History

The history of the Sublime Path is long and varied, with Reshar's Temple only the most famous institution. At times it has been worshipped, banned, improved upon, forgotten, covetted and despised. For the origins of any one school, see that school's description, but here are a handful of other points of note, which might shed light on a mystery, or which a team of adventurers might encounter.

The Masters' Circle
It began with three Masters of Nine who independently had the same idea: that they had mastered all there was and to keep learning they needed to invent more. Each created a discipline, and declared it the fabled tenth. They met all at once, realized the possibilities were vaster than they had thought, and founded a school together, where they taught their new disciplines (and the nine old ones) to all who wished to learn. Soon they declared a rule that any student could join them as a master by inventing a comparable discipline.

At first, few tried. Those who did spent many years devoted to the task. Good work was done. Eventually the founders died of age, but the circle continued. Many useful disciplines emerged there, and the school's fame grew. As the fame grew, more people wanted the title of master. Not the accomplishment, just the title. The pressure proved to much and standards slipped. Disciplines invented in this time were highly specialized, such as the infamous Hopping Toad discipline (techniques for fighting with one leg cut off). Then they slipped further. Disciplines became minimalist, useless, plagiarized, or occasionally nonexistant (but large sums of money changed hands). Within twenty years of the last founder's death it was a joke. Fame was replaced by scorn, and the school disbanded. All that was done there was tarred in reputation, even the early work. Many who heard of the school resolved to pay no attention to anything besides the original Nine.

Still, much of the good (and some of the hilariously bad) work that was done by The Masters' Circle survives, and can be found if you know where to look.

The Council of Kinea
Sublime archery was independently invented by the elvish communities of the forested hills and the hilly forests (these regions are thousands of miles apart). Each community considered their work a single school, which they called True Arrow and Falling Star, respectively. Centuries later, when both realms were ruled by a great human conqueror, practitioners of the two schools met. They were greatly disturbed to learn of eachother.

At last, the greatest masters of both, along with martial experts from throughout the empire, gathered at the town of Kinea. For 27 days, they neither ate nor rested, but argued, pondered and shot arrows. Scribes, lacking the masters' mystic stamina, took minutes in shifts, and the written account of the council of Kinea is beloved by scholars. In the end, they proclaimed three disciplines, and all the great masters refused to again teach the old disciplines, saying they were flawed and the new ones were closer to truth.

On the 28th day, having rested, eaten and begun packing to return to their homelands, they realized they had not named the new disciplines. A new flurry of hasty discussion ensued, and the names "Falcon's Eye" and "Iron Rain" were quickly agreed on. Alas, they could not so easily agree on a third name. As many grew impatient to depart, they accepted "Nightingale Feather", which no one deeply hated, but many continued to call it by other names which they preferred, and the writings have come down to us muddied. Since the breaking of the council, a few maneuvers have been added by great masters, but mostly the schools remain as they were proclaimed.

The Lost Skills of Master Fu
Master Fu was already a great swordsage specializing in the shadow hand school when his homeland was conquered by the Empire of Grinding Hegemony. Seeing revolts fail, Master Fu resolved to save his land personally. On the dark of moon, he passed into the wilderness and began his preperations. On the next dark of moon he returned, slipped into the palace and assasinated the emperor. The succession crisis and civil war split the empire into fragments, and then into dust, leaving his homeland free.

He admitted freely that he had performed the assassination, and had invented three powerful new maneuvers for the purpose. He refused to teach the maneuvers. They were too powerful, and he did not want them to fall into the wrong hands. When he was very old, he taught them to a single student: a paladin of freedom who was planning to cast down a devil who had taken a throne in the mortal plane. The student was victorious.

Like Master Fu, the paladin waited long before declaring a student worthy to learn these techniques. He waited too long, and was eaten by a red dragon before he found one.

Scholars and scriers have sought these skills. So far, none have succeeded.