Blizzard have unleashed the 
Monk on the Diablo III: Darkness Falls, Heroes Rise page. As with the Demon Hunter and Barbarian we get a short story, a spotlight video showcasing the Monk, a chance to win some cool prizes and the exclusive Class Sigil.
The Monk.The monks. Holy warriors who believe that the madness and chaos of Sanctuary are destined to be brought into order, and that it is their sacred mission to assist their thousand and one gods in doing so. Arrayed in the fiery colors of Ytar, the fire god, monks draw from their years of intense training and meditation to become masters of melee combat. While proficient with many types of weapons‚ Aistaves, blades, maces and spears, monks have no real need for such crude tools. Their discipline has honed both body and mind into living instruments of divine justice.
The Monk got a background-building short story as well, which you can read here.
No its not.. it still has 5 mins..
it was alive when I posted yes
Kaydee, read the last sentence of the post careeeefully.
Also, is it me or is the monk short story not actually up yet?
Also, quality proofreading: “Aistaves”
It takes a while for the stories to go live, but the links are up already… And it looks like Unyielding is finally up.
Edit: PDF still not available, blargh.
The monk is ridiculous. Russian Orthodox archetype + Hindu polytheism + Japanese Zen = Blizzard’s Monk. I’d like to know how anyone, even a Nephalem, follows the will of one thousand and one gods. Srsly? Don’t they argue with each other. I mean, even the Greek pagans had to pick and choose.
Although I would have preferred a more traditional casting without the Eastern influences [read: ripoffs?], the monk should be a lot of fun to play. 😛
“Russian Orthodox archetype + Hindu polytheism + Japanese Zen”
Really?! Who cares if it’s impossible in our world?
I’m saying it’s not the most original thing I’ve ever seen. See also: Mists of Pandaria.
I clearly saw the strong influence of Chinese martial arts from the get go, references to Shaolin. Besides his fighting style (including bow stance, horse stance, etc.), many of the skill names are tributes to the tendencies of wushu technique names (Way of the Hundred Fists, Exploding Palm). His initial starter outfit resembles the orange Shaolin robes, and some of the end-game armors even looks like traditional Chinese Opera type outfits. The symbol in the middle of the Monks crest seems to be inspired from the Taoist yin yang symbol of ancient China. Also, some of the quotes accompanying the Monks passive skills are signed Master Wughan and Waykeeper Tzo Krin, both very Chinese sounding names.
It’s worth noting that it was an Indian Monk who brought martial arts to the Shaolin temple in the first place though, for its residents to be able to defend themselves. In addition China also got Buddism from India. There’s many strong relations between these two ancient countries, which is also apparent in famous Chinese like Journey to the West.
It might be a coincidence, or someone over at Blizzard did their homework. The Indian references are all part of Diablo 3’s Monk as well:
The Monk’s mark on his forehead seems to be a combination of both the Indian Bindi dot as well as the Buddhistic incense burning dots (also seen on the Shaolin monks).
In some of the art, he’s got a giant prayer beads-esque necklace, fitting nicely with the skills called Mantras (that Buddhist monks recite).
Even a rune variation of Wave of Light spawns a giant Buddhist bell.
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There’s some obvious slavic elements there though. The Monks come from the city of Ivgorod. City in russian (????) is pronounced GOH-raht, and in the game they also have a Slavic dialect.
The lore mentions how the Monk seems not to take notice of the cold. It would appear he comes from a colder and harsher conditions (like a Slavic type environment). Some people back this up with the notion that the male Monk looks like Rasputin. The female Monk is paying a lot more homage to the caucasian part of Eastern Europe. I could easily imagine that girl being a Russian girl named Nikita.
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I do not agree that the Monk isn’t original. Blizzard really did a remarkable job with this character. Looking at the Barbarian, Witch Doctor, Sorceress, Paladin, Amazon, etc., everybody have a pretty good idea what each class should be and represents.
The blueprints for what characteristics, as an example, a Barbarian should accommodate, is already widely acknowledged across so many medias. You almost can’t go wrong. You just pick this templet, shape it to suit your needs while sticking to some ground rules, and bam, there’s you class.
This iteration of a ‘Monk’ is so much more.
You probably weren’t expecting to change my opinion, but I think you did. I definitely missed the Shaolin connection and other references.. thanks for posting this.
Awesome! There’s probably a lot of details in the short story I could have drawn on also, but I haven’t gotten around to read all of it yet.
Weird Monk-related side note: I just discovered I won the the first Mark of Valor: Hero of the Day for Monk… =P
Really, do you know Shinto? google it
Shinto teaches that everything contains a kami (? “spiritual essence”?, commonly translated as god or spirit). Shinto’s spirits are collectively called yaoyorozu no kami (??????), an expression literally meaning “eight million kami”, but interpreted as meaning “myriad”, although it can be translated as “many Kami”. There is a phonetic variation kamu and a similar word among Ainu kamui. There is an analog “mi-koto”.[6]
Kami is generally accepted to describe the innate supernatural force that is above the actions of man, the realm of the sacred, and is inclusive of gods, spirit figures, and human ancestors.[citation needed] All mythological creatures of the Japanese cultural tradition, of the Buddhistic tradition, Christian God, Hindu gods, Islamic Allah, various angels and demons of all faiths among others are considered Kami for the purpose of Shinto faith.[citation needed]
Adding to that, the idea that gods should be obeyed (rather than defied, or that they’re powerful willful creatures doing their own thing who mere mortals need to steer clear of to survive) is a fairly modern one, in terms of religious conceptions.Primitive religions and most polytheisms cast the gods are human-like beings of power, but they’re never omniscient or omnipresent, and there have very active and evolving pantheons with numerous levels of deities, demi-gods, angels, demons, etc.
Thus 1001 isn’t an impossibly large number if you assume that they’re all scheming actors doing their own thing, with their own areas of expertise, are likely organized into rival factions, that some are more important and powerful than others, etc.
Incidentally, most of these concepts were adopted into monotheisms like Christianity and Islam. While the chief god figure covers most of the major functions that primitive religions delegated to dozens of different gods, even Jahweh has a huge coterie of assistants to cover specialized tasks. I.e., angels, guardian angels, and especially Patron Saints, who number in the hundreds, if not actually 1001.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patron_saint
Interesting analysis, Flux, however you missed a pretty important distinction about patron saints, at least how they are understood by Catholic Christian doctrine, or Western theology: the saints didn’t follow their own will but that of God. That’s why they are saints. Even if God gives specialized tasks to certain angels, principalities or powers, they are still doing God’s will. Also, “assistant” is the wrong word here, since God (again, according to Christian doctrine) needs no help from mortals.
The narrator in the Monk’s class video clearly states he’s doing the *will* of 1001 of his gods. I suppose that works, if you cast a certain healing spell you ask the healing god for help. But the comparison to patron saints only goes so far here. The “Sahptev” faith bears little or no resemblance to anything in Western theology.
Blizzard has clearly come a long way in storytelling from the masked Christianity in Diablo 1, and later how we saw the Zakarum play out in Diablo 2, but I personally find the theology behind the Monk rather weak. It’s an amalgamation of Eastern philosophies and religions. So if that’s what Blizzard was going for, I guess they succeeded, but again, could be more original IMHO.
So you copied and pasted some stuff about Shinto from Wikipedia, what’s your point?