Intergalactic Summit

Absolutely. A more all-encompassing martial discipline should take all of these things into account.

My point is training for knife fighting or with a staff or any particular weapon is largely academic. The overlaying philosophy is what matters if one is to pursue those things in any earnest.

But I feel some capsuleers continue to hold on to vestigal threads of their old military days, imagining they will need to be charging down corridors and getting in gunfights, etc.

I can understand a Clone Trooper needing unarmed martial skills or training in them but I'm always going to be more wary of a capsuleer with a proven combat record, particularly a number of solo kills, because unless the ones professing their mastery of unarmed combat decide to try and fight my starship in a spacesuit I have no idea what it accomplishes or what purpose the skill fulfills.

What is this - Microwarpdrive me faster so I can stab their spaceship with a sword?

Or is it more a case of: well you might be a better combat pilot than me, but have you mastered all the styles of Jin-Mei kung fu?

If you're a capsuleer that ends up disarmed and vulnerable that you might actually need to use unarmed martial arts then all I can say is you must be an idiot that failed to plan proper contingencies. Like having an FTL linked cranial explosive that notifies the activation for a soft-burn iteration upon destruction of a present copy. Or a sub-dermal dart hive. Or really any of a multitude of cybernetic, nano-scale, or biotech based personal security solutions that mitigate any advantage of unarmed combat training ones opponent or opponents might have.

I keep my clone up to date too. I mean, I shouldn't need an up to date clone unless I screw up, but...

There are still a few places where unarmed skills are incredibly useful. Firearms are extremely easily detectable, whereas modern vibroblades can be made out of all sorts of materials. As such, plenty of people who need concealable weapons that aren't going to be facing a lot of firearms can find knives extremely useful.

One of the less savory reasons we are taught swordplay in Amarrian society is that it is still considered a way to settle disputes here. I did not find myself in many duels, even in my rather contentious youth, but I have been involved in duels in the past and have had to kill someone with a sword previously. Where I made more of my mark in sport fencing sometime after, I did have quite a bit of practical combat experience with one.

It isn't something I generally like to mention, though. I didn't find much thrill in mortal combat, especially for the reason I was forced to engage in it. I think that is a good reason why I avoid trial by combat today. I have been blade to blade over a relatively minor disagreement. It isn't something that fills one with a particular amount of pride.

I suppose my thoughts on this topic probably come from my time in basic infantry training. I wasn't taught fancy kicks or punches or ancient techniques, I was taught that my rifle is my best weapon and how to clear enough space in a CQC scenario with an opponent to shoot him which seems far more efficient than learning an art that was a form of backup in the days when people were stabbing each other with sharp pointy things and not hyper-velocity projectiles. Damn, even if I was in close quarters and out of ammo I wouldn't try to punch or kick the other person, I'd try to crush their skull in with the butt of my rifle.

Sometimes I think people forget the martial part of martial arts and that in today's modern battlefields the arts of war don't particularly need the skill in how to use your hands and feet along with years of training when a barely trained conscript who has you drawn down their rifle is still going to end you either way.

I can admit there's probably a romantic appeal to the whole notion of unarmed combat, like in the holo-vids where a single hero kills hordes of gun toting bad guys with their bare hands but in practical terms if you really want to be efficient, there's far more practical methods to learn how to kill another human being.

Sometimes, however there are still a spectacular number of assassinations by knife in the Amarr Empire, mostly because they are easy to conceal in even tight clothing, are still almost impossible to notice unless you're doing a detailed see-through scan, and can easily defeat any personal armor we've been able to invent. They're quiet, require almost no special handling, and can be remarkably discreet. There was a fairly recent case where, in a crowded marketplace, a trader was assassinated by having a knife thrust through his back. He bled out in seconds, but since the crowd was packed in so tightly around him, no one noticed until he had literally drenched the floor in blood. They still don't have a culprit for the assassination.

The reason melee weaponry like that has fallen so far out of favor these days is because it requires a lot more technique to use, and is no match in single combat against an adequate firearm. Guns are point-and-click simple compared to effectively fielding a blade, so it's much easier to train someone in firearms use than in proper melee combat. I think, though, there are things you learn in sword and knife combat that you simply don't otherwise learn in modern warfare.

Regardless, even firearms are largely outmoded in our line of work. I suppose very few capsuleerswill even find themselves in a proper firefight anymore, much less a personal knife-fight. Perhaps that's why so many of us have the rather casual approach to fighting that we do. Ship on ship combat between people who guide their ships remotely by thought and who will generally suffer nothing more than inconvenience should they fail seems so clinical and distant.

I would imagine that, after so long safe and secure in the capsule during engagements, capsuleers would lose the respect for mortal combat that it deserves.

Tell me where I said the purity of my strength cannot be broken due to a hidden speck of imperfection?

Even if I am broken though, so shall I reforge myself with the hammer of my will, and the heat of contempt at my own weakness, eh?

Pieter, you do me proud. Consider this seconded. Your most important weapons are the ones you're never without.

It's sort of funny that you snub it so, miss Vitalia, considering that the fundemental philosophy of the riddle is seemingly spectacularly Sabik in nature.

Though, I must confess that I'm not really sure what it has to do with martial arts - It seems more about the end result then practical means.

I don't know about this "riddle of steel" stuff, but my answer to that would be "and what is the hand compared to the mind that guides it?"

I was always taught that a good soldier is one who fights smart. A strong body is the best possible tool you could use, and in the hands of a master, while a poor tool will still work, a good tool will work better... but the hub of martial skill is intellectual. See the opportunities, and the dangers, and the one hidden within the other. Know your foe and what they intend, and how they will respond when they think they see what you intend, and so on.

I've seen so many glib quotes along the lines of "infantry win battles, but artillery wins wars", or "armies win battles, but supply chains win wars" and so on. All nonsense, cooked up by military branches that want to take all the credit.

What wins wars is intelligence. Both in the sense of information, and also in the sense of interpreting that information and putting it to best use. Armies, artillery, supply chains, none of them win wars without the correct guidance of an intelligent leadership.

That principle applies on all scales, not just the largest ones.