[stevenashhair]

I'm a visual thinker when I read, I like forming a pretty specific picture in my mind of characters and cities. Ive only read GotM so those are the only descriptions I have to go on. First off the jaghuts. Im picturing an almost orc-like appearance, but more human. Other than the large lower tusks, not a lot to go on. The Imass are basically zombie- skeleton like from what I gather. Also Quick Ben and Kalam, Im picturing Kalam as a big Arab looking guy. One description said dark skin. I didnt know if that meant black, or tan. Anyone who can help me out Id appreciate.

[Sinisdar Toste]

stevenashhair, on 20 January 2011 - 02:57 AM, said:

I'm a visual thinker when I read, I like forming a pretty specific picture in my mind of characters and cities. Ive only read GotM so those are the only descriptions I have to go on. First off the jaghuts. Im picturing an almost orc-like appearance, but more human. Other than the large lower tusks, not a lot to go on. The Imass are basically zombie- skeleton like from what I gather. Also Quick Ben and Kalam, Im picturing Kalam as a big Arab looking guy. One description said dark skin. I didnt know if that meant black, or tan. Anyone who can help me out Id appreciate.

the appearance of the jaghut is a subject of no small variety, just head over to the malazan art forum and dig up some old threads.

as for quick and kalam, both are dark, as it says, and i always see them as east african dark, kinda like chocolate, and with the same sort of facial structure that is similar to an arabian look.

[worry]

QB and Kalam are both what we'd consider black, I'm not sure how dark skinned though, but I personally picture Kalam as a more muscular version of ?uestlove. That said, Quon Tali, Seven Cities, and Genebackis all seem to be multiracial continents so it does get pretty tough to guess without a direct description, especially since seemingly neighboring tribes/peoples can look vastly different. T'lan Imass aren't strictly speaking zombie humans, as they are squatter and have brow ridges. A lot of people picture them as zombie Neanderthals, and while I wouldn't necessarily say they're exactly that, it is helpful to remember that they are not simply old undead Homo Sapiens. I'm not sure how you picture Orcs (I wouldn't personally connect them with the LOTR version at least, but I don't really know other iterations); Jaghut are green, tusked, and taller than humans. People fairly often get described as giant or hulking etc., and you should take this as an above average human. But when non-humans get described as giant, it usually should be taken a bit more literally. The GotM example I can think of here is Bellurdan, a Thelomen, and he's not just a tall human. He's not like a Narnia giant or anything, but he's probably 8 feet tall or more and very bulky with muscle in a way that humans just can't match. Same with Caladan Brood whose makeup is more mysterious but has at least some apparent non-human elements. The Barghast, such as Trotts, are also giant non-humans. I'm not sure about the skin colors on any of these, but I think it's lighter greys and browns.

[Aptorian]

Since there is little meat left on the T'lan imass I doubt they look like zombies. I think, depending on how they have been spending the past 300,000 years, they either look like a heavily mummified body in tattters or just downright a skeleton walking with just a little flesh left hanging off the bones.

[Lyonheart]

When i think of Quick Ben , there's always the image of DHALSIM that pops in my mind, you know, from the Street Fighter games

[worry]

I like my zombies fleshless a la Return of the Living Dead.

[rhulad]

I like my Zombies frozen and un-moving which is why I live in Canada

[stevenashhair]

Speaking of zombies, The Walking Dead is a great series on AMC. I was pleasantly surprised. Recommended for anyone who likes apocalypse/ zombie shows. I like my zombies as the easy to kill variety, just like they are on that show.

[Aptorian]

Nice try Walking Dead Executive Producer.

[T-6005]

I've always thought of Quick Ben as having a sort of dark Arabic cast to him, almost Egyptian.

To be honest, I don't pay THAT much attention to depictions of character and skin tone - sometimes the character's own personality will build a body for me. As an example, Tehol Beddict from the later books always came to mind looking like a young James Spader (but with the speech and inflection he had in Boston Legal).

[Adhara]

I think Kalam and Ben are black people, but there is not a lot of description, so you can imagine them as tan skinned, too. This leads me to think about Malazan characters: are they white? In fantasy settings, when there is not a specific mention we ever think that the character is white, and perhaps this is not the best way to think. But, well, I remeber a Malazan description: Tavore´s, who is red-haired, so yes, at least Malazans must be whites, after all.

