[Battalion]

I just read the part in HoC were Quick Ben does Kamist Reloe in. Quality.

[Tehol Beddict]

1. Quick Ben
2. Tayschrenn
3. Beak (he has all the Warrens, and he did that really cool shield thing)
4. Bottle (I think he'll become really strong... he's like a temporarily weaker Quick Ben)
5. Kuru Qan
6. Sinn
7. Tattersail
8. Hairlock
9. Corlo
10. Seren Pedac (Since Mockra chose her, I GUESS she's also a mage...)
Cheers:D:p

[Ain't_It_Just_]

Battalion;280895 said:

I just read the part in HoC were Quick Ben does Kamist Reloe in. Quality.

Yeah, that was classic. Then QB stands over his corpse, and does his bit.

[Saccian]

I always liked the Ceda Kuru Qan. Especially because he was crazy.

I always enjoyed the parts from MT where the Edur army wiped out the Lether group basically on their own. And then in BH, a large group of sorcerors think that the Malazan's have a Ceda due to QB's display(although it wasn't truly his display). That comparison always made me wonder how powerful he really was. Sadly, Trull had the higher ground, so his spear automatically zapped his life force(thats what I tell myself).

[Aptorian]

Terragarth;294880 said:

Sadly, Trull had the higher ground, so his spear automatically zapped his life force(thats what I tell myself).

I have no idea what you just said there...

[Ahk-Thenrah]

Thought of putting in seren pedac myself, but refrained. even though mockra, or the manifestation of said warren, spoke to her directly, she hasn't shown much of anything, and udinaas uncovered her relatively easily. so, mleh.

but whazzisname, the crimson guard mage from MT(Corlo?) was uber good with mockra, i mean, a) he helped take care of the pack, and he confused the shit out of the sereghal, which must have been no mean feat, considering toblakai resilience to magic, so i think he should deffo be in the top 10.

Having said all that, don't for one minute forget that power is relative, certain situations are better suited to certain individuals.

[SiriusL]

Aptorian;294882 said:

I have no idea what you just said there...

I'm pretty sure Terragarth is lamenting the fact that the Ceda was killed by a mere Edur spear, when he seemed to have so much more potential. Or maybe I'm projecting...

[Aptorian]

Ohh, the Cedas lifeforce! okay, well there's no need for that, mortal people die when they get a spear through the chest. Even mages.

[Abyss]

Unless of course, the mage takes steps like Hairlock, who went on living after the lower half of his body was messily removed.

- Abyss, calls that a half-ass effort...

[SonOfDarkness]

Alot of you underestimate the Ceda. He deserves a far higher ranking. He was only in 1 book but his power at the end of the book was immense compared to the powers shown by most of the mages in some of the lists posted.

My list would go according to power shown to us not speculation of warrens.

1. Ceda Quru Kan
2. Quick Ben
3. Warlock King ( edur )
4. Night Chill, Tattersail and the other one
5. Taych
6. Sormo


I put Night chill and the group ahead of Taych because while they held out Rake, Taych was putting his power into killing his own High mages.

Ceda had the power to kill the entire Edur army if not for Trulls spear that came from the side.

[Aptorian]

The thing about the Ceda is, I'll agree he's a very dangerous mage, but the last stand in the eternal domicile wasn't a fight like, say, Quick Ben blasting Icarium or Tay knocking down twelve panion mages with one blast.

The Ceda was channeling straight from the Empty Hold. He was standing on the Tile and he had been preparing for that battle for days. What you were seeing wasn't the Cedas true strength but rather his skill at channeling the strength of the Empty Hold.

I'm likewise not very impressed with the Warlock king. I'm not sure how strong he really is. We never saw him in a mage battle royal that didn't envolve channeling power.

And Nightchill I would say is an EXTREME wild card. We never got to asses her strength in GotM but she was a freaking eldergoddess hiding in human body. I don't think she was exactly low on the powermeter...

[SiriusL]

Aptorian;294976 said:

The thing about the Ceda is, I'll agree he's a very dangerous mage, but the last stand in the eternal domicile wasn't a fight like, say, Quick Ben blasting Icarium or Tay knocking down twelve panion mages with one blast.

The Ceda was channeling straight from the Empty Hold. He was standing on the Tile and he had been preparing for that battle for days. What you were seeing wasn't the Cedas true strength but rather his skill at channeling the strength of the Empty Hold.

I'm likewise not very impressed with the Warlock king. I'm not sure how strong he really is. We never saw him in a mage battle royal that didn't envolve channeling power.

And Nightchill I would say is an EXTREME wild card. We never got to asses her strength in GotM but she was a freaking eldergoddess hiding in human body. I don't think she was exactly low on the powermeter...

By that logic, most of the Hold magic users would be discounted. Hold magic seems to require a lot of ritual and takes a long time to prepare. If you dropped the Ceda and, say, Kulp in an arena and forced them to fight, who would win? The Ceda is clearly more powerful, but it would take him a while to warm up. Kulp is probably middling power, but he's honed his quickness on the battlefield. Battlefield magi don't survive unless they are fast.

