Way of the Dancing Wind (monastic tradition)

The Way of the Dancing Wind is one of the ancient monastic traditions practiced in Vesland. The main tenets of this tradition are based in the innate order and balance of the natural world and how even humans fall under the authority of the greater world.

Tenets

 * 1) Nature is the highest authority.  Anyone who uses their station to control someone else's path goes against the natural order of the world.
 * 2) Nature is innately balanced.  People should be left to their own paths unless they interfere with the balance of life.
 * 3) Nature is by definition imperfect.  Only by acknowledging one's flaws can you truly become whole.
 * 4) Nature is compassionate.  Just as a mother tends her young, it is important to aid others along their path within their own means.
 * 5) Nature is vicious. Unnatural things and things outside thier own path are dealt with swiftly and efficiently.
 * 6) Nature is calm.  Even with the destructive power of nature, its strength lies in the calm serenity it posesses.

History
The Way of the Dancing Wind was formed by a sect of Mu-shi of the Way of Ten Thousand Spirits. Instead of shaping spirits in the ways traditional Mu-shi did, the monks of this traditions learned to internalize the energy of the spirits and unleash it as physical attacks and abilities. Most notably, monks of this order were able to harness the power of the spirits to attain incredible speeds. Some stories even write of monks who moved so fast they could traverse across water as if it were solid ground.

Present Day
Around the decline of ________, and as the Salandians began to conquer much of Vesland, many of the monastaries were destroyed and the monks slaughtered as heretics in the name of the Alfather. Those that were left alive went into hiding deep in the wilds of Vesland. Many of them led lives of seclusion as hermits, or traveled alone as healers to maintain the tenets of belief without arousing suspicion.

As the years went on there were fewer and fewer known followers until most who were aware of its existence believed that all of the monks had died off and the way was lost to history.