Harmonious Conflict

[Random_White_Guy]

Circulating around Ephia's Well and beyond are hand-painted scrolls distributed by an oddly dressed cowled man with broken shackles upon his wrists and ankles.

Scroll 1: First Style: Axespeck of the Scholar
Scroll 2: Recluta Bernadette vs First Style - Scholar
Scroll 3: Second Style:Axespeck of the Dwarf
Scroll 4: Nahj'Ra Speaker of the Immortal Serpent vs Third Style - Blasphemous
Scroll 5: Third Style:Axespeck of the Blasphemous
Scroll 6: Fourth Style: Axespeck of the Mocker
Scroll 7: Dorvant of Agaslakku vs Fourth Style - Mocker
Scroll 8: Fifth Style: Axespeck of the Performer
Scroll 9: Lyrist Lynneth the Stone Sentinel of Warad vs Fifth Style - Performer
Scroll 10: Sixth Style: Axespeck of the Shade
Scroll 11: Acolyte Amelise Terrois of Fierce Kula vs Sixth Style - Shade
Scroll 12: Seventh Style: Clarity
Scroll 13: Zyaeed of the Cold Hearted Wroth vs Seventh Style - Clarity
Scroll 14: Eighth Style: Miserable Toad
Scroll 15: Izduan Najera vs Eighth Style - Miserable Toad
Scroll 16: Ninth Style: Road Warrior
Scroll 17: Inquisitor Salvatore of B'aara vs Ninth Style - Road Warrior
Scroll 18: Tenth Style: Freezing Bastion
Scroll 19: Hekatomb vs Tenth Style - Freezing Bastion
Scroll 20: Eleventh Style: Acid Wall
Scroll 21: Twelfth Style: Flaming Fortress
Scroll 22: Thirteenth Style: Electric Shield
Scroll 23: Fourteenth Style: Sonic Barricade
Scroll 24: Fifteenth Style: Priest
Scroll 25: Echammon vs Fifteenth Style - Priest
Scroll 26: Sixteenth Style: Brute
Scroll 27: Seventeenth Style: Dervish
Scroll 28: Eighteenth Style: Bulwark
Scroll 29: Ninteenth Style: Indomitable
Scroll 30: Twentieth Style: Null
Scroll 31: Twenty First Style: Dancer
Scroll 32: Twenty Second Style: Precision
Scroll 33: Twenty Third Style: Ash
Scroll 34: Twenty Fourth Style: Rogue
Scroll 35: Twenty Fifth Style: Unbalanced
Scroll 36: Twenty Sixth Style: Courage

[Random_White_Guy]

If one stops to leaf through the scrolls, alongside odd depictions of strenuous exercise and poses, are scrawled insights

The Scholar's path is one of endless battle. To march to war is a mental fight as much as a physical one and in this the warrior is a weapon balanced of body, mind and spirit into a single focus. Upon reaching Ephia it is fated the First of the axespecks I uncover is the scholar. The power harnessed from the magics gifted by Agaslakku expand both the mind and understanding. A feeling of oneness with the Disc and seeing plain themany fractures of the axe. To polish the weapon of the mind in proper pose stretches the weapon and expands understanding creating a harmonious soldier.

To adorn yourself in the axespecks of the Scholar unlocks in the self a broader gaze of the battlefield. To manifest the instincts of Warriors past and present recognizing their tactics, understanding the flow of combat, and ultimately opening channels of energy flooding the mind with supernatural giftings. To know the Scholar, to Master the Scholar, is to master millenia of conflict and find harmony with Agaslakku. To gaze through his eyes and see all, know all. An unconvetional Axespeck often shirked by warriors, it is a tool as any other. Another arrow in the quiver, another blade sheathed to your hip. And to recognize that the Axespecks of Agaslakku that have altered the tools and weapons all around us, ever since the shattering of the Axe.

