The Crionna (CREE-o-NAH)

The Crionna

“I am the hand that cares. The palm oiled. I am steel, cutting through the addled mind. I am Crionna. I am beset by the weight of their confusion. I shoulder the burden of 1,500 years. Awaiting, the past to clear the way forward.”                                                                         The incense of myrrh and hazel surrounds these Monkish figures. Clothed in multicolored patchwork robes, the jingling of metal is often what gives away a Crionnas presence. The Crionna do not walk the High or Low Path’s of modern magic, in their mind none of it compares to the magic woven by the ancient beings that preceded the green sea. The Crionna care for the artifacts left behind by the old ones, and try to pry free from these artifacts magical means woven long ago to help the modern age.

Caretakers of the Created Soul

The world before the Ever Growing forests created magical marvels-some of which they bound to amulets, weapons and artifacts. Some of these items were imbued with not just magic, but intelligence. These beings that live within metal were created and folded in long ago, at least 1500 years ago-more than likely even older. As a result of this massive span of time, many of these weapon souls have become geriatric and unstable. Some believe it would be better to get rid of them, but the Crionna believe that this world will not remake itself without aid from the past, and these weapons- as confused today as they are- could be the key to unlocking secret memories buried deep within their steel.

History of the Crionna Tower

The Crionna Tower is a gothic spire that sits in the middle of accidentally quarried land on the mountain's peak. This quarry came about when a sentient mining implement that predated the Green Sea had a mental breakdown, leveling all of the ground above it and revealing an ancient Moamian vault of ancient weapons. This vault was at first a source of excitement in the city, until Draoi scholars started looking into the vault’s manifest, and found many of the vaults hoard rusted and inert. These scholars, mourning the loss of not just magic from before the Sea, but also the loss of an object’s sentience and the history it contained, decided to come together and form the first Crionna, erecting the spike in a similar fashion to the Covered tower, right on the quarried vault of the ancient past.

Crionna Garb and Rank

Crionna begin their training by weaving their cloaks. Crionna cloaks are exclusively made from fabric sourced from before the Green Sea. The fabric that they find is often threadbare and minutes from falling apart, which the Crionna believe will teach their students a fraction of what it means to care for the ancient artifacts of the past. The fabric the find almost never matches, creating a patchwork garment that contains forgotten slogans, old brand names, and quilts made by grandmothers who died a millenia ago. 
The ceremony of moving up from student to member is symbolized in the Cloakbinding, a ritual in which a Crionna's cloak is imbued with resistance from weathering and the ability to self heal like the old artifacts. From this point on the cloak will never truly be removed from the person it is bound too, if it is a certain distance away, or if it has been taken off for too long, it will simply appear back on the users shoulders in 1 hours time-symbolizing a lifelong commitment and tethering to the order.
Many Crionna never move on from here, as the act of taking care of a sentient weapon to Crionna standards is incredibly time consuming. Some go on to possess more mundane or non-sentient artifacts to care for, some rare few with rigorous work and proof of excellence will move on to take care of 2 or more sentient weapons.

The Addled Cut

The Crionna performs a method of maintenance known as The Addled Cut, or the pointed care. These artifacts, though they have conscience and intelligence, are first and foremost weapons. While they may be kind one day, they may have a mental breakdown from the stress of their unending existence and use their powers in destructive ways. Keeping these items in the city is an immense liability, so the Crionna make their methods of maintenance active and aggressive. If a artifact needs to be bullied into compliance, they will. If an artifact needs to be regaled with praise, they will carve time in their schedule to do so. One of the most famous objects of power, Dave the Questing Blade, likes to have a pint of Honey Mead poured on him every other day at noon. If something keeps a weapon from deteriorating mentally, The Crionna will stop at nothing to find this method of appeasement. Whatever the method required, The Crionna adapt with energy and doggedness to their goal of maintenance. The Addled Cut is more than just a mindset of care, it is also a fighting tradition as well. The Addled Cut is an all-encompassing motion created by the founding Crionna that follows the old tradition that all weapon arts can be boiled down to simple universal strike that works for all weapons. This Path was later discovered to be a false and unsolvable one set up by the Founding Crionna as a means of teaching the true meaning of The Addled cut- finding the compromise movements between one and their weapon. “
“If one searches for the simplest motion that can still break bone, they will find only the most efficient motion that they themselves can break bone.”

Type

Religious, Monastic Order