Country of Origin: Crescent Empire (this School is only available to members of the Eyes of the Peacock, who may learn it for 25 HP)
Salon: Iskandar (Tiny)
Founded: 1361 A.V.

Description: A little over three centuries ago, the Caliphate of the Crescent Empire became the Sultanate, and the newly-minted Sultan Murakhan al’Tazir realized that have would need protection from his enemies: those outside the Empire and those within. To that end, he established the Eyes of the Peacock, a network of spies, enforcers, and investigators. The organization would need a leader, and the Sultan secretly assigned his most loyal bodyguard to that role.

The leader of the Eyes, his (or her) identity known only to the Sultan himself, realized that while stealth and subterfuge were the ideal, occasional violence would be necessary if an agent needed to remove a threat, escape from danger, or otherwise carry out an objective where his life could be at risk. A highly skilled Yael Swordswoman was brought in to develop a new signature style that would be taught only to the Eyes of the Peacock, and even then, only to agents that the leader deemed worthy. The leader of the Eyes picked a random servant in the palace and assigned his name to the new creation, the woman who developed the School was murdered to keep it an absolute secret, and Kamil began to slowly trickle out to the Sultan’s special police.

Kamil is a School based on a simple philosophy: win at all costs. This who use the School are in constant motion, circling their opponents and looking for the perfect opening to strike with the School’s signature scimitar (or a poke to the eyes, or a kick to the groin, or whatever). Designed to eliminate singular threats as well as groups of attackers, Kamil promotes flexibility of mind, body, and strategy: often, not even the Swordsman himself knows what he is going to do until he actually does it.

On the other hand, a series of aggressive attacks from an opponent will keep a Kamil Swordsman off-balance and less able to look for openings to exploit with an attack of his own. Then, when he is finally in a position to strike back, the Swordsman must shift his posture from defense to offense, providing a clue that an attack is imminent,

Basic Curriculum: Dirty Fighting, Fencing
Knacks: Bind (Fencing), Corps-á-Corps, Exploit Weakness (Kamil), Riposte (Fencing), Whirl (Fencing)

Apprentice: The Apprentice of Kamil has begun to learn the dirty tricks embraced by the School, and to use them in tandem with his scimitar. He never suffers an off-hand penalty for making an attack with any of the Knacks in his Dirty Fighting Skill. Furthermore, in any Phase where he has made a barehanded attack (of any kind), he receives a Free raise to his Attack Rolls using Attack (Fencing) until the end of the Phase.

Kamil has no connection to the Swordsman’s Guild of mainland Théah, but its practitioners are often required to learn multiple languages, and train extensively in linguistics and cryptography. As a result, the Apprentice receives either the Linguist Advantage or a two-point discount on the Master Linguist Advantage in lieu of Guild membership.

Journeyman: The Kamil Journeyman knows how to hook his fingers so that his Eye Gouges inflict lasting damage. Whenever the Journeyman successfully executes an Eye Gouge against an opponent in a well lit or dimly lit area, he reduces all of the victim’s rolls requiring hand-eye coordination by one Unkept Die (-1k0). He cannot reduce an opponent beyond a total of four Unkept Dice (-4k0). Penalties incurred by this technique disappear at the end of the Scene.

Master: Masters of Kamil have learned to integrate their dirty tricks with the use of their scimitars so effectively that they can perform a devastating combination attack using their Riposte Knack. After completing the Active Defense portion of the Riposte, the Master may choose to forego his rapier attack to attempt a Throat Strike against the target. He may take a number of additional Raises on his Attack Roll equal to the target’s Wits. If the attack with Raises is successful, no damage is inflicted, but the Master has grabbed his target by the throat and slipped behind him in the process.

This has two benefits. First, while using his target as a “human shield,” the TN to hit the Master is increased by ten. In addition, the target begins to suffer damage as if he were Drowning, and is considered Grappled. The target may attempt to escape the Grapple using either the Escape or Head Butt Knacks. The use of Head Butt is automatically successful; the Escape attempt takes the form of a Contested Roll between the target’s Brawn or Finesse (his choice) + Escape vs. the Master’s Brawn + Throat Strike. The Master is not required to add any Raises, but if he does, he may inflict another Round’s worth of Drowning damage to the target for every two Raises he takes on his roll.