In 877, Joraz Kyrem, Lord of the city of Pavis, requested aid from the Sun Dome temple of Dragon Pass (that temple was re-founded in 1575). The religious mercenaries complied in return for land, a spot in the sun, and a good price for their horses. After the mercenaries helped free the city, they moved to their new lands and were titled Counts of the Sun Dome lands. Arinsor Clearmind was the first Sun Dome leader. He was so devoted to Yelmalio that he shone with an internal glow during the darkest nights.
In the early days, when the Arrowsmith dynasty ruled in Pavis, the land grew. Food was plenty, children common, and all marriages pleasant.
After Pavis fell in 1200, Sun County was isolated from the peoples beyond the nomads. They call this era “the Solitude of Testing.” They feel they passed their tests and survived and are now receiving their blessings from their lord, Yelmalio.
This blessing began in 1550 when Dorasar arrived with presents, offers, and an alliance to clear the valley of nomads. Although their original deal stipulated it, the Sun Dome temple no longer revered nor raised horses. They had adapted to their fate afoot, and rely upon mounted tribesmen of their religion for cavalry support.
Most important was Dorasar’s companion Varthanis, one of the first Sartarite converts from Elmal to the Yelmalio of Monrogh. Varthanis chanted the List of Visionaries which included Arimsor Clearmind. He learned secrets from those who passed the Solitude of Testing, and taught them of Monrogh’s vision at the Hill of Gold. In this way the new and old Yelmalio cults were joined and strengthened.
This fed back into the Yelmalio cult in Dragon Pass, where the remnants of the Elmali cult was tearing itself and Sartar apart. Within a generation, the Yelmalio cult was fully triumphant, and in 1567 Varthanis became count of Sun County. In 1569 Prince Tarkalor defeated the Kitori with the aid of the Yelmalio cult. In 1575, the Sun Dome temple of Dragon Pass was re-established with the blessings of the King of Dragon Pass and given land in the south of Sartar.
The reinvigorated Yelmalio cult reached out to its co-religionists in the Lunar provinces and the light of the Sun Domes once again glowed brightly in South Peloria. The Lunar Empire, accepting the defeat of its former proxy in Dragon Pass, showed the flexibility it is so famed for – it embraced the Yelmalio cult and encouraged the settlement of new Yelmalion colonies in Dragon Pass and elsewhere as a bulwark against the Orlanthi.
So a couple things that comes out of this:
- Although Yelmalio in the Second Age was strongly associated with horses, in the Third Age the cult is largely identified with pike-using infantry. That’s the result of a combination of factors, Prax and South Peloria, that all joined into the rebirth of the cult in the 1560s.
- Sun County and Dragon Pass have been linked since the 1550s, much as Dragon Pass and New Pavis have been.
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