Mystical Monasteries of Mystara
by Cab DavidsonFew monasteries are listed in official Mystara products. Largely this is because mystics sit outside of power structures and political interactions that define dominions and cultures, and historically most who catalogue Mystaran locations overlook these instututions. Indeed, it can be hard to define what such a monastery is – there is no uniform ground plan or even organisational structure. What follows is a short list of some of the more interesting mystical orders of Mystara, and I encourage brave explorers who find more to add to this list.
Barleycorn Monastery
Location: Broken Lands
Style: Entropy
Members: 80 (mostly hobgoblins and goblins)
Master: Heretic Zam Zammara (Hobgoblin Mystic 16)
Located high on an isolated plateau in the Broken Lands, the Barleycorn was founded by Ethengari mystics seeking to reform the lost souls of their own errant ancestors reincarnated as humanoids. It is unknown precisely when or how the original Barleycorn Brotherhood fell, but it was replaced by a new entropic order of goblin and hobgoblin mystics who in typical humanoid fashion formed a grotesque parody of the original group. Ranging far and wide across the broken lands and beyond, members hire themselves out as mercenaries to whichever humanoid warlord will pay them most. The most worthy applicants (being those who survive whatever new, brutal tests are dreamed up by the Grand Abbott) are inducted into the order during a dark ceremony on the night of the new moon.
See: HWA1
Dracon
Location: Draco, Alphatia
Style: Energy, Matter, Time and Thought.
Members: 1250
Master: Mistress Eradne of the Four Elements (Mystic 30)
It’s hard to know exactly where the Dracon are located, except in that the name of the order is spoken of in hushed tones in all of the dark places if the City of Draco (perhaps the most populous city in Mystara, if not the most salubrious). In fact members of the order (believed to be the most numerous in the world, although spread across a vast area) will, if pushed, refer to the Dracon as an idea rather than a place. Drawing most of its members from the back streets of Draco, but also reaching out to the other great cities of the Alphatian empire to find the most talented individuals to join them, its members are found from Thothia to Esterhold, from Alpha to Spearpoint. Upholding the rights of the the common people of the Empire, and being willing to stand up to the powerful vested interests of even the most powerful wizards in doing so, the Dracon form the last, best and only hope of justice for the downtrodden peasantry of Mystaras most powerful nation.
Eradne has led the order for the last 30 years and is among the wisest and most powerful mystics known. She is calm, playful even, in selecting new recruits for the order and sending members on missions to the furthest reaches of the world. But in her key missions of opposing organised crime in Draco (largely fronted by the Dopplegangster crime families) and holding back the tide of the Order of the Screaming fist, she is resolute.
The Screaming Fist
Locaion: Shraek, Alphatia
Style: Entropic
Members: 190
Master: Volodymyr the Dark (Vampire, Mystic 19)
Few choose to travel to or trade with Blackheart. Fewer still willingly visit the twisted City of Screams, the capital, Shraek. It is not a place where an underclass can thrive, indeed few even survive without the patronage or protection of a wizardly master. And the Order of the Screaming Fist, located in dank, cramped conditions in catacombs beneath the city, does not stand against this darkness. Indeed it is key to their philosophy that only those who have faced most despair can become members, and their abbot is a perfect example of this.
The mystics of the Screaming Fist seem to be working to no particular plan or ideal, and seek only to inflict pain and harm for their own entertainment. Indeed in the truest sense their philosophy can be described as nihilism, and it is fair to say that they consider their own lives to be only trivially less meaningless than those of those who they torture and kill for their own sadistic entertainment.
Screaming Fist mystics are to be found across Alphatia, joining groups of terrorists or evil adventurers out of a desire to further their own skills, rather than for any greater ethical purpose. They are hated by the Dracon order. That feeling is mutual.
