Since bladed weapons were invented, people have tried to use more than just one in combat. Simple math made this innovation for them. If one sword was good, two must be better. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Very often, swords are not easy to use in tandem with another. Many require more concentration, dexterity, or strength to use two swords. Worse yet, the fighting forms often do not support the use of ambidextrous fighting, the idea scoffed at as inefficient or wasteful considering the small percentage of the population capable of using both hands equally.
So rose Jar'Kai, to fill the needs of those people who wished to use two swords at the same time effectively. It is unknown which civilization developed the first two-weapon fighting style, the various arts bickering over who had the more legitimate claim. Rare Cerean schools, Korunnai masters, and Sanyassan blademasters all fervently lay claim to origins of Jar'Kai. However, the current form of Jar'Kai has absorbed so much of the effective maneuvers and eschewed much of the ceremony that it is simultaneously identifiable and foreign to each of the more ethnic arts. Even the Yovshin Swordsmen of Atrisia, widely regarded by the scholars to be the originators of the art, recognize that the style has significantly changed with the years.
Jar'Kai translates into 'Two Swords', but the more recent iterations of the form make use of more than just swords. Specialists and masters of the form will often make strides to modify the techniques to accommodate other tools of violence.
Stance
There are several dozen specific stances for Jar'Kai, many used for specific purposes, a tilt of an opponent's weapon hand may mandate a different stance. Many masters do eventually pick a specific couple of stances, modifying them as situation dictates rather than constantly change their stance.
Striking
Jar'Kai, like any other effective weapon art, does not generate its strikes from arm muscle alone. Using the lessons from the other sword arts, Jar'Kai practitioners strike from the hip, the turning motion lending velocity to the strikes and slashes.
Defense
Jar'Kai's defense is a varied creature. 'There is a time for stone, and a time for sand' is a Jar'Kai saying, referring to the switch between more fluid counter-cuts and evasions to the more brutal parries and clashes.
Training
Jar'Kai is not an easy art to seek training in. Most schools of high repute which teach sword arts will know of someone who knows someone who knows a Jar'Kai master. In any case, it is often the Master who seeks out the student, based on reputation, skill, and dedication.
Weapons
Jar'Kai is known primarily as a sword art. The Jar'Kai practitioners will study various sword styles, short, long, single edged and otherwise. In recent years, the Masters have found ways to modify the techniques to utilize long knives or short staves. There are a few bounty hunters who claim that a Jar'Kai master taught them methods of dual blaster wielding, but it is hard to imagine a Jar'Kai master lowering himself to teach such an ignoble profession.
Level: Elite
Prerequisites: Shyarn-ado 5, WIS 18
Style: Hard
Weapons: Sword, Dagger
- • Drawing the Blades, Posturing
- •• Disarming, Twin Violence, Ironclaw
- ••• Whirling Blade Attack, Dragontail, Stone and Sand
- •••• The Art of the Feint, Acrobatic Attacking, Speed Patterns, Waterfall
- ••••• Setting the Trap, Reverse Grip, The Indefensible Strike, Phoenix Strike