Coven of the Eight

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History

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Beliefs and Teachings

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Virtues and Chanting

Aside from the common teachings, each of the disciplines within the coven were given a single Virtue by Ksaravadgati, based on what he saw deep within the souls of the first masters. Each inheritor is brought up being taught every aspect of this virtue, and to live, fight and die by it. While it can be percieved in different manners, every practicioner eventually comes to master it as it's a fundamental step towards mastering the discipline.

Moreover, the tradition of chanting is very prominent within the Coven. Every technique has a unique name that can be called upon when utilized, which is often required of young disciples to actually manage to pull it off. Not only is it to focus all your chi and power on the single technique, but it also serves a ceremonial purpose of humility. By acknowledging the name of the technique, the practicioner also acknowledges his or her own weakness and need for guidance and tutelage. When the practioner grows in strength and becomes more familiar with the techniques of their chosen discipline, chanting plays a lesser part for the most basic techniques. However, even Inheritors must sometime chant in order to effectively use more intricate and powerful techniques.

Piercing Heaven's Temple

The holy grounds of the Coven of the Eight, it's located on an unnamed mountain top in the northernmost regions of China. At the foot of the mountain housing Piercing Heaven's temple lies three routes leading to the top. The first one is the path of valor, that one is traveled by those who have nothing to prove, either to themselves or someone else. It is the easiest path and leads to the eastern side of the temple but few possess the confidence to consider themselves flawless, thus opting another route. Next comes the path of diligence, traveled by those who seek wisdom and knowledge from those who know more than themselves. It is the shortest but steepest path, leading in a straight line up the mountain to the southern gate of the temple. Most monks and priestesses coming to visit the temple walk this path. The last route, the same route that Ksaravadgati took, is the path of virtue. It is the longest and most dangerous path, taken by those who wish to find truth within themselves. They arrive at the western gate and most inheritors and disciples travel this path. Piercing Heaven's temple is mostly inhabited by Monks and priestesses, who are tasked with the day-to-day duties such as cleaning, cooking and patrolling the temple grounds. Alongside them are the current 8 masters of the Coven and Ksaravadgati himself.

The temple itself is built in crimson steel adorned with golden, ornamental trims along the sides. The wall stands 10 meters high and the three gates stand as tall as 15 meters high, the entire length they span is topped with a pathway where the monks on guard duty patrol. Above the gates are intricately adorned roofs, supported by four pillars and with a fire burning in the middle. Inside the walls one will be greeted by a square garden stretching from their eastern gate to the west. To the south lay the front gate, through whom those that had taken the path of diligence would enter and to the north the temple walls reached into the mountain. The temple is not located at the peak but close, for on the peak lies The Ascension Altar. This is also why it would be impossible to ascend the mountain from the north, for around the altar, a blizzard most cruel always ravage, as if to keep intruders out. The only way to reach the Ascension Altar is through the mountain, who is hollowed out and acts as the living space for those currently staying at the temple. Alongside the mountain wall, a small shrine acts as an entrance to the interior of the table. From atop the mountain, a waterfall come crashing down on the roof of it, who is built to lead the water towards the east and weast, forming to small rivers that run parallell with the eastern and western walls a few meters from them, towards the south where they flowed through small opening in the wall on either side of the gate. Small bridges made out of wood allow for crossing of the water and the grounds are covered with trees that bloom despite the harsh conditions of the area.

Once inside the shrine, one will come across a wall with a mighty Buddha statue and the corridor will split in two. Following the corridor to the right around the wall will lead you to the hall of the resolute, where the kitchen and the monks' rooms are located. To the left is the hall of the eight, where the inheritors, disciples and masters sleep. If one continue deeper into the cave, following either corridor, one would come upon a magnificent sight of an untouched, natural cavern. Several openings allows for light to shine into the cavern and several smaller waterfalls pour into it from some of these openings, forming small ponds along the edges where vegetation grew, lush green bog and white flowers of undecided origin among others. It was said that those who bathed in these ponds would sooner achieve enlightenment and many monks spend their days meditating by them. Right next to the entrance into the caverns is a huge gate that leads into the dining hall and on the far side of the cavern is an exit that leads to a pathway up the northern side of the mountain to the Ascension altar.

