Zinn'ka: Crae'not (first draft)

[Aegis Labyrinthine]

Crae’not

General: When you’ve isolated yourself on an island with nothing but beings equipped with deadly horns, rock hard hooves and enough strength to move a small planet, you’ve got yourself Crae’not.

Crae’not is the deadly art of gladiatorial unarmed fighting, practical only for the minotaur. Some liken this Zinn’ka to the brutal Rhingorda style but with obvious differences. It involves the use of almost every body part, such as the head/horns, torso, arms, and legs/hooves. Any race can attempt to learn this minotaurian art and achieve some minor skills, but because of the demand for horns and hooves, none but the minotaur can master it.

A skilled practitioner of Crae’not knows not only how to attack but also how to defend. Their bodies become fortresses after severe training to the point where a blade can barely pierce through their hide. Crae’not also teaches the practitioner how to receive a blow anywhere on their body for minimal damage by use of reflexes and positioning. Attacking can involve one charging head first to slam their opponent into a wall, elbows, knees, body checking, kicking, punching, squeezing, head butting, and everything in between. To the death is how the nobles and Royal family of Minatos liked it and that is how they got it, but only as spectators. Crae’not has two versions, the hardcore slave on slave to the death and the watered down noble version which is on a point system and never ends in death.

History: After being marooned on the island of Minatos, a hierarchy was quickly set up to separate the powerful from the weak. The powerful became Royalty and nobles and the weak became peasants and slaves. Before any official arenas were set up for gladiatorial battles, the nobles would often pit their slaves against each other for the love of battle and profit. Most of these arranged fights were not to the death, which allowed the slaves to learn from their mistakes in each fight. Eventually there became a method of how the slave fights were fought and to earn their keep and respect from their master (the little they received), the method was bone crushing and intense.

It didn’t take long for this style of fighting to catch on and seeing it in action made a lot of slave owners have their slaves train in it. The name Crae’not was coined early on in it’s development by the nobles who organized the matches. What was once an underground pit fight soon became a “national sport”, if you will. Large arenas and coliseums were erected to house this craze that hit Minatos. Something the prideful minotaurs could call their own. In the larger venues slaves would be entered for a fight, which was usually ended up in death. Some that won, giving the best show for the crowd became full time fighters, and the others who were not killed went back to work as slaves. It was the reward of becoming a fulltime gladiator that drove the fighters to make their Crae’not more brutal and deadly. Even the possibility of death was better than working for the nobles doing hard labor.

Eventually Crae’not branched into the houses of the nobles and even some royal family members took up the Zinn’ka. This of course was not to the death and some practiced it for fitness and endurance training. Many minotaur of the lower classes, but mostly the slaves and gladiators who fought to the death would never consider a none death fight Crae’not. The noble version of Crae’not is based on a point system where two combatants would charge each other and throw punches and kicks gaining points depending on where the opponent was struck. Once a fighter has reached a total of 5 points, he is declared the winner. No horns are used in this type of Crae’not or if they are used, you can be sure they are heavily padded.

The Levels:

Basic Level:

Combatants at this level begin their hide toughening along with proper footing and a few punches and kicks. These maneuvers are fairly easy to learn and are considered the foundation of crae’not.

examples of basic level Crae’not:

Basic Footing- Students will learn where to place their footing which is appropriate for both basic offence and basic defense. Teachers stress their students to bend the knees at all times so they can spring forward to deliver a punch with more speed and power or to act like a spring to soften a blow.

Face/Sides/and Groin Block- These block the most vulnerable areas which can cripple an opponent. Students will learn to use their arms to block the face and sides (which house the kidneys and other visceral organs). They will also learn to raise their knee at the appropriate time to cover their groin area.

Neck Strengthening- It is important for one to constantly train the strength of their neck. Some teachers attach weights or stones with rope to the horns of a student and proceed to do neck raises. This conditions the neck to prepare itself for headbutting and ramming which is used in higher levels.

Basic Punches and Kicks- Students will be able to handle a low level fight once they learn how to perform some of the basic kicks and punches. The punches include the quick jab, straight punch, and uppercut. Kicking includes the side kick and straight kick.

Professional

At the professional level of Crae’not, students are capable of handling low level combat with quicker reflexes and stronger hits than those with basic skills. They still focus their studies on the foundation techniques: punching, kicking, and blocking. The neck is still trained for strength and proves useful at this level.

examples of professional level:

The Head Butt- Head butting is not as physically demanding on the neck as the strength training requires, but it is the first step in using the head as a weapon. The student is taught to get in close enough to the opponent and strike a devastating head butt using the rock solid bridge of the horns.

