Hood

Hood
Fan art by Shadaan
Biographical information
Pseudonyms	Hooded One The Dark Hoarder The Dark Hoarder of Souls The Shrouded One Lord of Grief
Race	Jaghut
Family	Haut (brother) Karish (wife)
Social information
Affiliation	High House Death
Title(s)	King of the Ice Hold King of High House Death (formerly)
Warren(s)	Omtose Phellack Warren of Death

Hood was the God of Death and the King of High House Death.

In Deadhouse Gates

During the Season of Rot, a priest of Hood covered in flies approached Heboric and Felisin Paran while they were chained together against a wall in Unta. The priest stopped before them and said "Secret...to show...now..." The flies suddenly scattered, revealing no man under the mass of flies and startling the guards and other prisoners. Felisin later wondered, "Was that Hood himself? Had the Lord of Death come to walk among mortals? And why stand before a once-priest of Fener — what was the message behind the revelation?"

In Memories of Ice

Hood was an enemy of the Crippled God and actively worked to subvert his schemes. After the Fallen One lashed Burn with chains of poison, the goddess gave Caladan Brood a hammer forged from her power to shatter her prison. Hood was among those Gods and Ascendants who agreed that Brood should not use the hammer, which would end all life on the planet in the process. The others in agreement were Anomander Rake and the Queen of Dreams.

As the Pannion Domin hordes descended on Capustan, Hood grew concerned and more actively opposed the Crippled God's machinations. He sent Gethol, his Herald, to the city to meet with Brukhalian, Mortal Sword of Fener and leader of the Grey Swords. Claiming brotherhood with the waning boar god, he offered the mercenaries protecting Capustan free passage by Warren to escape their inevitable doom. Additionally, he offered himself as their new patron. Brukhalian violently rejected the offer, striking Gethol with his sword. Afterwards, Hood discarded Gethol from his service.

Hood also made an unspecified bargain with Trake, who ascended to true godhood to assume the title of God of War from the fallen Fener. For his part of the bargain, Trake was to deliver souls to Hood's gate. The Tiger of Summer chose the caravan guard, Gruntle, to be his Mortal Sword and many Pannion soldiers were slain at the Siege of Capustan. What Trake received in return was unclear, although the First Hero somehow avoided his own journey to Hood's gate at his own death shortly before attaining godhood.

The Barghast gods offered the Quick Ben the use of their servant, Talamandas, to protect the Bridgeburner Mage from the infection of the Warrens. Suspecting a ruse, Quick Ben discovered that the Sticksnare's protection actually came from Hood. The mage forcibly summoned Hood and impelled him to confess his deal with the Barghast. Hood angrily demanded that Ganoes Paran, as the newly named Master of the Deck, deny the legitimacy of the House of Chains. He warned that Poliel, Mowri, and others flocked to take positions within the new House. Quick Ben eventually released him under the condition that the God relinquish his hold on Talamandas when the time came. As Hood departed, he threatened that one day Quick Ben would one day be his.

Silverfox reached an agreement with Hood to take care of her dying mother, the Mhybe. Hood agreed to send his Knight of Death to Capustan to inter the Mhybe within his temple. She would not pass on to Hood's gate but instead sleep eternally while living within a dream in the Warren of Tellann. K'rul was astonished by Hood's generosity.

Hood also "hit back hard" against the infection of the Warrens to clear a space and allow his magic to be used at the Siege of Coral. The Bridgeburner mage, Toes, used Hood's Warren in the battle which saw the Crippled God's servant, the Pannion Seer, defeated by the Malazan alliance.

In Toll the Hounds

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Toll the Hounds.

Hood's appearance was that of an ancient Jaghut with yellow tusks and pitted eyes. One of his withered hands was missing two fingers.

Hood was killed by Anomander Rake with Dragnipur, cheating Traveller of his revenge against the God of Death.

Hood helped the prisoners in Dragnipur to battle the forces of Chaos by summoning all the dead from his realm. After Caladan Brood destroyed Dragnipur, Whiskeyjack and the Bridgeburners ascended and took on the role as Guardians of High House Death.

In Dust of Dreams

Hood by SunShyMoose

Hood returned to his frozen body, which was encased upon the Ice Throne, to find his band of fourteen undead Jaghut (from whom he had been long alienated) arrayed around him. Hood arose from the throne, knelt and told his silent audience that he sought "penance" for his ancient betrayal of them. The Jaghut warriors forgave Hood, and he rejoined them as their commander.

In The Crippled God

Hood was revealed as the force helping Felash wield Omtose Phellack aboard The Undying Gratitude - which had been shipwrecked upon the coast of the Pelasiar Sea in the far southeastern part of Lether. When he appeared before the shipwrecked Shurq Elalle and company as they faced the threat of Sister Equity, Hood bit the face off the pure blood Forkrul Assail, killing her. Hood then guided the repaired ship and its company to the Spire, in Kolanse, where they intended to meet up with the fleet of the Perish Grey Helms.

With his power over Omtose Phellack, Hood froze the harbor of the Spire and destroyed the Forkrul Assail, Kolansii and Perish warships anchored there. Hood then created a glacial path up to the top of the Spire to access the heart of the Crippled God, which had long been entombed there. Hood personally slew Sister Reverence, thus freeing the heart of the Crippled God.

