((Possibility for an unarmed skill book.))
Teachings of the Master-Student
by Taren Omathan
A beginner’s folly: do not enclose the thumb when making a fist, lest you wish to lose it.
Stretch every day, thrice a day, to stay limber in body.
Never to extend the knee past the ankle when lunging forward.
Redirect rather than block, else you will always lose to the stronger foe.
One hand to protect the head always, the other for gut and groin.
Meditate every day, thrice a day, to stay limber in mind.
An undisciplined mind makes for an undisciplined body.
Know the three points of bodily attack: throat, solar plexus, groin. Know the three points of cranial attack: eyes, nose, and temple.
Never to strike with knee or elbow in honorable combat.
Always to begin in chambered position before executing a kick, so as not betray one’s intentions to one’s opponent.
Balance and restraint is key. A master does not lose his form when his target is removed.
Flow from one movement to the next. A mechanical movement is the construct’s weakness.
Pray to your gods every day, thrice a day, to stay limber in spirit.
For this one, an attack. For this one, a defense. Every movement is its own counter; wise pairing will set an opponent reeling.
Let your opponent’s strength become yours. Resist by accepting. Counter by harmonizing.
The best fight is the one that never happened.
2015-08-10 20:50
2 weeks 5 days ago
Very nice. Reads like an entry-level book, but that does make sense given the context. I do have some misgivings about the line “Never to strike with knee or elbow in honorable combat.“ To me, this seems out of character for the Khajiit; I’d think Khajiit would, if anything, consider it ‘dishonourable’ to leave out sneaky/dirty/powerful strikes when fightig a respected opponent. If anything, I’d see them going easier on (ie. toying with) disrespected opponents. Frankly, this is more a general criticism of how Bethesda handles Khajiiti martial arts, though, (the few times they’re mentioned), as I feel they just repeat the general mystical ‘eastern’ martial art stereotypes without trying to adapt them to the Khajiit.
On a more minor note, I’d frankly always imagined Khajiiti martial arts as tending more to use the open fist or otherwise taking advantage of their claws as opposed to punching with closed fists.
If I have one criticism of the overall text at the moment, though, it’s that I think it’s a little dry, and one interesting way to amend that would be to try and create a contrast between Khajiit teachings and adaptations of those teachings to conform to Dunmer sensibilities, thereby both fleshing out Khajiiti and Dunmeri attitudes to martial combat and concepts like ‘honour’. The book The Hope of the Redoran showcases what I mean pretty well – though briefly – in contrasting Redguard pragmatism with Redoran concepts of honour and dignity.
I do have two bones to pick with the editor’s note, however: Taren Omathan might be the father of certain martial traditions practiced by the dissident priests which maybe had some minor influence on the development of other Dunmer martial traditions, but Dunmer in general and the Temple in particular would certainly have their own traditions. There’s no way a martial race like the Dunmer would only have started developing unarmed martial arts in the last generation. Also, I don’t think the Dissident Priests should acknowledged so straightforwardly by the editor; I’d rather say something vague like “Unfortunately, many of the master’s books are in poor circulation today due to his having fallen out of favour of the Temple.” The dissident priests are a persecuted group of, well, dissidents the Temple is trying to supress and the player finds out about during the course of the main quest; I think their existence shouldn’t be common knowledge at the start of the game.
2016-01-19 19:35
5 days 22 hours ago
The backstory behind this was taken from three parts of the lore--
The vanilla book Master Zoaraym’s Tale tells of a Dunmer called Taren Omathan who won a martial arts tournment after serving as a janitor at the Temple of the Two-Moons.
There’s also a piece of dialogue from an Argonian in the Ebonheart Mission that goes like this: The unarmed, unarmored martial arts traditions of the Marshmerrow, Salt Rice, and Golden Reed societies of the Dissident Priest, patterned on the 'Rain-of-Sand' fighting styles of Elsweyr, are slow to be adopted in the Empire, associated as they are with the ascetic renunciation of worldly wealth and material goods, and the rigid disciplines and mystical philosophies so alien to the Imperial West."
