Every soul a thread.  Every action a stitch.  Every life a weave.  The World a Tapestry.  
We each weave a path in life, for good or for ill.  All life has this freedom, but not all life is sacred.

When a soul leaves this world, to say they are gone is to be accurate.  To say they are dead is something else entirely.  The path we weave through life has us cross many strings.  Each of our actions and inactions vibrate out into the Tapestry, adding to its pattern.  But all threads run their course, and when the time comes, their thread is cut and tied.  Their part of the Tapestry completed.  But to say that their life is over, misses the point entirely.  Their actions reverberated along their string, vibrating every other thread they have crossed.  The lessons you learned from them, the memories of them, or how you share their gifts with others...That is them, still plucking at the strings of the Tapestry.  That is their vibrations joining with yours.  From here on, you carry their reverberations with you, and every action you take from here on, will have a piece of them reverberating out from you.

To say they are gone is true.  But to say their life is over misses the point of life in the first place.  We are here to do good, even when we are gone.

-In Memory of SP

 

Monks of the Way of the Tapestry strive to do good, in every meaning of the word.  Good Deeds, Good Work, and Good Vibes are necessary to lead a Good Life.  

Every monk is skilled in some form of craftsmanship to create good works within the world.  But none are naive enough to believe all the world is good, only that the world can grow to be better.  Some seek to make the world a better place through careful and dedicated work.  Others, by cutting away the source of the bad vibrations in the world.

 

Artisans and Craftspeople

One way of doing good in the world is to create good works for the world.  However, it is understood that not all the world's woes can be solved with a smile and some mead, sometimes they must get creative to weave peace and good.  Gain expertise in one artisan tool, and Persuasion or Deception.

These are the tools with which you will document your pilgrimage.  As part of your journey to Walk the Strings, you must document the good and bad vibrations you put out into the world.  This can be done any number of ways, for each artisan and each journey is different.  At the completion of your pilgrimage, the artisan will present their completed work to the council to be judged.

Threads of Spirit

Starting when you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you call forth Threads of the Spirit to restrain others.

On your turn as a bonus action, you may spend 2 Ki points and ethereal Threads appear in a 10-foot radius sphere centered on you. The sphere moves with you, and it lasts for 10 minutes or until you are die, or until dismissed (No Action).

When you use this ability, you can designate any number of creatures you can see to be unaffected by it. An affected creature's speed is halved in the area, and when the creature enters the area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, it must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the creature is restrained. A creature restrained by the Threads can use its action to make a Wisdom check against your spell save DC. If it succeeds, it is no longer restrained.

You may only have 1 Threads of Spirit active at a time. At 6th level, the radius of the the Threads expands to a 15-foot radius.  At 10th level, the radius of the the Threads expands to a 20-foot radius.  At 14th level, the radius of the the Threads expands to a 25-foot radius.  At 18th level, the radius of the the Threads expands to a 30-foot radius.

Reverberations of Spirit

Just as in life, all things are connected. You have become more attuned with the vibrations around you and have learned how to harness them.  

Creature restrained by your Threads are considered to be in within melee range of you, but you do not benefit from advantage from the retrained condition on targets more than 5 feet from you.  Additionally, you have blindsight while within your threads.  

When a creature dies while within the area of your Threads, you feel the vibration of their spirit as they pass on.

Tying of Threads

A Monk's pilgrimage can take them to the darker depths of the world.  Where Dark Threads and their harmful vibrations have spread far across their swatch of the Tapestry.  These Threads must be tied, their vibrations cut-off, and their swatch removed.  You pull their thread free from the Tapestry, unraveling their misdeeds, and use it to trace the spread of their reverberations.  

Your Threads can now bind the spirit of a creature.  Your Threads can ignore the restrained condition immunity for creatures Large or smaller.

As reaction, you may spend 4 Ki points to cast Soul Cage, without needing material components.

Soul Cage

This ability snatches the soul of a humanoid as it dies and traps it within the Threads of Spirit. A stolen soul remains tied to you for 8 hours, or until you release it. While you have a soul tied to you, you can exploit it in any of the ways described below. You can use a trapped soul up to six times. Once you exploit a soul for the sixth time, it is released, and the spell ends. While a soul is trapped, the dead humanoid it came from can’t be revived.

Steal Life. You can use a bonus action to drain vigor from the soul and regain 2d8 hit points.

Query Soul. You ask the soul a question (no action required) and receive a brief telepathic answer, which you can understand regardless of the language used. The soul knows only what it knew in life, but it must answer you truthfully and to the best of its ability. The answer is no more than a sentence or two and might be cryptic.

Borrow Experience. You can use a bonus action to bolster yourself with the soul’s life experience, making your next attack roll, ability check, or saving throw with advantage. If you don’t use this benefit before the start of your next turn, it is lost.

Eyes of the Dead. You can use an action to name a place the humanoid saw in life, which creates an invisible sensor somewhere in that place if it is on the plane of existence you’re currently on. The sensor remains for as long as you concentrate, up to 10 minutes (as if you were concentrating on a spell). You receive visual and auditory information from the sensor as if you were in its space using your senses.

A creature that can see the sensor (such as one using see invisibility or truesight) sees a translucent image of the tormented humanoid whose soul you tied.

 

Cutting the Threads

Some Darkness runs too deep.  Their vibrations too great.  But we must push on to protect the Tapestry.  Even on the verge of death, our threads shall try and undo their weave.  We shall pull our thread tight, and as it is cut, we shall lash out and cut their swatch from the Tapestry.  

Your DC increases by +1 for each succeeded death save, but resets when stabilized, or when you regain consciousness.  When you suffer a failed death save, all creatures affected by your Threads of Spirit must make a Wisdom saving throw, creatures restrained by the Threads do so with disadvantage.  On each failed save, a creature takes 2d10 radiant damage for each failed death save, including the third failed death save.  On a successful save, a creature takes half damage.

Upon death your spirit heaves one final time, trying to cut the Threads free of their dark instruments.  As you die, all creatures restrained by your Threads must make a Wisdom saving throw.  On a failed save, the creature's Intelligence and Charisma scores become 1 as their spirit is tended from their bodies. The creature can't cast spells, activate magic items, understand language, or communicate in any intelligible way. The creature can, however, identify friends, follow them, and even protect them. This condition lasts for a number of days equal to your monk level as the spirit finds its way back to their body.