Aru-Shen Monastery
Type: Temple
Styles: Five-Dragon Style, Path of the Arbiter
Dojo: The Aru-Shen Monastery, along the southern coast, 80 miles east of Wallport.
Sifu: Master Ragara Sulnir (recalled); Master Upright Stone (Path of the Arbiter), Master Ten Snowflakes (Five-Dragon Style)
Aru-Shen Monastery is nominally an Immaculate monastery, though it is dedicated entirely to the practice and training of martial arts in mortals, teaching them to awaken their potential in accordance to the teachings of Mela, in her aspect as the Awakener of Essence. Ragara Sulnir was stationed in Cherak fifty years ago, but when he received orders to return to the Blessed Isle – orders which he believed were motivated by petty politics, rather than enlightened principles – he replied in the negative through written correspondence and disappeared into the wilds of the North in protest.
Master Sulnir founded this temple to continue his work, awakening mortal Essences, and teaching them the techniques of the Five Dragons. Sulnir met Harim and took an interest in his Just and Truthful Arbiters of Light, finding in them a simple and honest moral strength (see the Path of the Arbiter Style). Master Sulnir learned the wanderer Harim's techniques, and continues to teach the martial art at Aru-Shen monastery. Though the Aru-Shen monks are not themselves members of the Arbiters, any of the Arbiters may come to them for help and succor, and many new Arbiters come to enter seclusion in the temple in which to learn the Path of the Arbiter style.
Three years ago, however, the Immaculate Order found Master Sulnir. The Itinerant sent to fetch him agreed with the direction his monastery had taken, and made no demands that it be shut down, though he has warned that other monks will come to make sure the mortal monks are solid in their training in Immaculate theology. The monastery's focus on the teachings of Mela ensure that they certainly are, and they have passed every test since Master Sulnir's departure. Now Masters Upright Stone and Ten Snowflakes run the monastery together, teaching the monks their respective mastered martial arts; Upright Stone has mastered the Path of the Arbiter, and now works on his understanding of Five-Dragon Style, while Ten Snowflakes is a master of the Five-Dragon working at mastering the Path of the Arbiter.
Only males are permitted to join the monastery, though the monks often host women who have joined Harim's Arbiters. Though they are not properly Immaculate monks, they keep their heads shaved in that style. They are careful to avoid any confusion on the issue – they know that as far as the Immaculate Order is concerned, they are simply heretics waiting to happen. The monastery is adamant that they are not propagating any religion, but simply teaching discipline and enlightenment, as taught by Mela.
