I think the idea of the Hill of Gold quest originates before the Elmal cult, and was not originally known to the elves. Their 'yelmalio' fought at the Winterwood beside Arroin, IMHO. The Hill of Gold was known to the Dara Happans in the Greater Darkness, and they may have been the culture to originate this quest. If there was any other sun god that the Dara Happans may have drawn on/ inspired/ interacted with, it was Elmal - known to the Dara Happans, and the Hill of Gold lies roughly between Dara Happan and Vingkotling territory.
But I think the current form of the quest shows elf influence, probably due to Monrogh. The Dara Happan quest is significatly different. I think the modern Yelmalio version of the quest comes from Monrogh's synthesis of elven, Dara Happan, and Orlanthi myth.
Dara Happan Hill of Gold quest
aim: to find 'the Orb of the Eye' (the Orb of Authority)
enemies: 'the Cruel God'
sample events: wounded by the minions of the Cruel God, forced to
eat fungus, confonted by the Black Shadow, confontation with the Invisible
Other (Antirius).
Historical results: the first time, disaster. Fatal wounding. The second time, death. Attempted after the dawn, it actually succeeds.
Consolation prizes: the first time, being forced to eat fungus taught the use of a valuable food in the great darkness.
Elven myths
aim: to endure, protect Arroin?
enemies: ZZ
Modern (Yelmalio) quest
aim: to endure the greater darkness (gives immortality).
enemies: Orlanth, Zorak Zoran, Inora, chaos
sample events: ambushed by Orlanth, crippled/ fire stolen by ZZ,
frozen by Inora.
Consolation prizes: fire crystals.
I think the vagueness of the enemies in the Quest reflects that the
Dara Happans are not really on their own mythic territory here. It is also
unusually based around specific landmarks, but landmarks that are not
actually within Dara Happa. I think the Dara Happan Hill of Gold quest may
have been an attempt by Dara Happan heroes to set the world right during
the greater darkness, by trying to recover the Orb that symbolises Justice
Alternatively, Nick may be right, and the 'Hill' is a symbolic ziggurat/Footstool that Antirius and the Emperor are ascending to proclaim themselves Emperor (except this is Emperor of the world, not merely Dara Happa). They fail in the darkness because the darkness gods have a better claim, but succeed after the dawn.
Or both are correct. The Dara Happans hear of a heroquest involving light gods fighting digijelm, hear it takes place on a Hill, and assume it must be related to their own ten tests ritual. Hill/ziggurat - much the same.
Now, whether the myth is developed much between the dawn ages and the third age I can't say. Probably it is a bit in the early dawn ages. The Dara Happans finally succeed then - Darvedeskorgos wins back the Orb of Authority for the Ten Princes. Maybe their success is simply because they have the sun on their side and the divine order is restored, maybe it is because they have learnt some new mythic knowledge about the quest.
But in any case I think Monrogh combines the various myths
skilfully to create a new path. From the Dara Happans (or maybe the Elmali)
he learns that he is to travel to the Hill of Gold, and fight the Cruel
God. He ignores the Dara Happan Orb of authority, as he is not interested
in the Dara Happan Justice. From elf and Elmali lore it is obvious that the
Cruel God (who is accompanied by digijelm) is obviously Zorak Zoran. He
knows from the elves that he must fight winter, he finds from the Orlanthi
(who possibly got it from the Praxians or trolls) that winter is called
Inora. And he knows that chaos is the worst enemy, so that is how he ends
the quest - even thought the Dara Happans don't even distinguish between
darkness and chaos.
Why did Monrogh choose to make it a quest of endurance, with relatively little reward to the cult for the successful quester? (the quester gets immortality, but the cult doesn't seem to get much). Partly because he is working on an elf model rather than the Dara Happans. After all, the elves historically succeed while the Dara Happans fail several times, and Monrogh probably has more sympathies with the elves than with the Dara Happans (he fights alongside a king of Sartar noted for killing trolls - already he sounds like a guy that elves like and Dara Happans don't).
I think he also uses the elf (more selfish) model because that way the cult has less at stake. When Dara Happans summon Antirius and troop off to the Hill of Gold, a fair portion of the power of Yelm/Antirius is at stake - the return of Justice vs. an incarnation of Antirius. When they get beaten up by ZZers, the cult suffers great losses. And accordingly it is also much harder for them - Emperors, with all the magic power that implies, die there. But the Yelmalion has less at stake - mostly his own life. So if he fails, then not much is lost - the cult is down a rune lord, his gold armour and weapons, and no doubt some magical effort. But not a disaster for the entire cult. There are probably some local mythic repercussions, like an unusually harsh winter, as well.
Alternatively, if he follows the Dara Happan model, then he would be attempting to take the Orb of Authority away from the Emperor, perhaps precipitating a mythic Trial of Antirius. Which, frankly, is not something to attempt unless you really want to take on the Dara Happan Emperor.
Which partly explains why the Yelmalions encourage people to go on the quest, while IMHO the Dara Happans have made it treason (for a start, attempting it might imply that the current Emperor is not fully equipped with Justice and the Orb....).
Note also that the trolls remember the Hill of Gold, and they think Gore and Gash fought there alongside ZZ - ZZ may not have even been the original opponent (but it was always trolls). But heroquesters that try to get clever and have several heroquesters gang up on a lone ZZer had better watch out - he may have some Kargs son backup.
Cheers
David
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