The Sun Temple stands atop a colossal sandstone mesa rising from the southern edge of The Sands of Serrakhan, south of The Serrakhan Scar and overlooking the glimmering horizon where the desert meets The Silver Veil Sea. Once a sacred site of Itela, the ancient Solir civilization, the temple served as a training and meditation ground for the Sun Sages—martial ascetics and elemental Sun-Rifting masters who followed the teachings of Avatar Rozan, first of the Sun Avatars.
At high noon, the radiant beam of Rozan's Eye, a brilliant suncrystal positioned miles to the southwest across the sea, aligns perfectly with the temple's zenith. When this occurs, sunlight pierces through ancient lens-carved spires atop the mesa, illuminating sacred runes and casting radiant reflections that dance across its weathered sandstone floors. The temple’s defenders, the hallowed Kroot warriors known as the Sons of The Sun, still patrol its premises—silent watchmen still performing a sanctified duty they have long since forgot the reason for.
History & Significance
The Sun Temple was founded during the Third Age, in the height of Solir enlightenment, as the southernmost outpost of solar practice and pilgrimage. It served as both a sacred refuge and training ground for those chosen to undertake the Rite of Sun-Rifting, a divine form of elemental channeling that drew power directly from the sun's celestial flame.Legends hold that Avatar Rozan personally carved the temple’s first inscriptions and summoned Rozan’s Eye into being, anchoring its beam across the sea to focus divine sunlight upon his disciples. With the fall of the Solir empire and Malekith's betrayal, the temple was left abandoned to time, watched only by the accursed remnants of its former defenders.
In the Fifth Age, during the fallout of Malekith’s empire and the rise of Talyen, the rightful Avatar of the Sun, the temple once more became a site of revelation and trial.
Solace of the Sun
Directly after The Star of Dawn, three adventurers of the Emris Adventuring Guild—Shanara the Salamander, Zyla Nu Ten, and Brick—undertook the perilous pilgrimage to the temple, carrying the Ebony Amulet, a remnant of Malekith’s usurped power.Their journey spanned the southern dunes, across the deadly span of the Serrakhan Scar, until they reached the rising dunes surrounding the mesa. As the sun dipped low and the shadows lengthened, the amulet’s whispers stirred. Their own shadows turned against them, forcing the trio to flee uphill to escape their own darkness.
At the summit, they reached the ancient solar runes just as the beam of Rozan’s Eye ignited the carvings with searing brilliance. Yet the amulet lashed out, plunging them into a shadow-realm of doubt and regret. There, they faced illusions of the dead—Shanara's slain innocents from Shariz, Brick's victims of The Atlan Atrocity and whispered taunts from Malekith himself.
With aid from each other, they shattered the amulet’s grasp. At that moment, the skies above shimmered with flame as Ember, Archon of the sun, descended. The amulet was consumed in purifying light, and Ember’s blazing form dissolved to reveal Rozan, who spoke to them of elemental balance, of restraint, and of the danger still ahead.
Current Status
Though weathered and scorched by time, the Sun Temple endures as a place of reverence. Pilgrims, monks, and sages seeking to understand the true nature of fire and light continue to scale its heights. Some claim to have heard Ember’s cry in the winds, others speak of a second amulet still lost—its twin buried in the ruins of the Tomb of the Twin-Spirit.
To stand at the Sun Temple’s peak is to glimpse eternity—its stones echoing the footsteps of avatars and the judgments of flame. It remains a crucible of light and legacy, where even the sun casts long shadows.