This energy could not be destroyed so instead it was pollinated across the Disc, like a spray of blood upon the canvas of the world. Seek the Axespecks. Learn them. Study them. The Axespeck of the Scholar is a worthy one to pursue mastery of before delving into further training. To visualize possible fights, to meditate and find the self after the conflict, these things are powerful for the Warrior to understand even in the earliest days of training.

Of my journey it began with the Office of Minor Nuisances, bestowing upon me a necklace that had an unusual resonance. Upon adorning the totem did my boots grow heavier, drawing me to settle and meditate for hours. Drawing me to draft these scrolls, and the many more to come as I master this first Axespeck.

The First path to Harmonious Conflict.

Scholar Style Agasla-Ku

[Random_White_Guy]

If one stops to read over the challenge in the scrolls, the depiction of the mercenary priestess wielding her frozen blade captured along with caligraphy upon the back of the scroll

The First Style, to study and predict even anticipating the foe's movements. Akin to the Arrowhead Asp you watch their action, their reaction, even capable of evading their magical attacks. Though I hold no formal training in the craft of magic the gestures repeated, the prayers, the pattern recognized. A gift from the Axespeck's pieces combined as the totems take to synergy and open the Ki pathways to my mind's eye. Many combatants favoring their patterns, their training. It is the First Style's greatest strength. To know what is to come, to predict and adapt.

The Style's weakness though is like a Builder with only rotted wood to build, it offers cold comfort to know what comes and be limited in mitigating such. While the blade can be dodged, while the shield may be batted aside, while the spells themselves may be known - You may only dodge so long before fatigue takes hold. Even if a few worthy dents hammered into the Mail of their armor, against a foe girded for battle a Scholar's style offers only learning. For there is no greater teacher than defeat, icing your bruised and battered hands in chilled waters, and taking to grasp the paintbrush. The throbbing sting a reminder, a motivator, a guide.

To see, to understand, to know. This is how improvement comes. This is the Scholar's path. A worthy first Axespeck to study in the journey to greater understanding of The Warrior, and his sacred art of Agasla-Ku.

[Random_White_Guy]

To the Dwarves he is none but The Murderer for it is War that ruined their empire and it is The Warrior they lay upon blame. Disregarding politics the essence of the dwarf is threefold To work the earth fiercely, to work the earth delicately, and to endure the magics.In this the Agasla-Ku Second Style, Dwarf Style is forged. Lowering the center of gravity for balance, practicing breaking the stones with power, practicing, breaking the stones with care of finesse, and in anticipation of the next move. To be seen beneath your foe and overlooked opening a fierce strike to the chin. For then the Shaman of the Orc'eh can speak no more! Its jaw and teeth shattered in fierce dwarf strike.

While the style excels in the labors of moving earth, delicate removal of valued archaeological and precious gems through precise fracturing of stone, where it suffers is in the capacity of martial combat. The Dwarves themselves a hardy folk and emulating their style, absent their natural gifts, leaves one over-extended. A pale imitation of the Dwarves themself, yet a Dwarf of studious nature could take these teachings and turn such a weakness to a monumental strength.

To the Dwarven the Warrior's name is a curse, creating a truly paradoxical Koan.

How can the Dwarf study Agasla-Ku,
When the Dwarf reviles Agasla-Ku?

As all styles though the Second Style holds place and purpose for the Non-Dwarven. A more laborious style. If the First Style is useful for study in training of the mind, the Second is useful for physical training. To harness the form into a true tool - shattering stone with one's own hands.

[Random_White_Guy]

If one stops to read over the challenge in the scrolls, the depiction of the massive Stonefolk priestess wielding her ivory spear. Globs of acid dripping as she sit coiled and shrouded, akin to her faith's namesake Oroborous awaiting to strike.

