Trials of the Sun

The Trials of the Sun are a legendary rite of passage undergone by every prospective member of the Emris Adventuring Guild, now known as the Sunsations Adventuring Guild. Instituted during the late Fourth Age and still practiced well into the Fifth, these three trials test a candidate’s endurance, wit, courage, and overall aptitude. They are known across Osira as some of the most grueling and prestigious trials in the adventuring world—not merely a gauntlet of hardship, but a spiritual journey meant to reveal one's truest nature beneath the sun's gaze.

Success or failure in the trials determines not only a candidate’s entry into the guild, but also their placement among one of its three founding schools. Many fail. Some never return.

First Trial – The Pilgrim’s Path

The first trial begins on the edge of Shariz, where aspirants are given a golden coin bearing the sunmark of Malekith, and instructed to make pilgrimage eastward across the burning expanse of The Sands of Serrakhan. Their goal: to reach the Sun Shrine—a weather-worn statue of Malekith overlooking the eastern sea—and place the coin in the palm of his outstretched hand before the sun’s fall on the final (third) day.

It is a journey of heat, hunger, and hardship, as competitors contend with:

Ambushes by Drakkhid, the predatory burrowers of the deep dunes.
Raiding Kroot warbands, mutated sun-twisted remnants of the cursed Solir.
Rival adventuring teams, often numbering three to four, racing with equal desperation.
Blinding sand storms, scorched mirages, and parched delirium.

What begins as a “simple delivery” becomes a test of will against the desert itself. Only those with cunning, stamina, and unbreakable resolve reach the coast alive.

Second Trial – The Serpent’s Labyrinth

Survivors of the first trial are next sent south, across The Serrakhan Scar, to brave the shifting sands of the Southern Dunes. There, buried beneath the sandstone cliffs of the eastern reaches, lies the Serpent's Labyrinth—a subterranean maze believed to have once been a den of Basilisks and Sandwyrm, now a crypt to their scattered bones.

Within the labyrinth, adventurers must recover a serpent’s fang from the remains of one such beast. But the descent is no mere dungeon crawl:

Numerous Kroot tribes defend the outer paths, viewing the labyrinth as sacred.
Drakkhid packs lurk in collapsed channels, seeking warm prey.
Poisonous air and dust from centuries of mummified decay.
And worse still, a serpent cult, once thought extinct, has taken root within—conducting rites in service of The Great Serpent.

The trial tests not only navigation and survival, but one’s ability to face the creeping madness of enclosed caverns and certain death.

Final Trial – The Trial by Flame

Those who endure the labyrinth are granted the rarest honor—and final ordeal: a duel against Jasar, the adult Brass Dragon and longtime guardian of the guild, in the heart of the Shariz Arena. Before a roaring crowd of adventurers, nobles, and citizens, the aspirants enter the ring in teams of three or four, armed and armored, for a trial that may cost them everything.

What they do not know—until the trial begins—is that Jasar is not there to kill, but to judge.
He is a lifelong friend of Altair Emris, and protector of the guild’s sacred oath. He will not hesitate to injure, maim, or disqualify those unworthy... and in rare cases, aspirants have perished.
But to fight Jasar is not to win.
It is to endure. To adapt.
To show not brute strength, but honor under the surety of defeat.

Legacy & Selection Ceremony

At the trial’s end, the surviving adventurers are brought before the Headmaster of the Guild, where the Selection Ceremony is held beneath the burning sky. Based on how each aspirant acted across the three trials, they are chosen for a specific school—School of the Phoenix, School of the Owl, or School of the Snake—or dismissed altogether.