IsleOfJade/ThreeWays
Contents
The Three Ways
Master Li teaches that a martial artist must possess great skill in three distinct areas to truly excel in the martial arts. These he calls the “Three Ways,” and they are symbolized at the school by the Meditative Hands, the Closed Fist, and the Open Palm. All students work to develop their abilities in each of the Three Ways, although only the best excel at all three. That said, each Way builds from and adds to skill in the others, and it is impossible to concentrate on one without effecting ability in the others.
Each student is encouraged to succeed as an individual by excelling in all of three areas, and by understanding where they are failing to excel by being surpassed by other students. By drawing on one’s inherently competitive nature and striving to excel in relation to one’s peers, teaches Master Li, one improves one’s self.
The Meditative Hands: Mental Concentration and Discipline
Made by placing both hands in the lap, right on top of left, with palms turned upward and thumbs touching to form a circle. It symbolizes the student in a state of meditation.
The Way of the Meditative Hands is the path to precision and perfection in movement. It is disciplined knowledge and exact execution of the unique katas and forms of the varying martial arts styles, and represents martial arts at the most basic and theoretical levels .
To walk the path of The Meditative Hands is to embrace rigorous study and repetitive practice of every fundamental position, stance, punch, kick, throw, and defense utilized in a style. Most often practiced through intense performance of essential katas, it is memorization that goes beyond the mental until the movements of the style flow naturally from the body without thought, and do so as close to perfectly as the body can perform. Because the Meditative Hands is so fundamental to martial arts, students engage in study and work on this Way far more often than either of the others.
The Closed Fist: Power in Physical Action
Made by closing the right hand into a fist and wrapping the thumb down and over the fingers, it is the traditional martial arts hand position for punching.
The Way of the Closed Fist is the path to effortless power and speed. It is the ability to draw upon the natural, internal strengths of the body and to turn that strength outward into effective and, if necessary, destructive force.
Walking this path is to take the movements learned in the Way of the Meditative Hands and to turn them into practiced action, usually through the act of sparring. Sparring serves an important role at the school, as Master Li teaches that one cannot fight if one has never fought. While this is not all that profound, it is nonetheless a core principle at the school and students are encouraged to engage in one-on-one and group sparring every day.
The Open Palm: Insight into the Mysteries of the Spirit
Made by holding the arm directly out in front of the body, with palm up and fingers open but together. It symbolizes the act of receiving.
The Way of the Open Palm is the path to spiritual enlightenment. But it’s much less benign than it sounds. It is the attainment of wisdom and knowledge necessary to draw upon the energies of Creation to enhance what the body does on its own, opening up the doors to allow for supernatural movement and actions.
This path has its own katas and forms that build upon those of the Meditative Hands, but adds to them much more esoteric philosophy and internal understanding of the energies inherent in the body and in Creation. It is learned through both academic study of ancient scrolls and the freeing of consciousness through meditative trance, opening up the mind to the mysteries of the world beyond the physical. In opening up to that beyond ourselves, teaches Master Li, we invite the gift of wisdom to dwell within us. In so doing we can call upon that which is beyond us when we are in need of its transcending power.
This is the slowest Way or Path a student is initiated into, although study begins from day one for even non-essence users. While advanced study on this path is about drawing and wielding essence, non-essence users begin by studying history, lore ,meditation techniques, and the basic anatomy of the human body, work their way up to philosophy and the occult, and finally graduate to medicine and thaumaturgy at the highest levels of understanding.
The Hierarchy of the Three Ways
Master Li’s particular brand of Martial Arts instruction includes a rigorous and competitive achievement system that lets his students know where they rank in relation to one another on each of the Three Ways. Students participate in direct competition with one another, using methods unique to each path, to determine where they fall in the hierarchy.
A final, overarching ranking, known as the Hierarchy of the Three Ways or just the Hierarchy, follows from student rankings on each of the Three Ways, with the student with the best overall average ranking on each path being the First Student, the student with the next best overall average ranking being Second Student, and all the way down to the final Student. Students wear a numbered patch indicating their place in the Hierarchy.
Apprentices and Master Apprentices--those essence using students who have become advanced enough to be taught sectret techniques and supernatural martial arts--move on to an identical but seperate ranking system that is reserved for them. It is assumed that an Apprentice or Master Apprentice is ranked higher than even the First Student, although since that position is filled by Master Li's favored pupil the lines are currently a bit blurred.
Placement on the Hierarchy determines much about a student’s day to day life at the school. Students ranked more highly are considered to be older brothers and sisters to those beneath them, while the lower ranking student is a younger brother or sister. This has all the privilege and responsibility these titles entail. Younger siblings are expected to obey older siblings and to emulate them so as to excel in their studies, while older siblings must protect their younger brethren and teach them. This sets up a dynamic with elements seemingly at odds with itself, where students must respect and help other students while simultaneously competing with them. Students of near rank are, like real siblings close in age, not expected to defer or help quite as much as if the students were significantly far apart in rank.
Measuring the Way of the Meditative Hands – Competitive Katas
Beyond the rigorous training involved in the Way of the Meditative Hands are the often beautiful and always passionate contests in which students test their mastery of form and discipline against those of another student. Close rivals engage in a judged format in which they pit their best kata—and their skill and discipline in it—against one another. These are popular affairs that very often display katas of highly contrasting styles. They almost always draw large crowds of students, although only a judge (Master Li or one of his instructors) and the participants are required attendees.
