Races of the Malazan Book of the Fallen

The Malazan Book of the Fallen fantasy series by Steven Erikson and Ian Cameron Esslemont contains numerous intelligent human, humanoid and non-human races. They are divided into the four founding races (the Forkrul Assail, Jaghut, K'Chain Che'Malle and T'lan Imass) who evolved on the Malazan planet, and the Tiste invader races (the Tiste Andii, Tiste Edur and Tiste Liosan) who immigrated to the Malazan planet from their racial Warren. The origins of the Thelomen Toblakai are unknown.

Eres

The Eres are a pre-founding race in the Malazan Book of the Fallen. Before all races there were the Eres'al, a hairy, primitive precursor to the Imass. The Eres appeared to survive as nomadic hunter-gatherers or scavengers, following herds and predators for food. They appeared to have developed a symbiotic relationship with the Deragoth, the Hounds of Darkness, possibly becoming domesticated by the Hounds.

Physiology

The Eres are human in appearance, walking upright with fully human features and hands. One difference is a thick layer of fine hair covering the body.

Culture

The culture of the Eres preceded all other intelligent humanoid races, including the Imass. They worked stone with somewhat less skill than the Imass themselves. Though they were the first to exhibit awareness or consciousness, they failed to develop a sophisticated culture like the human, Imass, Assail, K'Chain Che'Malle or Tiste races.

Interactions with the Malazan Empire

To date the Eres' interactions with the Malazan Empire were limited to the possession or accompaniment of one soldier of the Adjunct's rebel army.

Appearances in the Novels

An Eres named Eres'al, the Nerek goddess, has appeared several times. She inhabited the body of Tavore's 'lover', T'amber. She has assisted Quick Ben in defending against the attack of an Edur Warlock in The Bonehunters and then again assisted Quick Ben in preventing Icarium from reaching the Throne of Shadow in The Bonehunters. Also in The Bonehunters, the Eres'al-possessed T'amber died protecting Tavore from dozens of Claw Hands. In addition, an Eres 'took the seed' of Trull Sengar. And she has an obsession with Bottle, Strings' (Fiddler's) squad mage who has some control over an elder magic called Holds.

Forkrul Assail

The Forkrul Assail are one of the founding races in the Malazan Book of the Fallen. They exist in isolation, interacting with other races through violent arbitration of conflicts, more accurately the annihilation of the involved parties.

Physiology

The Forkrul Assail are humanoid, though taller and thinner than humans, posses more joints in their limbs and hands, a jointed sternum, large, solid black eyes and blue rather than red blood. They are physically far more robust than humans, and appear to be virtually unkillable through conventional means, healing from cuts and blows extremely quickly. They also possess incredible strength, speed and agility, and are able to successfully combat several powerful opponents at once while sustaining only minor wounds. In addition, they have preternatural longevity and can live for millennia without food or water.

Culture

Forkrul Assail seem to lack a collective culture, existing primarily in isolation. Generally the Assail only gather to pass judgement and arbitration when requested by other races, though this arbitration seems to take the form of killing all involved in the conflict. Their names seem to reflect this obsession with arbitration. Their architecture is formed by tunneling into stone forming underground buildings which mimic the pillars and windows of above-ground buildings. The continent referred to as Assail is said to be the most dangerous place on the planet.

Interactions with the Malazan Empire

To date the Forkrul Assail has not had any interactions with the Malazan Empire.

Appearances in the Novels

The Forkrul Assail make two major appearances, one in the novel House of Chains and again in Midnight Tides. In the first appearance, the Assail Calm is released by Karsa Orlong and his companions after thousands of years beneath an invested block. Subsequently, Calm attacks Orlong and inflicts a brain injury on one of his companions, reducing him to an animal-like state. The second appearance finds an Assail, Serenity, released from enchanted bindings. He is attacked by a Tiste Edur raiding party, killing Rhulad Sengar before being driven off. There are no further direct appearances by the Forkrul Assail in the novels, but they are mentioned tangentially in other passages.

