I’ve always been a fan of Mists of Pandaria. Whereas I have my qualms about how well it fit into the Warcraft universe and I do have criticisms, I think Blizzard did a very good job regarding the theme and overall feel of the expansion. The art and music especially were, in my opinion, some of their best work.
Monks in particular are one of my favourite classes. Fighting not with magic but with one’s inner strength, using the fifth spirit, the Spirit of Life or Chi.
But I have some questions.
Is Chi magic ? When a monk performs superhuman feats by channeling this energy through themselves, are they using just another form of magic ? Can a monk be silenced the same way a mage or spell caster can ? Those of you that play monks, how do you play them ? Are your characters capable of jumping great heights, break walls with their fists, or are they more toned down?
I understand I asked a lot of questions, but more than anything, I want to generate a discussion around Monks, their lore and how others roleplay these mystical combatants.
It’s quite a literal adaptation of the concept of Qi, it’s the energy of your own spirit. The difference between shamans and monks is tapping into elemental spirits, or your own spirit.
We’ve seen that with mastery and technique, that spiritual energy can be manifested into personal feats such as legs so fast they kick up a whirlwind, punches with the ferocity of fire or even turning people into jade. Emphasis on mastery. Generally in RP I’ve seen Chi-being used to punch through metal and harden one’s skin, as the most common instance.
Most likely not. We know from a few instances that f.ex druidism (which shares fundamental aspects with shamanism and monk…ism?) was something magic-eating felhunters had absolutely no way to fight back against. There wasn’t a spell being cast, no magic being used. There was simply nature, doing the druid in question a favour.
In the same sense, monks aren’t casting any magic, they’re simply drawing on the strength within themselves.
Being silenced is quite literally what it says in the name. Most mages for example need to to speak in order to cast a spell or wave their arms in a specific manner to get the magic working.
For most monks I doubt they need to speak in order to channel their own chi.
→ the magic comes from oneself and training, rather than something like the Arcane which you have to learn and practice, or the divine itself. It comes from the inner spirit. That’s what Chi is.
Maybe, in the sense of being actually silenced if they’re doing something like casting a prayer to the Celestials and using mists to heal people; but not in the sense of anti-magic auras disabling their Chi, as it comes from the spirit itself. An aura that disables the ‘spirit’ of those that walk inside it would just kill you because then you don’t have a soul.
As someone interested in monk lore and who has roleplayed with quite a few monks, I can say that most take the fact that monks are more supernatural than just throwing good punches and kicks, which is something entirely canon; but I have also seen these people adapt should the situation need it.
In roleplay, like someone just alluded to in this thread, people sometimes do not know much about monks and their lore, so they will look at you strange if you roleplay something like punching through plate, though you can absolutely do that, and it’s not any more fantastical than what literally every other class can do.
Thank you for all the answers so far. This has been instructive.
This is something that slightly ‘worries’ me but there’s realistically nothing I can do about it. I do my best to make sure my characters blend well into the current scene, and I’ve never had much trouble coming up with a reason why they don’t solve something that they logically should be able to.
I have more questions (irritating, I know) regarding specific abilities. I’m having trouble placing them, as in, understanding if my character should be using them at all.
Such as, the Song of Chi-Ji. A mist that puts people to sleep. That is also Chi, so how would one defend against it besides simply not being in the mist? There’s also the Ring of Peace, the Touch of Karma, etc.
Monks have many of these unique abilities that I am having trouble deciding on whether or not to try and use them IC. What are your thoughts?
Worth noting that the Mistweaver’s whole shtick is purely gameplay, there’s dialogue which describes how monks heal and it’s basically the monk transferring part of their inner strength to the injured to help bolster the victim’s, and aid their body in mending faster, also warned to not exert too much or you’ll tire out quickly.
Edit: Shadow of the Horde also goes in to say that chi abilities are described as more internalised and mystical, in the novel a monk healed Vol’jin with that training AND more traditional medicine to support the body.
I’d say this can be flavoured as simply tapping into the opponents own Chi/Spirit, inflicting more spiritual pain than physical when striking the monk.
