I must say that I agree with Paradox on this one. However my char isn't tailored to combat by any means so the decision does not effect me. I did a bit of reasearch online and found that martial arts had been introduced to the European countries by Asian traveling circuses. Of course they did not teach the art to just anyone. Forms of martial arts that could be seen in a traveling circuses would be arts such as Karate and Judo.
[blockquote]Another interesting piece of information was that of European martial arts. German, English, etc. Such martial arts dated as far back 14th century. A majority of old manuscripts found deal with swordmanship. But there are also manuscripts that describe grappling, hand to hand combat, weilding of a knife, etc. These two sites I found that describe European martial arts. Do not be disappointed since it is very different from Asian martial arts, however there are similarities in many respects. [/blockquote]
http://www.thearma.org or http://www.aemma.org
[blockquote]Also, I wanted to add that many well to do schools such as Eton had a Master of Arms. Someone who taught the students how to weild different styles of weaponry as well as hand to hand. There were even schools dedicated to the very art of weopnry and such. Fencing schools being a prime example. I hope these tidbits helped some in assisting in maybe creating new fighting style names or whatever comes to mind for you all. [/blockquote]