Jaghut

The Jaghut are one of the founding intelligent races of the Malazan planet. They are solitary, powerful beings who once dominated much of the world after the eradication of the K'Chain Che'Malle.

Anatomy

The Jaghut are taller and broader than humans, with tusked lower jaws. Their skin is grey-green and hair is generally grey. The Jaghut are extremely long-lived (essentially immortal in the sense that they will not die except through violence or accident), and capable of inter-breeding with humans and Theloman Toblakai. Whether the offspring are viable is unknown. They are adapted to living in a cold climate, and generally prefer an Arctic environment. The Jaghut primarily use the Omtose Phellack Warren, an Elder racial Warren that allows them control over great areas and is generally tuned towards magics of ice, cold, stasis and preservation. The Warren can also produce effects of 'stagnation', isolating whole continents from the rest of the world. In one case, this prevented the magic of the Letherii continent from evolving for over 300,000 years.

Culture

The Jaghut do not gather in locations or create communities. Instead, they prefer solitary towers as dwellings, usually living with only their closest family. Despite this tendency towards isolation, their parental instincts are very strong, which has resulted in a scaling up of conflicts with the T'lan Imass - if a parent is attacked, their children and spouse will come to fight with them, and vice versa. This can result in considerable devastation due to the scales of sorceries involved.

The exception to the rules of isolation are the rare Jaghut known as Tyrants, for whom conquest and rule is an unslakable thirst. These individuals will use their powerful magical capabilities to enslave and dominate other races. This most notably occurred with the T'lan Imass, and as a result of the Tyrant Raest's actions in this regard the Imass underwent the ritual of Tellan and became undead. For the battle between the Imass and the Jaghut there is never any quarter given - if any trace of the Jaghut is found by the Imass, a pogrom is raised in which several clans converge on the site until their army is wiped out or all of the Jaghut are slain.

Interactions with the Malazan Empire

During the main events of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, Jaghut are almost unknown except as legends. The rare individuals who have survived the pogroms of the T'lan Imass exist in solitude and hiding, using Warrens other than Omtose Phellack or restricting their activities to other realms where the T'lan can not find them.

The sole interaction with the Malazan Empire to date has been the awakening of a bound Tyrant by the Imperial Adjunct and the First Sword of the T'lan Imass, Onos T'oolan. The pair roused the Tyrant in an effort to produce mutually assured destruction between Raest and the lord of the Tiste Andii, Anomander Rake.

Appearances in the Novels

The Jaghut have appeared in minor scenes in the other novels, most notably House of Chains and Midnight Tides. From these appearances, it is apparent that the Jaghut are more active than the T'lan Imass would suspect, generally working behind the scenes and in hiding to ensure the continued isolation and binding of dangerous creatures.

Descendants

Jhag

The Jhag are half-blooded Jaghut living in the Jhag Odhan area of the Seven Cities continent.

The half-Jaghut Icarium is a major character in the series and appears in Deadhouse Gates, House of Chains, The Bonehunters and Reaper's Gale. He shares the immortality of his Jaghut father, Gothos, and when roused to anger is an uncontrollable, nearly unstoppable force of death and destruction. In the past, Icarium has laid waste to entire cities, and is a threat to the Azath, normally near-indestructible entities that detain powerful beings. Because of this, he is always bound to a companion who works in secret to prevent Icarium from being roused to anger. During Deadhouse Gates, House of Chains and the beginning of The Bonehunters, his companion was the Trell Mappo Runt, though Mappo was attacked and replaced as a companion by the Gral warrior Taralack Veed. The source of Icarium's rage is an attempt by Icarium to force an Azath house to release his father, Gothos, though Gothos is actually quite content in his situation since he, like most Jaghut, enjoys solitude as is provided by the Azath. It is revealed in Reaper's Gale that Icarium's mother was a Thelomen Toblakai.

K'Chain Che'Malle

The K'Chain Che'Malle were one of the founding intelligent races in the Malazan Book of the Fallen, the only race which is non-humanoid.

