Brother Ling was raised into the monastic life. Left as a baby to the brothers he was raised with the strictist of discipline, he excelled in the combat arts, and lived his life fasting and praying with the rest of his brethren.
One day a call for help came from the village down the mountain, and Ling was one of the few sent to see what aid was needed. Apparently some bandits had thougt to terrorize the village, so Ling and his brothers went to send them on their way.
The battle was brief, the bandits not prepared for the unarmed wave of destruction that went through them. They rescued the sotlen goods and villagers. Ling was chosen as the brother to stay for the season to ensure this type of activity was not had again.
It was here that he found enlightenment. Not in the perfect pursuit of mind and body, but in the physical sensation of food. He was voracious in his hungers, eating everything he could find, and then learning to prepare dishes on his own. By the time the next season came Ling was... well he was just fat. The townspeople had started calling him Brother Dumpling, and Ling realizing the name was said in fondness never corrected them.
He went back up the mountain, to the plain rice diet that his brothers survived. He hated it. The masters of the order, including the Grandmaster of the Planes, sat Ling down. "The food we have here is just to nourish our bodies plainly to keep us on the path to inner peace and tranquility."
Ling politely responded, "Inner peace and tranquility is what comes after a satisfying meal." They put him thorugh rigorous trainings and discovered Ling was just as skilled as any other monk of his rank, maybe even a little more so.
They were dumbfounded, no one had ever changed their methods as he had. Ling needed his own path, they decided, and sent him off into the world. After his many travels he has ended up here. Looking for his next meal...
