Description
The traditional life of a monk in a hermitage isn't all that it was sold as. Vows of chastity and poverty and asceticism kept adherents faithful by restricting their worldview, and in the ever-widening perspective of the world of the future, those vows simply aren't that appealing anymore, and perhaps never were at all. That entire previous approach to understanding faith becomes foreign, as the existing monastic orders empty out and continue to fail to attract new followers. The lived existence of being a monk or nun changes, from one of sacrosanct poverty that rejects the material world, to one that embraces the world's mysteries and seeks to understand it. As expressions of faith bring the personal relationship with the divine into focus, more scholarly monks have emphasized community, collecting the threads of humanity and weaving them into a metaphorical tapestry in order to understand the larger world in a comprehensible way. Other monks spiral away from their former lives, disenchanted by entire lives now rejected and too naive to resist temptation. These dispossessed souls still retain all of their knowledge, but lack the wisdom to steer away from selfishness, and embrace the wonders of the world in order to abuse and exploit them for personal gain. The Monks of Metonychoseuthis have risen in power catastrophically, as a result. As their roles in society change, monks' historical pursuits tend to fall by the wayside, they inevitably find new ones, more attuned to their interests and the lives they lead. These avenues of exploration can manifest as physical discipline, sparring with others' bodies as ably as they do their rhetorical ideas; as rejecting the materialist world in favor of sublime naturalism; as embracing the opacity of the unknown; or any of a thousand other lives. Whatever affinity remains for the historical institutions, survives most hardily in Sigil, home of one of the largest magical libraries in existence.
A Monk's primary attribute is KNOWLEDGE. The following races may choose Monk: Human Elf Half-elf Dwarf Gnome Halfling Drow Sidhe Sahuagin
Skills recommended for monk:
- bash, cause light, cure light, faerie fire, hand to hand, martial arts, nunchaku, pressure points, staff