Anatomy

The K'Chain Che'Malle are intelligent lizards standing taller than a man, moving bipedally by balancing the weight of their torsos with a tapering tail (much like velociraptors and other bipedal lizards) and skins pale like the underbelly of a snake. The K'Chain Che'Malle exist as two breeds, the largest visible difference being the length of tail; the short-tailed breed are also much more independent and not devoted to the Queen Matron. To date the only time they have spoken with other races was with Silchas Ruin in a parley attempt, though it is unclear if the parley actually happened or if Ruin simply sought it.

Culture

The K'Chain Che'Malle were the first race on the Malazan world to evolve intelligence, and developed a culture of technological and magical sophistication hundreds of thousands of years before the evolution of hominids. Most knowledge of the K'Chain Che'Malle is retrospective, developed through inspection of their cultural ruins thousands of years after their extinction - as such it is difficult to state anything definitive about them. It is known that they are eusocially ruled in the manner of ants, with a single female queen (the Matron) and thousands of male drones and soldiers. Most of the K'Chain Che'Malle appearing in the novels have been undead or seen in visions of the past, with the exception of a single Matron on Genabackis and a male and female on the Letherii continent.

The K'Chain Che'Malle appeared to lack a racial Warren to draw upon, instead employing gravity-based magic that mixed heavily with their technology. They inhabited gigantic structures known as Skykeeps, buildings so large they appeared to be floating mountains. Currently the only Skykeep known to exist in the Malazan world proper is the one used by the Tiste Andii, Moon's Spawn, though others have been seen in the Imperial Warren. Most were destroyed during the civil war that exterminated their race.

The K'Chain Che'Malle race was destroyed in a battle between long- and short-tailed lineages. The short-tails were a novel breeding experiment that broke from the control of the long-tailed Matrons, resulting in a massive war between the two lines. In addition to pressures from other races, such as a massive Tiste invasion, their race was evidently destroyed, though at least one Matron survived until the events of the Malazan Book of the Fallen.

Interactions with the Malazan Empire

The only interaction between the Malazan Empire and the K'Chain Che'Malle occurred at Coral, in a battle between the T'lan Imass, Malazan forces and the Barghast versus the undead K'Chain Che'Malle and the forces of the Pannion Domin.

Appearances in the Novels

The K'Chain Che'Malle have appeared in four novels in the series so far, Memories of Ice, Midnight Tides, The Bonehunters, and Reaper's Gale.

Thelomen Toblakai

The Thelomen Toblakai are an intelligent, humanoid race found in the Malazan Book of the Fallen.

Physiology

The Thelomen Toblakai are humanoid, though taller and generally more physically robust than humans, with broad, flat faces. Pure-blood Toblakai stand at over seven feet tall, and disproportionately muscled enough to seem wide. They are capable of interbreeding with humans to produce viable half-breeds, but seem to have a different evolutionary descent, as marked by having four lungs rather than two. On the continent of Genabackis (where Karsa Orlong, the most prominent Toblakai comes from) the tribes of the Teblor appear to have several advantages which are wholly contained to their tribe. The Teblor heal much more quickly than humans, to the point where bruises can be seen to visibly fade, and they are no longer vulnerable to infectious diseases. They also possess a limited immunity to magic - lower level magic do not seem to effect them and even High magic may fail or not have its intended effect. This may be a natural protection as a result of physiology, or possibly due to their consumption of blood-oil, a compound which may contain the magic-deadening otataral. This consumption of blood-oil may also be the cause of their rapid healing, but this is not explained as of Reaper's Gale.

It is known that certain Thelomen Toblakai can become their own Warrens; the exact abilities and circumstances that surround this are unknown. Karsa Orlong appears to be one such, channeling his Warren into the ability to ignore the structures and effects of spells, even Elder such as the T'lan Imass' Tellann. However, Karsa Orlong and his tribe's immunity to magic may also come from the use of blood-oil.

