“All you need to learn resides within your beast. Embrace its wildness and find clarity in its simplicity.”
Gulg’s long-standing connections to nature and its creatures informs their fighting styles through what they observe from the predators stalking the shadows cast by the towering agafari trees. Warriors model their combat techniques on the battle prowess exhibited by the dread kirre, the creeping spider, and the slippery snake, and emulate them in their own maneuvers. These same methods extend to the gladiators who fight in the Forest Arena. Some even train these predators to fight at their sides.
Beautiful Vanous exemplifies such a fighting technique because she pairs up with a savage hunting cat named Tagster. The two fight as a perfect union of human and beast born from countless contests and a long-standing bond.
For all that Vanous is a legend in Gulg, few outside
the isolated city-state know her by name. Instead,
merchants and travelers who have witnessed her fight
speak of the veiled beauty and her ruthless fighting
style. Vanous does not often take students, but she
can be moved to teach if presented with a pair who
demonstrate a similar bond. When she takes on an
apprentice, she trains the student’s beast as much as
she does the student. She is fierce and wild, holding
little back in her lessons since she believes pain is the
best instructor.