Inspiration behind Martial Ka'tah

[N1SB]

This is not too serious, Brothers, but since here we have a cool topic we can actually talk to our non-Warhammer friends about, Imma share some experiences.

 

And of course, I invite my Fraters who practice martial arts in particular to join this convo.

 

 

It's got a cool as heck name though;

 

MARTIAL KA'TAH

 

Sounds very ancient Terran and mystical.

 

 

Ka'tah - obviously high gothic for the more conventional Kata, common to most asian-influenced contemporary martial arts.

 

 

 

+++ So Martial Ka'tah isn't really Kata...or is it? +++

 

 

To reiterate, not so serious bro, but it might be very interesting.  You know how Games Workshop draws pretty liberally from cultural things they don't really get, but accidentally turn it into something quite cool?  In this case it's from martial arts, so when you talk to friends who actually practice them, just realise the difference.

 

So the Custodes Ka'tah is GW's thing.  It's 38 thousand years in a fictional future, language mutates, ideas evolve, so don't worry, we're not getting hung up on a made-up word.  Martial Ka'tah is almost certainly its own thing, but it seems to be referring to Kata in martial arts.

 

What is Kata?  In Japanese, within the context of martial arts, the word probably means "form".  As Japanese is a very homonymous language where a lot of words sound the same and you can only tell the difference in context, it's not clear what written character it uses.  The generally written one iirc is 形 "form" like a shape, but another word also pronounced Kata, is 型 "style".  And I know if I were to ask a very experienced martial arts practitioner or a Japanese language expert which one Kata actually refers to, they might say "both", because the Japanese are that efficient, even in language.  1 word, 2 meanings, AT THE SAME TIME!  They're so advanced.

 

Thus, how the word evolved to be used by the Custodes...if at all...is nebulous. It's because the word is nebulous even in the original Japanese!

 

Then...what IS Kata?  Here's a more practical translation, "training drills".  The word comes from Japanese martial arts, but Western martial arts do the same thing.  In Kendo, we'd hop back and forth practicing striking an opponent's head with our bamboo sword.  In Boxing, you practice on a speed bag, or a body blow on a heavy bag.

 

In practice, that's what happens.  Stuff is happening all around the dojo/gym, you respectfully approach the sensei/trainer, ask what you should train, he's busy with something so he sends you to the side/bags area and tell you to practice Kata/drills.  To differentiate, it's not sparring and not exactly shadow boxing.  It's sheer motions.

 

It can be a whole choreographed sequence.  In fact, this is what we got to do in order to earn the next rank or belt.  It's just been turned into an Olympic sport, actually.  The point is you practice until the moves become muscle memory.  During sparring, your brain thinks "oh look his left side is open" and your body instinctively hits it.

 

However, the Warhammer Community refers to Stances?  What are Stances versus Kata?

 

 

+++ Stances, or Dachi, or more accurately Kamae +++

 

 

The idea of Stances as described by the article is called Dachi in Karate, which is literally "stances", like how you stand.  In Western martial arts, it's a lot less exotic yet just as important, "footwork".  You know how in Boxing you have the Southpaw Stance (vs. Orthodox), like Rocky, left-handed boxer?  It's like that.

 

Our American Frateri likely know what I only learned recently, Southpaw actually refers to your feet (rather than hands).  It's because it was a Baseball term originally (I only knew it from Boxing).  But when your feet face a certain way, right foot in front of left, your shoulders and your hands naturally follow, and determines your style.

 

But what relates to Custodes and everyone in Warhammer except those using Power Fists is probably a term from Kendo, Kamae.  It means "pose", like strike a pose, it's your whole body, including how you hold your close combat weapon.  In addition to the footwork, our swords can be in front, above our head, to our side.

 

Consider the possibilities.  Something as simple as how you stand is important.  You can tell how Boxing commentators analyse fighters based on if they're Southpaw or Orthodox.  When you factor in not just your footwork, but also how different angles of your sword, it adds a whole different dimension.  You see this in Samurai films.

 

Here's a really fun example.  2 swordsman face off for a deadly duel.  1 has a game plan, but the other changes something a tiny detail and completely screws it up:

 

 

Also shout-out to our fencing cousins in epee or saber.  I don't know your craft well enough, but I think you guys have even more permutations than we do.  Respect.

 

So Kata is the actual strike, it's tactical.  Dachi or Kamae is how you set up that strike, it's strategic.  Tactics is what you want to do, strategy is how you get there.  The two blur to the point where champion Boxers or mixed martial artists switch stances, and it's very complex.  I think that's what they want the Custodes to reflect.

 

All the above is relevant...except Custodes might render my whole argument irrelevant...and I'm cool with that.  Here's why.

 

 

+++ Maybe the Custodes Blood Games are THAT advanced +++

 

 

In the lore, Custodes weren't sitting around for 10,000 years since the Horus Heresy doing nothing.  They were constantly doing military exercises called Blood Games.  Maybe you might go so far as to call them..."training drills", like how we practice in the dojo/gym?

 

To mere mortal humans like us, a training drill is a good head-to-stomach cut feint, or a good right uppercut-into-left hook combo.  To the epitome of transhumanism like Custodes, it might be Advance laying suppressing fire, cut up minimum-sized Heretic Astartes Squad contesting centre objective, consolidate forward towards their Dreadnought, then reach 10 Cultists on far objective...as 1 single practiced motion that they've drilled for decades, if not centuries.  That's their idea of choreography.

 

Maybe that's their idea of a Kata.  We think of it as a move or a combination to land a single or a few good strikes.  To a Custodes, it is the entire sequence.  A Shield-Captain on his Dawn Eagle bike might fly up, look at the whole field, and just call a play like a Blood Bowl quarterback "Mambo Number 5,000" and every Custodes would automatically shift their feet, switch their sword stance, and through sheer muscle memory, go through the motions to cut up MSU CSM, a Dread, 10 Cultists.

