[Soletaken1]

So I LOVED this book. Definitely better than HoC, and maybe even DG and GOTM. I thought Bugg and Tehol were two of the funniest and best characters in the series, and I am pleased that I guessed that Bugg was Mael pretty quickly (and the fact that Tehol was healed made me so happy). Now for the questions

1) Is Bugg restricted in his power like K'rul seems to be in GOTM/MOI?
2) Should we know much about the Nameless ones? They seem to be behind the whole Kettle thing, but I can't recall anything about them!
3) What happened to the Forkrul Assail? Ruin seems to suggest that only the Eleints were a match for their power, and yet we have only met two (who were both imprisoned) in the series. They seem to be too powerful to be taken out, so does that mean they were they all wiped out by dragons?
4) Were the 5 Toblakai gods and the pack d'ivers weakened by being in the Azath? Seems strange that these Gods were not able to defeat Iron Bars and Corlo. (although the former did get their butts handed to them by Ruin)
5) Rake vs Osric- It seems that these two seem to fight each other quite regularly, with the particular fight referred to in MT suggesting that Rake could have defeated Osric. Do these two fight each other sparingly, with one or the other winning but never killing each other as that would spoil their fun? Also, given that Osric is worshipped by the Liosian- is he a God?
6) If you are the offspring of a Soletaken Eleint, would you be a soletaken eleint yourself (e.g. would Envy being the product of Draconus and Shaltatha be eleint)?
7) What was the demon sea god seeking when it was trapped by the Ceda?

Some slightly non MT questions:
1) Can Sorcerers use magic to aid them in sword fighting to make them faster, stronger etc? So for example is Rake a bad ass swordsman purely based on skill alone, or does his magic give him awesome?
2) I did a bit of rereading of GOTM when the Crimson guard came up, and I was wondering: how the hell did Tayschrenn manage to get hold and subjugate the Lord of the Galayn- an incredibly powerful soletaken eleint? Is he bound to the imperial warren, like the azalan and other wraiths bound to the shadow realm?

On to Night of Knives- does this book feature the Crimson Guard?

[worry]

1) K'rul is particularly weak having been in Chaos a long time and being largely forgotten/bereft of worshipers. Mael still has plenty of worshipers, which offers power but also a different set of limitations.
2) The Nameless Ones are also connected to the Azath, Gothos, and choosing Icarium's companions.
3) RAFO. No stone is left unturned! (Pun intended).
4) Yes, definitely, but also unprepared and unfamiliar w/ powerful humans.
5) Yes they tend to fight like rivals but not as enemies. He's also an ascendant with worshipers, so...is that enough to be a god?
6) Possibly/probably? She seems to like walking though.
7) At that point it was being controlled by Hanan Mossag right? Probably seeking to do harm to Lether's power base.

1) Probably. Also Rake had magic swords.
2) Lord of Galayn is from Aral Gamelon I think, not shadow or Imperial. I suppose he conjured him the same way sorcerers conjure demons in all of fantasy. Point being is that in the Malazan series, SE doesn't pretend that demons just float around in the ether waiting to be conjured. They have lives of their own.

[D'rek]

Soletaken1, on 12 March 2016 - 11:14 PM, said:

On to Night of Knives- does this book feature the Crimson Guard?

No.

But Return of the Crimson Guard, which comes after Night of Knives, does, heavily. At this point, a good reading order for the next handful of books would be:

Midnight Tides >> Night of Knives >> Bonehunters >> Reaper's Gale >> Return of the Crimson Guard >> Toll the Hounds

[Kalam&Quick]

Soletaken1, on 12 March 2016 - 11:14 PM, said:

So I LOVED this book. Definitely better than HoC, and maybe even DG and GOTM. I thought Bugg and Tehol were two of the funniest and best characters in the series, and I am pleased that I guessed that Bugg was Mael pretty quickly (and the fact that Tehol was healed made me so happy). Now for the questions

1) Is Bugg restricted in his power like K'rul seems to be in GOTM/MOI?
2) Should we know much about the Nameless ones? They seem to be behind the whole Kettle thing, but I can't recall anything about them!
3) What happened to the Forkrul Assail? Ruin seems to suggest that only the Eleints were a match for their power, and yet we have only met two (who were both imprisoned) in the series. They seem to be too powerful to be taken out, so does that mean they were they all wiped out by dragons?
4) Were the 5 Toblakai gods and the pack d'ivers weakened by being in the Azath? Seems strange that these Gods were not able to defeat Iron Bars and Corlo. (although the former did get their butts handed to them by Ruin)
5) Rake vs Osric- It seems that these two seem to fight each other quite regularly, with the particular fight referred to in MT suggesting that Rake could have defeated Osric. Do these two fight each other sparingly, with one or the other winning but never killing each other as that would spoil their fun? Also, given that Osric is worshipped by the Liosian- is he a God?
6) If you are the offspring of a Soletaken Eleint, would you be a soletaken eleint yourself (e.g. would Envy being the product of Draconus and Shaltatha be eleint)?
7) What was the demon sea god seeking when it was trapped by the Ceda?

Some slightly non MT questions:
1) Can Sorcerers use magic to aid them in sword fighting to make them faster, stronger etc? So for example is Rake a bad ass swordsman purely based on skill alone, or does his magic give him awesome?
2) I did a bit of rereading of GOTM when the Crimson guard came up, and I was wondering: how the hell did Tayschrenn manage to get hold and subjugate the Lord of the Galayn- an incredibly powerful soletaken eleint? Is he bound to the imperial warren, like the azalan and other wraiths bound to the shadow realm?

