1 The Order of the Monks
"We are known as The Monks.
The Order of the Monks is the only neutral entity that can cross borders without any limitation or control. SAFE from any King's wrath.
The order has also the mission to learn everything and record it. Information is power. Every information we gather is constructing our defense in a way you can not comprehend right now. It is not for you to question but to obey. This is the best trait of the Monk. Obey the Order. Learn all your life in order to live. When you will be chosen as guards, if you would have the honor of serving a Saruman, you will understand it's power and why it is important to preserve it this way. Every Saruman in sacred, important in it's own way. The human counts as much as the Saruman does, because the body is the temple and the stronger the human, the stronger the Saruman will be. If the human is weak, the Saruman will die also.
We exist from the beginning of time and our job is to secure the Balance between light and the dark in this world. We are trained to protect the people and we are less and less and there are so many people that need to live. Every new generation of kings choose their personal guards from our ranks and we exist to protect the King's life. From time to time, every few centuries, a Dark King rises and it is our job to protect the Reign of Life before his life.
We are here from the beginnings and there is no one who can shake this state of things.
We are also the Keepers of the History and it is our secret mission to record the lives of the Kings not as you know it. It is a different kind of history indeed."
The Monk speaking in front of the children was teaching them. He was hoping that at least half of them would survive to carry on the mission the entire's Order would depend on. They were indeed fewer and fewer. He was speaking, repeating the poem he already knew by heart. These children must become stronger, they must learn to be healers or fighters, to protect the lives of the next kings. Which next king would that be? he thought. Sheng Zung had no intent in renewing the bloodline, and bloodline would appear to die with him. He was only doing that to defy the Order, disregarding the rules of the realms. "The King must secure the bloodline. It is his sacred duty to the people he rules over" was the first low of the kings. Sheng Zung was a tyrant, a challenger of all orders an a ruthless commander. His first four monk guards had already died and he had asked for the fifth already. "Who would be chosen this time? " he asked himself.
-Monk? one of the children asked. He realized he was silent in front of them, alone with his thoughts when they were waiting for the lesson. So he begun again.
"The most powerful Kings that ever lived in this world belong to the House of the Warchild. For centuries they have gain a control that no one could oppose to. Strangely, neither could us. We could not understand what caused the change in the power balance, but this house gain so much control in the last 200 years, and it kept getting stronger. We fear the moment has come for the 7th Dark King to rise. We are continuing recording information and the calm before the storm is tickling our senses. We all feel it. It will be epic.
There are few strong kings in this world. The stronger belong to the magic realms. Each of them gain a Guardian at birth. Guardian and Royal blood are bound together for life. The strongest Guardians we could ever record were the Sarumans. They are beautiful deadly dragonlike beings that control the human in any danger situation. In The Shadow kingdom there are five houses that can offer the next king. In each of those houses the Sarumans are born so there is not knowing who might rise and when. So far, it appears that the House of Warchild is the stronger as it gave more kings to this kingdom than any of the other houses did. Each of the king of the Warchild House had a Dark Saruman and that how they are recognized in their House. We record the history of the Sarumans. You will learn in the next class of the Saruman history, different types and behaviors they have and how to get close to them, why are they colored and what house they belong to according to the colors, for example, the Shadows's Assassins Sarumans are always light blue or gray.
You will learn of what they can do and how to defend the people and calming them beasts down. For example, it is when the Saruman gets black, corrupted by power of the darkness, that is when the Dark King rises. The changes are irreversible. The human core is all corrupted, the kindness is all lost and the blood starts flowing. The most dangerous are the military. Soldiers are masters of the deadly arts, and they make good use of their skills. That is why you must train in both fighting and healing fields. You must be better everyday. You only get better by training. You will be tested every year from now on. The ones who will not pass the tests, will end up dead. There is no use here for the weak. We value life and courage therefor, we must be able to protect others and protect us too. We are humble servants of the realms. Servants of the kings, but loyal to the Order first. But know this, under no circumstances, you will not betray the king you serve. The honor of the Monks will not be stained. Ever!"