Conflict, Strife, War. They do not arrive when a soldier wishes. At times one finds themselves out for a pleasant walk and beset upon all sides. My encounter with the Speaker of the Immortal Servant, the mighty Nahj-Ra, whom terrifies many of Ephia with her ferocity was unplanned. She and her collective preying upon those who delve below in the hunt of worm and otherwise. I stood before her at her fiercest. Her patron's magics surging through her vessel. Her spear dripping acid, as they beat and brutalized a woman near.

Their victim, a woman I knew not or cared for not, I only sought passage. They demanded a tithe. I countered in an offering of combat - Blasphemy before the servitors of a God. It felt a worthy test of the Third Style. Though it was not a Style I had yet to Master, the timing in my stomach felt proper. Unseen another of their company moved behind me, a man with black armor and a grey tabbard, wielding a massive Warmace. He could have easily caved in my skull as the serpent chanter cackled and danced around us. The Stonefolk woman, silent, appraising me. Before she bid me welcome to claw and struggle against my inevitable fate.

She drew her spear, twirling and coiling for battle.

I drew... a teacup. The crowd laughed.

Our fight was short. As to be expected when wielding a tea-cup against a Groknak. Yet the Third Style is not of the body. No. It is of the Spirit. As my writings will show in the coming scroll the Third Style a channeling of the spirit. To imbalance the mind, the body, in favor of the Spirit itself.

A lapse in judgement perhaps as any of logic or reason would have merely paid the bandits, or fled. But to Blaspheme before the High Priestess of a god? Such is not done by the meek. And surrounded by the woman and her adherents, deep in the cavernous gutters as they mocked and jeered... My spirit sparked alive. Another fragment of the Axe slowly reforged as I felt its bloodlust, and its burning desire for strife.

[Random_White_Guy]

Blasphemy at its core is the belief that if a soldier is told what must be done by an entity of faith, they dare stand in a defiant position. To many this is considered a damnable sin of the faith. Of the Warrior though it is a consideration in which simply another challenge is put before a soldier. The style itself is a manipulation of  the scales of the standard harmony of the body In the
sacrifice of the mind and the body is the Spirit ignited. A corruption of sorts of the natural order resulting in the manifestation of Ki. This channel of the energy creates a searing pain upon contact with the natural form A soldiers very hands begin to glow in ever hit.

The consequences of this Third Style and the ignition of the spirit brings with it a fatigue, a fogginess, and a bloodlust. As the very fist upon the flesh of another sears and sizzles, a craving envelopes. To strike harder, faster, with more abandon. The harmonious conflict of the being is set aside in pursuit of only victory. A dangerous, but at times required stance for a Warrior to take.

Prolonged exposure to these totems build a practiced apathy bleeding into cruelty. To look upon the alms-asker derisively for their weakness, to look upon the Priest in open defiance and challenge for daring to dictate your morals. It is a twisting of the self in exchange for power and while that power takes root in many form it must be tempered. For too long igniting the spirit leads to a feebling of the body, a clouding of the mind, prone to violence and manipulation.

Lapses in judgement that would have an otherwise peaceful man dare to stand before many, his spirit craving not the harmonious conflict of Agasla-Ku but the harsh and ruthless victory of The Warrior. Wanton, destructive, open warfare.

It is the Third Style because it comes after the mind, and body. The first taste and test of power and how a student of Agasla-Ku may manifest their Ki for violence.

The Paradoxical nature of the Koan

What do you do if you find the Warrior upon the road?

A foolish man answers: You serve him.

A wise man answers: You kill him.

[Random_White_Guy]

The Fourth Style is a culmination of study and practice. No longer gaze inwards but now outway onto your opponent to see and know their weakness. As you master the self you can easier combine all three styles to a fourth. First you of the Scholar analyze your foe Then of the Dwarf you strike without warning in cutting word this prepares for the Blasphemous laugh of cruel mocking leaving them open for a kick to the head. For the Mocker is one who imbalances the foe while keeping yourself centered. Quickly evading their furious counter attacks as you pepper them with further japes and insults between fluid and focus strike

It is a style of dissection. To pinpoint your foe's weaknesses and exploit them, to lead to misdirection of capitalizing upon their lack of focus. Evading the errant strike while maintaining your composure is easy to write upon parchment. However until you are being swung at with a sword having nothing but a scrap of fabric to protect yourself, hoping you've fired the right volley to compromise their equilibrium? A wrong step may well be your death.

