Balm

"Interrupt a Dal Honese death dirge and you'll know a thousand thousand lifetimes of curses, your bloodlines forever. Hairy old women will steal your children and your children's children and chop them up and cook them with vegetables and tubers a few precious threads of saffron...and Dal Honese warlocks wearing snake girdles will lie with your woman and she'll birth venomous worms all covered in curly black hair—"

―Balm asking not to be interrupted

Balm was a Medium infantry sergeant in the 9th Squad of the 8th Legion in the Malaz 14th Army. He was described as a tall, young, wide-shouldered Dal Honese, with dark skin and heavy eyebrows. Fiddler had been impressed by Balm's cool indifference to pressure. However, Balm — right before battle — sometimes suffered a temporary forgetful state of mind known as "the Confusion", which could cause him to "lose track of everything" until fighting actually started.

Unlike most Malazan soldiers who were known by nicknames, Balm was his real name. He did not think highly of noble born officers.

Members of Balm's squad

• Corporal Deadsmell
• Galt
• Lobe
• Throatslitter
• Widdershins, sapper

In House of Chains

Balm was part of Adjunct Tavore Paran's punitive expedition against the Army of the Apocalypse. On the road from Aren to Raraku, his squad had done their share of the fighting, and their names were well known amongst the other soldiers in the legion. When Lieutenant Ranal was briefly made captain of 9th Company, Balm was concerned with the lieutenant's rearranging of the squads and announced it likely the noble born officer was going to get them all killed.

In The Bonehunters

After the Battle of Raraku, Leoman led the Army of the Apocalypse westward to Y'Ghatan and the 14th Army followed. Upon reaching the outskirts of the city, Balm went to a nearby cemetery to craft a death-mask — a custom for Dal Honese who thought they were about to die. Bottle found him in a looter's pit wearing gazelle skins, his face streaked with ash, singing a strange and monotonous death dirge, and dancing in tight circles. Frustrated and angered by Bottle's interuption, Balm threatened to curse his bloodline and ran off.

In the hours before the assault on Y'Ghatan, Balm engaged Moak in a game of Troughs, but soon became overwhelmed by "the Confusion". He knocked over the board, unclear who he was and what he was doing. His corporal, Deadsmell, led him to safety from an angry Moak while congratulating Balm on a clever ruse for ending a losing game. Balm could not respond because he no longer understood what language Deadsmell was speaking.

Balm was amongst those who escaped from the Last Siege of Y'Ghatan by tunneling their way out from under the city. During the escape, in a drug induced slumber which seemed to prompt everyone to dream of their past and of various gods and goddesses of their people, Balm dreamt of himself meeting a menagerie of Dal Honese deities. In the dream, Balm thought of himself as a lapsed warlock who ran away from home to escape herding cattle, hunting monstrous beasts and drinking bull blood and cow milk.

In Reaper's Gale

(Information needed)

In Dust of Dreams

(Information needed)

In The Crippled God

After the battle with the K'Chain Nah'ruk, Balm decided not to recruit new members into his decimated squad nor break it up.

Notes and references

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