Dejim Nebrahl was a seven-faced D'ivers T'rolbarahl born on the eve of the death of the First Empire. He appeared as seven reptilian panthers[1] of immense weight and size with powerful, brawny arms and long-taloned hands.[2] He had a squat, bony skull with glistening black eyes, whose vertical pupils were the hue of fresh blood.[2] His mouth had hinged needle-like fangs the length of a Trell's thumb, and dagger-long teeth.[2][3] His skin was dark-coloured and glistening.[2] He had tipped leathery ears.[4]
Dejim was a blood-drinker, an eater of human flesh, and deeply cunning.[5] Even amongst his own kind he was considered supreme, his creation beyond the First Emperor's most dread nightmare.[3] He thought Humans were detestable creatures deserving of the true justice he would bring when he ruled over them.[6]
History[]
Dejim Nebrahl by Shadaan
The T'rolbarahl had been created by First Emperor Dessimbelackis, who later ordered their destruction when he discovered they could not be controlled. Realising that they were being hunted to extermination by their creator, the seven remaining T'rolbarahl imparted part of their souls into the unborn child of a human woman creating a M'ena Mahybe. The child, Dejim Nebrahl, had been born on the night of the "Great Slaughter" when the T'lan Imass had descended on the First Empire. If he had been discovered by the T'lan Imass Bonecasters, they would have bound his souls and slowly bled his power to aid them in the Jaghut Wars — but Dejim Nebrahl managed to escape that fate.[5]
Dejim had hunted the people of Yadeth Garath, Kanarbar Belid, Vithan Taur, and Minikenar. He was perhaps too thorough as these cities and settlements were eventually abandoned.[7]
Some time after the fall of the First Empire, Dejim Nebrahl had been captured and imprisoned with the help of the Deragoth, who at that time had obeyed an unnamed, 'clever master'.[8]
In The Bonehunters[]
For millennia, Dejim Nebrahl was imprisoned in a slab-walled burial chamber beneath a huge barrow in a desolate basin.[9] Dejim Nebrahl was bound within a skein of "twisted and tangled" wards intended to last forever, but the D'ivers was released by a group of twelve Nameless Ones. One of them, the last lined up to evoke the ritual, was Spite. Prior to releasing Dejim she spoke to its mind and told the D'ivers the price for its release. She then evoked the ritual of release in the name of the Warren of Starvald Demelain. Afterwards, Spite escaped so she was not killed by the released D'ivers — unlike the other eleven.[10]
Interpretation of the clash between Pust and Nebrahl by Enaglio
Taralack Veed, an agent of the Nameless Ones, quietly followed Dejim as it undertook Spite's geas to hunt Mappo Runt and Icarium. The Nameless Ones wished to replace Mappo with Veed as Icarium's companion because the Trell no longer obeyed their commands. Dejim ambushed and grievously wounded both Mappo and Icarium, but before the Trell seemingly fell from a cliff to his death, he killed two of Dejim's D'ivers forms.[11][12] Dejim slinked away to lick his wounds and Veed successfully took over Mappo's guidance of Icarium.[13] Iskaral Pust later found Dejim Nebrahl stalking a desert caravan in an attempt to regain his lost forms through bloodshed. The High Priest successfully drove the T'rolbarahl away with his magic.[14] Cotillion was impressed by the power Pust unveiled in his clash with Nebrahl.[15]
Learning of Dejim's return, Ganoes Paran travelled to the Nascent to free the five remaining Deragoth from their own prison. Once the T'rolbarahl had satisfied Spite's geas it was free to hunt and strengthen itself by feeding on blood. Paran hoped the freed Deragoth would finish the job they had started. The Master of the Deck also convinced a reluctant Shadowthrone to send his Hounds of Shadow to Seven Cities to keep the Deragoth focused on their T'rolbarahl enemy.[16][17]
Deragoth vs. Dejim Nebrahl by Shadaan
Feverish and starving, Dejim returned to its old hunting grounds north and west of Y'Ghatan, but it found the ancient settlements there crumbled to dust. It attacked a lone Masan Gilani, who killed one of his forms and crippled another, but was saved only by the appearance of the Hounds of Shadow. They herded the T'rolbarahl into the path of the arriving Deragoth, who quickly slew three of its remaining forms. The Hound, Baran, snatched up Dejim's last remaining body in his mouth and the Hounds raced into the desert with the Deragoth in pursuit.[18]
The Hounds brought the terrified Dejim to the Grand Temple of Poliel in G'danisban with the Deragoth at their heels. Baran dropped the T'robarahl at the feet of the Goddess herself, who had been impaled in place by Paran with a shard of Otataral. As soon as the Hounds departed, the arriving Deragoth tore both Dejim and Poliel to shreds and caused the temple to collapse.[19]
Quotes[]
- "... we should have survived, we should have ruled. We were born masters and all humanity were rightly our slaves. If only Dessimbelackis had not betrayed us. His own children."
- ―Dejim Nebrahl on the T'rolbarahl
Notes and references[]
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 15, US SFBC p.624
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 The Bonehunters, Chapter 6, US SFBC p.266-267
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Bonehunters, Chapter 5, US SFBC p.215-216
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 13, US SFBC p.544
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 The Bonehunters, Prologue, US HC p.27
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 9, US SFBC p.411
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 13, US SFBC p.536-537
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Prologue, UK MMPB p.32/33
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Prologue
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Prologue, UK MMPB p.31-37
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 6, US SFBC p.265-267
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 9, US SFBC p.410-411
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 9, US SFBC p.399-401
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 9, UK MMPB p.501-503
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 12, UK MMPB p.614
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 8, US SFBC p.392-397
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 11, US SFBC p.466-468
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 13, US SFBC p.538-545
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 15, US SFBC p.621-630