Throwdown Thursday – Father Tres Iques!

For something different and a little out-of-the-blue, I thought I’d talk a bit about one of my favorite characters from the manga and anime “Trinity Blood” – the AX Agent Father Tres Iqus. Enjoy 🙂

 

Created 3036 AD, Father Tres Iqus is one of ten “Killing Doll” mechanical soldiers created by Vatican scientist Professor Gepetto Garibaldi (by two characters: one fictional, Mister Geppetto, woodcarver of Pinocchio; and one historical, Giuseppe Garibaldi) in an attempted rebellion. Because his cyborg body is composed of both organic and mechanical parts, he must take vitamins to maintain it. Tres, unit HC-IIIX, is the only one of the units known to still be operational. In the manga, it is revealed that Abel was sent to stop Garibaldi’s rebellion, and that he destroyed Tres’s “brothers”. When Tres, as the last operational model, attacked Abel, he was mortally injured by him. However, he was saved from destruction and recruited for AX by Cardinal Caterina Sforza, where he now has the code name Gunslinger. In Reborn on the Mars, it is revealed that his full name is Hercules Treq Iques; however, he rarely uses it and is known primarily by Tres Iques.

Being a battle cyborg, Tres works with an unemotional, relentless efficiency and his functions are mostly limited to combat situations. He tends to use expressions much like a computer might, such as asking for a “status report” to assess someone’s physical status and responding to questions with “negative” or “positive”. Despite his mechanical nature, he has had moments where he appears to display concern for others, a sense of humor, and annoyance. Tres is also extremely loyal to Caterina, and Abel remarks that Tres always appears to be in a bad mood when traveling because half of him is always home in Rome. To that end, he is often extremely inflexible with his orders and often carries them out without regard to situational variances. In the novels, when AX is dissolved, he joins the Rosenkreuz Orden with Caterina.

In the anime, Tres’ style of combat is best described as “Gun Fu”. A good example of this style would be Christian Bale’s character in the film Equilibrium, and many fight scenes in films of the Heroic Bloodshed action subgenre (an example is John Woo’s work with Chow Yun Fat). He wields slightly modified dual Beretta 92s (the same gun Bale’s character uses in Equilibrium), and his first combat scene against multiple vampires strongly resembles that of Equilibrium’s, in which Bale’s character (Grammaton Cleric Preston) kills many enemies in a pitch-black room. The reload mechanism for their pistols (a spring catch hidden in the sleeve) is also identical.

Voiced by: Kazuya Nakai (Japanese); Christopher Sabat (English) Hikaru Midorikawa (drama CD)

 

~ Article courtesy of wikipedia.com
~ Image courtesy of fanpop – artist unknown 😦

Throwdown Thursday -The Bastard Sword!

In the ForeverGreen Novels, “The Seers’ War”, the Bruid Defender, Josse, wields a bastard sword as his favored weapon.

 

What is a bastard sword?
The Medieval Bastard Sword was also known as the Long Sword and in later times as a Hand and a Half swords. Bastard swords often  had a more tapered, narrowly pointed blade. The Medieval Bastard Sword generally had a long handle which allowed for two-handed use and a longer blade. The Medieval Bastard Sword became popular due to is extreme reach and cutting and thrusting abilities and was predominantly used by the Medieval Knights. The weapons, armor and horse of the Knight were extremely expensive – the fighting power of just one knight was worth 10 ordinary soldiers.

Definition and Origin of the Bastard Sword –
Why do they call it a bastard sword? The term Bastard sword originates from the the French ‘epee batarde’. This term was used to refer to a ‘hand and a half sword’ or a ‘long sword’. The blade could be the same length as a single hand sword but the tang and the grip were long enough to accommodate two hands providing better leverage and more power. The versatility of the design prevented the sword from being specifically categorized as either a one-handed or two-handed weapon. The word bastard was therefore to this sword meaning something irregular or inferior or of dubious origin, having a misleading appearance.

