News Files - Chi v Qi

In the comics, many different abilities are attributed to people tapping into their chi to achieve extreme feats. Yet, there are martial artists in those same comics who use pure training and chi to reach extreme physical feats without the fireballs and iron fists. With adding in themes such as Street Fighter, the water gets even muddier. For game purposes, we have opted to define the different abilities as being either Chi or Qi. These will not match the true definitions of these terms but are modified for game use as follows.

Chi is what everyone can access. It is something used in martial arts in the real world. They can focus their chi to help increase the strength of blows. This can be applied to breaking boards, bricks, or in combat with an opponent. In the comics, and on game, it is taken to levels that are beyond the real world, but it is still in essence drawing on their own physical energy to focus and achieve their goal. Yet, in most ways, these are still human characters. For example, Lady Shiva has her Jaguar Strike which can go through the skull of an opponent. Shang-Chi can punch holes through boulders. Yet these feats for the comics are still considered to be drawing on their chi. Iron Fist uses his Chi. His actual fist-of-iron is a metahuman ability he gained after his trial and slaying a dragon.

Qi is what we use to explain more spiritual or mystic energy that is a part of a person. Not all characters will have Qi. In fact, most will not. If a character has Qi, it is because somewhere in their bloodline has been a Homo Magi or magic user. While they are not magical characters, they do have some access thanks to that bloodline to tap into this Qi which gives them special abilities. This is apparent in characters like those from Street Fighter, where they have electrical or fire attacks. It also can apply to Shang-Chi who can make fireballs. It is what we will use to explain Wuxia type abilities as well. This allows us to differentiate why some extreme martial artists do not all have magic type abilities. It is that they don't have that Homo Magi in their genetic make-up. It is also used to explain why some of the characters may have a certain type of attack, while others do not. For example, the Guile Sonic Boom attack is specific to his genetic code. Another person cannot learn it, unless they are of the same bloodline. The Hadoken attacks of Ryu and Ken Masters are the same not because they learned the same technique from a master but somewhere far in the past, shared an ancestor who was Homo Magi.

Some things will fall under chi. Others will fall under qi. Staff will work with players to identify which we feel is more fitting for specific abilities when the applications come through.