Meadow of Aezaros
| Type | Meadow |
|---|---|
| Notable sites | The lake at its centre, the road up to Galecrest |
| First appearance | Sacred: Eslura's Calling |
The Meadow of Aezaros is the wide open grassland that lies before the floating city of Galecrest in Eslura, with the mountain range that holds Alakyer rising along one side of it. Aero Ellisvat gives it its name once, pointing Reagan Hideaway toward the city "just beyond the Meadow of Aezaros", and no other passage in the books names it again.[1] It is the ground a Nelazgian force crossed in the dark on the night of the High Moon Festival, with Galecrest as its target.[1]
The meadow
The grass runs knee high and untamed and is dotted with wildflowers of every shade of blue, red and yellow as far as the eye can see. A dirt path follows the tall trees around the edges, and a stream tumbles down out of the mountains, snakes through the grass and pools into a large lake in the middle. The land rolls in low green hills around it.[1][2] Under a high golden moon the field can be seen almost as if it were day.[1]
Grazing animals use it. Reagan watched a florahorse and its calf wander onto the grassy bank at the side of the lake with their flower-woven tails flicking behind them, and the pergonzias the same party left tied at the treeline were still grazing happily on the plethora of weeds and grass when their riders came back for them.[1][3]
The map of Eslura draws the meadow as an open basin ringed by mountains with flower glyphs scattered around it, letters the name in a curve around its southern edge, and places it south of Cape Heladria and west of Galecrest, with a stone bridge or causeway drawn to its east.[4]
The mountains
On one side the ground rises into the range that holds Alakyer. The grass turns to stone where the climb begins, and the lower path is gentle and winding, lined with wildflowers and tall pines.[5] The climb is the only way onward to Morgaedion: Piercio told Barnaby Britto that "The only way to get to Morgaedion from here is up and over".[5]
Toward the desert
Riding the other way, out of the meadow toward the Kella Desert, the trees thin, the grass fades and the scent of blooming things gives way to a dry saltiness before the dunes open up.[3]
Government
The books record no authority over the meadow and no watch kept on it. Crowds walk the dirt path across it to Galecrest on the night of the High Moon Festival, and the Nelazgian force crossed the same grass the same night without being challenged in the open.[1]
Notable events
- Tab, Reagan and Aero came to the edge of the meadow on the night of the High Moon Festival and found the grass full of Nelazgians crawling on all fours toward the city. Reagan counted at least a hundred and could not see how many more lay deeper in the grass.[1]
- Aero confessed at the treeline that he had been a member of the Nelazgians and had told them Reagan and the Ruler would be in the city, then offered the only way in: Reagan bound as his prisoner and Tab as a new recruit.[1]
- Drayzuzian met them in the grass and had Tab marked on the spot, raking his claw into her palm to cut in the same symbol Aero bore. She refused to scream. The moons came to their eclipse while the party was still crossing, the ground began to shake, and Galecrest sank back into the earth ahead of them.[1]
- Alistair Archibald's party came north through the forest to the meadow the same night, saw the spires of the sunken city poking through the low cloud beyond the lake, and walked around the water into the festival.[2]
- Sacred 2: Flames of the Awakened returns to the meadow below Galecrest without naming it again. The group came down from the city on an old lift, gathered near the lake and broke apart there: Piercio, Alpin Loomin and Barnaby for the mountains, Bea and Alistair for the Sacred City, and Tab, Reagan and Aero for the desert.[3]
Behind the scenes
The pronunciation guides in both novels list the Meadow of Aezaros among the places and give it as A-zar-ohz, the same pronunciation they print for the god Aezaros.[6][7] The map letters it MEADOW of AEZAROS, the middle word in small lowercase.[4]
Why the meadow carries the god's name is not recorded anywhere in the books. Reagan, hearing it for the first time, "hadn't the slightest clue as to what he meant by the name" and assumed it referred to the grassland in front of her.[1]