Beast Hold

The Beast Hold was a magical analogue of a Warren, active on the continent of Lether. It was also represented in the Tiles of the Holds where it consisted of:

Tiles

• Bone Perch - Togg and Fanderay "Bone Perch, slick with blood and layered with the ghost memories of countless usurpers" "Bone Perch now stands as a throne that none shall occupy, for its shape has become inimical to taming...The Hold of the Beast has found twin rulers"
• Elder  - "I see the Elder, still faceless, still blind."
• Crone - "And Crone, who measures the cost in the scrawling passage of behemoths."
• Seer - "Seer, who speaks to the indifferent."
• Shaman - "I see Shaman, seeking truths among the dead."
• Hunter -  "And Hunter, who lives in the moment and thinks nothing of the consequences of slaughter."
• Tracker -  "And Tracker, who sees the signs of the unknown, and walks the endless paths of tragedy."

In Memories of Ice

Ganoes Paran visited the seemingly abandoned Hold of the Beasts as Master of the Deck. The knowledge appeared in his mind that the Hold was the T'lan Imass spirit world from when they were still flesh and blood Imass before the Ritual of Tellann. The Warren of Tellann was created as a physical manifestation of the ritual and the Beast Hold was abandoned and lost to its makers.

Within the Hold he discovered a strange hut surrounded by a ring of skulls from plant eating animals. The hut was long and humped and built with a framework of huge bones and long tusks covered by thick umber fur-skins. Strips of meat hung from a smouldering hearth before the hut's entrance which was framed with the skulls of carnivores. Inside the hut were two squat thrones made of bones set atop a dais built of Imass skulls. The Hold smelled of mud and wet fur.

The realm of the Beast Thrones later became part of the dreamworld created by Silverfox within Tellann.

In Midnight Tides

Feather Witch associated the Beast Hold with the Imass, although she did not know them by that name. Common knowledge said the tiles of the Beast Hold bore images of beasts, but in the oldest, purest tiles could be discerned "round dark, squat savages" wearing the skins of beasts. She called the various tiles of the Beast Hold the Stealers of Fire who had taken from the Eres'al.

In The Bonehunters

Destriant Run'Thurvian of the Perish Grey Helms completed a two year ritual to open a gate into the warren of Fanderay and Togg to allow Adjunct Tavore Paran's Malazan Imperial Fleet travel to Quon Tali over days instead of months. The seas of the Beast Hold were harsh and fierce, with violent storms and immense, heaving swells. It was a world caught in the midst of catastrophic changes with relatively low sea levels as ice gripped many lands. The skies were steel, silver, and grey, and convulsed by atmospheric tumult. The seas were crowded with walls of ice bergs and the wind-battered coastlines were home to oak, arbutus, and white pine. Seals crowded the rocky beaches.

In Reaper's Gale

The Errant entered his walled-off and abandoned temple in the Old Palace of Letheras and discovered Fener taking refuge there. The god spoke of being driven from the Hold of the Beasts. After his departure, there was a natural need and insistence that an inheritor arise to take his place. Treach was too young and weak, so Togg and Fanderay arose to take the Throne. He gave the Errant hope that a Hold could be awoken.

Quick Ben understood the Beast Hold occupied by Togg and Fanderay to be a fragment created for them after the Pannion War. It had been seeded with the souls of the T'lan Imass--or at least the memories of those souls.

In Kellanved's Reach

As Ullara of Li Heng was travelling north across the Seti Plains on her way to the Great Fenn Range, she was approached by Ryllandaras, the 'White Jackal' - in his Soletaken form. Ryllandaras told Ullara that he had wanted a "look" at her as he had sensed that she had "touched upon the Beast Hold" - something which Ryllandaras had not sensed for a "very long time". Ullara did not know what the White Jackal meant by the "Beast Hold", and the Soletaken realized that her use of the Beast Hold was "instinctive". Ryllandaras concluded that this made sense as that was what the "Beast Hold [was] all about...instinct". After bowing his head to Ullara, Ryllandaras bounded away, having offered her what he referred to as her "due".

Notes and references

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