Dueling academies were a form of martial arts school that arose in the Galaxy well before 1000 BBY, but had roots as far back as the reign of Xim the Despot, before the rise of the Old Republic. The academies promised to teach their students the secrets of melee fighting and physical and mental perfecting techniques. Most claimed ancient pedigrees and links to hidden philosophies. In their heyday, prior to the Battle of Ruusan, they became social and political forces, with students adopting the ethos of an academy as a personal belief system. Some academies (without the approval of the Jedi Council) even claimed to have access to Jedi secrets.