Upthatun

To understand the Upthatun monks- one must understand the history of the Citadel. 

 

In the second age- Fae and humans established the Citadel for the training of worthy man in majik. Their witches, once turned out into the world, were supposed to ease the lives of their neighbors- offer them majikal solutions to their more pressing issues. 

 

They were often killed out of jealousy or vengeance or grief. 

 

And so, the council of the Citadel at the time created a new order: the nuns. These individuals trained in the Crucible, on an island behind the Citadel. They were, to a one, mentally, emotionally, and physically destroyed repeatedly until they were deemed strong enough to proceed. In this destruction, the piece of their mind that could do majik, the potential of their use of this force, was destroyed entirely. They no longer existed with the land the way others did. And instead of bonding with the continent and its energy, they bonded with a witchling- to be their guardian in the world. 

 

Their fighting prowess was legendary. Never did they employ it in any way other than to defend their witch, however. 

 

They passed into myth at the fall of the empire when the mad king ordered the witches to kill their nuns. Witches possessed the only thing that could kill a nun: majik. 

 

And so- their story a sad one, full of nihilistic fury- their memory spawned a desire to pay tribute to their actions and their end. 

 

In the beginning of the third age, a group of humans, so distraught with the story of the nuns, gathered in pilgrimage at the southern end of the Astoriad, where the first nun was said to have been murdered by his witch. 

 

Over time, this group stayed and built the monastery that many now inhabit, daily paying penance to the memory of the nuns. 

 

Like the nuns, they tattoo their bodies from head to toe. Unlike the nuns, they self-inflict pain in an effort to repent for the trials of the crucible and the sorrowful end at the hands of the one to whom they were irrevocably loyal. 

 

The Upthatun are an odd folk, made not born. The initiation requires a surgery to inflict sterility- a memorial to the nuns who gave their right to reproduce. 

 

The monastery is a challenge to find, harder still to survive the initiation.