| Arjuro | |
|---|---|
| Character Description | |
| Age | 44 |
| Gender | Male |
| Title | Priestling Arjuro of Abroi |
| Ethnicity | Charynite |
| Alias | Ari, Priestling, Blessed Arjuro |
| Physical Description | |
| Skin colour | Pale |
| Hair Colour | Black |
| Eye Colour | Blue |
| Height | Medium (slight build) |
| Family | |
| Mother | Unknown Osterian woman (deceased) |
| Father | Unnamed man from Abroi |
| Siblings | Gargarin of Abroi
Unnamed triplet sibling (deceased) |
| Other relations | Froi of Lumatere (nephew)
Quintana of Charyn (niece by marriage) King Tariq of the Citavita (grand-nephew) |
| Significant Other | Provincaro De Lancey of Paladozza |
| Affiliation | |
| Allegiance | Charyn (to Quintana) |
| Residence | The Godshouse - Citavita |
The last Priestling of the Citavita and the twin brother of Gargarin of Abroi. He is gods' blessed, and is also the uncle of Froi of Lumatere and the lover of De Lancey of Paladozza.
History[]
Early Life[]
Arjuro spent his childhood in Abroi, a village located between Paladozza and Sebastabol. When his mother gave birth to him, Gargarin and a third who did not live, his father was horrified, because he was afraid of anything strange. He told the people in Abroi that there was only one child, who he called Dafar. Arjuro and Gargarin were both despised by their father, who abused them physically and verbally. They were forced to hide in a hovel underneath their home, and their father would take them out one at a time when they were old enough to work on the farm, to deceive the villagers into believing that there was only one child.
Arjuro and Gargarin named themselves after two adventurers who had claimed to have gone beyond the Ocean of Skuldenore in the year one hundred.
Arjuro received the gift of Godspeak at the age of six. Both he and Gargarin hoped that Gargarin would receive the gift as well, but he never did. Their father was frightened of Arjuro's gift, and beat him. Gargarin shared the beatings with Arjuro. When they were ten years old, Gargarin packed a bag and walked four days to Paladozza with Arjuro. As they left, villagers stood shocked by the side of the road, as they had never seen their faces together before. Gargarin and Arjuro met with the Priestess in Paladozza, who agreed to take Arjuro in after she learned he was gods' touched. Then Gargarin walked back to Abroi.
Every night Arjuro spent away from home, he dreamt of three babes, and realized that he was dreaming of his brothers. Eventually he couldn't bear being separated from Gargarin, and walked back to Abroi to be with him. When he told Gargarin about the dream Gargarin said that he dreamt the same.
The Provincaro of Paladozza came to Abroi and took both Arjuro and Gargarin to Paladozza. The brothers found peace in Paladozza, even though their father was always trying to get them to return to Abroi. Arjuro went to school and Gargarin became the Provincaro's serving boy. They were able to see each other every day, and were treated with the same respect as De Lancey, the Provincaro's son. It was during this time that Arjuro befriended and fell in love with De Lancey.
At sixteen years of age, Arjuro was sent to the Citavita godshouse to begin his time as a Priestling there. Gargarin came with him and found work as the King's errand boy. Arjuro and De Lancey continued to see each other up until the night the Godshouse was raped.
Arjuro grew to love life in the godshouse. He had a strong affection for the Oracle Queen and many said that he was her favorite priestling. He also got to see Gargarin every day, as Gargarin worked in the palace for the King. The two brothers would venture down to their shared cave at the base of the gravina with Lirah of Serker and De Lancey. Arjuro and De Lancey grew jealous of Lirah, cold Lirah, because Gargarin loved her and Arjuro hated sharing him.
Rape of the Godshouse[]
On the night of the attack, Arjuro left the godshouse after an argument with the Oracle. He met with De Lancey, who was visiting from Paladozza, and they spent the night together. When Arjuro returned to the godshouse he found all of the Priestlings dead. Only the Oracle lived, but the attackers had chopped off her fingers and tongue so that she could not tell or write what had happened. Arjuro immediately suspected the palace. He knew they couldn’t stay, so he took the Oracle across the bridge and into the gravina to the cave he and Gargarin claimed. He left a message for De Lancey at the inn, and the next day De Lancey joined them. De Lancey told Arjuro he was insane for suspecting the palace. He told Arjuro to leave the Oracle in the cave and that he would send a message to the King to advise him where to find her. He would tell the King that the Serkers had left her there so that Arjuro would not be accused. However, De Lancey sent the farrier from the Citavita, and did not go to the King himself. The farrier’s headless corpse was found in the town square soon after.
