User:Mordecay/Kang's monastery

Kang's monastery

During the reign of the mogu empire and Lao-Fe, the pandaren Kang believed that the mogu empire's reliance on slave labor made it weak. He learned how to fight without weapons, using the strength of his opponents against them, and taught it to many others. Soon he and his followers escaped to Kun-Lai, where they honed their abilities and philosophies in secret. After finding Xuen atop Mount Neverest, the White Tiger guided Kang and the other novice monks in the ways of strength-not simply the strength of raw power, but the strength of endurance, encouraging him to also find strength in the land. Kang looked and saw scattered, isolated trees growing along the Kun-Lai ridgelines. They were twisted and gnarled, but he soon understood they needed to be. It was those trees that formed the walls of the monks' monastery.

When Kang died, fighting the last mogu emperor and freed all of Pandaria, his staff, Sheilun was brought back to the monastery in the mountains, serving as a quiet symbol of what could be accomplished through the strength of inner harmony. The monastery itself, however, was not quiet at all. Xuen warned the monks that, although they were free, they had inherited the responsibility to protect Pandaria from the evil minds that wished to claim it, such as the mantid. The monks who remained in Kun-Lai dedicated themselves to preparing for this threat. And every one hundred years, pandaren monks lined the top of the Serpent's Spine to face the overwhelming waves of mantid and risk their lives to protect their land. Xuen would always allow one mistweaver to carry Sheilun into this centennial battle. Many years later, during the coronation of Emperor Shaohao, Xuen sent the staff to the young emperor.

Emperor Shaohao nearing the temple.

The monastery atop Kun-Lai had changed over the years. What had once been the only refuge for free minds was now the training grounds for the most dedicated fighters in the land, trained to fight the mantid and all of Pandaria's other enemies.

At the time of the Great Sundering of Kalimdor, shortly after his coronation, Shaohao and the Monkey King came to the temple confidently, demanding that they submit to his authority. Xuen saw that he was carrying his coronation gift-this staff, Sheilun-but that it had been nothing more to him than a walking stick. The White Tiger also saw that the emperor had rid himself of a great many dangerous emotions but not anger. Shaohao's anger toward the Burning Legion made him brash and reckless. Xuen offered a simple challenge, to strike a single one of these monks. Shaohao accepted and swung Sheilun over and over again, but he struck nothing at all. The monks were too skilled and easily evaded him. Shaohao's humiliation and anger built up, and then they exploded. A great darkness burst forth from him, and in his rage, Shaohao broke Sheilun over his knee and lashed out with the power of the Sha of Anger. When he regained his senses, a monk lay dead, the victim of Shaohao's unchecked aggression. Xuen watched the emperor's heart break for the life he had taken. And then Shaohao knelt humbly, accepting his failure, ridding himself of anger forever and becoming wiser. He and Monkey King then departed the temple for the Vale of Eternal Blossoms.

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  Shaohao and the Monkey King at the temple.

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  The beginning of the combat

Location

• The Chronicle of Ages (hints that Kang's monastery = Temple of the White Tiger)
  • "The monastery atop Kun-Lai had changed over the years. What had once been the only refuge for free minds was now the training grounds for the most dedicated fighters in the land."
• Vol'jin: Shadows of the Horde (Kang's monastery - Peak of Serenity)
  • No mogu would visit, leaving the way open for us to gather and plan and train to overthrow them. Here we were unseen because they never thought to look for us.
  • "Vol'jin took a look back toward the Peak of Serenity. There the first monks had trained in secret, their privacy guaranteed because the mogu were too lazy to climb to the top."
  • (Regarding Shaohao's visit, Temple of the White Tiger) "Shaohao trapped the sha at the temples across Pandaria, giving an example of the Sha of Doubt in the Temple of the Jade Serpent."
• Adventure Guide (Regarding Shaohao's visit)
  • "the sha escaped from the Shado-pan Monastery in Kun-Lai Summit."
• The Emperor's Burden - Part 6 (Regarding Shaohao's visit) - Temple of the White Tiger
  • "It was at this very location ten thousand years ago that Shaohao, the Last Emperor of Pandaria, defeated the Sha of Anger, the Sha of Hatred, and the Sha of Violence."
• The Burdens video series depicts a temple similar to the White Tiger's.
• Chronicle 1 - A picture from before Kang's monastery was built shows Xuen and pandaren refugees at a temple which might be the Temple of the White Tiger

Conclusion

• Kang's monastery is the Peak of Serenity, with the Chronicle 1 pic and Vol'jin novel confirming it.
• The in-game book's hint that it and the Temple of the White Tiger are the same is a mistake.
  • Makes more sense for it to be the Peak of Serenity since it was supposed to be hidden whereas White Tiger's is clearly visible.
• Shaohao did visit the Temple of the White Tiger.
  • HC: The sha that were captured at the Temple of the White Tiger were moved from there to the Shado-Pan Monastery right after it was built (Shado-Pan was established right after the events in the White Tiger but before entering the Vale of Eternal Blossoms) immediately after Shaohao's death.