On to Night of Knives- does this book feature the Crimson Guard?

if you loved midnight tides. just wait. so much more awesomeness packed in the nest couple of books.

but some answers. WARNING. slight minor spoilers. but for the most part i don't go into any detail to ruin anything.
1. Yes and no. Mael still has followers so he is still powerful. but as it will explain, tiny minor spoiler, when you use the power of your followers, you are then tied to them. basically like, you can use there worship for power, but then they can sort of guide you. or you can ignore them and do your own thing, but then you don't get the full Boost of their power from the worship. K'rul has virtually no worshipers compared to somebody like hood, who is literally mentioned, every other page.

2. nah. don't worry. you never really find out a whole lot about them really.
3. Will not go into details. this answer is basically one giant spoiler. trust me, you'll find out.
4. yes and no. same with the whole no followers thing, also, iron bars is a beast. just yes, straight OP.
5. they have a very long history together. and part 2. yes and no.
6. not really. you still gotta drink blood. TBH even now, with forge of darkness, hasnt given us a clear answer. so maybe. idk.
7. i don't even remember, i think he was just released to destroy stuff in the city.

[nacht]

Quote

2) I did a bit of rereading of GOTM when the Crimson guard came up, and I was wondering: how the hell did Tayschrenn manage to get hold and subjugate the Lord of the Galayn- an incredibly powerful soletaken eleint? Is he bound to the imperial warren, like the azalan and other wraiths bound to the shadow realm?

From what I remember that Galayn lord was not a sole taken elient. He was just a powerful demon.

This post has been edited by nacht: 14 March 2016 - 04:01 AM

[Andorion]

nacht, on 14 March 2016 - 04:00 AM, said:

Quote

2) I did a bit of rereading of GOTM when the Crimson guard came up, and I was wondering: how the hell did Tayschrenn manage to get hold and subjugate the Lord of the Galayn- an incredibly powerful soletaken eleint? Is he bound to the imperial warren, like the azalan and other wraiths bound to the shadow realm?

From what I remember that Galayn lord was not a sole taken elient. He was just a powerful demon.

No, he was definitely a Soletaken. He turned into a dragon, only to have Rake in Soletaken form bodyslam him from above.

Tays is powerful. Really really powerful. Its very rarely shown, but implied in the way others regard him.

One instance of his explicit power is MoI when he singlehandedly blasted all the Mages off the walls of Coral

[Felisin Fatter]

Not to dispute that Tayschren hides immense power (he does), but the killing of those mages was claimed by the Mott Irregulars, who were somehow inside the walls before anyone else. I believe them.

[Kanese S's]

Soletaken1, on 12 March 2016 - 11:14 PM, said:

So I LOVED this book. Definitely better than HoC, and maybe even DG and GOTM. I thought Bugg and Tehol were two of the funniest and best characters in the series, and I am pleased that I guessed that Bugg was Mael pretty quickly (and the fact that Tehol was healed made me so happy). Now for the questions

1) Is Bugg restricted in his power like K'rul seems to be in GOTM/MOI?
2) Should we know much about the Nameless ones? They seem to be behind the whole Kettle thing, but I can't recall anything about them!
3) What happened to the Forkrul Assail? Ruin seems to suggest that only the Eleints were a match for their power, and yet we have only met two (who were both imprisoned) in the series. They seem to be too powerful to be taken out, so does that mean they were they all wiped out by dragons?
4) Were the 5 Toblakai gods and the pack d'ivers weakened by being in the Azath? Seems strange that these Gods were not able to defeat Iron Bars and Corlo. (although the former did get their butts handed to them by Ruin)
5) Rake vs Osric- It seems that these two seem to fight each other quite regularly, with the particular fight referred to in MT suggesting that Rake could have defeated Osric. Do these two fight each other sparingly, with one or the other winning but never killing each other as that would spoil their fun? Also, given that Osric is worshipped by the Liosian- is he a God?
6) If you are the offspring of a Soletaken Eleint, would you be a soletaken eleint yourself (e.g. would Envy being the product of Draconus and Shaltatha be eleint)?
7) What was the demon sea god seeking when it was trapped by the Ceda?

Some slightly non MT questions:
1) Can Sorcerers use magic to aid them in sword fighting to make them faster, stronger etc? So for example is Rake a bad ass swordsman purely based on skill alone, or does his magic give him awesome?
2) I did a bit of rereading of GOTM when the Crimson guard came up, and I was wondering: how the hell did Tayschrenn manage to get hold and subjugate the Lord of the Galayn- an incredibly powerful soletaken eleint? Is he bound to the imperial warren, like the azalan and other wraiths bound to the shadow realm?

On to Night of Knives- does this book feature the Crimson Guard?

1. Not the same restrictions, as Worry mentioned. More people still know about and worship Mael than worship K'rul. However this places a different set of limitations on him.
2. You'll find out a bit more about them.
3. You'll see.
4. How do you feel after sleeping in a weird position after an all night bender on monday morning? Also, ancient terrors have a habit of underestimating the resistance they'll meet in the modern age. Also the Avowed are pretty beastly.
5. They often find themselves in heated disagreements but they don't want to actually kill each other. And it depends how you define "god" in this universe.
6. RAFO.
7. To fuck up the Letherii.



1. I would think so. Also Rake has usually used weapons that are magical themselves.
2. The Galayn guy was an important guy in Aral Gamelan I think. In Malazan, demons come from other warrens (example - Aptorians are demons in Wu, but native to the shadow warren). Also Tayschrenn is very powerful.

[D'rek]

Felisin Fatter, on 14 March 2016 - 08:28 AM, said:

Not to dispute that Tayschren hides immense power (he does), but the killing of those mages was claimed by the Mott Irregulars, who were somehow inside the walls before anyone else. I believe them.

IIRC, Tayschrenn wiped out half of them, then the Mott Irregulars took down the other half.