> Is there any info on these Sun Domers? I've a player who really wants
> to play a Sun Dome Templar, his original concept centered around
> Pavis. Problem is I'd like to set my next campaign in Dragon Pass.
> Would it be hard to transplant this character? Would the DP Sun
> Domers be much different than the info already available for the Prax
> Sun Domers?
In the past, anything to do with Yelmalio in Sartar has been somewhat controversial. How much can we trust the Yelmalio story in 'King of Sartar?' How many times has Greg Gregged Greg? :)
Here's my current take.
The key loci for Yelmalio in Dragon Pass are Sartar's own Vaantar Sun County of the Amber Fields (the descendants of Monro/Monrogh and his followers) and the solar tribes around Alda Chur, whose relationship with the god is much more complex. Basically the continuing struggles between Yelmalio and Elmal/Orlanth have been much more to the foreground in Sartar and the Far Place, with violence, distrust and even civil war the result.
This history will radically colour the way Sun Domers are treated in Dragon Pass.
Elmal never seems to have been much of an issue in Prax, except for small numbers of worshippers who may have made the journey in the four minor waves of Sartarite migration to Prax (Dorasor, Lunar invasion, Righteous Wind, Starbrow's Rebellion). There may be small numbers of Elmali among the steads of the Upper Fenwash and Bullsroar Streams, but they are not a political or religious force, and certainly are no challenge to the Sun County theocracy. Pavic history shows that there has been little or no enthusiasm for exporting the Elmal/Yelmalio rivalries that have shattered Sartar and the Far Place.
In Sartar, BA and DP:LOT tells us the Vaantar Sun Dome Templars are the equivalent of a small tribe, worship Yelmalio and Ernalda almost exclusively, and have adopted many Darra Happan customs. They value their independence highly, and have almost no contact with outsiders except through their leader, Count Lukus. The hire out as mercenaries under strict to-the-letter contracts. Everyone, Sartarite and Lunar, treats them with a measured (and no doubt distrustful) respect.
I'm sure Praxian Sun Domers would occasionally act as mercenaries in Sartar or the Far Place, perhaps even serving with the Vaantari. They will attract more opposition, distrust, and resentment than in Prax, but heck, being a naturally superior Sun Domer means you have a thick, tanned skin. There may be reasons for individual Sun Domers to travel or to even settle there, but this would be much rarer, given the xenophobic nature of the Praxian 'Domers.
In Sartar, well the place is swarming with exotics, so the exact status of Praxian Templar mercenaries will depend on how you envisage the relationship between the two Sun Domes and with the Empire. I'm sure there are practical differences in worship and especially in inner cultus between the two temples, but the relationship may well be an essentially pragmatic one.
The situation in the Far Place is much more complex, and will be explored in a future arc scenario. Basically, its recent history has been dominated by civil strife centring on Elmal/Yelmalio struggles, though many understand this to be deliberate religious manipulation by the Empire - a way of dividing and weakening the region prior to invasion.
Settled by a mix of Solar and Orlanthi exiles, the Far Place tribes lived in peace until new ideas filtering out of the Empire led to a new Yelmalian cultus around the same time as Monro/Monrogh godquesting that is described in a distorted fashion in 'King of Sartar'. The civil strife culminated in the Yelmalio vs Orlanthi Righteous Wind Rebellion and the rise of Yelmalian Duke Harvar Ironfist. Basically the Princeros, Vantaros (different from the southern Vaantar) and elements of the lowland Tovtaros tribes have a Yelmalian majority. (There are feuding conservative, innovative, barbaric, coexist with-Elmal and wipe-out Elmal factions of Yelmalio - definitely not a united front!). There is continued, intermittent warfare between the Alda Churi and the isolated Orlanthi and Elmali clans hiding in the deep gors.
There are no Sun Dome Templars as such among the Alda Churi, but I have always portrayed the Alda Chur City guard and its associated mercenary units as essentially Sun Domers.
Some of this background is detailed in the Snakepipe's Edge section of my Questlines website, in the timeline and various background documents:
http://home.iprimus.com.au/pipnjim/questlines/questlines.html
If you're interested in the Far Place situation, email me for some additional background.
Cheers
John
nysalor_at_... John HughesQuestlines: http://home.iprimus.com.au/pipnjim/questlines/
The Righteous Wind calls combat!
In Alda Chur and Herongreen,
fighting shakes the ancient walls.
A wind-rushing hurricane, fyrd cry of vengeance.
The cloaked one's hero heat shakes wide the city wall. With feat and spear and magic bolt the final rite begins. War-band's white bull, a dragon in strife, Feeds he most fulsome the dogs of the Death-Lord.
The Righteous Wind returns to range free! Open your arms, let it hurl against your faces, hair and eyes streaming. You have breath,
voice, limb and power.
Hurricane rebels, what you must.
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