Prestige Class Spotlight 13: Brother of the Seal
(art by LehisLuguer on DeviantArt)
With their devotion to order in all things and tendency to remain in one fairly remote place to train body and mind, it should be no surprise that monks are a good choice for guarding ancient secrets and the seals to dark power.
Such is the case with the Brothers and Sisters of the Seal in Kaer Maga, a city built into the remains of a giant hexagonal structure from the days of Ancient Thassilon. This Brotherhood had been tasked with guarding a powerful mystical seal deep in the depths of the city.
However, while once they knew of it’s importance, the monks that formed the organization lost the knowledge of exactly what they were guarding, only that it was important. However, so long had they done so that a schism formed in the organization between those that wished to continue protecting the seal (both out of duty and also because things that get sealed away tend to be nasty), and those that sought to break the seal, citing that holding to promises made to dead men serve only to bind the living.
Of course, all of this is a moot point due to events in the setting.
(Spoilers for Return of the Runelords and Tyrant’s Grasp)
It turns out the seal was one of the three-part seals that helped strengthen the main seal that kept Tar-Baphon, the lich known as the Whispering Tyrant, imprisoned beneath his necropolis. However, eventually all three seals were found, including the one guarded by Brotherhood, their guardians slaughtered by the Whispering Way or other forces, and the seal broken, which is what leads into the beginning of the Tyrant’s Grasp AP.
With that in mind, any game in the Lost Omens setting that includes a Brother of the Seal character will, by necessity, either have to take place before Return of the Runelords, or have said character be a survivor, perhaps a lucky member of the traditionalist faction or part of the rebel faction.
(End Spoilers)
Regardless of their status as an organization, we find ourselves with a monk capable of powerful blows to keep invaders away from certain places, as well as an intricate understanding of runes and abjuration magic, which can be quite useful and thematic beyond the Lost Omens setting.
The prerequisites for this prestige class all come directly from the monk class, so every member is going to have at least some monk training in addition to knowledge of magic.
Naturally, their skills at unarmed combat continue to grow under this path.
However, they also learn the best ways to strike hard objects to break them, either to destroy the tools of invaders or to potentially crack the seals themselves.
They also learn some basic magic to either lock an object up tight or magically hold a door closed, all the better ward locations and treasures.
Their familiarity with defensive positions means they are very skilled at noticing traps, and even more so magical symbols and runes thanks to their familiarity with magic seals.
The last thing these monks want is for enemies to gain access to that which they guard, so they learn a technique to strike a foe with such force as to knock them back, keeping them away, even if they are bigger than the monk. Later on, they do so in such a way to deal even more harm when foes are sent slamming into walls or each other.
Their familiarity with runes also means that, should they need to, and are able to undo wards, symbol traps, and the like with a touch, stripping foes of their defenses, removing wards and traps, and the like, though doing so risks exposing them to the magic’s effects if they fail.
Truly these monks can prove powerful indeed, and their strikes hit harder than other monks of the same skill level.
Normally knocking foes back with a mighty blow requires focusing all of their power into a single blow, but as they gain mastery, they can blend such strikes into their flurrying strikes, perhaps keeping multiple foes off of them, or delivering a hail of blows before sending their foe flying.
They also eventually learn to knock foes back with enough force that they send the poor fools behind a struck foe backwards as well.
The most powerful among them can unwravel protections that normally only the most powerful dispelling and disjunction arts can undo, revealing their true understanding of wards and seals.
An awesome blow-themed monk prestige class is interesting enough on it’s own, but these warriors also have some fun dispelling arts as well. Being able to disrupt enemy formations as well as crack protective spells gives these warriors some potential for not just controlling the battlefield and stripping foes of magical protections, but also some utility in magical trap removal, as long as the traps in question are of the runic variety of course.
While the current lore of Pathfinder’s core setting has robbed these monks of their purpose, that in itself is a seed for plenty of fun character and story ideas. What does a guardian monk do when they have nothing to protect? Perhaps they are seeking something in need of their guardianship, or perhaps they seek vengeance for a ward they failed to keep safe? Or maybe they seek to see the world in order to understand what they are protecting the world from before returning? All are possible both in or outside the Lost Omens setting.
Once, long ago, iruxi society ruled supreme in the marshes of Xanixal, but now they are a shadow of their former self. However, they still remember much of their oral history, and one story tells of a lizardfolk enclave of martial artists that guard the deepest chambers of a temple pyramid dedicated to one of the old gods, where they keep the wicked and curious alike away from a dark seal and the power hidden within.
Legend says that the Seal of the Split Sky lies on an isolated island in the Iron Sea. Stories of the seal range from the promises of great power and great evil hidden within, but reaching it will require contending the stormy gray sea, the isonade-haunted waters around the island proper, and a clan of ancient guardians who have swore to let none approach.
Everyone knows that the world will end if the seals of the Five Sacred Towers are ever broken. It’s a story passed around in almost every culture. However, these is one who would dare break them, a monk with strange talents and is not inclined to explain his reasonings to those outside his entourage, save only to say “We have been led astray.”
