Thalia Cristalia is a crystalline paladin of the senior line of the Blue House of Vala, mother of Vitalis and partner of Taylor, everyday form of the triple father Tailoor. In the Ante-Inferno she acts under the hidden identity of Swedenborg.
| Type | Character (paladin) |
| Lineage | Blue House of Vala, crystalline branch |
| Partner | Taylor / Tailoor |
| Son | Vitalis |
| Sister | Captain Andreas |
| Hidden identity | Swedenborg |
| Houses of the Cycle | ☯ House of the Twin Cosmos · ⛓ House of the Band |
| Spanish entry | Thalia Cristalia |
Description
She is called “Thalia” in common speech, “Talia” in some traditions and archival variants, and “the crystalline paladin” as a doctrinal epithet; the archive keeps both spellings. Her signature is crystallization, prophetic vision and a Blakean working. She is not an orthodox paladin: her crystalline doctrine exceeds that of the common paladin orders, and the Sacred Order recognizes her at some distance.
The name “Cristalia” echoes Vala Cristalis, the crystal layer that protects a world from what should not enter. In Arkos’s reading she is the embodied manifestation of that veil, or its chief custodian; the Blue House is the veil’s custodial lineage. The name also echoes William Blake’s Vala, or the Four Zoas, which the archive treats as a primary literary source.
History
Ancient Vala
In Ancient Vala, the mythic-Mesopotamian substrate from which the Blue House survives, she was a paladin of the local cult, of a crystalline doctrine akin to Mithra and to the cult of Ishtar. She was betrothed to Prince Debo, third in line to the throne of Uruk, of a branch of the Blue House.
Her great deed was freeing the Valley of the Tempest from bandits, among them the legendary Luigi Vampa. She fell wounded and was left in suspended animation between life and death, beyond the common means of resurrection. According to the archive, her soul was captured by a cult power of the Ishtar–Ereshkigal axis. Her sister, Captain Andreas, found the sleeping body, which was taken to the temple of Nesut Biti and watched over by the priestess Jalrua Ishtarensis.
In this cycle her bond with Taylor was also tied: she condemned herself so that Taylor would remain among the living. The Word Breakers rescued her from the threshold; she then married Tailoor and bore Vitalis.
Taylor and Vitalis
Tailoor’s three avatars, Lotario (Antiterra, c. 1888–1890), Oratiol (Libertateurs, c. 200 years earlier) and Tailoor, are anagrams of the same seven letters. Thalia is partner of the Taylor/Tailoor avatar in his post-Triumvirate phase, when he is a deity of love, games and pacts in Nesut-Bity, a survivor of Ancient Vala. Their son Vitalis carries both bloods: maternal crystalline and paternal anagrammatic.
Vitalis was left in the River Oukronos as the forgotten messenger of the Middle Ages. Mother and son later met in the Valley of the Tempest, a place tied to the primordial crystallization of Vala Cristalis, and recognized each other without explanation. Vitalis is a member of La Jabalina.
Swedenborg
In the Ante-Inferno she acts as Swedenborg: a woman in closed armor, face hidden under the helm, bearer of the Lamp of Hope, guide of the Lost Ones. The souls of the threshold do not recognize her. The revelation that Thalia is Swedenborg is one of the archive’s major reveals.
In the present cycle (1824 AE) she is active in both forms; a visible reappearance in Caldero is pending.