The Monk Roleplaying Guide - by Zen
Hello there, grasshopper!
This is my friendly monk guide. If you have any questions, ask away. I hope that by reading this it answers some of the more frequently asked questions about what monk RP can entail or involve - or find the interest to roll one if you havenât already! (Get it? Roll?).
What exactly are monks?
In perspective of the class we play, theyâre heavily based on the Shaolin monks of ancient China. Theyâre not a new class to the Warcraft universe, but to the other races they are a mostly new occupation. To be a monk is certainly a way of life, and not simply something one does in his spare time, as it takes years of training to be capable as a hand to hand fighter on battlefields, especially when they are often dominated by steel and magic. A well studied monk has access to potent Chi energy; the spirit energy within all people that only monks know how to fully control at will. Chi strengthens their punches to the strength of mace strikes, it even allows them to perform great feats of Chi magic, capable of healing or harming whoever the monk wishes in many ways.
They train mentally and physically to be as strong, yet agile as possible. A monkâs athleticism is what makes him a deadly fighter. On the battlefield, they can easily outmaneuver footsoldiers in heavy armor, and perhaps even the spells of mages and projectiles of archers. They fight with their legs as well as their hands, and in one-on-one combat they would be amongst the hardest combatants to battle - in fact, well trained monks are competent enough to fight many enemies at once. They can serve as healers of their allies, skilled soldiers on the front lines, or bolster their rankâs offence or defensive capabilities with pandaren brews that sharpen oneâs mind rather than blur and slow it. Monks have lightning fast minds, reflexes, and attacks. They have played an important role in Pandariaâs battlefields for thousands of years, and will no doubt bring new tactics to the table as more races learn their ways.
History - Pandaren Monks - How the monk came to be.
Most, if not all of this is taken from in-game lore texts but I have condensed it down to what I feel are the most important parts. Monk history is tied directly to pandaren and Pandaria history.
Reknowned monks:
Emperor Shaohao - the Last Emperor of Pandaria was presumably a monk.
Lord Taran Zhu - âhis prowess is legendaryâ, say the Shado-Pan, whom he leads.
Chen Stormstout - the famous wandering brewmaster is also a skilled monk.
Master Bruised Paw - the Hidden Master of Pandaria.
Master Shang Xi - the last Master of the Training Grounds of the Wandering Isle.
Aysa Cloudsinder - student of Master Shang Xi and philosophical leader of the Tushui.
Ji Firepaw - student of Master Shang Xi and philosophical leader of the Huojin.
Kang the Fist of First Dawn - the first monk who taught the pandaren slaves under the mogu to fight unarmed.How the monks began.
In the days of the mogu dynasties, slaves were the lifeblood of the empire. Pandaren, hozen, and jinyu worked fields, dug mines, and built the mighty fortresses of their masters. To help combat fatigue, maintain morale, and return the wounded to work, the mogu permitted a special caste of slaves that specialized in the brewing of remedies. Simple teas and poultices were their speciality at first. Over the years these specialists became healers, community leaders, and brewmasters.
These early âmonksâ became symbols of hope and pride amongst the pandaren. Emperor Lao-Fe was a monster among beasts, however. His favoured punishment among pandaren slaves was to separate families. Slaves who displeased him would have their children sent to the Serpentâs Spine, to suffer and die as fodder for the mantid swarms.
This was the fate that befell a young pandaren monk named Kang. In a moment of clarity during his grief, he saw the mogu overlords for what they were: weak. They possessed dark magics and horrific weapons, but their empire was completely reliant on slave labour.
The servant races were not permitted to carry weapons, so Kang determined that the pandaren themselves would become the weapons. So it came to pass that pandaren monks began their training in the martial arts, and Kang became known as the Fist of First Dawn. It was these heroes who first learned how to fight without weapons, in secret. Monks taught the other slaves the secrets of martial arts. When the revolution came, the monks were the first into battle, inspiring the humble farmers, smiths, and masons to followâŚ
They were quick, agile, deadly. In contrast, the favoured weapons of the mogu were based on fear rather than practicality. They were large, cumbersome, and difficult to wield. Pandaren monks took advantage, developing fast strikes and the skill to quickly move around the battlefield. The larger, slower mogu were often completely disoriented by the speed of the pandaren monks in open combat.
