Any skill or ability that only a select few know how to/can use, from magic to martial arts to metallurgy techniques. Even the art
itself might be unknown to the world at large, but the crux of the trope is that the know-how to use it is limited to a relatively isolated group or person. Some Secret Arts aren't even particularly jealously guarded and only remain secret via their sheer obscurity.
Sometimes the technique is similar to
Lost Technology being a
Supernatural Martial Arts techniques,
magical spells or just
bread-making techniques that were invented eons ago but have been lost/buried/forgotten/not quite destroyed for a variety of reasons.
Perhaps their
civilization collapsed or these techniques were simply were too powerful and/or dangerous and needed to be
sealed away the point is no one has seen and/or heard about them in a very long time. They will always however be superior to their modern counterpart which will often make them the subject of a lengthy search quest by heroes or villains to further the plot.
Usually, one of the benefits of joining
The Order. Can be (or encompass) the
Dangerous Forbidden Technique.
The Dark Arts are often this due to being outlawed. Often taught by a type I or III
Obsolete Mentor.
Compare
Supernatural Martial Arts,
Super Empowering,
Only The Knowledgable May Pass, and
The Chosen Many. Contrast
Everyone Is A Super.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime
- Triangle Heart 3: The Fuwa-ryuu sword style, exclusive to the Takamachi family.
- Naruto has a few forbidden Jutsu sealed away in scrolls kept heavily guarded due to them being either Dangerous Forbidden Techniques or The Dark Arts. The series also has Secret Jutsu, which are usually carefully guarded techniques passed down a clan as part of their Theme Deck.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series' explanation for why nobody could summon Exodia until Yami did: "This game makes no sense and nobody could figure out how to do it!"
- The Hokuto no Ken in Fist of the North Star, a series of seven punches that results in the instant death of the opponent, is known only to Kenshiro and Raoh.
- This is actually enforced by the practitioners of the style, as Hokuto Shinken is only allowed to have one successor.
- Rokushiki from One Piece.
- In Fairy Tail the dragon slayers all have Secret Arts for example Natsu's "Crimson Lotus: Exploding Flame Blade", Gajeel's "Karma Demon: Iron God Sword", or Wendy's "Shattering Light: Sky Drill".
Film
- Star Wars: The Force, though the Star Wars Expanded Universe shows that the Jedi Order doesn't have quite as strict a monopoly on Force abilities as they'd perhaps like.
- Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique from Kill Bill which even Bill was surprised was taught to someone else by Pai Mei.
Literature
- The Destroyer: Sinanju. Only two people in the world know it.
- Within the first hundred or so books or so (literally; its a long series), we've run across a few others. In the history of the Korean village the art's home to, there have been a few rogue students and at least one second son who received surreptitious training and chose self-exile. In fact, Sinanju actually turns out to be in Remo's genetic heritage... but still, it's a pretty well-kept secret and there are probably at most three masters of it alive at any given time.
- Discworld's Lu-Tze. Deja fu. Of course the monks don't know it, he hasn't taught them!
- Earth's Children: The Sharamudoi people have a secret technique for making chamois skin very soft and pliable, and only members of their cave are allowed to know it. This is done for economic reasons—soft chamois is a valuable commodity and other tribes trade things they want for it.
- In the Young Wizards series, every entity in existence (people, planets, universes, etc) has a "kernel", a wadded-up line of symbols from the Language of Magic which both describes and is the laws by which that entity operates. Since letting any random wizard who felt like it alter a planet's kernel would be a Bad Idea, the knowledge and training of how to manipulate kernels is provided on a strict need-to-know basis. On any given planet populated by sentient beings, there's probably only one or two wizards who can do kernel manipulation.
Tabletop Games
- This extends to the entire field of mechanics in Warhammer 40 K, where basic repair procedures are turned into complex rituals (burning incense before oiling a gear, for example). The techpriests get mighty miffed when people get stuff working without their assistance.
Video Games
- Dragon Age: The Templar's anti-magic abilities are exclusive to them among the Ferelden warriors. Also, Blood Magic.
- The Elder Scrolls: Necromancy tends to become this in times and places when it is illegal.
- Street Fighter: The Ansatsuken fighting style
- In The Legend Of Zelda Twilight Princess (and possibly other Zelda games), Wolf Link can find a golden wolf spirit, which is actually an ancient warrior, who teaches him various forgotten sword techniques which greatly boost his effectiveness.
- Somewhat toyed with concerning the Early Summer Rain Jab in the last case of Ace Attorney Investigations. After Larry's blunder with the Samurai Spear, the studio puts a gag order on the incident and tries to pretend the move doesn't exist. Kay comments that it seems like a lost art because of that.
- In The Legend of Spyro the Old Ways of dragon combat, particularly the Fury Wave attack, fall under the almost lost/destroyed category. It's implied that only the Elder dragons can teach the techniques, and there just aren't many Elder dragons (or any other dragons for that matter) left due to a years-long war
- In Pokemon, many Pokemon, mostly Legendaries, have an attack only that Pokemon can use (under normal circumstances). Bulbapedia lists the article as "Signature Move", but it's not to be confused with the trope Signature Move.
Western Animation
- Avatar The Last Airbender: In need of gaining firebending Aang and Zuko travel to the city of the first firebenders and discover ancient dragons who teach them an ancient form of firebending (or at least the philosophical underpinnings of it; fire as life and energy, rather than simply rage and destruction)
Real Life
- Martial Arts: Many forms, such an Ninjitsu, were traditionally taught in secret by a very few masters. The fact that they were explicitly forbidden and/or illegal forced them to remain underground. Sometimes prospective students were bound by an oath of silence, especially when this was a weapon of rebels. These days, though, secret techniques don't remain secret for very long.
- Some techniques were developed by particular martial artists, who died without passing them on. But those arts are not so much Secret as they are Forgotten.
- Liechtenauer's school of German swordsmanship. In its time it was very exclusive, and it became entirely lost at some point in the 18th century. It's been brought back from the dead thanks to the finding of a handful of Medieval and Renaissance combat manuals, but it remains highly obscure.
- In Vajrayana Buddhism and presumably many other religions, certain teachings are only passed down from master to student.
- One of the major draws of esoteric traditions (including esoteric sects in mainstream religions) is the assumption that they are unknown because most Puny Humans can't handle them.
- In the old days it was stage magic. In the 1800s, it was much harder to learn how to do magic even if would-be magicians were serious about learning because other magicians were so reluctant to teach newbies back then. Nowadays, there are hundreds of books available for learning the art—but even today it's still frowned upon by most magicians to reveal a secret to a layperson. Also, if one wishes to join a group such as the The Magic Castle or The Magic Circle, one usually has to prove that they're at least somewhat competent with magic by demonstrating decent ability and take an oath swearing that they will never reveal magic secrets to anyone not serious about learning the art—failure to follow this oath can get you banned from most groups
