Dilaf
Gragdet of Dakhor, the Order of Bone — a Fjordell of the most feared Derethi monastic order, outranking even Hrathen in the Shu-Dereth hierarchy. The Arelene biography he showed at Hrathen's chapel was decades of cover; he had been laying the groundwork for the slaughter of Arelon all that time. EL:EL:Ch 58
An Arelene-born Derethi arteth — quiet-voiced, sharp-eyed, fervent past the point most priests of his faith are comfortable with. Converted in Duladel twelve years ago, taught seven years in Naen, and brought half the believers in Kae with him when he came north. EL:EL:Ch 3 superseded at EL:EL:Ch 58
Known facts
- bound-as-odiv-to-hrathenAt his first meeting with Hrathen, Dilaf is raised from teacher to full arteth and immediately bound as Hrathen's odiv — sworn to give the gyorn his thought, his action, and his obedience entire. His first task is to follow Fjon to the docks and kill him if he tries to leave the ship.EL:EL:Ch 3
- derethi-since-before-the-reodDilaf tells Hrathen that he was already a follower of Shu-Dereth years before the Reod — and that the Elantrians never personally disappointed him, only his people. He saw Elantris in its glory and remembers it as immaculate, scoured spotless by slave hands.EL:EL:Ch 6
- would-exterminate-teos-and-elantriansWalking back from the wall, Dilaf argues to Hrathen that Jaddeth's return can be hastened by simply slaughtering the Teos and burning the Elantrians from the world — a position that disturbs even his hroden, who has come to convert Arelon, not to exterminate it.EL:EL:Ch 9
- out-preaches-hrathen-on-passionUninvited, Dilaf climbs the podium after Hrathen's sermon and disobeys every rule of the craft — flat voice, no eye contact, wild gesturing, eyes haunted and feverish — yet holds the crowd more tightly than the gyorn ever has. The single theme: hatred of Elantris. Hrathen watches with cold envy of a passion he has never felt in thirty years of service.EL:EL:Ch 12
- covertly-sworn-thirty-odivsDilaf has, without Hrathen's knowledge, sworn more than thirty Arelenes — including Waren and many of Hrathen's other most useful aristocratic converts — as his personal odivs. The number alone is unprecedented for an arteth; most gyorns swear ten. The chain makes any attempt to remove him from Arelon suicidal for Shu-Dereth's mission.EL:EL:Ch 21
- older-than-appearsHearing Dilaf reminisce about a wave of Derethi conversions following Dreok Crushthroat's raid on Teod fifteen years earlier, Hrathen concludes the arteth is far older than his face suggests, and has been working among Kae's priests long enough to stack the chapel with allies sympathetic to his ardour.EL:EL:Ch 24
- head-arteth-of-kae-chapelPromoted to head arteth of Kae's Derethi chapel in exchange for accepting Hrathen's authority, releasing his bound odivs back to the lesser krondet oath, and agreeing to preach only with Hrathen's clearance.EL:EL:Ch 42
- claims-private-victory-against-hrathenCornering Hrathen in an incense merchant's tent during the spring market, Dilaf declares — with the same zealot's intensity Hrathen first noticed in him — that Hrathen has already lost Arelon and that Dilaf's own victory is at hand. He will not say what he means; he leaves Hrathen standing among the burnt incense without an answer.EL:EL:Ch 51
- can-manipulate-the-dorFrom the back of Raoden's coronation, Dilaf reaches out and breaks the AonDor illusion hiding Raoden's Elantrian face — the first sign that the Derethi arteth can himself touch the Dor, something no Derethi cleric is supposed to be able to do.EL:EL:Ch 56
- is-gragdet-of-dakhorA Fjordell, not an Arelene. Monk and gragdet of Dakhor — the Order of Bone — and therefore a rank above Hrathen in the Derethi hierarchy. His bone-twisted body, the speed and strength of his strike, and his fluency in Fjordell all turn out to have been the same fact: he has been in Arelon for decades laying the ground for its destruction, and an arteth's robes were the cover.EL:EL:Ch 58
- orders-elantris-pyreWith Kae taken, gives the orders for the rite that will end the heresy of Elantris for him: pile the bodies of the New Elantris dead together with Kae's captured nobles inside Elantris itself — "bodies, Elantrians, and future Elantrians" — and burn them all. Then takes Hrathen and Sarene for Teoras to finish Eventeo in person.EL:EL:Ch 59
- motive-sealaTells Hrathen on the roof above Teoras that his hatred of Elantris is personal. He was nearly seventy, a Dakhor of fifty years' standing, when his Arelene wife Seala fell sick. He took her to Elantris for healing; the working went wrong on purpose, he believes, because the Elantrians knew him. She blackened, screamed, and threw herself off the wall, and he burned her himself at the foot of it. The screams have not stopped in his head, and will not, until the city he blames is gone.EL:EL:Ch 60
- ageTells Hrathen he is nearly seventy. The Dakhor bone wardings slow ageing as well as reshape the body — his form has been that of a man in his twenties for fifty years.EL:EL:Ch 60
- aon-break-wardingTells Raoden in the alley that fifty men were burned to put on him alone the Dakhor warding that lets him touch and shatter AonDor workings. The same warding had broken Raoden's illusion at his coronation; now it taps an Aon Edo wall of light and the wall splinters in his palm.EL:EL:Ch 62
Events
- EL:EL:Ch 3 Introduces himself in Hrathen's new office; is raised to full arteth and sworn as Hrathen's odiv on the spot.
