People don't like one class based on the Far East, in a setting full of Middle Eastern influences. Interesting.
The Middle East has always been strongly tied to European history, so influences are certainly not out of place. Far East shit is, though. It's utterly alien.
Hey fellow Volksgenosse,
I need to correct you a bit on this, as this is my field of expertise (Archeologist).
Not only do we know about established trade ties with asian countries over the silk road reaching back to the vikings age (which is documented through artifacts from said cultures found in viking trading posts and graves), there were also numerous invasions from Asian cultures that left quite a hefty mark on early medieval and medieval Europe.
The Huns for example marked the beginning of the Völkerwanderungszeit and ushered in the early medieval time period. The german folk mythos, the Nibelungenlied, tells about how impactful that must have been to germanics and romans alike back then. The Goths for example got some cultural impact from the huns and started shaping and deform their skulls with ropes to appear longer in the likes of the huns. Oh, and they also brought the composite bow to the West and revolutionized western warfare, which is also a staple in D&D.
After that you have Mongols invading Europe all the time in the 13th and 14th century, which is pretty much THE high medieval times. They made it as far as to the east parts of the Holy Roman Empire, which is why some cities in Saxony (Meißen as an example) are built as "fortified labyrinths" to better fend them of.
You can see the same fortified towns in Siebenbürgen (Romania) and Hungary, both countries also heavily under attack from the Golden Horde.
Most of Eastern Europe and Russia were heavily devastated by mongols and their was a lot of raping. Russian nobility was aligned for quite some time with the Golden Horde in fragile alliances. Tithes to the asian overlords had to be paid. Which suits, because as we all know, slavs always need the boot to be kept happy.
Does that justify asian type monks in European setting? At least as much as jinns and Devas and the like, I would say. It is totally in the book a medieval person could've encountered some sort of asian spirituality (probably a pyramid of skulls, but more likely in shamanism).
