Gothos' Folly

Gothos Folly by SimiofDoom

Gothos' Folly (also known as Gothos's Folly) was a series of ancient scrolls written by the ancient Jaghut, Gothos. According to the Errant, Gothos' Folly was a "multiple-volumed suicide note", although he was not sure if Gothos actually committed suicide or was still alive. The work was quoted throughout the series.

In Gardens of the Moon

Gothos Folly by Shadaan

New scrolls had been discovered in a mountain fastness beyond Blackdog Forest, prior to the fall of Pale and were researched by Bellurdan. The writings discussed things such as the Tiste Andii and other races of the elder ages.

The alchemist Baruk had several copies of the surviving tomes of Gothos' Folly in his library. The Tiste Andii were mentioned in an aura of fear by the author and Gothos had written that fortunately they were few in numbers. Baruk thought Gothos' description of Anomander Rake jet-black skin had been accurate.

After conquering Pale, the Malazans discovered further copied fragments of Gothos' Folly in the archives of the dead wizards of the city which were then studied by their High Mage Bellurdan.

In The Bonehunters

Several scrolls bearing fragments of Gothos' Folly containing references to the Matron of Decay were once possessed by the Grand Temple of D'rek in Kartool City. The scrolls disappeared the same night that Tayschrenn fled the island and Banaschar assumed they were in the High Mage's hands.

In Reaper's Gale

The Errant thought of Gothos and wondered whatever became of the author of the Folly. Presumably the multi-volume suicide note had concluded at some point, though he suspected it contained a hidden message too obscure for anyone but a Jaghut to decipher.

In The Crippled God

Brother Diligence, the Forkrul Assail, discovered scrolls of Gothos' Folly in the Palace of Kolanse.

First known excerpt

"Thelomen Tartheno Toblakai…
find the names of a people
so reluctant to fade
into oblivion…
Their legend rots
my cynical cast and blights
my eyes with bright glory…
'Cross not the loyal cage
embracing their unassailable heart…

…Cross not these stolid menhirs,
ever loyal to the earth.'
Thelomen Tartheno Toblakai…
Still standing, these towering pillars
mar the gelid scape
of my mind…"

―Gothos' Folly (II.iv)
Gothos (b.?)

Second known excerpt

"I saw them on the shores
the deepening pits of their gaze
vowed immortal war
against the sighing calm
of Jaghut seas…"

―Gothos' Folly

Third known excerpt

"I have reached an age when youth itself is beauty."

―A Brief Assembly of Ugly Thoughts (Interlude)
Gothos' Folly

Fourth known excerpt

"Refugia made for an interesting experiment, in the manner that the Jaghut predilection for experimenting on lesser beings is intefesting. Isolate a population within towering walls of ice, yet keep its island refuge rich in resources, the weather passable, and see what happens.
    The sentient mind has an infinite capacity for assembling rules of behaviour into an intricate nightmare of carefully crafted madness. Ignorance is like a seed and where it is planted in the guise of a virtue, it becomes a weed that chokes the mind until all reason is lost.
    Berate if you will this obsessive curiosity of my kin our calculating indifference to tragedy and suffering, but know this: in our cool regard, we but mimic the gods.
    Think on that the next time you kneel before the altar, and so fall under the shadow of your god's inhuman gaze. Their minds are not your mind. Their desires are not your desires. Their pleasures are not your pleasures. Kneel then in the cup of your god's hand. But be warned. He or she might simply squeeze. Call it the predilection towards curiosity.
    Many a night in my long life, I have been startled awake by an immortal's softly whispered oops! Another life gone, reduced to a red stain on finger and thumb. Oh well."

―Gothos
Gothos' Folly

Unsourced Quotes

Gothos Folly by Corporal Nobbs

Several quotes attributed to Gothos' Folly by others.

"In a war between fanatics and sceptics, the fanatics win every time."

―Gothos' Folly, Quoted by Diligence

"When wisdom drips blood fools stand triumphant."

―Gothos' Folly, Quoted by Diligence

"The problem with paths is that once you have chosen one, You cannot choose the others."

―Attributed to Gothos' Folly

On the subject of the Tiste

The historian Heboric mentioned Gothos' Folly's discourse of the Tiste, it being the oldest and only work to mention them. According to Gothos, there were three Tiste peoples who came to the Malazan world from another realm. The work only mentioned two by name, the Tiste Andii and the Tiste Edur. The Edur were a grey-skinned people resulting from the unwelcome union of Mother Dark with the Light. The union was looked down upon by the Andii as "a degradation of pure Dark, and the source of all their subsequent ills."

On the subject of the K'Chain Che'Malle

Gothos' Folly's attributed the construction of a vast plaza on Stratem to the K'Chain Che'Malle, an Elder Race he claimed was extinct before the rise of the Jaghut, the T'lan Imass, and the Forkrul Assail. The scrolls also whispered of the short-tailed K'Chain Nah'ruk who waged war on their long-tailed kin with sorcery enfused mechanisms such as Skykeeps. One such skykeep was Moon's Spawn, which the scrolls theorised had drifted north to be entrapped by Jaghut ice until rediscovered by Anomander Rake.

Author's comment

In a 2020 interview, author Steven Erikson opened the possibility that not all of the fragments attributed to Gothos' Folly were legitimate. It was his intent that the provenance of the statements attributed to Gothos, or any historical source, "stayed slippery and elusive." Over millenia other authors may have edited or inserted their own belief systems into the fragments. "The past has to stay slippery, it has to stay foggy because the past is basically the tool...which people of the present make use of in order to justify whatever it is they do." An example of a suspicious document attributed to Gothos' Folly was the excerpt referred to by Baruk in Gardens of the Moon where the Jaghut was said to fear the Tiste Andii.

Notes and references

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