The Aerie

The Aerie's symbol is stylized like a red lotus, a flower associated with passion and chaos. In ancient texts, a white eagle is superposed on the symbol in the middle.

### Notorious Members

"The Wolf""The Monkey"

"The Spider"

"The Serpent"

"The Fox"

> *"Instinct is a lie told by a fearful body, hoping to be wrong."*
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**The Aerie** is an ancient monastic order, whose secret mission is to resurrect a long-forgotten chaos creator god. Their mission is complemented by sowing anarchy in provinces governed by tyrannical leaders across the former Uvonor and now mainly Congeria. The Aerie is unique in that it emphasizes strong detachment from earthly tethers, requiring its members to shave their heads, adopt new names based on animals, and give up any possessions. The Aerie's central monastery, named Ndertasa, is hidden in the Balinok Mountains between Congeria and Roxstead.

The Aerie, which roughly translates to "nest," was founded soon after the Supreme Being's untethering by a group of pious elders seeking to keep the memory of the god alive. Over the course of centuries, the order evolved from a monastery of preachers and missionaries to an order of assassins well-versed in harnessing ki. This may be attributed to pervading Elven influence on the order, who stressed the chaos element of the Supreme Being. To these members, ki was a form of energy that derived from the creator god that still kept the winds of freedom going, albeit at a microcosmic level.

The Aerie is mainly a secret society, with only two of its members throughout its millennia-long history exposing its secrets. Though the red lotus symbol the order adopted is recognizable to some, the group's true intentions are not publicly known. One of the order's most prominent members is "the Wolf," who belongs to an adventuring party known as The Wings of Pain.

## Membership

Membership into the order is highly selective and requires years of commitment and training. Thus, races that live longer than others, such as Elves, Half-Elves, Gnomes, Dwarves, and Halflings, constitute a majority of the order's membership.

New prospects must recognize the earthly and unearthly "signs" of the order wherever they may roam. Some have cited an overwhelming presence of avian creatures or witnessing the death of a powerful figure as signs of the order, but none have been confirmed. In The Wolf's case, he witnessed a figure he recognized from earlier in his life leaving the scene of an assassination, marked with the red lotus symbol.

Once recruited, prospects become "initiates" in a ceremony where all signs of individuality are eliminated. Races with hair are told to shave and races with distinct and unique features are told to remove them somehow. For example, Elves are mandated to clip their signature ears.

The ceremony lasts a year atop a great snowy mountain on the border of Congeria and Roxstead. In the year-long process, initiates are expected to survive through constant meditation, an abandonment of earthly ties, and tapping into ki energy. This process is incredibly difficult and only a handful of initiates, if any, survive.

After the year-long period, initiates are supposed to be in a state of "transcendental decay," where their soul is withered down to a dilapidated state. The initiate will appear paralyzed, emotionless, and emaciated. These initiates "heal" their spirit for a period of six months, in which they are educated on the ways of the Aerie and what their true mission is. The initiates conclude this period with another small ceremony, marked by giving out animal names, earning their first tattoos, and forging a blood oath in a sacral bond by the order's single mage.

Depending on the initiate's physical boundaries, initiates will train for an upwards of twenty to fifty years in hand-to-hand martial arts, ki power, and stealth tactics. On their required spiritual journeys, initiates travel the world as a nomad for about a year to learn about the intricacies of the earth and learning about the perspectives and cultures of those living in freedom, tyranny, or a mix of both. Upon completion of this journey, the initiate will be judged by the grandmaster of the order.

If the grandmaster's three eyes glow red, the initiate is "ki cursed" and will be unable to join the order at all. If their eyes glow yellow, the initiate has tapped into the potential of their ki, but has only scratched the surface and requires more asceticism and meditation. If their eyes glow blue, the initiate has achieved a degree of enlightenment that permits them to be an official member of the order.

One has a degree of mobility within the order's ranks. Besides member, a monk can become a master, headmaster, and grandmaster. Becoming a master requires strict studying and intense meditation to begin the process of opening their "third eye." The third eye, to the Aerie's masters, represents a small and indistinct connection to the Supreme Being, whether spiritually or physically. Masters undertake a tradition, whether it be the way of the Astral Being, Mercy, Cobalt Soul, or Open Hand.

Masters can become headmasters if they master their tradition. Headmasters possess an abnormal connection to ki and are able to manipulate their own ki and others' ki to fuel their enlightenment. Headmasters are able to commune directly with the grandmaster, a feat that members and masters are unable to do. Through their knowledge of every language and every world event, headmasters tend to emphasize their own freedom and focus on the complexities of existence. By focusing on those intricacies, their third eye opens more, supposedly granting them the ability to "see" the Aerie's members through a spiritual lens. Headmasters serve as the judges at most ceremonies while the grandmaster communicates through them in visages and apparitions.

Grandmasters are believed to be reincarnations of the Supreme Being's physical tie to the earth. According to legend, the first grandmaster grew from the eagle's claw and thus, every reincarnation of the first grandmaster is named after the Supreme Being's body parts. Grandmasters tend to live for hundreds of years and are rumored to have achieved total enlightenment and transcendence to the realm the Supreme Being's spirit rests in. The grandmaster possesses a functional third eye that is supposedly omniscient, granting the being supreme mastery of ki energy. The grandmaster is never acquainted with members or masters and speaks in proverbs, told to them by the Supreme Being. The grandmaster's role as a medium means he has no supervisory or controlling position, electing to exist in between the two realms.

## Notable Members

* The Wolf
* The Spider
* The Monkey (Monkey D. Garp)
* The Talon (grandmaster)