Arjuro stayed with the Oracle in the cave, not wanting to leave her alone. The palace riders found him a day after the massacre at the godshouse. Arjuro told them the truth: that he had not been present when the carnage took place and had returned to find all dead except the Oracle. But they refused to believe him, and the King locked him up in the Hall of Illumination where the attack took place, and kept the Oracle in the palace.
Nine months later, Arjuro was shackled to the godshouse balcony and forced to watch as Gargarin threw the Oracle and her child into the gravina below. Arjuro could tell that both the Oracle and the child were already dead; he assumed that they had been killed inside the chamber. He was furious and upset as he believed Gargarin had murdered them. He began to plan his escape, and planned what he would do to Gargarin for killing the Oracle Queen.
The Day of Weeping[]
Soon after the scene on the balcony, Gargarin visited Arjuro. He tried to explain what had happened, but Arjuro refused to listen. Arjuro asked Gargarin to remove his shackles because they were cutting into his wrists. Gargarin did so. Arjuro made his escape. He beat Gargarin up, and escaped his prison posing as Gargarin.
He sought refuge with the Priests of Trist, who talked of a babe that had been left in their care. They asked Arjuro to name him, for a baby named by the Gods' blessed is blessed all their lives. Arjuro named the boy Dafar of Abroi, because he knew the boy couldn't stand out in the world. That night, all priests awakened from sleep with the same words on their lips: that a sign would appear in the palace, when it is time.
Arjuro stayed with the Priests for some time and looked after Dafar. It was his idea to smuggle the babe into Sarnak where one Trist godshouse existed. He volunteered to be the one to take Dafar to Sarnak. Simeon, the Head Priest, later told Froi that he spent his first month of life in Arjuro's arms.
Imprisonment in Lumatere[]
When Arjuro returned from Sarnak, he stayed with the Priests for four years. When the Priests heard that the Trist Godshouse in Sarnak had burnt to the ground, they sent Arjuro to Sarnak to find Dafar and return him to Charyn. However, Arjuro never reached Sarnak. He was trapped in Lumatere by Lumatere's curse.
Not long after this happened, Arjuro was camping near the Sarnak border when he met a young soldier named John of Charyn, who had been sent on a scouting mission by the Impostor King's Captain of the Guard. Arjuro took John to meet Tesadora of the Forest Dwellers, who was in hiding with the novices of Sagrami in the Cloister of Sagrami near the Sendecane border, because he had had a dream instructing him to lead the soldier to them. Three weeks later, Arjuro met John again when John came to him with the Priestess of Lagrami and the novices who he had smuggled out of the palace village, and was taking them to Tesadora. Arjuro drew them a map to where Tesadora was hiding the Sagrami novices. He and John acted as decoys while the Priestess and the novices went to where Tesadora and the Sagrami novices were hidden. John and Arjuro were caught and arrested for helping them. John was hanged and Arjuro was imprisoned in the palace dungeons for ten years.
Ten years later, the curse on Lumatere was lifted and the exiled Lumaterans took back their kingdom. In the first days after Lumatere was freed, the Impostor King and his men were locked up in the same cell that Arjuro was in by Perri the Savage. By this time Arjuro was 'half-starved and mad'. Later Perri returned and moved Arjuro to another cell, and just in time, for the Impostor King and his men were poisoned soon after. Perri sent for the Priestking, and the Priestking and Arjuro talked for hours. Arjuro told him of how Dafar had been smuggled out of Charyn, and how he had been travelling through Lumatere to Sarnak to bring the boy, who was five years old then, back to Charyn. The Priestking sympathized with him and petitoned the Lumateran Queen to release Arjuro on religious grounds. Thus Arjuro became one of the first Charynites to be sent home from Lumatere.
Arjuro returned to the Priests of Trist 'as skin and bones with no idea of Dafar's whereabouts'. For a time he stayed with them until he decided to return to the Citavita godshouse a year before the events of Froi of the Exiles. He sensed that something was coming and 'didn't want to miss it for the world'.
