From what I understood about the Greek gods were that they were all powerfull. Yes they could die but only to the powers of another god or from a blade diped in a golden unicorn\'s blood, or something like that.  It is that reason I called them omnipotent in that no mortal messure could compete against them. The only way a mortal could would be to partake of ambrosia which granted immortality and godly powers. Again the mortal had to become a god to kill a god.

I know my knowledge of Greek gods is not all that good. I learned most of it from Clash of the Titons. Before that it was just a childhood thing of astrology. Then it was only constalations and not what the gods really were.

The connection to the N-word was just an example of why just cause it is the only word that something could be translated to in your language, you wouldn\'t use it.  I wasn\'t saying that PS\'s use of the term martial arts was like using the N-word, was just making an example.

That was a good example you put forth on the \'christians\'. I was just thinking the tramma that would come if that term were to be used in PS. The connection here is that martial arts is considered a religion by many. If you tamper with it that is offensive just as if christianity would have been messed with. In so many ways religion and martial arts are commonalities. At one time all forms of martial arts were gathered into a single form, much like religion was. Over the years people came around and took only the parts of the form that they liked. This is much like how some people haven taken a single passage of the bible and made it into a religion. Well some people take a single aspect of the one art and made another form of it completely. An example of this can be seen in TKD where they specialize mostly on the kicking aspect, Judo where they specialize mostly in the grappling aspect, and USA kempo where they mostly specialize in the pressure point aspect.  Though now all these are stiles to themselves, they were all once a single form. The same can be said of religion. Once there was just one and now there are new ones popping up all over the world and every day.

So in that way making the connection of christianity and martial arts is a good one. The fact of the matter is that, like christianity, martial arts has become an entity of its own. No longer is it just a term but it is a group with regulations and standards. So by using the term of martial arts you can be said to be refering to this organization. So you can expect the organization to respond when their name is taken out of text.

I still see it funny that just cause some people are not too familiar with the martial arts community that they decide to not recognize it. So rules that aply to other groups just somehow don\'t apply to them. I myself find that very biased and again could be taken as offensive to the martial arts community. This in that not only does PS not mind taking liberties with their terminology but also that when someone just happens to mention that it could be taken as offencive, PS ignors it and turns their back to the possible problem.

I know you can\'t please all the people all the time and you can\'t even please half the people half the time but to completely ignor a possible issue do to the lack of understanding what an organization has gone through to protect their integrity as an organization is just wrong. For so long the world of martial arts has been trying to right all the misconceptions the world has made about them. Tried hard to take the trickery and so called magic out. For hundreds of years they have fought for understanding that what they do is not the things of makebelieve, they can\'t through fireballs, they cannot move things with their mind, they cannot fly, and they are not supernatural. They are just training that brings out the best of a person physicly, mentaly, and spiritualy. So to have PS call this magic mind ability, martial arts coould and probably will be taken as offencive to the martial arts community. To just ignor that possibility or to say tough luck, well thats just narrow mindedness. I feel there is a real issue that could come of this and it is best to keep that in mind when you use a term or name that can be related to a real life group or organization.

So from what you are saying, if there is only one way to translate from one world to another, and that way is offencive to a group of people, then it shouldn\'t matter that it is offencive to be translated that way. Say if there was a word in the PlaneShift world that could only be translated as a racial remark in english, IE the N-word, do you think they should continue to use that term or rename it? Of cource you would have to rename it. I use that example simply cvause it is more at home to many of the world. Just cause there are few here to stand up for the integrity of the martial arts world doesn\'t mean they should be treated any less. So saying just cause it could be translated to english in that way doesn\'t mean it has to be called that.

Take for example Futebol, it is called Soccer in the states simply cause the name sounded too much like football. Football is a sport the states already had so they had to change the name to suit their aspects. Same can be said in this matter. Since we in this world have a definition of what martial arts is, we would not keep the translation of these skills as martial arts. We would rename them so not to confuse the two. So though maybe ion the PS language the words used to describe their skills would be martial arts, we would look at them and in our language call them something else, IE psionics.