Over the years, fighting styles have changed dramatically, incorporating any number of other abilities, weapons, styles, etc. But the core foundation of pandaren fighting techniques remains the same: Defeat an opponent of any size with your bare paws if you have to.
Roleplay Specializations - Your tiger style is no match for my serpent style!
The three in-game specs are Brewmaster, Windwalker, and Mistweaver. However, itâs rare for monks to refer to these styles by these names e.g, one doesnât study the path of a Windwalker or a Mistweaver, they are loose terms - as broad as saying youâre studying the path of the warrior or the paladin - you donât say âprotection paladinâ ICly either. Whilst it does give an inclination as to what kind of monk you are - a Windwalker being an aggressive fighter, and a Mistweaver being a healer, there are more fitting ways of describing it.
Each of the August Celetialâs Temples in Pandaria marks the location of defeat for the Prime Sha by Emperor Shaohao thousands of years ago. Monks who train at these locations have developed different styles for combating the Sha relevant to their location. These are the styles practiced by monks today. Any self-developed, personal styles would have been branches of these original four.
Fierce Tiger Style
Xuen, Windwalker - Devleoping fast, powerful and lethal strikes, aggressive and unrelenting.
Sturdy Ox Style
Niuzao, Brewmaster - Focuses on defence and endurance, able to either absorb powerful blows and fluidly dodge and avoid them.
Wise Serpent Style
Yuâlon, Mistweaver - the primary mistweaving healing monkâs training Involves a lot of studying, meditation, advanced understanding of Chi energy. Healing techniques.
Spirited Crane Style
Chi-Ji inspires a few moves such as the Spinning Crane Kick, but is comparable to a Mistweaver kind of martial art. They balance offensive attacks to power and augment their healing abilities.
Whilst itâs fine to develop your own style Iâd put some thoughts into what the style is actually about and how itâs different from something that already exists - it would most likely be a developed form of one of these styles. Styles under the tutelege of the Celestials and developed over 10,000 years are not easily improved upon.
Races and Monks
As far as pandaren style monks are concerned, and the playable class; monks as we know them have only really become available for the rest of the world, but in the monk order hall there are plenty of non-pandaren masters. This means enough time has passed for us as RPers to also feasibly play as masters if we arenât pandaren, though keep in mind that it has still only been a few years for non-pandaren to train as monks. Most pandaren masters are still going to have a larger amount of experience than non-pandaren masters. This is also important when we consider that being a master monk doesnât necessarily mean youâre as good as you can get, but more on that later.
There have been the pandaren venturing from the Wandering Isle, but it is rare that they will take on the time and commit themselves to teaching someone until they have mastered it. There are a few exceptions though. Brother Korloff of the Scarlet Crusade was taught by a wandering pandaren, and he then trained the Scarlets; hence why the Scarlets have monks. The Draenei starting area was retconned so that Mojo Stormstout was on Azuremust when the draenei crashed there, so on a chronological level, draenei monks could have been around since Burning Crusade. There are Argent monks, though since the Argent Crusade was born out of a breakaway faction of the Scarlets, itâs plausible these monks are former students of Korloff, save for their lightwielding abilities.
Auchenai monks seem to be more of the Christian monastic variety, keepers of the dead and holy in their beliefs, rather than the Shaolin style that the pandaren are based off. These monks donât work with Chi energy either; so if you were to roleplay one, it wouldnât be quite the same monk you play as in-game.
Aside from pandaren, virtually all other races have not had access to monkly teachings, and so there would not be too much variety in what each race has learned or developed by themselves. The lessons of being a monk are the same for everyone - but the physical implications are different. For example, taller races such as elves might find their longer legs give them an advantage to develop by placing an emphasis on learning kicks, whereas orcs and dwarves have powerful arms to punch with, and adapt to that. Tauren and draenei have hooves, which will affect how they kick, so they might be taught to use their arms more often, or to kick differently. This is how, say - a gnome monk, can still adapt to their strengths and still fight on relatively equal ground as larger, stronger races such as tauren monks.
Chi
What is Chi? Youâve seen it mentioned already but may not know what it really is beyond the resource that monks use. It isnât just a magic power that makes you stronger for the sake of it. It is a real life reference to an energy of the same name also found in real life.
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Simply put, Chi is spirit energy within all beings: monks are the ones that learn to control, exploit and manipulate it, in themselves and in others. Chi is literally the pandaren word for Spirit, and it is the same energy that shaman use to heal.
