[Nandaki]

Quote

As apt so "nicely" put it , they are a secret society, we dont know much about them.
And as far as why no one has stopped them or gone against them has not been revealed to us.
So we all just have to wait and see if Mr Erikson will go more into what they are doing or even just give us more info on them.
Unless they are just a plot device. Hope not

Exactly! Everything about them makes me feel that they are a plot device. As I have been told they don't have a "headquarters" or an embassy in every other town, nor do they pass secret decoder rings to all their members which include (formerly) powerful and ancient entities like Spite. Making them a complete wild card and a powerful one at that which can be conviently used at any "major" point in the books to explain away something or abruptly change the power structure in the series. I just am holding on to the hope that it isn't so.

Plus I like Icarium. And I want him to have a good enough reason to unleash all his fury (go completely mental). The NO are a worthy target to demonstrate this on.

[D'rek]

While plenty of gods and ascendants do seem to know about the NOs, there are very few mortal characters who know anything more about them then that they are a shady organization to be afriad of. Mebra, for example, knew that Taralack Veed had been recruited by the NOs and was being specifically trained/prepared for something big, but had no idea what. And a lot of characters do know about Iccy and that he often has companions, such as Heboric recounting how Iccy destroye a city in north 7C, or Phyrlis and Cynnigig talking about Iccy's old toblakai companion, but none have really shown knowledge that the companions are planned or anything about the NOs.

And consider: Among the NOs seen in the tBH prologue is a Tiste Edur, when the two known enclaves of Tiste Edur are ineffectual and primitive and have little-to-no knowledge of the outside world. Nor do they travel around much. Clearly the NOs are far-reaching!

Also, the Azath the NOs tried to send Iccy into in DhG was Tremorlor, in 7C, near Raraku.

[WhiskeyJackDaniels]

Why doesn't anyone try to wipe out the Nameless Ones? I was under the impression that ST and Cotillion tried to do exactly that either right before or after they ascended.

[Aptorian]

ST tried, but it's not like the Nameless Ones have a secret tree house in every city with a sign saying "no shadow cultists and continent destroying Jhags allowed" hanging on the door.

They're a secret society and not easily located.

[Jurble]

It's mentioned in HoC that the T'lan Imass came to the Teblor area, fought a war with them and the Forkul Assail came to "adjudicate", and Icarium came, but the T'lan Imass didn't kill Icarium simply because they couldn't, so they left. In Jhag Odhan, Karsa comes across dead and imprisoned Jhag, so Imass have no problem going after Jhags.

[Aptorian]

I think you're mixing up the TTT and Teblor and Jaghut and Jhags

Icarium led the TTT into the mountains when their blood had become too thin (or something like that) so that they could recover as a race. Probably they had spent too much time screwing Imass and Edur and that's a part of the reason to why the TTT lost some of their height.

Why the FA and T'lan Imass got involved is not known.

There's a big difference between Jhags and Jaghut. As far as we know, normal Jhags have none of the power of a true Jaghut. The Jaghut we see caught in the wards in HoC and the Jaghut with the trunk are most likely the Jaghut that the T'lan Imass left the Malazan Empire for ten years to fight. That is thousands of T'lan Imass relocated to take out two jaghut and they only got one.

Icarium is not a normal Jhag. That's like comparing your average human being to Kallor.

[pondia subat]

redJAKO, on Nov 1 2008, 06:33 PM, said:

Weird to never see the T'lan Imass intent on destroying / capturing Icarium, despite the immense threat he can potentially wield to an entire continent...half Jaghut as well.

Any speculations?


Cheers.

Hi, this is my first post. While there's been much discussion of Icarium's involvement with the Teblor/T'lan Imass/Forkrul Assail on the Laederon Plateau, I haven't seen any mention of his ancient exploits in Raraku, so I thought I'd offer this quote about the human First Empire city Icarium destroyed thousands of years previously in Raraku, from Deadhouse Gates, mmpb p. 648: "T'lan Imass arrived here, sought to drive the enemy back - an old alliance between this city and the Silent Host. Their shattered bones lie buried in the sand beneath us. In their thousands."

So, the T'lan Imass have had some experience in fighting Icarium. Perhaps their losses were so major that they concluded they couldn't kill/imprison him.

[Aptorian]

I can't really remember the few details we get in HoC but personally I suspect that the T'lan Imass fought the FAs, and may even have been allied with Icarium. Because I'm willing to believe that the Imass had no beef with the TTT who seem to have been mingling with the Imass descendants around that time.

It wouldn't be like Icarium to build staircases out of enemies. But I think the FA's would do that.

[Excellence]

If I remember right . . . the Imass battled the Assail for reasons unknown. A big battle, as you saw their skeletal corpse.

[Kryphon]

Quick question relating to Icarium.. And this may have been addressed somewhere else, but Mappo lived a LONG time while travelling with Ic.Much longer than a standard Trell lifetime. Was his long life gifted as part of his pact to stay with Ic? Or is he just going to live forever now?

[Aptorian]

Power was given to him by... uhm... some Elder Trell or the Nameless Ones... or both. I think it was said that he was 600 or 700 years old.

[Urizen]

Aptorian, on Apr 6 2009, 08:03 PM, said:

Power was given to him by... uhm... some Elder Trell or the Nameless Ones... or both. I think it was said that he was 600 or 700 years old.

Didn't Rake talk about spending time with Icarium and Mappo some 800 hundred years ago in GOTM?

[Kryphon]

I was more wondering how the long life was gifted to him. People like Rake seem to be so powerful that they just refuse to age or die. Mappo isn't anything special outside of his compassion for Ic. And it seems as though every ascendant has spent time with every other one in some form or fashion in the past hundred thousand years. So I would believe tht Rake spent time with them.

[D'rek]

Mappo has a number of strange things, like his warren-backpack and healing elixirs that we don't really see much elsewhere. How exactly his backpack or long-life work is a mystery, but not terribly important.

Oh, and on the Laederon thing, could it be that the T'lan Imass fighting the FA and Icarium guiding the Teblor society were in fact completely different events happening at different times? Is it ever specifically stated Icarium had involvement in the FA/T'lan Imass battle?

[Sinisdar Toste]

calm mentions that icarium and the t`lann imass would both be unhappy about her release, but icarium doubtless remembers nothing of their efforts to trap her