That tension though, that danger, it resonates with the Six Talisman and creates in you an edge. Like a cornered beast, your Ki flows in the opposite direction, flowing outwards. Like the Monkey eager to leap from tree to tree, throwing coconut and howling at the predator. Darting about the fight with jabs of fist, jabs of words, leaps and twist.

And with every attempted strike, your Foe's frustration mounting, growing more errant, as you continue to evade.

Toying with them, infuriating them further. It is a style of compounding woe when a foe subjected to it.

[Random_White_Guy]

The Fourth Style and Fifth Style lend to a unique phenomenon. There is a power to be found in crowds, it is why as long as there has been a flow of B'aaran water there has been Arena. A chance for warriors to test both themselves and their methods. To spar and feud and contest against one another for various reason. Some seek prize, some seek glory, some seek understanding. All though seek, and strive, and know what it is to be alive.

Where as the Blasphemous calls from the power within to corrupt, Mockery calls from without - To chastise, to belittle, to turn the Crowd in your favor at the expense of your foe. Momentum swings and with it the tide of battle. To embrace the Fourth Style is to feel for this pulse of Ki, twisting and warping it to oppress your foe.

In the case of the battle with Dorvant of the Fourth Legion, a devout of Agaslakku, it was his occupation besmirched. In asking of his skills, he said he had much. It was stated if he had so much why was he not a Sergeant - at which time Scribes, High Priestesses, and more took to their chortles and guffaws. The mockery effective, but effect without follow through is fleeting.

While it brought a reprieve from his first few strikes as he was off kilter, his Vanavoi Longsword gifted by Echemmon the White Axe proved worthy of its forging. Our contest while I won the crowd, was a fleeting one. Fair blows exchanged but his Sultan gifted armor, his Agasian gifted Sword, and his relentless dueling prowess shone through making our contest a victory to his merit.

While the practice of Fighting to the Death is outlawed the merits of the Fourth Style cannot be discounted.

So too though can they be countered, contested, or intertwined with the Fifth Style - That of the Performer.

[Random_White_Guy]

Where as the Mocker is drawn of the imbalancing of the foe by the swaying of the crowd, there is a counter path by which the Style of the Performer is born. To gather not of the imbalance but the harmonic resonance of a crowd bolstering you Pushing you upward and onward to attempt the impossible To harness that latent energy and draw it into yourself, warping it about the channels of your body, and expelling it outwards in a fantastic display of the impossible. To wow the crowd and surprise your opponents alike in the pursuit of a warrior's victory. For there is a reason there is in any battle the sense of morale and awe harness it.

For as long as there has been a theater of war, the theatre of War is eternal. Totemic displays of skull and viscera to dissuade your foe align closer to the mocker, but the cadence of the drums? The horns? The rallying speech and cry before the charge? These harness the same energy as the Fifth Style.

To wield this energy is a delicate thing, and while Bards are masters of it in their songs, Priests in their Sermons, the Warrior Monk is not without his own boons of such. To take them upon your shoulders and showcasing for them the feats of the impossible. To drive a fist through a stone, to crack a massive slab with ease, to walk upon Flame unphased, to catch an arrow mid-flight, and more are but a passing consideration.

To truly dedicate yourself is to know the Ki of others, manipulating it, that you may better know yourself. In this does the Mocker fall flat, and the Performer soar.

[Random_White_Guy]

The acclaim of the Lyrist, as well as her prowess as protector on full display during impromptu contest at the Krak de Rose. She was kind enough to honor me with a challenge despite being a relatively unknown. It was decided then the Fifth Style would be employed - For what better way to make a name for one's self than before a crowd, and against a foe of such acclaim.

