Tonguez says
Personally I think this (fusangite adds: defining Europe as the continent of Europe) takes an overly limited view of what constitutes 'Europe' and what kinds of people could be found in Europe during the DnD era (late medieval/early renaisance imho).
For instance the Moors were in Spain providing a link to the Middle East (Othello the Hashashin!) not only that but Turkey has long been associated with Europe.
We know that the Crusades ranged into the Middle East - anyone remember the character Nasir from Robin of Sherwood (TV prog.)
You also have the Mongol Invasion of Eastern Europe and reaching almost as far as Vienna before the Great Khans death. What if Ghenghis Khan hadn't died and the Mongols had pushed on into Western Europe (thats what happened imc)....
Still during this 'Mongol' era you have Marco Polo (and co.s) travels across the silk road to China - really in a fantasy world why couldn't this happen the other direction and allow Chinese traders to come to Europe
Yes. But in every one of the cases you cite, Europeans did not view this particular part of 'the Orient' as part of their world. Nowhere am I arguing that Europe was isolated from the rest of the world. I'm simply arguing that Asian culture was not European culture -- not that Asian culture was
unknown to European culture.
Even if I accept everything you say unconditionally, Monks, by your own admission, would be essentially aliens in European culture -- strange emigrants from other, Eastern cultures. All I was arguing was that the monk, as described in the core rules, was alien to European culture. As far as I can tell, all you're doing in your post is agreeing with me.
As to the specifics of the claims you make, Ccamfield is correct in stating that this idea of lightness and the emphasis on unarmed combat is not part of Muslim civilization. Thus, although the Assassin prestige class is easily combatible with the medieval Muslim world, the Monk class is not. Similarly, there is no record of the Mongols adopting any of the Chinese ideas of martial arts. The region which became the Khanate of the Golden Horde and later, Russia, while sending cavalry levies to China, never imported any of the Chinese philosophies -- Daoists and Buddhists would be as hard to find in medieval Russia as in any other area of Europe.
Furthermore, as I should have said in my original post, calling the class 'Monk' makes integrating this martial artist class into European fantasy all the more difficult because there existed in medieval Europe a group of people called monks who bore absolutely no resemblance to the individuals described as monks in the core rules. Neither the mendicant nor the cloistered regular clergy had a skill set that bears the slightest resemblance to monks; depending on what sort of monks they were, Paladins, Clerics, Bards and Rogues all serve as better models of this particular ability set.