Elbowing- The elbow is a very hard part of the skeletal system. Students will learn how to get in close enough to deliver a variety of elbow maneuvers, such as the side strike, the upper cut using an elbow and the downward strike. This will also improve the blocking maneuver of the arms.

Kneeing- Another very hard part of the skeletal system. By creating a balance of footing and knee blocks, students will learn how to deliver knee strikes at the appropriate time. This will also improve the quality of knee blocking.

Tackle- This maneuver teaches the student to take an opponent to the ground. They will learn to avoid knee strikes as they cradle around the waist of an opponent to tackle him down.

Elite

The student’s skills are more defined and quick. The can endure hefty blows from an unarmed opponent on most parts of their body, save for the face and groin, with minimal effect. The basic techniques are now transformed into more specialized attacks.

examples of elite level

Charging Head Butt- This maneuver is used as a tackle as well as a physical blow, but is very easily avoidable. When the student is charging he uses his neck strength to add that extra hit, winding his opponent, allowing a successful takedown. This technique can also be fatal, should the student stab the opponent with a horn.

Horn Block- The horns are used as a defense mechanism to free up the arms, so one can counterattack more freely.

The Skewer- The horns are used as a weapon by the student bending over and turning his head to the side puncturing the torso and groin area. This can also be used to flip the opponent behind the students back. Neck strength is critical or the student can break or hurt his neck depending on the size and weight of the opponent.

The Diamond Hoof- This is quick snap of the leg used to create cuts in the flesh of the opponent using the tip of ones hoof. This is can be a deadly maneuver if kicked in the face or any vital area such as arteries or neck.

Master

Once a student is considered a master of Crae’not, he is very capable of taking down opponents armed and unarmed. Most melee blunt weapons are useless against his tough hide from lower basic and professional levels, even some elite.
examples of master level

The Meat Hook- This technique requires a lot of shoulder and bicep/tricep strength. The student can pick his opponent off the ground and toss him a few feet in the air, catching him on the tip of a horn. Depending on where the opponent is skewered it can be fatal.

Hug Of The Breathless- This is just what it says. The student wraps his arms around the torso of the opponent squeezing the last ounce of air from his lungs.

The Bone Snapper- When the student focuses all his body momentum behind an elbow strike to any part of the body, it is capable of breaking through bone.

Bloody Rage- This technique is usually done when the student has his opponent up against a wall. He rams his head into the body of the opponent and shakes his head violently, shredding the skin with his horns and making several punctures which can be fatal.

Grandmaster

This is the ultimate stage of Crae’not a student can reach. Few have ever made it this far before dying in the arena. A grandmaster of Crae’not has the hide of steel and is impenetrable by arrows and small blades. His skills are more honed to look like cleaner strikes, than the bloody mess a master makes, but the strikes are so precise and well executed they are in fact much more deadly. They are extremely quick and incredibly strong.

examples of grandmaster level

Iron Hide- Impenetrable by small blades and normal steel arrows. Melee weapons break when hitting the student. The hide of the minotaur is so thick and conditioned appears to be iron.

Visceral Rupture- Students can place a strike using any part of their body so well that they can surpass the bones and send a shock wave into the body cavities damaging internal organs.

Aeternia’s Forge- A student can deliver a blow using their legs/knees, elbow/fists or head to an opponent wearing steel armor, causing it to crack open.

Jorel’s Mallet- A student can make a downward strike with their fist or elbow on top of an opponents head so powerful that his spine compresses and kills them instantly.

[Straylor Leonard]

Looking good.

Just a minor point, however:

tackling, kneeing, and all that jazz in the professional level should be added to the basics. My opinion, of course, but those things are foundation skills that all gladiators should learn unless they want to get ... you know, killed It doesn't make sense that TEN brightening's worth of training wouldn't cover more than just kicks, punches, neck strengthening, and groin / body blocks.

I suggest adding some advanced basics to the professional level such as throws, counterattacks, and even grappling. Horns would be emphasized too, I think, as well as fighting off more than one opponent or emphasis on taking advantage of weakness by charging. Minor disarms should be mentioned too.

And I know that Cool moves are tempting at higher levels, but I suggest allowing some creative room for PCs that will pursue this type of Zinn'ka.

Instead, focus on separate functions of the form. In elite level, for instance, the practicioner will learn how to use advanced disarm, or even disabling techniques. Think Ninjitsu. But badder and bigger!

