[caladanbrood]

1) Pretty much.
2) Just a tarot deck. Obviously, within the deck, some cards represent more powerful characters than others, but there's no intrinsic hierarchy within the deck, really.
3) The Jaghut enslaved the Imass, when they were mortal. So the Imass became the T'lan Imass and made it their mission to eradicate the Jaghut.
4) Urr... hard to remember what might be a spoiler for books 5 or 6, but basically, the Crimson Guard are sworn to Prince K'azz D'avore, formerly of Unta. They don't like the Malazans, and have some pretty awesome fighters, mages and tacticians among them.

[Trotts]

I think Prince K'azz D]avore was allied with Caladan Brood, and thats why they oppose the Malazans, though there could be other reasons. The Crimson Guard are the realm of Esslemont, a friend of Eriksons who also writes in the MBoTF world.

[caladanbrood]

Trotts;180040 said:

I think Prince K'azz D]avore was allied with Caladan Brood, and thats why they oppose the Malazans, though there could be other reasons.

There are. But not that we can discuss in the HoC forum - you learn a lot more about them in Midnight Tides:)

[Dolorous Menhir]

Keyoke;179962 said:

1) Warrens? Basically there other worlds? Dimension that mages use for magic..right?

Some warrens act like power sources. Some are places to go. Some are both, and some even have indigenous life (such as the Tiste Andii in Kurald Galain).

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2)Deck of Dragons. Lil confused on this. Is it like, a hierarchy of the gods/avatars??

It just seems to be a collection of all the different positions in the High Houses, and all the Unaligned posts too. The only structure seems to be that some are organised into Houses, like Death. As Brood says, it acts like a Tarot deck, you throw out cards and it means something. I am curious to know if all the decks in the world are updated automatically whenever a new card is created. Or maybe there is a cottage industry of card-producing Seers who follow the changing heavens and sell the new versions.

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3)Jaghut and the T'lan.. what was the beef again? And, why did the T'lan go the undead route..

The Imass didn't like being enslaved by Jaghut Tyrants like Raest. In fact, it annoyed them so much they dedicated their entire race to eradicating the Jaghut, even though only a very few were Tyrants. And when it turned out they were losing the race war, they cheated by committing racial suicide and becoming undead killing machines. As of the present, it seems to have worked as far as the Jaghut genocide goes, but it does have some downsides for the Imass.

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4)Crimson Guard? Cant remember them well, though, they seem like a threat..

The others have covered this, but just to jog your memory - the Crimson Guard did play a vital part in the fighting in Darujhistan in GotM. It was a CGrd mage, Cowl, who spent the book humiliating Serrat the Tiste Andii warrior-mage. And a CGrd officer called Blues was the one who essentially defeated Adjunct Lorn - though she was finished off by Meese & Irilta.

The organisation was created when the expanding Malazan Empire dethroned Prince Kazz, and so they've been fighting the Malazans ever since in order to regain their kingdom. A lot of their ranks seemed to be drawn from mercenary stock, but there is an elite called the Avowed who are something special. Blues was an Avowed, and you may remember how he totally whipped Adjunct Lorn.

[SiriusL]

Chain;180343 said:

Another thing about the Deck I thought about. This is more of a theory than anything. It is a medium through which the gods can try to manipulate mortals, through how the cards fall. They show a certain scenario that is supposedly playing out and the particular mortal then goes and does whatever the cards tells him/her to do. This theory is contingent on whether the gods have that much influence on the "material" world.

So, who controls the Deck? In some ways, it sure seems like the Azath are maintaining the structure, especially if all the Azath houses contain all the cards that ever existed as portals to realms (if they do...), AND if they picked Paran as the Master.

In other ways, it seems like the Deck just reflects what's going on in the Ascendant world.

I will say that the lack of discussion by Ascendants about the Deck is a little suspicious.