense!

[shepherds-of-haven]

Lena, What are the martial arts styles in Blest? They are similar to modern ones (Taekwondo, muay thai, krav maga and such) or entirely different one on their own?

Hi @johnsoapmactavish58, thanks for the great question! 

I didn’t really imagine the Blest martial arts to be based on real-life ones, so they’re not too similar to the martial art styles we have on Earth. However, like Earth, there are thousands upon thousands of variations and styles and regional subsets, so there is a lot of room to imagine and play with! Most Ket city-states employ different styles of martial arts, for example, or Elves in the North fight a different way than Elves to the South. I hope that makes sense!

Ket

The Ket teach their soldiers the five most universal Ket fighting styles. (In other words, all fighting Ket including Blade should be trained in these martial arts, but there are many different variations and more advanced styles, as well, and every individual may specialize in one over the others). These are:

1) Par shei - loosely translated as “The Flowing Way” - sometimes called “tsui ka” in different regions. This style is relaxed and loose, and focuses on reading the currents and flow of battle, minimizing the amount of energy used, and tiring the enemy out. This style is defined by redirecting movement and momentum, economy of movement, quotidian fighting, and its very loose, fluid stance and movements. I would liken this to tai chi mixed with aikido (at least in a spiritual/conceptual sense), but it’s not exact by any means. 

2) Par vol - loosely translated as “The Lightning Way” – hard, aggressive, fast strikes, bone breaking and crippling, snapping movements – somewhat similar to kung fu, North Shaolin kung fu, bajiquan, bak mei, wing chun, with some krav maga thrown in there

3) Pax anemi or pax emka – sometimes called pyra na or prana – loosely translated as “The Blooming Way” – focused almost entirely on arma, nerve centers, pressure points, and arma gates, shutting down movement, damaging internal organs, and channeling arma and utilizing it in a variety of martial, combat, and even anatomical purposes. In this martial style, a Ket may use his arma to make an opponent’s heart explode, blind them, superheat their blood, or shut down their liver--or in turn, he may channel arma through his limbs to leap incredibly high, heighten his senses and reflexes, or slow down his perception of time. Little bit of “dim mak” and wuxia visuals in there, most similar to bak mei, certain styles of wushu kung fu, and kyoshu jitsu. 

4) Thar ven - loosely translated as “The Whirling Way” – combines boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, wing chun, and many other styles in a flurry of acrobatic attacks with lots of kicking, punching, flipping, spinning, and jumping – focuses on speed to confuse and terrify the enemy, sometimes also intended to disorient 

5) Vox sumeni or vox thera - loosely translated as “The Silent Way” – focuses on stealth and silent/discrete combat, sweeps, takedowns, grapples, locks, holds, pinning, and silencing moves

Fighting Ket are expected to combine these styles as needed, so that their fighting may look similar to this (overall similar to mixes of tai chi and bajiquan with different techniques thrown in as necessary):

(Animation by Weilin Zhang.)

Finally, there are "hard" and "soft" styles in most Ket martial arts, as well as "hard" arma and "soft" arma. I'm not going to get into that because it's totally unnecessary, lol, but it exists!

In addition, there are styles of fighting involving weaponry, separated into the schools of megil-aith (traditional weapons such as swords, knives, bows, and spears) and galvorn-aith (modern weapons such as guns, explosives, and crossbows).

There is even a special martial art that's sometimes badly translated as "the naked way," which leads to a lot of jokes by non-Ket, until they figure out it's a style of combat that turns everyday objects like books and cups into deadly and sometimes horrifying weapons...

Elf

The Elves focus less on hand-to-hand combat and more on martial arts depending on weapons. There are only two famous Elvish martial arts that don't employ weaponry: the Discipline of the River Stone, which is an extremely flowing, fluid way of barehanded combat (think the circular, deflecting movements of tai chi mixed with a little bit of capoeira and bagua zhang)--this is a more ancient form of combat and is less used in modern day--and the Discipline of the Elements, which mixes different styles, forms, and defenses based on the elements and forms found in nature (think the stances of Earthbenders in Avatar, which in turn are based on Hung Gar kungfu, etc).