Master level would fall somewhere between using the terrain to one's advantage. The walls, various obstacles, could all be used to one's advantage. I'm thinking super body slams, horn drills, and demolishing punches and kicks.

Grandmaster would be a whole new plain for the supposedly unarmed Minotaur. I like the ironhide concept. Definately something that needs tremendous amounts of conditioning up to this point. The key is to introduce 'techniques' not just moves that are suddenly powered-up. That's understood. A Grandmaster punching would be like the force of 100 beginners charging at once.

[Aegis Labyrinthine]

Thanks for the feedback Straylor! You bring up good points, some of which I have already thought of as well. The reason I made Knees, elbows and headbutts in the professional level is because I figure that learning all the techniques up to professional level, all in basic level might be overload, not allowing the student to focus on training their punches, blocks and kicks. Think quality, not quantity.

Then once they have the basics down, then they can start to learn to use their punches mixed with an elbow technique, etc.

I like the grappling idea with horns. I think it would be a very good technique for them to learn in the professional stage. I'll add that in and combine elbowing and kneeing in the same paragraph (i am going by the 4 technique template other zinn'ka writeups)

The reason I never made a disarming technique was because I never pictured the traditional gladiatorial Crae'not to have fought against those with weapons... but that can be open for discussion.

Also having an attack where you can take on multiple opponent crossed my mind, but then I thought that multiple attacking is a skill on it's own is it not? I may be wrong, but I thought your character had to specially train in the ability to fight multiple opponents, kinda like duel wielding. (just because you can do some sword techniques with one hand doesn't mean you can do it with two swords at once, for example)

For having terrain be an advantage, I'm not really sure what would work, maybe sand kicking, but who knows we can discuss that one too. I just picture the roots of this zinn'ka to have been fought on sandy arena flooring. But I do like the idea of using the walls, which is why I used them in Bloody Rage technique.

As far as the cool moves, I just thought of these as more specialized significant moves, but definitly not the be all end all for a player to RP. I strongly encourage players to RP any technique they feel would suit their level, but I just thought there should be a few cool ones, as all the other Zinn'ka's seemed to have special attacks and whatnot.

Thanks again for the imput, I am open to any suggestions you still have and anyone else has, keep them coming! We can make this work!

[Straylor Leonard]

Hmm, *nods* I agree with the quality vs. quantity of course But having trained PCs using my PC, I found that some intermediate-level moves are very common sense at the basic level.

For instance, I've seen too many level 1 swordsmanship training threads that don't even brush over locks and disarms. I mean, historically, that's how knights were taught at the most basic level! One needed to know how the whole sword work in order to advance into a professional (level 2) practicioner.

In the same way, I see that a minotaur gladiator should learn how to use his whole body as a weapon -- if not in the most basic sense. How about break it down into sections instead of specific parts?

Temple -- moves, techniques associated with the head and horns
Mid -- moves, techniques associated with the hands and arms
Low -- moves, techniiques associated with the feet and legs

[Bruce]

Ok, I have looked through it and it looks fine for a first draft. But a few points to put in mind as you further develop it.

First, any race should be able to master this art despite the physical limitations. Yes, some race like the humans or elves do not have horns but there should be a way to bypass this limitation. For example, perhaps the wearing of a helmet and heavy boots to simulate the horns and hooves. Or even condition the body parts to act as the horns and hooves.

Another thing is the tone of the article, on one hand, I feel that this art is supposed to be learned from life threatening situations and yet there are some paragraphs that seemed to indicate that seldom are the fighters involved in life threatening situations.

Example:

Grandmaster

This is the ultimate stage of Crae’not a student can reach. Few have ever made it this far before dying in the arena.

Most of these arranged fights were not to the death, which allowed the slaves to learn from their mistakes in each fight.

Perhaps a more standized tone be taken throughout the article?

Some of the sentences seem strange. Do a quick proofread.

Overall, this seems to be on the right track and perhaps more use of the horns and hooves can be seen at the higher levels.

[Aegis Labyrinthine]

When I'm talking about the fights not being to the death, it was because those were the very first stages of when Crae'not first got developed. The masters wouldn't let their slaves die because they still needed them and so they would stop the fight and declare a winner. As the fights became more developed and they had them in areanas, then they became to the death and Crae'not became more deadly as an art.

But yeah I can add in the horned helmet and heavy boots as a subsitute.

I'll also fix up the sentences as well thanks for the feedback!