Culture

Thelomen Toblakai or their descendants are scattered across the Malazan world, and appear to exist on all continents under a variety of names - Teblor, Fenn, Tarthenal and Toblakai. They are a fallen people; once possessing high civilization, cities and books, most now live in tribes and eke out a barbaric existence breeding horses and feuding with nearby tribes. The greatest detail is known about the Teblor on Genabackis, the lineage of Karsa Orlong. At some point long ago the Teblor built cities on the continent, but for unknown reasons their blood became "thin and clouded." Icarium, the half-Jaghut wanderer, gave them rules to purify their blood, separating husbands, wives, parents and children into different tribes and giving them laws to live - the raising of horses, hunting, raiding and fishing. Thousands of years later, the Teblor live in their separate tribes, some of which have vanished, some of which have become enslaved by nearby humans.

On the continent of Lether, the Tarthenal have been conquered and enslaved by the Letherii. Their culture is forgotten and one of the few activities they still remember are the rituals of propitiation for their terrifying gods. The gods of the Tarthenal are not worshiped to draw their attention and blessings, but instead sacrifices are performed to turn their gazes away and keep them from manifesting. When the Tarthenal were conquered, their lasts acts were to die defending their shrines, terrified not of the attackers, but of their gods.

Interactions with the Malazan Empire

The Theloman Toblakai have had various interactions with the Malazan Empire. Karsa Orlong was enslaved by the Malazan Empire and transported to the Seven Cities continent, encountering them again in the aftermath of the battle of Raraku.

Bellurdan Skullcrusher is a Thelomen Toblakai mage in the Malazan army. He appears briefly in Gardens of the Moon, and is mentioned in House of Chains as the High Mage who forged the otataral-quenched long-knife bought by Kalam. The weapon in question proves that Bellurdan uses an Elder Warren, as the knife was invested, an impossible task with human Warrens due to otataral's magic-deadening properties.

Appearances in the Novels

Main article: Karsa Orlong

The tribes of the Teblor and the character Karsa Orlong are the most prominent Thelomen Toblakai in the Malazan series, appearing in Deadhouse Gates, House of Chains and The Bonehunters. Karsa is a phenomenal combatant, incredibly swift, decisive and vicious. He occupies (unwillingly) the position of Knight of Chains in the Fatid.

On the continent of Lether, the fallen Tartheno play a role in the events surrounding the conquest of the Edur. A half-Tarthenal criminal is instrumental in preventing the five Tartheno gods from escaping the Azath house and saving the Avowed Crimson Guardsman Iron Bars.

The Toblakai mage Bellurdan Skullcrusher appears in Gardens of the Moon, battling Anomander Rake, grieving his slain lover Nightchill and finally dying at the hands of the Cadre Mage Tattersail.

In Memories of Ice, it was revealed that the Toblakai travelled with the still-human Imass who eventually evolved into the Barghast people living on Genabackis.

The Tiste

The Tiste races are humanoid, but alien to the world of the Malazans. With their epicanthic eyes, height, and long lifespans, the Tiste are the closest that the Malazan series comes to involving elves. Each of the Tiste races are "children" of one of the three Elder Warrens of Light (Liosan), Darkness (Andii), or Shadow (Edur). Each also has a Soletaken draconean leader birthed directly by the forces that gave rise to each race: Anomander Rake and Silchas Ruin (Andii) from Mother Dark, Osserc (Liosan) from Father Light, and Scabandari Bloodeye (Edur) from Shadow. Each leader is considerably more potent than the rest of their more common kin and were considered the undisputed leaders of their respective races. Rake still leads his people, while Osserc has turned away from that role while Scabandari Bloodeye was forcibly removed from it.

Tiste Andii

The Tiste Andii are a race found in the Malazan Book of the Fallen. They are not one of the four founding races but invaders from another world.