But monks do not borrow this energy from elemental spirits. They use their own spirit. Once tapped into, it can be expelled from the body in the form of something resembling magic, though it is not arcane, spiritual or divine in origin as it is not sourced from the Light, nature, or some omnipresent collective of spirits. It is oneâs own energy, re-shaped and re-applied however the monk sees fit.
It can cause great harm, be thrown as a projectile or channelled into oneâs limbs to strengthen their attacks. It can also restore wounds, both magic and physical. There is positive Chi, and negative Chi - which can heal, or cause damage. Hypothetically the only difference between them is the monkâs mental frame of mind, e.g âI want this to hurt / heal.â This works efficiently so because negative Chi intended to harm some can simultaneously be positive Chi that heals others, demonstrated through various abilities that both heal and deal damage to friends and enemies like Chi Burst. To a point, this demonstrates that one must be willing to harm before Chi can be used to do so. There isnât too much official on how Chi works, so donât stress out too hard trying to figure out how this might work. Just know that your Chi will hurt those you want to harm, or heal those you want to heal.
The best word used to describe Chiâs capabilities is âpotentâ. It is a malleable resource and much like the arcane to a mage, only oneâs experience and knowledge in manipulate limits them - a more experienced monk could bend their Chi energy to far greater effect than a novice. It is the manipulation of Chi energy that separates him from a simple hand to hand fighter. In fact, Chi is an integral part of the monkâs arsenal. By default, attuning to your Chi amplifies your qualities. The strong become stronger, the quick become quicker. A novice in Chi manipulation might still see a noticeable increase in these things, whilst a true master can become a blur of speed who has strikes that hit like rib-shattering hammers!
However, some things are beyond Chi capability. It is not magic, but reshaped, natural energy. It has boundries and doesnât accomodate for certain things. It canât create food out of thin air, it canât re-wind time, it canât make you see through walls, it canât create portals or make it begin raining. The kit of abilities we have in-game is a good indication of what monks are capable of - try to stick to the theme of abilities monks have if you want to come up with your own ideas.
Monk Ranks - Masters, Disciples, Apprentices and Initiates
We all know that in real life, many martial arts have a grading system, in the forms of belts or stripes. You could say that it is the same in-game, as there are belts available from the vendor and different colours of belt are awarded as you level up and do the monk class quests (Yellow, Green, Red, and Brown).
However, thereâs nothing explicitly stated about the significance of the colour of oneâs belt concerning your IC level of skill in martial arts, and so thereâs generally nothing official in the way of monk ranks. Some monks in-game have them, others do not. Some have different colour belts despite being the same rank or status. So how do you go about classifying your monkâs level of skill? I would advise splitting it into three categories; students / initiates, disciples, and masters. One would spend most of their time training as a disciple.
What defines a character as a master?
This is a tricky subject as there are two ways of looking at it. You could regard yourself as a master, as others might, if you have mastered the martial arts. You have gotten to the point where no-one can teach you further and itâs simply up to your character to develop his skills further. But that doesnât mean you know everything there is to know, and it doesnât mean youâre as good as any other master. You might only have mastered one style or form of fighting, like Fierce Tiger.
It would be the courteous thing to refer to these people as masters, sort of like how we recognize doctors or professors. You could also be referred to as master if your character has students - because then you are effectively a master, you are tutoring someone, but teacher and master donât always correlate. Becoming a teacher to become a studentâs master does not automatically make one a mastered monk. You may not be as proficient as the self-titled master character mentioned earlier, unless you circumstantially are one of those masters. Most often, that should be the case anyway. Most masters will not teach until they are confident that their arts are tried and tested, and most students will only want to train under a master who knows what he or she is doing.
Pandaren are currently the most appropriate race to accomodate a master character. All other races have only just begun to learn these martial arts. Even if there are non-pandaren masters, they would only have been learning for four or so years now ICly - pandaren can have learned for as long as they have been alive. The pandaren people have developed them over thousands of years, they grow up with it and since before MoP, they have been learning it.
On the other hand, donât feel obliged to play a master character. There is so much fun to be had in playing a character who learns to become stronger and wiser, and there is excellent opportunity to do this as a monk. Playing as a master monk is playing as a being of experience, and you should have the confidence and knowledge to reflect that if you want to do it well.