Glirastes the Master Maker is an Orange architect and inventor from Mercury who is famous, skilled, and cantankerous in equal measures.
Personality[]
Glirastes is arrogant and stubborn, which was probably heightened due to his title as Master Maker.
However, he does have a love for his city and his planet, and he cares for the citizens in them.
He also likes sardines for breakfast on Tuesdays, as he claims he gets headaches if he doesn't have them.[1]
He is a regular drug user of sol dust.
Ability[]
Glirastes is a genius when it comes to engineering, and his skill is such that he is respected even by Golds like Atalantia.[2]
Appearance[]
He is described as lean, bald and cruel looking as a vulture.[3] He has fourteen fingers.[1]
Involvement[]
Iron Gold[]
Though not mentioned, Darrow's decision to launch an Iron Rain to capture Mercury for the Solar Republic is later revealed to have been motivated by a promise to Glirastes to avoid bombardment of population centers.[3]
Dark Age[]
Having sided with the Rising, he begrudgingly aids Darrow in reactivating the Storm Gods as part of a plan to scramble the Society Remnant's communications and take down Atalantia's army on the condition that the machines only be used at their lowest level. When Orion uses them at the highest setting during The Battle of the Ladon, Glirastes believes that Darrow broke his promise, either not knowing or not caring that Orion had gone against Darrow's orders.
After Darrow receives a message from Virginia after the Day of Red Doves, he and the Free Legions enlist Glirastes's help in building a modified EMP to help facilitate their escape from Mercury. Due to his resentment of Darrow and disillusionment with the Republic's cause, Glirastes only assists when Darrow warns that Atalantia will destroy Heliopolis in order to kill them.
When Lysander au Lune stages his and Alexandar au Arcos's escape from the Gorgons and their capture of Atlas au Raa, Glirastes recognizes Lysander's alias of Cato au Vitruvius and convinces Darrow to release Lysander into his custody. The following night, Lysander manipulates Glirastes into defecting back to the Society Remnant and further altering his EMP to take down all the Republic's ships and electronics, leading to The Long Night.
When Kalindora au San was poisoned during the Long Night, Glirastes gave her a villa by the Sycorax Sea where she could stay in comfort as she died.[4]
Glirastes helps Lysander with the preparations for his Triumph parade, and builds him a chariot specifically for the event. Three days after the Triumph, Glirastes aids Lysander in overseeing the reconstruction of Tyche.[5] While Lysander meets with Apollonius au Valii-Rath, Glirastes scouted locations for a new library in Pan.
Light Bringer[]
When Atlas brings Lysander to Earth for Atalantia's summit, Glirastes is taken prisoner by the Gorgons, who strip him naked and force him to wear a dog collar and leash. When they arrive at New Sparta on the day before the summit, Atalantia has Atlas bring Glirastes out in front of Lysander and forces the Master Maker to drink the blood from Tharsus au Valii-Rath's head. Atalantia tells Lysander that this is Lysander's fault for scheming and building alliances behind her back, and tells him that if he does not sit quietly by her side at the summit the following morning and go along with her proposed plans for the next phase of the war, she will kill Glirastes and make boots from his skin. After making Lysander tell Glirastes he will protect him, she has the Orange put back in a cage.[6]
After Lysander convinces the Two Hundred to support his plans for an attack on Mars, Atalantia tells Lysander that Oranges make good leather and she'll send him his new boots.[7]
Quotes[]
- "That is why I make—to see the life that grows around the dead stone I stack. For what is a building without its audience? What is a city without its people?" -Dark Age, Ch. 64: To Master a Maker
- "You drowned half of Helios. I mourned for the dead. And now that one of them, a boy who is like a son to me, has come back, you think you can keep him from me?" Glirastes shakes his head. "I have done all you asked. I am your gateway out of hell." He leans back and rests his hands on his tummy. "It is your army. So do what you will. But if Cato is not out of your prison and sharing a toast to life with me over a glass of shiraz by tonight, then you will have to find yourself another Master Maker to build your gateway." Dark Age, Chapter: 61, Page: 523
Trivia[]
Pierce Brown's explanation on how the name 'Glirastes' came about:
Glirastes comes from the portmanteau used by Percy Bysshe Shelly for the 1818 publishing of the poem 'Ozymandias' in The Examiner. Shelly was fond of pseudonyms, and this one was particularly funny to me. His wife, Mary Godwin (Shelly), would often sign her letters to him 'your affectionate doormouse'--one of Percy's pet names for her. So Percy combined the latin Gliridae (dormouse) and the greek erastes (the lover of) to get Glirastes. The reason I used it is as an ode to the poem due to the parallel imagery summoned in Dark Age, especially the Graveyard of Tyrants.