[Jerwood]

The question is basically in the title.
I have read the book and really enjoyed it but I just feel a bit short changed by the fact that it was built up so much and I guess I was expecting some huge battles between the Imass and whoever was decimating them.
Anyways I need closure on this, so if I have something from the book please enlighten me.
Regards.

[Mentalist]

Jerwood, on 28 August 2014 - 07:05 PM, said:

The question is basically in the title.
I have read the book and really enjoyed it but I just feel a bit short changed by the fact that it was built up so much and I guess I was expecting some huge battles between the Imass and whoever was decimating them.
Anyways I need closure on this, so if I have something from the book please enlighten me.
Regards.

Kerhlum (the ones in the first part of prologue)--unknown for a fact, but either an angry onslaught of Forkrul Assail (the grey dudes), or a Jaghut ritual unleashed by the Matriarch

Ifayle--they arrived much later, and found a large number of humans, tainted by Jaghut blood (icebloods). The realization that sticking to the letter of their Vow will lead to a genocide of essentially innocent humans (many of whom were not even aware of their Jaghut heritage) created a schism amongs the Ifayle, which led to a "civil war" of sorts, with large numbers of Yfayle T'lan Imass were killing each other.

[tiam]

Jerwood, on 28 August 2014 - 07:05 PM, said:

The question is basically in the title.
I have read the book and really enjoyed it but I just feel a bit short changed by the fact that it was built up so much and I guess I was expecting some huge battles between the Imass and whoever was decimating them.
Anyways I need closure on this, so if I have something from the book please enlighten me.
Regards.

Yes I think short changed is quite tame as there were no Tyrants on Assail whose wars were a game to them as is stated in previous books.

However as Mentalist states it was a civil war that decimated the Imass. This is addressed in other threads but the sequence of events we see in the prologue must have happened alot.

Imass arrive on Assail, see the human Jaghut infusion and are immediately torn amongst each other. The one faction simply sees the Jaghut blood that must be purged as stated in their vow while the other faction sees they are human not Jaghut and there is no point killing innocents. The Imass have in the past slaughtered humans in vast numbers as with the HFE when the ritual of Soletaken ran rampant. So they have a mini civil war amongst themselves with the Imass survivors likely being taken care of by the locals, explaining Lanas Tog being impaled by large broadswords made of metal.

As for the sheer volume of casualties among the Imass it must be remembered they are not a military force. They are a tribal society and work in groups of around a dozen. We see this in other instances like in MOI.

So 6000 years before the main arc we see a band arrive, they fight each other and are mopped up by the locals. Even if you have a warband every year, given the relative inaccessibility of Assail, the casualties do mount up.

That seems like the most likely course though as you say its not quite what was set up