Aezaros
| Species | Deity |
|---|---|
| Title | God of light and life |
| Powers | Creation and manipulation of life through the Eyearke Stone, and the making of the four elements |
| Family | The Sacred Heads of Eslura, reckoned her descendants |
| First appearance | Sacred: Eslura's Calling |
Aezaros is the goddess who took the Eyearke Stone out of the sky and made with it the first people of Eslura.[1] She is not seen in the books. She survives in how Eslurians speak: they swear by her name, expect her to receive them when they die, and count the Sacred Head her descendant.[2][3]
Appearance
Only one likeness of Aezaros is described anywhere in the books. A colossal mural carved into the stone wall flanking the port gate at Veskadoth shows two figures with their hands outstretched to the sky, one female presenting and one male presenting, and a bright light falling on them with a purple stone suspended at its centre.[1] The account attached to the mural makes Aezaros the taller of the two and Nelazgus beside her rather short.[1] Nothing else of her form is recorded: not her face, not her dress, and no height except against Nelazgus.
A statue of Nelazgus stands in the central square of Veskadoth.[4] The books describe no statue or image of Aezaros on the mainland, though a meadow there carries her name.[5]
Personality
Aezaros is given no speech and no scene of her own. One act and one motive are attributed to her: she made a settlement of five people as a test of what the stone could do.[1] Beyond that she is defined by contrast, as the god of light and life set against the god of darkness.[1]
Background
In the beginning of time there were two gods. Aezaros was the god of light and life, and Nelazgus the god of darkness, who lived constantly in the shadows, whether hers or his own.[1] The two were given a stone from the sky one day and named it the Eyearke Stone. It was inherently powerful: it could create and manipulate life, and make the four elements of the world, land, water, fire and air. Aezaros, being the taller, reached it first as it dropped and so was the first to possess it.[1]
Story
Sacred: Eslura's Calling
The version of the story told on the mainland leaves Nelazgus out entirely. In it Aezaros retrieved the stone from the heavens and gave the power of the elements to the Sacred Rulers. Bellbour Polindrad received water and raised Ovallia with it as an island set apart from the mainland, where the Book would be safe inside the walls of the lighthouse. Barnaby Britto had heard the tale several hundred more times than he would have wished, because Pemadee insisted he know the history of his own land.[6]
Millennium Loftwind reads a telling of the same fall to the children of Galecrest out of a moss-coloured tome, in which the stone is a gift from gods greater even than the gods themselves, and a tool for creation and for destruction both.[7]
Elsewhere in the book Aezaros appears as a fixture of ordinary speech rather than a subject. Tabitha Glowdish tells Reagan Hideaway that the stone's power was never intended for either of them but for the Sacred Head, the true descendant of Aezaros.[2] Nordwelg says the first settlers of Blighburrow worshipped Gewa and all the plants around it more even than they worshipped Aezaros, and held naming ceremonies each time a new bud sprouted.[8] The Meadow of Aezaros lies before Galecrest and is lettered under that name on the map of Eslura.[5]
Sacred 2: Flames of the Awakened
The fullest telling is the one carried on the Veskadoth mural, which Lumikki Otsby had heard time and time again growing up. With the stone Aezaros created a settlement of five people in a test of its power, and those five were considered Eslura's first inhabitants and its very first Rulers and Head. Nelazgus, hungry with power and jealous of her, stole the stone while she was sleeping and made a settlement of his own ruled by one all-powerful king, and called them the Nelazgians.[1][9]
Whether Aezaros herself held the title of Head, or only the five she made, is not settled. The mural's telling gives the five as the very first Rulers and Head.[1] The same book twice says otherwise: Lumikki, looking up at the ruined statue in Veskadoth, thinks of Nelazgus as the god who once tried and failed to usurp Eslura's first Head, Aezaros, and Aero Ellisvat traces Eslurian lineage back to Aezaros, the first Head of Eslura.[4][10]
Aezaros is invoked most often at a death. A Sacred Guard of Zybersia tortured by Obellius Kalaar prays for her to descend and relieve him of his earthly suffering, and as his sight goes out sees Elmryn standing beside her in a sea of swirling golden light, the two of them calling him to join them.[3] Ferra Ellisvat, held on Veskadoth by an enchanted necklace, speaks of meeting Aezaros sooner than she is meant to.[11] Lumikki, sinking into the sea after the fight at the docks, wonders what it will be like when Aezaros comes to take her to the other side of life.[9] Alistair Archibald repeats a legend that Aezaros handcrafted the Sacred Cloak herself, and adds at once that it has never been proven.[12]
Relationships
Nelazgus. The other of the two gods, and her opposite in every telling that names them both. He is short where she is tall and dark where she is light, and he stole from her while she slept. The books record no exchange between them and no reckoning afterwards.[1][9]
The first five. The people she made with the stone, remembered as Eslura's first inhabitants and its first Rulers and Head. Their names are not given.[1]
The Sacred Head. Every Head is called the true descendant of Aezaros, and Aero extends the same descent to Eslurians at large as the reason the Nelazgians buy and raise Eslurian children to lead their ranks.[2][10]
Behind the scenes
The pronunciation guide printed at the back of both novels gives the name as A-zar-ohz, and lists the Meadow of Aezaros separately among the places.[13]
The books call Aezaros both a god and a goddess. The creation account uses the god of light and life; the narration elsewhere in the same book uses the goddess Aezaros.[1][3]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 Book 2, Ch. 24.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Book 1, Ch. 10.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Book 2, Ch. 1.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Book 2, Ch. 19.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Book 1, Ch. 23.
- ↑ Book 1, Ch. 11.
- ↑ Book 1, Ch. 5.
- ↑ Book 1, Ch. 22.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Book 2, Ch. 25.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Book 2, Ch. 16.
- ↑ Book 2, Ch. 22.
- ↑ Book 2, Ch. 9.
- ↑ Book 1.