Description of Medieval Bastard Sword
The weapons used the Medieval times include the Bastard Sword. The description of the Medieval Bastard Sword which provides basic facts and information about the weapon is as follows:

 
◾The Medieval Bastard Sword had a two-edged blade and a handle which was long enough for two hands
◾The length of the Bastard Sword ranged from 40 – 48 inches
◾The Bastard Sword handle that measured 10 – 15 inches in additional length
◾The extended handle of the Bastard Sword allowed the blade to be held in two hands
◾The Bastard Sword weighed between 5 – 8 pounds
◾It was used as close contact weapon and capable of striking a massive blow
◾The weapon was primarily used for cutting or slicing an opponent and was capable of cutting off the limbs or head of an enemy in one stroke
◾Type or group of weapons – Cutting Weapon

 
Medieval Bastard Sword Training
Skill in the use of Medieval weapons and understanding the strategy of Medieval Warfare was necessary and a played a vital part in Medieval life. The Medieval Bastard Sword training required by a Knight was extremely time consuming – it was necessary for them to become expert swordsmen. Skill in using Medieval weapons, including Medieval Bastard Sword training was necessary for every Medieval Knight. A Knight was trained first as a Page from the age of 7 to 14 and then as Squire from the age of 14 to 21. Special places were assigned for Medieval Bastard Sword training called the Pell. Pell training allowed knights to practise various vicious strokes and manoeuvres during their Bastard Sword training such as thrusting, cutting, and slicing without imposing an injury on his opponent.

 
~ Article courtesy of http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-swords-and-armor/bastard-sword.htm
~ Image courtesy of http://www.valiant-armoury.com-

 

WTF Friday – Kunai!

This handy little weapon has become one of my favorites and is one used by Skyrtyy Kinzhal, Fifth of the First Rank, in up-coming “Rahasya”.

However, as I am presently working on “The Fight Slave’s Prize” which is steadily becoming a shinobi/underworld style story, I decided to write a bit about the kunai again. In “The Fight Slave’s Prize”, the midnight oil dealer, Rei Shirotora, uses kunai as his weapon of choice and is extremely skilled with them.

 

In the real world…

A kunai is a Japanese dagger, possibly derived from the masonry trowel. The two widely recognized variations of the kunai are short kunai and the big kunai. Although a basic tool, in the hands of a martial arts expert, the kunai could be used as a multi-functional weapon. The kunai is commonly associated with the ninja, who used it to gouge holes in walls. Kunai were originally made to be farming tools but soon evolved into the weaponry they have become today. Many popular manga and ninjutsu characters use kunai as both their primary and secondary weapons.

The kunai was conventionally wrought in lengths ranging from 20 cm to 30 cm. It was used by peasants as a multi-purpose gardening tool and by workers of stone and masonry. The kunai is akin to a crowbar. The blade is made of soft iron, and is left unsharpened because the edges are used to smash relatively soft materials such as plaster and wood, for digging holes and for prying. Normally, only the tip is sharpened.

Kunai normally had a leaf-shaped blade and a handle with a ring on the pommel for attaching a rope. The attached rope allows the kunai’s handle to be wrapped to function as a grip, or to be strapped to a stick as a makeshift spear; to be tied to the body for concealment; or to be used as an anchor or piton. Contrary to popular belief, kunai were not designed to be used primarily as throwing weapons. Instead, kunai were primarily tools and, when used as weapons, were stabbing and thrusting implements.

Varieties of kunai include short, long, narrow-bladed, saw-toothed, and wide-bladed. In some cases, the kunai and the shikoro, a wide-bladed saw with a dagger-type handle, are difficult to distinguish.

Many ninja weapons were adapted from farming tools, not unlike those used by Shaolin monks in China. Since kunai were cheaply produced farming tools of a useful size and weight and could be easily sharpened, they were readily available to be converted into simple weapons. As a weapon, the kunai is larger and heavier than a shuriken and with the grip could also be used in hand to hand combat more readily than a shuriken.

In addition, it could be used for climbing, either as a kind of grappling hook or as a piton.

 
~Article courtesy of wikipedia.com
~ Image courtesy of http://www.405th.com-

Throwdown Thursday – Kusanagi no Tsurugi!

Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi is the inspiration for Witch Hunter Scythe’s famed blade, Ten to ji (“Heaven and Earth”) in my present project, “Witch Hunter”.

 

In the real world…
Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi is a legendary Japanese sword and one of three Imperial Regalia of Japan. It was originally called Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, “Sword of the Gathering Clouds of Heaven”), but its name was later changed to the more popular Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi (“Sword Cutting Grass”).

