Caladan Brood was a warlord, often called simply the Warlord,[1] who opposed the Malazan armies in the North Campaign on Genabackis.[2] He was a giant man, all muscle and bone, and was said to be human with Barghast blood.[3] Said to be an Ascendant,[4] power rolled from him in musky waves. His eyebrows were hairless and his teeth were filed.[5] He had a wide, flat face with strangely bestial eyes.[6][7]
Brood was a longtime friend and companion to Anomander Rake. Over thousands of years the pair had clashed but always been drawn back together, an alliance bever broken. Korlat suspected the friendship was strengthened by the long periods the two spent apart over the ages.[8]
Many thousands of years ago, Brood, Rake, and the Queen of Dreams had walked the land together until Brood chose a more solitary path.[9] When he returned about 1200 years before the Malazan Book of the Fallen, he carried Burn's Hammer,[9] an enormous weapon of iron[10] with a copper-wrapped handle.[11] It was said to be capable of shattering mountains, with the Great Raven, Crone, presenting the broken peaks east of the Laederon Plateau as evidence of Brood's "younger, more precipitous days".[12]
His primary Warren was Tennes,[13] but he also had access to D'riss[citation needed] and High Denul.[14]
In Gardens of the Moon
During the Malazan Empire's attempts to conquer Genabackis, Caladan Brood led a unified force of Tiste Andii, Crimson Guard, Rhivi, Mott Irregulars, Ilgres Barghast, and soldiers from the remaining Free Cities against them. Under his command, his forces managed to delay the Malaz 5th Army from completely conquering the north of the continent at Blackdog Forest for a period of at least four years.[15] His second in command was the once High King Kallor.[16]
After the allied city of Pale fell to the Malazan siege, Brood left the Crimson Guard behind to hold the north while the rest of his troops moved south to respond. High Fist Dujek Onearm was ultimately forced to parley with Brood and Kallor outside Pale in order to extricate his forces.[17]
In Memories of Ice
Interpretation of Caladan Brood by Yapattack
Caladan Brood allied himself and his Host of over thirty thousand soldiers[18] with his former enemies, Dujek's now renegade Malazan army, in order to combat a more powerful and revolting foe, the Pannion Domin. His second in command during the Pannion War remained the once High King, Kallor.[19] A number of Anomander Rake's Tiste Andii sorcerers were attached to his forces, but Rake and Moon's Spawn were Brood's Shaved Knuckle in the Hole.[20] The Crimson Guard withdrew from the Host to attend to internal matters.[21]
The Host was also joined by Silverfox and the Mhybe, which caused friction between Brood and Kallor. The High King called Silverfox an abomination, recognising the soul of his enemy the Sister of Cold Nights within her, and demanded she be killed.[22] But Brood kept the girl under his protection.[23]
Ganoes Paran, now Master of the Deck, observed a vision of Burn within Finnest House. There he discovered that Burn slept in response to the infection of her flesh by the Crippled God. In order to break the chains poisoning her body, she made of herself a weapon, putting all of her spirit and power into the forging of a hammer. She then gave the hammer to Brood. But to use the hammer meant to free the Fallen One from his chains and destroy all life in the world. The knowledge that Brood refused to use the hammer left Paran weeping.[24]
Brood's goal for the war was to liberate the Pannions from the rule of the Pannion Seer.[25] But it soon became clear that a K'Chain Che'Malle Matron and the Crippled God were the hidden powers behind the Pannion leader. Brood became frustated by Kallor's constant insubordination, and by Kruppe's seemingly ludicrous claims to protect them all from the Crippled God. When Kruppe mocked Brood's rising anger, the warlord struck a mighty blow with his hammer at Kruppe's feet. The resulting concussion sent Whiskeyjack and the other witnesses tumbling away while birthing a range of mountains on the Catlin Plain. Kruppe remained untouched and unphased, and calmly brushed the dust off his clothes.[26]
At the Siege of Capustan, Humbrall Taur's White Face Barghast drove the Pannion forces out of the city onto the plains to the west. There Brood and Dujek's armies crushed the Seer's military and killed Septarch Kulpath.[27] Brood organised a parley of the victors and representatives from the city to decide on the alliance's next steps. The Mask Council priestess, Rath'Burn, charged the warlord with neglecting his duty to Burn. She demanded he turn over the hammer with which he should have broken Burn's chains. Brood dropped the hammer in her arms shattering her wrists. Then he took pity on her, healing her wounds with his magic.[28]
The allies decided to march on the Seer and his forces at Coral. They split their forces to liberate Setta and Lest intending to reunite at Maurik. By this time, Brood was aware that Dujek had deceived him when claiming to have gone renegade.[29]
In Toll the Hounds
After Anomander Rake's death, Caladan Brood carried his body to a barrow outside Darujhistan prepared by Burn, and sealed it with a Barghast glyph that meant Grief. He then took the sword Dragnipur and shattered it with his hammer.
