Battle of Vathar Crossing

Map of the Chain of Dogs march, part 2

"The River Vathar's mouth gushed blood and corpses into Dojal Hading Sea for close to a week after the slaughter."

―Duiker

The Battle of Vathar Crossing was the fourth major battle during the Chain of Dogs. It was also known as Coltaine's Crossing, the Vathar Massacre, and in the Can'eld dialect as Mesh'arn tho'ledann or the Day of Pure Blood.

After the victory at Gelor Ridge, Fist Coltaine faced calls from Captain Sulmar and the Council of Nobles to seize Ubaryd and await relief from Admiral Nok's fleet rather than continue on the long road to Aren. Coltaine rejected the demand noting that the city would prove a fatal trap prone to attack from land and sea. No rescue from Aren would be sent as High Fist Pormqual had already dismissed countless opportunities to dispatch the army or navy to assist. The Chain of Dogs would continue their march south.

The Battlefield

Six months after leaving Hissar, Coltaine's forces rushed to reach the crossing over the River Vathar ahead of the army of the Apocalypse. The river ran from west to east through a narrow gorge along the northern edge of the Vathar Forest. At the ford the river was forty paces across and waist deep. Where the road approached the ford on the northern shore was an open flat bordered on both sides by thinned stands of cedar. The road on the southern shore quickly disappeared into dense forest. Upstream to the west were steep cliffs on both sides of the river. At the time the battle took place the river and trees were covered with countless yellow butterflies amidst their annual migration.

Opposing Forces

Malazan

Coltaine's forces were lessened after the fight at Gelor Ridge, although he did receive approximately fifty new recruits into the 7th Army consisting of former members of the nobles' serving class. The number of refugees was slightly reduced at forty-five thousand. Coltaine had full use of only one warlock, Sormo E'nath, as Nil and Nether were still weakened by Gelor Ridge, and his healers were already taxed beyond their limits.

Whirlwind

After Gelor Ridge, the Malazans faced a new enemy commander, renegade Fist Korbolo Dom, who had been passed over for command of the 7th Army in favour of Coltaine. Former commander Kamist Reloe was not a military leader and relied solely on his overwhelming numbers. Dom was a very able military commander and tactician, familiar with Malazan methods, and resentful of the man who took his place.

Additionally, the Whirlwind's mages once again had access to their warrens as the interference preventing their use on Seven Cities had ended.

The Battle

When the vanguard of the Malazan army was still seven leagues from the Vathar ford, scouts spotted an advance force of at least thirty companies of Whirlwind cavalry attempting to reach the river ahead of them. Coltaine sent the remaining eight hundred Foolish Dog Clan horse-warriors with Nether and Duiker racing ahead. They were accompanied by twenty Wickan cattle-dogs. The Wickans reached the ford first and began creating entrenchments on the northern bank in anticipation of the enemy cavalry that outnumbered them greater than three to one. At the river they also discovered the Silanda, a magic vessel crewed by Captain Gesler and members of the Malazan Coastal Guard.

Dom's advance force did not confront the Wickans. Instead it established a camp three hundred paces upriver and began felling trees. Gesler took his ship upriver to reconnoiter the enemy's activity and discovered over 100 Ubari archers had crossed to the southern bank by a makeshift rope bridge. When the rest of Dom's forces arrived Coltaine was still two hours away. The Whirlwind army surrounded the Wickans on the northern bank from a distance of seventy paces, but left the road open for Coltaine. Tree felling operations began downstream as well.

Coltaine and the rest of the army joined the Wickans after nightfall. Gesler was ordered to load his ship with as many wounded as it could carry and depart for Aren. Dom sent an emissary to the Malazans proposing safe passage south of the river for the refugees. Coltaine dismissed the offer despite objections from the Council of Nobles. Dom's sorcerers used their returned powers to block attempts to observe preparations at their camp.

The following morning Coltaine received word that the nobles had accepted the offer of a second emissary. The Fist made no attempt to stop the surge of refugees but assigned the sappers and marines to accompany them in disguise while a dozen Wickans guided the mob into the water on horseback.

Once the refugees and noble wagons began reaching the southern bank, Dom's main force attacked Coltaine's rearguard on the northern bank. Hidden Ubari archers on the southern bank let loose with waves of arrows killing the oxen pulling the noble wagons and blocking the ford. Floating bridges guided by ropes and carrying Whirlwind pikemen and archers appeared on both sides of the ford and began slaughtering refugees. Panic set in among the refugees and many began to be trampled and drowned. The sappers, marines, and a few Wickans rallied on the southern bank to assault the three companies of archers in the cedar woods. Desperate refugees attacked and destroyed the upstream floating bridge while the downstream bridge was destroyed by Sormo and Wickan archers. Sormo perished in the process. Duiker unleashed a stampede of refugees against the archers on the southern bank and by the battle's end the 7th Army followed them across.

Aftermath

'Day of Pure Blood' by Corporal Nobbs

"What has happened? Have we won?"

―Nethpara

The cost of the battle to the Malazans was staggering. Some twenty thousand refugees were dead, a disproportionate number of them children. Seven hundred soldiers of the 7th Army also perished. Only a dozen sappers and a score of marines still lived. The Foolish Dog Clan could field less than five hundred fighters, and the other two clans were almost as badly mauled. Coltaine's most powerful warlock was dead.

The river ran red and black with blood for leagues, and it took almost a week for the pallid, bloated bodies to completely wash out into the Dojal Hading Sea near Ubaryd. For fishermen it was the Season of Sharks and spoiled catches.

Although Whirlwind casualties were much lighter than those of the Malazans, the massacre brought no peace of mind, only fear. A Malazan punitive fleet was on its way from Unta "commanded by a woman as hard as iron. What happened at Vathar Crossing was a whetstone to hone her deadly edge."

Poetry

"The Day of Pure Blood
was a gift of the Seven
from their tombs of sand.
Fortune was a river
the glory a gift of the Seven
that flowed yellow and crimson
across the day."

―Dog Chain
Thes'soran

Trivia

The Can'eld name for the battle is spelled "Mesh'arn tho'ledann" in the book's text, but spelled "Mesh'am tho'ledann" in the glossary.

External links

• Vathar Crossing (Day of Pure Blood) - Fan battle study

Notes and references

List of abbreviations • Paginations • How to reference an article