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The Observatory where the Clayr focus their Sight, by Rengin Tumer.

Clayr's Glacier is a massive glacier at the North of the Old Kingdom, and is the most northerly location on Mogget's map[1] (though the expanded map in Goldenhand places it more to the center of the known realms). It is the fortress and ancestral home of the Clayr and contains the source of the Ratterlin River. It said the purity of the ice there focuses their Sight. The glacier itself runs between two mountain peaks, Starmount and Sunfall, and the Clayr's home is under the former.

Clayr's Glacier is home to easily the most numerous bloodline of the Five Great Charters. The Clayr spend most of their lives there, rotating jobs to maintain the Glacier and its workings. The Glacier contains living chambers, refectories, gardens, burial chambers, and perhaps most important of all, the Observatory, where Clayr gather in the Nine-Day Watch to amplify the Sight which can see the future.

Their stronghold is kept warm through hot springs and plentiful Charter Magic. Charter marks of all kinds are everywhere, providing warmth, knowledge, protection, warnings, and more. Nearly every Clayr is also a skilled Charter Mage.

Clayr's Glacier (like Abhorsen's House) is protected by many seen and unseen defenses: human Rangers, ancient wards, Charter-sendings, and the Ratterlin, among others.

Clayr's Library[]

The Clayr's Library is a key feature of their stronghold, a vast archive of magical materials, both written, physical, and even alive, that extends deep below the Glacier. Much of the first half of Lirael is given over to the adventure-filled exploration of the Library by Lirael, a Clayr without the Sight. See Clayr's Library.

The Observatory[]

The centerpiece of Clayr's Glacier is the Observatory: an enormous chamber with coliseum-style tiers and a massive, smooth sheet of ice at the center. Here the Clayr gather to focus their Sight on the ice-wall, merging the confusing flashes and snippets of possible futures that an individual Clayr experiences into a cogent, linear vision of whatever they wish to see. While some of these visions are still of futures that may not come to pass, often the Kingdom needs to urgently act on something the Clayr have seen during this gathering. The Clayr will then notify whomever they Saw using a message-hawk or, if the vision is extreme and soon enough, by Paperwing.

This is the Nine-Day Watch. True to its name, it usually lasts nine days, with 49 chosen Clayr. However, sometimes the Clayr will have difficulty seeing certain places or events. In this case, the usual number in the Observatory is increased, sometimes repeatedly: first 98, then 196, 784, and in the most extreme cases, 1,568, which fills the Observatory to capacity.

Only a Woken Clayr is allowed to enter the Observatory. Any person without the Sight must enter blindfolded.

Liraellaura

"Lirael's Path," by Laura Tolton.

Lirael's Path[]

Lirael's Path is a hidden walkway under and within Clayr's Glacier. The path is very old, so much so that it has been forgotten by the Clayr by the time that it is rediscovered by Lirael. The path, which was Seen and built by ancient Clayr specifically for Lirael, begins with a small crack at the bottom of a staircase in the Clayr's Library, and runs through stone and, at one point, the glacier itself, before coming to a door with the words "Lirael's Path" written on it. Beyond the door, a narrow ledge is guarded by various Charter-sendings. At the end of the Path is a narrow stone bridge over the source of the Ratterlin, on the other side of which is a door to a room. In this room, Lirael finds the Dark Mirror, a set of panpipes, and The Book of Remembrance and Forgetting.

Lirael's Path has only appeared once so far in the Old Kingdom series.

Trivia/Theories[]

  • Even with a 1,568, the Clayr continued to have difficulty Seeing the area around the Red Lake. Unbeknownst to them, this was due to the influence of Orannis, and they finally Saw his plans almost too late.
  • Lirael, while a Daughter of the Clayr, did not have the Sight and was forced to use a blindfold to enter the Observatory, which was upsetting to her and many of the Clayr present.

References[]


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