Interlude 0: The Monasteries

From the Notes of Jereth

(The 8th Campione of the Monasteries as of year 2016 A.D.)


If you want to understand how the overriding goal of the Monasteries, ensuring Humanities safety from rampaging Heretic Gods came to be, you'd have to travel waaaaaaay back in time.

I know the Mage Associations, especially the Copper and Bronze Crosses, like to tout their ancient history and just how old they are.

For the sake of the argument let's take the Copper Black Cross. They say they're descended from the Knights Templar, who first came into being roughly around, well, let's just say 1100 A.D. for simplicities sake. I'll even use the date the organization was first founded, not when the Crosses first came into being, so I'm being very generous here.

They're almost a thousand years old if we use that math, a fairly impressive feat.

The Monasteries were first created in 4800 B.C.

To us, the current Mage Associations are naught but children, running around the playground insisting that the adults take them seriously when they want to play House.

While the details are a bit hazy, since actual surviving records of that time are rare at best, it's almost certain that the Monasteries arose from the sacrificial beliefs of the Proto-Indo-Europeans of the time, which brought about Heretic Gods of a more…unpleasant manner.

More unpleasant than the usual Gods that go around wreaking havoc on a whim. Use your imagination there.

It's not too hard to guess how we came into existence though. Constantly being the playthings of beings practically invincible by Human standards would have created a festering anger, a feeling of helplessness, and eventually a few of the early Magicians of the time banded together in order to do something about it.

The first Monastics.

From then on we simply continued to grow. As the early Monasteries actually scored a few victories against Heretic Gods and Rogue Mages of the time they quickly grew in influence, becoming almost myth-like in reputation.

And then we vanished.

Reason being that the early Campiones of those times were beginning to grow in number and power. With no King of the End to form a check on them, there was theoretically no limit to the amount of Godslayers that could be born. With so many powerful deterrents on the planet the Monasteries decided quietly removing ourselves from the 'public' eye would preserve our authority and numbers, as well as freeing ourselves to pursue our goals without the oversight of others.

Which worked just fine until around 2300 B.C., when the man who would eventually be known as the Godslayer With Ten Lives became a Campione.

For years upon years the Monasteries had dreamed of one of our own becoming a Supreme King, but fate never seemed to favor us in that matter.

Then it all changed.

Suddenly having the power of a Devil King on our side, we quickly grew to an unprecedented size and level of strength, easily dominating the other Campione of the world, as the Godslayer with Ten Lives only grew more powerful as he slew deity after deity.

In retrospect, we were hasty. We pushed too fast and too far, causing our enemies to become desperate in their attempt to stop us, eventually leading to the creation of the King of the End system and leading to our greatest defeat.

Afterwards as we picked up the pieces of our shattered crusade we returned to our previous mode of quietly watching for danger from above, and moving as we saw fit.

This continued for almost 4300 more years.

Until my time.


For an organization as powerful as us, we have unimaginably small numbers. The most Monastics we ever had at one time was during the height of the Godslayer with Ten Live's campaign, numbering almost 40,000.

Currently, we have perhaps 11,000 known Monastics in total. These assumed 11,000 comprise the three main levels of the Monasteries.

The Exoterics: The Monasteries are only as effective as our knowledge of world events and the comings and goings of beings from the Domain of Immortality. The Exoterics are our both our research division and information gathering force. Comprising roughly 9000 of our total numbers the Exoterics are easily the majority, and we always need more of them. Exoterics are trained to be spies and planners, hence why all of the Branch Heads are Exoterics themselves. They're the ones that provide us Esoterics with missions and the available data on said assignment.

That's not to say we have some magic repository of all the accumulated knowledge known to Humankind though. What Exoterics specialize in is knowing where to look. In between the internet and the bureaucratic red tape mess that is the U.N., Exoterics can find us exactly what we need, when we need it. You'd be amazed at what kind of information is just lying around as long as you know where to start looking.

Exoterics are given basic martial and Magic skills, instead focusing mostly on the art of deception and infiltration in addition to their impressive organizational skills. A fair number of Exoterics have actually been serving as long term spies and informants in the various Mage Associations and a few non-Mage corporations.

