Elmryn
| Species | Eslurian |
|---|---|
| Title | Sacred Ruler of the Book of Fire; also called Sacred Head |
| Affiliation | Sacred Rulers, The Sarakyan |
| Home | Elmryn's Castle, Zybersia |
| Powers | Fire |
| Family | Reagan Hideaway, his daughter |
| Status | Deceased |
| First appearance | Sacred: Eslura's Calling |
Elmryn held the Book of Fire at Zybersia until Obellius Kalaar had him murdered, some time before the series opens.[1] He led The Sarakyan, he placed the Eyearke Stone so far out of Obellius's reach that it hung unrecognised round the neck of his daughter Reagan Hideaway on Earth, and he left her a letter hidden behind a portrait in his study.[2][3] His death emptied the Ruler's seat at Zybersia, took the shield off the kingdom's Sacred Chamber and left the city open to the Nelazgians.[4][5]
Which Sacred title he held is not consistent across the two novels. Sacred: Eslura's Calling places him in the Ruler's seat at Zybersia throughout, and Sacred 2: Flames of the Awakened calls him Sacred Ruler of the Book of Fire in one chapter and Sacred Head in two others.[1][6][5][7] This article records both and reconciles neither.
Appearance
Elmryn is described only at second hand, in a portrait, a photograph and other people's memory of him. The hand-painted portrait that hung in his old study shows a freckled face under red hair, and Tab treats the hair alone as identification: she asks Reagan whether she has ever seen a man with such red hair.[3] The photograph Reslyn Keiser kept shows a man with short, fire-red hair standing beside a blonde woman who holds a freckle-faced baby.[8] Red hair is the staple of the Sacred Ruler of the Book of Fire, common enough on Earth and conspicuous enough in Eslura that Reagan has to keep her own hidden.[9]
He was not a large man. Standing at the marble doors of his Sacred Chamber, Reagan thought them a giant's door for a man who could not have been much taller than herself.[6]
Obellius took his ceremonial robes and his garnet cloak out of the castle wardrobe and carried the late Ruler's staff, which he handled as though it belonged in the hands of a great and powerful Ruler.[5]
Personality
Nothing in the books is told from Elmryn's point of view, and almost everything recorded of his character comes from people who outlived him.
Aero Ellisvat saw him once as a child, at the Zybersian festival called First Flames. Elmryn stepped onto the main stage and the city fell silent faster than Aero had ever heard a crowd fall silent, then he raised his hands and turned the pyres into dragons, havarraks and sea monsters that danced across the sky. Aero's reading of it was that Elmryn used his powers to bring people together, to entertain and to give back, rather than for war or to show off his strength.[9]
Tab, who joined the Sarakyan and found a father in him, says he gave her a life, the best he could, and taught her everything he knew about the stone. As an Olphin she had spent her life hidden in the alleys of Varaar and let nobody know her, except Elmryn and perhaps Fawn.[10]
His study was lined floor to ceiling with books. Reagan, standing in it, assumed he had spent many hours over them and guessed from the shelves that he leaned more to history than to her own favourite genre.[3]
Background
Elmryn governed Zybersia from the sandstone castle above the city, and by Aero's account no Eslurian other than Elmryn and his predecessors had ever been allowed past the stairs to the Sacred Chamber where the Book of Fire was kept.[6] Zybersia under him held a festival of its own called First Flames, which Aero compares to the High Moon Festival and which drew Eslurians from across the land.[9]
He led the Sarakyan. Aero and Tab were both members, and the group fell apart once he was gone.[2] He had his people attend enough meetings in a study reached through the castle tunnels at Galecrest that Aero could still find the route years afterwards.[10] Tab's own account of the same years is that she got wrapped up with Elmryn and some others hunting down a stone that was supposed to be a myth and turned out to be real.[11]
A daughter and the law
Reagan Hideaway is his daughter, and the books never explain how a Sacred Ruler came to have one. The laws that keep the Rulers dedicated to their roles forbid them relations of the heart: Lumikki Otsby laid her right paw on the Book of Water and swore away every hope of falling in love, and a breach would cost her the position and send her partner to Morgaedion.[12] Both Tab and Piercio treat the rule as absolute and say so out loud when Reagan's parentage is raised, Tab adding that she cannot see Elmryn being any sort of exception to it.[8][13] Neither novel answers them. The mother in Reslyn's photograph is never named, and Aero tells Reagan only that both her parents were trueborn Eslurians.[8][14]
Death
Obellius gained the trust of the Rulers, learned the secrets of their world and betrayed them, which is how Tab describes what happened.[3] Elmryn was killed in Zybersia.[9] The letter he left says he had little time left to cover up the rest of his research, that Obellius knew he had it, and that Obellius would come for him.[3]
