What is the official name of the Monk martial art?

[Adachi452]

Does anyone know the actual name of the martial art Monk's use in the game? Like Dancer's fighting style is called Kriegstanz...What is Monks called?

[MikkoAkure]

The order and religion itself is called The Fist of Rhalgr, which has two sects, the Sect of Light and the Sect of Shadow. Then there's the forms opo-opo, raptor, and coeurl.

I think that's the most we know.

[TheMightyMollusk]

The player's version is also mixed with Ul'dahn pugilism. It becomes a plot point in the Stormblood monk quests.

[Kranel_San]

The player's version is also mixed with Ul'dahn pugilism. It becomes a plot point in the Stormblood monk quests.

Lorewise, every job is a mix of something because it's the "adventuring" style. I forgot where this has been mentioned but I think it was the Dragoon SB questline.

[Cleretic]

Lorewise, every job is a mix of something because it's the "adventuring" style. I forgot where this has been mentioned but I think it was the Dragoon SB questline.

Dragoon is the first time a skill is directly called out as not part of the practiced style, but rather something that you as an adventuring outsider have concocted. (These days that honor is given to Battle Litany, but I don't know if it's been shifted around over time.) Over time every job hits this point at some stage, and a lot of the level 80 job quests mention it.

Realistically some jobs might've hit that point earlier (Dark Knight had definitely started making things up in Stormblood somewhere), and some possibly later (frankly I have no idea where Machinist got that chainsaw), but eventually the WoL is inventing new stuff all of their own. So while on paper the WoL Monk's particular style could've once been described as 'Ala Mhigan Light Sect-Influenced Ul'Dahn Pugilism' or somesuch, after a point we're as codifiable in our style as Ran'jit is--which is to say, putting a label on it no longer describes or helps, because it's just 'the WoL's martial art' that nobody else knows.

[Vyrerus]

To be more direct, Heustienne makes commentary on the WoL's DRG techniques being so much more focused on force and power than typical DRG techniques, even pondering what we had to fight that required so much strength. That's in the lead up to Battle Litany, though the entire HW arc for DRG says that we're mentoring her/ourselves at that point in that school of fighting.

On topic, the Monks of the Fist of Rhalgr actually practiced many different types of martial arts including the armed ones, as evidenced by the Monk spirits in Temple of the Fist wielding spears/swords etc.

As far as the hand to hand aspect goes, in principle it is most similar to Chung-Kuo chuan. Pugilism is like Sanda or Kung Fu.

It's been years since I leveled Monk, but iirc, it's stated during the Stormblood questline that Ul'dahn Pugilism was a style created to specifically combat Fist of Rhalgr Monks without unlocked Chakras or believing in its ideology. (also god, I really miss Howling Fist). It's one of those things that FFXIV is constantly guilty of telling and not showing, because we never see the true difference reflected in the gameplay.

Like, the best we got is the fact that Monk in HW unlocks a buncha purely aether based moves. Elixir Field, Forbidden Chakra, Tornado Kick etc. But of course, since there has to be filler GCDs, all of our Monk opponents are still going through the same True Strike, Bootshine, Snap Punch sorts of techniques.

[Brightamethyst]

The way they worked pugilism into the monk quests was so good.

[Dikatis]

It's been years since I leveled Monk, but iirc, it's stated during the Stormblood questline that Ul'dahn Pugilism was a style created to specifically combat Fist of Rhalgr Monks without unlocked Chakras or believing in its ideology. (also god, I really miss Howling Fist). It's one of those things that FFXIV is constantly guilty of telling and not showing, because we never see the true difference reflected in the gameplay.

Nah, it's the Corpse Brigade that's specifically trained in anti-monk combat as part of Theodoric's paranoid purge of the Fist of Rhalgr for its influence and potential to unseat him as ruler of Ala Mhigo. Ul'dahn pugilism was founded by a bloodsands fighter named Cornelia who dominated the armed gladiators and thaumaturges in the ring with nothing but a pair of cesti. People began clamoring to see more of her and she used her funds to found the Puglists' Guild, which continues to be contracted as bodyguards to the Platinum Mirage.

Outlandish details aside, I have an inkling as to the identity of those who set upon you. They are the selfsame crew that razed the Temple of the Fist: the Corpse Brigade. Trained in counter-monk combat, they served the King of Ruin as his personal guard─though personal agents of destruction would be more accurate. But when their liege fell, they followed in their turn, becoming overqualified bandits.