The Esoterics: Esoterics, the Monastery's enforcers, are the deadliest people on the planet. Not necessarily because we're the strongest fighters or the most accomplished Mages, but because we're good at a little bit of everything with a few specialties.

For example, your average Great Knight easily trumps an average Esoteric in magical and knightly combat skills. If you were to set them loose inside a crowded city wth orders to hunt the other down and kill them though…

Well, the Esoteric would be victorious everytime, barring a literal act of God.

Reason being is that from the moment we enter Esoteric training we're forced to do the impossible. Hours of extreme calisthenics, meditation exercises that center on having complete and total control over one's mind, pain tolerance, learning how to deal with emotional stress, being able to alter our personalities at the drop of a hat, tons of classes on psychology and theology…I could go on for hours.

The Esoteric would win every theoretical match because they would just ambush the Great Knight who doesn't have a clue on how to tell an Esoteric apart from a passing civilian. Or they would just shoot them in the back of the head, or detonate an improvised pipe bomb they scrounged together, or any other number of 'underhanded' tactics that said Knight wouldn't be expecting. We play to win.

The most important requirement to being an Esoteric though…well, put bluntly, you have to have a few screws loose. Most of us would have likely been arsonists, delinquents, criminals, soldiers of fortune and serial killers if we hadn't been picked up by the Monasteries.

That really shouldn't be a surprise though.

We're people who dedicate our lives to fighting beings so far beyond Human comprehension it's laughable, while simultaneously killing quite a few normal Humans who could potentially bring about said beings with their…extremist beliefs.

You'd already have to be crazy in order to avoid going crazy from all that. It's a fun little paradox. Regardless, the Esoterics only comprise maybe 2,000 of our current numbers, roughly 1 Esoteric for every 3,500,000 people on this planet.

But hey! We're good enough to make it work.

The Quiet Land: Remember what I said about how the Monasteries don't have some magic repository of all the knowledge ever acquired by Humans? Well I was only mostly telling the truth. There's a highly secretive Branch of the Monasteries us Esoterics and Exoterics have simply dubbed, The Quiet Land.

None of us really know how people are inducted into the Quiet Land or where their bases of operation are, in fact we know only three things for certain about them.

One: They have knowledge of Humanities entire history locked away in vaults who's location only they are aware of. We're not sure if they have some sort of connection to the Guardian of Time or access to the Akashic Records, although it would certainly go a long way in explaining how they know so much stuff about everything.

Two: The Quiet Land is composed largely of seers and those descended from Hime-Mikos, it's widely believed that this is how the Quiet Land manages to learn about so many events without ever making themselves known, Spirit Sensing and Vision are pretty handy tools after all.

Three: If a Monastic suddenly shows up in front of you and says that they're from The Quiet Land…you shut up, sit down, and fucking listen. Throughout our history whenever a representative from the Quiet Land tells us to do something and we ignore it, well…bad shit happens.

That whole business with Sodom and Gomorrah? Yah, that was kinda our fault, considering that the Esoterics of that time ended up not listening to warnings from the Quiet Land.

On a side note, we Monastics always find it funny that the current Mage Associations are terrified of the idea of the Biblical God one day incarnating as a Heretic God.

Uh, hello?

Big Papa Bible has been incarnated twice already. There was our slip-up with Sodom and Gomorrah, then his first incarnation that lead to the whole 'Noah's Ark' story about the world flooding. Actually it was just most of modern day Turkey and Armenia that got the divine bubble bath treatment, but when your entire civilization get's drowned to shit you tend to spread stories of it being, 'the end of the world'.

I digress.

Long story short, when the Quiet Land tells you to do something, you do it.


While this all may seem like an unworkable system, with far too little oversight and lack of direction among us…it's self-evidently worked for millennia.

All because of an idea, a goal. Every one of us, every single Esoteric and Exoteric has sworn, and believes in, our mission to protect Humanity against the whims of Heretic Gods. It's a fragile web we weave, and the very second someone truly decides to use the Monasteries only to further their own ambitions, as Kollberg was coming close to doing, our entire existence will come crashing down like a house of cards. Things like the Commandment Seals are fine delaying tactics, but in an ideal Monasteries they wouldn't even be needed.

