Nagasunt
Mer Swordplay
Nagasunt is the mer martial art of sword fighting. Or, rather, it is how mer fight with swords, as nagasunt is much like the water they live in, changing its shape and nature with the individual’s needs. One tribe’s nagasunt could be slightly or incredibly different from another tribe’s, and this makes fighting mer as a whole unpredictable for one doesn’t know what the sea-dwellers will bring to the table.
Mer Swordplay
Nagasunt is the mer martial art of sword fighting. Or, rather, it is how mer fight with swords, as nagasunt is much like the water they live in, changing its shape and nature with the individual’s needs. One tribe’s nagasunt could be slightly or incredibly different from another tribe’s, and this makes fighting mer as a whole unpredictable for one doesn’t know what the sea-dwellers will bring to the table.
Flowing Style: The first technique that all mer learn in nagasunt is the universal flowing-strike which teaches them how to move in line with the flow of their atmosphere, whether it be water or air. This is necessary in the depths due to the resistance of water being greater than air, making it likely to throw an askew blade off course and thus be made inaccurate.
- Seawater Style: Training in the vastness of the ocean, mer learn to perform more powerful and larger swings to deal with the monstrosities of the deep and make use of the openness of their environment.
- Current Style: Focusing on the heaviness of the blow, this style emphasizes the use of charging at their foe, using their running/swimming start to cleave their opponent apart in a single concentrated slash as they pass by.
- Maelstrom Style: Mastering their maneuverability while in motion, the mer learns to maintain their momentum as they turn, allowing them to perform a single concentrated flowing-strike to hit multiple targets with a single charge.
- Tsunami Style: This style teaches the mer to ‘crash’ their flowing-strike. On impact of their slash, the practitioner would shift and rather than flow past their target in a smooth motion, the mer instead places the weight and momentum of their body behind their sword, resulting in a singular attack with explosive cutting power. Legend has it that a Tsunami practitioner sunk ships by cutting their hulls.
- Doldrum Style: Utilizing their powerful attacks, this style predominantly focuses on interrupting the actions of foes before they have the chance to attack. Any telegraphed attack will be met with a swift, yet simple, slash. The intent of this sort of attack is not that the slash is meant to hit, but that it forces the foe to defend at the cost of their attack, ‘taking the wind out of their sails’, so to say.
- Deep Style: Specializing in finwork/footwork, the practitioner becomes so skilled in feinting that they can interrupt their foes with just a gesture. Those who use the Deep Style are often described as ‘suffocating’ in battle, their very presence holding foes at bay.
- Reef Style: Focusing on their striking technique, mer of this style predict their opponent’s defenses and aim for near the hilt, placing an emphasis on the force of their impact to actually damage the target’s hands and arm through their weapon, putting extra strain on their muscles and, once the technique is truly mastered, breaking wrists of less skilled combatants.
- Current Style: Focusing on the heaviness of the blow, this style emphasizes the use of charging at their foe, using their running/swimming start to cleave their opponent apart in a single concentrated slash as they pass by.
- Fresh Water Style: Training inland, mer learn to fight in a more constrained environment by spinning their blades with the flowing-strike, making tight and quick strikes in rapid succession to bleed their foes out rather than remove them with a single strike.
- River Style: Focused on carving through defenses with a combination of defense and offense, parrying blows and striking foes in a single movement of their flowing-strike. This aggressive style is known quite well to duelists, noting its supreme dominance versus many other sword styles both above and below the waves.
- Cave Style: Carving through the enemy’s defenses, those who reach this point find that not even stone can prevent itself from being worn down given enough persistence. The practitioners of this style learn to weaken a foe before striking, wearing it down with slashes before a committed thrust, capable of destroying stone walls and iron shields given time.
- Stream Style: Rivers branch into numerous smaller streams, water spreading uncontrollably. With a flowing-strike, the practitioner is capable of performing a combination of 3 strikes and/or parries in the single slash, woven together into a seamless motion.
- Lake Style: An optimal way to combat multiple opponents, this style keeps the blade close to the body as the mer performs flowing-strikes weaving around their own body to parry multiple blows in a single movement. While not overly offensive, legend has it that a single mer held off a battalion on land at a bridge, wearing the soldiers down until they were fatigued before finishing them off.
- Moat Style: This defensive style almost never attacks on its own, instead evolving its incredible parrying ability into an equally impressive counterstrike. As foes enter the practitioner’s range, a flowing-strike can be performed to have them run into the blade, turning their own momentum into the strike’s power.
- Iceberg Style: Steady and unstoppable, the mer learns to utilize their parrying not only as a defense, but as a means of humiliation and control. When parrying, the practitioner adjusts their pressure to carry the foe’s attack rather than simply deflect it, thus throwing the attacker off balance, causing them to fall or stumble.
- River Style: Focused on carving through defenses with a combination of defense and offense, parrying blows and striking foes in a single movement of their flowing-strike. This aggressive style is known quite well to duelists, noting its supreme dominance versus many other sword styles both above and below the waves.
Novice (1-25)
The Mer Practitioner learns to use Flowing Style Nagasunt while underwater. Once capping this rank (25/250), the practitioner can use Flowing Style on land.
Competent (26-75)
The Mer Practitioner learns one of the Flowing Style's 1st Degree variant styles, Seawater Style or Fresh Water Style. Once capping this rank (75/250), the practitioner can use their 1st Degree style on land.
Expert (76-150)
The Mer Practitioner learns a 2nd Degree variant style of their 1st Degree style. Once capping this rank (150/250), the practitioner can use their 2nd degree style on land.
Master (151-250)
The Mer Practitioner learns a 3nd Degree variant style of their 2st Degree style. Once capping this rank (250/250), the practitioner can use their 3nd degree style on land.
