Solari

Solari, also known as the Solari Monastery, is a female only monastery located on the Kerrodale Plateau, and is one of the several religious communities founded in the wake of the Wars of Faith. The settlement is mostly an isolated and self-sustaining one; little trade truly occurs either outside of the Plateau (thanks to their geographic isolation) or with their neighboring and sibling settlement, Tel Shazan.

Solari was named for their founders' adherence to the Sun Mother, Areus. It maintains a steady, yet small population (as of 1,283 AY it had a population of about 1,098), with many members of the community out in the world, maintaining libraries and a presence outside of the Monastery proper. In addition, the population of Solari is maintained mostly through the adoption of baby girls throughout Loctet; only a handful of fully grown women go through the process required of making the trek on foot to the Monastery and asking to be admitted.

= Geography = Solari was founded next to the Glistening Rill: a river that runs down from the Plateau, through the Crown, all the way to the waters of the Kethend Strait. It is considered an intermontane plateau, as it is bordered on most sides by the mountain range known as the Crown, as well as Mount Lunendale.

= Government = The Monastery is under the control of the Zenith, who represents both peak physical ability as well as tempered wisdom. The process is done via an election when the previous Zenith is either no longer able to perform her duties, or when feels that her time is finished and that someone new should take up the mantle.

Law & Order
As a religious refuge, far away from the corrupting presence of the world below, law, order, and crime are rarely issues in the Monastery. When rules are broken, however, the individual in question is hauled in front of the Zenith and a small circle of senior leadership, who decide upon a bespoke punishment for the crime at hand. For most of these infractions, things like increased shifts out in the farmland and cleaning the floors are considered punishment enough.

= Trade = As previously mentioned, Solari’s isolation to the rest of the world pretty handily precludes any sort of active trade. Some trade does occur between Solari and Tel Shazan (or at least it did, until the Earth Dominion arrived and fully took over Tel Shazan). In addition, the Solari have struck a deal with the Caskbranch Wayfarer Company to both provide transport to young Solari monks beginning their Diffusion, as well as transport Solari monks bringing back adoptees to the Monastery. This deal was struck thanks to the fact that Luthiss Caskbranch, the founder of the company, explored with a Solari monk for quite a while in his youth.

= Defenses = When Eldeth Solana founded Solari, she ensured that every citizen in Solari would be trained to both protect themselves and Solari proper against any threats. While she was primarily worried about the Sun Dogs that had been chasing her and her followers up to the Kerrodale, this focus on personal ability and safety has kept Solari safe from multiple different threats; be they wildlife or other potentially harmful parties.

= History = Solari was founded properly by Bileth Solana in 286 AY, while the Wars of Faith were raging on. Eldeth had founded a splinter branch of Sun Mother worship known as the Expression Through Movement (more information on this can be found underneath the religion portion under the culture heading). This religious movement was considered far too radical by both orthodox Sun Seeker clergy, and their extremist counterparts the Sun Dogs. Bileth and her followers were run out of Solictus, and she eventually found safety in the Kerrodale Plateau, out of conventional reach from the world below.

Now free to practice this splinter branch of Areuic worship and develop it further, the basic tenets of Solari were founded: new members would only be women and girls; men would not be allowed to remain in the Monastery on a permanent basis; et cetera. As these tenets were ironed out, the idea of sending out young monks into the world to both keep tabs on the world at large, set up outposts, as well as bringing back fresh blood to the monastery was dreamt up. This would eventually become known as the Diffusion: a quest of personal understanding, where the young monk in question would put what they learned in the Monastery to practical use.

= Culture = Thanks to the fairly stringent “no outside influence” policy in the Monastery, the younger crop of monks are always starving to hear anything of the outside world. The Diffusion quest is thus something that is highly regarded as a chance to see the world for yourself.

In addition to this, there is a massive underground book club of sorts, with the main focus being on cheesy romance novels that keep finding their way to the Monastery. Many a late night in the Monastery has been spent arguing and talking about authorial intent and the plot of these books; several of them have been so well loved and read that they are barely holding together by a thread. An unofficial goal of each Diffusion is to find another book to bring back into circulation for the younger monks to read. It’s somewhat of an open secret amongst senior members.

Religion
The primary religion of Solari is the worship of Areus, the Sun Mother, through the Expression Through Movement. Founded by Bileth Solana, the Joy of Movement prioritizes worship through physical action, and adherents see themselves and the energy within their bodies as gifts from Areus. The best way to worship and show love to the Sun Mother is through physical action and movement.

This form of worship developed to the point where adherents eventually learned how to channel and harness ki, the inherent life force present in every living thing, into a variety of forms.