Kathakali Dancer School

[Rixy]

Members of the Kshatriya Caste are, rather like the Rokugani Samurai, expected to be both cultured and, when called for, deadly in defense of their rulers and the people their status demands they defend. In no other place are the two requirements so tightly bound as in the traditions of the Kathakali Dancers.

Graceful on both the stage and the battlefield, the Kathakali Dancers are renowned for their ability to intertwine the two disciplines into a deadly, beautiful whole. A skilled Dancer can feel the rhythm of the battlefield like the beat of a drum and use it's beat to avoid the blows of their foe while dealing death in return. On the stage, their martial training lends them a different sort of grace as well as the admiration of their audience.

Kathkali Dancer (bushi)
Benefit: +1 Agility
Skills: Defense, Jiujitsu (Martial Arts), Knives, Meditation, Perform: Dance 2, Any One High skill
Honor: 5.5
Outfit: Light Armor, fine Clothing, Khanda, Katara, Traveling Pack, 6 Rupees

Rank 1: Song of the Blade
Kathakali Dancers learn early that acts that draw the eye can prove as distracting to their enemies as it is entrancing to an audience. Dancers may add their Perform: Dance Skill to their TNtbH except while in the Full Attack stance. Once per round, you may add +1k0 to your attack against any opponent who missed you while using this technique. While using the Perform: Dance skill, you may use your Agility instead of Awareness.

Rank 2: World as a Stage
Understanding of one's own body and movement now extends to an understanding of the movements of others. Knowing how your enemy will move allows a Dancer to place their strikes with deadly accuracy. Dancers may now add an amount equal to their Perform: Dance rank to their Attack and Damage rolls when barehanded or using a weapon with the Kshatriya keyword.

Rank 3: Choreography of Battle
An improved understanding of the flow of battle increases a Kathkali Dancer's ability to react quickly when another misses a step in the dance. You may now add +xk0, where x is your School Rank, to your attack roll against any opponent who misses you while using the Song of the Blade, replacing the benefit from Rank 1. When spending void on Perform: Dance rolls, you gain +2k2 instead of +1k1.

Rank 4: Encore
Grace and power move through the dancer's every step, a perfect balance that allows them to move with great speed. You may now make jiujitsu attacks as a Simple action instead of a Complex action.

Rank 5: Dancing with the Heavens
As a master of their art, the Kathakali Dancer's grace is limited only by the will of Heaven, not mere mortal constraints. The number of raises that may be called for Perform: Dance rolls and attack rolls is no longer limited by Void. The penalty to Armor TN caused by entering the Full Attack Stance is reduced to 5.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathakali
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalaripayattu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJB8Qfz4 ... re=related