Hall of the Sun King

Solar temple built atop Mount Mazta

July 25^th, 984 PCE
Atop the highest peak of Mount Mazta, we finally gained sight of the Two Sun temple. It was made of exquisitely carved stone columns and arches. The columns were topped with Corinthian-style capitals with accents chiseled into the shape of flames. Standing before the temple we saw that the ground beneath us was solid, seamless concrete. Here then was the Ur-Zen outpost we had been told of: the solar temple was built on top of it...

The morning rays of daylight glistered on the solid gold casement of the Sun Gate. Our guide warned us: “Do not pass through the arch. Only solar priests are prepared, soul and body, to cross the threshold." We teased him for a bit and scoffed at the superstition, but neither of us went near the gate.

— Notes and Travel Memoirs of Erdric and Syllyndra Chastain

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Summary

The Hall of the Sun King is a marble and breccia temple dedicated to Mazta, the Apollonian solar deity of the Two Suns Tribe. It is remotely located atop Mount Mazta in the Rift Mountain range. It is said that when Mazta descends to Earth the seat of the sun will come to rest upon the temple. For this reason it is also called the "Throne of the Sun God."

Purpose / Function

This solar temple complex was built to venerate the sun god Mazta. Generations ago it was considered an oracle shrine, and specially appointed priests of Mazta tended a golden archway within the old temple, the Sun Gate, which was said to show visions and speculations of past and future time. The priests of the mountain played their role as chief spiritual interlocutors for the Two Suns nation and held considerable influence in the culture of the City of Two Suns.

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Landmark Details

RUINED STRUCTURE
942 PCE

Founding Date

Circa 200 PCE

Alternative Names

Throne of the Sun, Throne of the Sun God

Type

Temple / Religious complex

Parent Location

The Forbidden Zone

Related Historical Events

• 186 PCE
  The Flight of the Tercelet

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Architecture

The Hall of the Sun King consists of two structures, an older temple that is now largely in ruins and a newer temple built by the later solar cults of the region. Tradition holds that the old temple, originally a massive megalithic structure of classical design, was built by Ur-Zen settlers during the Age of Poisoned Sea and Sky. This temple was abandoned during the collapse of the Precursor Empires and lay unoccupied until the seventh post-apocalyptic century, when it was rediscovered by Two Sun tribespeople who adopted the iconography of the Precursor solar religion and raised their own solar temple using fallen fragments of the old Ur-Zen settlement.

Incredibly, the limestone and breccia used in the construction of the older Ur-Zen temple were quarried miles below in the Green River Valley. These massive stone blocks were somehow brought to the top of the mountain for construction, an engineering feat that seems utterly beyond the capabilities of the contemporary Two Suns culture.

Unfortunately, only a few scattered pillars and shattered walls remain of the old Ur-Zen temple; however, one architectural marvel remains: the Sun Gate, a massive marble archway inlaid with gold and copper bands. This enduring pillar matches the architectural details of the surrounding structure, which evinces an expressive style built upon neo-classical elements.

Alterations

The newer structure is thought to have been built around four hundred years ago soon after explorers of the Two Sun tribes discovered the ruined Ur-Zen temple. Unlike the classically inspired Ur-Zen periptos (raised structure lined with a perimeter of columns) of the original Hall of the Sun King, the second temple resembles a somewhat plain stone watchtower. This tower contains a ground level shrine dedicated to the solar divinity of Mazta.

The shrine bears a 10-foot tall wooden statue of the sun god. This statue is painted in vivid hues; the face is covered in a gilded mask; and the head is crowned with a radiating golden halo. The mountain priesthood accepted the offerings of pilgrims and in return allowed access to this shrine, once styled the tabernacle of the Sun God. Here worshippers would experience holy communion with Mazta and receive oracle messages transmitted from the god himself.

The higher levels of the tower once housed a structure called the "Divine Instrument." This device was maintained by the order of priests who lived and worshipped at the restored temple, but when the Pimaca solar cult abandoned Mount Mazta they destroyed this mysterious machine.

History

The temples of Mount Mazta were utterly abandoned sixty years ago when the Two Suns Patriarch of Pimaca renounced the prophetic tradition of the mountain priesthood. It is rumoured that the temple priests gazed into the Gate of the Sun and beheld a truth so terrible it could not dare be believed. The Patriarch labelled the vision a heresy, destroyed the priests' mystic Instrument, and executed the oracle shrine priests so they could never speak of what they had beheld in the archway.

The temple mount was rediscovered in 984 PCE when Erdric and Syllyndra Chastain explored Mazta Peak and confirmed that the concrete foundations of the old Hall of the Sun God were in fact the remnants of a much older edifice.

The Chastains found an Ur-Zen marker stone with an inscription describing the evacuation of the mountain. Near this marker they uncovered what appeared to be a hidden entrance into the mountain, a heavy concrete slab that could not be dislodged. Upon the door they identified a single carved inscription: a circular sigil with extramitted lines surrounding a central point.