Lucius

Looking over the thread, images I posted years ago of Gordale Scar and Malham Cove in Yorkshire never showed up. Gordale Scar is reputedly Tolkien's inspiration for Rivendell. The two locations are within walking distance of each other.
 
Gordale Scar

 
Malham Cove

 
To these I might add Troller's Gill, near Appletreewick in Yorkshire, home on local folklore to a Black Dog known as the Barghest (yes, that's the one that gives the name to the fantasy monster).

 
Also near Appletreewick, The Strid is a narrow, low gorge where the River Wharfe narrows to a point where it's possible to jump across - but people have died trying. The river here is some 30 feet deep, undercuts the rocks, moves with the speed of an express train, and the rocks around are slippy. Fall and you die. Strid Woods are a site of special scientific interest - an untouched upland oak forest. Half an hour's walk downstream of The Strid are the ruins of Bolton Abbey. From the far side of the Wharfe to the abbey, a path leads up to the Valley of Desolation, which is actually quite lovely - it's retained the name since a sotrm a couple of hundred years ago blew the trees down. They grew back.

The Strid

 
Strid Woods - looking downstream from The Strid.

 
Bolton Abbey. I've ancestors buried in that graveyard.

 
Posforth Gill, Valley of Desolation

 
Keep heading up the Valley of Desolation, and you'll climb Barden Fell to the natural viewpoint of Simon's Seat, with views over Upper Wharfedale.

The Drummer Boy can beat his drum but Three Kings beat a Drummer Boy.
 
Carol Combat:
 
Burnett vs O'Connor
 
Lucius Alexander
 
The palindromedary says the winner takes on Danvers

The honorable arts of sElf Defense?
 
As for the original questions: Yes I'm sure the prevalence of martial arts in modern action-adventure media have a lot to do with the popularity of the Monk class in D&D. No, an "Asian" mystic martial artist likely doesn't belong in your setting - but that does NOT mean a mystic martial artist doesn't fit. Or a non-mystic martial artist, or a non-martial artist mystic. You can link the class to a monastic tradition if that seems to fit, or don't if your setting has no monastic traditions or if you don't see a reason to have such a mandatory link.
 
You can have something like the ancient Greek Pankration. Elves, if you have them, or some pacifist cult, if you have such, might have developed techniques for restraining and subduing opponents without harming them. Abilities unlocked by ascetic practices and/or physical disciplines and/or meditative or yogic exercises might be associated with something like a chivalric order, or passed on in a guru to student / master to apprentice fashion or be closely guarded mysteries of some secret society.
 
I am sure something LIKE a "Monk" in the D&D sense can work even in a pseudo-European quasi-medieval setting, but the real question is - do you want to do the work of creating and balancing such a character type? For the answer to that, I suggest you consider who you are doing the work for. If one or more of your players really wants a "mystic martial artist" that gives a reason to invest in it, if none of them do and you don't plan to use it for any NPCs, maybe you can skip it. Or leave it as an open question to be revisited if the campaign moves in that direction or someone turns up who DOES want that.
 
Lucius Alexander
 
Order of the Palindromedary

It was pointed out to me today that the Christmas movie "Home Alone" is basically a remake of the Christmas movie "Die Hard" for kids.
 
Yippie-ki-yay, Wet Bandits.

This says it all, and it's so obviously true.
 
 

W p p s u o t i f n o m e?
I a a h.
 
LA
 
The palindromedary hopes the point is made but will provide translations upon request.

Depends on who the someone else is. 
 
Better sequel: 2010 or terminator 2?
 

Not to denigrate the holy, but I cannot express the gravity of the situation if mass ceased to have any effect.
 
Caffeine delivery systems:
 
Tea vs Coffee vs Cola
 
Lucius Alexander
 
Tagline delivery system: palindromedary

Obviously you're a light sleeper....
 
Lucius Alexander
 
Napping on a palindromedary

Obviously you're a light sleeper....
 
Lucius Alexander
 
Napping on a palindromedary

If you're going to comment, please actually read what was said. Look again.
 
 
See it now?
 
Lucius Alexander
 
The palindromedary says I have little room to talk and often fail to read as thoroughly as I should.

Meanwhile, funding for children's health insurance expired 45 days ago, and net neutrality expires in less than 30.

I once based a fantasy ranger character on Ranger Gord from the Red Green Show.
 
Lucius Alexander
 
I often base a tagline on a palindromedary

A disk of electrum inscribed with five words, each of five characters, arranged in a square such that it reads the same left to right, right to life, top to bottom, or bottom to top. A scholar would be needed to translate it from the dead language in which it is written. It is an incantation for evoking a palindromedary. To revoke the palindromedary, recite the same incantation backwards.
 
Next up: The Coven of Dy'os in the Valician Hills
 
 
Lucius Alexander
 
S A T O R
A R E P O
T E N E T
O P E R A
R O T A S

I once based a fantasy ranger character on Ranger Gord from the Red Green Show.
 