In Froi of the Exiles[]
Every morning, Arjuro wakes at dawn and watches the palace walls as the sun rises, believing that a sign will appear on the palace walls. When Gargarin returns to the palace as an escort for Olivier of Sebastabol, they start having a ritual at dawn and dusk of watching each other on the balconette. After one of these rituals, Arjuro sees Olivier of Sebastabol leap from his balconette to the godshouse balconette. Arjuro hauls the boy over the railing and comments that Olivier has 'a cruel face'. He recognizes that Olivier has the face of Arjuro and Gargarin's father, but does not tell Olivier this. Olivier visits Arjuro a few times, and Arjuro tells him about the rape of the Godshouse, the truth behind the Oracle's death, and his and Gargarin's history. After the King's murder, Arjuro sheltered the Provincari, Froi and Lirah and other townspeople in the godshouse to protect them from the street lords. He realises that 'Olivier' is really not Olivier but an assassin named Froi sent to Charyn to kill the King, and that he is Gargarin's son. He is there when Froi bargains for Gargarin's life with a ruby ring. Then Froi disappears from the godshouse.
Each day in the square, Arjuro sees Froi and points towards the bridge leading out of the Citavita, signalling that he should leave. One day, Arjuro goes with Lirah and Froi to see the soothsayer to get answers, and finds out that the soothsayer told the King that the one born first to the palace would end his reign.
On the fifth day of hanging, Gargarin and Quintana are brought out. Gargarin is released, but Quintana is to be hanged. Froi and the lastborns save Quintana from the noose, and take her to Tariq of Lascow. Arjuro and Lirah move to the Crow's Inn to live. At some point Arjuro is seen calling one of the street lords a 'horse's arse'. Days later, Froi returns and Lirah disappears with Quintana. Arjuro, Gargarin and Froi leave the Citavita separately. Arjuro tells Froi that he is going to Osteria, but really he stays at the base of the gravina, knowing that Gargarin is somewhere there as well. At the base of the gravina, Arjuro sings the song of the dead, to bring peace to the restless spirits there. Froi joins Arjuro, and they converse. He tells Froi that he should return to Lumatere and not come back.
They are reunited with Gargarin in the base of the gravina, and Froi manages to rescue Quintana and Lirah from the riders in the cave. When Quintana admits her guilt in her father's death and Gargarin the truth behind the Oracle's death, Arjuro is shocked and saddened, and vows to Quintana that he will call her mother's spirit home even if it is the last thing he ever does. He also swears his loyalty to Quintana by (reluctantly) agreeing to help Quintana cut out Froi's heart if he dares come near her and the little King.
When Froi leaves the group in the gravina, intending to travel back to Lumatere, without telling them, they are worried and afraid for him, and hence become furious when he returns to them without a word of apology for the worry he caused them. Arjuro will not speak to him, and only grunts. On the steps to Jidia Arjuro begins reliving his childhood abuse at the hands of his father, and is brought back by Lirah. In Jidia, Froi without Arjuro's knowledge sees the branding marking him a traitor on his back, and is horrified by it.
In Quintana of Charyn[]
Arjuro heals Froi after Froi is found outside the entrance to the secret compound of the Priests of Trist. He takes out the barbs from Froi's body and sews him up, and later expresses bitterness and self-hate at hearing Froi rave (while feverous) of the pain of the memories of his time in Sarnak. It is learnt that Froi died three times in Arjuro's arms, and that Froi's death would have been the last thing he could have endured. After Froi is recovered Arjuro insists on accompanying him part of the way to the Charyn-Osterian border, and they have an emotional farewell.
At some point after returning to the Priests, Arjuro agrees to go with a group of men to Serker, where the bodies of Rafuel's six men have been discovered, so that he may sing them home. However, he is ambushed by Bestiano's men on the great ice lake of Serker and threatened with death if Gargarin does not give himself up to Bestiano. Froi rescues Arjuro by walking toward him posing as Gargarin, but almost dies of hypothermia himself.
Arjuro, Lirah, Gargarin, Froi and Perabo travel to where Dolyn of Lascow and his men gather an army against Bestiano.