Anatomy

The Tiste Andii are taller than humans, though of similar proportions. Their skin is black (not in the sense of indigenous inhabitants of Africa, Indigenous Australians or Melanesia, but actually black in the true sense of the color), with slanted, epicanthic, almond-shaped eyes that change color with their moods. Hair is silver, white, black, or rarely red, and generally kept long. The Tiste Andii are extremely long-lived (Anomander Rake is at least 300,000 years old), and aging is slow. Barring accidents or violent death, they may live forever. Some Eleint Andii (Dragon mixblood) keep a younger appearance normally between twenties and forties. The Tiste Andii are close kin to the Tiste Edur and Tiste Liosan, though they do not share genetic descent.

Culture

The Tiste Andii are invaders from the Warren of Darkness, and are therefore not native to the Malazan world. Long-lived and slow-breeding, the Tiste Andii as a race tend towards melancholy and apathy. The majority of the Tiste Andii lived in Moon's Spawn for many millennia, an ancient K'Chain Che'Malle Skykeep they have taken over after finding it abandoned in the Arctic of the Malazan world. For years the Andii traveled the world as decided by Anomander Rake, their half-Andii, half draconic Soletaken ruler. In much of this time they acted as mercenaries for causes decided upon by Rake. A detachment, led by Rake's brother Andarist, dedicated themselves to protect the Throne of Shadow on the island of Drift Avalii.

A small portion of the Tiste Andii live in Bluerose, a tiny island city off the coast of the Letherii continent. They are the remnants of the original invading population who were mostly wiped out in a war with the K'Chain Che'Malle, living in hiding for thousands of years and ruling the human population from the caverns under the city itself.

Interactions with the Malazan Empire

The Andii's primary interactions with the Malazan Empire occurred in their role of paid mercenaries opposing the Malazan armies at Pale and Darujhistan, and in cooperation with the exiled Second army against the Pannion domin. After the fall of Coral with the city in sorcerous darkness, the surviving Andii settling in the area exist in a state of political flux - the Malazan empire claimed the area around Black Coral that belonged to the Pannion domin before its fall, while the Andii claim sanctuary and ownership of the permanently shadowed city.

Appearances in the Novels

The Tiste Andii make major appearances in the novels, most notably in Gardens of the Moon and Memories of Ice, though a minor character appears in The Bonehunters. Reaper's Gale features an Andii from Bluerose, an assassin and Mortal Sword of the Black Winged Lord, named Clip.

Tiste Edur

The Tiste Edur are a race found in the Malazan Book of the Fallen. They are not one of the four founding races but are actually invaders from another world.

Anatomy

The Tiste Edur are taller than humans, though of similar proportions. Their skin is a dull grey colour of a hue not found in humans, with slanted, epicanthic, almond-shaped eyes. Hair ranges from dark red to dark brown, and greys with age. The Tiste Edur are close kin to the Tiste Liosan and Tiste Andii, though they do not share genetic descent. The Edur are extremely long-lived, but unlike the Andii and Liosan are not immortal. Female Edur mature more quickly than males.

Culture

The Tiste Edur originally come from the Shattered Warren, Kurald Emurlahn, the Elder Warren of Shadow. The Edur were originally invaders from the Warren, forming a large part of the army that fought the K'Chain Che'Malle along with the Tiste Andii. After the battle the Edur turned on the Andii and wiped them out. The Edur's leader disappeared shortly after and the Edur decayed from an advanced species into a tribal collective isolated to the northern portion of a single continent and several other minor pockets. All comments that follow refer to the majority of the species located on the continent of Lether. Descent is patrilineal, though the females have a strong influence over the family. The Edur are organized into tribes, but these tribes were united prior to the events in Midnight Tides by Hannan Mosag, the Warlock King. Decisions are made with input from the elders of the tribe, though blooded warriors are allowed to observe events. The Edur also have elaborate funeral rites which are explored at great length in Midnight Tides. After the ascent of the Emperor, Rhulad Sengar, the Edur became far more warlike and dominated by the commands of the Emperor.

Interactions with the Malazan Empire

The Tiste Edur has had significant interactions with the Malazan empire. During the events of The Bonehunters the main fleet of the Malazan Empire crossed paths with one of the exploratory fleets of the Tiste Edur. The Edur threatened to destroy the Malazan fleet with sorcery, but the Malazan High Mage Quick Ben bluffed his way past, allowing the fleets to pass without sorcerous or conventional combat.

