Imperial Historian;193677 said:
Oh and the awl aren't barghast are they? they are never referenced as giants...
Barghast aren't referenced as giants, either, just typically slightly larger than normal humans.
And I say the Awl are Barghast based on their traditions - death-nights and shouldermen, most importantly. I suspect their bloodlines are more diluted than most, but it would explain why we haven't seen Barghast on Letheras yet, just brief mention from the Ceda. Supposedly, they exist everywhere else, yet have roughly the same customs no matter how separate the populations - this would be due to their common Imass ancestry.
(Note that the Awl live in an area with heavy Imass detritus - the magic-dead grounds left behind by the Ritual, the various weapons and artifacts that can be detected under the earth. I suspect their hatred of the vile "antlered people" with their evil un-binding of their souls from their bodies - as told in that lengthy story from Redmask - come from their ancestors having been Imass who rejected the Ritual, rather than simply not having shown up in time).
Again, I think there are plenty more Barghast in the world, and they've converged, along with the Genebarii Barghast, due to a prophecy, something they had in common with the Perish. Both peoples, Perish and Barghast, would have received warning at about the same time - roughly two years before the events in Bonehunters. After all, both Perish and Barghast have close ties to the wolf gods, and to the Beast Hold (the Perish by virtue of their vows which preceded the reactivation of the Beast Hold, the Barghast by being descendants of the Imass, who were closely tied to the Beast Hold).
Which would also explain why the White Faces were the only Barghast we saw in MoI - the rest were elsewhere. It also explains why Cafal knew that the White Faces would not have the land as their home much longer - there was a need for them to be elsewhere, as soon as they wrapped up business with freeing their gods (and it further explains, retroactively, why the Barghast needed those gods to begin with - all the help they can get).
And for those who doubt the veracity of prophecy, keep in mind that we saw Feather Witch foretell the coming of Togg and Fanderay to the Beast Throne nearly a year before it happened, and Nimander knew that Clip was on his way due to a prophecy, as well. So divination is possible in the Malazan world, and not just as self-fulfilling prophecies like the Apocalypse, but actual predictions of the future.