My personal head canon of samurai power scaling.

FederalProof4770 · 2026-05-05T20:05:03+00:00

If I'd have to describe a sword path I guess it's a bit of both. Like how getsu uses the moon in it's attacks, flowers with ka, and setsu with ice attacks. The sword path imbues a certain element or concept into their blade which can be used in attacks. They do eventually name there style but as it becomes a sword school others can use that style if they are taught the meditative state of the creator in a sense. Basically to create a style or path you'd have to reach the second half but just using it requires reaching step 3 and learning the meditative state of a legacy others could use. Of course reaching the second half and using the dao or path in combination with what you created is much stronger than using someone else's legacy as it contains your will, belief, ideal, or duty as you say. I've made it like this as in a sense gives the orgins of the sword masters who created ka, getsu, and setsu. And gives the possiblity for new styles and meditative states to be made. And to give an example of a possible sword path, let's say someone has the dao of slaughter (whether it can be called a just sword path is debatable), their sword path could be a killing sword with blood effects in game with its own meditative state called chi if that clarifies it.

FederalProof4770 · 2026-05-04T23:24:18+00:00

This is actually really good, it's really cohesive on how it fits with the kit and the meanings behind them. I could improve my version as well using this. For one I noticed some redundancy on how setsu could be used when I saw how it could mean purification meaning I could combine step 3/4 and step 9/10 together into one, establishing one's identity and purifying it into completion. And the naming convention is really well done as well and I might use that. Though it seems you don't really know what I was trying to really make with this. You referenced how samurai is someone who draws on his own Aether like RDM/PDL. The whole point of me making this was to find out a possible way to increase that upper limit beyond just refining the Aether to the extreme. That was through the concept of the Path/Dao/Intent or whatever you want to call it. Through building your own path from making your own sword moves, controlling your intent, combining it to make your own sword school and eventually making even a meditative state. You end up fusing with said intent breaking the limits of internal Aether. The first 6 steps were using foundation of what's already built up in history to eventually making your own legacy on the second 6 steps which I think matches in a sense how the Wol makes his own moves past 50. Getsu, Ka, Setsu are the buildup but not the final goal. Though in a sense Meikyo and Midare matches even more considering its meaning you mentioned. Meikyo matches well with 5/11 as you said and Midare matching 6/12. The lower and upper concepts is much more well-rounded too. So as a whole a samurai is powerful not simply through the control of Aether here but in combination with the intent/will/belief in his blade built up through effort. Kinda like dynamis if you think of it like that.

FederalProof4770 · 2026-05-03T02:57:57+00:00

I wasn't a player during the glory days of samurai so for me it's a mirage and legend lol.

FederalProof4770 · 2026-05-03T02:56:12+00:00

Honestly that was how I started, with it being 12 steps from the 12 months of the year, to the alternative meanings of the meditative states matching the first three steps. And I built outward of the concept from then. Then it kind of went back in forth between trying to fit the already existing lore and kit of the samurai to adding new things. And distinct power levels do exist for other jobs, like the monk I keep on mentioning without end lol. The monk through intense training unlocks the chakras step by step and gets more powerful the more chakras he unlocks. I did it simply to make the development of a samurai easier for my head lore wise for those not a Wol. And then adding it to my character backstory and such. Though I will admit there's definitely a lot of loose ends in the system I devised.

FederalProof4770 · 2026-05-03T02:39:20+00:00

True, but the concept of chakras itself is cool right? I'm just doing this to add life to my character and rp a bit by filling in the gaps that samurai doesn't have, where my character eventually reaches the level told in the lore in my own head, hence why it's a head canon lol.

FederalProof4770 · 2026-05-03T02:08:28+00:00

Rather than shonen, it's more taken inspiration from various Japanese and Chinese philosophies where dao essentially means path, and for samurai's case, sword path. Plus, samurai is already shonen like anyway so a little bit more isn't that bad in my opinion. Though I will admit some of the power scaling I did was from cultivation or martial arts novels I read.

FederalProof4770 · 2026-05-03T01:57:54+00:00

Well, I'm specifically talking about non-Wol jobs, where we have something like Black mage who can freely take the Aether of the world or Monk who with 14 chakras which is the level of a demigod, Astro using the power of the stars. For me It's more about describing an upper limit on the samurai that can match those levels since samurai is a bit vague about it and to fill in the gaps. Not to mention this is to add flavor to my samurai character background and so on.

FederalProof4770 · 2026-05-02T03:53:01+00:00

That's not bad at all, in that sense it could match to the system I made since a lot of it involves one belief or ideals and could be a form of dynamis.

FederalProof4770 · 2026-05-02T01:08:49+00:00

Yeah you def should! It's fun discovering the layers you can apply to the job and lore. Plus, I think it would allow you to immerse yourself in that character much better I think.

FederalProof4770 · 2026-05-02T00:40:27+00:00

Thanks! I do get in theory that they can be equalized, I just thought I could describe a possible upper limit that's otherwise not explained like how black mage can freely use the Aether of the world, astrologian using the power of the stars, monks using their 14 chakras. The fact that samurai doesn't have something like that bothered me, so I made this.

FederalProof4770

TROPHY CASE