At long last and at the behest of many of you loyal viewers, we have officially announced our “Terra Kasi” project. This is a play on the Star Wars universe martial art named “Teras Kasi” using two Finnish words for “steel” and “hand” respectively. This is the martial art of the mandalorians and of many other adversaries to the Jedi. It has long been a part of the EU debuting in “Shadows of the Empire”. The author, Steve Perry, was a practitioner of Silat and so based much of the content in the book on that experience. But it wasn’t until Solo: a Star Wars Story did the term and martial art “Teras Kasi” enter official cannon. Q’ira and Dryden Vos are both practitioners of Teras Kasi in Solo.
Here is our recent discussion the topic. I am joined by Dr. Jared Miracle and Damon Honeycutt, all of us from traditional martial arts of China (and Asia in general). We all also have extensive experience in fighting and performing contexts. We discuss some of the issues at hand with the invention of such an art. More to the point, the enemy that has Force powers.
One main point that we bring up is that even though Jedi have force powers that can augment their speed strength and reaction time, they cannot employ these powers at will. Also, there are various levels of Jedi and Force Users, some being better at commanding the Force than others. All of these takes a bit of concentration on the part of the Force User. These facts open up many avenues where a person or persons could launch a successful attack on a Force wielding Jedi or Sith.
There is little narrative content on the art in any media. Some of the choreography in the fight scenes in Solo used some movements of Baguazhang but the actual amount of movement is limited. Save for a few move lists from video games and role playing game mechanics, the actual Tera Kasi is a blank slate. The only bit of legends information that we have is that it is based on something called the “9 Edicts”. These directives lay out the art in some way. So, Let’s start with that. Flushing out the Nine Edicts provides a good base from which to build. Here is oy’ first stab at the problem:
Terra Kasi 9 edicts
- The Body is the first weapon. You shall make it strong and resilient so that it may withstand 100 blows.
- The Bodies strength is unreliable. Sickness, fatigue, injury all dull its edge. Do not rely solely on the strength of the body. You shall make use of the weaknesses of the body. In your own and in those of others.
- The Body needs rest. You shall obey the signs of the body that it is not functioning. You shall always obey the truth of the Body.
- The Mind is the second weapon. You shall make it strong and resilient. So that it has the power to find the true path forward.
- The Mind is the most vulnerable to attack. Know the ways deception so that you will not stumble into their traps.
- The Mind is the most powerful. Always train the Mind with the Body. You shall always know what you intend to do. With the Mind, you can understand Energy.
- Energy is the third weapon. You will know and obey all of its laws. Use the Mind to understand and the Body to apply.
- Energy is finite. Even the Force is not infinite. You will use only as much energy as you need to accomplish your goal. Save Energy and win more victories.
- Energy is eternal. There is no escaping it. You will always yield to it. Follow it. Energy will balance always.
This is the bare bones beginning of the project. Stay tuned for more developments and content focusing on more “conventional” weapons in a fantasy context.
Patience, Practice, Perseverance!
Happy Sabering!
Terra Prime Fighting Words 
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