Broken Blade (3.5e Martial Discipline)

"This study could as well be a study in irony rather than a study in The Sublime Way. Our internal disputes for so long have focused on which of the nine discipline was supreme. Despite that, in our readiness to now fight amongst our brethren, we have learned how foolish that argument is; None of the nine are supreme. Truly, they are not even distinct paths. There is only one Sublime Way. If Reshar is watching, even as he takes joy in our work, he must be crying at what it took for us to get to here."

After the exile of the Shadow and Tiger Masters from the Temple of Nine Swords, some of the remaining Masters worried that they might one day need to combat the other the two renegade Masters along with possibly some of their apprentices who had left with them that day. Thus, they considered attempting to develop martial skills devoted to defeating other martial adepts. The Council of Masters officially decided not to condone such study, believing that it would further inflame the tensions in the Temple. Despite this, the Master of Stone Dragon, Master of Diamond Mind, one of the best apprentices of White Raven, and the new Master of the Shadow Hand and a handful of lesser apprentices worked together to develop a new discipline.

Summary::To develop this new discipline, they tried to focus on the commonalities among all the martial disciplines to thus better understand their weaknesses. The discipline they tried to develop revealed to them that all martial disciplines could be best thought of as facets of a single all encompassing discipline. Truly, there was only one Sublime Way. Due to the lack of official approval, only a small number studied the discipline.

The discipline was not finished by the time the attack of the Shadow Tiger army came. Indeed, some historians and swordsages have pointed to an additional irony that if the Masters studying this discipline has instead turned their sight outwards they might have noticed the gathering armies in time.

After the fall of the Temple, a handful of the surviving apprentices who had studied the basics of the discipline gathered together. They decided to honor their fallen masters and honor the philosophy of the Temple by completing the new discipline and teaching it to others. However, the discipline did not have the wide-ranging ability to completely encompass all disciplines as they had hoped. Whether this was due to a flaw in the underlying philosophy or the fact that they were simply not as skilled as the great Masters is unknown.

Where the name of the discipline came from is also uncertain. It may have arisen from the disciplines ability to defeat other martial adepts or possibly out of memory for the fallen Temple of Nine Swords. Still others say that the Blade in the title is in fact a stand in for the misconception that the different disciplines are fundamentally different and that this blade must be broken to truly understand this discipline.

The associated skill of The Broken Blade is martial lore. The associated weapons are Scimitar, Falchion, Rapier, Bastard Sword, Longsword, Short Sword, Unarmed Strike, Greatsword, Dagger. Additionally, if you know a maneuver from any discipline you may treat any weapon from that discipline that you are proficient in as being associated to the Broken Blade.

While the discipline is open to Warblades, Crusaders, and Swordsages, it is the third by far who are most likely to take maneuvers in this discipline. The nature of the discipline appeals to Swordsages due to its emphasis on taking an overarching view of the Sublime Way. Warblades who study this discipline frequently due so simply for the advantage the discipline gives to combating rival Warblades. Crusaders study the discipline for similar reasons although few Crusaders are able to reach the height of the discipline.

Many so-called Masters of Nine also study this Discipline, for obvious reasons. Indeed, some say that the first Masters of Nine were the apprentices who made this discipline.

Mechanically speaking, this makes Masters of Nine able to take maneuvers from this discipline as if it were one of the Nine.

A note about prerequisites: Maneuvers from The Broken Blade have a special set of prerequisites. In addition to requiring a certain number of maneuvers from The Broken Blade, maneuvers also require a certain number of maneuvers known from distinct other disciplines.

Maneuvers of the Broken Blade Discipline

 * To see the full, expanded description of every maneuver, click here.