Orb of Aldur
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The Orb of Aldur is a blue-glowing rock in the fictional series The Belgariad and also The Malloreon, by David Eddings. It was crafted from a riverstone by the god Aldur. Aldur constantly turned the riverstone in his hands and after considerable time it was moulded into the Orb. Whether Aldur fashioned the Orb himself or whether it came into being and he merely noticed it is never made entirely clear.
The Orb is characterised as having a naiive and slightly mischievous personality (such as spying of Belgarion and Ce'Nedra on their wedding night) and seems to enjoy irritating its warden, Belgarion, throughout the plot.
In Belgarath the Sorcerer, Belgarath dismisses the story in the Book of Alorn that Riva Iron-Grip was chosen to guard the Orb because he alone of his brothers and father was "pure of heart". Riva was the one who took the Orb because the Orb then bonded itself to him, and Riva was the one destined to devote his life to guarding it.
The Angarak name for the Orb of Aldur is the "Cthrag Yaska", which translates to "The Burning Stone", after its effects on the Angarak god Torak when he split the world using its power.
The Orb is a powerful half of the stone at the centre of the Universe. The Orb's exact antithesis is known as "The Sardion", or in Angarak, "Cthrag Sardius". The Sardion causes the Orb to glow a dark red colour when they are in close proximity. The Orb is intensely dedicated to the Rivan Line, and when Geran, the Rivan Heir, was kidnapped, the Orb was able to act as a supremely accurate divining rod, using the blade of the Rivan King's sword to point and tug in the direction the heir was taken if it should pass over the path followed. The fallibility is that the Orb cannot trail Zandramas (Geran's kidnapper) over water, as water is not fixed in place as land is.
"Sardius" is the Latin word for the sard, a variety of red chalcedony which was popular as a gemstone in the ancient Near East. The name thus relates to the red colour and the milky and clouded appearance of the Cthrag Sardius stone in the book.
