Hallowed Peak Monastery

Hallowed Peak Monastery is an ancient Holy Sight in the Wildeast, founded atop Mount Hallowed Peak by Laughinglemons1 - who remains (as of the 15th of August 2020) its head and only Monk - not long after the foundation of the nearby City of the Dawn.

History

Mount Hallowed Peak, more commonly referred to as simply “Hallowed Peak”, shows signs of inhabitation going back to pre-historic times. Man-made signs of mining and pottery can be found in small man-made caves below the monastery’s foundations, along with burn marks and saplings, suggesting that the people that inhabited Hallowed Peak in ancient times had learnt of fire and of primitive farming. It is also known that the early members of the City of the Dawn used the forests surrounding Hallowed Peak to gather wood, stone and possibly coal.

Then on the 15th of August 2020, Laughinglemons1, the descendant of nomads who inhabited the plains east of Hallowed Peak, moved to the mountain, declaring it a Holy Site and founding a small monastery there. It started off as the foundations of a small tower that would serve as a lookout area to see the lands around. From here he later expanded the build to include a mediocre stone outer wall, basic storage and living quarters, as well as the foundations for a small Chapel on the east side of the site. A narrow causeway was also later constructed, leading from the gate at the centre of the Monastery, down the mountain to a crossing across a nearby river to the City of the Dawn.

Hallowed Peak Monastery immediately adopted a peaceful doctrine. A sign was placed on the front gate that read “This is a peaceful Monastery, please do not loot” - however, much to Laughinglemons1’s dismay, this only encouraged raiders in the early times of the Monastery, when it was unable to protect itself. The most notable event was when the main storage of the site was looted not long after the sign had been placed; thankfully, there was nothing of worth there at the time. There were also some cases from after this event of mobs breaking into and on a couple of occasions damaging the area.

Nonetheless, the Monks spurred onward, and these attacks only encouraged them to bolster the site’s defences: Several new lookout areas were placed along the walls, which themselves were doubled in hight; the gateway to the grounds were reinforced with a door, disabling many dangerous mobs from entering; the causeway was lit and made more distinguishable; and most notably of all, “The Hallowed Peak” was officially declared a Town, allowing for looting, PvP and destruction to be disabled on most of the mountain.

Physical Geography

Hallowed Peak Monastery sits on the high Mountain of Hallowed Peak, which sits in the Wildeast, and watches over a small bay where a nearby river (unnamed as of the 15th of August 2020) meets the sea, with a large island at it’s mouth, upon which most players warping to the Wildeast will spawn at when they arrive. The mountain is surrounded by and used to be covered with trees, however those upon the summit were largely chopped down later by players. The forests about the mountain, however, still partly survive, boasting mainly Birch Trees as these are commonly deemed an undesirable resource by the locals. To the near south and east lay a large grassland, however this biome mainly stops when, in the east, it hits an extreme set of mountains, and in the south it reaches a huge snowy biome.

Human Geography

Hallowed Peaks monastery consist of a set of 5 small structures surrounded by an outer wall - a tower, 2 storage buildings, living quarters and a chapel.

These are connected to the outside world by a gate that connects to a lit path, which moves down the side of the mountain towards a natural crossing to the other side of the river, towards the City of the Dawn. The City of the Dawn is a nearby town which lies at the mouth of the river, and as of the 15th of August 2020 shows neutral/positive relations towards the monastery, however no official status of relations has been set by either party. The Hallowed Peaks Monastery is technically independent from any nation as of the 15th of August 2020, yet due to their close position to the City of the Dawn, it is likely some influence or relations between the two is to ensue in the future.

Religion

The religion of the Hallowed Peaks Monastery seems to lean towards an independent monotheistic religion, hosting a dualistic cosmology between the Sun god and the Moon demon, possibly under the influence of outside religions involving the Sun. The religion is dubbed “Hallowism” after the Hallowed Peak, yet it is likely a split-off of outside religions.

In this cosmology, the Sun is the centre of Hallowism, a divine figure with bright, golden hair that looks down upon the earth at day and brings happiness, light, crop growth and human activity; yet at night, when all things sleep - for even the Sun must sleep in Hallowism - the Moon demon, viewed as a face with terrible warts and scars, creeps up from the underworld below the earth at night, looking down upon the world and bringing with it it’s own cold light, which encourages mobs, monsters and other terrible things to leave the underworld via caves that connect to the earth, and wreak havoc upon the world. Then, it is said, the Sun rises from his sleep in the middle of the night, marching on the underworld and burning down the evil designs of the Moon in the underworld, before travelling back up to the world to destroy his remaining creatures, leaving the early morning sky red with the blood of the Moon’s monsters. This process however, which is said to happen ever 24 hrs, is also thought to cause great damage to the underworld, leaving it burning, scarred and barren, full of lava and destroyed structures. By modern standards, this is thought to be the Hallowist’s interpretation of the Nether.

There is not much written on the creation of the world in the Hallowist Mythos, however it undoubtedly has something to do with the eternal struggle between the Sun and Moon. When a player dies, it is believed that the Moon demon attempts to drag their soul to the underworld for years of torment and experimentation before they too turn into one of his creatures - however the Sun god spares the good of the world from this fate, and brings them back to life to live in the world again. Hallowists believe that the world will end when the eternal cycle of the Sun and the Moon’s wars spins into a final battle between the Sun and Moon, in which the Moon and his designs will be defeated once and for all, and all will become one with the Sun god.

By: DrSpaghetti123 (aka Laughinglemons1).