The threads of information about those mysterious monks and their deity slowly began to unravel, and I think I am now capable of painting them in a just picture. I am still not sure whether this Gambis being is a very…very powerful nature spirit, an archfey of sorts or a celestial, but there is no doubt of its existence. I was told that it is a god of brewery, nature, harmony and tranquillity. Upon first hearing this, I envisioned a very druidic deity bent on the preservation of wild nature, with the harmony and tranquillity aspect being connected to the cycle of life and the law of nature. These kinds of deities were not anything unheard of and were often radically worshiped by the elven races, and they usually fought against civilised life. However the almost clerical worship this particular deity seemed to gain, and the brewery aspect, often resulting in merriment and joy among the monks confused me. I just couldn’t see how they connected to a wild forest deity. The deeper down the rabbit hole I went, the more I realized how wrong my initial misconceptions were. I understood the harmony aspect as a natural order, but upon seeing how the monks treated their bees and other animals found in the monastery such as cats and dogs, I got to the point that instead it may be more about symbiosis or equal exchange. One is supposed to give something from himself to reap rewards, be it kindness or work. This also clarified the amount of former farmers among the monks to me. Their whole life ordeal focused on the balance between nature and civilisation, putting work into cultivating grains, thus caring for the grains and then being given the appropriate reward in the form of a good harvest. This wouldn’t be too far away from the ordinary agricultural deities found among many cultures, but there was another side to this coin. This harmony and balance was not to be disrupted. A man is free to cut down trees for his needs, and a wolf is free to hunt a human for meat as long as the balance between nature and civilisation is kept in check. If a man were to cut down a dozen trees, because of his greedy endeavours or if a sylvan were to burn down dozens of farms they would be punished. As would be the wolves if they grew too bold and the river if it were to flood good agricultural land. Apparently the Gambis deity considered forces of nature to have a consciousness of their own, which was a notion supported by some among the scholarly community. After finding out all these tidbits of information, piecing out the reason for the location of the monastery proved itself to be a trivial task. Gambis considered the forest itself conscious and considered it a place of great discord and imbalance, and the purpose of the druidic monks is to create a balance or an order of sorts. This also explained the dual nature of their order, the sylvans and other forest beings consider the druidic traditions sacred, and although strange to them, they still consider it a sacred place not meant for violence. And we wouldn’t harm unarmed monks so similar to our own clerical orders. However I fear that due to the schisms and changes in our religion in the last two hundred years, even an ordinary peaceful monastery would be considered strange and heretical and would be purged by the paladin order. Perhaps I will refrain from publishing all my notes from this expedition to the Empire, for any kind of tolerance and respect towards an obscure and unsanctioned religion would result in my demise.