Lucius Alexander
 
I often base a tagline on a palindromedary

I once based a fantasy ranger character on Ranger Gord from the Red Green Show.
 
Lucius Alexander
 
I often base a tagline on a palindromedary

The Stepford Bride of Frankenstein?

"Next: The Beast of the Green Tower"
The Green Tower overlooks the town of Glade.  Every dawn a humanoid Beast comes out of the door shouts threatens against any who would trespass in the tower, hunt any animals nearby, domestic or not, and deposits a jeweled dagger on a hand sized flat rock near the entrance.  On the rock is written "To be taken by those who wish to spend the night.  Capable of killing the Beast.".  The town elders offer huge rewards to those who  kill the beast.  The dagger dissolves at dawn the next day if the owner hasn't spent the night in the tower.  Many have tried to kill the Beast  but all have ended up dead the next morning.  Don't try and take the dagger and sell it either, the locals are very wise to that trick.    
 
The dagger is valuable but is not actually better against the beast, the STONE is of course, causing massive damage and spending the beast flying with each blow.  If the beast is killed the dagger doesn't dissolve the next day and it's worth a small fortune.  If however someone knocks on the door and asks to spend the night the Beast asks why he should allow it.  If the person makes a good case for hospitality or offers decent payment the Beast agrees.  If the character either takes the rock or is entertaining the Beast will be a good host a box full of money equal to the value of the domestic beasts he has eaten who is owed how much money for them.  If the guest pays the owners the money the paper turns into a character reference.  Seeing this , even if the viewer can't read it, makes people more trusting of the bearer leading them to consider them for jobs, confide in them and be skeptical of accusations against them.  In game terms consider it about a +4 reputation (people who've seen the  paper). 

I think a lot of the effort has been focused on the local and state level for some time now, even during Obama's terms.
 
While a few national organizations seem to be behind most of these "grass roots" efforts, most of the legislation I've seen doesn't really seem aimed at preventing public mass shootings. (I'm making a distinction between a psychopath shooting up a crowd of mostly strangers for whatever reason, vs. people gunning down other people they have a more personal or professional beef with, since those seem to have differing root causes, and the latter isn't really best addressed by restricting weapons, IMO.)
 
I think the current approach at state and local levels is to rebrand  "gun control" as "gun safety," so a lot of the legislative efforts have focused on universal background checks, removing firearms from domestic abusers or other psychologically impaired people, or safe storage. The first two having been passed in WA lately, for example.
 
Restricting access to weapons may help curb the effectiveness of mass murderers. I think the most logical place to start is uniform crime reporting. This is in the context of local/state efforts. We currently have a reasonable list of disqualifying criteria for gun purchases. The other part of the equation there is limiting the number of people who slip through the cracks because of bad reporting.
 
Restricting access via banning features is fairly futile. Humans are good at engineering around restrictions that are based on strict technical definitions. That's how bump stocks became a thing. Because technically, you still are pressing the trigger one time per shot. The problem with going to a much broader definition for banning categories of weapons has two obvious problems that I see: First, is public backlash. It's a hard sell and you have to ask if the resources could be used more effectively elsewhere in the short term. Second is that any restriction has to allow for firearms suitable for self defense. While you could say that nobody "needs" (a word that shouldn't be used as a qualifier for restricting any right, IMO, but beside the point) a semi-auto rifle with a large magazine capacity for self defense, you're stuck with the simple fact that shooting non-resisting victims is easier to accomplish than self defense. The Virginia Tech shooter used a Ruger .22 LR pistol with ten round magazines, which is a firearm that wouldn't usually be thought of as something to ban, and which is considered poor for self defense usage. Whether  you agree with Heller or not, the decision does state that the 2nd is an individual right and that self defense is a part of that right.
 
Uniform reporting at the local and state level (to the FBI, who already maintains crime records) would seem to be the best first step both in terms of effectiveness in crime prevention and in terms of being an effort that could be successful. Even our current bunch in DC would be hard pressed to argue convincingly against simply making paperwork more  uniform.

Today in lab, with a student who didn't want to wear safety goggles.
 
Student: It's hard to see in these things!
Me: It's harder to see when you're blind.

Sounds like a sicks sicks sicks joke.
Don't stop there - do the player characters go to the fey world or what?
Lucius Alexander
The palindromedary says they could have a fay old time

Cornish child finds sword in pool that legend says was the last resting place of Excalibur.
 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4848540/Schoolgirl-pulls-4ft-sword-Cornish-lake.html
 
Lucius Alexander
 
American finds palindromedary in tagline
 

Only if oars are on sail.
 
Lucius Alexander
 
The palindromedary accuses me of being naughtical.

Admiral Nelson was just under 6'1" tall but his statue in Trafalgar Square is just over 18' tall; that's Horatio of 3 to 1.