As a martial artist (yes, Samwise and others, I know we are discussing this in a fantasy context), I'm wondering if there are other temples dedicated to teaching the martial arts besides those in the Scarlet Brotherhood. I figured that their aught to be other people teaching other arts.
While I bought the Martial Arts handbook for Pathfinder, I was disappointed in it since it didn't contain rules for make up your own (fantasy) martial arts, but that didn't mean it was useless.
There would be styles of wrestling and boxing taught in the Great Kingdom, Nyrond, Furyondy, and other places. What are your thoughts? I don't think I can do an article for this topic without doing some research. But one can do a series of articles on this topic if desired.
Monks aren't exclusive to the Scarlet Brotherhood, so there must be other ways to be trained in the martial arts (for whatever broad range of martial arts you want to use).
I believe that Xan Yae and Zuoken have canonical groups of monks. Really, any Lawful or Neutral (on the Lawful-Neutral-Chaotic) deity are comfortable with Lawful worshipers, so they could have them.
Monks in every edition except AD&D 2nd edition are not inherently religious (in 2nd, they were subclasses/kits of the Priest class, if my memory doesn't fail me). For non-religious groups, the Sapphire Brotherhood was mentioned in Fate of Istus, but that was when Kara-Tur was supposed to be integrated into Greyhawk. Still, you could run with that and also have an Emerald or Topaz Brotherhood. Or Verdigris or Mustard Brotherhoods if you prefer to go with colors.
Naturally, monks of Vecna use a secret form of martial arts that they don't teach others.
Quick question!
... I'm wondering if there are other temples dedicated to teaching the martial arts besides those in the Scarlet Brotherhood...
Xan Yae and Zuoken, as Lareth mentioned, would be the primary sources of monks other the the Scarlet Brotherhood. Bastion of Faith created a Heironeian order, led by Luther the monk, a PC (I forget whose) who was featured in the old Rogue's Gallery.
Quick question!
... I'm wondering if there are other temples dedicated to teaching the martial arts besides those in the Scarlet Brotherhood...
Xan Yae and Zuoken, as Lareth mentioned, would be the primary sources of monks other the the Scarlet Brotherhood. Bastion of Faith created a Heironeian order, led by Luther the monk, a PC (I forget whose) who was featured in the old Rogue's Gallery.
Now that I think about it, you are right. Both of you. Xan Yae and Zuoken would be right.
In the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, there's Zodal, a servant power of Rao.
I think there was some mentioned in Dragon Magazine, at least an order of Delleb, within the article about him. There was a serie of article describing lesser known gods but he's the only one I remember that had monks in it. Paladins too, as a matter of fact.
I remember that Hextor has some, don't remember where it was mentioned. Could be Bastion of Faith that had some info on him. As others said, it gives plenty of info about Heironeous, including his order of monks. It's a great sourceboook in itself, a lot of pre-Aerdy Oerid history.
These topic is close to my heart as well. I wrote an article for Oerth Journal a couple issues ago on Martial Monastic Orders and I'm working on another one that takes a slightly different approach.
For my GH campaign it looks like this:
Monks are rare outside the Baklunish West and the Scarlet Brotherhood, but small orders have spread across the continent.
Scarlet Brotherhood teaches something akin to a hard style like karate, that has a few 'secret moves' that are impressive to display or terrifying to watch (think shield and weapon sundering and quivering palm).
The other major centre of martial arts stems from the Baklunish followers of Xan Yae and Zuoken. These orders have since splintered and diversified and spread different styles further west across the flanaess (a bit like the spread of styles across the real world). For me it was originally a mix of a hard and soft style, combining taekwondo with some kung fu in terms of style. Over centuries of splits the style diversified a lot as it spread and each master concentrated on developing different aspects of the style.
I also have a small quiet sect of Flan who worship Zodal and there style is a softer style that also involves a lot of holds and grapples. There members are a bit like Caine from KungFu if you are old enough to know that TV show. They originally worked to support Flan who were being oppressed, but as the order continued they accepted any non-Flan who were dedicated to Zodal.
It would be easy to see orders dedicated to a variety of other deities. I have one the specialises with the cudgel, who are dedicated to St Cuthbert. Sort of a church militant type vibe supporting the clergy.
My new article fleshes these orders out in a bit more detail.
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