"Kung fu"

“Kung Fu” as began thousands of years ago as 'The Martial Arts' – when it was an umbrella term describing several hundred fighting style developed over many centuries. These fighting styles are often classified according to traits identified as families, sects or schools of martial arts - inspired by philosophies, religions or legends. Examples include “Shaolinquan” (physical exercises involving five animals for mimicry of forms for the ease of education in a time where education was minimal), “qi manipulation” (referred to as internal which revolve around the resolve, faith and determination of a person – 'to bring out the best of them in vapor the same way anger and rage can do so') and external which which focus on muscular and cardiovascular performance.

The ridiculousness of many of these styles originate in the the smugness of the old masters and their desire to one-up one another with aesthetic principle – using silliness to dress up their styles to defeat one another with increasing absurdity in order to both keep things fresh and show their certainty in and the performance of their core principles: To humiliate their opponent by intentionally fighting wrong ironically.

The idea of learning how to fight through repetition alone is born from theatrical performance and dance - born from “kung fu movies”: films which use martial arts as an underlying theme in the setting and world the story is told about. With other cultures taking an interest, this was exploited in “McDojos” which sold a very simple form of education into the martial arts that was in no way practical and often gave those involved a false sense of capability and security that was dangerous to them and historically regarded as incredibly irresponsible. Worse, they taught the theatrical “dance” style of martial arts, not what actually made sense.

With the advent of formalized sponsorship backed “Mixed Martial Arts” in the medieval period which was a mass-broadcasted return to form which took every conceivable form of close combat that did not involve a weapon. Very quickly styles which were formalized and theatrical were revealed to be close to useless and a new importance for grappling was discovered when formerly people had believed striking had been the only useful or productive form of combat. Year on year, fighters would learn to combine different assets of striking, grappling, space control and training methods in order to become well rounded fighters in the ring. This would go onto seriously change military training. However, in a world increasingly dependant on machines and equipment to conduct combat where these things had improved but the human form had not, the success of this new pragmatic form was limited.

Classically, kung-fu was depicted as involving highly repetitive ritualized training. In practice, this non-practical form of training while useful early on is close to suicidal and a total lie: martial arts were taught with resisting opponents in full contact under duress as the human mind only retains in duress what it learns under duress as fight/flight response alters the perception of memory and cognitive function.

In a truly ironic twist, with the advent of superhuman performance (speed, strength, endurance, durability) a lot of the entirely stupid principles which made zero sense on human terms could be adapted through the use of restrictive training and advanced simulation which could in software perform many life-times worth of combat in just a few hours to determine what is effective and what is not and how each would need to be adjusted accordingly.

Similarly, while Qi in the truest sense is not real, the state it places the brain to is. In this state, a person properly trained is able to exert force through the power of entropy in an ever impressionable universe. As such, it is considered one of the foundations of Magic.