Monk

From the outside monks can look very odd in the new world, groups of people who meet up in local parks to practice movements. Odd spiritual martial arts schools. A lone person learning from a book. Most people are not interested in the amount of self-control and training necessary, despite the health and self-defense benefits. Traditions have important dietary and personal restrictions. Not to mention the great cost. Ki, the internal energy the fuels monastic abilities, is not infinite. More than that it is painful to use ki, and exponentially so the more ki a monk uses. The longer a monk is active the more likely they will eventually run out entirely, and the moment that happens will be the moment their heart stops. Yet monks have found something profound within that trade-off. They know their choices bring them closer to the end, and to the promise of a new life on the outer planes.

Monastic Traditions

Way of Mercy: This tradition is designed around using your life to give back to the world. Or take the wicked from it. Through the way of mercy, a monk can heal the sick or dying with a single touch. They can also harm, dealing necrotic damage just as easily. Way of Shadow: For those who want to spend their life evading others, for whatever reason, the way of shadow allows them to use their ki to draw light out of the air around them and into themselves. The light must always be released eventually in a bright flash or else it will make the monk sick. Way of the Ascendant Dragon: Monks who train under the tutelage of one of the fifteen dragons, or at least another monk trained by them. They are meant to join the Dragon Guard and serve at the behest of The Council of Dragons. Way of the Astral Self: These monks believe their physical body is merely a vessel for their true being: their astral self. They seek to use their ki to loosen their astral form from their physical so that the day their body dies they can simply float away and explore the multiverse as an astral being. Way of the Cobalt Soul: This tradition teaches that knowledge is the greatest weapon of all. Monks who look at everything through clean clinical logic. They study as much as they train, knowing the limits of their opponents after a few blows, and keeping a precise count of how much ki they have left before they finally expire. The only monk tradition encouraged to actually know. Way of the Drunken Master: Is it sacrilegious to see the divine in the chemical effect of alcohol on the body? This tradition argues not. If their use of ki is going to kill them anyway, might as well have a bit of fun with it. Way of the Four Elements: Using the ki within them, monks of this tradition can use elemental magic almost as if they were spellcasters. Way of the Kensei: Like artists with weapons, not to be confused with bard graduates of the sword. A bit of a stuffy attitude toward actual violence with swords. Way of the Long Death: A tradition that attracts a lot of older monks for its obsession with the mechanics of dying. They see death as the main purpose of ki, a way for mortals to take control of their mortality. Way of the Open Hand: Have you seen kung-fu hustle? The tai-chi tradition. There is tranquility to being able to choose how your life is spent, how your ki is literally spent. Way of the Sun Soul: Literally able to burn up their own soul outside of their body as a weapon, with the knowledge that once their soul burns out completely they will never be able to have an after life on an outer plane.