Worldbuilding Series: Martial Arts in Fantasy Worlds

Whether your protagonist is the prophesied chosen one destined to save the world or a lowly street rat who gets taken in by the empire's local assassin's guild to be trained in the deadliest arts, or perhaps the heir to the throne of an ancient kingdom, chances are your fantasy world has some form of hand-to-hand combat.

The Basis of Your Fictional Martial Art 

Martial arts is an extremely broad term. There are hundreds of different styles, from Karate to Kung Fu, from Aikido to Tai Chi, kickboxing, fencing, Ju Jitsu, Tae Kwon Do, to mixed martial arts that combine dozens of styles into one. All of these styles are full of rich cultural context, drawing from the culture and history of the people who practice them, and all of them are distinct and different.

Whatever martial art style you create for your fantasy world will be similarly unique, and built into the foundation of the world it comes from. How old is it? Who was the first group to practice? Does it follow any aspect of your world's religion? What is its core philosophy? What are some of its main techniques? What is it best for, and what are some of its weaknesses? Who can practice it? Who is forbidden from practicing it? Who are its greatest teachers?

But how to start answering all of these questions? 

I found two ways to begin:
​

1. Choose a real-world martial art to base yours on.  
2. Choose an already-built aspect of your world to build off of.

Choose a Real-World Martial Art

I did the first one, mainly because I practice a martial art myself, so it was easiest to use techniques that I knew how to do in real life. Since I practice Aikido, the martial art in my story, Soot of the Stars (the martial art itself doesn't currently have a name) is loosely based on the same philosophy and technique patterns as Aikido is (though much less focused on non-violence, just because it didn't fit within my world). This made it easier when it came to writing the actual battle scenes, because I've been in a skirmish using these techniques against a group of attackers on the mat, so I could easily picture what that would feel like and how to describe the movements on the page. Like Aikido, my martial art is also very tied into the religion of my world, and to the culture and history of the people that live there. 

You can do the same with whatever martial art you practice -- take the aspects that you like and use them to build a clear visual for yourself in your story as you write out the action and battle scenes. If, however, you don't practice a martial art, and have no interest in basing yours off of a real-life style, then you can go to the next option. 

Though, even if you don't want to base your martial art on a real one, I'd still recommend looking up videos of fights using a style that closely matches what you envision for your world (for instance, one that focuses on hand-to-hand, or one using blades, or an aggressive attack-based style). This will help you when it comes time to actually put your art into practice, and will let you most accurately describe what is happening to your reader.
​

Build Off an Aspect of Your World

Onto option two, if you want a totally unique martial art. Now, this option is going off of the assumption that you have already done some manner of world-building already for your world -- whether you've built your culture, religion, or magic system. As long as you have something solid and certain. 

For instance, if you know for sure you will have a matrilineal culture, where women hold status over men, then you can begin to build your martial art off of that. Obviously, like other aspects of your world, the art would be dominated by women.

• Would men even be allowed to practice?
• Would they be regulated to simple guardsmen or huntsmen (something that relies on following orders and brute strength), and kept away from the secret of the art? Would it even be possible for a man to become a master? A teacher?
• Or, if a man wanted to learn to fight, would they have to learn in another land?
• And as for the fighting style itself, it would obviously lend itself to faster, more agile attacks that didn't rely on strength or size. 

Another example would be, if you know your magic system will be powered by kinetic energy (where movement equals power to the magic wielder), how would this allow your martial art to connect with your magic system?

• Would it be very common for magic users to also practice martial arts (and as they practice and get better at fighting and moving swiftly, their power reserves increase)?
• Would their magic give them an edge in fighting? So if one wanted to truly become a master of either magic or warfare, they would have to study both together?
• Would magic users be the only ones even allowed to practice your martial art?

Basically, choose an aspect you know for sure, then ask yourself questions about how your martial art could fit with this, and extrapolate what the answers would be. If, then questions usually work the best.

• If weapons are outlawed by the government, then how would people learn to compensate to protect themselves?
• If metal is extremely expensive and time-consuming to forge, then how would this affect the status of those who used weapons?

By taking an aspect of your world that has already been set in stone, so to speak, and building your magic system off of this surety, your magic system will fit with your world in an organic way (so hopefully it will feel realistic and integrated).

Now, if you do build out your magic system by basing it on an already existing part of your world, there may still be some questions you need to ask. Feel free to ignore these following questions if you've already covered that in your initial brainstorming.