The monks taught him well. He’d watched them shatter up to a dozen boards with a single punch. Vol’jin had looked forward to trying that because he knew he could do it. But when it came time for him to try the exercise, Lord Taran Zhu took over. In place of boards had been arranged an inch-thick slab of stone.
Do you mock me? Vol’jin studied the monk’s face but read no deception. That didn’t mean there wasn’t any there, but the pandaren’s impassive expression could have masked anything. “You be wanting me to break stone. Others break wood.”
“Others do not believe they can shatter wood. You do.” Taran Zhu pointed to a spot a finger’s length beyond the stone slab. “Place your doubt here. Strike through to it.” Doubt? Vol’jin forced away the thought because it was a distraction. He wanted to ignore it, but instead, he did as the monk had instructed. He visualized doubt as a shimmering blue-black ball spitting sparks. He let it float through the stone to hover behind it.
Then Vol’jin set himself, drew in a deep breath, and exhaled sharply. He drove his fist forward, pulverizing the stone. He continued through, smashing that ball of doubt. He could have sworn that he’d not felt the impact until he’d hit the ball. The stone had been as nothing, even though he brushed its dust from his pelt.
It’s depicted as monks externalising their own doubt and striking that when performing Chi-empowered strikes. When striking doubt, the physical obstacle becomes secondary. Taran Zhu later uses the same technique to impale a particularly massive Mogu with a spear-handed strike, puncturing the chest plate on the way in and denting his hand print on the back plate.
ask and you shall receive bows 100 times really quickly
Also the aforementioned depiction plays into the prevalent theme with monks of mastering their own doubts and fears and finding balance between mind, body, and soul. On the other hand, if a monk becomes crippled by doubt, their abilities would also suffer.
The theme of one’s ability to do mystical things being reliant on one’s willpower and belief in their self is a common one in this setting from the Light all the way to Arcane magic as Medivh explains it to Khadgar, rejecting the whole notion of magic being maths.
It was not until later that evening, as he sat alone in his cell, the stone cool against his back, that Vol’jin allowed himself to understand at least some of what he had learned. His hand had not swollen or stiffened, yet he could still feel his fist crushing doubt. He flexed his hand, watching it work, happy he was fully reconnected to it.
Taran Zhu was right to make doubt a target. Doubt destroyed souls. What thinking creature, when entertaining doubt about success, could undertake any action? To doubt that he could punch through stone was to acknowledge that his hand could break, his bones could splinter, his flesh could tear, and his blood could flow. And if he dwelt on that outcome, could there be any but that outcome? That ending would be his target; therefore he would succeed and hit that target. Whereas, if his target was to destroy doubt and he hit that target, then would anything be impossible?
Highly recommend alongside Telaryn, it gives a deep dive into the different outlooks between the general Horde and Alliance men and women but then contrasts that with the external view of the Pandaren to both of them (that being that they cause so much needless trouble for each other) and offers small pieces of pandaren philosophy as well.
Certified Pandaren monk rper - does this qualification mean anything? probs not lol, just here to give my take!
Chi is just the Pandaren word for spirit - in theory, it’s the same stuff that shamans manipulate in order to commune with spirits and heal, but rather you’re manipulating your own spirit in order to perform superhuman feats. You’re less casting specific spells (with a few exceptions), rather you’re just sort of- pushing chi out if that makes sense?
Telaryn’s post is a good example of how it’s explained in the novels by Taran Zhu (one of the greatest monks ever, basically) - There is another descriptor from Master Bruised Paw, in Paoquan Hollow during his questline that I also quite like!
Master Bruised Paw says: That is part of the test. Yes… to succeed, you must focus all your energy into one fist… Master Bruised Paw says: …then, STRIKE!
Bruised Paw also says something in a later quest that could line up with Taran Zhu’s own line of training and conversation -
You would be wrong. With clarity and focus, nothing is impossible.
Do not let the stone intimidate you. It is stone, you are (race).
Just something to note! There are several approaches to how a monk can do all the stuff that they do, It is open to interpretation to how you want to approach your character regarding such concepts - a Windwalker / Xuen Monk likely has a very different approach to how they approach their chi in comparison to a brewmaster / Niuzao monk.
