Coran watched in utter fascination as they moved in rhythmic perfection; their actions part exercise, part dance and part combat. Like everyone in Tasseldale he knew of the Sun Soul school, the old free-hold on the fringe of the Dun Hills taken over by monks, but he had never thought to find himself here. But then he never thought he would see such days as these; the gods had fallen, cast out of the higher realms to walk amongst men, and his parents had fallen as well… for him it truly was the “Time of Troubles”. Watching the exercise, he was swept up in its harmonious beauty; the synchronized precision of motion. But his sharp eyes caught the subtle variations in each artist as they graced the whole with their own unique element. However, the master monk who moved through their ranks was quick to harshly correct these “mistakes”, stamping out even the slightest individualism; it was for this more than anything else that he knew his time here was done. What had awed him as a twelve-year-old boy, now drew a heavy sigh from the twenty-year-old man that he had become. He alone found his solace in the mysteries of the unknown, the pale beauty of the Moonmaid, Selune, while his fellow monks basked in the all revealing light of the Morninglord, Lathander. Despite being equal within the philosophy of Sun Soul, along with the even more rarely followed Sune, goddess of love, the prevalence of his followers with in the school had a none-to-subtle influence on its teachings; leaving little room for personal expression and innovation. His eyes roamed around the courtyard one final time, then, with a regretful sigh, he shouldered his traveler’s pack and headed through the gate… quite possibly pass through that portal for the last time in his life. Although he was not actually banned from returning to the school, he knew there was little more that he could learn here, and the mysteries of the wider world called to his soul. ****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** Sorry for all the “Kung Fu-ish” rhetoric, but I thought I should provide a little background for the concept of “monks” and the “Sun Soul” order in the Forgotten Realms, since they feature prominently in this new series; which is basically a solo-character adventure. This is my first attempt at new postings since my “new” computer failed and I was forced to reinstall everything form Poser 11 Pro to all my content, which I’m still finding pieces of missing. When HP says mark the form if you want them to preserve your data during a warranty repair, DON’T TRUST THEM… I think they just pulled a blank machine off the shelf and sent it to me without any effort to restore my data! For those unfamiliar with my previous series, the alpha-numeric sequence at the beginning of each image title is my way of tying a series together. The first two letters denote the series; in this case “MM” represents “Monk of the Moonmaiden”. The following number represents the number of times I’ve published the series… I tend to “revisit” old series to see if I can improve on either the images or narratives. The next number represents the “book” in the series… basically the group of images that form a chapter in the larger story. The final letter represents the sequence of the installment within the “book”. As always, thank you for attention and I hope you enjoy both the images and narratives.