She arrived with poise and grace, during my meditations and focusing of my Ki. As the crowd took to gasping the tension in the room shifted ever so subtly. Most did not expect a man of my talents to harness such a thing - Scribe, Student, and other onlooker let out gasps as I left fly the Blasts in rapid succession.

First blood drawn as her skin burned, her face shifting to shock, and more audience surprise. It was a sensation I had not felt in Ephia before. Most content to simply overlook me but in that moment all was on display and the Performance of a lifetime given.

Our contest though was not of first blood, and she swiftly called to Warad and adorned herself in stone, before hefting her flail in rapid succession upon my ribs. As so many before me who stood in her path I buckled.

But she herself admitted surprise by my performance, welcoming it, cheerfully mending me and indulging me. Allowing me to see just how long it would take to crack her shell with my fists.

A second performance for the crowd. My first blow to the center of her chest sent her toppling her to further murmurings of the crowd impressed. However upon recovering her footing she began conversing with the crowd it turned to laughter. I hammering from different angles, chipping and chewing away at the fascade as she spoke with her friends. At one point even turning her back to me confident in Warad's favor over her as I continued to shift from fists to knees, elbows, sterner strikes.

It was a humbling encounter for certain, but the Style proved true. In this there is no debate.

[Random_White_Guy]

To never be where one would expect.

This is the way of the Shade. The Sixth Style lends itself to a mixture of deception and feint in equilibrium It presents the foe in one light while you act counter If the Mocker and Performer are the energy of the crowd the Shade is the natural following in absence. Even in the sketch above the style differs as you would expect the four motions instead it is an ambush most clever. If all of warfare is deception driven the Shade is the most erratic and unpredictable of stances. But does that then lend to it a sort of sordid predictability is worth asking.

To be the shade is to be absent and yet present. And in that presence can one be found even at their most duplicitous. As it is a style devoted solely to such deception, removing one's Ki from the fight itself, you are left vulnerable to the depredations of the less physical. Fire, Magic, otherwise will make any efforts of the Style moot. For there is one thing the shadow fears, and that is the Light of the Flame.

In a purely physical contest however a severe edge can be earned with the Sixth Style. Beyond merely bobbing, weaving, ducking is the absence of Ki upon the physical form tangibly absent. An otherwise assured strike would simply pass from where aimed, the foe's senses unable to comprehend. For even the most mundane is used to the Ki of others. The sense of a presence in a room when your eyes closed? One of the Shade may not even be felt in such instance.

[Random_White_Guy]

As many scrolls are added to the collection this evening, styles five and six and the two contests, the final is of a contest with Amelie of Kula.

The Shade Style was put to the test in challenge of Amelie of Kula. As the faith lends itself to attending the downtrodden and gutterdwelling there is no shortage of ambush. In the wake of her abduction by the Wyrm Cultists did the Acolyte of the Sybiline Sisterhood seek to test herself. Rather than relying upon her usual tactics of summoned Wine Sprites she craved a more visceral form of combat. I obliged.

Swiftly I found the battlefield a disadvantage - She coated the cobbles of the Krak with Grease and Web in tandem, making my footing precarious on the best of slippers. The Shade style though is woven of Deception. In a feint I collapsed onto the floor of my own accord. Rather than proceeding to cast more magics she moved in swiftly for a strike.

To her surprise her senses misjudged my position, my Ki absent and my mind and body alike empty. After a few missed strikes of her spear she pivoted once more to her magics and drew both blood and agony from me. At this time did her webs take hold and the scent of blood flood her senses, my wounded body betraying my location.

Ultimately she was victorious. Her ambush prevention tactics proving most effective and even my own evasion met with stern strike and fiercest Kulamite Magic.

