Teras Kasi Archive
Thread: Teras kasi, connection to Jedi truth or fiction?
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Tal-N
Fri Feb 27, 2004 7:20 am
#1
A number of times I have seen people saying that this issue with Teras Kasi being an order created to moniter the Jedi is nothing more than fan fiction is clearly a point for debate. It's clear from first glace that information reguarding the history of where TK started and it's purpose are limited at best however a few things are indeed very clear.
So i guess there is one question which is best to start with, Do the Teras Kasi actually have any connection to the Jedi?
The simple answer is that from official sources there is indeed a connection, one so close that it's almost like the two teachings simply cannot exist one without the other. This was taken from the official manual from Masters of Teras Kasi on the PSX:
"As the order of Jedi resurfaces, so do the teachings of teräs käsi, in the form of Arden Lyn, master of teräs käsi. A Palawan warrior from the time of Jedi, her youthfulness belies her actual age. Her skills as one of the last teräs käsi masters has attracted the attention of the Emperor and Darth Vader, who have assigned her to track down and take out key Rebel Alliance personnel. Arden, however, has her own agenda..."
From this single passage you can see that things mentioned from that longer article which people claim to be raw fan-fiction start to gain more wieght, regeneration and long life are clearly something that Teras kasi teaches. This might be explained by theBunduki simply being a long lived species however she is for all intents and purposes human.
Wasn't Teras Kasi created just as an excuse for the Masters of Teras Kasi game?
This would be a simple conclusion until you start looking more for evidence of there being more than there first appears, Teras kasi was first mentioned in the book 'Shadows of the Empire' in connection with the Pike Sisters caleld Zu and Zan who used the ancient martial art of Teras Kasi. The SotE source book went into more detail about just what Teras Kasi was. I haven't managed to find the actual articles from an online version of the book just yet so I'll have to rely on this second hand source of what it says:
"OK, so the game's title-Masters of Teras Kasi-may be a mouthful (keeripes, man-it even has umlots!), but it's not like LucasArts pulled the name of this Force-fueled martial art out of their you-know-what. Teras Kasi is a bona-fide bit of the Star Wars universe that the game's developers nabbed from West End Games' Shadows of the Empire Source Book.
Acording to the book, teras kasi is a form of hand-to-hand combat taught in Pacanth Reach, a remote star cluster stuck way out in the Outer Rim Territories. Students of this somewhat mystical martial art practice it for years on the planet Bunduki, where they also study history, philosophy and various assundry tutelage of mysterious hermits called the Followers of Palawa."
Futher information lends more support that Teras Kasi came from the ashes of a war which almost destroyed the the Bunduki people, there is references in the Unoffical SW Encylopedia to a near-human species known as the Epicanthix who were native to the same region of space as the Bunduki, they were a war-like race possessing great physical prowess and eventually conquered the Bunduki homeworld. They then went on to conquer the entire system. Given such a warlike nature it means there was a high possibility that the Old Republic would have tried to stop them advancing further into Republic controlled space.
The thing to remember though is that Teras Kasi is originally supposed to be a passive art designed for control over the body and mind. It has applications for combat however remember that there is no greater test of control over your body than using it in combat against a worthy opponent. The original reference to this art was I mention in reference to Zu and Zan Pike in theShadows of the Empire novel. These twins were deadly assassins for Prince Xisor, further information about them can be found here: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Cavern/3920/bios/pike.html
There best information I've found comes the biography of just who Arden Lyn herself is:
"Arden Lyn was once a member of the Followers of Palawa; warriors who supported the Kashi Mer exile, Xendor. She fought in the first Great Schism between the dark and light sides, but was defeated by Jedi Master Awdrysta Pina. Pina used the ancient Force technique known as mortichro to still Arden's heart and force her into a coma that would last for millennia. Arden had dabbled in the dark side of the Force, and it was this that kept her alive.
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