Dunehold Outpost is a fortified trade and military bastion located deep within the eastward dune sea of The Sands of Serrakhan. It serves as a key juncture on the Eastward Pilgrimage Path, an ancient holy route that once bore sun-priests and faithful in reverence to Malekith, but now guides pilgrims in service to Talyen, the true Avatar of the Sun. The outpost stands as the last major waypoint between Shariz to the west and the Sun Shrine on the scorched eastern coast, where the desert meets the sea that separates Serrakhan from the Y’azi Peninsula.
History & Origins
The outpost was constructed through a joint endeavor between the Serrakhan Sultanate, merchant nobles from Shariz, and the militant faithful of the Holy Order of the Sun. Built to anchor the remote eastern desert corridor, its position was originally chosen to secure and supply pilgrims, merchants, and the occasional Sun Guard military detachment traversing the shifting, perilous dunes.
The outpost rose in importance during the height of the Malekithan theocracy, when Sultan Hakim Atis—claiming divine right under the god of the sun—poured wealth into reinforcing its walls, expanding its caravan holdings, and enshrining the central keep with solar iconography.
But in the early years of the Fifth Age, Talyen returned. The Avatar confronted Sultan Hakim and slew him in the court of Shariz, revealing Malekith’s divine mantle as a lie and unmasking the Holy Order of the Sun as a cult of deception (see: Sultans Showdown). The pilgrimage did not end—but its destination changed.
Now, Dunehold serves not the worship of a false god, but the march toward elemental balance.
Strategic Role
As the desert realigned its faith, Dunehold adapted. In recent years, it has become a growing trade outpost and forward fortress for the Sultanate’s eastern ambitions. Its strategic location allows control over eastward supply lines, desert patrol routes, and growing trade initiatives with the newly discovered Y’azi Empire ports across the sea.
The outpost hosts airship mooring towers, used by both trade vessels and diplomatic envoys, and its central bazaar—surrounded by sun-baked limestone archways—has become a hub for Rift-based technology, solar alchemy, and rare commodities from both Tolria and the elemental realms. Notably, the outpost has served as a crucial junction for trade with the East Empire Company.
Caravans from Shariz regularly offload casks of waterglass, palm-spice, and desert silk, while merchants from Tolria and the east barter with Rift Magic technology.
Path of the Pilgrim
The Pilgrimage Path—once a symbol of blind worship—has taken on a new meaning in the Fifth Age. From Dunehold, pilgrims cross the final stretch of the Serrakhan dunes to reach the Sun Shrine, a seaside sanctum where many aspiring adventurers of the Emris Adventuring Guild make a solemn voyage to prove their worth.
Pilgrims often spend three nights at Dunehold in ritual preparation, joining processions led by the Sun Guard, a restructured martial order sworn not to a god, but to the elemental balance and their people's legacy.
Present Status
Dunehold is in the midst of transformation. Its walls, once etched with imperial suns, are slowly being re-inscribed with glyphs of convergence. Old bastions are being reforged into watchtowers for the Elemental Order. The outpost’s military quarter has expanded, now training hybrid detachments of Sultanate rangers and elementalists versed in Sun-Rifting.
Though its foundations were built on falsehood, Dunehold has not crumbled. It has endured. And in doing so, it now stands at the fulcrum of a new age—not as a monument to divine tyranny, but as a bridge between nations, elements, and truths long buried beneath the sand.