5 Animals Style

Nature: Balanced Origin: Kun'lao Flourish: Defensive

The traditional martial arts of the Fleshshapers. Contrary to popular belief, 5 Animals Style was not taught to humanity by spirits. Instead, it is believed that the earliest Fleshshapers, many of which being communities who simply lived comfortably with spirits, began to study the motions of animals in nature to copy for self defense. It has 5 stances, each stance with its own martial techniques and practices. These stances are Tiger, Crane, Leopard, Snake, and Boar. 5 Animals Style is an influential martial arts style in Kun'lao, and one of the oldest. The influence of the style can be found in countless other martial arts, such as the Snake forms of North Star Cobra, or the Talon Strikes of Liao Style.

5 Animals' Flourish is Defensive: This represents the unpredictability of the style. A proper 5 Animals user switches between their animals mid-combat, forcing their opponents to adapt to a slew of different strategies and offense styles.

5 Forms

There are 5 "primary forms" of 5 Animals Style. In each of these forms, the fighter copies the movements of the animal they're based on. Each of these forms has its own default stance, strategies, and attacks. They are designed to compliment each other. This has led to an incredibly balanced style: Fleshshapers do not just learn 1 form, they learn 5 forms. The training necessary to complete each means that they are well-rounded and flexible combatants.

• Tiger: An aggressive style focused on delivering as much powerful offense as possible. Involves big combos of punches and kicks, powerful tiger grips, and, for masters, tiger claw techniques capable of slashing through human skin.

• Crane: A form built for grace, agility, and balance. Crane stance makes great use of leg movements, kicks, and rotational dodges. They will also make use of three-fingered beak strikes to hit the vital points of their targets.

• Leopard: A more cunning and deceptive form. Involves sneak attacks, striking the vitals with quick jabs, and keeping yourself light on your toes. Leopard form typically involves aggressively rushing in, hitting your opponent where it hurts, then quickly creating some distance between you and your target.

• Snake: A stane ideal for its speed and accuracy. Uses accurate "snake strikes" to hit vitals, sweeping palms, grappling, chokes, and joint attacks. Snake stance is also very useful for getting up after falling over. A master of Snake stace can quickly roll, rise, and strike at their opponent, like a snake emerging from the grass to strike a larger foe.

• Boar: An aggressive berserker-style stance. Learning it means that toughening one's body in order to take many blows. Uses headbutts, elbows, knees, body tackles, and use of sheer animalistic rage in combat.

Other Forms

There are other forms outside of the traditional 5, some ancient, some relatively new. All are modeled after some kind of animal that exists in Prisma. Some examples of these other forms include rat, rooster, hawk, wolf, bat, or rhine forms, among many others. It is possible to change out one or multiple of the traditional forms with one of these other, more unorthodox forms.

Weapons

Fleshshapers are known for using a wide variety of weapons. Examples of these weapons include:

• Claws: Claw like gloves or even wrist blades. Particularly useful when the user has run out of Qi to transform their own bodies, or for those not experienced in using Qi yet.

• Boomerang Blade: A bladed boomerang, used by the Fleshshapers for long range combat.

• Stone Great Blade: A massive great sword made out of carved stone. May or may not be used as a bludgeonning weapon despite being fashioned to resemble a sword.