Mystic Traditions of Ravimarga
Mystic traditions discuss the myriad spiritual disciplines that have risen among the people of the Four Suns over the generations. These include ascetics, psychics, monks, priests, shamans, and all manner of similar folk. They are denoted by adherence to a tradition of practice that usually comes hand-in-hand with a philosophy of some kind.
Avowed of the Four Suns
All Systems • Any Race
Arguably the oldest monastic tradition in the Four Suns, and one whose philosophy has touched nearly every culture in it, the Way of the Four Suns is an ascetic tradition that sees the Suns as the source of all life and magic. Its discipline teaches its adherents to align their hearts to the Suns through the use of meditation and martial arts. Monasteries of the Way are found in all the systems of the Four Suns, with each abbot or abbess answerable to no one else - they must merely have mastered the Dance of the Four Suns, the four interlocking martial arts of the Way.
- Suggested Traits: Dance of the Golden Sun Talent, Dance of the Frost Sun Talent, Dance of the Blood Sun Talent, Dance of the Dragon Sun Talent • Dance of the Four Suns Specialization (Warrior)
Crechaeum Seers
The Tyrranicum, Dragon Sun System • Dragons
In dragon society, one of the oldest of its many spirits disciplines are the seers of the Crechaeum, leaders in an ancestor cult that is considered by the orthodoxy to be the only true religion of dragonkind (after all, only dragons themselves are truly worthy of the worship of their kind). The Crechaeum keeps an ever-growing canon of saints made up of only those dragons who achieved the oldest age of their kind. These elder wyrms are said to transcend to the Crechaeum, the great nest of spirit-eggs to which all lesser dragon souls journey after death, to attempt to be reborn and achieve greatness in another life. The Seers are mystics given to trance states and spoken prophecy they claim is heard from the saints of the cult themselves. They wield magics that summon ephemeral drakes to fight for them, and that instill very potent dragonfear in their enemies.
- Suggested Traits: Dragon • Mage (Crechaeum Seer Specialization) •
Disciples of the Void
The Void Sodality, Blood Sun System • Humans, Gevana, Zungari, Dragons
There are whispers that among the pirates of the Void Sodality, there is a strange and brutal religion, which worships the Void, the antithesis of all suns, of all light. It is said that they worship the maddening oblivion that lies beyond the Solar Wind. Exactly what the aims of this philosophy might be is unknown, but those struck by Sodality pirate vessels sometimes describe certain members of its crew, heavily tattooed with strange black patterns and weilding terrible blades of narrow fields of darkness.
- Suggested Traits: x
Priests of the Progentiors
Erudan, Frost Sun System • Erudael
The holy men and women of the erudael revere the paired Mother of the Fires and the Father of the Seas, unnamed deities (save among the initiates of the priesthood) who embody the all-encompassing cruel seas of their homeworld, and the nurturing warmth at the center of their world. Though not all of its initiates are capable of wielding magic, those who do are terrifying elementalists, calling flame and water alike to do their bidding.
- Suggested Traits: x
Ravibija
Rastram Kanaqa, Golden Sun System • Humans, Gevana
A tradition of strange mystical powers very much tied to sunlight, the practitioner of Ravibija (which is simultaneously a name for the practice, the discipline itself, the practitioners, and the organization) is capable of weaving his consciousness into the sunlight itself and projecting his awareness anywhere that sunlight may fall. Though this is usually only planetary in scale, the Ravibija mystics have been known to join their powers to project awareness and messages to other planets within the same system. They are considered wise and have taken a vow to not participate in politics for themselves, so it is typical for many nobles to employ one of them as messengers and advisors. They wear actual gemstones implanted across their brows to indicate their rank and proficiency within the order, a trait fostered not only among the gevana adherents, but those humans with the gifts as well.
- Suggested Traits: x
Rootsingers of the Orthodoxy
Rootworld Orthodoxy, Blood Sun System • Humans, Amagari, Zungari, Qyrgari, Erudael
The root-priests of the Rootworld Orthodoxy are an order of dendrite ascetics, who live in the myriad twisted roots and branches of the great Rootworld trees, seeking the further their wisdom and knowledge they believe is encoded in the very patterns and structures of the garden world. Rootsingers all being their practice as children, called by a song no one else can hear out into the wilds - if they survive, and return with their first rootsong, they are accepted into the informal order of mystics. Rootsingers have strange talents, including the supposed ability to pass their consciousness into the great trees of their (and other) worlds, as well as the ability to call forth trees and other plantlife to animate and defend them.
- Suggested Traits: x
Yajata of the Suryavarna
Rastram Kanaqa, Golden Sun System • Humans, Gevana, Amagari
The worship of the Varijaia - the Golden Sun at the center of the Rastram Kanaqa - is an ancient religion that began with the gevana but inevitably spread to the sun-faring folk of the system. Its clergy are distinct from the Ravibija, for they are not ascetics and they are most decidedly political. And while all gevana are considered to be part of the priesthood of Suryavarna, the majority of its yajata (priests) are humans. They are known to employ sun magics that dazzle and enchant the minds of others, and to weild light as a terrible weapon or defense.
- Suggested Traits: x