- EL:EL:Ch 6 Follows Hrathen out of the palace, onto the Elantris wall — where he very nearly loses himself in hatred at his first sight of the city — and back to the chapel, where he submits to his hroden's questioning about Elantris's history.
- EL:EL:Ch 8 Trails Hrathen on the wall as the short, light-haired Aonic attendant whose teeth-clenched glare at Sarene leaves her dizzy with the violence she can sense behind it.
- EL:EL:Ch 9 Walks back from the Elantris wall beside Hrathen all but frothing at the Teo princess, then sits silent at the meeting until breaking it open at the end with a sudden warning to remember the city.
- EL:EL:Ch 12 Takes the podium uninvited after Hrathen's sermon, all but seizing the crowd with hatred of Elantris, and collapses spent onto a pew. Notably absent from Hrathen's private chambers afterward — Hrathen does not let him see what comes next.
- EL:EL:Ch 18 Walks in distracted, blanches red at the sight of Diren, asks to be allowed to set fire to him, and is sent off to prepare the night's sermon.
- EL:EL:Ch 18 Whips the crowd into the planned hatred of Shu-Korath, then breaks plan and produces Diren as a live svrakiss to be put to the torch on stage.
- EL:EL:Ch 18 Huddles to the side and watches Diren burn eagerly, then yields to Hrathen's rebuke and retreats into the chapel.
- EL:EL:Ch 21 Receives the Fjorden-delivery assignment with apparent submission, then immediately tells a dorven to ready his thirty-plus odivs for the road — turning the order back on Hrathen until he rescinds it.
- EL:EL:Ch 24 Standing with two underpriests in the chapel corridor as Hrathen returns, he mentions the rush of conversions after Dreok Crushthroat's raid on Teod with the matter-of-factness of a witness.
- EL:EL:Ch 30 Recoils when Hrathen walks out of his quarters marked by the Shaod; watches him led off with the first open hatred Hrathen has ever seen on him.
- EL:EL:Ch 32 Followed Roial's party uninvited; watches the Mystery killings with fascinated attention and announces the king's sacrilege to half the city before morning.
- EL:EL:Ch 36 Dilaf kneels and apologises for doubting his hroden; Hrathen reads his eyes and notes he is more unsettled than penitent.
- EL:EL:Ch 42 Walks the Kae streets with Hrathen after a successful sermon, openly bitter at being forbidden to preach against Elantris and pressing for its destruction anyway.
- EL:EL:Ch 51 Steps out of the shadow at the back of an incense merchant's tent during the spring market to taunt Hrathen with talk of his own coming victory, then walks back out into the sun without explaining.
- EL:EL:Ch 56 A small red-robed figure half-hidden in the crowd — reaches out through the Dor to shatter Raoden's illusion, then storms out of the throne room when the nobles crown the Elantrian anyway.
- EL:EL:Ch 57 Slips out of the coronation ahead of Hrathen; leads him by side streets to the Arelene Market in Kae, where the torches come up and the trap closes.
- EL:EL:Ch 58 Leads the Dakhor strike on Roial's mansion; his body is now visibly bone-twisted, and he is across the room in a step. Drops Raoden with one blow and orders him brought along.
- EL:EL:Ch 58 Strides into the Derethi chapel bare-chested, his bone-twisted body now plainly on show, and tells Hrathen who and what he has been all along.
- EL:EL:Ch 59 Bait-handles Raoden at the foot of Kiin's hill, calling up at the house for the princess to come down and trade.
- EL:EL:Ch 60 Sacrifices one of his own monks to power the leap to Teoras and leads the bulk of his order up to a rooftop over the bay.
- EL:EL:Ch 61 Stabs at Hrathen's "ceremonial" plate and is dropped with a broken nose.
- EL:EL:Ch 62 Strides toward Sarene with dry blood drying on his face, his monks fanned out to cut off her line of retreat.
Backreferences
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 3
- factDilaf
- factArteth
- factNaen
- factDo-Kando
- factDo-Dereth
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 6
- factHrathen
- factDilaf
- factThe Duladen Revolution
- factHroden
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 9
- factDilaf
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 12
- factDilaf
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 18
- factHrathen
- factHrathen
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 21
- factHrathen
- factDilaf
- factThered
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 24
- factDilaf
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 27
- factHrathen
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 30
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 32
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 36
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 42
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 51
- factDilaf
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 56
- factDilaf
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 57
- factHrathen
- factDakhor Monastery
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 58
- factRaoden
- factHrathen
- factWyrn the King
- factDakhor
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 59
- factRaoden
- factRaoden
- factDakhor
- factTeoras
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 60
- factHrathen
- factAdien
- factDakhor
- factSeala
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 61
- factHrathen
- factHrathen
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 62
- factWyrn
- factWyrn
- factHrathen
- factHrathen
- factHrathen
- factSkaze
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 63
- factRaoden