Alright I've been watching too much kung fu for my own good lately and I'm going to make a monk, that said I'd like to spark a discussion on the four monk archetypes. I've never played a monk here but I hear they're quite different from Imperian's monks. What's different about the four classes?

The key difference is that they're parts of the four nations and thus inheriting the attitudes of those nations.

Secondary differences are in style which are demonstrated by their weapons. A tahto is a two-handed staff in which vibrations are imbued. Shofa are one-handed curved/hooked blade weapons. Nekai are hand-worn claws. Jakari are chains.

There's also the differences between Harmony (emphasizing spiritual connections between the body, the mind, and the elements) and Stealth (emphasizing, well, stealth).

They're hilariously OP right now like Imperian's Monks. My suggestion is hold out until the nerfs go through just to make sure you're going Monk just for the part of being a Monk, instead of being accused of being a class that is complete lulz to fight right now.

Overview of the Monks in few words, however:

Shofangi - Serenwilde Snuggle Monks. Use Knives. Like Bugs. Insta-Slitlock

Tahtetso - Celest Monks. Use Staffs. Wtf where did my myrtle pipe go? Like Bugs

Ninjakari - Magnagora Monks. Use Chains. Lol guild drama. Hate bugs

Nekotai - Glomdoring Monks. Use Claws. Emo and HELP NEKOTAI is all of its members. Hate bugs.

Tael hates that monks are all up in his warrior afflicts, stealing his glory.

Those monks are still tempting me with their awsomeness. I like the RP concept a lot. Just can't do the Tahties because I'm ridiculously prideful IC, and that means leaving Celest, which I'm loathe to do.

I really like the Nekotai the most out of all four, conceptually. However, my two favorite mechanically are the Tahtetso and the Shofangi.

All Monks pick up Acrobatics or Psychometabolism as their tertiary, but they are paired off based on the origins of their teachings to gain their secondary skillset:

Shofangi and the Tahtetso have their kata specialties deep in the origins of the Kepheran teachings, and thus they gain Harmony as a secondary. It's was a pretty cracked out skill, when I had it and I really really liked it. It's hard to explain what it is, in Imperian's terms - but it's pretty nice as it gives you a handful of special effects via mantras, and mixing certain mantras of certain elements in certain locations (body/heart/mind) yield more special effects. Some are very often cried over (lol mantra wind)

Nekotai and Ninjakari, however, have their roots in the Illithoid teachings - thus, they gain Stealth as a secondary. It's got a handful of cute skills, a couple little espionage tools, and some nice utility - but in my opinion doesn't compare to Harmony. I have less experience with this skillset - I'm sure a Mag or Glom monk can give you a better view of it than I can.

I'm the other way around, I love stealth far more than Harmony. Harmony was set and forget. Stealth was just alot of fun.

Shofangi and Nekotai also have their roots in the Nature Spirits.
Nekotai was taught to the illithoid by Grandmother Scorpion, while I believe Shofangi is influenced by bulls.

And I like Stealth a lot too! Truss sounds like a lot of RP fun with kidnapping, the listening on other people's aetherchannels sound awesome, and the golden mask thing is just delicious. I'm just confused as to why commune monks would need rooftops. I mean, no city skill has climb trees, right?

Acrobatics has tree climbing. Also, the Nekotai have rooftops to spy on those city scum!

Also, there is no Great Bull Spirit, I think. And since Nekotai came about pre-grandmother Scorpion, I think their ideas were astral trained.

If you join the Ninjakari, this is a mandatory training video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jRJZWHyqy4

Well, okay, maybe not, but in my opinion it should be.

I recall an event news post stating that Grandmother Scorpion had taught the illithoid Nekotai. Lemme go find it.

That may be the case, but being in the Nekotai before the Scorpion Caves existed, they were trained from nature and Astral.

That's correct.

We've made several attempts to get the Shofangi similarly integrated SOMEHOW but it's failed unilaterally up until now, despite promises we'd get help with it it never actually turned up so our attempts are just kind of sat there. We're "related" to bull...somehow...but that's it. (P.S it's not necessarily a nature spirit...oh yeah, and the Astral thing isn't clear either, it's just coincidence as far as the game lore is concerned.)

Shofangi? Maybe. For Nekotai it was actually mentioned in a GHELP.

I think they just made that assumption. Obviously scorpions are where spider is on the zodiac, and where Gloom astros astroglide to, but there's no actual concrete reason to believe the Spirit scorpion and the Astral sphere, scorpion, are related beyond said coincidence. Of course, theories to that effect are fine.

Actually, meant the style was derived from Astral, no relation for the Spirit and the sphere as far as I know.

Pretty sure that Grandmother Scorpion taught the illithoid Nekotai in exchange for a psionic shield (the same one which kept them hidden from us for so long). The illithoid then passed this style on to the guild.

From Events post 129:
At the same time, Madame Yoraghu of the Nekotai called the
people of Glomdoring together and led them to the Skarch, explaining
that the time has now come to honour their obligation to protect the
Scorpion's people from harm, as they were those who had first taught the
illithoid the arts of Nekotai in return for a shield that hid them from
detection until now.

This is my favourite part about the Nekotai. I'm pretty sure you all know about how a lot of Chinese martial art styles came about because pugilists were inspired by the movements of an animal/nature. At least, the legends of how they came about, that is. I dunno how much you guys know about Chinese martials arts, but there really are styles called Monkey Fist, Tiger Style and even Praying Mantis. If you've watched Kung Fu Panda, the five animals really have martial arts style influenced by them.

Yeah, I was there before that and everything was about assassins drawing inspiration from different insects.

And they were wrong.