And if you look around Holamayan, you see a Dunmer called Taren Omothan. (mispelled in the game, not sure if intentional)
Which is why I combined it in the way I did for the editor’s note. I do agree that, even though Dunmer can live a long time, this is doubtful their first development of unarmed fighting. Though, it may be possible they didn’t develop a Eastern-style martial arts before this (including the philosophical underpinnings), having something more like Western boxing or even jiu jitsu. Then I could rework this as having Taren bring in new techniques from Elsweyr, perhaps starting one of the traditions mentioned in the dialogue.
2016-01-18 02:44
7 years 4 days ago
The most likely native unarmed martial art I think would be some kind of Morag Tong assasination art. Perhaps designed to have both lethal and non-lethal techniques, to make sure you don’t kill anybody besides your mark.
2015-08-10 20:50
2 weeks 5 days ago
All that the sources you mentioned state is that the martial traditions of three societies of the Dissident Priests are modelled on Khajiiti martial arts and that they’re slow to be adopted by the Empire. That’s very specific; it’s not even completely clear how popular those societies are among the Dissident Priests, who are themselves an obscure, persecuted group within (or I suppose without) the Temple. From those sources alone, I see no indication that Khajiiti arts play a major role in Morrowind.
While I’m not against the idea of having Khajiiti martial arts exert a more significant influence on Morrowind’s local martial traditions, I’d assume that influence would mainly be transmitted though Khajiit slaves brought in from Elsweyr. As the Khajiit slave trade was pretty much ended by Tiber Septim and the vast majority of modern Khajiit slaves were raised in Hlaalu plantations, there would have been a considerable break in tradition (about 400 years), which provides ample time for local traditions to develop and perhaps integrate with native Dunmeri traditions.
In general, (in reply to TheDVI), unarmed martial arts tend to develop even if weapons are in general use, for one thing because there are always times when one is caught without a weapon, but mainly because engaging someone unarmed is always an option in a fight, and most weapons become unwieldly at extremely close ranges. That is if one combatant tackles the other and the other only knows how to fight with a weapon, it probably won’t end prettily for the one who was tackled. I can’t imagine the Redoran and Ordinators not having developed some form of native unarmed martial arts, but as Kevaar said their form of martial arts might be more like jiu-jitsu or historical wrestling, with any flashier moves or robust ideologies coming from elsewhere. Though given the fact that the Indoril – at the very least – try to interpret and organize virtually everything by the laws they recognize I think it’s pretty much a given that the Dunmer would have the ideological aspects pretty well covered on their own.
2016-01-19 19:35
5 days 22 hours ago
My problem with it being tied to Morag Tong is that unarmed is not a very efficient way of killing someone. You’d have to hit very hard in a certain spot for insta-death, and anything else would wake the victim up screaming, thereby bringing the household down around the assassin’s ears. (Knocking someone out cold for any length of time is actually fairly hard to do with a blow to the head. There’s some chokeholds that can put someone out within seconds, but you have to pretty much have the person in a headlock already). For obvious reasons, you can’t poison your fists for insta-death either. It’s more likely the Dunmer developed unarmed combat to defend AGAINST assassination attempts, along with Ordinator basic training as Gnomey had.
Um. I’ll have to think about the rest. A Dunmer learning Khajiiti styles and going back to Morrowind is in the lore, it’s just a matter of exactly when that happened, and how far it could have spread. (TESO was silly and put that same Master Zoaraym book into their 2nd era timeframe. I’m not entirely sure if we should count that as canon or not; certainly the guy in Holamayon could have just been named after him, but it’s TESO.) Martial arts styles tend to be a closely guarded secret among their practitioners and spread slowly, even under more “liberal” masters like we could assume Taren to be.
