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Battle?[]
Err, guys, you really let yourselves go here. I have read Eragon more times then most sane people and some insane people, and reading between the ligns in the chapter the shadows lengthen, it says clearly thad Ithro Zhada, or Orthiad, as named by the dwarves, was abandoned. Not to get you guys wrong, if the abandoned part weren't true, I would think the exact same thing. Sorry to burst your bubble,
-Bdoherty44 (98.217.109.5)
- I think Bdoherty44 is right. I could find only two relevant text passages. Orthíad is mentioned only once later, in book 2, when Nasuada tells Eragon that Hrothgar sent dwarves there to seal the tunnels.
- So we have only these informations:
- Orthíad was deserted.
- There was at least one dwarf living in or near Orthíad, the one who delivered the message.
- Tarok and Gashz are Urgal commanders.
- Unanswered questions:
- Was there a battle?
- Were there other dwarves? Was anybody killed?
- Was there a fortress, especially a hidden one?
- Sources
He reached inside his vest and somberly pulled out a battered piece of parchment. "Do you know what this is?" he asked, placing it on the desk.
Eragon bent forward and examined it. Lines of black script, written in an alien language, were inked across the page. Large sections of the writing had been destroyed by blots of blood. One edge of the parchment was charred. He shook his head. "No, I don't."
"It was taken from the leader of the Urgal host we destroyed last night. It cost us twelve men to do so—they sacrificed themselves so that you might escape safely. The writing is the king's invention, a script he uses to communicate with his servants. It took me a while, but I was able to devise its meaning, at least where it's legible. It reads:
...gatekeeper at Ithrö Zhâda is to let this bearer and his minions pass. They are to be bunked with the others of their kind and by... but only if the two factions refrain from fighting. Command will be given under Tarok, under Gashz, under Durza, under Ushnark the Mighty.
Ushnark is Galbatorix. It means 'father' in the Urgal tongue, an affectation that pleases him. (...)"— Book 1, chapter "Ajihad"
- and
"I roused the five of you because we are all in grave danger. About half an hour ago a dwarf ran out of an abandoned tunnel under Tronjheim. He was bleeding and nearly incoherent, but he had enough sense left to tell the dwarves what was pursuing him: an army of Urgals, maybe a day's march from here." (...)
"We're lucky to know about it this early!" bellowed Orik. Everyone stopped talking to hear him. "There are hundreds of tunnels throughout the Beor Mountains, uninhabitedsince the day they were mined. The only dwarves who go in them are eccentrics who don't want contact with anyone. We could have just as easily received no warning at all."
Ajihad pointed at the map, and Eragon moved closer. The map depicted the southern half of Alagaësia, but unlike Eragon's, it showed the entire Beor Mountain range in detail. Ajihad's finger was on the section of the Beor Mountains that touched Surda's eastern border. "This," he said, "is where the dwarf claimed to have come from."
"Orthíad!" exclaimed Orik. At Jörmundur's puzzled inquiry, he explained, "It's an ancient dwelling of ours that was deserted when Tronjheim was completed. During its time it was the greatest of our cities. But no one's lived there for centuries."
"And it's old enough for some of the tunnels to have collapsed," said Ajihad. "That's how we surmise it was discovered from the surface. I suspect that Orthíad is now being called Ithrö Zhâda. That's where the Urgal column that was chasing Eragon and Saphira was supposed to go, and I'm sure it's where the Urgals have been migrating all year. From Ithrö Zhâda they can travel anywhere they want in the Beor Mountains. They have the power to destroy both the Varden and the dwarves." (...)— Book 1, chapter "The shadows lengthen"
- --Weas-El 12:20, January 26, 2010 (UTC)