There are more commonly-known Elvish martial arts, but they all focus on weapons. There's the Discipline of Bladesong, which is a more practiced, extremely disciplined and extremely fast martial art utilized by Elven knights and knight-mages, and almost always with a sword, saber, or scimitar. It's not exactly like fencing--it's more like dancing with extremely fast and graceful slashes, stabs, and parries, staying in constant motion, and also with a military slant. (??) I don't know how else to explain it lol.

And there's the Discipline of the Falling Leaf, which focuses on archery (and especially carving your own bow and arrows from sacred trees). Mastery of this discipline demands that a fighter can pierce a falling leaf with an arrow from five hundred steps away!

There's also the Discipline of Winterspear, which focuses on spears, and the Discipline of White Fangs, which focuses on daggers!

Hunter

Hunters have their own method of fighting/martial arts, which is mainly taught to their trained exorcists. The two most universal styles are the Shield Form (focused on defense, blocking, leveraging, and especially defending others while minimizing injury to oneself) and Blade Form, focused on offense, powerful striking techniques, binding moves, and even full-body tackling and charging. There are other Hunter martial arts, including those focused on weapons, but these two are the main, basic ones taught to exorcists like Halek and Naolin.

Notably, there's a famous move in Blade Form that involves swinging an ally around and, like, throwing them at an enemy. Halek finds this great fun.

Norm

Soldiers in the Army of the Sun (aka the Autarch's military) are taught a form of martial art similar to krav maga, but more simplistic--really they're taught to handle their weapons and military formations, but there is hand-to-hand combat training as well. I would liken this to the training that Roman soldiers might have received.

There are also multiple forms of street fighting that blend MMA, boxing, kickboxing, a little bit of muay thai, and jiujitsu/Brazilian jiujitsu: this is what Trouble learned and what other panton-keras practice! (You can learn a bit more about it on his short stories on Patreon). This doesn't really have any other name other than "street fighting." Biting and eye-gouging are sometimes legal moves in these bouts.

Interestingly, the Inquisitors are taught a special and highly-secret martial art called colloquially "unification" that helps them subdue Diminished, especially Mages (it's not so great against Ket). Unification involves striking nerve centers, binding and paralyzing, and brutal attacks that aim to maim.

[shepherds-of-haven]

any chance for random facts about blade? his recent short story was great!! i really liked his inner dialogue and juno was adorable 🥺

Oh thank you, I’m so glad you feel that way! 💖 I loved writing his short story too!

And random facts for Blade:

He gets seasick easily, so don’t talk to him if you’re on a ship together

He absolutely hates the taste and smell of mutton

When he was young he had a bad experience with a viper so snakes kind of put him on edge

He trained under Ket masters from the ages of like 7-14. Some of their training included hiking up a tall peak with a barrel strapped to his back, collecting the purest snow at the top, rolling the barrel back down, and then stamping the snow into bathwater. Anyway, he doesn’t really feel the cold

He knows how to use a gun and his aim is good, but he doesn’t like doing it. It feels unnatural to him--it’s this whole discourse among the Ket called megil-aith and galvorn-aith. As a result, Blade won’t use a gun unless it’s under life-threatening circumstances

He has terrible luck when it comes to gambling games unless he cheats

If he sleeps in past the crack of dawn, you know he’s sick

Once someone thought it was a good idea to shove a baby in his arms and he froze up in quiet terror for several minutes, awkwardly holding this struggling baby like it was a bomb that was going to go off

Unless he’s asleep, bathing, or naked, there are always at least three weapons on him at all times

He was going to get his ears pierced as an edgy teenager but then chickened out when his older brother was like “hm maybe I’ll get them too”

He hates that Halek is taller than him fdgdglfd