Sarmelon I

**Sarmelon I** (16 June, 47th of Manditur III - 24 February, 63 SE) born **Aronzo Skarojon Sarmelonizo**, was the founder of the Sarmelonid civilisation.

He was later known as **Sarmelon the Great**, or **Sarmelon Slaughterer of Demons**, **Sarmelon the Holy**, **Sarmelon the Unifier**, **Sarmelon Heavenherald**, **Sarmelon Demonbane**, and **Sarmelon the Demonslayer**. His subjects and students also referred him, as a god and an inspiration for their classical culture, as Father Sarmelon or Grandfather Sarmelon.

## History

### Beginning

Before him, Vozolaz was oppressed under the Manditur kings. Two of them were brutal rulers who were immortal.

He was born on the 47th year of Manditur III's reign, on Red Ardesch's founding, the unluckiest day of the year. For nine days before his birth, ghosts haunted the land, a sign of divine displeasure against Manditur III's immortality. It was ultimately caused by Manditur III plundering a tomb in the east to get more wealth: a demon left a dagger in his robes, which exploded after nine nights to unleash many demons. According to legend, an army of ghosts led by a gryphon slowly approached Aronzo's father and mother as they were cradling their baby son.

At first, they were frightened, but then the spirits bowed down to him. The gryphon, a heavenly spirit of Zomjonor, explained that the spirits were repentant sinners, seeking salvation from the Gods: that itself was a sign that the baby child, Aronzo, will grow up to usher in an age of greatness and divine blessing. As soon as this happened, all the ghosts faced the child's birthplace and prostrated themselves to the ground, and the hauntings ended. The gryphon also added that the child's special status must remain hidden from the public, so he will discover his destiny by himself.

### Sarmelon the Unifier

At his adulthood, Aljatroz led a rebellion against his brother, Manditur III. Aronzo joined his rebellion, and after a string of successes that won the people's favour, he was promoted to the highest commander. Aljatroz did not want to become king or emperor, so he appointed him as the next ruler. When that happened, the people of the land heard cheers from out of nowhere, and a bumper harvest took place for three days. Aurorae were sighted on Mount Mandil, and the spinels at its temple started to shine. Three wight-kings, clad in rich green robes and golden crowns, gave Aronzo several blessed weapons: a breastplate of jade and emeralds; a spinel sword that absorbed the lights of the sun, moon, and stars; and two gauntlets embedded with holy spinels and emeralds. Upon their suggestion, he renamed himself simply as "Sarmelon", using his family's name as his own.

He led an army to overthrow them: he defeated the mercenary king Zohhol and Manditur III, firstly by beheading the former and crushing the latter's head with his boot. As Emperor, he instilled the ways of Gauvajut civilisation, in honour of his pantheon for his victories. He established Khattusar (First Hattazon) as the imperial capital city on 9th March, on his 32rd year of life.

### Sarmelon the Demonslayer

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After his coronation, Sarmelon I went with sixteen human followers to a land infested with evil spirits, demons, and fallen Celestials, which happened to be thrown into a chaotic war among the infernal overlords. Before he marched to what is now Siangwaan, he and his army prayed at a temple to three other kings who slew an earlier host of demons.

He was joined by the same spirits and ghosts who bowed to him when he was a baby, now as his own army. He led his forces to victory over the demonic armies before they would overrun Vozolaz and the region: he was also notorious for his strength against evil spirits, being able to tear them apart with his own bare hands.

Sarmelon I's unusual strength was caused by the gifts of the wights, granting him divine power against the demons. Even though the demons managed to tear his armour from his body, his divine powers did not leave him. The magical powers from his armour had already accumulated all over his body, and he ripped the demons with his own hands.

One of his allies was Aljatroz, the surviving brother of Manditur III. Like his brother, he was a youthful immortal, but he was very upset by his brother's corruption and cronyism while his people were left in poverty. So he guided Sarmelon I as an advisor all the way to his death.

He also brokered a treaty with the local kings and lords who governed the land, who organised themselves as the Nandaba Confederacy. They were already conducting a purge on all the demonic entities that infested their realm, but Sarmelon I's crusade quickly ended the hauntings. Fearing that he might enslave them again, the indigenous league requested that he should leave them alone to be independent allies. The gods also urged him to honour his other allies, so he agreed to the treaty.

