Hand to hand martial arts of Azeroth

Lore Role-playing
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For the past week, I’ve been leveling a troll monk and was thinking what their version of hand to hand combat would be called? In RL history, martial arts have existed all over the world, though the version we get represented in WoW is based on Shaolin monks for the Pandaren.

We’ve had combat monks in the Scarlet monasteries for over a decade now, with the recent emergence of Jed’hin practiced by the Eredar/Draenei.

The Darkspear had a good relationship with the monks ( well one Pandaren) for a long time, but I do want to believe they’ve developed their own branch.

Much like the classes for each race are superficial and lorewise different for each race as is their religion. How would the other races hand to hand martial arts be called and on what would it be based on RL practice.?

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I’ve not really delved into monk/panda lore at all, but I think most (maybe all?) player monks are supposed to have been trained by recently arrived pandaren masters. In all the racial starting zones I’ve seen, there is a panda monk trainer, so I think it’s safe to assume all PCs are canonically trained in Pandaren martial arts. Since it’s such a new concept (8 years at this point), new styles are unlikely to have emerged in such a short time.

However, seeing as there is confirmation of other martial artists (the Scarlets you mentioned among others), I don’t reckon it’s far-fetched at all to assume there are player characters who could claim to be trained elsewhere and are practicing entirely different martial arts.

As for what to call it, I dunno, something with an apostrophe in there I guess?

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Like trolls could have a capoeira based fighting.

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The Pandaren fighting arts are the most prominent and probably the most developed hand to hand fighting forms - the Fierce Tiger, Sturdy Ox, Wise Serpent (and Spirited Crane) stances are all specialized forms of combat with differing strengths.

It’s true that whilst these styles haven’t been in the hands of other races for long, but Zen at least has been aware that these styles have been developed by pandaren, and mostly for pandaren. There are things about the styles that might not necessarily change drastically for the other races - but for example, long-limbed races like the elves, or trolls, might want to use more kicks because of their advantage in reach. Draenei and tauren would probably want to make use of their punches, and may have to adjust how they kick due to having hooves in place of horns.

In time, the other races will make these styles their own by implementing minor differences this way. But as for the combat forms themselves, they’ve been honed for 10,000 years under the watchful eye of Celestials. There’s really not much more that can be done to “improve” them in that sense.

If we make the comparison to Capoeira - which I get is the troll dance… though I personally don’t find it makes too much sense to work as a fighting style. Capoeira was developed by slaves who disguised their fighting as a dance. I don’t think trolls have ever been placed under mass suppression like that. Coincientally this is how pandaren monks came about anyway - being slaves meant they had no weapons.

That said, I remember from the last Celestial Fist Tournament we had a Darkspear troll RPer I believe who was a “Jaguar Warrior.” I believe the concept was like being a warrior who embodies an animal spirit - in this case, a feral cat that bashes things with its paws (or fists / claws in this case) and athletically leaps about.

Something like that is thematically could work. I’m not sure if it’s grounded in any established lore, but it worked well enough.

The draenei have Jed’hin as well, though I believe that’s more like a traditional wrestling sport or competition fighting style where there are many rules - and winning within the confines of those rules is the idea. In an actual fight though, it’s the things that make you good in Jed’hin such as being strong, sturdy and agile that are probably more helpful than actually knowing Jed’hin techniques.

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Fun fact; jed’hin was invented by roleplayers in the US as a traditional draenei sport and was made canon in Legion as going back all the way to Argus. It’s more or less sumo wrestling with headbutting, taking advantage of the bulky frame and bony head crest of male draenei.

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Something originating from RP actually made it into the game? Now that’s a surprise. :thinking:

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Hence why I’d like to see more of this stuff.

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The HM Tauren practice boxing.

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really? I don’t remember that. That would be cool.

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Yep, you can find them practicing in a cave behind the waterfall just south of Skyhorn. Their champion is a rare that you can beat.

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Pretty sure I remember a draenei priestess in Day of the Dragon beating people up in hand to hand combat, which gave me the idea that you can use the Light to basically buff your reflexes and muscle strength. You can probably use fel for that too, considering demon hunters seemingly buffing their speed magically when they fel rush and with nature magic, as there’s an entire shaman spec sort of dedicated to “enhancing” your own strength with the elements, right?
I wouldn’t say it’s too far fetched to use arcane for that either, so there’s always the option to RP a spellcaster and say you reach chi using monk levels of power because you put magic into your stuff too.

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