Ki vs Weapon Technology Historical Edition

[wjowski]

The problem is that they're discovering the energy form so far in prehistory. Ki is, in many ways, going to be much easier to explore and innovate with as all it really requires is a body and training. If you get the beginnings of a caste system with ki sensitive breeding together and raising their children to improve their ki, the general level is going to way higher and more common than in any of the three source materials mentioned.

In a world where say... Sakura from Street Fighter has considered both common and entry level amongst a specific percentage of the population, you could be looking at hundreds of Kenshiro level dudes.

Like Hokuto Shinken has a two thousand year history and made a point of culling their best and brightest every time a new grand master was appointed and that world is still lousy with random martial arts dudes who are wildly metahuman.

Ki, in this scenario, would have a 300,000 year history. That's a lot more time for refinement and cultural pervasiveness to be established. Ruminate on that and what it would do to human culture.

Not just a body and training, you need an inborn talent as well. Most people aren't going to be able to train to the level of say, Kenshiro. Hell I'd argue most people won't be able to train to the level of Sakura or even Dan.

The Ki users are eventually going to be out-bred and out-paced.

And don't even get me started on trying to actually oppress technological development. That's never worked in the entirety of history, it sure not going to work the the Ki faction's increasingly tiny numbers.

EDIT:

There's also the fact that the Ki user will have to be very careful who they decide to teach their skills to, also hampering their numbers. Wouldn't want to train up an Amon would you?

[T51R]

Its only going to be a matter of time before we get either a Raoh, or a Ki-powered version of Tanya Degaurechaff. Or worse, both of them on opposite sides of a global conflict.

[Sharpandpointies]

The solution is to shoot the Ki users out of a cannon, like at the circus! Sorry. I suppose the issue still is the number of users - will research generate mass armies of them? Otherwise, you still want large armies. I agree that an elite would try to suppress weaponry. The Japanese example of freezing firearms at the matchlock level comes to mind.

Most people would be trainable to some extent, because Ki is (supposedly) intrinsic to all living things. So you'd have common soldiers with some kind of Ki-empowered weaponry, or groups of them to power other things. Possibly Ki batteries, to boot.

[Nik Hasta]

Not just a body and training, you need an inborn talent as well. Most people aren't going to be able to train to the level of say, Kenshiro. Hell I'd argue most people won't be able to train to the level of Sakura or even Dan.

Citing Dan as example as kind of undermining your point. Dan is explicitly noted in canon of being essentially talentless compared to everyone else but is still capable of throwing fireballs and physical feats well beyond that of a normal human. You insert the capacity to get to that, as baseline, back into prehistory and you will get development and iteration on an absurd level.

Like, look at Olympic record trends. They have been consistently rising year on year for about a century. Take that model and apply it to ki ability and you're going to reach distinctly metahuman within your first millennium.

The Ki users are eventually going to be out-bred and out-paced.

Again, we're talking prehistory. Pre-civilisation. Ki users will breed more than ordinary folk because they are stronger, faster, more vital, live longer and are going to have more resources by dint of conquest than anyone else. Assuming ki is transmitted through biology, you're going to get a lot of ki sensitives very quickly and that is going to alter the development of the human genome.

And don't even get me started on trying to actually oppress technological development. That's never worked in the entirety of history, it sure not going to work the the Ki faction's increasingly tiny numbers.

I don't think they'll have to actively try to suppress technology. I think they will end up stunting it to an extent because some weaponry won't be as effective as ki usuage. Why do you need to refine the bow when you can train your people to have a weapon with comparable range, more destructive potential and they naturally have it on command?

I mean, I think normal tech trees will develop in time but I think we're looking at the magitech style stuff that Sharp mentioned.

EDIT:

There's also the fact that the Ki user will have to be very careful who they decide to teach their skills to, also hampering their numbers. Wouldn't want to train up an Amon would you?

Amon could take away bending usage and used that to leverage a movement of social reform. This worked because, without their ki, benders are just normal martial artists or varying degrees of skill and the equalists had advanced tech to win that war. Outside of ultra niche stuff in Hokuto no Ken - Ken has like... one or two techniques that could potentially replicate the effect - there isn't a way to remove ki in the same way. Also, to take ki away from a Kenshiro-esq guy, you need to essentially outfight him or her because blood bending isn't a thing in the same way here.

I think you'll see a lot of strife over the centuries based around the social inequalities of ki vs baseline but I don't think that will cause ki users to limit their trainings. If anything they would want to train every ki user and, presumably, indoctrinate them into the life style of being a ki user to protect the status quo. They would want, essentially, to breed out normal.

Of note, our models are Street Fighter, King of Fighters and Hokuto no Ken. All of them have the potential for dangerous and corruptive forms of their martial arts (Dark Hadou/Orochi Blood/Dark Touki) but they are all from a setting that is much less rich in ki users. I think that these things will have to be accounted for on a societal scale. The benefits of a ki-infused society vastly outweigh the potential risks.

[Captain Morgan]

It kinda seems like ki users are going to breed at whatever rate they please. If most of them treat techniques as closely guarded secrets and choose to live life as hermits up in the mountains, that will be that. But if they choose to assert control, no none ki user can stop them.

And those that seize power and wish to keep it will probably need to train some bodyguards and/or heirs.