Kunoichi

Kunoichi (Japanese: くノ一) is the term for a female (modernized simplified term) ninja (previously meaning male or female [kunoichi no jutsu]) or practitioner of ninjutsu (ninpo).

Etymology

The term is thought to derive from the names of characters that resemble the three strokes in the kanji character for woman (女, onna); said in the order they are written: ku (く) - no (ノ) - ichi (一). Early literary quotes include Enshū Senkuzuke Narabi Nihyaku In (遠舟千句附并百韵) (1680) as well as Maekuzukeshū (前句付集) (1716), which specifically associates the word with the kanji 女 supporting the etymology. The "くノ一" writing requires the use of one character from each Japanese character set — first hiragana, then katakana, then kanji. While hiragana and kanji can exist in the same word, katakana generally cannot appear in conjunction with the others. There are exceptions to this, for example in "ゴミ箱" and "消しゴム".

History

Female ninja are mentioned in Bansenshukai, a 17th-century Japanese book compiling the knowledge of the clans in the Iga and Kōga regions devoted to the training of ninja. According to this document, the primary function of female ninja was espionage, finding legitimate service positions in the households of enemies, to accumulate knowledge by gaining trust or overhearing conversations. One historically accepted example of this is Mochizuki Chiyome, the 16th century noblewoman with ninja roots who was tasked by the warlord Takeda Shingen with recruiting women to create a secret network of a few hundred female spies.

Black Desert

Black Desert (Korean: 검은사막) is an upcoming sandbox-oriented massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Korean video game developer Pearl Abyss. The game has been in development since 2010, and entered closed beta testing (CBT) in October 2013. The game uses Pearl Abyss' own "Black Desert" engine specifically created to handle the fast rendering required for its seamless world and large-scale castle sieges.Black Desert will be released using "free-to-play" model in Korea, Japan and Russia, although no further details of the business model or revenue generation have been announced, while in Europe and North America the game will use "buy-to-play" model.

Gameplay

Setting

Black Desert takes place in a high fantasy setting and revolves around the conflict between two rival nations, the Republic of Calpheon and the Kingdom of Valencia.

Combat

The combat in Black Desert is action based, requiring manual aiming similar to those found in first-person shooters. Skills can be activated through use of combos. With the lack of a healing class players must rely on well timed dodging or blocking as well as the use of potions. Players can use the mouse and keyboard or gamepad for navigation and combat.