Another contact with the Malazan Empire proper is during Memories of Ice when the Malazan 2nd army encounters a body of an Edur who has undergone extreme compression.

In Reaper's Gale the Malazan 14th Army - although not acting under the authority of the Empress - invaded the continent of Lether and defeated numerous Tiste Edur armies sent against it until it liberated the capital city, Letheras, from Edur rule.

Appearances in the Novels

The events of Midnight Tides almost exclusively discuss the interactions between the Edur and the human empire of Lether, from contact to invasion and conquest. There is also the aforementioned contact of the two fleets within The Bonehunters. The events of House of Chains also features the character of Trull Sengar, an outcast of the Tiste Edur, who is freed by a T'lan Imass within one of the fragments of the Shattered Warren. Also stitched throughout the series is the ongoing appearance of the Silanda, an Imperial dromon which features disjointed appearances by the Tiste Edur and the aftermath of their encounter with Karsa Orlong.

Tiste Liosan

The Tiste Liosan are a race found in the Malazan Book of the Fallen. They are not one of the four founding races and only have contact with the Malazan world in situations where outsiders have breached the barriers surrounding their Warren of Kurald Thyrllan.

Anatomy

The Tiste Liosan are taller than humans, though of similar proportions. Their skin is pure white, (not in the sense of indigenous inhabitants of Europe and the United Kingdom (caucasians) but actually white in the true sense of the color), with slanted, epicanthic, almond-shaped eyes. Hair is silver or gold and generally kept long. The Tiste Liosan are close kin to the Tiste Edur and Tiste Andii, though they do not share genetic descent. Internal anatomy differs from the human norm; specifically, the heart known to be buried deeper in the torso.

Culture

The Tiste Liosan source from Kurald Thyrllan, the Elder Warren of Light, and are not native to the Malazan world. In contrast to their apathetic kin, the Tiste Andii, the Liosan are high tempered, arrogant and zealous, dedicated priests of their god of light, Osserc. They are the least well-known of the Tiste races, and have the least contact with the Malazan world. Socially, the Liosan appear to be martially organized and hierarchical, led by warrior-priests.

Interactions with the Malazan Empire

The Liosan have had no actual contact with the Malazan empire as of The Bonehunters.

Appearances in the Novels

The Tiste Liosan make the fewest appearances of the Tiste races in the Malazan series. Four Liosan warriors appeared in House of Chains, engaging briefly in combat with Trull Sengar, a Tiste Edur and Onrack, a T'lan Imass. They are then forced to co-operate with Sengar, Onrack and several other Imass in order to escape the shattered Warren they are trapped in. Subsequent to this they escape into the Malazan world, but, after nearly dying at the hands of Malazan sappers, they decide to retreat to their own Warren.

T'lan Imass

The T'lan Imass are a race found in the Malazan Book of the Fallen, a fantasy series written by Canadian author Steven Erikson.

Anatomy

The T'lan Imass are humanoid, though shorter and squatter than humans. Originally living, the entire race underwent the ritual of Tellann hundreds of thousands of years in the past (previous to the founding of the Malazan empire), the single greatest necromantic ritual ever occurring within the world of Malazan. This resulted in the entire race becoming undead, able to dematerialize to dust, transport hundreds of leagues, and re-form their physical bodies. As a result of hundreds of thousands of years of existence, many of the T'lan are desiccated, their skins worn through and many have broken bones and missing body parts. Their eyes are shrivelled in their sockets, and vision has been replaced with the ability to sense the 'flame of life' that surrounds living beings. It allows them direct perception of heat, colour, movement and magic. The physical bodies of the T'lan Imass appear to be based on that of Neanderthals.

