Alyria
| Species | Olphin |
|---|---|
| Title | Head of the Olphins |
| Affiliation | The Council |
| Status | Last seen a captive at Zybersia |
| First appearance | Sacred 2: Flames of the Awakened |
Alyria is the head of the Olphins and, before Zybersia fell, the Olphin representative on the Sacred Council.[1] She appears in one scene, on the day Obellius Kalaar takes the throne of Zybersia and calls the captive population of the city out into the square below him.[1]
Appearance
Alyria is an elderly Olphin with blue fins, near enough the end of her days that watching her forced to stand alone strikes the man observing as a cruelty in itself.[1] She walks with a cattail-shaped cane and goes barefoot.[1] Obellius burns a hole through her fin with the tip of his staff, and she burns her hand trying to push the staff away.[1]
Personality
She is the only person in a square full of people who steps forward. Asked twice for the leader of the Olphins she answers plainly, gives her office rather than her name, and gives her name when it is demanded.[1]
Her concern in the scene is for others rather than herself. Forbidden the help of the friend holding her elbow, she squeezes Hali's hand, tells her she will be all right, and promises it.[1] Thrown down at Obellius's feet, she pushes herself back up and holds his glare, and it is to his face that she says his hold on her people is broken.[1]
Background
Very little is established. Alyria sat on the Sacred Council as the representative for the Olphins before the city fell, which is the only office either book gives her besides the leadership itself.[1] Nothing says how an Olphin head is chosen, how long she has held the position, where she lived, or where she was during the years the Olphin race was imprisoned at Morgaedion.
She speaks of a stone that Obellius once used to control the Olphins and that was broken in the war, and she tells him that her people know it. The books do not say which stone she means, and do not connect it to the Olphin Stones by name.[1]
Story
Sacred 2: Flames of the Awakened
Zybersia has fallen to the Nelazgians and Obellius has moved Elmryn's throne up to the citadel above the city. The Olphins are among the citizens corralled into the town square below, and where they once had no life in their eyes they now look as frightened as everyone else.[1]
Obellius demands to know which of them is the leader. Nobody answers, and he asks again with a threat attached. Alyria comes forward on her cane and tells him that before the city fell she served on the Sacred Council as the representative for the Olphins.[1]
He orders her up the steps to join him. An elderly woman named Hali steps out of the crowd and takes her elbow to steady her, and Obellius stops them both and says that the so-called leader of the Olphin race will walk on her own. Alyria tells Hali she will be all right. Obellius loses patience and sends a Nelazgian down to fetch her; the creature yanks her away from her friend and drags her up the steep flight, and her cane clatters back down the steps to Hali's feet.[1]
Thrown down on the platform, she lands cheek and fin first, then gets to her bare feet and meets his eyes. He asks her name, repeats it back to her twice, and swings his staff into the back of her knees to put her down. When he orders the square to kneel, nobody moves. Alyria tells him that his stone was broken in the war and that he can no longer control them, or her.[1]
Obellius answers that he does not need the stone, brings the burning staff down on her fin, and burns a hole through it. Hali shouts for him to stop and promises that the Olphins will submit, then kneels, and one by one the rest of the square follows.[1]
Neither book returns to Alyria after this. Her fate is not recorded.
Relationships
- Hali: her friend and helper, who steadies her, carries her cane and gives in to Obellius on her behalf. Hali is the only person in the square who does not lower her eyes, and keeps her gaze on Alyria instead.[1]
- Obellius Kalaar: her captor, who mocks the title she holds and tortures her in front of her people to make the rest of them kneel.[1]
- The Olphins: the race she leads. They will not kneel for Obellius until she is being burned.[1]
Behind the scenes
Alyria is named in the pronunciation guide at the back of Sacred 2: Flames of the Awakened, which gives her name as Uh-leer-ee-uh. She is not listed in the guide at the back of Sacred: Eslura's Calling, and she is not mentioned anywhere in that book.[2]