[foolio]

Spoiler for bonehunters only







I cant remember the cities name but there is a Malazan fort outsidfe of the city Samar Dev takes Karsa to. He fights a creature in the fort. IS this a KCCM? If so what was it doing there?

[Aptorian]

It was a KCCM, a short tail if I'm not mistaken.

What it was doing there is anyones guess. It must have been trapped under the fort for a very long time.

[D'rek]

before Karsa actually encounters it, he climbs down into what appears to be what the Malazans had been using as a latrine. As he's climbing down the hole he notices it passes through a capstone and then at the bottom he sees that it is like a tomb, only with no sacrilegious style to it, ie the dead bodies would be put in little alcoves in the walls, but no altars, no raised dais' for the bodies, etc etc. Then he notes the spikes and chains on the floor, and that if he were to lie down with his arms at two of the spikes, the other spikes would be optimal for chaining a creature about one-and-a-half times his height.

So, the Short-Tail was most probably imprisoned by physical and magical means underneath the fortress, and the Malazans, in their curiosity may have been part or entirely responsible for releasing it.

*******If you haven't finished the book yet, don't read the rest of this!!!*******

Spoiler

This is the part where I speculate wildly to try and piece stuff together:
Anyways, the other Short-tail related incident is with Ganath. Now, as she herself says, the order of events relating to her and her Omtose ritual is a bit hazy, but based on that she only notes the spilling of Draconean blood as a factor once she gets to her broken ritual, and also based on a few other things, I would think that her ritual was already holding that skykeep for long before the events of tBH. The killing of Sorrit inside the skykeep is what broke her ritual.

Now, when she iced that skykeep, the would-be colonists inside probably weren't too happy. So it's a logical jump that Ganath might have dealt with them too. Suppose the short-tails buried beneath the fortress were the ones from the keep, and they were restrained with a ritual that was linked to the skykeep-holding ritual (or it was the same one). Thus, when Sorrit was killed, the short-tails beneath the fortress were able to break their chains, and either they or the curious malazans broke the capstone. The short-tails kill everyone, and all but one run off back to their skykeep, where they meet Ganath who has recently shaken off her own imprisonment, and we know what happens next...

APTORIAN EDIT: if you don't want people to see stuff, just put a spoiler around it

[Aptorian]

Interesting theory D'rek.

I'd never considered that the short tails could have come from the same place as the first KCCM. It actually makes sense... sort of.

[Almar mae' Ka'zole]

There was only one short tail in the keep though and Im thinking that it would take WAY more than one to kill Sorrit.

[Aptorian]

Yes, but there was only one KCCM because the others left

[Silencer]

I didn't get the impression there were enough stakes for more than one.

Not to mention that at the same time we are hearing about a whole bunch of sky keeps in the Imperial Warren...where are the short tails more likely to have come from?

[Lisheo]

There were 6 spikes. Arms, legs, and neck, two each, if I recall. So no, not enough spikes for more.

[D'rek]

there six spikes on the small rasied platform that Karsa was standing on at the base of the ladder. But he notes multiple niches in the wall, I figured there were more spikes buried in shit that he didn't feel like walking through to explore...

[Silencer]

Unlikely. The fact that he called them niches indicates that they weren't all that big, so no where near enough to hold a K'chain.
It's a nice theory, but it's a big stretch imo. And as I said, the couple of hundred sky keeps in the Imperial Warren are a more likely point of origin for the others...

[Aptorian]

Couple of hundred? You mean a dozen or so right?

[Silencer]

Meh, the number is irrelevant. That's all that they could see - the Imperial Warren isn't know for it's distance views.

And we know that those things are freaking huge, so there could be literally thousands of K'chain in each one!

[Ammanas]

Silencer, on Nov 19 2008, 02:01 PM, said:

Meh, the number is irrelevant. That's all that they could see - the Imperial Warren isn't know for it's distance views.

And we know that those things are freaking huge, so there could be literally thousands of K'chain in each one!

Cot seemed to think so, as he asked Kalam why he was trying to break into a "skykeep full of KCCM." I'll admit he was only "reasonably certain" it was full but who the hell wants to go inside and see?

[Lisheo]

Bear in mind Rake says its a "city" in GotM and MoI. City implies huge lol. And how many Andii were in Moon's Spawn?

[Aptorian]

See, this brings me back to my earlier theory. If those Skykeeps really are filled with KCCM, then the CG and his many machinations, really shouldn't be on the top of anyones list of worries. What civilization on Burn could possibly withstand ten thousand let alone hundreds of thousands or even a million KCCM returning to the world?

It would make an awesome plot for a second malazan series, but it doesn't seem to be in the works.

[Silencer]

We don't know enough about them. The Nah'ruk ever seem to have been on the side of retaliation. If they are Che'Malle, then yes, it could prove problematic. But it seems to me like the short-tails never really...initiated...any conflicts...

[D'rek]

Silencer, on Nov 20 2008, 03:30 AM, said:

We don't know enough about them. The Nah'ruk ever seem to have been on the side of retaliation. If they are Che'Malle, then yes, it could prove problematic. But it seems to me like the short-tails never really...initiated...any conflicts...

Well, the Short-tails' civilization was even earlier than the long-tails, right? At that time there would have been, what, the Eres on 7C, possibly the Deragoth there too. Were the Jaghut around yet? The FA or the Toblakai? We don't know if the Short-tails had any enemies to fight with, other than the long-tails at Morn...

[the peacemaker]

i think i might rember (ye right) that short tails revolted AGINST longtails, they were better at engirering for 1 and i think aslo thay were mentiond as the decendets of KCCM (their name is KCNR btw ponoced kechen naruk more or less)

@d'rek dident se your last post srry for the KCNR info u gave us

This post has been edited by the peacemaker: 08 December 2008 - 09:43 AM

[Aptorian]

The KCCM Naruk were the ancestors of the KCCM. An earlier branch on the familytree. They had been extinct but were ressurected by the Matrons.

The KCCM Naruk were less docile than the Matrons drones and would not be controlled.

[the peacemaker]

wich book? you are probably right but still...