Location
Picon
Deities Housed
Ares
Description
The Sanctuary of Ares Chrysopelex (Ares Golden-helm) is a shrine to the god Ares, sitting on a hill overlooking Laconia, a city on the northern edge of Picon's Adamantine Sea. The large temple was built long before Picon's unification, when the planet was littered with small maritime city-states vying for power. According to legend, a poor fisherman and war veteran didn't have enough money to offer a proper dowry for his daughter. Ares, in his pity, appeared to the man while fishing on the Adamantine Sea. The god gave him his golden helmet, instructing him to melt it and use the gold for his daughter's dowry. Ares, however, did ask the fisherman to set aside a small amount of gold for a "tiny shrine" in the deity's honor. The small shrine over the years turned into a large temple, and eventually a theological school and university was attached to the sanctuary.
The seminary and temple were renovated shortly after the First Cylon War, after the city of Laconia was almost totally destroyed in carpet bombings by the Cylon forces.
Today the Sanctuary of Ares Chrysopelex is one of Picon's greatest centers of theological research. The college currently has about four-hundred students attending and the theological school has approximately three-hundred seminarians. The school offers a three year program for the doctorate of divinity with eventual ordination into the priesthood. Aside from a dorm complex, it is one of the few seminaries on Picon which offers married student housing, which is attractive (albeit expensive) for couples considering the ministry.
Although some scholars doubt the existence of the Ares' golden helm, the priests on campus keep a relic of the helm - the blood red horsehair plume. Kept in a golden reliquary, it is brought out on important feast days of Ares for the people of Laconia to venerate.
Students, Residents, and Alumni
Ensign Manuel Valens, seminarian, Chaplain Candidate - Colonial Fleet
Nicole Valens, wife of Ensign Valens