Ascetics of Shalimyr
The ascetics of Shalimyr are a peculiar bunch. Uninvolved with the basins, they are understood by the Shalimyn to be holy people whose terrible sacrifices must take them away from the faithful.
Just as the shorehands of Shalimyr cannot ride the waters as a sacrifice to show their humility and faith, ascetics give up the comfort of home and community and wander the wide world, doing what they can for everyone but themselves. By living a life of perpetual goodness and aiding others whenever and wherever they can, they show humility as servants to the mortal races, and offer perpetual self-denial to Shalimyr.
They are therefore one of the common “adventuring” holy orders of all the churches. Since their faith requires them to be away from the basins, traveling by land and sea to aid others, they are often found in towns where trouble is near, or in the depths of dungeons.
Ascetics must never hoard wealth or property. They must never seek a home or status in a home. They can never own a ship or other means of transport. Ascetics must be prepared to die empty-handed and alone. They have no fear of death, and generally do not wish to be raised from the dead.
Any ascetic who comes to wish for a family or a home or any kind of comfort or possession must leave the order, and loses all her special abilities unless she atones and sheds all her attachments once more.
Ascetics are selective about the company they keep. They cannot abide the proud and never associate with people who seek glory, fame, or status, particularly if their desire for these things is reflected in the actions of the group and how people perceive them. Ascetics have no problem with those who seek wealth and keep personal property; they do not expect all people to live under the same onus of sacrifice as they do. They speak to their friends about the perils of desire for property, but do not condemn them for it. An ascetic can even abide greed, if it is tempered with sacrifice. Ascetics often travel with wizards, monks, druids, rangers, and rogues—and those
who keep low profiles for one reason or another. They are rarely found with paladins or clerics from other churches.
Ascetics almost never travel together.
As an ascetic grows older and more experienced, she sheds all the trappings of glory. Later, she sheds the markings of holiness, because in them is a kind of braggadocio.
Eventually, she abandons even the trappings of “self,” as there is a kind of arrogance in asserting a personal identity, when one is really nothing but a servant of Shalimyr.
In time and after neonates have learned proper humility, and are ready to be full ascetics, they cease to have any titles whatsoever, and give their tabards away. This is usually done by training someone else to become a neonate, and presenting the initiate with the tabard at the completion of her training. Neonates who have been carrying a refined or well-crafted holy symbol give the item away, and replace it with the symbol a peasant might wear. Anything that might make it clear to a casual observer that an ascetic is a members of a holy order is given away as well. The only
things neonates keep are arms, armor, and other tools they gained in their journeys to help them serve people. Once they’ve let go of their old trappings, neonates become proper ascetics. They have no titles, only their names, and they continue wandering. They have no honorifics in address, but if they introduced as religious figures, are called “ascetics of the basins of Shalimyr.”
Once ascetics show their full devotion to Shalimyr and cleave to a path of service and humility, they sacrifice all that is left of them: their names.
They cease to be called by the name by which they have been known their entire lives and take the names of parts of water or water sounds. Lake, Stream, Rush, Falls—all are appropriate water names. Such ascetics are called “waternames,” and continue to walk the world and sail, fighting for the good of all people and awaiting death, when they might become part of the waters.
Joining the Ascetics
Anyone of the proper alignment and devotion to Shalimyr can join the ascetics. After a year of training by an elder member of the order, the ascetics abandon all the trappings of their previous lives. They cut their hair and give away anything not fit to be burned.
Type
Religious, Holy Order
Parent Organization
Related Myths
