The Order of the Eclipse is a group of monks who reside in the Starfall Monastery on top of the Snowy Mountains. The monks who inhabit the Starfall Monastery are individuals who vary greatly in their focus, morality, and ethics. Common folk respect the incredible discipline of the monks, but see them as an odd, unpredictable bunch of great power. Even mercenaries and other adventurers aren’t quite sure what to make of them.
One thing all of the monks of the Order of the Eclipse have in common is that they are devoted to the Three Faced God. The monastery was built a very long time ago, before recorded history. When the temple was built, it was built for worship to the Three Faced God. The Order of the Eclipse has been devoted to the Three Faced God long before the War of the Fallen Angel.
The Order of the Eclipse welcomes any who seek them out, and offer sanctuary to those who they deem worthy. There is no requirement to join, anybody who takes the vow is allowed to join. The vows the members adhere to are:
I will not involve myself in the politics of the lands
I will not hesitate to dispense mercy, nor will I hesitate to dispense vengeance
The innocent shall never feel the touch of my left hand, nor will the guilty feel the touch of my right hand
Perfection is unachievable, but that does not exempt me from trying
I will adhere to these vows for as long as I remain in the realms of the gods
The vows are left somewhat open to interpretation, each member may have their own slight variation on the vows' meanings, and some may even add their own additional vows to their personal code. Any members who break a vow are met with a swift death.
Upon joining, members are trained at the monastery. The members train their bodies in accordance with the Three Faced God. The left hand of the Three Faced God represents death, and the members are taught destruction with their left hand. The Right Hand represents life, and the members are taught healing with their right hand. The face represents Intelligence, and the members are taught meditation and self reflection.
The members usually excel in a certain field, and focus on what they excel in exclusively. Those that excel in destruction are taught martial arts and other combat, while those that excel in healing are taught medicine and healing magic. Those that excel in meditation often take on the other responsibilities of the Monastery, such as cooking, cleaning, upkeep, and leading worship between meditation sessions. A rare few excel in two fields, and it’s even rarer that a person excels in all three.
Those that specialize in destruction tattoo their left hands and arm, while those that specialize in healing tattoo their right hands and arm, and those that specialize in meditation tattoo their face and neck. The more tattoos a member has, the stronger they are in that field. A beginner may only have a single tattoo of the moon on the palm of their left hand, while a master may have their entire left arm tattooed with the night sky. The leader of the order is whoever is the strongest member, which is decided by taking the average of each member's skill in all three disciplines.
Members of the order often live to extraordinary ages, some even tripling their race's average life span. Typically those that excel in the meditation field live the longest. The oldest member, Master Virion, is a human of unknown age. He is a master of meditation, the strongest in his category by far, but he lacks healing and destruction. He acts as a historian, lead worshiper, and often takes care of new recruits. He oversees a lot of the dull tasks, such as monastery repairs and inventory, and leads the meditation and self reflection discipline. He has been described as a gentle old man, and even a little senile. His body isn’t what it used to be, but it doesn’t stop him from hobbling around the monastery. It is rumored that he has the power to astral project himself to anywhere in the universe.
There is only one member who is a master of all three disciplines, and he is also the leader. He is a human man named Dul Kullell. He is around 300 years old, but looks no older than maybe 30 or 40. He is a master of all three disciplines, with his body almost completely covered in tattoos. While he may not be the strongest healer or meditator, his destructive power more than makes up for it. During the Bleakwater Rebellion, Henry Haddock demanded that monks of the Order of the Eclipse join his army. Dul Kullell is said to have walked down the mountain by himself and marched straight to Henry, killing his entire army in a single punch, leveling most of his castle in the process, ending the entire war in an instant. He then marched back to the monastery. Dul Kullell isn’t a very talkative man, and often spends his free time alone in the monastery, although he stands in front of every new member as they take their vows, and kills them himself if they break them. He trains the members of the monastery in martial arts, turning them into highly disciplined warriors. The training is brutal, but it is the reason the Order is as highly regarded in their combat skills. Members are taught all kinds of fighting styles with all kinds of weapons so they can never be caught in a situation where they are at a disadvantage.
The monastery is also known for healing the sick and dying. The members use it as a way to train their healing for illnesses, as they have plenty of injuries to heal from those that get injured during training. People from all over make the trek up the Snowy Mountains if they are desperate enough. The order asks nothing in return for their services, but the people often bring gifts in return, such as food, clothing, alcohol, and money. The Order survives almost entirely off these donations, although surrounding lords and nobles often donate as well to show respect. Although the order rarely brings the deceased back to life, their strongest healer, an elven woman named Lylla, is said to be able to bring someone back to life with just a strand of the deceased’s hair. Lylla leads the healing discipline, and often acts as the Orders link to the outside world.