Order of Zhuque
The Order of Zhuque is an ancient monastical order from the Fire Plane on the realm of Akash. Originally tasked with keeping the Plane's sacred fire burning safely, the Order was disgraced 500 years ago following a failed attempt to conquer the other Planes of Akash. Since that time, they have struggled to survive, falling from thousands of monks to barely 100 in the present day.
History
The Order of Zhuque is over 5000 years old, having been founded on the realm of Akash. Akash is a cube-shaped realm and each of its faces represents a fundamental elemental force: fire, metal, wood, water, dark, and light. For generations, the Order oversaw the Fire Plane's sacred fires, keeping them burning and making offerings to them regularly. No ordinary flames, the fires did not consume any fuel thrown into it; only the most blessed and sacred wood could keep its flames raging. When the fires burned hot, the Plane prospered, and when they sputtered to embers, the Plane's fortunes waned. Thus the task of the Order was held in high regard.
In addition to their mental discipline, the Order's monks were trained in martial prowess and stealth, tasked with making incursions onto the Wood Plane to secure the fuel for the sacred fires. This brought the Order great prestige and power, giving them tremendous sway over the politics of the Fire Plane. The noble nests that ruled the Fire Plane rose and fell, but the Order of Zhuque was always present, directing the emperor's hand. Becoming a monk of Zhuque was considered the highest honor attainable, as only the brightest, fittest, and disciplined were accepted into their ranks.
The fortunes of the Order began to wane 1000 years ago, when an emperor known as Huoshan rose to power, taking the reigns of leadership from the previous imperial nest by force. Huoshan was highly ambitious and conniving. As soon as he had been crowned emperor by the High Priest of Zhuque he began scheming to gain more power for himself at the expense of the Order. He knew he could not simply seize power, for that would turn the people against him. Instead, he had to discredit the Order.
Huoshan often conferenced with the High Priest of Zhuque to discuss affairs of state. In these meetings, the emperor carefully fanned the High Priest's own ambition, often lamenting that the Fire Plane could not simply take control of Akash in its entirety. He stated that, should the empire possess the strength, it could rule over the realm for an eternity. The High Priest was intrigued by the thought, but knew that the Fire Plane could not simply launch an invasion on one plane without the other planes retaliating. But with each meeting, the High Priest's desires to fan the flames of conquest grew stronger.
Eventually, he realized that if the sacred fires burned high enough, the warriors of the Fire Plane would be virtually invulnerable. If the Order burned its entire reserve of sacred wood, it would be enough for three days of invulnerability. If an invasion of the Wood Plane were successful, the Order would be able to secure enough wood to keep the sacred flames burning that hot for a hundred years, more than enough to secure victory. He shared his plan with the emperor, who endorsed the idea on the condition that the Order take the vanguard of the invasion. The High Priest readily agreed.
When the invasion day came, the monks of Zhuque piled the sacred wood high and poured it into the sacred fire. As the flames roared, the monks felt power surge through them. They crossed into the Wood Plane and immediately began laying waste to their surroundings. They quickly made their way to the Caythan Forest, where the most holy and sacred wood grew, and secured it. By the end of the first day, the entire forest was under the control of the Order. On the second day, the armies of the Wood Plane had encircled the forest, nervously waiting, unwilling to risk damage to the forest through combat with the Order. The High Priest patiently awaited the arrival of Emperor Huoshan's troops to defeat the besiegers and complete the conquest of the Wood Plane.
The relief never came. The emperor had never even informed his generals of the Order's plan. Instead, he denied all knowledge of the incident and blamed the invasion on the reckless ambition of the High Priest, who had grown haughty from the Order's generations of power and overreached. By the end of the second day, the High Priest realized that relief was not coming. On the third day, he ordered his monks to fight their way out of the forest and retreat to the Fire Plane.
The soldiers of the Wood Plane fought more tenaciously than expected, believing the Order was there to destroy Caythan. The fighting delayed the Order enough that they could not reach the border to the Fire Plane before nightfall. Just after midnight, the sacred flame sputtered to ashes as the last of the sacred wood was consumed. The monks lost the vast majority of their powers, being rendered nearly ineffective. They made a mad dash to the border, but most, including the High Priest, were struck down by pursuing soldiers.
Emperor Huoshan immediately denounced the Order of Zhuque, claiming they had committed treason against the Fire Plane and attempted to ignite war with the other Planes of Akash. The cooling embers of the sacred flame led credence to his words. The people turned on the remnants of the Order, who were too confused and beaten from the failed invasion to dispute the claims. The emperor stripped them of their duties tending to the sacred fire, instead entrusting the task to the imperial family, and had the ranking priest of the Order executed.
When the armies of the Wood Plane crossed into the Fire Plane to extract revenge, Emperor Huoshan presented the head of the priest as restitution. The rulers of the Wood Plane did not accept this as sufficient, however. Unfortunately for Huoshan, his own troops were mostly powerless with the sacred fire burning so low. The armies of the Wood Plane made short work of the emperor's armies, conquering the Fire Plane and executing Huoshan.
In the years following the conquest, the truth of Emperor Huoshan's deception emerged. The people, however, still blamed the Order of Zhuque for its part in the disaster, for even though they had been tricked into invading, they had still done so without concern for the balance of the elements. The new imperial family, mere puppets of the Wood Plane, kept control of the sacred fires, always keeping it burning low and thus sapping the Fire Plane of its strength and prosperity.
A century later, the Wood Plane's own fortunes fell and the Fire Plane was able to regain its independence. The new imperial nest maintained control of the sacred fires, however, and the Order remained a shadow of its former self, its members made up of outcasts, criminals, and the other dregs of society that had nowhere else to turn. Some still remember the stories of its glory days and seek to return it to those times.
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