Penitent Brotherhood

The **Penitent Brotherhood** is a religious order that is active throughout the Azure Sea Empire.

## Background

> *"Eh-Mi-Tuo-Fuo"*
>
>

The Penitent Brotherhood believes the world is a prison, one made to contain and punish their eternal souls because "we are all sinners with much to atone for."  They seek a path to salvation through forsaking the Three Desires and taking up the Four Noble Truths.

### The Three Desires

The root of all worldly suffering.

1. Sensual Pleasure: sensory pleasures such as sex, wealth and power.
2. Existence: self-identity or permanence in fame, glory and legacy.
3. Non-Existence: avoiding unpleasantness in both one's self and others.

Their secular names are left behind when they give up the Three Desires and a Dharmic name is a private affair, revealed only to those of the Brotherhood.

### Four Noble Truths

The key to escape the cycle of Samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth.

1. Life is Suffering.
2. Suffering is caused by the Three Desires.
3. Salvation can be obtained by divesting one's self of the Three Desires and attaining Nirvana.
4. The way to Nirvana lies in living according to the Noble Eight-Fold Path:
Right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.

## The Dao

The Brotherhood cultivates with the goal of escaping Samsara and to ascend beyond this plane of existence. To understand the world and all the steps leading up to the Ascent, they have the Sutras to guide them; oral scriptures passed down from time immemorial and spoken in a language long dead. Much like how the Martial Dao adopts the Forms, the Sutras are the Forms for the Mind.

To aid in this path, they live ascetic lifestyles, with most of their members residing in one of the hundreds of monasteries located in the depths of the Arid Wastelands. Without temptations like greed, obsession, acceptance, attachment and lust, they gather together to discuss the Dao and further their understanding of the Truth.

Initiates make a simple vow of celibacy and poverty, which qualifies them to read scriptures and meditate on the teachings of the Brotherhood. Some remain initiates for decades before taking their final vows, and so long as one swears an Oath to the Heavens to never reveal the Brotherhood's secrets, then they may part ways at any time.

### Precepts

* Abstain from the taking of life.
* Abstain from false speech.
* Forbidden from leaving the monastery without good cause.

One of the core Precepts of the Brotherhood pertains to the fact that many of the members were once Defiled.

## Known Members

* The Abbot
* Mahakala (*Deceased*)
* Vyakhya, Clarity of Thought, "Old Healer"
* SanDukkha, Perpetual Suffering
* Sayan, "Eyebrows"
* Anand, "Happy"
* "Bones"

### Conflict

After the Abbot accepted SanDukkha as one of the Five Wisdoms, dissent within the Five Wisdoms split the Brotherhood. Soon after, SanDukkha's Dharmapala Mahakala perished in a conflict involving his former student the Confessor and Zhu Chanzui. Vyakhya then left to join the Defiled alongside Sayan and other members to form a new Brotherhood that sided with Zhen Shi.

## Trivia

* Rams for mounts.
* The title 'Dharma Protector' or Dharmapala originates from the Brotherhood.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 323
2. ↑ Chapter 317
3. ↑ Chapter 483-487
4. ↑ Chapter 327
5. ↑ Chapter 324
6. ↑ Chapter 218
7. ↑ Chapter 316