If I stop to think about it the past few decades is the closest the Monasteries has ever come to outright Civil War between the Branches.

It's a good thing I came along when I did.

Because now the Monasteries are going to answer to me and me alone, and we're going to finish what we started all those years ago.


From the Notes of Creele

(Monastic Exoteric, Second in Command of North American Branch)


In the interest of my own sanity I have decided to compile a list (which will be ever-changing I imagine) of Jereth's Authorities and their myriad effects. Thus far his Authorities have been derived from Deities comprising the Triglav, while even more unprecedented is that he has been given more than 1 Authority from each God, giving him a total of 6 Authorities thus far.

From the God Veles:

- World Tree Usurper: Based off of the legend when Veles offered a grieving widow passage with his flocks in order to heal, angering Perun, this Authority summons any trees, birds or amphibians nearby to attack Jereth's enemy. While the trees can be controlled according to his will, he cannot create them from nothing and must use the available flora to be effective.

This Authority cannot be activated unless someone other than himself is attacked and injured, additionally he must consider the attacked person to be an ally, friend or innocent bystander.

Incantation: "Lonely Widow wishing for release cry no more, the Earth will grant you passage and protection for you're journey, whether threat from God or Man be made apparent. World Tree Usurper!"

-Serpent's Skin: Veles was considered to be a shapeshifter in many Slavic legends and he used this trait in order to avoid Perun's attacks which would have otherwise struck him down. Jereth considers this power to be very well suited for his work as an Esoteric, and is already planning to use it's powers of concealment and deception to it's fullest.

This is a viable strategy since apparently not even other Campione can tell if he is using this Authority or not. When Salvatore Doni, an incredibly instinctive and observant fighter, encountered Jereth using this Authority he didn't take notice of it's activation or it's effect.

The only restrictions this Authority seems to have is that the user must have a clear image of the appearance they wish to take (a walk in the park for any Monastic) and stay within 10 meters of at least 1 other Human being. We're not sure why 10 meters, perhaps something to do with the distance Sheep would maintain from their shepherd? Jereth's thoughts on the matter were, "Who cares why it works if we know how it works?"

Incantation: "Slither through the fields of lightning and thunder, deceive our foe and live to fight another day. Serpent's Skin!"

-Weaving of Black Wool: The Authority Jereth considers to be the most valuable, and potentially overpowering, of Veles's repertoire. This power affords Jereth the ability to 'see' and 'weave' the very fabric of Magic itself. This sounds impressive, although largely useless against other Campione and Gods due to their naturally strong resistance against Magic, until you consider the possibilities.

Jereth has been experimenting continuously with this Authority, attempting to find out just what this strange ability is capable of. So far he hasn't found any discernible limits to what Black Wool can do given enough time.

He has successfully engraved spell effects onto armor and weapons (similar to how our body engravings automatically enhance our strength when Magic is pushed into them), begun creating several new pieces of Magic and proven that he can both alter or destroy Spells that have either been created or are being created.

Jereth is confident that given the time to do so he can create original spells that are capable of matching Authority level Magic, even if they aren't as efficient as the original powers themselves since they are fueled by Jereth's own Magic power rather than through some other effect.

This power requires no incantation although it has two strange drawbacks. The first is that whenever it's activated Jereth's eyes glow in strange, shifting patterns of color. Seeing as how this rather obviously telegraphs when he is using it he has taken to wearing special contact lenses during combat. The last wrinkle is that as of now he can only keep it activated for about 12 hours at a time before a rather…fitting price is paid. Once he de-activated the Authority during one of these hours long sessions his eyes were immediately assailed by a pain that he so eloquently described as, "Getting fucked in the eye-socket by a barb wire cock."

He's more careful to time his usage now.

From the God Perun:

-Father of Storms: This Authority allows it's user to create a lightning storm wherever and whenever they wish, as well as alter it's ferocity. However, Jereth said that summoning a storm from almost nothing rapidly left him in borderline hypothermia, meaning that any fight should be ended quickly if such a method is used. What he instead discovered was that using an already existing storm has practically no consequences whatsoever. Even physically moving the weather formation from one location to another takes trivial amounts of effort.

