[StormofHeaven]

So throughout the book, Karsa wants to make army of Teblor. What is the actual number of Teblor? We know that 2 clans of the 7 have been destroyed. Karsa mauled another clan/village. What is their actual number? How far down into Genbackis would they get? Moranth munitions would devestate them. What do you guys think?

[ThinkingMalaz]

Not sure if that is correct. there are two tribes mentioned on the rock they find that have since dissapeared, but what with the long lifespan of the teblor that might have happened ages ago. The Sunyd are gone into slavery. The rathid seemed to have been decimated by Karsa... That still leaves 4 other clans (Siballe has no clan of her own) after that it is abou estimating how many teblor live in one village and how many villages each tribe has which we don't know anything about. But let's say there's about 100 teblor to a village if each tribe has 4+ villages that would mean 2.000 teblor... of which half probably would not be fighters (women children and the elders) an army of a 1.000 Toblakai warriors, mounted on jhag horses seems a pretty frightening prospect to me

[StormofHeaven]

So potentially, they might have a thousand. Maybe even 1500. That in reality isn't a big threat. They wouldn't even be able to siege a city. Nor would they cross a ocean. Even Motts irregulars could hold them back. I also remember reading that they don't have a high birth rate. I believe it is mentioned in the book. One 10,000 Malazan army would take them out imo. Are they really a threat?

 ThinkingMalaz, on 28 January 2011 - 07:29 PM, said:

Not sure if that is correct. there are two tribes mentioned on the rock they find that have since dissapeared, but what with the long lifespan of the teblor that might have happened ages ago. The Sunyd are gone into slavery. The rathid seemed to have been decimated by Karsa... That still leaves 4 other clans (Siballe has no clan of her own) after that it is abou estimating how many teblor live in one village and how many villages each tribe has which we don't know anything about. But let's say there's about 100 teblor to a village if each tribe has 4+ villages that would mean 2.000 teblor... of which half probably would not be fighters (women children and the elders) an army of a 1.000 Toblakai warriors, mounted on jhag horses seems a pretty frightening prospect to me

[ThinkingMalaz]

seeing what Karsa can do all on his own I'd say they are a very very big threat. Now Karsa is a bit special of course but Toblakai are very nasty in a fight... Plus having a Horde of 1.000 giants mounted on giant horses would scare the hell out of me, that's for sure.

Then there is the fact that Karsa might not be interested in conquest as much as pure destruction.
Also 1,000 / 1,500 mounted teblor is one thing... Them being led by Karsa Orlong is a lot scarier
As for sieges... one, only big cities with high walls are a problem, plus Karsa is able to do some very nasty damage with his stone sword, why not use it on a city wall?

also keep in mind that the number I produces is based purely on guesswork. we never really hear how many teblor live in one village except for some indication in the rathyd one. Also the number of villages I used was pretty arbitrary.We get some indication on the number of Rathyd villages but nonew for the other tribes which is all up in the air tbh

This post has been edited by ThinkingMalaz: 28 January 2011 - 08:15 PM

[IgnatiusKruppe]

I feel like the first time Karsa made claims about destroying the lowlanders he didn't have any concept of just how many of them there were. Basically just thinking that Silver Lake was the home of the "children" and that destroying it would be destroying humanity.

As his perception of the situation evolves, and there are more allusions to the scattering of the TTTs i get the feeling that he'd like to do something in order to bring them all together again. Something akin to the Ritual of Tellan but maybe just with the Gathering part and not with the Undead Zombys 4 life and whatnots

[Aptorian]

Bet there's thousands of Teblor, maybe tens of thousands. The laerderon plateau (sp?) is pretty big when looking on the map.

You also have to consider that Karsa is looking to unite ALL the Toblakai peoples, so if he goes on a would tour rousing Fenn, Tarthenal, Teblor and various others peoples we haven't met, suddenly you might have a very big threat.

Still, the moranth munitions would destroy them.

This post has been edited by Pennyapt: 02 July 2011 - 05:57 AM

[Kanese S's]

Also, as ThinkingMalaz said, the goal of destruction rather than conquest is important. Since Karsa's goal is not to conquer, simply to destroy, that gives him a bit of an advantage. When conquering, one most take, hold, and consolidate cities, territory, etc. Karsa wouldn't have to do any of that except part of the "take" bit.

[IgnatiusKruppe]

That's the truth for sure, as the main impediment to the Malazan expansion (and plenty of real life & fictional imperialist intentions) was their desire to rebuild society in the Malazan image. For every Greymane being the one man capable of doing the job correctly, you got a Pormqual type who couldn't govern anywhere else so they get shipped of to an s-hole like Aren. What do you do with your most competent commanders? Keep them around an "inner ring" of your empire and bolster the middle or put them out on the periphery and hope the center can hold?

When you're just rising up & crushing people and then traipsing along down the road, you don't have to worry about if Ublala Pung's cousin Steve is capable of holding Darujhistan in the face of intense political & economic pressures

[LordofTheFallen]

Bear in mind that not all Teblor are karsa's size, it was said that the tribe he initially attacks was slightly smaller.

That said, if Karsa got even 2000 warriors on Jhag horses he would be virtually unstoppable. They are all immune to magic, and warriors of that size could decimate any formation in a charge. They could even charge spears, since their method of riding would allow them to deflect the spears before it hits their horse.
but, as mentioned above, moranth munitions would still be a problem, but only a small one. unless burners and melters hit the teblor directly, they could easily avoid the spires of flame or acid. As for sharpers, both the warriors and the horses have tougher skin (and fast healing) which would make them minor annoyances unless they were really close. Smokers would be nearly useless for obvious reasons. But, as usually, cussers would kill many assuming they could deploy them far enough from their own men.

Basically, all us children are screwed.

[Seatiger]

So Karsa just needs to kill all the Moranth people first so he doesnt have to worrie about any more Cussers being made

[RACHEL]

You are forgetting that the children sacrificed to the rock are alive as a secret tribe. It seemed like there were a lot of them since there were about 20 or 30 that watched the three go and they were all siblings of one of the three warriors.