[Varyon]

For my work-in-progress fantasy world, the primary culture is pseudo-European and resides in the northern continents. The south lacks continents, instead consisting entirely of islands (albeit some decently large ones), and is pseudo-Asian, probably more pseudo-Japanese than anything else. The latter is where the Chi-wielding Martial Artists and Ninja come from. While things are mostly DF-tastic, I interpret those two a bit differently, making them something more like Chi-based supers than the weird esoteric Martial Artist class, and the ninja-expy's are more like the revamped Martial Artists with moar sneaks (in fact, once I've formalized the templates, the ninja will probably be a lens rather than a distinct template). In fact, the example Ninja character I'm working with fights almost completely unarmed (she uses some traps and thrown weapons, but the latter just for delivering poisons or activating traps from a distance), and utilizes Chi blasts in addition to preternatural stealth. Her backstory has her learning her skills from Martial Artist equivalents, adapting them for her unique body shape (she's a Feuyaner, which I've posted about before - basically semi-shapeshifters who can grow weapons on their bodies, hence her fighting unarmed) and focusing on more assassination-friendly abilities (for her eventual return to her Northern country of origin, and the subsequent campaign of revenge).

EDIT: For another example, the Noble Dead Saga series of books had ninja-expys called anmaglahk, an elven word for "thief of lives" (also the title of one of the books, appropriately). As the name implies, they are exclusively elves - in fact, they are exclusively elves of a somewhat-reclusive, isolationist offshoot elven society. DF templates wouldn't be out of place in that setting, although the anmaglahk wouldn't follow the Ninja template - they're more like rogues/thieves with really high Karate, Judo, and Knife skills.