While actually being able to summon the storm is impressive, Jereth's level of control over the actual lightning isn't as awe-inspiring. According to him trying to precisely hit targets with the lightning strikes is a hit-or-miss proposition at best (exuse the pun).

Incantation: Violent skies fly to my side and sound our clarion call, the founder of lightning and guardian of the one true root seeks your aide! Father of Storms!"

-Perun's Stones: While we're unsure as to whether this can be considered an Authority, since it has effects and perks more akin to an avatar, it requires a chant nonetheless, so we'll just go ahead and call it it's own Authority.

Invoking this power arms Jereth with Perun's fulgurite axe and bow, along with all the powers they contain. Having these weapons active greatly increases a Campione's already substantial resistance against poisons and Magic, while other Lightning based attacks will be either useless or mitigated. Obviously we haven't been able to test how effective this Authority is at controlling other Campione's lightning Authorities.

Regardless there appears to be almost no cost to using this 'Authority' and should one of the weapons be broken, they can be re-made almost instantaneously. After all, fulgurite is easy to make when you have a lightning storm under your control.

Jereth mentioned that he found the electrical storm much easier to manipulate when using the Stones, able to use the weapons almost like a conducting stick to control the lightning strikes.

Incantation: "Guardian of the Olden Tree, raise your weapon against the watery depths and march against the shapeshifter of death. Perun's Stones!"

-Golden Apples: By far the most immediately lethal of Jereth's available Authorities are the Golden Apples, Perun's quintessential ace in the hole. Initial testing by Jereth made it clear that while powerful, this Authority comes with a great deal of limiting factors. First of all is the necessary requirements for it to be activated. The enemy has to verbally state their intention to either hurt, defeat or kill Jereth or people he considers close to him. This requirement likely came about from Perun's role as a guardian against Veles, being unable to use his most destructive power unless forced to.

Any opponent with half a working brain and prior knowledge of this Authority's requirements can easily circumnavigate it, simply not stating their intent to do harm. Also Jereth has very shaky control over the actual Authority itself. He's unable to summon all three 'Apples' as of now, only managing one. He also has to keep the Authority physically contained in his hand, if he tries to have it orbit him, or even throw it, it rapidly dissipates with large scale destruction as a result.

But these requirements seem fair once you consider just how lethal this Authority really is. The Golden Apples are nothing more than ball lightning, but not just any old lightning. At the heart of the orb of electricity sits a micro-singularity, the power source keeping the ball from spreading outwards violently. Any opponent hit directly by this will find themselves burnt from the highly compressed lightning shell or torn to pieces once the singularity reaches their body.

Very telegraphed, but very powerful.

Incantation: "He grabbed three golden apples And threw them high into the sky, three lightning bolts burst from the sky, the first struck at two young grooms, the second struck a horse in a stall, the third struck six hundred wedding guests, not an eyewitness left, not even to say how they died. Golden Apples!"


The point of these Interludes is mostly a chance for me to explain backstory or cover topics that just don't mesh well with the 'main' story and would stand out like a sore thumb or kill the pacing of the main deal if I included them. This way if no one is interested they can skip right over, while those who are can simply peruse these chapters at their pleasure without hunting for them in the middle of other chapters.

Livelikeme123: Glad you're liking everything so far, thanks for the review!

Kshail: Have no fear, now that Jereth has a bit of breathing room and a few more Authorities under his belt the fights will start having more length to them, now that he no longer has to neccesarily gamble on ending things as quickly as possible. Appreciate the reviews!

Tsun: You're not wrong in assuming any of those things are going to happen...mostly because they will, heh. And as for the swearing It's part of Jereth's character, not the entire story. You won't be seeing characters like Godou or Alec channeling their inner South Park simply because that's not the way they speak. While I sympathize with you finding it distracting I'm not willing to redo a lot of the dialogue I have planned as well as change a noticeable facet of his being. Sorry friend :_( All the same I appreciate your input and for putting up with my work even though you find parts of it unpleasant.

Matrience: And thank you for reading!

youthful rock le: Appreciate your telling me so :)

Guest: I'm glad you like Jereth's character, I wasn't too sure if people would find him enjoyable but so far things are positive! (Frantic Knock on Wood)