2015-08-10 20:50
2 weeks 5 days ago
Just to be clear, what I’m talking about doesn’t require a major rewrite of the book or anything, just changing its scope a little. Taren Omothan went to Elsweyr, learnt Khajiiti martial arts, returned to Morrowind and spread those arts, but only (or primarily) among the dissident priests, where three societies adopted or emerged out of his teachings. That’s what the sources you provided seem to indicate.
I have found a few more dialogue entries, though, which muddy the waters:
This implies that the unarmed combat in the game is a specific style adopted from the Khajiit, though naturally there is a divide between gameplay and story here; at the very least I think it’s pretty clear that when random Ashlanders attack you without a weapon they’re not employing Khajiiti arts learned from the dissident priests. I do suppose this is one way to explain the odd mechanics of the hand to hand system in Morrowind.
This one is quite interesting as it elaborates on the line you quoted, which simply said the arts have been slow to catch on in the Empire. This indicates that three socieites of the persecuted dissident priests have, in fact, had a notable impact on the Empire, at least in Morrowind, which seems really strange to me, and also implies that the fellow in Holamayan is either really old or not the one who introduced the arts to those societies.
2016-01-19 19:35
5 days 22 hours ago
Let’s see...lore creation time!
So until about 100 years ago, martial arts in Morrowind was practiced as self-defense against assassination attempts, and also because it’s useful stuff to know when you live in a war-like society. The Indoril, Redoran, and the Temple are all thought to have their varying styles, but over the years this merged into one main tradition. The true name of this tradition and its predecents has been lost due to several of its masters becoming Dissident Priests; among the Priests, the tradition is now called the Golden Reed. This style has since fallen into some disfavor among more devout Temple followers, but no one can deny it’s time-tested effectiveness, and it still has a healthy following into modern times. It’s practitioners focus on function over form, and it’s the most practical of the styles, similar to kick-boxing or the hard styles of karate.
About 100 years ago (makes that guy in Holamayon old, but not out of the ordinary for Dunmer), Taren returned to Morrowind with his Khajiiti style. He began teaching this to anyone who would learn from him, which turned out to be not-many because Dunmer don’t like their old traditions being invaded by outlandish ideals! The Dissident Priests were among those to pick it up, but it was also adopted by Western cultures such as the Mage’s Guild and some of the Hlaalu. Taren called this style Marshmerrow out of respect of the Golden Reed tradition. It is now popular among the Imperial factions in Morrowind, as well as a few pockets of the Great Houses. This style is the most flashy, combining use of what would be termed IRL the flow of chi and pressure points, similar to tai chi or kung fu.
The Salt Rice grew out of martial arts developed among the underworld cultures of Morrowind, particularly the Morag Tong, Comona Tong, and pirates traveling in and out of the province. It is a style not easily defined, due to absorbing bits and pieces of many other styles over the centuries. Overall though, it is considered the most “dirty” of the traditions, sanctioning the use of cheap shots and following no philosophy beyond “whatever works, works”. Its practitioners tend to be very competitive and “hands on”, comparable to muay thai, Brazillian jiu jitsu, or krav maga.
Since TES likes to divide their factions into the three class bases, Golden Reed roughly corresponds with Warriors, Marshmerrow with Mages, and Salt Rice with Thieves.
And if all that sounds good, now I just need to rewrite the editor’s note...or maybe make another book with the history in. :P
2016-01-19 19:35
5 days 22 hours ago
Well, finally coming back to this. I decided the editor’s note wasn’t really needed at all, so I removed it. It’s fairly clear what the context is after reading it. I will keep Taren Omathan’s name and the Master-Student moniker, and lore nuts can wonder at the connection. Also removed the side kick line, for its length was out of place with the others.
I’m still debating using a re-write of the history of the three styles for another book however.
2016-01-19 19:35
5 days 22 hours ago
Transferred to asset browser. Author has responded to and incorporated suggested edits.