Culture

The T'lan Imass no longer have an appreciable culture that changes or evolves, having become fixed at the completion of the ritual of Tellann. Originally they existed as a tribe and clan-based society of stone-age hunter-gatherers, whose technology had advanced to cold-hammering metals and creating elaborate stone tools (including sword-sized flint blades that would shatter without sorcerous investment), but had not reached the level of forging or casting metals. Nearly the entire population of the Imass underwent the ritual of Tellann, though some individuals chose not to participate and were cast out, while others were unable to arrive in time, eventually evolving into the Barghast. An effect of the ritual (beyond undeath and transformation to dust) was to produce a fixedness of purpose, where the entire race is consumed by the same goal of eliminating their enemies. This focus is removed should they sustain a significant amount of damage without being completely destroyed, at which point the individual must submit themselves for destruction or become hunted outcasts by the rest of the race.

The original reason for undergoing the transformation to undeath was to enable the race to combat the Jaghut, a long-lived companion race who at times enslaved the Imass. The three hundred thousand years of their history has been dominated by the pursuit and elimination of all the living Jaghut, tracking and eliminating them throughout the Warrens and on the Malazan world.

Interactions with the Malazan Empire

The T'lan Imass' main connection to the Malazan Empire occurred when Kellanved found and sat on the First Throne, essentially becoming the ruler and commander of certain Imass that were in the range of the magic of the throne. Since then, the Imass have been involved in several military campaigns, most notably on the Seven Cities continent. After Kellanved's death, the Imass have been mostly uninvolved in the actions of the Empire.

Appearances in the Novels

The T'lan Imass appear in all of the novels of Malazan Book of the Fallen to date, in varying degrees. In Midnight Tides, the T'lan Imass are not directly named, but their identity can be inferred by references to a Bonecaster (shaman) and their physical description. In all other novels, their involvement is more explicit. The most significant appearances are in Memories of Ice where the appearance of a mortal Bonecaster (shaman), in connection with Itkovian, the Shield Anvil of Fener, allows the T'lan to be freed from the emotional consequences of the ritual of Tellan, and begin a life ruled by the (their original gods before "the fall") twin wolf gods, Fanderay and Togg. The one known T'lan Imass ascendant, Apsalar, Goddess of Thieves, has been promised to play a major part in the forth coming novel "Toll the Hounds"

Descendants

Barghast

The Barghast descend from seagoing Imass, landing on the continent of Genabackis. They met with and warred against seafaring Tiste Edur during this time. The Barghast have been both allies, and opponents of the Malazan Empire throughout the series. They are divided into clans and lead by a single leader. A bridgeburner, Trotts, fought in a duel to gain rights to kinship and create his own tribe, which consisted of the Bridgeburners.

Moranth

The Moranth are a group of Imass descendants on Genebackis. They made peace with, lived with, and learned from a group of lost seafaring Tiste Edur. This acceptance of the Tiste Edur antagonized the Barghasts, other descendants of Imass, which caused a cultural split.Despite the split between Moranth and Barghast cultures their languages are still comprehensible to each other as admitted by Twist in Memories of Ice. He also claims that Moranth alchemy is based upon lore gained from Tiste Edur.

The Moranth live in the Moranth mountain range on Genabackis, wearing insectile chitinous armor and riding oversized dragonfly-like creatures called quorls for transport and into battle. They are divided into clans: Blue as the navy and fishing; Green as transport and courier; Black as the military force; Gold as the elite military force; and Silver as the mages.

The Moranth are allies of the Malazan Empire, providing them with the alchemical explosive Moranth munitions responsible for major changes in the battle tactics of the empire and the creation of Sappers, explosives experts. The reason for the alliance is unknown, and due to mass Moranth casualties, reinforcements are slowing.

One notable Moranth is Twist who fought with Dujek Onearm's Host and spoke to the Bridgeburner's officers.

Trell

Trell are short and wide with brown skin, and black hair braided with fetishes. Their canines are bigger than Jhag's. The Trellish lands lie west of the Jhag Odhan on the Seven Cities continent and remain nearly untouched by civilization. A Trell named Mappo Runt is the companion of the Jhag Icarium.