"The Cast: The Martial Compound"

  The Martial Compound, for lack of a better name, would be introduced in the first story.  It might be alluded to in the second story, but the action will come in the third story.

  It started in ancient times.  To borrow Earth terms, it was a distant dojo where the best sensei would teach any who wanted to learn.  He did not focus on a particular style, and he did not have a particular regimen.

  His method was to do his own training, and anyone who wanted to learn would simply follow his example.  His belief was that the best lessons taught are the ones not taught, but discovered.

  It's similar to telling a child that if you keep giving them the answers, instead of them working them out for themselves, then they'll never learn.

  The people not patient enough, or that could not understand would eventually leave, but those that stayed would become very skilled.  Those would leave when they felt the time was right.  A few had no reason to leave and were interested in further self-discovery.

  Eventually, the sensei died.  Without an example to follow, things became a little chaotic, but they settled into the idea of simply continuing to train and learning from each other.

  After some years, the most skillful people were reaching a snail's pace in their learning.  They decided that they needed someone highly skilled to teach them new things.

  They discussed what qualities they wanted in this person, and in a combined effort, they opened a portal to Miamoto Musashi.

  The language barrier was not much of a problem, because they manage to convey to him their desires and their methods.  Previously they had trained in some weapons, but the bulk of the attention was on unarmed skills.

  Musashi offered an increased attention to swordsmanship, not to mention introducing a better style of sword.  Also, this drew more people to the dojo.

  They managed to let him know about the time difference, so he was willing to spend a few years with them, but he eventually left, leaving his sword behind to inspire them.

  They continued training on their own, and more and more people came.  As centuries passed, the training area became more like a city.  People lived in tents, and the majority of the people would spend virtually every waking hour in some sort of training.

  Most of the people had unrivaled dedication.  They also found they had no need to speak to one another.  Newcomers would talk, but only fellow newcomers would ever talk back.  You either graduated towards not speaking, yourself, or you decided to leave because it wasn't for you.

  Your sparing partner was anyone who was available.  In order to make the most of your training, you never stayed with the same partner for very long.  Everyone was both teacher and student to everyone else.

  Many of the best warriors, including Sensha and Grom, had spent time training there, though Sensha much more than Grom, and the place became very famous for hosting the most skillful martial talent on the planet.  They were always safe from any battles for territory that occurred in the neutral zone.  Even the five kingdoms knew not to mess with them.

  Individuals as well as the kingdoms have tried to hire them, individually or collectively, to fight on their behalf, but the truly dedicated would never agree.  The best you could hope for would be either those who left to be warriors, etc..., or the dropouts.

  One goal the dedicated people strove for is to never have to use armor of any sort.  It has been said that there is nothing in the world more dangerous than one of these guys in nothing but a loincloth.

  Stories have been told of one of these guys being in some town or village, eating at a tavern.  Because of temperature, or some other reason, the person is wearing a lot of clothes or even some armor (which is less likely), and some warrior thug wants to push people around.

  The thug is pretty skilled, and is giving the guy a pretty good run.  At a pause, the guy starts taking his clothes off, and then proceeds to impressively own the thug.  If they start taking their clothes off, then they started taking you very seriously, because clothing is just a hindrance.

  As a note, there are a good many females there, but most of the population is male.  There's no fraternization, though, except maybe among the newbies, but even that is rare.