Populating a Monastery

I'm creating a clerical-style monastery in my campaign setting. I've decided that there are about 40 residents - they're re-establishing a long defunct location. Only 10-12 are clerics of the 3 gods (god of fire, goddess of agriculture and her son the warrior god) whom the monastery honors. The rest are experts, warriors and commoners (who fill the roles of ordinary priests, guards and servants). Some of the residents are married, and there are a few children (not counted amongst the 40 population total).

What I'm looking for are ideas for personality for the NPC's. I want to have an Abbot, his assistant, a healer-type, a scholar-type, the "idiot" who has been taken in out of pity, and others. Anybody have some brief ideas? They certainly don't have to be statted out, but just two or three sentences of description would be good. My own NPC's all tend to blur together, and I want this monastery to stand out as an interesting place, even if low-powered.

My setting is a generally "english-medieval" feel (see my sig for my wiki if you're interested).

Gilladian

One of the people I originally gamed with found a floorplan of a real monestary way back when. One thing he noticed was that there were a lot of potties ( ). The reason was that the monks were on such a strict time schedule of prayers and such that everyone went at the same time! So if you really want historical accuracy...

Ever read or seen Name of the Rose?

They had the Abbott, Librarian, Asst Librarian, Cellarer (who kept track of food, driunk and the kitchens, IIRC), Asst Cellarer, Apothecary/Herbalist, plus lots of scribes. They had roughly 60 monks, IIRC and three times that many servants. There was also a great map included in the book.

Anchorites and Anchoresses:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchorite



Cheers,
Roger

Don't forget the high-level Fighter (even better - fallen Paladin) who has turned his back on his violent past and taken up a Vow of Poverty, Vow of Nonviolence, Vow of Silence, etc., and is now voluntarily doing the most menial jobs in the monastery as his own personal penance.

I'd say make him at least a couple levels higher than anyone else in the monastery. He's going to be really hard to kill, but literally won't harm a fly unless there is no other option to do so.

You got to put in one out of place Shaolin Monk. He's just there to meditate and flip out. Most of the time he levitates, but sometimes he punches

I'd probably go with the Abbot being an elderly absent minded professor type with the assistant really running the day-to-day dealings at the monastery. The healer could be the most in tune with his/her god (aka most powerful), but has no desire to be part of politics of leadership in the order and is therefore content to simply heal and help when asked. The scholar could be very condescending and trying to quietly usurp authority from the abbot. Then the idiot doesn't have to be mentally slow. Maybe just suffered some accident and has his/her full mental accuity but has no way to communicate effectively. Read "The Highwayman" by Salvatore for a pretty good version of that kind of idiot. Hope that helps.

Read the Cadfael mysteries by Ellis Peters. It is an English monastery with a wide range of personalities. Not everyone gets along, either.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadfael

I was educated at a Catholic HS run by Cistercian monks, and even stayed in one of their monestaries in Rome while on vacation.

Things to consider, in no particular order:

1) The food was simple, but fresh and plentiful. Most was either straight from the surrounding farms that morning or raised/farmed/made by the monks themselves. Agriculturally, the Cistercians in particular are reknown for beers, wines, liquors, and cheeses. A jolly, rosy-cheeked brewmeister would not be out of place.

2) Some monestaries have servants, but in others, the monks and brothers do all or most of the work themselves. Unlike Eastern monestaries, the physical exercise in a Western monestary is almost exclusively menial labor- farming, cleaning, sweeping, etc. A PC with in-depth knowledge of herbalism and animal husbandry would be appropriate.

3) Priestly duties rule the day. They have a rigid schedule for prayers and for performing ceremonies for the surrounding community. Everything else in their day revolves around their prayer schedule.

4) Many monestaries had incredible libraries, and scrivening was a major way for the monesteries to make money. The labor involved in duplicating an illuminated text was NOT cheap. Archivists, loremasters, and the like would be common.

5) As a tangent of the skills involved in duplicating illuminated texts, many monesteries have embraced their members practicing and teaching the arts. My own experience included a monk whose sculptures grace not only his monestary, but are also in collections all over the world, and another who gave me private lessons in classical music on his 400 year old cello. Thus, an archetypal artist- even a PC with Bard levels- would not be out of place.

6) It wasn't uncommon in both the Western and Eastern tradition for people who had lived terrible lives to enter the monestaries in order to repent their evil deeds and recenter their lives. There are some who posit that St. Peter was a mercenary of some skill and money before being called to the faith. Several European rulers spent time in monesteries and cloisters.

7) Depending upon the particular religion or religious order, science was either embraced or supressed. Some monestaries were key in preserving the works of Greek, Roman and Arabic theoriticians...while others put such works to the flame. Both the alchemist/true scientist and the witchhunter can coexist in such a life.

8) Because of the compartmentalized structure of monastic life, it was possible to commit great evils even within the walls of the monestaries. In a fantasy world, though, the existence of magic may make that much more difficult.

9) The "idiot" may not be an idiot at all, but may just be feigning a condition in order to observe the inner workings of the monestery. He may be an agent of the Crown, the heirarchy of the church, or some unknown power...

10) Despite their busy days, monks still have leisure time. While some persue the arts, many more become phenomenal linguists. Of the monks I know personally, only a couple are merely bilingual. Many know 4 languages fluently, and fluency in 7 or more languages was not uncommon. Someone like this could be quite worldly and well-traveled, acting as a translator or even a diplomat.

Gilladian said:

the "idiot" who has been taken in out of pity

Click to expand...

In my own campaign, The Brothers of the Sun (paladin order) took in orphans as part of their service. One of the orphans grew up to be a massive 1/2 ogre, who in turn became the smith who maintained their weapons and armor.

I know my players were quite taken aback to be directed to a paladin's smithy and be confronted with a massive, bare chested 1/2 ogre wearing an LG holy symbol.

Maybe your idiot could be a half-orcish orphan taken in by the monastery. I'm thinking heavily of Ron Perlman's character in The Name of the Rose. Well meaning, but mentally limited and sinfully ugly.