Zinn'ka: Gicha Hehan

Gicha Hehan is a Zinn’ka form that is rarely seen in Telath, as it evolved and lives within the slave pits of the darker cities of Aelyria. The creators of it were female slaves who where ridiculed, beaten, deprived of their integrity and pride, even humiliated publicly in front of mass audiences. It was because of these ill treatments that the gathering of combat slaves began formulating a way to fight back, even though there hands were shackled. They took their long road to Zinn’ka by combining their multiple skills from across all walks of life and formulating an effective and easily taught fighting style. Gicha Hehan is all about speed and brutality, disciples are taught never to hesitate and always to be the most ruthless in a fight, they are actively taught to live the combat as if they were born for it. Gicha Hehan incorporates crippling bone breaking strikes, skull cracking elbow blows, powerful kicks, and deceptive acrobatics within a system known only as ‘the shapes’. It is this system that has spread Gicha Hehan so quickly throughout the slave community in one form or another and is now slowly creeping into mainstream Zinn’ka discussions. Naturally, Gicha Hehan is performed with arms bound at the wrists by shackles and like all Zinn’ka forms requires daily drill and practise.


History

The Gicha Hehan was, as mentioned, a pit fighting style designed and engineered by female slaves in illegal arenas, in which the wealthy and the poor would pit one slave against the next. Usually, these gatherings were brought together outside of the Aelyrian Empire, where they could not be so easily persecuted for their amoral actions. The underground catacombs of the dark elves are a good example as such likely locations for a slave arena. Being a fighting slave brought peril and death into their lives every moment of the brightening. Many times, in battle theatres, relatively inexpensive female fighters are not even given weapons or armor, due to their unimportance in the eyes of their owners. They run about in next to no clothing, trying to avoid both the trained male soldiers that chase them and the humiliation and catcalls of the crowd. Further more, in the matriarch system of the Vysstichi females are expected of so much more than the average human women can provide; ruthlessness and the cold calculated ability to murder are not inherent in the civilised surface world.

This means serious trouble for those who have no military experience, since, in many situations, beings belonging to military factions are given basic training in close-quarter combat. Something was needed to be done to save the lives of these slaves plucked from their warms beds at night and taken to the cold nightmare world below, a glimmer of hope was needed, or the dream of freedom would die forever.

The Gicha Hehan was finally born in a one on one duel set up as a practical joke, a shackled female slave versus a star gladiatorial male. The female slave, unknown to all others, was the daughter of a Zinn’ka master and had seen her father train regularly. The soldier, having chest armor and a short sword, dropped his sword and boasted that he would not need it. The fight progressed for about a half hour as he swung his arms and the slave eluded his attacks with her feminine grace and flexibility. Finally there came an event, which shocked the coliseum into silence. The slave struck down the thuggish brute, mid swing, as she threw out a kick towards his lower stomach; the male’s punch never reaching it’s target, instead he stumbled backwards winded so badly that he dropped to his knees and brought his head to the ground. The host though shocked gave the thumbs down allowing the female slave to wrap the chains of her imprisonment about his neck and sever the male’s head from his chest in one swift motion, or so the tale goes. The blood that flowed formed an intricate pattern in the appearance of a flower on the dirt. Hence the styles name, Gicha Hehan, which means Blood Lotus. The female slaves who as always were made to watch through the bars of their prisons were welcomed to a new way of fighting. Finally, there was a new hope. And when the unknown female slave went back into holding for rest, amongst her peers the beginning of the style was formed.

In recent eras the more notable criminals of the underworld have been heard to be buying slaves trained in Gicha Hehan, as a slave can almost never return to their past lives without proof of citizenship, and the style is almost impossible to stamp out as the basics are taught so easily in the dank crowded slave pens. The Gicha Hehan find such lives as body guards more acceptable than living in the slave pens, and escape is often more easily achieved. Masters of Gicha Hehan are encouraged to murder their owners as final symbol of their achievement of the art, and claim freedom for themselves and any who they train.

Another Note

The Gicha Hehan system is meant for the all-intensive purpose of self defence and killing, and thus the female slaves sought to obtain the most horrific and efficient combat techniques in as short a time as possible. Many of these are fairly easy to pull off, due to of the simplicity in which they need to be applied. The system itself seemingly offers more while in truth the attainment of higher levels requires a deep discovery of the inner self and body's mechanisms. The time it takes to learn and master this art form is usually much shorter than normal until the disciple approaches expert level, because of the fact that they study from a variety of techniques. The system is, in fact, all about offence. The style encompasses two areas of attack, up close and from afar. Up close attacks make use of the shackled hands, the elbows and knees whilst from afar makes use of the legs to attack and shackled hands to act as a balancing tool.

It is designed for mauling and maiming an adversary, not dancing circles about them and beating around the bush, which is why there are many vicious attacks even at the lowest of levels. It evolved from basic shapes of attack and defence, this style is therefore perfect for sparring but in truth it is most well designed for brutal and cold-blooded murder. The first users of Gicha Hehan were firm believers that a person within reason has an inherent ability to fight when born; they were however not knowledgeable in the correct stances or ways in which to attack or counter attack, which is why training involves equal amounts of oral learning as well as actual drill fighting. They did not believe that a person who lives in the Empire would not know how to make a simple wrist style block, or how to throw a punch or a kick, they did believe more advanced styles of fist and kicking were beyond the average woman and thus kept these for later levels. This is also the reason why there is not a variety of pre-set attacks. One also can't use this style with heavy plate mail armor or restrictive leather; a light chain shirt is the most that could be used, for this is a style of speed and flowing movements. Any weapon would be quite incompatible with this style, only the shackles are used in fighting to restrict the arms and form a double strength fist. The length of chain in a standard slave shackle is roughly two fists, sometimes replaced by an actual bar rather than links.