### Sarmelon the Holy

In his 24th year, his armies repelled the Pelarin-Aradasorin Alliance from the east.

On 24th February, in the 63rd year of his reign, he died of old age in the age of 95. His body was cremated and his remains were interred in a shrine to Pjosaroz in the western mountains that became the tomb of future emperors. His six sons bore his body in white robes, placed a throne on his pyre made from synthetic ivory extracted from another throne, placed his body on the throne and lit the pyre. The immortal advisor, Aljatroz, wore a gryphon costume and read his deeds while his sons lit the pyre to send his soul to Heaven.

According to folklore, the gods raised his soul and made him a lesser god to look after his successors. The same repentant ghosts who served him in his slaughter of the demons were cleansed and sanctified. Prepared and ushered by armies of wights and fairies, these blessed spirits ascended to Heaven as Celestials. The ascension of these ghosts into Heaven was accompanied by the sudden appearance of many new stars, also sighted by alien civilisations. When the aliens tried to harvest from any of these stars, their ships were incinerated by magical firestorms.

In honour of his establishment of the Sarmelonid civilisation, the Vozonids celebrated the ninth day of March as a holy day. The gryphon flag that he used in his war against the tyrannical Manditur kings became the national flag of the Sarmelonid Empire.

## Legacy

The Rite of Diamond Rain was held when a Vozonid land was liberated. It was performed twice, firstly in Josol and then in Irajon, when the two countries became independent. It involved a prayer to invoke the spirit of Sarmelon I from Heaven to enter a great temple.

The sixteen warriors and Sarmelon's six sons also became gods after their respective demises.

### Fate of the Princes

The sixteen men who aided Sarmelon's destruction of the demonic army were the tutors of his sons. They and the princes were given Sarmelon's divine strength after he died, and even as they remained ageless by the same divine strength, one by one, they disappeared or peacefully died in their sleep. They all became gods who defended Vozolaz from the supernatural after their ascension.

His sons were Suntsho, Jaraituro, Miraituro, Naraituro, Irjowanthoz, and Tharawjoroz. Suntsho became the next emperor, as Sarmelon II.

His story was defined by his initial attempts to stop the death of his ageless wife, only to find that all known elixirs and possible mutations were unable to stop her from being truly immortal. So he went to the temple and prayed that the Gods would take away his immortality, so he will die with his wife. He did not want to become like his father, mournful for decades after the death of his mother. It was a sad story to readers during his day, because in the end, the Gods granted him that wish.

His grandson, who became Sarmelon III, found him and his wife sleeping together, enveloped in each other's arms and hair. The emperor and his wife were lifeless, but their cold faces were lit with smiles.

### Ascendant Stars

The various spirits and ghosts who fought for Sarmelon rose as Celestials, with new stars ignited to announce their ascension.

It was rumoured that the patron deities of Vovtarla and Nandegakko were among those spirits. Long before the colonisation of those remote planets by grifajes who fled the Igarin Empire, occasional monks and sorcerers left behind ruins to commune with these mysterious deities.

The guardian deity of Nandegakko was mentioned in ruins left behind by those monks as "Dalaröri", "the Bestower of Diamonds", named after the mysterious diamond trees that appeared after the god's arrival. The same diamond trees became the symbol of the revolutionaries who fought against Igarin imperial rule. Some of these revolutionaries even converted from their traditional atheism to Resparin polytheism, invoking Dalaröri's name alongside the other gods.

## Trivia

* The author chose March 9 as a festival related to Sarmelon I and gryphons, as he mistakenly thought that it was the final day of the fan convention Vancoufur (it actually took place on March 3-6). On that event, one of the performers, who was dressed as a gryphon, danced with children who fled from Syria: that performer later inspired the author to write about a civilisation that venerates gryphons.
	+ Aljatroz coronating Sarmelon I and reading his deeds during his cremation may be inspired by the Gilda fursuiter.
	+ Sarmelon I himself was possibly influenced by Sigmar from Warhammer Fantasy and Jason Momoa.
* Sarmelon I's reign and civilisation began 2,958 years after the end of the Sixteenth Age (12,978 16A).

## See also

* Silojennoz
* Ratirminoz