The problem is, we don't see much magic in MT that doesn't require some ritual, except for the Crimson Guard and I guess Mael and the Errant.

[Aptorian]

You're right, we don't really see much magic usage without ritual preperation. But that's because we were seeing ptched battles and last stands. There you are prepared for a battle to come up.

We actually do see The Warlock King, the Krisnan and one of the Sengar brothers just open up against the Ceda, but that's not really something worth gauging.

[SonOfDarkness]

I would still place the Ceda at number 1 because of the power he generates, whether it be by channeling or by preparing. The point im making is that he was somehow able to gather such immense power and had the capacity to completely destroy the edur army.

Also the thread starter doesnt state about channeling or holds. Just list the powerful mages. Quru Kan was a damn powerful mage.

[SiriusL]

SonOfDarkness;295029 said:

I would still place the Ceda at number 1 because of the power he generates, whether it be by channeling or by preparing. The point im making is that he was somehow able to gather such immense power and had the capacity to completely destroy the edur army.

Also the thread starter doesnt state about channeling or holds. Just list the powerful mages. Quru Kan was a damn powerful mage.

Well, back to Kimloc. He supposedly said he would have been able to wipe out the Malazan armies, but didn't on prinicpal. IIRC, it was Trull who thought the Ceda was going to wipe out the Edur, so each might be a case of the unreliable narrarator.

I'm not sure about distinguising native power from "channeled" power. It seems like most mages channel the power of their warrens or holds, and their strength is a measurement of how much they can use.

[Beld]

A first post but this is always something that interested me... so a worthy one, I suppose.

I think the one thing that seems to be jumbled here (at least from what I can tell) is intelligence v. power. I think this is causing some of you to undervalue Beak.

As a prime example of this look at Kruppe vis a vis Beak. There is no doubt, I believe, that Kruppe has at least some minor magic (recall the brief description of him as the Eel with pastries magically jumping to him from merchant carts). But I don't see him as a particularly powerful mage, nor do any of you as he does not appear on any lists. His magery is secondary to his intelligence.

Beak is(was) his polar opposite. Clearly at least convinced that he is a moron at best. However when asked how many "candles" he has, the answer he provides was (and I perhaps paraphrase) "all of them." Clearly Beak could access every warren that at least his old friend knew of. Furthermore, Beak was able to single handedly stand down the linked power of the Edur, whereas it appears that Quick Ben at least needed divine intervention (through Bottle) on the ships to do the same. One clearly could make the point that Quick Ben has grown in power since then, as he himself seems to indicate. That being said, I'm not sure if even he has access to all of the warrens.

Beak may not have been bright, but it seems like he was Quick's equal at least in power.

Bottle, of course, is another issue. There seems to be at least an indication (though I can't for the life of me remember when) that Bottle at least thinks he is more powerful than Quick. That being said, I am virtually positive that occurred prior to Quick's "strecthing" against Icarium so it may not apply.

Anyway, on a scale of pure power with no other considerations, I would argue the top 10 is as follows:

1) Kimloc (I'm a little hesitant here... but if he truly could have stopped the Malazan army... and he was able to turn the Bridgeburners into ascendants, I am willing to buy in)
2) Beak
3) Quick Ben
4) Bottle
5) Ceda (the Edur seem to know the difference btw a "Ceda" and a regular mage and judge Quick a Ceda by his channeling of divine-inspired power. Seems like anyone who gets the appellation Ceda is a heavy weight_
6) Tay
7) Sinn
8) Tattersail
9) Pust
10) Sormo

That being said. There is something about the 7 Cities mages. Remember when Cutter/Crokus was being told about his "uncle" Mammot there was clear indications that everything was not as it seems. Particularly the duration of the mage council's lives. Obviously I expect we are about to learn more soon, but I think we may start plugging them in soon (assuming they are even mortal).

[Aptorian]

Actually Darijistan is on Genebackis so there's no link, that we know of between 7C and Mammot and the other Cabal mages.

[Beld]

Aptorian;296629 said:

Actually Darijistan is on Genebackis so there's no link, that we know of between 7C and Mammot and the other Cabal mages.

Sorry, mis-type there. Obviously was thinking 7 Cities when I shoulda been in Genebackis.

Anyway this was the conversation I was thinking of:

" 'Now the sense of it comes to me. They are being held in readiness. Darujhistan's counil - mages one and all, yes? Undying, secretive, paranoid mages! Crouching low, lest the Tyrant returns, as one day he must! Returns looking for his army! Hah, a council!'
'That's not the council, sir,' Cutter said. 'If you are speaking of mages, that would be the T'orrud Cabal-'
'T'orrud! Yes, clever. Outrageous! Barukanal, Derudanith, Travalegrah, Mammoltenan? These names strike your soul, yes? I see it.'
'Mammot was my uncle-'
'Uncle! Hah! Absurd!' He spun around."

[Aptorian]

Yes, quite the ominous foretelling, can't wait for TtH.

[Sparkimus]

I think I'd go with Beak for just pure, raw power. The Ceda, Warlock King and all them were all channeling power, be it the empty hold or the CG.

Kimloc would be right there with Beak.