Brotherhood Lands - Shinden Kasai

[Vutall]

Shinden Kasai
This temple to Osano-wo, the Fortune of Fire and Thunder, is unusual because many of the resident monks are retired Crab samurai. Built by Crab warriors on the Plains of Thunder, which storms ravage all year round, this temple is a formidable fortress of limestone. To reach it, visitors must scramble over rocks that no horse could traverse and navigate a maze fitted with deadly traps. This same maze is used as a training ground for initiate monks, ensuring that only the best survive to become fully fledged Thunder Sōhei. Lightning rods atop the walls create a blinding display during the regular storms. If they serve a greater purpose, the monks keep this secret to themselves.

The master sensei is a retired Lion samurai now known as Kusuburu. Smaller in stature than many of the Thunder Sōhei, he challenges and defeats them all regularly in order to maintain his position. His hair-less scalp is heavily scarred and red. He wears a scarlet hakama and leaves his chest bare, displaying the welts he has earned in his long residence at the temple.

Building the Fortress
Two hundred years after the death of Osano-wo, the Brotherhood of Shinsei requested that Osano-wo’s ono battle-ax, kept but not used by the Hida family, be given for safekeeping to Shinden Sandā in Mantis lands. As the Hida were unwilling to send the weapon such a distance, a samurai named Kaiu Tomoki was given the task of building a temple to rival that of the Mantis. The Plains of Thunder were deemed the most suitable

location, and Tomoki took engineers and bushi with him to build a structure to protect the weapon. The Crab warriors stayed, practicing their martial ways. Since that time, many warriors from all clans and castes have joined them rather than retiring to a quieter monastic life elsewhere. The Brotherhood of Shinsei was satisfied, though the sōhei of the temple remain set apart, governing themselves.

Ready For War
Shrines to Osano-wo and associated Fortunes exist in the bowels of the fortress, where the only light comes from flames kept perpetually burning. The monks sleep and train in barren stone rooms. Their rituals are physically intense, their training grueling, and even the successful initiates come away burned and scarred. Almost all artifacts kept in the temple are weapons, the most precious of which are kept locked away in the great vault where Osano-wo’s personal ono rests, awaiting his return. Sōhei train with this type of ax, their signature weapon, but they are also masters of jūjutsu. They seek Enlightenment through reverence of their Fortune and adherence to his martial ways

The Army of Osano-Wo
As Shinden Kasai contains a battle-ready army of sōhei, several commanders have petitioned the temple for aid in the past. Few have persuaded the master sensei that the cause is great enough to warrant their intervention. Only the Emerald Champion can count on these monks, since they believe victory in the Emerald Championship demonstrates Osano-wo’s blessing. The Emerald Champion is Osano-wo’s chosen, and the Thunder Sōhei would follow them unquestioningly. Small groups or individual sōhei do sometimes leave the temple for a time to fight in their Fortune’s name, but the Empire has not yet seen the full force of Osa-no-wo’s sōhei army in all its glory.

Tales Told of the Thunder Temple
The Kaiu engineers installed large metal rods atop the temple to harness the power of lightning itself, using it to power traps that incinerate those who stumble into them. The senior monks can use the lightning as a weapon!

The monks claim to keep Osano-wo’s ono for his safe return, but no one has ever seen it. Maybe they don’t have it at all, and the weapon is lost.

The monks scar their bodies, purifying themselves with flame. Many would-be monks don’t survive the initiation process, and their burnt bodies are offered as a sacrifice to the Fortune.

Some of the monks were dangerous criminals once, murderers and thieves who escaped justice by joining the order