Sacred Guard
| Type | Warrior order |
|---|---|
| Leader | The Sacred Head and the Sacred Rulers |
| Headquarters | Morgaedion, where the Guard trains |
| Status | Broken in Zybersia and on Morgaedion |
| First appearance | Sacred: Eslura's Calling |
The Sacred Guard is the warrior order that protects the cities of Eslura, the Sacred Rulers who reside in them, and the Sacred Chambers that hold the Sacred Books. Its members are trained on Morgaedion and hold the power to send anyone they please to its depths.[1]
Appearance
Guards go masked and cloaked, and their dress differs from posting to posting. The four who keep the door in Gewa's trunk at Blighburrow wear green, show only their emerald eyes through wooden masks, and carry staffs of spiked wood.[2] In Ovallia they wear blue cloaks and face masks covered in seashells, and use their staffs to push crowds back.[1][3] Ferhant, who serves Millennium Loftwind at Galecrest, wears a dragon-horned mask and long grey robes; another Galecrest Guard, Daglow, wears white.[4][5] The Morgaedion garrison wears masks matching its garb, mostly blue, with at least one officer in red.[6]
The mask and cloak are not optional. When Officer Kazke, a gorilla, dragged himself burned and half-blinded out of Morgaedion to Galecrest, the first thing he did on reaching Alistair Archibald and Millennium Loftwind was apologise for having lost his, and the first thing Alpin Loomin said was that he could not recognise a Guard without them.[7]
Command
The Guard is trained to respond only to the commands of its own Sacred Ruler and of the Sacred Head. Alistair Archibald told Beatrice Tidal that as Head she held ultimate control over the units in Blighburrow, Galecrest, Ovallia and Zybersia, but not over those on Morgaedion, which answer instead to the Captain of the Guard.[2]
Each Ruler is also assigned a Guard of their own, who keeps to them closely enough that the arrangement can turn into friendship. Ferhant has served Millennium Loftwind since her choosing ceremony and has never once shown her his face.[4] Harp waits outside Lumikki Otsby's bedroom door, and the night she was poisoned he fetched the dringrys that emptied her stomach.[8] Nedifar, appointed to Elmryn, felt more a friend to him than a servant.[9] A Ruler's personal Guard is required to be present even in their private quarters, which left Lumikki with few visitors who were not on duty.[10]
Duties
Chamber watch is the order's oldest charge. Sacred Guard stand outside a Sacred Chamber all day and all night, and after Elmryn was killed and the Zybersia Chamber lost its shield, that watch was the only protection the Book of Fire had left.[11][12]
Beyond the Chambers the Guard does the ordinary work of a city watch. Two stand under Bellbour Polindrad's statue at Bellbour's Strait searching every cart and cloak crossing to the mainland, and Guards tried to corral the crowd out of the plaza when Nelazgian fires broke out during the High Moon Festival.[13][14] On Morgaedion it fell to the Guard to feed the beast kept in the prison.[15]
The order's authority is feared as much as it is respected. Pemadee warned Barnaby Britto night after night that the Guard were stone-cold warriors not to be fooled with, and that they wanted nothing more than to send an Olphin like him to Morgaedion.[1]
Ranks
The books name two ranks. The Captain of the Guard commands the Morgaedion garrison; the great marble hall of the prison is lined with statues of the island's previous captains, each holding a lit torch.[7] Below the captain are officers, such as Officer Kazke, who held the metal S that opens the door of the last cell block.[6]
Remidigon Otsby, Lumikki Otsby's brother, held the captaincy when Demise walked into Morgaedion.[6]
The fall
The order was broken in three places across the two books.
Morgaedion went first. Obellius Kalaar's men had already taken the prison when Demise arrived, and the Guards who bowed him through the gates were hostages.[6] Remidigon lost his entire squadron and was taken prisoner himself.[16] When Barnaby came ashore on the island later he landed in a Sacred Guard graveyard, a hundred or more armoured bodies scattered across the beach and the ground inside the gates.[17]
Zybersia went next. Left without the power of the Book of Fire, the desert kingdom fell to the Nelazgians in what felt to Nedifar like seconds, and the fire that gutted the armoury killed more than half his comrades and paralysed him from the waist down. Obellius recognised his name, tortured him, and set him beside the throne he had taken from Elmryn.[9]
The Galecrest Guard held. Ferhant gathered the rest of the order and took them to the eastern edge of the city when the Nelazgian force came in on dragons.[5]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Book 1, Ch. 9.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Book 1, Ch. 22.
- ↑ Book 1, Ch. 11.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Book 1, Ch. 5.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Book 2, Ch. 3.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Book 1, Ch. 1.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Book 1, Ch. 26.
- ↑ Book 1, Ch. 7.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Book 2, Ch. 1.
- ↑ Book 2, Ch. 22.
- ↑ Book 1, Ch. 8.
- ↑ Book 2, Ch. 23.
- ↑ Book 1, Ch. 10.
- ↑ Book 1, Ch. 25.
- ↑ Book 2, Ch. 21.
- ↑ Book 2, Ch. 11.
- ↑ Book 2, Ch. 18.