[Sinisdar Toste]

well malazans are always remarked upon by the people they meet for their diversity, so i don't think you can put them all in that racial category. after all, there are white skinned quon and untans, honey skinned talians and plains darkened seti and wickans as well as savannah and jungle black dal honese

[ansible]

And, of course, the blue-skinned Napans.

[Hetan]

And the Falari - white skinned and red-haired. The Empire covers a wide range of races with diverse skin colours.

[MTS]

Greymane's apparently almost purple - unless a 'dark-berry hue' is not what I'm picturing in my head.

[Adhara]

That you say is true: there is a huge diversity into Malazan people, but readers don´t see that immediately in the book; when you are reading Gardens you don´t know how the characters look until you are at the middle of the story (O.K.; Rake is an exception). I´m not saying that it is a flaw; in fact, I think it´s a good device.
And I like that diversity, but sometimes I find it hard to imagine characters like blue skinned Laseen. (Midnight-black Anomader Rake is hard to picture, too, but I forgive it all because it is Anomander!)

[Dreamtheater09]

I personally think that Rake is the easiest to picture. There seems to be the most description of him and his character seems to fit perfectly how he's supposed to look like (if that makes any sense). I mostly have a hard time picturing the human characters as anything but black or white, or some variation of the two, because I don't see blue people walking around. I wonder if humans in Erickson's world ever had trouble with racism? It certainly doesn't seem like it, especially the Malazan Empire, which is very admirable. The other thing I've noticed throughout the books that I've read (started Midnight Tides last night) is that there seems to be almost as many woman in Malazen military as males, and they are just as capable fighters, too. Very interesting, and it makes me wonder...what would our world be like if we could take the Malazan example of race and gender and culture?
Anyway, I usually picture a character's physical attributes as I think he or she would look like because of their personality. I'm a writer and I don't spend much time on physical appearance because I spend so much time on developing them as a person. I think most readers take hints like 'red hair' or 'tall and slim' and fill in the blank in their own mind as they read. Facial expressions and stand out appearances like scars or tattoos are great ways to solidify a character in someone's mind because it's easier to latch on to. For instance, if I gave a character a nervous tick, most people wouldn't think of a guy with a broad, muscular build. I think Erikson does a good job of helping the reader along with standout looks and important facial features, but leaves much up to the reader to fill in the blanks.

[James Hutton]

Sinisdar Toste, on 20 January 2011 - 04:38 AM, said:

stevenashhair, on 20 January 2011 - 02:57 AM, said:

I'm a visual thinker when I read, I like forming a pretty specific picture in my mind of characters and cities. Ive only read GotM so those are the only descriptions I have to go on. First off the jaghuts. Im picturing an almost orc-like appearance, but more human. Other than the large lower tusks, not a lot to go on. The Imass are basically zombie- skeleton like from what I gather. Also Quick Ben and Kalam, Im picturing Kalam as a big Arab looking guy. One description said dark skin. I didnt know if that meant black, or tan. Anyone who can help me out Id appreciate.

the appearance of the jaghut is a subject of no small variety, just head over to the malazan art forum and dig up some old threads.

The thread about the Jaghut Hunter art contest is http://forum.malazan...pic=17242&st=40 if you don't mind nipples

Almost at the end of the thread, Steven Ericson himself judged the different submissions and I quote: "First, Steve wants it to be clear that he has judged based on 'closeness of vision' rather than artistic merit, ie., closeness in terms of how he views the character and species. On this basis, Spindrift's submission is the closest in terms of physique and Corporal Nobbs conveys the sense of menace best, so we have joint winners! He also noted that the skin colour of both of the winning entries could be darker if either of our winners care to refine their efforts further." It's on the 6th page somewhere

Hope this helps

[Marcule]

Just thought I'd throw this in there... I always pictured Jaghut as looking very similar to the trolls in World of Warcraft, only taller, close to the size of characters in the Avatar movie, and I picture Mappo pretty much looking like the characters in Avatar and being the same size.

Heh, I can't remember if Icarium and Mappo are even in GotM. Icarium is mentioned I think, but not sure if they are introduced in GotM or DG.

This post has been edited by Marcule: 01 February 2011 - 11:54 PM

[Senga]

I picture Kalam as Michael Clarke Duncan.

I have less clear mental pictures of the other characters.