In Return of the Crimson Guard

Hood spoke to Dessembrae in the aftermath of the Battle of the Plains through the skull of a battlefield casualty. Dessembrae was bearing witness to a fallen soldier, likely Ullen Khadeve, whose potential for greatness had been squandered in death. Dessembrae told Hood that he no longer had any expectations of death. To ask its purpose was to "impose expectations on mute existence--expectations it is in no way obliged to meet or even extend. And so I make no more, ask no more." A surprised Hood departed and Dessembrae promised he and Hood would speak again.

In Forge of Darkness

Many millennia in the past Hood had dwelt in a keep in the Jaghut Odhan of the Jaghut Realm - the ancient homeland of the Jaghut - an area which was located to the far west of Kurald Galain, the home of the Tiste and of the city of Kharkanas. Hood's brother, Haut, in his travels discovered the murdered body of Hood's wife, Karish, upon the Spar of Andii.

The extremely grief-stricken Hood was subsequently imprisoned in the keep of the Lord of Hate (an influential Jaghut) in the "Empty City" of Omtose Phellack, situated in the center of the Jaghut Odhan. This imprisonment of Hood was meant to be an "act of compassion" to prevent Hood from taking unwise vengeance upon the two Azathanai who had brutally slain his wife. The Lord of Hate allowed Draconus (who was visiting from Kurald Galain) to speak with and then to free Hood. However, Hood was not interested in avenging himself on the Azathanai, but instead declared his intention to wage war on death.

Draconus: "Hood, you cannot defeat death itself."

Hood: "You would know nothing of that...I shall call for companions. My enemy shall be the injustice of mortality. I am certain that I will gather a few to my cause. The grieving, the lost, we shall be a solemn handful--but none will doubt our resolve."

―remarks between Hood and Draconus

As it turned out, not just a "solemn handful" answered Hood's call for allies in his war on death, but instead tens of thousands of "lost souls, grieving souls, one and all" gathered on the Jaghut Odhan. These "lost souls" included groups and individuals of the Jaghut, the Thel Akai, the Dog-Runners, the Imass and a number of other peoples and races - all of whom flocked to join Hood's ever-growing army.

Hood's Realm

It was held that the souls of the dead would go to Hood's realm via Hood's Gate, also referred to as Death's Gate.

The area in front of Hood's Gate was described as a flat plain which was neither grass nor earth. The bright yellow glare of the sky did not originate from a sun, it was sourceless and the atmosphere was hot. The Gate itself was composed of naked human peat bog bodies with blackened flesh, animated and moaning.

Spoiler warning: The following section contains significant plot details about books through Dust of Dreams.

On rare occasions, the dead were accompanied to the gate by Hood in person, as was the case with Beak and Toc the Younger, whereas at other times, there was a Gatekeeper. Later in the series, the ascended Bridgeburners became Guardians of the Gate and their leader, the former Whiskeyjack, told Kalyth that they were, or would become, the new arbiters for as long as necessary.

Significant plot details end here.

Once through the Gate, Toc the Younger speculated it was up to Hood or one of his minions to decide what to do with the soul, if anything.

Worship

"The dead do not sleep. While the living do not live."

―Words from Hood's temple

According to Lady Envy, Hood's host of holidays and celebrations were notable for their "swarming flies, blood-covered acolytes, cackling crows and faces stained with the ash from cremations". One such ceremony was the Dawn of Flies in which priests would paint themselves in honey or blood that would entrap flies and wasps against their skin.

One way of appealing to the God of Death was to let blood in Hood's bowl and call upon the shades of one's ancestors.

Capemoths were Hood's symbol in Seven Cities and carved on his temple in Aren.

Trivia

It was stated by Equity, shortly before her death, that Hood was extremely powerful, even before claiming the Throne of Death, that he could have been an Elder God. She also hinted that Hood might have betrayed his followers during the Jaghut war on death. This was hinted at several other times, though the exact nature of the betrayal was not made clear. It is possible that many felt he had betrayed his followers by taking the Throne of Death, however Equity's phrasing seems to point at something more active, and later Hood remarked that he cheated death by taking its throne.

Expressions

The Malazan series contained many exclamations which referred to Hood:

• "Hood's balls on a skillet"
• "Hood's Bones"
• "Hood's Breath"
• "Hood's Curse"
• "Hood's pecker"
• "Hood's litany"
• "In Hood's name"

Speculation

There is some speculation that Aimanan was Hood as the two names are listed in the Appendix of The Crippled God on one line. It is probable however, that that was a type-setting mistake as in the Dramatis Personae of The Crippled God, Aimanan and Hood are mentioned separately in the list of the Fourteen Jaghut. From a timeline point of view it seems unlikely as well as Hood climbed up to the Spire during the Battle of the Spire whilst the Fourteen were fighting far below. The final scene with the Jaghut also supports the notion that Hood was not with them during the fight. The maps of the Jaghut Odhan included with Forge of Darkness and Fall of Light seem to prove that Hood and Aimanan were indeed separate characters. The maps show the tower keeps of eight of the Fourteen Jaghut and Hood's and Aimanan's keeps are shown as occupying completely separate locations.

Notes and references

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