Dexai as-Osang
Dexai as-Osang (lit. "Fighting as the current"), often known simply as "Dexai" among outsiders, is the traditional martial art of the Low Rostran people and the official defensive tactics system of the Rostran Archipelago Confederacy's Marine Forces. It has since been adopted by other Rostran cultures and is a source of national pride, especially on Exivaun.
Execution
Dexai places strong emphasis on adaptation, versatility, and the uniquely keen perception of the Rostran participants. Dexai is regarded as a 'circular' style, with sweeping strikes and strong stances designed to aid in both throwing opponents and resisting being thrown oneself. Unarmed strikes are usually delivered with hard, bony points: elbows, knees, heels, and palm heels. Many techniques are designed to distract, redirect, or 'open up' an opponent in preparation for a killing blow. None of the early weapons of the art had killing power in a thrust - despite the length of a fighting oar, its tapered paddle tip is not as in injurious as a metal point - and, thus, the art characterized with a relatively short reach unless the practitioner is naturally gifted with long arms. At intermediate to extreme close range, however, the art can be absolutely devastating.
Experienced practitioners of Dexai as-Osang can fight in poor visibility conditions, using their senses other than sight for maximum advantage. Rumors persist that some can even fight just as well in complete darkness as they would in daylight. This ability forms a popular trope in Rostran film and literature, though it is only rarely demonstrated in real conditions.
Components and tools
Dexai was originally a weapon-based style focussed on the use of the fighting oar (in both whole and broken configurations), armos nonengu (as both a weapon and an instrument), staff, club, and flint dagger in close quarters combat. As a coastal, metal-poor society, early Low Rostrans used burnished hardwood or stone weapons almost exclusively. However, Dexai closely followed the development of seafaring equipment, adding techniques for the use of knives, boathooks, harpoons, and rigging lines as improvised weapons as these became more prevalent as day-to-day tools for practitioners.
The Rostran-Ovinex War exposed Dexai practitioners to the striking and grappling arts of Native Ovinex Gam Pfa'a. While Dexai never embraced the ba'amba as a weapon, it did develop a retinue of extremely close-range strikes and throws in response to Native Ovinex slavers' tendencies in combat. By immediately closing distance, a Dexai practitioner can completely deny the opponent the use of their polearm or a charging headbutt with horns. This was, however, a risky gambit, as Gam Pfa'a is also a grappling art; a Dexai practition has to incapacitate an opponent quickly or throw them before a hold can be established. This was the last major advancement in the art before it reached something like it's current form.
Participants
Dexai is somewhat unique in that, unlike many other contemporary martial arts, it also includes extensive lessons on teambuilding and group fighting techniques. While arts like Djet Kazh do see use in professional military forces, Old Voxelian sensibilities lent themselves to honorable single combat. Similarly, though Gam Pfa'a was used extensively by Native Ovinex slave raiders (and, in modern times, various law enforcement cadres), slave raids were not very organized affairs. Dexai as-Osang, however, has never been far removed from its roots as a fighting style adopted by sailing crews and island self-defense forces, both groups bound by strong - perhaps even familial - interpersonal connections.
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