Veskadoth
| Type | Island city |
|---|---|
| Ruler | Obellius Kalaar |
| Notable sites | The castle, the square, the port, the prison |
| Notable inhabitants | Nelazgians |
| Status | Held by Obellius Kalaar |
| First appearance | Sacred: Eslura's Calling |
Veskadoth is the island city of the Nelazgians and the seat of Obellius Kalaar. Remidigon Otsby calls it Obellius's kingdom and enemy territory.[1] Seely knew it in Eslura as the place whose people contacted their god Nelazgus and channelled his power through enchanted objects, and named Obellius as Obellius Kalaar of Veskadoth.[2] It lies across open water from the mainland and is reached by sea; the Veskadoth Tunnel System under Eslura is named for it.[3][4]
The city
The sun abandoned Veskadoth long ago and left it in a perpetual state of darkness, its decrepit buildings throwing mournful groans back and forth between them. Lumikki Otsby had only ever seen the place in paintings, heard of it in tales, or made it out from a far off distance, and knew it at once when she climbed out of a sewer into it.[1]
What remains reads as a once lively civilisation gone to nothing. Crumbling buildings stand empty, broken glass and rusted trinkets lie half buried in the soil, and the back alleys are laid with cracked cobble uneven enough to swallow an otter's paw. Lumikki found it as bleak and gloomy as Morgaedion and could not understand how anyone felt at home there.[5]
Buildings stand abandoned for cause as well as neglect. Two Nelazgians passing an empty one told each other that not a soul had been inside since Obellius ordered the deaths of the traitors who conspired against him, and Lumikki, hiding within, realised that the shapeless piles she had taken for discarded clothes were the remains he left behind.[5]
Sewers run under the streets, narrow enough that Lumikki's body pressed against both walls at once, and they surface at grated sewer caps.[1]
The square
Tattered banners hang from rusted bannisters around the perimeter of the square, each showing two intertwining circles split down the middle by a Y. Trash lies deep enough that Lumikki could not tell whether there was a floor beneath it, and the Nelazgians who wade through it hiss and snap at one another over scavenged goods.[5] The sigil is not described the same way twice across the books: the obsidian armour worn by Obellius's crews inside Alakyer carries two intertwining circles pierced by what looked to be a split tree, and a mark on a Nelazgian wrist in Eslura is two circles interwoven with a Y straight down the middle.[6][7]
A statue of Nelazgus stands at the centre of the square, partly suffocated by black vines and missing several limbs.[5]
The castle
A castle with a tall spire looms over the rest of the city and is visible across the rooftops.[5] A small back door lets onto the ground floor, where offices open off a short corridor and a window looks into the inner courtyard. Ferra Ellisvat's office is the second entryway on the left and doubles as her sleeping quarters: a bed half curtained off under a leak stained ceiling, a bookshelf, a wardrobe and a desk.[5][3]
The prison
Prisoners are kept underground in stone cells that Lumikki took for caves, reached by a staircase from above and lit only by whatever torch a visitor brings. Her captors chose the place deliberately: there is no water anywhere near it, so the Sacred Ruler of the Book of Water could draw no power there.[8] A hole in the floor of one cell drops into the sewer, just large enough for a body to fit through.[1]
The port
The port lies on the seaward side of the city: a sprawl of wooden docks, tall masted boats and looming stone watchtowers, with breaker walls beyond and warning bells rigged along it. Dark cloaked Nelazgians patrol the piers with spears, and giant harpoons stand along the boards.[4]
A colossal mural is carved into the stone wall flanking the port gate. It shows two figures, one female and one male, with their hands outstretched to the sky, a bright light falling on them and a purple stone suspended at the centre of it: Aezaros and Nelazgus receiving the Eyearke Stone. Lumikki thought that had it stood in Eslura it might have been celebrated as one of the greatest works of art she had ever seen.[4]
Government
Obellius rules. His Nelazgians hold the streets, and their half bone bodies mark where they come from anywhere else in Eslura.[6] Below him the city is broken into districts, each with a commander, and prisoners and residents alike are kept to their own.[3]
Not everyone in Veskadoth is Nelazgian. Eslurians are taken as children, bought from the gangs of Varaar, and raised to lead Nelazgian ranks on the grounds that Nelazgians lack the authority and logic a leader needs. Ferra Ellisvat commands the district holding the castle and the prison and says she was taken and forced into the role. An enchanted necklace keeps her there: leave the island and it tightens and kills her.[3] She believes other Eslurians are held the same way, kept apart from one another so they cannot conspire, and that Obellius means to use them as a bargaining chip if Eslura ever comes for him.[3]
Lumikki noticed one small tell of who is who. Eslurians commonly have a surname and Nelazgian natives do not, and the name placard on Ferra's desk gave her away.[5]
Calamity, a Shifter in Obellius's service, moves freely through the city and outranks the guards, threatening one with the sea monster kept at the port.[3]
Notable events
- Lumikki Otsby and Remidigon Otsby woke as prisoners in an underground cell with a third captive, a woman Calamity calls Amelia, who asks after her daughter Beatrice Tidal. Book 2 gives her as alive in the cell; Book 1 gives an account of Amelia Lunala's death.[8][9][10]
- The two otters escaped down the cell's floor hole, rode the sewers on the power of the Book of Water and blew a grate off its hinges to surface in the city.[1]
- Ferra Ellisvat took them off the street ahead of a croc Nelazgian named Reingart, hid them under her cloak across the square and brought them into her office, where she explained her position. They hid in her wardrobe while Calamity sat on the other side of the desk and let slip that the tunnels were almost done, and left with the map Ferra pointedly left behind.[5][3]
- Trelluby was chained beneath the piers with harpoons trained on her. Lumikki raised a wave that tore the port apart and snapped the chains, Calamity attacked in a serpent's body and broke Lumikki's arm, and the sea healed it. Lumikki cut Calamity in half with a column of water and left Veskadoth on Trelluby's back, still owing a rescue to the woman in the cell and to Ferra.[4]
Behind the scenes
Sacred 2: Flames of the Awakened calls Veskadoth an island: Ferra Ellisvat says her necklace will kill her if she leaves the island, and Lumikki Otsby leaves the island by sea.[3][4] The map of Eslura draws it differently, as a tall dark keep with a lantern tower and steep spires on a rocky coastal outcrop, with houses and boats below it and its name lettered in the open water to the east.[11]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Book 2, Ch. 15.
- ↑ Book 1, Ch. 17.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 Book 2, Ch. 22.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Book 2, Ch. 25.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 Book 2, Ch. 19.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Book 2, Ch. 11.
- ↑ Book 1, Ch. 19.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Book 2, Ch. 7.
- ↑ Book 2, Ch. 12.
- ↑ Book 1, Ch. 8.
- ↑ Book 1.