Demon spirit-god

A Demon spirit-god served the Warlock King Hannan Mosag. It appeared as an enormous black shadow with vast patience beneath the waves. It was large enough to fill a bay and powerful enough to carry a fleet of ships on its back.

In Midnight Tides

The god was first used by Hannan Mosag to wreak vengeance against the Letherii fleet that illicitly slaughtered Tusked seals in Tiste Edur waters. The Warlock King took four Edur K'orthan longships to Calach Bay to witness the god's attack. It rose from the ocean camouflaged by fog and only Letherii screams could be heard. When the god was finished, the Letherii sailors were all dead.

The Warlock King sent the ships back to Trate atop the god's back and accompanied by Shadow wraiths. The spirit sent the ships and water of the bay crashing into Trate's harbour, devastating its waterfront. The attack was observed by Ceda Kuru Qan through the magic of Tarancede Tower.

Kuru Qan and First Eunuch Nifadas suspected Hannan Mosag had somehow corrupted the sea god, Mael, to his service and sent Brys Beddict to Mael's realm discover the truth. Far beneath the waves, Brys found a sanctuary for Forgotten Gods protected by the Guardian of the Names. Its charges were all gods who were no longer worshipped and so faced death. Through an alliance with the Crippled God, the Warlock King's servant had been taken from the sanctuary, given a new name, and enslaved. Under its old name it had been a "massive, hulking creature, with snake tentacles for limbs" older than the ocean and whose worship predated Humans. Brys gave his blood to strengthen the Guardian and prevent more gods from being taken.

Later, the Crippled God sent the forgotten god under the ice fields of Lether to deliver the sword crafted by Withal into the Tiste Edur's hands.

When war broke out between the Letherii and Edur, the spirit accompanied the fleet first to Fent Reach and then Trate. At Trate it brought down the lighthouse and piers, killing the sorcerers Nekal Bara and Arahathan. A string of victories brought the Edur to the gates of Letheras. The demon spirit-god, now half a league long, carried the Edur fleet up the Lether River to the Letherii capital. But it sensed a heart of power within the city. If it could it seize it, it would increase its strength a thousandfold, freeing itself of the Edur and becoming an unassailable force of fury.

But when the demon god tried to capture the heart at Settle Lake, it discovered it had all been a ruse. Letherii Ceda Kuru Qan had trapped it and Bugg arranged for a Jaghut Huntress to freeze the entire lake solid with Omtose Phellack.

In Reaper's Gale

The Errant visited the site of the demon spirit-god's imprisonment with growing concern that Mael had once again taken an interest in the world. He noted the frozen lake was filled with new cracks that would eventually lead to the spirit-god's freedom and pondered whether he should inform the sea god. But the Errant stood too close to the trapped spirit and was infected by its helpless rage, ambition, and lust. Soon he became determined to reclaim his old power by initiating a war between the Holds and the Warrens. He refused to listen to the warnings of the ghost of Kuru Qan and lost his eye to Feather Witch as he attempted to sacrifice her blood for power.

Hannan Mosag, in an attempt to regain the power over the spirit-god that he had lost when it had been frozen in Settle Lake, was the one who had initiated a warming up of the lake. However, with the combined efforts of Ursto Hoobutt, Pinosel, and Ormly, Hannan Mosag's plan was foiled. In order to do this, it had been necessary to learn the 'real' name of the spirit-god. This name was revealed by the magically recalled Brys Beddict--who remembered that the once Forgotten God's true name was "Ay'edenan of the Spring", or "Ay'edenan tek' velut !enan" in the old language. Ursto and Pinosel were able to use this name to at last remove the threat of the demon spirit-god, once and for all while the Jaghut Huntress killed Hannan Mosag at the water's edge.

Ursto later claimed Menandore and Sukul Ankhadu had been involved in weakening the ritual as well.

History

The spirit had come into being in a natural limestone well in the land now occupied by Trate harbour before the rising of the seas. The waters of its well were fed gold, jade, silver, and living sacrifices by its worshippers making it an addict of blood, grief, and terror.

The spirit's worshippers had long since died out or departed leaving it dying and forgotten until the seas rose and subsumed its home. This gave the spirit another chance, but it could not compete with the other spirits of the ocean and returned to its well to die.

When the Edur enslaved the spirit, they fed it blood to strengthen and enlarge it to massive size. Its interior was filled with layers of thick, coagulated blood, matted hair, slivered pieces of bone, encrusted jewelry, mangled coins, and bodies of leather-wrapped newborns whose skulls had been staved in. At its centre was a shell held together by memory within bone, teeth, and hair.

The Errant suspected the spirit was one of Mael's own kin.

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