The Book Of Water/Diamond
The Diamond Brotherhood was one of the first social organizations created by the Solar Exalted after sealing the Primordials away. While their Exalted brethern set about enforcing the Mandate of Heaven, a few felt called to some nebulous, higher purpose...
Those few retreated from the world and its politics and attractions, and were perhaps the first Exalted to raise their Essence to higher levels without guidance from their divine patrons. Soon, others followed, until the Diamond Brotherhood (as it was unofficially named) was as reknowned for the quality of its members as well as their deeds.
The majority of the Brotherhood were Zenith caste Solars, but Exalted of all types and castes found their way into their ranks. The only real measure of membership was an unceasing desire to devoutly experience the true nature of the deity that had Exalted one, and the ability to withstand the epic amounts of deprivation and trials that they subjected themselves to. For this reason, there were never any human members during its millenia long existence, although the Brotherhood sponsored similar, "lesser" organizations for those who longed for meaning in a similar manner...
The Monks and Nuns of the Diamond were admired for their incredible purity, as evidenced by the excessive lengths they could go without food, sleep, breath, or movement, which were extreme even by Exalted charm-assisted standards. Likewise, they swore off the wealth, luxury and worldly power that was theirs by right, which made most think them incorruptible.
The only thing they were even more admired for was the extant of their martial skill. In an Age of Marvels, the Diamond Brotherhood took the art and science of martial arts perhaps further than it has ever risen since. Possibly no Supernatural Martial Art was as potent as the style devoted to the greatest king of the heavens, the Unconquered Sun himself!
Conquering Sun's Fist style was a martial art so powerful and demanding (the initial Charm requires Essence 8, at least) that only ancient Solars proved capable of mastering it. One Sidereal tried...his shard still incarnates, occasionally, but it is a charred, shrivelled thing, that the Fivescore Fellowship quickly send back into the Cycle, hoping it will have healed more by the next time...
Ironically, the sheer power of Conquering Sun's Fist may have proven the shattering point of the Diamond Brotherhood. Though only a handful of ancient Solars proved capable of mastering it by the end of the 1st Age, it frankly frightened many of the Solars in the Deliberative.
Altho no history, then or now, speaks openly of it, many Lawgivers were growing to resent the love and admiration the Brotherhood effortlessly commanded of the world, as well as their boundless skill and knowledge. So, they did something about it...
Details are scarce. It is possible that they manufactured evidence that the Brotherhood had become a secret Yozi cult, or that they were supposedly conspiring to overthrow the Deliberative. Whatever the cause, they moved against the Diamond Ones, and would have shattered the world in their irrational jealousy...
Why did the world remain intact? The greatest among the Adamant Fists alone could have contended with their younger, weaker brethern, and many of the lower ranks did put up a struggle (it is said that the DragonBlooded footsoldiers of the Deliberative learned many lessons that day that would serve them well later...).
But ultimately, they foresaw that all paths led where they did not wish to go; perhaps, also, it was Heaven's Will that they be removed for some soon to be occurance....And so, they bowed their leonine heads and simply smiled as their enraged siblings tore them apart.
While some rejoiced at their confirmed might, most of the Deliberative realized too late their folly. The greatest among them were laid low by their own bloody hands. Worse, their greatest secrets were lost with them, at least until they reincarnated. Shaken to the core, an epic absolution followed, with some populations of entire cities driven mad with grief at the resulting masses and immense funereals...
But it is Heaven's Way that little is ever truly lost. And so the Diamond Thunder Sutras await discovery, ready to divulge the Conquering Sun's Fist and other wisdom to those with the cunning to find them. Certain ancient Sidereals, officials of the Division of Secrets and Madame Marthesine of the Lost are good starting places to begin looking...
