Bellbour Polindrad
| Title | First Sacred Ruler of the Book of Water |
|---|---|
| Affiliation | Sacred Rulers |
| Home | Ovallia |
| Powers | Water, given by Aezaros |
| First appearance | Sacred: Eslura's Calling |
Bellbour Polindrad was the first Sacred Ruler of the Book of Water, and the Ruler who set Ovallia apart from mainland Eslura so that the Book would be safe inside the walls of the lighthouse.[1] An enormous stone statue of him stands over the single bridge into the city, and the water it crosses is Bellbour's Strait.[2]
Almost nothing else about him is recorded. The books give him no appearance beyond the statue, no family, no death and no dates, and never say whether he was one of the five people Aezaros is said to have made.[1]
Appearance
Bellbour is known only through his statue. It shows a man, and its stone head can be seen over the tops of the buildings from the market square at the centre of Ovallia. Barnaby Britto, who had grown up on guidebook pictures of it, found it much larger in life than he had expected.[2] No account describes his face, his dress or his colouring, and his species is never stated.
Background
Many moons ago, after Aezaros retrieved the stone from the heavens, she gave the power of the elements to the Sacred Rulers. Bellbour received the power of water. With it he raised Ovallia as an island set apart from the mainland, a place where the Book of Water could be kept safe within the lighthouse walls.[1]
The books do not reconcile that account with the map. Bellbour is said to have made an island, and the map of Eslura draws Ovallia on a headland with a single arched bridge springing away from it.[1][3] Both stand as they are.
Nothing is recorded of what he did afterwards, how long he ruled, or how he died. No Ruler of the Book of Water between him and Lumikki Otsby, who holds the Book in the present day, is named anywhere in the books.
Legacy
The strait between Ovallia and the mainland carries his name, and swimming it is a feat out of legend rather than a crossing anyone attempts.[1][4]
His statue stands over the bridge connecting Ovallia to the mainland as a constant reminder of the city's first Sacred Ruler, and it is where the crossing is policed: two Sacred Guards stood beneath it searching every cart and every cloak on the way to the mainland on the day an Olphin was reported loose in the city.[2][1]
His tale is taught. Pemadee insisted that Barnaby know the history of his own land even if he never got the chance to see it, and Barnaby reckoned he had heard Bellbour's story several hundred more times than he would have wished.[1]
Behind the scenes
The pronunciation guide printed at the back of both novels gives his name as Bell-boar Pole-in-drad, and lists Bellbour's Strait separately among the places.[5][6]