The children were all about 5-6 or so years old. They were all looking at him with their eyes wide opened, sipping every word the Monk would speak. The cave they were using as a classroom, was resounded with his words, amplifying them in the silence of the rock walls. His voice was low and grave, calm and firm, warm yet retained. Children were mesmerized, as if they were all enchanted by his power. They all loved to stay close to him, they all wanted to learn everything from him as if he was a walking encyclopedia. They would try to skip other classes running to his instead, only to hear this voice. He knew so much and yet he was so young! He was kind and so strong and yet humble. His massive stature was intimidating and contrasting somehow with this calm voice, but they all felt that it was only his control. The other monk teachers were old, like very old, they all had long white hair and dark eyes yet this one was young, like in his twenty's and still had the same white hair almost like the old ones. Only his eyes were a dark blue, so different of the other monks. And the Older Monk never let him go on the racing for the king's guards. He must have been special, children were thinking. He must remain here, in the caves, to become the Older Monk's successor maybe.
The Blue Eyed Monk was the only monk with some sort of name. All the others were just... the monks. They would receive the name of the house they would serve and that was how they would be known from that day on. The Monks were trained and tested until they would reach the age of 20, age after they could enter the military service. The last test was also completing the final change. They would start the training usually at about 3 years old. At about 6 they would be finalizing the first level stage, and they would already be initiated in martial arts, the art of healing, war strategy, history of the kingdoms, the bloodlines of the realms, the Guardians of the royal blood. Only those graduating the first level would start the Change. The first Change would change their eyes, each Stage bringing physical transformation until they would align the others. In the end, they would all look alike, monks in white cloths, with white, long hair, dark black eyes, tall in stature, strong like bulls, twice as strong as the common soldiers.
After the last Change, at about 20 years old, they could enter the race for the king's guards. The tests were hard to survive, and usually, from a class of 15 children, only 2 or 3 only would reach their 20s. Fortunately, there were so many orphans in the world, and so many were left to the gates of the temple everyday. Even so, the Order had few and few members. They were known as fearless fighters, the last stand of a king's defense.
The Order was known as a supplier of the elite guards for royal guards but it was knows that they were not cheap. Therefor, not every king could afford their services. Therefor, the ones who could, were stronger. It was known that the king of the shadows, Sheng Zung was the most powerful of all. He was himself known as the best swordsman in his kingdom, and none of the closed kingdoms were brave enough to war him alone. It was said that he killed all his mistresses and his hairs in order to be the only one on the throne. There was really no one who would dare to challenge him. He had 2 monks already as personal guards, yet he was said to be able to kill maybe more than ten people all alone, and he enjoys killing.
"His Saruman is dark. Close to black. They are specific for only this house, no other house has any dark color Saruman. This kind of a Saruman longs for blood and lacks control. Is a war creature that consumes the body from within if it is not fed with the blood. The House of Warchild is made of warriors, the best strategs in war and the king proves it as he remains on the throne for over 20 years so far. Yet, he has no hair and his actions in his House is endangering the bloodline. He needs to produce an hair to secure the throne of the Shadows".
The Monks are the formidable soldiers of the realms. That was why no king would ever get more than 2 guards at once, so they would keep some balance between the kingdoms. But now, it has come to the monks attention that the king of the shadows was stronger than his both monks, and he was so feared by his neighbors that they would make a great alliance to war with him. A coalition formed of 6 kingdoms against one, was never to be heard before. And his monks sent a disturbing message that the king was able to crush them all, he himself being the weapon.
The Monks standing next to him were working on convincing him to take in count the peace. His Saruman appears to have been taking control over him, as he only lives the war and makes no time for peace to raise a family. Yet, he will come pay us a visit today. It is said he had lost his monks, both of them, in the same day. We already know there are sometimes assassinations attempts on his life but none succeeded so far. And now, he would really have lost two monks at once? Best trained worriors, how could that be true?
The Monk dismissed the class and the children left the room. A brother came in excited to announce the arrival of the King. The Monk summoned the Old Council and they all entered the Council room where the King already had been received visible unpleased with the fact that he was requested to leave all weapons at the door.
