Kōtta Yama no Shūdōin

> "The important thing about going on a search for the Self is to remember who is doing the searching."
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## 凍った山の修道院

Kōtta Yama no Shūdōin

The Frozen Mountain Temple

## History

Originally founded in the last era, the Frozen Mountain Temple's teachings have changed with time- yet they keep records of what has been taught there for millenia, which are studied by the monks between training sessions.

## The Village

About a mile down from the temple is a small fishing and rice-farmin village. This village has lived with peace, and in exchange for providing the food for the monastery is protected from the monsters and the harshness of life in the wilderness.

The people who live there know they can ask for the help of any of the monks with any task they need, and the monks will gladly provide the best service they can.

For many apprentices who started off as orphans raised by the temple, this is the only contact with the non-monastic life they will have had.

## Hot Spring Onsen

The temple is home to a luxuriously warm open-air hot spring said to have healing properties. Kenshusei may come here with their masters, should their masters wish it, and once they have completed the trials they are free to return at any time. The soft, but hot, water aids in rest and recovery, and soothes the many injuries you might take over the course of your training.

## Life in the Temple

The Temple welcomes into it orphaned children and criminals looking to atone for past sins.

Those who train there are welcome to leave at any time, should they not feel able to commit to the harsh life that is expected of them. Those with a criminal history will be escorted to a Samurai for proper judgement for their crimes.

### Life of an Initiate

As an initiate, your head is shaved to signify the start of a new life and you are granted the title of *senshusei*. senshusei live in large, cold halls with small tatami mats to sleep on. They are expected to remain respectfully quiet at all times to learn self discipline, and often will go weeks without saying anything other than agreeing to a command by a superior.

Senshusei sleep for four hours, start each day with a swim or wash in the icy-cold waters of the frozen lakes near the monastery, perform the morning chant for half an hour, run for five hours, and spend the rest of the day alternating between quiet meditation and being taught Katas, the basic forms of the martial arts that unlock the power of Ki.

At lunch Senshusei are granted a small bowl of rice. Those who made progress that day are also given a small fish.

For many, training stops at this level. Either they train for decades, never achieve the secrets of their Ki or leave before harnessing the power. However, promising Senshusei who have started to touch upon their Ki will be taken on by a graduated monk and become a *kenshusei*, starting the even more grueling training.

### Life of an Apprentice

The Kenshusei moves into their Sensei's room, sleeping on a tatami mat next to the door. They are expected to obey their Sensei's word above all else, they awake when their Sensei awakes, sleep when their Sensei sleeps, and eat when and what their Sensei eats. Through this they learn to live for another's will and desires, and further quiet their own. They will also regularly travel to the village to offer help to the people there and defend them from monsters and other dangers of the wild.

Their Sensei is also responsible for teaching them reading and writing at this age, as well as the art of poetry and haiku. For those raised by the monastery since childhood, additional lessons in crafts such as carpentry and smithing are provided by volunteers from the village, in case they choose to give up on the life of a Monk before training has finished.

The life of a Kenshusei is gruelling, requiring practice in quieting ones mind that can lead to meditating in uncomfortable conditions for days without food or water.

Slowly, the Kenshusei begins to harness their Ki, and channel it into an Element. Normally, this element takes the form of their Master's. They learn to weave the element, be it Fire, Water, Lightning, Earth, Wind or Void, into their katas and training, learn to strike out and attack with it, or use it for defense.

Life as Kenshusei ends once their master decides it is time to begin the Three Trials.

### The Three Trials

Once a master has decided their student is ready, they will endure three trials designed to test all they have learned, and discover whether they truly embody the teachings of the monastery.

#### The Trial of Endurance

After days of fasting disguised as another ritual, the master takes their student with no warning in their sleep and leaves them on the side of one of the furthest mountains in the range with nothing. They must either make the long hike back, surviving in the wilderness and avoiding the dangers of the cold, or leave the mountain and never return.

This trial can take weeks, as the student has no idea in which direction the monastery even is. During this time, their master patiently meditates at the gate of the Temple.

#### The Trial of Strength

Upon returning to the Temple, they are welcomed back with open arms by their master.

However, this also signifies the start of another challenge; The Trial of Strength.

In the Trial of Strength, the Kenshusei is called to the meditation room where their master awaits. The master challenges them again and again with more and more impossible and menaingless physical tasks. From pushing a boulder up the entire mountain, to absurd numbers of pushups numbering in the thousands.

The Trial of Strength is eventually concluded when the Kenshusei shows the *personal* strength to stand up to their master and refuse to continue training until they are given a lesson from their actions. The lesson, as it turns out, is to not blindly follow that which teaches you nothing.

#### The Trial of Self

The most nightmarish trial is the Trial of Self.

The student is taken to the inner sanctum, blindfolded, and told by the Grandmaster to drink deeply from an offered cup. When they do, the trial begins.

Inside the cup is a poison comprised of the blood of Mindflayers, of Beholders and of yet more nightmarish creatures, as well as One Hundred Venoms.

The drink strips away all memories, paralyzes the Kenshusei and mentally tortures them, showing them visions, hallucinations and dreams that are designed to disturb and pervert the course of their reasoning. They will live the lives of murderers and their victims, they will relive the worst experiences of their lives, and they will experience being the ones who inflicted those tragedies. Hours will feel like years as the poison takes root.

Mentally bare with no preconceptions from their own history, they will be released from this torment by either the embrace of death or by discovering their true nature- the overriding self that does not change no matter what life they may have lived. The aspect of their soul that will always be the same.

Once they have discovered this, they awaken from the trial, and are asked what they have discovered.

Those who discovered Justice in one of it's many forms- protection of the weak, defense of what is right, atonement, the urge to help those who have strayed return to the path- are ready to finish their training. Those who did not are gently guided to leave the temple and walk another path.

### Life of the Kouhai

Finally, after years, decades or even centuries of training, the prospective monk is a full-fledged member of the Temple.

In their new position, they are given a room of their own to stay in. But they are not yet ready to take on an apprentice, they are still considered a junior in the order.

There is no use for Justice in a place built on atonement. The Kouhai must take to the world, to see it and bring justice for those who cannot access it. To learn, through experiencing cultures they have never seen, about themselves and the world.

Each night, the monk meditates on all that they have learned, and decides whether they are ready to take on an apprentice, or if their is more for them to learn.

### Life of the Sensei

Deciding they are ready is a huge step, but eventually monks return to take on an apprentice, watching the Sehshusei and deciding if there is one among them they could train. Once they find one, they must spend years or decades training them to someday face the Trials.

### Life of the Senpai

Once your first Kenshusei has become a Sensei, your training is complete and you have finally finished your training. A life of meditation, of taking on more pupils, and of writing what you know in the form of poems, scripture, and stories for others to read long after you have died.

### Death in the Temple

The death of a member of the temple is a solemn, but respectful affair. The name of the deceased enters the chanting of the dawn the day after, as do their accomplishments and their failures. The Temple grieves, remembers the person they have lost, and takes comfort that their soul has gone on- either to paradise or another life.

If they had finished their Trials, The Grandmaster carves the true soul of the deceased into a small piece of wood, ceremoniously casts it into the river that flows down the mountain to the sea, and the Temple prays.