Baran was an ancient[1] Hound of Shadow,[2] who was described as lean and scarred, with shoulders level to a man's chest.[3] Baran had mottled brown and tan fur[3] with ragged but soft skin.[1] His muscled cheeks were seamed with scars from centuries of savage fighting.[1] His eyes were sometimes described as a glowing bruised crimson[4] and other times as light brown and filled with sorrow.[1]
His mate was Blind, and he was the sire of Gear.[3]
In Gardens of the Moon[]
In 1161 BS, Baran and the other Hounds were summoned by Shadowthrone to eliminate a regiment of the Itko Kanese 8th Cavalry to disguise his and Cotillion's abduction of Sorry.[5] The Hounds killed 175 soldiers and 210 horses in the Itko Kan Massacre while suffering no casualties of their own.[6]
Two years later, when Quick Ben intruded in the Warren of Shadow, the Hounds were quick to confront him. He greeted each by name, including Baran, and they herded him to Shadowkeep for an audience with Shadowthrone.[7]
With Quick Ben's aid, all seven Hounds ran the trespassing puppet Hairlock to ground on the Rhivi Plain and tore him to pieces before confronting Ganoes Paran. Paran's life was spared by the intervention of the Tiste Andii, Anomander Rake. Rake slew Doan and Ganrod with his soul stealing sword Dragnipur and drove off the others.[8]
In Deadhouse Gates[]
The five remaining Hounds (Baran, Blind, Gear, Rood, and Shan) accompanied Fiddler, Apsalar, Crokus Younghand, Icarium, Mappo, and Iskaral Pust through the maze surrounding Tremorlor.[9] The Hounds served as protection from the hordes of Soletaken and D'ivers following Shadowthrone's false Path of Hands to the Azath House. They also proved as a deterrent against the rage of Icarium. During the journey, Baran batted Pust to the ground, irritated by his maniacal dancing.[10] He also killed a D'ivers Dhenrabi, but cringed in the presence of Moby, the Bhok'arala familiar.[11][12]
In The Bonehunters[]
Travelling through Shadow, Apsalar found two ancient corpses she deemed to be Tiste Andii or Tiste Edur shackled within a walled square. The corpses' shades introduced themselves as Telorast and Curdle. Long before Kellanved's rule, they had attempted to break into Shadowkeep to steal its uncounted riches, but they had been spotted by Baran and imprisoned.[13]
Later, Baran amused himself by stalking the enigmatic Edgewalker. When Edgewalker accompanied Cotillion to the stone circle where the Eleint, Ampelas, Eloth, and Kalse, were chained, Baran followed. All the while, the Hound kept a wary eye on Edgewalker while remaining out of his reach. Cotillion confided to Edgewalker that after his experience on Drift Avalii he felt he could no longer completely trust the Hounds given the mastery the Tiste Edur seemed to hold over them.[14] Baran and the other Hounds later followed Cotillion to Seven Cities when the god visited the recuperating Mappo Runt.[15]
Ganoes Paran used the Deck of Dragons to call upon Shadowthrone to enlist his help against Dejim Nebrahl. He warned that he planned to release the Deragoth against the T'rolbarahl. He asked Shadowthrone to send his Hounds to Seven Cities because the Hounds of Darkness would surely seek out their counterparts and it would be better if this did not occur in Shadow. Shadowthrone reluctantly agreed.[16]
The Hounds found Dejim Nabrahl west of Y'Ghatan as it hunted Masan Gilani and herded it into the path of the Deragoth. After the Deragoth killed four of Dejim's forms the Hounds of Shadow swept in and Baran snatched up its last remaining body in its mouth. Then the Hounds ran southward into the wastes.[17][18][19]
The Deragoth pursued the Hounds all the way to G'danisban where Shadowthrone saw a way to eliminate multiple problems. The Hounds burst into the camp of Onearm's Host outside the city sending Sweetcreek and Futhgar tumbling. Hurlochel saw pure terror in one Hound's eyes as the Deragoth followed.[20] Inside the city, they burst into Poliel's Grand Temple where Ganoes Paran had pinned the goddess with an Otataral shard. Also present was Quick Ben, who Shadowthrone had lured to the temple knowing the otataral would prevent his escape. The mage was there to save his sister, Torahaval Delat, who had been marked for death by the god of Shadow. Baran dropped Dejim Nabrahl while Shan and the other Hounds went for Quick Ben. The mage and his sister were saved only by the sudden appearance of Apsalar, who fought the Hounds using a Shadow Dance, and the skeletal Telorast and Curdle.[21]
The Hounds were forced to depart empty handed as the Deragoth arrived to tear Dejim Nebrahl and Poliel apart. Returning to Shadow to lick their wounds, they were suspicious of Cotillion whose magic they sensed in the dancing figure that had repelled them. Baran growled at Cotillion's outstretched hand as the god protested his innocence.[22]
In Toll the Hounds[]
Shadowthrone brought Baran and the other Hounds of Shadow with him to a timeless necropolis to meet with Hood and an unidentified third party with Edgewalker as mitigator.[23]
The Hounds accompanied Shadowthrone and Cotillion to Morn where the two gods met with Traveller after his shipwreck. They were also joined by two new Hounds, the bone-white coloured Pallid and Lock. Shadowthrone insisted he had summoned them as seven was the desired number of Hounds, but Cotillion admitted they had "just sort've...showed up." The older Hounds recognised Traveller and gathered around him, and Baran and Shan allowed him to stroke them. Shadowthrone sent the Hounds to guide Traveller in his initial journey across the Lamatath Plain. After Traveller departed the gods noted that the Hounds would not have protected them if Traveller had chosen to attack.[24] The Hounds of Shadow seemed to have accepted the newcomers[25] and the mixed group mostly ran peacefully together.