The Ascension Altar is a huge stone construct atop the mountain that is said to have been there when Ksaravadgati first reached the summit a thousand years ago. It holds the form of a rectangle, duly ornamented through carvings on the side. From the south is a total of eight steps one must ascend before reaching the actual altar, and it is also surrounded by 8 pillar that stretch even above the altar. Everytime a new disciple is chosen, they go through a rite in which they take one step at a time, on each step they recieve acknowledgement and a blessing from the current masters of the coven. Once they reach the altar, they will be greeted by Ksaravadgati himself and finally acknowledged as a true disciple.

The Eight Seats

There are a total of eight seats in the coven, one for different martial art in the coven. The seats are numbered from 1st seat to 8th seat, however the number does not indicate rank of any kind, it simply decides where the practicioner of the martial art sits by the dining table and the order at which they acknowledge and bless a disciple at the Ascension altar. Each and every seat holds a unique martial art, and all of them are different from eachother, only sharing the primary beliefs listed above. That counts for style, technique, origins and chi utilization.

Each seat is divided into three ranks:

• Disciple is the first rank, this is the rank one gains while training to become an inheritor. A True Disciple is one who has proven his or her worth and has undergone the Rite of Ascension.
• Inheritor is the next rank and is gained once the Disciple masters what is known as the Inheritence techniques, the secret and most powerful technique within their martial art. At this point, the Practicioner may also take a disciple of his or her own.
• Lastly, one becomes a Master when they've more or less mastered their martial art and their disciple has has reached or is nearing the Inheritor rank. At this point, focus lies on perfecting the art and creating a new technique for future generations to use.

This means there can be at most 3 persons with the knowledge of the martial art active at one time. While the masters tend to stay within the temple grounds, Inheritors and Disciples rarely do so, only arriving for ascetic training or guidance. On rare occasions they arrive called there by their master or sometimes even Ksaravadgati himself.

Palm of Annulment

Current Master: Ksaravadgati the Boddhisattva

Current Inheritor: None

Current Disciple: Maya, female, 11 years old, Indian

Garment: No official garment.

Palm of Annulment is the prime martial art used by Ksaravadgati, however it is simply one of many forms he's mastered through the years. It's fairly simple, it's power is to counteract any energy aimed at the practicioner and any defenses the enemy might have. Be it magic, technology or otherworldly, it can easily deflect all kinds of energy with a wave of it's hand. Not only that but no kind of armor works against it, as it passes through every barrier and strikes the enemy at the very core of their being. Learning this martial art is nigh impossible however, and it has taken Ksaravadgati a thousand years to find someone who could be his disciple. This because one can not truly master it before achieving enlightenment oneself. It encompasses no techniques save for it's namesake and is not counted amongst the other martial arts in the coven.

RP notes

• The coven is completely unknown to the general populace, who has no idea of it actually existing. Regular martial artists might've heard legends of the "Temple in the sky" where forgotten martial arts are taught. These legends have been around for several centuries and are usually very glorified and blown out of proportions at times.
• Martial artists with knowledge of the Yengtao temple will probably have heared of its existance, since the Coven is a breakaway group of Yengtao.
• There are several monks, priestesses and wise men around the world that has been at the temple as visitors, that can hold knowledge of it.
• To this day, there have not been a single soul to have defied the rules of Inheritence of One and lived to tell the tale, as the Masters of each discipline hunts down and kills them before any such thing can happen.
• The Relationship of the Three Qualities, written by Ksaravadgati, is considered one of the world's most powerful, magical artifacts simply because of it's strange effects on readers. Mystics might've heard of this tome under one of its many names: The Tome of Enlightenment, Tome of Truth, Thrice-blessed Truth, Tome of Emptiness, The Book of Three Qualities and similar monikers.
• Red Banners have long tried to nestle their way inside, however every man or woman sent into their ranks either fail and die or adhere to the rules of the coven, cutting their ties with The red banners. This was the cause of Li Shao Ba, current master of -.
• The Coven's alignment is to be considered True Neutral and it doesn't care for the alignment of their disciples, as long as they stay true to the chosen paths.

OOC Notes

• Most of the characters mentioned her are NPC's and mostly used in stories revolving the few PC's mentioned there.
• If interest for these martial arts arise when reading through this, one is very much free to contact the author In-game for more information (Handle being @Swedsman) or on CORP forums (Handle there being Swedsman and Bro)
• Some characters will remain NPC's as they're simply too powerful to be PC characters (Namely Ksaravadgati himself and anyone using Palm of Annulment.)
• Everything written here is player-created and under no circumstances will it be treated as or claimed to be official Champions lore.