Alistair Archibald
| Species | Lizard |
|---|---|
| Title | Sacred Ruler of the Book of Land |
| Affiliation | Sacred Rulers, The Council |
| Home | Blighburrow |
| Powers | Land |
| Companions | Kuma, Nordwelg |
| Status | Alive |
| First appearance | Sacred: Eslura's Calling |
Alistair Archibald is the Sacred Ruler of the Book of Land, the lizard who governs Blighburrow and keeps the Sacred Chamber inside the trunk of Gewa.[1][2] He is the Ruler who carries Beatrice Tidal out of the woods on the night she arrives in Eslura, names her Sacred Head, and takes on her instruction himself.[1]
Appearance
Alistair is a man-sized lizard. He wears a pristine white lab coat with pockets that overflow with pink, blue and yellow flowers, and a long spiked tail covered in olive-green scales follows his every move. His reptilian face has sprouted a grey beard, puffy bags sag beneath his eyes, and he smiles a sharp, toothy smile. His claws are cold to the touch, and he flicks his tongue when he pauses mid-sentence.[1] Under a hood and gloves he passes for an old man until the green, finely scaled hand comes off the rein.[3]
The beard has grown long enough over the years that people who knew him no longer place him at once, which he treats as a joke against himself.[4] By the second book the flowers in his coat pocket have dwindled to two wilted ones.[5] His bones groan and crack when he stands.[2]
Personality
Alistair is courteous to the point of formality. He asks permission before he takes a wrist, apologises for not having introduced himself while barricading somebody else's front door, and answers rudeness with a compliment placed sideways.[1] He speaks with precision and dislikes hurry in others while allowing himself none.
He corrects gently and constantly, most of all Alpin Loomin, whose worst remarks he simply talks over. He is candid about his own errors: he says outright that he dismissed Amelia Lunala's warnings because he assumed, as the rest of Eslura did, that her mind had gone.[1] He is plainly pained whenever her name is raised.[1]
With Bea he is patient rather than reassuring. He tells her what her title means, what her body is made of, and what will happen to Eslura if the Books fail, and he does not soften any of it.[2]
Background
Alistair has been a Ruler for many years and speaks of the first settlers of Blighburrow, and of their habit of naming plants, as ancestors rather than history.[2][6] He keeps a greenhouse at Blighburrow full of sunflowers, daisies and roses, with a waterfall in one corner and a willow in the other, and shares the place with the troll Nordwelg, who calls him old friend and is the one person allowed to stop him mid-stride.[2][7]
Before the first book opens, Amelia Lunala told him of a vision: a hundred years would pass, and Obellius would rise again with the power of the Book of Fire, and a new Sacred Head would be chosen. He did not believe her.[1]
Story
Sacred: Eslura's Calling
Alistair rides his florahorse Kuma into the woods outside Farenworth and pulls Bea and Reagan Hideaway up behind him ahead of a Shadow Reaper, sealing the path behind them with roots and branches thrown up by the green light of his glove.[3] He barricades Alpin Loomin's house without waiting to be asked, introduces himself, and asks to see Bea's wrist. The mark on it is the Sacred Symbol, and he tells her that as Sacred Head she is the guardian of the Rulers and their Books.[1]
Millennium Loftwind arrives down the chimney with news that the dragons of Galecrest have lost their fire, and Alistair concludes that Amelia was right about everything. He sends Bea and Reagan on to Galecrest with Alpin, since the council room in the Sacred City is destroyed and the High Moon Festival will bring the Rulers together anyway, and stays behind to face the Reaper.[1]
He reaches Bea again after Demise claws her wrist, riding in on Galabear, and takes her to Blighburrow.[8][9] There he explains what a Shadow Reaper does to the living, walks her through the glass tunnel to Gewa, and passes her through the Sacred Guard into the Hollow of Gewa. He draws the Book of Land down out of the air with the light of his claws and has her lay her hand on its Heart. She comes out of the vision that follows having seen the white-haired man, and Alistair asks her who he is.[2][10]
Told that the man has long white hair and red eyes, Alistair names him Obellius Kalaar, and says it is the red eyes that trouble him most: he has not seen their like before, and with the Book of Fire gone from its Chamber he cannot help piecing the two together.[10] Pressed by Nordwelg on whether the Heart of his own Book is safe, he answers that the Hollow of Gewa holds while he does.[7] He hears out Seely's research on the Olphins and says that if it is true there is no reason they should be imprisoned any longer, though nothing will be decided before the council meets.[7]
The council never meets. Nelazgians set fires across Galecrest during the festival, and Alistair leads a party toward Millennium's castle.[11][12] Afterwards, at the table in the castle, a burned and unmasked Sacred Guard officer named Kazke reaches Galecrest from Morgaedion with the news that Obellius has escaped and is coming for the girl.[12]
Sacred 2: Flames of the Awakened
With Galecrest under attack, Alistair sends the group out of the city by the old lift and splits them up on the ground, then takes Bea to the Sacred City on foot, because tradition holds that a new Head trains where every predecessor trained.[5][4][13]
In the ruined city he faces down a man named Bray who asks why Eslura should trust a girl when Amelia could not stop Obellius, and answers that the Books have chosen her.[14] After Bea bursts the settlement's well and blows a hole through the last surviving mural, he follows her into the castle and takes her up to Amelia Lunala's old room, where the Sacred Cloak still hangs in the wardrobe. He tells her the cloak was handed from Head to Head and that legend gives Aezaros as its maker, though nothing proves it.[15]
Bea's eyes turn gold in the mirror, her panic takes the castle apart around them, and the floor opens between them. Alistair calls to her to control her emotions and is carried away from her by the widening gap.[15] He comes through it with a torn lab coat, a frazzled beard and a long scratch down one side of his face, and finds her in the square rebuilding the mural in grass and vine. He tells her the new mural is better than the old, that she did not lose control but chose, and that he sees in her someone who could tear down an empire.[6]
Lumikki Otsby and Remidigon Otsby walk out of the crowd a moment later, and it is to Alistair that Lumikki first speaks.[6]
Relationships
- Beatrice Tidal: Alistair finds her, names her, teaches her and defends her in public. He tells her he has never been as frightened as he was in Amelia's room, and that the fear was not of what she did but of not being able to reach her.[6]
- Nordwelg: the two share the greenhouse at Blighburrow and a long habit of needling each other about the troll's pipe. Nordwelg is the only person shown physically stopping Alistair when he is set on going.[7]
- Alpin Loomin: an old and quarrelsome acquaintance. Alistair asks favours of him he has no right to and gets them.[1]
- Amelia Lunala: his predecessor as Sacred Head, whose warnings he did not act on and whose memory he defends as unjustly remembered.[1]
- Millennium Loftwind: fellow Ruler, addressed and answered as an equal.[1]
- Kuma: his florahorse.[3]
Behind the scenes
The pronunciation guide at the back of both novels gives his name as Al-iss-ter Are-chi-bald.[12][6]
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 1, Ch. 8.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Book 1, Ch. 22.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Book 1, Ch. 6.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Book 2, Ch. 4.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Book 2, Ch. 3.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Book 2, Ch. 28.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Book 1, Ch. 24.
- ↑ Book 1, Ch. 20.
- ↑ Book 1, Ch. 21.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Book 1, Ch. 23.
- ↑ Book 1, Ch. 25.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Book 1, Ch. 26.
- ↑ Book 2, Ch. 2.
- ↑ Book 2, Ch. 5.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Book 2, Ch. 9.