The history of the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi extends into legend. According to Kojiki, the god Susanoo encountered a grieving family of kunitsukami (“gods of the land”) headed by Ashinazuchi in Izumo province. When Susanoo inquired of Ashinazuchi, he told him that his family was being ravaged by the fearsome Yamata-no-Orochi, an eight-headed serpent of Koshi, who had consumed seven of the family’s eight daughters and that the creature was coming for his final daughter, Kushinada-hime. Susanoo investigated the creature, and after an abortive encounter he returned with a plan to defeat it. In return, he asked for Kushinada-hime’s hand in marriage, which was agreed. Transforming her temporarily into a comb (one interpreter reads this section as “using a comb he turns into [masquerades as] Kushinada-hime”) to have her company during battle, he detailed his plan into steps.

He instructed the preparation of eight vats of sake (rice wine) to be put on individual platforms positioned behind a fence with eight gates. The monster took the bait and put one of its heads through each gate. With this distraction, Susanoo attacked and slew the beast (with his sword Worochi no Ara-masa). He chopped off each head and then proceeded to the tails. In the fourth tail, he discovered a great sword inside the body of the serpent which he called Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, which he presented to the goddess Amaterasu to settle an old grievance.

Generations later, in the reign of the twelfth Emperor, Keikō, Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi was given to the great warrior, Yamato Takeru as part of a pair of gifts given by his aunt, Yamato-hime the Shrine Maiden of Ise Shrine, to protect her nephew in times of peril.

These gifts came in handy when Yamato Takeru was lured onto an open grassland during a hunting expedition by a treacherous warlord. The lord had fiery arrows loosed to ignite the grass and trap Yamato Takeru in the field so that he would burn to death. He also killed the warrior’s horse to prevent his escape. Desperately, Yamato Takeru used the Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi to cut back the grass and remove fuel from the fire, but in doing so, he discovered that the sword enabled him to control the wind and cause it to move in the direction of his swing. Taking advantage of this magic, Yamato Takeru used his other gift, fire strikers, to enlarge the fire in the direction of the lord and his men, and he used the winds controlled by the sword to sweep the blaze toward them. In triumph, Yamato Takeru renamed the sword Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi (lit. “Grasscutter Sword”) to commemorate his narrow escape and victory. Eventually, Yamato Takeru married and later fell in battle with a monster, after ignoring his wife’s advice to take the sword with him.

 

~ Article courtesy of wikipedia.com
~ Image courtesy of io9.com

Throwdown Thursday – Tessen!

In the upcoming installment to the Tome Series, “Rahasya”, the miko Aki is shown in a flashback to her childhood being trained in the art of using tessen, a type of war fan.

In the real world…
A Japanese war fan is a fan designed for use in warfare. Several types of war fans were used by the samurai class of feudal Japan and each had a different look and purpose.

Tessen are one such variety. Tessen were folding fans with outer spokes made of heavy plates of iron which were designed to look like normal, harmless folding fans or solid clubs shaped to look like a closed fan. Samurai could take these to places where swords or other overt weapons were not allowed, and some swordsmanship schools included training in the use of the tessen as a weapon. The tessen was also used for fending off knives and darts, as a throwing weapon, and as an aid in swimming.

Tessenjutsu (lit. “iron fan technique”) is the martial art of the Japanese war fan (tessen). It is based on the use of the solid iron fan or the folding iron fan, which usually had eight or ten wood or iron ribs. The use of the war fan in combat is mentioned in early Japanese legends. For example, Yoshitsune, a hero of Japanese legend, is said to have defeated an opponent named Benkei by parrying the blows of his opponent’s spear with an iron fan. This use of the iron fan was taught him by a mythological creature, a tengu, who had also instructed him in the art of swordsmanship.

The practitioners of tessenjutsu could acquire a high level of skill. Some became so skilled, in fact, that they were able to defend themselves against an attacker wielding a sword, and even kill an opponent with a single blow. Like so many other Japanese arts of combat during this era, tessenjutsu reached a high level of sophistication. For example, a famous swordsman in the late 16th century, Ganryu, was able to defeat several enemies with an iron fan.

Apart from using it in duels against enemies armed with swords and spears, the skilled wielder could also use it to fence and fend off knives and poisoned darts thrown at him. Like a sword, the tessen could be dual-wielded to parry with one hand and attack with the other.

Tessenjutsu is still practiced by a few experts in Japan to this day.

~ Articles courtesy of wikipedia.com
~ Photo courtesy of pinterest.com Photographer unknown