[Aptorian]

I had a discussion about the gods in the Malazan universe recently and a strange thing hit us.

Are the Gods really able to kill each other?

The more I thought about it, the more doubtfull I got. You rarely hear about the gods of the warrens fighting each other, which might be due to the need for stability between the houses. But when we hear about fights between the elder gods and acendants for example you don't hear them get killed.

Silchas Ruin was stabbed and thrown into an Azath instead of dying. Scabandari Bloodeye gets his skull crushed yet, they found a need to bind his eleint body with elder magic and his soul is caught somewhere to suffer.
Mael picks a fistfight with the CG, yet nothing seems to have come out of it. Kallor needs all kinds of gods to stop him and then all they do is curse him. I'm sure there are some more examples in the books.

It's not like the gods can't die. The whildwind goddess is killed by T'lann Imass and Poliel is ripped a part by the Deragoth. But it seems that only mortals and other nonascendents can kill the gods. Perhaps some part of that whole "gods shouldn't mess with the mortals" saying.

Can you guys think of any passage where you can actually say that one god slayed another god outright? :Erm:

[Tiger_sword]

i think it would attract unwanted attention if they did kill another god. After all that fear [of other gods] is all that stops them from rampaging through the warrens or burning up the world.

[Asandir]

I think its more along the lines that if one god killed another, well the rest of them might join in and start killing off competition thus leading to widespread anarchy a massive weakening of the warrens and chaos finally gaining all control and the whole universe being destroyed.
So they tend to bind each other instead of killing each other. Just a thought.

[Hume]

You pretty much well mention it in your post but dont realise it.

Elder Gods and powerful Tiste Cannot die very easily at all or they almost cannot die.
Non-Elder Gods Can usually die easilly. So far Gods have warred against each other but it seems to almost always be by proxy's. The only exception being I think the Smackdown Kilamandaros Layed on Scaby.

One other off-topic thing.
In the MT Prologue Gothos describes Osseric in the Same list a Elder Gods. Now I found that Kinda Strange. However I figure that because Osserc chose to let the Liosan worship him, but didnt really care either way it seemed he gained the status of "god' Due to worship. However because his power and that of the Powerful Tiste is at that of Elder God level, Would others then percieve him as an Elder God, but just not in their traditional sense?
Say, Ano is just as powerful as Osserc but not worshipped, so not "God" and thus not percieved as an Elder God..

[fan_83]

power draws pwoer.. when a god fight against another , massive amount of power is used, and the victor of such a fight would be weak and allow for another god to come along and kebab him.. there is no point in god fighting god cos the victor will have lost too much energy to be able to take over the loser;s warren and the victor himself is so weaken that he could be attacked by rivals..

remember that there are aspirants to each gods position like treach to fener..
so therefore gods do not go around wacking each otehr due to the fact that its counterproductive

also your examples are flawed .. silchas, scabby and kallor are not gods.. the cg is an eldergod and thus an elemental being which so far no way has been found to destroy or kill

scabby do not have enough power to kill silchas otherwise he would have . the prologue of MT highlights that..
scabby was killed.. his sould was trapped somewhere so he could be tortured to destroying KE
kallor was also not killed to punish him for destroying a continent..

[meeku]

It´s probably as you say, it´s because they don´t want the consequences of gods killing eachother. But there is a quote, or saying, that goes along the lines of "every god dies by the hand of a mortal" or some such. Might mean that all the gods are clever enough not kill eachother, but it could be that they can´t. The examples Apt gave, especially about Kallor, is situations were a killing could be logical... Even though it´s unlikely, it´d pretty cool even only mortals could kil gods, hence the need for QB etc. (or maybe the gathering of assassins in azath)

[Aptorian]

Ah but, with the exception of kallor, the others are Ascendants and also it would seem in family with Mother Dark. Meaning that anomander rake, scabby and so on are powerfull enough to give a God a run for their money.

The term God is a a very dubious term in this universe if you ask me. The T'lan Imass, Tiste and Jaghut all seem able to wield power strong enough to give pause to the Gods... and then kill them.

But of course we have yet to actually witness an Elder Gods full strength comepared to the younger gods or ascendants.

[Hume]

Quote

But of course we have yet to actually witness an Elder Gods full strength comepared to the younger gods or ascendants.

Exactly.

[Aptorian]

Does anyone else think that Tiam or Mother Dark, if they actually were personefied, could pretty much wipe the floor with all the gods and the ascendants combined?

[Dinivan]

Hmm,

Mommy Dark seems to be somewhat melancholic and not interested in doing everything.

Tiam gets slaughtered everytime she appears - they all want their share of Tiam's juice. (at least Osseric and Rake kicked her). So no, she won't pwn them all

[Aptorian]

Well we don't know how Tiam dies and gets ressurrected... maybe she's just depressed.

[Dark Mac]

Rake is the god of the Bluerose, and he kills gods all over the place. Oponn even calls Dragnipur a god-killing sword, or something of the like. And according the several people in MoI, the CG was doing a pretty good job at killing Burn.

[Aptorian]

Dark Mac said:

Rake is the god of the Bluerose, and he kills gods all over the place. Oponn even calls Dragnipur a god-killing sword, or something of the like. And according the several people in MoI, the CG was doing a pretty good job at killing Burn.

What Gods have Rake killed? Yes there's loads of powerfull beings inside Dragnipur but they aren't dead. Just imprisoned.

Also yes the CG is killing Burn, emphasis on the "kill-ing". If Burn wakes she'll wipe out the whole world i believe and thereby clean her self of the poison. The posioning is a slow progress. That's why the other ascendents like caladan brood are looking for another solution than waking Burn.

[Dravon]

No when Rake uses Dragnipur he kills the person/beast/asendant/god/EG, and the sword chains thier souls. But he must slay them first, remember in Gotm he kills the two hounds, then after he leaves Paran touches the hounds wounds and some of their blood is ubsorbed into his hands. Then he found himself inside of Dragnipur because f his conection to the hounds. But they were certainly dead; or else their souls would not have went to the ancient underworld and returned to the HoD.

[Aptorian]

Ooohh... I see. It's been some years now since i read Gardens. I remembered it as they just went *poof* but some of the blood from the wound just hit paran i guess.

[fan_83]

dravon: dragnipur doesn;t need to kill to chain a person or thing inside it.. it jsut needs to wound.. which mean blood on the blade is enough to chain the soul and therefore kill the being..
one of the hound in gotm got a slice across hte chest but its not described as deep or possibly mortal

Apt: rake has killed draconus to get dragnipur, draconus qualify as a god

[GingerBreadMan]

We don't know he killed Draconus, he seems pretty alive to me.

[fan_83]

sigh: the sword kills by dragging the soul from the body .. that signifies death doesn;t it.. once the soul leave hte body, the person is dead by malaz standard..