Without a living Ruler the Sacred Chamber of Zybersia lost its shield, the barrier that had let only those of Sacred titles enter, and the Chamber came to rely on the Sacred Guard alone.[4][15] What was taken from it afterwards is reported two ways: the Rulers of Book 1 speak of the Book of Fire as gone from its Chamber, while in Book 2 Aero says only that Demise broke in and stole the Heart.[15][6]
Story
Sacred: Eslura's Calling
Elmryn is dead before the first page, and the book fills in what he left behind. Millennium Loftwind, finding the dragons of Galecrest gone cold, names him the last Sacred Ruler to preside over Zybersia and Obellius as his murderer.[1] Alistair Archibald explains to Beatrice Tidal what the loss of him did to the Sacred Chamber there.[4]
Aero tells Reagan about the Sarakyan and its collapse while teaching her to hold a knife.[2] At The Avonbourn, Reslyn Keiser gives Reagan the photograph, and Tab has it burned in the fireplace the same night.[8] Among Kantankerous Albertuous's circus company, Tab announces Reagan as Elmryn's daughter, and Piercio objects that Rulers are strictly forbidden.[13]
Aero brings Reagan and Tab through the Galecrest castle tunnels into Elmryn's old study and bars the door behind them. The room holds an oak desk, a rug, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, framed documents and a chandelier of mismatched candles. Reagan lifts the portrait of her father off its hook, prises up the glass and finds a letter folded in two behind the painting. It apologises that the letter is their first official meeting, tells her the Eyearke Stone is no myth, warns that its power must not fall into the wrong hands, instructs her to keep it safe and deliver it to the Sacred Head, and closes by asking Tabitha to make sure the letter reaches his daughter. Tab reads it over Aero's shoulder and says that he never got to give it to her.[3]
Sacred 2: Flames of the Awakened
Nedifar, the Sacred Guard appointed to Elmryn and by his own account more a friend than a subordinate, is dragged before Obellius in the ruins of Zybersia. Obellius, wearing Elmryn's robes and cloak, recognises the name, has the throne moved out of the collapsed grand hall, seats Nedifar in his old place at its right hand and tells him that he is like Elmryn, only better. Dying, Nedifar sees Elmryn standing beside the goddess Aezaros in a sea of swirling golden light, and lets himself fall toward them.[5]
Riding for Zybersia, Aero tells Reagan the story of First Flames.[9] At the castle she climbs alone to the Sacred Chamber, reaches through the hole in the Book of Fire where its Heart had been, and is chosen as its Ruler in her father's place.[6]
Relationships
Reagan Hideaway is his daughter. He never met her, gave her the Eyearke Stone to keep it out of Eslura, and addressed his one letter to her.[3] She grieves him through Zybersia and takes up his Book without meaning to.[6]
Tabitha Glowdish found a father in him inside the Sarakyan, and set out after his death to avenge him and return the stone to its rightful place, even if she died doing it.[10]
Aero Ellisvat joined the Sarakyan under him as an outcast with nowhere else to go, and remembers watching him work fire over a crowd as a child.[10][9]
Obellius Kalaar murdered him, took his castle, his throne and his clothes, and had the Heart of his Book torn out.[1][5]
Nedifar was his appointed Sacred Guard and, as Nedifar tells it, his friend. He has no article of his own.[5]
Behind the scenes
The two novels do not use the same title for him. In Book 1 he is spoken of only as the Ruler whose death emptied Zybersia and unshielded its Chamber.[1][15][4] Book 2 uses both titles, sometimes within a few pages: Ch. 1 says Nedifar had been appointed Elmryn's Sacred Guard and remembers standing vigilant by his Sacred Head's throne seat, Ch. 2 calls him the late Sacred Head of the Book of Fire, and Ch. 23 calls him Sacred Ruler of the Book of Fire.[5][7][6] No character remarks on the difference.
The pronunciation guide at the back of both novels gives his name as Elmryn Nezfarr, Elm-rihn Nehz-far.[16][17] The surname appears nowhere in the prose of either book, so this article is filed under the name the story uses.
Chapter 25 of Sacred: Eslura's Calling is titled "Elmryn's Study".
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Book 1, Ch. 5.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Book 1, Ch. 18.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Book 1, Ch. 25.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Book 1, Ch. 22.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 Book 2, Ch. 1.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 Book 2, Ch. 23.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Book 2, Ch. 2.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Book 1, Ch. 19.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 Book 2, Ch. 20.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Book 1, Ch. 23.
- ↑ Book 2, Ch. 10.
- ↑ Book 1, Ch. 7.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Book 1, Ch. 21.
- ↑ Book 2, Ch. 26.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Book 1, Ch. 8.
- ↑ Book 1, Ch. 26.
- ↑ Book 2, Ch. 28.