[Random_White_Guy]

The Fifth Style of Shade is to beguile the sense of the foe emptying your body and mind. The Sixth is Clarity a style in which the opposite occurs. To know Clarity is to see and understand but most importantly to accept. Understanding the mind is the aspiration of many who embark on this journey. To study the Sixth Style is not to be absent of mind or shut out distraction but to bury yourself in it. A misconception is that clarity is born of peace but true and unfettered peace comes from an overwhelming flooding of your senses. This is true clarity. To be able to keep your focus regardless of the cacophony of war to hear and see all around you to know and understand your place in this world. Expand your senses and the mind will follow. Only though if you are properly trained.

The mind a muscle as any other and only in submerging it, pushing your body, your limits, flooding it with blood will it grow stronger. You must drive yourself further, harder, fiercer. You must not shy away from the chaos of the battlefield but wallow in it. To stay focused, to stay on mission, to protect or conquer. Mastering your fears, your worries, and in the process - Yourself.

Only with proper training of mind, body, and soul in war can you push closer to mastering harmonious conflict. When your gut makes you timid, your mind is master of your body. When your mind grows fearful your body holds you firm. And when both are plagued does your spirit rise. The Seventh Style represents the fiercest refining of the Mind. Taking what has been learned of previous styles and forged into singular clarity. Polished, like a gemstone.

Able to bend the light around it, allow light to pass through it, but forever retaining its shape and form.

[Random_White_Guy]

Two scrolls are added at once - both upon the Seventh Style, Clarity

There is a cold, calculated, singular minded clarity in the pursuit of vengeance. Of any Spoke it can be said more than many that Wroth is the most focused. In testing of such a theory I gave strife to Zyaeed, a local Priest of the Faith. The man is aloof, his demeanor chilled, and his talents follow suit.

The boon of the style of Clarity though is distractions offer little. After he began to cast his first spell did I dip under his guard, planting a palm firmly to his sternum crashing him back against the railing of the Sparring ring, before dipping into a hammering of fist and elbow. Wroth though, is Patient. Wroth is unkind.

The moment there was an opening was I entombed in Ice. He proceeded to hammer me with a shaking fog the likes of Frostport itself. While my body imprisoned I let fly a combination of Shuriken and Ki Blast.  Vengeance though is also unrelenting. The man's form shattered, pierced, burned, and yet he remained upon his feet from raw willpower.

To his credit he was victorious, though he was quick to admit the margin was razor thin and a thrill he received from the contest. I was left meditating on how in both Vengeance and war though there is no consolation for the slimness of victory. They are mutually absolute. Survivors and those who Perish. A stark lesson from a stark foe.

[Random_White_Guy]

If Clarity is the maintaining of focus during the overwhelming sights and sounds of warfare
The Eighth Style, Miserable Toad is the overwhelming of the body in all its forms. A Gluttonous and dare we call it an indulgent style it lends to the massive consumption of vices and vitriolic. Liquor of all form, various smokeables sprinkled in a Torch, the harsher narcotics. To bend but not break the physical form aligns the channels of Ki. This allowing a warrior to commit feats otherwise deemed an impossibility. To indulge at such volumes as to kill the common and untrained man is a soldier able to for a short term shatter all limit and expectation. In this it is a starkly dangerous style but if properly utilized it is one of the most formidable...if it does not kill you.

The Body is a remarkable thing and just as the muscles can be grown from intense and grueling training so too can the channels of Ki. In consuming such massive amounts of what otherwise may be considered toxins does the Ki begin to morph. Consider the Blasphemous style and the corruption mentioned in the Fifth Scroll. Where as the body and mind sacrificed for the Spirit to spark outward, the Eighth Style sparks it inwards. A true test of the Spirit as the body is wracked, the mind is addled, and the Spirit folds inwards in fevered journey.

If you can pull yourself away from the edge of madness, and keep your footing as your equilibrium askew (Thus the name - A miserable frog the Adherant begins to appear crouched and groaning and reeling) - Then you may find yourself surviving skirmish that leaves companions compromised, maimed, or outright slain.