The Gardener is a humble, wise old gardener of the hanging gardens of Uruk, named king for a day to receive a dragons’ curse in place of the true king, then abducted and revealed as an incarnation of the Cakravartin. He is held captive in Burdraxar.
| Type | Character |
| Residence | Palace of the Blue House, shared room |
| Spanish entry | El Jardinero |
Description
A very humble old man, kind to all, of very few words; aged, “but more than aged, actually, wise”. He called himself «un señor de los huertos» (“a lord of the orchards”). His personal name is not recorded.
He knows “a great deal about plants and living beings and how to decorate something on the scale of a hanging garden”, central architecture in these societies, which makes him palace staff. He also practices “telling the truth”: “his truth is in his person, in the incarnation”. He speaks in plant metaphors. He counseled the cook — his roommate, colleague and friend — to tell the truth, and confessed in turn: “I have to talk and tell you the truth”.
History
The Substitute King is a protective rite: when a dragons’ curse targets the true king, a king for a day is named to receive it. The Gardener “for some reason was chosen”. Afterward he was abducted — “some say” by agents of the dragons from the city of Ur-Draxa.
The queen of the Blue House says she once chose him as her lover and that “the third child I had really belongs to him”; one of the royal children, perhaps not all, is suspected to be his.
He is one of three incarnations attributed to the Cakravartin; another is “a lunar being”. Their names arrive broken: a “Blue Yogi”, a “child of the flute”, the “lunar being”. A place-name, “Lilvan” or “Lilvani”, is tied once to his incarnation.
Captivity
“The gardener is still in Burdraxar.” His absence leaves open the ritual office. The queen “is very worried about this gardener” and wants him rescued; the Wordbreakers are searching for him. A figure called Esber also knows him.
Open questions
- Why the true king chose him; who Esber is.
- Whether Burdraxar and Ur-Draxa are one place.
- Whether the curse struck him, was interrupted, or is the abduction itself.
- Who names the substitute king, for how long, and what follows if he vanishes.