Philosophy of Your Art

What is the main philosophy that is tied to your martial art? This can relate to your religion (it most often does) but it doesn't necessarily have to. Basically what are some key tenets that those who practice share between them? Here are a few questions to get you going: 

• What do they think about killing? Is it better to kill your opponent before they can kill you? Or is it better to preserve all life, unless there is absolutely no other choice? Or is it absolutely forbidden to kill, even at the cost of your own life? 
• Do they practice a form of meditation? 
• Is anyone allowed to teach what they have learned? Or are there some things that are secret/forbidden to spread to just anyone? 
• What does it take to be considered a master? 
• Who is considered the founder of the art? Is it based on something even older? Are its origins lost to time? 
• What are the art's strengths? What sort of battle situations does it lend itself very well to? (For instance, is it best in tight quarters? When outnumbered and surrounded? Or does it work best on a battlefield as part of a troop working together?)
• What are its weaknesses? Does it not work very well against multiple opponents? Are there certain weapons that pose a problem? How would it work against a long-range weapon?  
• What weapons do they train in (if any)? Are any weapons forbidden? Are some weapons only for masters? Do they have to master weapons before they can be considered proficient? If there are no weapons, how does the art work against an armed opponent? 

​

Magic Systems & Martial Art Styles

Since I brought it up earlier, I'll touch on magic systems for a minute. Your fantasy world may or may not have a magic system (chances are it does -- we're talking about fantasy after all). If it doesn't, feel free to skip this section. 

Depending on the depth of your magic system, and how integral the fighting style and martial arts are to your world, there may be some crossover between the two.

• For instance, can your magic be used in a fight? If so, how do your characters incorporate it into their attacks?
• How has it influenced the culture surrounding the martial art? Has it changed the way people think about fighting? About battle tactics? About the magic itself?
• Is magic seen as a weak trick that only those too weak to become a master martial artist use, or is it seen as the ultimate expression of martial arts?
• Can someone both be a master mage and master fighter, or do they have to choose one path? 

There are limitless questions you could ask yourself, depending on how in depth you want to get. If you'd like more help pertaining to magic system creation, check out my post on Magic Systems, or my Magic System Worldbuilding Workbook available on Etsy.
​
​

List of Examples in Fiction

Here's a handful of good examples of how to incorporate martial arts into your world from some great fantasy fiction. Many of these (like Avatar: The Last Airbender) are a great example of how to blend martial arts with the magic system, and many of them have the two separate and distinct.
​

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson

Can't talk about amazing magic systems without mentioning something by Sanderson. In Elantris, which was his first published book, one aspect of his magic system is expressed directly through a martial art, called the ChayShan, a meditative practice where the forms they use grant access to the magical force, the Dor.

Codex Alera by Jim Butcher

I won't get into the specifics of the fighting style, mainly because it's been a long time and I don't remember a lot of the details. But I do remember that the style was heavily inspired by the legions of Ancient Rome, and that everything from the command structure to the battle tactics followed those of the Romans. For that reason, this series is a good example of basing a fighting style on an already existing style and culture, and then making it your own. Because in addition to the Roman legions, Codex Alera also has elemental bonding magic and some truly awesome unique worldbuilding.

Mystic and Rider by Sharon Shinn

In this series, the thing I found most interesting was how people treated those who had magic (called mystics). Rather than looking at them with awe, and admiring their gifts as a skill or a way to enhance their fighting, mystics are looked down on and shunned. Especially by those who are trained in the fighting arts, because, rather than being seen as an advantage in a fight (even though it most assuredly can be) magic is seen to be a cheat, or a way to slack off in training. 

Avatar the Last Airbender

In the show, each style of bending is accompanied by a specific style of fighting. The Fire Nation's bending is based on Northern Shaolin, Air Nomads use something similar to Ba Gua, the Water Tribe's bending is like Tai Chi, and Earth Nation bending is based on Hung Gar. You can see the differences in their unique styles of fighting, and they all have their own strengths and weaknesses (the Airbending style works great against multiple attackers, moving through and around a fight, while an Earthbender can stand strong and stop an attack head-on.)

Now You Have Your Martial Art

This post was a little all over the place, but I hope it at least gave you some good ideas for getting your martial art started. I've always found action scenes and fights to be one of the hardest parts of a story, and having a clearly defined martial art has definitely helped me in writing the action accurately (at least I think it has). 

Happy writing! 
​
-Megann 

---

about the author

Megann is a speculative fiction editor, writer, and artist specializing in fantasy, science fiction, and basically anything with magic. Or dragons. Or starlight and spaceflight and gods that walk the worlds. A tendency to research extensively means she has a lot of worldlbuilding info to share and an obsession with building Notion pages for everything means she has a lot of template ideas for every aspect of writing.