Verdanaian

Verdanaian originates from the tribal societies of Anzat. The word means ‘sliding hands’ in reference to how the art allows a practitioner to ‘slide’ an opponent’s attack into their own defeat. Considered a ‘soft’ art because it relies more on fluid motions, Verdanaian is far more of a defensive art than one might expect from the brutal, parasitic Anzati.

Again defying common perceptions, the Anzati’s rich culture generated this martial art as a defense against the more barbaric tendencies of their own people. Plagued by addicts of the Soup, Even the Anzati weren’t safe..even from their family members. Thus, the masters came up with a complex system of evasion and nerve-strikes to help them evade the deadly proboscises of their kin and render them unconscious until they were in better states of mind.

It wasn’t until the Anzat Master known as Akku Seii began to teach it to his students that the art found it’s way off-world, brought by the Master’s assassins, who found the style more than just defensive. One of Seii’s most successful students, Saljé Tasha, was known for her devious use of the art with Cortosis clawed gauntlets, which she used to dispatch her opponent’s after she had incapacitated them.

While some of the most famous users of Verdanaian do use the form aggressively, most use it defensively, due to the basic mechanics of the form, and the lack of weapon techniques. Many have tried to convert the art’s strikes to more lethal maneuvers, but with very little success. Combined with the rarity of teachers for the art, it is considered an exotic style, and rarely acknowledged in most combatative sources.

Details

Stance

As a defensive art, this art is taught to mobilize from any stance, standing or sitting. For those who use Verdanaian aggressively, most of the techniques start from a evenly balanced, wide stance, at excessively close range to the opponent, ideally maintaining bodily contact.

Strikes

Verdanaian strikes are by and large reactionary. Intercepting an opponent’s strikes, the practitioner will draw the opponent in, and let the kinetic energy from their opponent’s attacks ‘flow through’ to their own fist, effectively turning their own attack against them.

Defense

Defensively, Verdanaian shines. Through the concept known as ‘Varsii’, a word loosely meaning ‘Contact’, a student will be able to sense minute changes in balance, and can determine what their opponent will do next, all based on a fine-tuned sense of touch and a well-developed understanding of body mechanics. This translates into a nearly supernatural precognition. Newer practitioners are able to evade most clumsy strikes, and the eldest masters find themselves nearly unassailable.

Movement

As a defensive art in general, the Practitioner generally holds relatively still, waiting for the opponent to strike so they can take advantage of the action, and end the combat as soon as possible. Instructors tell their student that the longer a combat lasts, the larger of a chance that they will fail.

Training

Taught almost exclusively by Anzati masters, in the old traditions, one master to one student. This makes for a small number of students across the galaxy, a good thing, according to the Anzati, who fear that too many outsiders capable of repelling their assassins and brethren would result in more problems on their home planet. After years of training, the student is allowed to leave the seclusion of the Master’s house, and may take on a student of their own.