Shatuu

Shatuu is a physical art form, combines meditation and hand-to-hand combat to stun, paralyze or kill opponents without the use of weapons.

## Information

Although practiced by anyone willing to learn it, the secluded monastery in the White Mountains, on Trias, is the only place on the Planet of Legends where they teach the art of Shatuu. There are other monasteries of Dal scattered throughout the planet and a few located in other parts of the Galaxy; it is only in Trias that the Monks of Dal teach Shatuu.

## Techniques

The martial technique unique to the Seekers takes advantage of their ability to change gender and form with ease. The stronger the Seeker’s understanding of the transformation process and abilities of the various shapes, the more adept the Seeker will be in Shatuu . Practice is essential and necessary to ensure these injures are mitigated or do not occur.

Once the Basement Monks are satisfied with a student’s progress, they are induced into the higher levels of the Shatuu techniques.

*For example, since the female form is shorter than the male, a dodge from a head-blow is likely to combine a pivot, sidestep or even a duck with a shift from the male to female forms, helping to make the monk a smaller target. At that point a common counter would be to deliver a punch while shifting back into male form. The idea here is that the male form has longer arms than the female form, so combining the shape shift with the punch and timing it just right would add force to the punch. A belly blow would add the extra benefit of the increased height of the male form. Allowing the monk to add the strength and power of his entire body into an upward thrust under the ribs.*

*Kicks are likely to be more prevalent than punches as the female form tends to have more strength in the lower body than the upper, so the muscles of the female form can start the kick with more power and shifting into the male form will add extra force in the same way the punch would.*

Another example of these inclusions: The monk starts in female form. The monk delivers a spinning high kick to her opponent's head without shifting. As she turns she switches feet to deliver a pushing kick to the midsection of the opponent while shifting to male form. (So if the first kick was delivered with the right foot the second would be delivered with the left.) As the monk regains his footing he takes one or two steps away from his opponent while shifting back into female form. This gives the illusion that the monk is slightly farther away than she really is. This creates an opening for the next maneuver which must be delivered quickly in order to maintain the element of surprise. The monk surges forward shifting to male form in mid-stride thereby taking advantage of the strength of the female legs and combining it with the length of the male legs to surge forward faster and hit the opponent harder. If done correctly the opponent can be caught with the next strike a moment before they are ready as they thought the monk was farther away and was not expecting the monk to come at them so fast.

These techniques are advanced and should not be used without proper instruction and practice. The novice must be aware of the dangers associated with swift changes from male to female. This may incur injury due to sudden height and weight distribution alterations. A improper transition from one shape to another of extreme mass or size difference may incur even more severe injury. The monk would have to maintain some concentration and remain aware of the limitations of both his male and female forms as well as their strengths while using this technique. Some of the dangers associated with swift changes from male to female A swift shift from female to male mid-kick may put the seeker at risk of groin injury or other muscular pull.

The danger of this is that flexibility tends to play a big role in how well, specifically how high, you can kick. Women tend to be more flexible than men. Particularly in the pelvis.

For this reason Dallic monks are likely to combine meditation with stretching techniques in the male form, much the way it is done in yoga. The idea here is to increase the flexibility of the male form. This would have the added benefit of making the female form extremely flexible, to a point that would not normally be possible to achieve especially if the monk had spent their entire life doing this.

* All this also suggests to me that the Dallic monks would also take advantage of the increased flexibility of the female forms to create a particular style of meditation/dance meant to awe observers into greater appreciation of Dal's mystery. Another thought would be what a Dallic choir would sound like when the various choir members could not only change from male to female while singing, (such as during a vocal slide from their highest female range to their lowest male range and back) but also could shift into different animals for different vocal effects.
* This brings up the psychological effect of watching a Dallic monk fight, or actually being in a fight against one. Various characters have expressed discomfort at watching Valian shift from male to female forms. Usually while he was attempting to do so in a non-aggressive manner. How much more disturbing, disorientating, and distracting would it be to be facing an opponent who was constantly shifting as they were fighting you so that every time you looked at them you could never be certain which form you would see?