Each kata is 15 moves long and rated on a difficulty scale from o to ooooo. A o kata requires an MA of o to perform, a oo requires MA oo, etc. Each participant must perform a kata of the same difficulty level, and the challenged participant chooses what that difficulty is. If a participant cannot perform a kata of the appropriate difficulty he or she must forfeit. The difficulty of the kata determines the difficulty of the moves within it as follows:
o 15 moves of difficulty 1.
oo Five moves of difficulty 2, 10 moves of difficulty 1.
ooo Two moves of difficulty 3, five moves of difficulty 2, and eight moves of difficuly 1.
oooo One move of difficulty 4, three moves of difficulty 3, five moves of difficulty 2,
and six moves of difficulty 1.
ooooo One move of difficulty 5, two moves of difficulty 4, three moves of difficulty 3,
four moves of difficulty 2, and five moves of difficulty 1.
The participants perform their katas simultaneously, with each player (or the ST in the case of NPCs) naming, describing, and assigning a difficulty value to each move in the kata as their character performs it. The difficulty of the kata determines how difficult its moves are, but the player or ST is free to perform those moves in any order so long as they are all used. For each move, the player (or the ST) rolls Dex + MA (with relevant modifiers, stunt bonuses apply) or other appropriate pool if the move is not a basic attack. Higher thresholds of success represent more perfect performances of a move. The results from the corresponding moves of each kata are compared, with the highest threshold of success winning that movement sequence.
Winning a movement sequence earns a participant one point. Winning two movement sequences in a row is worth three points (rather than 2). Winning three in a row is worth five points (rather than 3). After three victories in a row the scoring resets as if no one had won a previous sequence, and the winner of the next move is again awarded only one point . At the end of the kata, the character with the most points is declared the winner of the contest.
Measuring the Way of the Closed Fist – Sparring at the Two Rivers School
Sparring is the life’s blood of the Way of the Closed Fist, and students engage in casual sparring constantly. Any student may engage in sparring with any other student. These matches are friendly and rarely result in any actual injury. In fact very often they are simply short bursts of pulled strikes that last until one combatant touches the other in what can be termed a “hit” or until the first fall.
Competitive Sparring, however, is a much more serious matter. Violent and drawn out, these matches are always between close rivals of nearly equal skill, and are used to determine superiority and rank on the Way of the Closed Fist. They also teach what it might be like to be in a real fight, although even here no one intends to seriously injure or kill (usually).
Because of the dangerous nature of the Competitive Sparring matches, they are closely watched affairs with strict rules of conduct. These are as follows:
- An instructor must always be present at any competitive match.
- No student may challenge another student of lower Closed Fist rank than themselves.
- Students may only challenge another student three or fewer Closed Fist ranks higher than themselves. The higher ranking student is required to accept and fight the lower ranked student within three days, unless Master Li intercedes.
- Closed Fist matches are never fought with real weapons. They are unarmed affairs by default, unless both contestants agree to use practice weapons (wooden weapons that do only bashing damage).
- No supernatural attacks of any kind may be used in a Closed Fist match, although forms, defenses, and other such non-attack charms are acceptable.
- Closed Fist matches are fought until one combatant loses consciousness or is otherwise incapacitated, or until one combatant concedes the match.
Measuring the Way of the Open Palm – Tests of Enlightenment
Master Li demands that his students take a holistic approach to the obtainment of wisdom and spirutal enlightenment. To focus one's energies in any one area is to take a narrow view of the universe, and is therefore not true enlightenment. Still, few students can master or even become truly proficient in all of history and lore, occult and thaumaturgy, religious thought and philosophy, herbalism, medicine and anatomy, scholarship and mysticism, meditative techniques, and finally an understanding of and ability to weild the raw essence of the universe.
It is for this reason that contests between students vying for standing on the Way of the Open Palm are the most unique and diverse of any of the tests employed by the Three Ways. Unlike the other two Ways, the Way of the Open Palm does not have set, predetermined contests where each student knows the rules and what is expected of him or her. Students go into it with only a basic framework of what to expect, and no two contests are ever the same.
All contests consist of three separate tests or battles that may come from any of six distinct knowledge areas. A seventh area also becomes available if and only if both contestants are essence weilders. The seven knowledge areas are:
- Herbalism, Anatomy and Medicine
- History and Lore
- Meditation
- Occult and Thaumaturgy
- Philosophy and Theology
- Scholarship and Mysticism
- Essence and Charms
The categories that define the separate tests are represented on tokens that are drawn randomly out of a yellow jade bowl Master Li keeps in his quarters, and no student knows which three will appear when they challenge or accept the challenge of another student. Each category can be drawn only once for any contest. Once the challenge is issued and accepted, and the categories are chosen, students have three days to prepare before the contests begin. The precise nature of each test is unknown to the participants ahead of time, and Master Li uses the three day interim period to set up tests that range from very simple to extremely elaborate and drawn out. Tests can take five minutes or five days, depending on the nature of each test. And tests might be incredibly easy or impossibly hard, with the student who comes closes to succeeding declared the winner.
For example, Tetsuko challenges and Mou-Shendu accepts an Open Palm challenge, Master Li will immediately draw three tokens representing categories from his jade bowl. He draws 1) Herbalism, Anatomy and Medicine, 2) Occult and Thaumaturgy, and 3) Essence and Charms. Three days pass, and the whole school turns out for the Herbalism, Anatomy, and Medicine test. Master Li asks each participant to create a natural remedy to cure or relieve the flu symptoms found in the children at a local farm, with two days to complete the task. For the second task, Master Li has the contestents create a star chart for Dawn Star, which takes an hour. And finally, for Essence and Charms...
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