Yelmalio again

From: Joerg Baumgartner (joe@toppoint.de)
Date: Sat 03 May 1997 - 20:16:00 EEST


Erich Schmidt:
>Now, where did these Yelmalions come from? Did they emigrate from Dara
>Happa bringing their religion with them?

Not exactly Dara Happa, but IMO the barbarian lands of Vanch, or the
Sankenites, a tribe or nation of warlike people living east of the Oslir
Valley. IIRC Nick Brooke told me that they were part of the "Land of Heroes"
Verenmars inherited from Emperor Sarenesh.

Troll Pak's Uz Lore states that

: In 562, an army of Yelmalio worshippers came into the Greylands and
: settled a temple city in Holay. (p.24)

"Yelmalio worshippers" can be read as "Sun Dome worshippers", and the
temple city will have been a Sun Dome Temple similar to those south of
Sartar and on the Zola Fel. Little is known about the exact nature of
this sun dome god. Harald Smith's Khelmal from Imther might be close to

it, or it might have been a version of Antirius. Too much has been
written about this since about the time GRoY became available - apply a
GREP on the archives, if you have a lot of time.

Somehow these settlers managed to merge with the native populace, at least
after the EWF had taken over. From the founding of Pavis we know that their
Sun Dome Temple in the upper Volsaxi Valley (the one shown on the Dragon
Pass board) continued to exist well into the 8th century. They were allies
of the EWF, then, and established the Praxian Sun Dome Temple in Sun County.

Uz Lore goes on:

: They were colonists from the lowlands kingdom of Dara Happa who
: worshipped Yelm, the Sun God and eternal foe of Kyger Litor.

This is actually corroborated in the Fortunate Succession. Interesting
enough, Elmharsnik, who had lost a lot of land to elf reforestations, had
to fight a "great army of digijelm" (trolls) in Naveria. Interestingly
enough, TFS states:

: At first the natives [of Naveria] resisted the foreigners [the Dara
: Happans], but once the monsters revealed themselves the creatures were
: rooted out and destroyed.

This could mean that the non-Dara Happan natives joined the Dara Happans
in their fight against the trolls.

Now Naveria is very far in the north, too far to be considered part of
the Greylands, but in troll definition it still is Good Hunting Ground.
The troll army most likely was a major raid rather than a full-scale
invasion, but the effect of the troll defeat on the morale of the peoples
subject to troll tribute could have been considerable.

The description of the reforestations implies a great population pressure
from the reforestation areas, so the human colonists may well have been
refugees from the fringes of Dara Happa.

There was an earlier reforestation in Peloria - prior to the Battle of
Argentium Thriile - which encroached Dara Happa from both East and West,
according to the maps in TFS. The map of the reign of Anir(i)nelm mentions
the reforestation attempts for the western basin only, and outside of Dara
Happa.

However, TFS is extremely centered on things Dara Happan, and ignores any
events outside of their immediate neighbourhood. The region of lower Vanch
is shown as a separate political entity called Terarir. As noted above,
after the reign of the Dragon Sun this region is reckoned as the "Land of
Heroes". Possibly already earlier, and wouldn't the land to provide
effective troops to fight the digijelm be considered heroic in Dara Happa?

>As I understand it, the Sun Dome
>in Sun County is the exception as there are only Yelmalions there, the
>Yelmists having gotten themselves slain in nomad raids and through
>participation in the Dragonkill war.

One possible way to explain the situation. Other theories say that only a
few people remained who knew the proper rites to the Sun Dome god, and that
they depended heavily on the sun-friendly nomads for protection. If you
check the list of Counts, quite a few can directly be identified as animal
nomads.

Peter Metcalfe
>Nobody knows for certain the origins of the Yelmalio (human) cult.
>When King Saronil died, the only Yelmalions in glorantha were those
>who lived in and around the Sun Dome Temple in Prax.

And those in the upper Marzeel Valley, in the Sun Dome County near Sartar.
Tarkalor effected their land grant (from former Kitori territory) during the
end of the reign of Saronil, according to KoS.

>But get back to the point ('Where did these Yelmalions come from?'),
>the Sun Dome Temple of Dragon Pass was settled by Monrogh Lantern
>after he had been to Teshnos and recieved the Vision of the Many
>Suns. He took some of the lore of Sun County and some of their
>people with him and resettled the Dragon Pass Sun Dome Temple.

Isn't this backward? Didn't Monrogh establish the Dragon Pass Sun Dome
religion in order to fight the Kitori tribe? Check KoS p.196:

: Tarkalor was the youngest son of Prince Saronil, who was very old or
: already dead at this event.

Which places the entire event either around the death of Sarotar, or into
Jarolor's reign. I prefer the earlier date, if he still had to make a name
for himself.

: He was looking for a way to make a name for himself, and had been
: dragged into a feud with the Kitori clans. He sought allies among the
: enemies of his father, and promised the disgruntled Elmali that they
: could have their own lands, and the chance to make their own rules, if
: they would help him in his task against darkness. They did, and as a
: result the powers of the Kitori were smashed, and their survivors ran
: away into the waste places. The conquered lands were divided among the
: victors. The best were given back to the beastmen, and the rest to
: humans. The Volsaxi tribe was begun, and the Sun Dome Temple too.

All of this happened at roughly the same time.

: Monrogh,
: the first son of Yelmalio, swore loyalty to Tarkalor when he became king,
: but no other count has.

This oath of loyalty however must have waited until Tarkalor's coronation,
until 1569. Still, there is no evidence that Monrogh hadn't already
established the cult of Yelmalio by the time the DP Sun Dome Temple was
resettled by the (in that case former) disgruntled Elmali. This feat is
mentioned in the Sartar king list under the heading Tarkalor, but describes
an event in his youth. The king list is not chronological in the description
of events, but in the sequence of kings.

We know that Tarkalor and Monrogh once crossed the Wastes into Teshnos.
We also know that Dorasar found active support from the Sun Dome Temple
in Sun County when he founded New Pavis. And Thieves City (later Badside)
had been re-established outside of the Rubble even before Dorasar had
visited.

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