Tondera
Location: Norwold, close to Regent Pass
Members: 150 (mostly humans, some metamorphs)
Style: Time and Energy
Master: Abbot Gustaf ap Gustaf (Mystic 18)
Styled as the Monastery of Fire and Water, the Tondera order is an ancient and respected institution that has weathered the storms of raiding dragons from the Wyrmsteeth mountains, frost giants from Frosthaven, and invading forces from both great empires. It welcomes those who come to seek enlightenment in amongst the cold stones of its isolated mountain top location, but the trial of reaching the mountain top alone keeps most would be members away. Members of its order are found in adventuring parties across Norwold and further afield, and their pledge to seek justice for the most vulnerable is respect among those who know them. While most of the order are human, this is the chosen location that the few metamorphs from the island of Metinsulae come when they choose to become mystics.
The location of the monastery, close to the strategically vital Regent Pass that is the only safe over-land route to the capital city of Alpha, has meant that the kings of both Norwold and Oceansend know better than to mistreat the orders brethren. Just because the order has never meddled in Norwold politics, that does not mean that it never could.
Five Monasteries of Furious Flying Fists
Location: 5 mountain tops of Tangor
Styles: One each Energy, Entropy, Matter, time and Thought
Members: Unknown (theorised to be up to 100 per monastery). Taer (in the Monastery of Death) and Changyi (the other 4).
Masters: Unknown
The Five monasteries are set in the heart of the mountains of Tangor, surrounded by deep, jungled covered valleys remain somewhat enigmatic in the eyes of those from Western nations (from Tangor, nearly everywhere is to the West). Little is known of their governance, and even their precise location is unknown. What is known is that there are 5, one devoted to studying the style of each of the 5 spheres. The Monastery of Death is devoted to the Sphere of Entropy, and is populated entirely by Taer (a variety of baboon detailed in Threshold issue 32), and adherents thereof seek to dominate the lands below for some unknown dark purpose. They are opposed by the outer four monasteries, which in turn are populated entirely by Changyi (sentient golden cheeked gibbons). It is known that those monasteries are referred to by their brethren as “The Eternal Rock” (Matter), “The Sacred Flame” (Energy), “Imponderable” (Thought), and “To Go Forward” (Time). A few members of each monastery are known to travel far and wide in search of spiritual enlightenment, and sages as far afield as Sind, Oceansend and the Vulture Peninsula have reported meeting them.
The exact nature of the ascendance to sentience of both Changyi and Taer seems to be in some way linked to the presence of the monasteries, and whether their ascent could happen without them is a question yet to be resolved. Until explorers reach those locations and discover who built them and why, the fundamental nature of the locations will remain unknown.
Lhamsa
Location: Glantri
Style: Energy
Members: 150 (human and lycanthrope)
Master: Henri G’Ascoyne Matzini (Were rat, mystic 20)
At a location high in the Glantrian alps, the village of Lhamsa would be utterly unknown were it not for the presence of a renowned monastery, teaching a local style known as the Radiant Art. While most ‘alternative’ philosophies are not tolerated in Glantri, Lhamsa is both isolated enough and their practice sufficiently useful that an exception is made, and their members are welcome in most principalities and other dominions across Glantri. While originally established by Ethengari immigrants, the monastery now welcomes both Glantiran and Ethengari members, but in recent years under the influence of Henri G’Ascoyne Matzini more Glantrian members have joined.
Henri himself, an illegitimate son of a noble family, has been welcoming many outcast lycanthropes (like himself) to the order, and when this becomes known his estranged family may be nervously looking over their shoulders. Whether or not this is necessary, qui vivra verra.
See: GAZ3, The Principalities of Glantri
Blackrock
Location: Blackrock Island, Minrothad
Style: Time
Members: 12
Master: Darrin Posman (Mystic 12)
Possibly the smallest known order, Darrin Posman (a former port-master in Aasla whose perspective on wealth changed over many years of exposure to other philosophies) established the order some 20 years ago. Primarily teaching asceticism (austerity, self discipline and abstinence), it is only after mastering this discipline that members can leave, but even then they spend half of their time in meditation on the island. Thus of the 12 members, 6 will be found in quiet contemplation and prayerful dedication on the island at any time, assisted by a small clerical order that tends to the needs of the monastery.
See: Gaz 9, The Minrothad Guilds