Country of Origin: Bryn Bresail
Salon: None (the style is taught exclusively by the Muryan)
Founded: Unknown

Description: The Muryan are a species of diminutive Sidhe, known for a reckless love of combat second only to their love of music. Perpetually dancing along the border between the Seelie and Unseelie Courts, the Muryan find themselves on the front line when the Goodly Folke are thrust into war, and reveling alongside the Court’s most prominent figures during times of peace. Despite their small stature (few Muryan reach a height of three feet in their natural forms), Muryan are among the most gifted warriors to be found beyond the Veil, largely because they have incorporated their lack of height into a unique (and startlingly effective) fighting style.

The Muryan’s style is called Feadail, a Cymric word meaning “whistling,” both for the whistling of the Muryan’s blades as they spin through their attacks, and for the merry tunes they whistle as they gleefully carve up their opponents. Intended for use with a single knife, some of its practitioners prefer to use them in pairs, though the style offers no inherent training in doing so. Feadail attacks are graceful and precise, not to mention particularly vicious.

Because the style was developed (and is primarily used) by small combatants, its weaknesses are particularly easy to exploit. The style is entirely dependent on getting inside an opponent’s guard for a devastating attack. By keeping some degree of distance between himself and the Feadail fighter, an opponent severely limits that fighter’s options, and can prepare to defend himself (or worse, launch a counterattack) when the fighter begins to close the distance.

Basic Curriculum: Acrobat, Knife
Knacks: Exploit Weakness (Feadail), Lunge (Knife), Riposte (Knife), Tumbling, Whirl (Knife)

New Swordsman Knack: Tumbling. When sliding or rolling across the floor, or engaging in acrobatic tumbling, this is the Knack you use. This can be handy if you need to use an overturned table as momentary cover, or to slip under a descending wall. While sliding or rolling, you use this Knack as your Defense Knack. This is the same as the Tumbling Knack found in the Acrobat Skill, but it is considered a Basic Knack for students of the Feadail style.

Apprentice: The Muryan (and the handful of mortals with whom they have chosen to share their style) know that their stature can be used to their advantage, allowing them to slip in underneath the “tall folk’s” defenses and strike at vital areas. If a Feadail fighter has the Small Advantage, he gains an extra Unkept Die (+1k0) on damage rolls with a knife when he is fighting a regularly-sized (i.e., not Small) opponent. If his opponent has the Large Advantage, he gains an extra Kept Die (+1k1) instead. (Note that a “medium sized” Feadail fighter would still gain the Unkept Die on damage rolls against a Large opponent.)

Feadail is not sanctioned by the Swordsman’s Guild. Instead, Feadail Apprentices receive a free Rank in one of their Swordsman Knacks.

Journeyman: It has long been joked that the Muryan are “just as tall lying down,” but rather than taking offense, the minuscule Sidhe have embraced this concept and incorporated it into their fighting style. If a Feadail Journeyman has the Small Advantage, when he is lying prone, he may rise to his feet as part of an attack or an Active Defense without using an Action to do so, eliminating any penalties for being prone prior to making his roll.

Master: The movements of a Feadail Master are equal parts offense, acrobatics, and dance, combined in lethal (and deceptively graceful) attacks. Once per Round, the Master may spend two Actions (only one of which need be currently “legal”) to attempt such an attack. First, the Master must make a Finesse + Tumbling roll against a TN equal to the opponent’s TN to be hit. If this roll is successful, the Master may immediately make an unguarded attack; the TN for this attack is 5 (though the target may Actively Defend). Furthermore, if the Feadail Master has the Small Advantage, he can duck in and strike hard at a particularly vital area; if the opponent fails his Wound Check after such an attack, he suffers an additional Dramatic Wound for every ten points he fails the roll by, as if he had been damaged by a firearm.