 

Now, what may be the best interpretation of Kata or Ka'tah?  In Chinese Kung Fu/Wushu, the equivalent term to the Japanese Kata is very telling, Tao Lu or 套路, "set path".  The "set" bit is literally the same as that for "set lunch", like a combo lunch.  It's not just 1 strike, but an entire sequence of linked moves.

 

In the Siege of Terra novel Saturnine, Dan Abnett through a Remembrancer describes a Custodes fighting with his halberd as like this constant motion that cannot be stopped because of the sheer momentum of the weapon, until the Custodes is dead or all his opponets are dead.  Imagine a Custodes doing that all 6 Turns of a game.

 

Depending on where you live, you might see something like this, in action, near you.  You see some boomers in the local park, doing the very slow Tai Chi exercise moves?  I say this because I've seen non-Asians take up Tai Chi now, they're even more serious about it.  It's actually a set of moves that you have to do in a certain sequence.  You can stop after a move, but not during a move, and the moves have to flow in sequence, otherwise...you get Bad Chi.  No one wants Bad Chi.

 

I imagine a Custodes kinda working like that, except in between the moves there are Chaos Space Marines, and they gotta follow the sequence...otherwise Bad Chi.

 

I shall end this sharing by doing what I've avoided this whole post: getting hung up on language.  It's just that this Tao Lu, "set path", is such a fitting phrase for Custodes through their close association with the Emperor.  You know how the Emperor really believes in a set destiny for humanity, Mastering Mankind, he's like "I SEE THE FUTURE FOR HUMANITY IS THAT ISLAND OVER THERE, SO YOU GOTTA GO THERE, I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S IN THE WATER BUT GO NOW.  SWIM AND DON'T STOP OR YOU'LL DROWN!"  It's like that sort of thinking infected the Custodes, despite each being an individual genetic work of art, they have to go through this whole sequence of motions, a set path even in fighting.

 

It's like their martial arts may be a manifestation of their philosophy, with that wordplay in mind.  I think I'm thinking too much about this, because GW prolly doesn't.

 

 

 

Or maybe in the additional rules to come we will find out that turn 5 is when the ultimate Kata kicks in - Gymkata.

 

 

Brother...I know this film.  This HAS to be a conversion, with some Servitor pushing a gym pommel horse just for some Shield-Captain to get his kicks in.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Great post N1SB - thanks for taking the time to craft it. :)

[ThePenitentOne]

@N1SB- Love that post.

 

So as a kid, I did Karate twice; the first was a Tracy Karate derivative, and I wasn't in it long enough to get to the Kata stage.

 

The second was Kenpo Karate, based on Ed Parker's style. We learned a minimum of two Kata per belt. All of our Kata were choreographed sequences of 10-50 or more moves. In the footwork, you'd sift through various stances or Kamae, and execute combinations of kicks, punches and blocks before flowing into the next Kamae to execute another combination.

 

Early kata were clearly exercises, meant to rehearse the catalogue of stances, kicks, punches and blocks for the belt level. But as you progressed to higher levels, they became far less repetitive and predictable and they were an art unto themselves. To my knowledge, all Kata in Master Parker's Kempo Karate were solo pieces.

 

Later in life, I studied Kendo. It worked a bit differently, as all Kata were partner forms, and they used bokken rather than shinai. In the Kata, one partner represented the role of the student (Shidachi) and the other represented the Master (Uchidachi). When performing, it was common that each partner would maintain the role through the entire series of kata to be performed. When practicing, it was customary for partners to switch so that they could learn both roles. These Kata were still choreographed sequences, but they were shorter than Kempo Kata.

 

In Kendo, however, we also practiced Waza (meaning "technique"). These were practiced solo or in pairs with the shinai, and were absolutely intended to be used directly in combat. Each Waza consisted of a strike by the enemy, a move to mitigate that strike, and a counter-strike. Very, very short. You go into the fight with a library of these, covering each legal target. Someone strikes at your target, you choose one of the Waza that corresponds. If your enemy sees your counter strike coming, they may have a Waza of their own.

 

So I feel like each Ka'Tah may be the equivalent of a Kendo Kata that contains two Waza; circumstances of battle determine which Waza you use, but each Kata (Ka'Tah) teaches you two (which would technically be 4- 2 Shidachi Waza and 2 Uchidachi Waza; but in practice, the Custodes would likely perform the Shidachi Waza as the Uchidachi Waza's only purpose is to set up the combination, so Custodes would learn them if they were going to be drill instructors to less experienced trainees).

 

As for the Kanji and etymology pieces of your post, my experience here is far more limited. I used to know the Kanji for Kendo, but that's about it. I've memorized two Haiku in Japanese- one by Basho and one by Chiyojo- but I learned them by reading romanji. I've read all sixteen Shura-Noh scripts in parallel translation, but given the lengths of these works, my focus was on the translation, and again the Japanese pages were written in romanji.

 

It would be interesting to look at the rules for the Ka'Tah and to try to match them with contemporary martial arts... But I'm not sure it's possible to derive enough information from a rule alone: +1 WS could take the form of a grapple, a punch, a kick, an elbow or a knee... So does it best reflect Jiujutsu, Karate, Taekwondo or Muay Thai?

[MegaVolt87]

TLDR- Custodes un-ironicly study the blade and ancient Terran holo tape animations? ;)

[Hellex_The_Thanatar]

TLDR- Custodes un-ironicly study the blade and ancient Terran holo tape animations? ;)

 

Now I need to model a mall ninja stodes. Thanks.