Not all martial arts are asian. There are several arts that have nothing to do with Asia. There is the French art of Silat(sp) pronounced like su-va\'t, Pancrais is I believe is Euro in origin, there is Greko Roman Wrestling from Rome (go figure), and capoara(sp) from originaly Africa but is most popular in Brazil from where the African slaves were held. Those arts were not influenced by Asia in any way and are indiginous to their countries but are still held under the term martial arts cause there is disciplin and other things involved in their training. In other words they train not only to fight but to strengthen the mind and spirit as well and take dedication and understanding to learn.

Just a note, there is other non Asian martial arts that have nothing to do with open handed fighting, one of them being Fencing. See in that example it shows martial is not the \'of war\' people think it to be as Fencing is still practiced today as a martial art but no one fights with a foil anymore. So they are not training for war but training militantly.

OK though a talk about Mortal Kombat is way off topic I felt I should respond to that last post. Yes Lu was said to be a monk of shaolin but he had no powers till the god Raiden granted them for the defence of the earth realm. Raiden had a soft spot for humans and felt they were outmatched by Outworld warriors so not only did he compete in the Mortal Kombat but also granted the earth realm fighters special powers. Back when the Mortal Kombat was only on earth and didnt involve Outworld, It was simply a martial arts compotition. This is the compotition that Kung Lau, ancestor to Lu Kang, raigned. Thats when Shang Sun(sp) was sent to earth with Motaro(sp) to claim the ternament and make change it to be the deffence of the realms as it is in modern Mortal Kombat as we see today.

So no it isn\'t the martial arts that allowed them to shoot energy beams, it was the magic granted to them by a god to balance the tides of earth and Outworld, as were the animalities. This reason is why Raiden was only in the one realm deffence Mortal Kombat cause him granting the humans these powers was seen as an interfearence from the way the tournament was ment to go. They were ment to fight as is and not enhanced in any way that they couldn\'t do on their own. So he was banned from ever enterfearing again but the damage had been done. The humans now possesed a new power, again that had nothing to do with martial arts.

Lastly the Monks of shaolin didn\'t believe you came back after death in your true form but that life was eternal. When you died in one form you were reincarnated. It is a common Zen Budist thought that life is an eternal energy that never dies. Though a body dies the energy that gave it life goes on and is reborn in a new body. This new body could be anything from a bug to an ox. This is why most all monks will never step on a bug or kill a rodent. That bug or rodent might just be their ancestor reincarnated.

Ah the soft words of \"this is only a game.\" If one was to have a game and base it on a race of black humans that are nothing more than slaves to another race of humans, do you not think that termoil would come from that? Of corce it is but a game but does that make it OK to do what you would with things that can be attached to real life? If you make a judgment, be it game or not, towards a group of people, expect that group of people to react. You cannot use \"it is only a game\" as a defence for demoralizing a sect of people.

Tis just only one aid that they bring. They be just mounts, like a horse from the surface. It would be a given that combat from such mounts will be a benefit over combat on foot but as for any other aid to battle tis my opinion they will not be.

(OOC: I tried my best to keep from having to do this. Did no one read into the dream sequence to find the answers for the questions asked? I am not joining your quest. I am here to throw curves into your path in hopes to keep you from your final destination. Maybe someday I will be revealed to you face to face, but for the time being I am just a shadow that has been following you from the very begining. I watched you gather. I saw your deeds. I was amazed at your powers. I have truely under estimated how far you guys would come. I know where it is that you are headed and I know what is in store for you there when you get there. This is why I am throwing my hand into the game. I don\'t want you to reach Kadaikos. I will slowly introduce myself further and further as you guys progress on your journey. Just be ready for twists and turns as I throw my spells into the mix. Remember, I am not joining you guys, I am interacting with your journey.)