The Hounds continued to follow Traveller at a distance as he crossed paths with Karsa Orlong and Samar Dev and the three decided to make their way to Darujhistan together. When Karsa learned the Hounds were following, he rode out alone to challenge them, quickly spotting Shan hiding in the tall grass. Shadowthrone and Cotillion warned the Teblor not to impede Traveller or submit to the Crippled God as the Hounds maintained their distance, readied to charge. Satisfied with Karsa's answers, the two gods let him depart without setting the Hounds upon him.[26]
Flying over the Lamatath Plain, Tulas Shorn, the undead Tiste Edur Soletaken Eleint, caught the scent of the Hounds of Shadow and mused about having been their first master. He wondered if his Hounds would remember "the one who had taken them when they were raw and half-wild and taught them the vast power of a faith that would never know betrayal?"[27] When he found the Hounds with Shadowthrone and Cotillion, he was not impressed, mocking the two gods as his Hounds' new pets. Even though the Hounds refused his attempts to beckon them closer, Tulas Shorn was pleased to see them. Learning that Doan and Ganrod had perished at Anomander Rake's hands, he was surprised that his Hounds would remain with masters too feeble to avenge their kin. Then Pallid and Lock appeared snarling amongst the Hounds and the Tiste Edur was horrified by their bone-white presence. He warned Shadowthrone and Cotillion they did not know what they were dealing with before veering to escape as all seven Hounds surged to attack.[28]
On the last night of the Gedderone Fête, when powerful forces converged on Darujhistan, the Hounds trampled the shack of Grisp Falaunt before destroying the Cutter Road Gate on their way into the city.[29] Pallid set off on its own, killing a dozen members of the City Watch before it was tackled by Baran. The pair's battle--which wrecked the Warden Barracks, freeing Barathol Mekhar and Antsy and nearly killing Chaur--seemed to signal the peace between the two groups of Hounds was over.[30]
When Traveller entered the city, Cotillion met with him flanked by the Hounds.[31] Then the Hounds of Shadow accompanied Traveller (now revealed to be Dassem Ultor) to his fateful confrontation with Anomander Rake. Pallid and Lock were revealed to be Hounds of Light when they were joined by eight more of their kind to seize Dragnipur for their unnamed "master". The Hounds of Shadow moved to protect the sword, battling Envy and Spite, while Karsa, the Seguleh Second, De nek okral, Tulas Shorn, and Barathol Mekhar fought the Hounds of Light. By night's end, the sword was safely in Caladan Brood's hands so it could be destroyed.[32][33]
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Toll the Hounds, Chapter 6, US SFBC p.198
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Dramatis Personae, UK MMPB p.xvi
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 12, US HC p.279
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 2, US SFBC p.72
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 1, UK MMPB p.17
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 1, US HC p.38
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 12, US HC p.279-281
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 15, US HC p.330-332
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 16, US HC p.442
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 16, US HC p.443
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 18, US HC p.475/482
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 19, US HC p.498/500
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 1, US SFBC p.50-53
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 2, US SFBC p.72-74/80
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 12, US SFBC p.50
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 11, US SFBC p.466-467
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 13, US SFBC p.536-546
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 14, US SFBC p.586-587
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 15, US SFBC p.624
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 15, US SFBC p.620-621
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 15, US SFBC p.624-628
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 15, US SFBC p.627-628/630/632
- ↑ Toll the Hounds, Prologue, US SFBC p.19-22
- ↑ Toll the Hounds, Chapter 6, US SFBC p.196-199
- ↑ Toll the Hounds, Chapter 6, US SFBC p.200
- ↑ Toll the Hounds, Chapter 14, US SFBC p.565/576-579
- ↑ Toll the Hounds, Chapter 16, US SFBC p.658
- ↑ Toll the Hounds, Chapter 18, US SFBC p.719-721
- ↑ Toll the Hounds, Chapter 21, US SFBC p.851-853
- ↑ Toll the Hounds, Chapter 23, US SFBC p.916-918
- ↑ Toll the Hounds, Chapter 22, US SFBC p.903-904
- ↑ Toll the Hounds, Chapter 23
- ↑ Toll the Hounds, Chapter 24