Caladan Brood by Ylva Ljungqvist
In Orb Sceptre Throne
Caladan Brood settled just outside the city of Darujhistan adjudicating matters brought to him by emissaries from the north, the Free Cities and the Rhivi Plains. As time went by, he felt a certain tension and feared that there had been a shift in the balance of power with his friend's death.[30] His fears proved true with the rise of the Legate. Brood was directly confronted by the Legate (now the Jaghut Tyrant) when his erstwhile friend, now puppet of the Tyrant, Barukanal, came to visit him. The two reached an impasse however, when Caladan threatened to pull down the city to stop the Tyrant if he had to.[31]
Being a respected figure for the Rhivi, he did his best to try and dissuade the Rhivi tribes and their leader Jiwan, from going to war with the Malazan armies on Genabackis.[32] He did not succeed as the Rhivi did engage a Malazan force, confident that they could finally rid themselves of the Malazan menace that had been troubling them.[33]
Later, Brood was instrumental in destroying the magical circle of stones around Darujhistan which was the key to the Tyrant's shield over Majesty Hill.[34]
In Forge of Darkness
Caladan Brood and Grizzin Farl by Paradanmellow
Brood was a renowned Azathanai High Mason. He was hired by Anomander Purake to build and dedicate a hearthstone in the new home of the betrothed Andarist and Enesdia to celebrate their marriage. The stone was inscribed with an Azathanai blessing that would only be known by the new husband and wife. At the time of the stone's placing, Brood demanded an oath from Anomander which prompted Rake to demand one in return.[35] This created a bond between them and ultimately led to their longstanding companionship.
Returning to his home in the west, he met fellow Azathanai, Grizzin Farl, and they shared several jugs of Tiste wine that Brood said he had been saving for Kilmandaros, Farl's wife.[36]
After the Purake wedding day tragedy, Brood returned to Andarist's home where he told Anomander he would show him how to end the brewing civil war among the Tiste.[37]
Quotes
- "They are a generation that has tasted blood, and when horror fades, nostalgia seeps in. In war all is simple, and there is appeal in this. Who among us is comforted by confusion, uncertainty?"
- ―Caladan Brood
- Grizzin Farl: "Is it as the Jaghut assert then? In society we find the seeds of its own destruction?"
- Caladan Brood: "Perhaps, but they miss the point. It is the absence of society that leads to destruction. When concord is lost, when arguments cease, and in opposition neither side sees the other as kin, as brother and sister, then all manner of atrocity is possible."
- ―Grizzin Farl and Caladan Brood, sitting at campfire, finishing third bottle of wine[src]
- "...I build with my hands. I am a maker of monuments to lost causes. If you travel west of here, you will find my works. They adorn ruins and other forgotten places. They stand, as eternal as I could make them, to reveal the virtues to which every age aspires. They are lost now but will be rediscovered. In the days of a wounded, dying people, these monuments are raised again. And again. Not to worship, not to idolize – only the cynics find pleasure in that, to justify the suicide of their own faith. No, they raise them in hope. They raise them to plead for sanity. They raise them to fight against futility."
- ―High Mason Caladan Brood
Gallery
Notes and references
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Glossary, UK MMPB p.704
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Dramatis Personae, UK MMPB p.xvi
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 2, UK MMPB p.71
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 3, US SFBC p.100
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 10, US HC p.240-242
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 18, US SFBC p.623
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 23, US SFBC p.853
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 22, US SFBC p.790
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Memories of Ice, Chapter 5, US SFBC p.201-202
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 10, US HC p.240
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 20, US SFBC p.719
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 3, US SFBC p.111
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 3, US SFBC p.110
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 18, US SFBC p.629
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 2, UK MMPB p.61
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Dramatis Personae
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 24, US HC p.480
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 14, US SFBC p.455
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Dramatis Personae
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 5, US SFBC p.166
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 3
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 3, US SFBC p.104-105
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 5
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 5
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 18, US SFBC p.617
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 15, US SFBC p.505-507/526-527
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 18, US SFBC p.610-612
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 18, US SFBC p.716-72
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Chapter 18, US SFBC p.618
- ↑ Orb Sceptre Throne, Chapter 1
- ↑ Orb Sceptre Throne, Chapter 6
- ↑ Orb Sceptre Throne, Chapter 12
- ↑ Orb Sceptre Throne, Chapter 15
- ↑ Orb Sceptre Throne, Chapter 20
- ↑ Forge of Darkness, Chapter 2, UK HC p.50
- ↑ Forge of Darkness, Chapter 8, UK HC p.223
- ↑ Forge of Darkness, Chapter 20, UK HC p.660