[Imperial Historian]

Ok this maybe should be in the MOI forum, but maybe tehres something from Hoc which is relevant that i missed...

anyway, aragan appears at the end of MOI as teh fist, governer, legate direct representative of teh empress blah...

at first i thought this was just some person we'd never heard of before, a figure high in the empire and who would be possibly a character in later books. but on my re-read i realised that he'd appeared twice before in GotM and DhG, and in those two years he had rapidly advanced from a mere staff seargeant to the direct representative of the empress!

Aragan first appears as the scarred staff seargent who recruits sorry, and seems to have a headache caused by her presence, anyway he recruits her and thats that. then this post (i think) is slaughtered by minions of shadow presumably including him.

Then in DhG another person called aragan appears, as a captain in Mocks hold, who is also scarred and is about to embark on new posting.

Then in MOI Aragan appears again, as the representative of teh empress, and is described as a scarred veteran suffering from a headache, so these all sound like the same person, and i got wondering....

How did this man, a veteran staff seargeant in teh back of beyond, who was possibly killed at the begginnning of GotM (i'm not 100% that it was his post that was kille doucld someone check?), appear two years later as a captain (parans promotion from leiutentant to captain took at least 3 years, with his noble connections), and then appers as the empresses personal representative.

Then theres the headache he suffers in sorrys presence and later in the presence of tays, and maybe brood, i have two thoughts on what this headache is, either its a sensitivity to people with power, or its like the spell on cartheron in DhG which messes with the memory and perhaps caused headaches, perhaps someone forcibly removed his knowledge of the past, and the spell causes headaches when he tries to think of something related to his past.

anyway i think this aragan seems to be someone important, somehow he avoided the attack by shadow, which could be because he knew kelvanned of old who spared him and used him, maybe getting him into a position of power in the malazan empire, or he somehow escaped the minions of shadow and somehow got into lassens favour, or perhaps he's someone from back in the history of the empire anway im just speculating now, so does anyone have any idea who he is? why he seems to kind of important?

[Dolorous Menhir]

I suppose the replies to this were lost in this forum move, but it's still the best result brought up by the search engine for "aragan". Can anyone out there shed any light on this guy?

It seemed natural to think he was important from his appearance in MoI, but it BLEW MY MIND to discover he was Sorry's recruiter way back in GoTM too. Though I have no memory of his appearance in DG...so is he some Old Guard type working with a new identity?

What's up with his Baruk-style headaches around "people of power"? That seems significant, as does the scarring. The only info you get from his GoTM pov is that he is a veteran of the fighting around Mott, and he certainly doesn't seem at all important. Is he really the same person each time?

Lowly recruiter to direct agent of the Empress, that's an impressive rise.

[tiam]

I always thought aragan symbolised the rise of an officer throught the ranks. I noticed how his title went up from a staff sergeant in itko kan to a representative of the empress. I just thgought erikson put him there to show someones rise through the ranks and maybe erikson will put him as a mainish charcater(like keneb for example).

[doolally2au]

This came up in a very very old Q&A with Erikson - one I think that was lost in the Great Forum Hack. Lady A was the person who picked up on it and quizzed SE.

IIRC Aragan is a little bit of SE humour. He was trying to put him in every book, but couldn't manage it in HoC. In each book it shows his rather hapless rise in the army hierarchy.

[Morgoth]

lol.. yeah that sounds like something SE could do:D

[tiam]

He could of put aragan as a representative of one arms host that turned up with tayscrenn by warren. But i thought he was in everybook. He wasnt in MT either was he?

[Imperial Historian]

The whole aragan being in every book was dropped after MOI, Erikson couldn't quite manage to get him in anymore.

Though he IS in NoK, which was a little cameo I enjoyed.

[Illuyankas]

You just know that, at the end of the series, it'll be Emperor Aragan on the throne, still with the headache.

[Dolorous Menhir]

Adjunct Aragan...

that still doesn't explain his apparent death in GoTM though. If it wasn't his recruiting outpost that Paran found slaughtered (shortly before his meeting with Topper) then who were those dead people?

[tiam]

That was a fishing village called gerrom. It was basicly the same scale as the village we see in the BH prologue. I doubt it was the same place. If you remebr aragan says that sorry has wet muddy feet and that it hadnt rained were he was for weeks suggesting either shes a very fast walker and chooses to walk across swamps or cotillion chose to transfer her by warren. this seems more likely

[Dragnipur]

Ok, my memory is a little hazy as it's been a while but i'll see if I can help out a bit here.

IIRC that wasn't a recruiting station at all, it was situated at a crossroads and I believe it was just your avergae outpost, nothing special just a bit of paper pushing and an eye on the traffic. Everyone inside did die (well as far as we could know) but judgeing by the description whoever it was in there was gone a long time ago (I distinctly remember some rotting and a good old infestation of crows).

As for the headaches, may be Aragan who said it but I think it was someone else, but I rememebr someone saying that they get headaches when they're around someone of great (magical [magickal]) power, something to the likes of; a survival trait...?

Anyways I'm not overly sure but I hope this helps

[Dolorous Menhir]

But those dead Malazans didn't die at the hands of the Hounds, they were specifically targeted afterwards. The villagers survived to flee.

So if that Malazan outpost wasn't Sorry's recruiting station, who were those people and why were they singled out for slaughter as part of the covering of Sorry's trail?

I thought it was really stongly implied that that was the place Sorry signed up, and where we first met Aragan.

[tiam]

no if you remember it was meant to look like indiscriminate slaughter. paran i think ses some thing along the lines of an entire coast lines worth of villages were wiped out apart from sorry and rellock. so thats why they died from the hounds. cotillion used a warren to get sorry were she was because aragan notices the wet mud on her feet which aragan exclaims is odd as it hadnt rained for weeks round were he was

[Dragnipur]

@Tiam, yeah IIRC it was the actual town of Itko Kan that he was recruiting in.

[tiam]

yes that makes sense thatr the recruiting station was in the actual main city

[Imperial Historian]

Yes, the fact that the hounds slaughtered people along the coast is something I'm aware of, the slaughter I was refering to was the slaughter of the building which paran visited with the pigeons, which I think was the room where they recruited sorry, not on the coast but further away...

[Dolorous Menhir]

the Hounds killed everyone within a certain area. everyone. by physical means.

in the incident Imperial Historian refers to, Paran travelled inland to a town where the inhabitants had FLED. they had not been slaughtered by the Hounds. he found the town's "police station" garrison all dead, killed by sorcery, likely Shadowthrones. it was not part of the indiscriminate slaughter of the Hounds.

Paran remarks to himself "a thorough eliminating of the trail". the trail he was following was Sorry's. if she travelled by warren elsewhere to enlist (and Aragan's thoughts about different soils and rain do suggest that), then why was this particular outpost attacked - in addition to the "diversion" on the coast?

I think she did enlist in that place (Gerrom), and the murder of the soldiers was to cover up her recruitment (Paran is unable to read the records held there). what other explanation is there?

note that the dead officer he finds was a captain, not a staff sergeant as Aragan was. perhaps Aragan was lucky, and moved on before the attempt to cover up. it's quite possible that the soil "a league and a half" in-land is different to the coast's and that the rain was localised to the coast.

also, Aragan complains that "the local Captain" just roared off (to the massacre) and that the Adjunct had just arrived. so he WAS near to the massacre, he was NOT in the capital. I'm pretty sure that Sorry did enlist in Gerrom (which was a small inland trader town, tiam, not Sorry's coastal fishing village).

[tiam]

i know it wasnt sorrys fishing village but i believe it was the village were sorry planned to sell the fish they caaught with her father