Sanctaphrax

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sanctaphrax is a fictional city-state from Paul Stewart's The Edge Chronicles.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Early history 1.2 Mid-history 1.3 The destruction of Sanctaphrax 2 New Sanctaphrax 3 See also

[edit] History

[edit] Early history

Sanctaphrax was founded centuries ago when a flight rock growing in The Stone Gardens became bigger than any before. The rock was tied to the center of Undertown by the Great anchor chain, and the city was soon built upon it. It became a place of learning, and home to hundreds of librarians and professors, acolytes and all manner of academics. They were then split into sky-scholars, who studied the weather and clouds, and earth-scholars, who categorized and researched the flora and fauna of the Deepwoods in the Great Library.

The inhabitants of Sanctaphrax lived in harmony until a problem came up- The floating rock was still growing, and becoming ever more buoyant as it expanded. The scholars began to search despairingly through generations of research for a solution- something to weigh the rock down with, or maybe some super-strong material to build a chain out of. It was the sky-scholars who found the answer- Stormphrax.

It was a material that weighed only as much as sand in light, but in absolute darkness a thimbleful of Stormphrax weighed as much as a thousand Ironwood trees. To find Stormphrax, an academic had to set forth in a Stormchaser sky ship, chasing a Great Storm. When the storm passed over The Twilight Woods, a single bolt of lightning would strike, freeze, and turn into Stormphrax. The academic would then have to take as much as they could back to Sanctaphrax in an illuminated box, and have it stored in the absolute darkness of the treasury. When the first shards of Stormphrax were brought back, the earth-scholars were evicted from Sanctaphrax, and their great library fell into disuse. The treasury was situated in the Heartrock, in the very center of the floating rock. The only way to reach the treasury was to travel down the Sanctaphrax tunnel, and then pass the much-feared treasury guard. After the earth-scholars were banished, the academic Quode Quanx Querix founded The Knights Academy, Where academics would train for many years, and become Knights Acadedemic, who would be called upon to stormchase whenever a great storm passed. Other schools were founded too, and over the years ever taller and grander towers were constructed, such as the great mistsifting towers of The School of Mist. There was a great time of peace, until Linius Pallitax began his research.

[edit] Mid-history

Linius was the Most High Academe of Sanctaphrax, and a friend of Orlis Verginix, (also known as Wind Jackal) who was one of the greatest sky pirate captains ever. In The Curse of the Gloamglozer, Linius wanted to revive the great library and return earth studies to Sanctaphrax; however he focused on his real dream- to create life. He went into the Stonecomb, an ever twisting and changing maze that made up the inside of the Sanctaphrax rock, and journeyed to the ancient laboratory, a forgotten place that had been sealed off long ago. He succeeded in creating the Gloamglozer, an evil creature that had previously been of legend. His daughter Maris and Orlis’s son Quint managed to rescue Linius, but released the Curse of the Gloamglozer upon the Edge. Unfortunately, Linius’ home, The Palace of Shadows was burned down as the Gloamglozer made its escape. Linius died soon after the fire.

In The Winter Knights, Quint joins the Knights Academy, along with Vil Spatweed, who had previously been a knife-grinder in Undertown. He changed his name to Vilnix Pompolnious, and excelled to the rank of an upper hall squire. Meanwhile, Sanctaphrax was covered in blizzards, as a sick Cloudeater in open sky was belching them out. When flight rocks are cooled, they become increasingly buoyant, and the Sanctaphrax rock began to pull on the great anchor chain. Huge furnaces were pulled up and down the side of the Sanctaphrax rock to try and warm it up, and the hall master of High Cloud, Hax Vostillix, ordered stormchasing voyages frequently. Many brave knights died as their ship’s flight rocks cooled, sending them hurtling upwards. The death toll soared until Quint and his friends sailed a ship out to open sky and cured the Cloudeater ending the blizzards. Whilst they were away, the gatekeeper guards of Sanctaphrax rebelled and would have wiped out all of the squires and Knights if the treasury guard had not reinforced the defenders. Vilnix murdered Hax Vostillix for revenge, and could not be proved guilty; however, he was banished from the Knights Academy for visiting the school of potions and poisons.

Vilnix was offered a place as a raintaster; where he stole some Stormphrax, and ground it down to make Phraxdust, a material with the amazing property of purifying water. However, when he tried to make more, an explosion destroyed the raintasters tower, nearly killing him. After his recovery, he rushed to the Knights Academy where Quint was about to be sent stormchasing. He interrupted the ceremony, and impressed the crowds with his Phraxdust. He then built up an argument against the twin Most High Academes, the professors of Light and Darkness, and took their place at the top of the hierarchy.

Many years later Sanctaphrax became too buoyant again, so Vilnix had weights and extra chains added to try and keep Sanctaphrax down. The Undertown factories and foundries worked overtime and pumped out waste into the river Edgewater, and Vilnix had to use Phraxdust to purify the water. This vicious circle would have continued, but Vilnix still didn’t know how he had made the Phraxdust. Whenever anyone tried to grind Stormphrax, it exploded. The crisis got worse until Twig, Quint’s son, returned from a stormchasing voyage with more Stormphrax. Equilibrium returned, and Vilnix was parted from his status and assassinated minutes later. The Professor of Darkness returned to his position as Most High Academe of Sanctaphrax, but unfortunately the Professor of light had died on Twig’s Stormchasing voyage. Twig was knighted as Arbornius Vergenix, and left Sanctaphrax to become a sky pirate like his ancestors.

[edit] The destruction of Sanctaphrax

Every few thousand years, the Edgewater River dried up and the Mother Storm would descend upon Riverrise, The legendary source of the river, and would rejuvenate its waters at dawn. The previous time the mother storm came to the Edge, its path had been clear. But now, Sanctaphrax was in its way. Twig returned from his voyage into open sky with no memory of what his father had told him there. However, when he journeyed to Riverrise his memory was jogged, and he remembered about the impending disaster and the solution. The great anchor chain had to be cut, allowing Sanctaphrax to fly away. If it wasn’t cut, the mother storm would waste its energy destroying Sanctaphrax, and would not get to Riverrise. The drought would wipe out all life on the Edge. When Twig and his apprentice, Cowlquape returned, Sanctaphrax was on the very edge of the Mother Storm. Twig had sent word ahead to evacuate Sanctaphrax, all though a few of the old professors stayed on it. The professor of darkness could not allow Twig to destroy the city, so he shoved him aside. Twig yelled for Cowlquape to remove the pin that held Sanctaphrax in place, and he did. The Professor of darkness begged Cowlquape to stop, and just before the pin gave, he thrust the great seal of office into Cowlquape’s hand. The chain then unwound and Sanctaphrax flew off, with the Professor of Darkness hanging on to the end of the chain.

[edit] New Sanctaphrax

When the Mother storm crossed the Stone Gardens, a single bolt of lightning hit one of the floating rocks. This then grew to the size of the original Sanctaphrax rock, and was named New Sanctaphrax. Cowlquape then became the Most High Academe of the new city.

[edit] See also

• New Sanctaphrax
• The Edge Chronicles