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Later in their travels, they discovered a vast chasm that had recently been exposed by a shifting of the sand. The two explorers climbed to the chasm's bottom where they found a [[K'Chain Nah'ruk]] mechanism, still containing the corpse of its pilot, within a pool of melting [[Omtose Phellack]] ice. Mappo realised they had found the entrance to a K'Chain Nah'ruk [[Skykeep]] that had mistakenly travelled through a gate into solid bedrock. The Trell found the skykeep's entrance and the pair explored the alien structure. In the skykeep's immense hollow centre, was a fortress floating in space, reached only by a single stone span. Inside the fortress they found the crucified remains of [[Sorrit]], the [[Eleint]] aspected to [[Serc]].<ref>[[The Bonehunters]], [[BH/4|Chapter 4]], US SFBC p.148-154/162-167</ref>
 
Later in their travels, they discovered a vast chasm that had recently been exposed by a shifting of the sand. The two explorers climbed to the chasm's bottom where they found a [[K'Chain Nah'ruk]] mechanism, still containing the corpse of its pilot, within a pool of melting [[Omtose Phellack]] ice. Mappo realised they had found the entrance to a K'Chain Nah'ruk [[Skykeep]] that had mistakenly travelled through a gate into solid bedrock. The Trell found the skykeep's entrance and the pair explored the alien structure. In the skykeep's immense hollow centre, was a fortress floating in space, reached only by a single stone span. Inside the fortress they found the crucified remains of [[Sorrit]], the [[Eleint]] aspected to [[Serc]].<ref>[[The Bonehunters]], [[BH/4|Chapter 4]], US SFBC p.148-154/162-167</ref>
   
Some time after leaving the skykeep, Icarium and Mappo were ambushed by [[Dejim Nebrahl]]. The fierce [[T'rolbarahl]] had been unleashed by the [[Nameless Ones]] to destroy Mappo because the Trell had broken his vow to the cult. Icarium was gravely wounded and Mappo seemingly fell to his death while driving Dejim Nebrahl away.<ref>[[The Bonehunters]], [[BH/6|Chapter 6]], US SFBC p.265-267</ref> The Nameless Ones' handpicked replacement for Mappo, the [[Gral]] [[Taralack Veed]], ministered to Icarium's wounds and convinced the amnesiac Jhag that they had always been companions. Icarium was none the wiser.<ref>[[The Bonehunters]], [[BH/9|Chapter 9]], US SFBC p.399-401</ref>
+
Some time after leaving the skykeep, Icarium and Mappo were ambushed by [[Dejim Nebrahl]]. The fierce [[T'rolbarahl]] had been unleashed by the [[Nameless Ones]] to destroy Mappo because the Trell had broken his vow to the cult. Icarium was gravely wounded and Mappo seemingly fell to his death while driving Dejim Nebrahl away.<ref>[[The Bonehunters]], [[BH/6|Chapter 6]], US SFBC p.265-267</ref> The Nameless Ones' handpicked replacement for Mappo, the [[Gral]] [[Taralack Veed]], ministered to Icarium's wounds and convinced the amnesiac Jhag that they had always been companions. Icarium was none the wiser.<ref>[[The Bonehunters]], [[BH/9|Chapter 9]], US SFBC p.399-401</ref> While Mappo recovered, he learned from Ardata that it was the Nameless Ones who had originally made Icarium so terrible in power and that they intended to use the Jhag for some unknown purpose.<ref>[[The Bonehunters]], [[BH/11|Chapter 11]], US SFBC p.458-459</ref>
   
 
[[File:Quick ben faces icarium by slaine69.jpg|thumb|150px|Interpretation of Quick Ben facing Icarium by [http://slaine69.deviantart.com/art/Quick-Ben-faces-Icarium-78003883 slaine69] ]]
 
[[File:Quick ben faces icarium by slaine69.jpg|thumb|150px|Interpretation of Quick Ben facing Icarium by [http://slaine69.deviantart.com/art/Quick-Ben-faces-Icarium-78003883 slaine69] ]]
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[[Category:Jhag]]

Revision as of 22:01, 26 February 2020

"I admit, Mappo, I feel close this time. Very close."
―Icarium, seeking his past[src]
Kremena-chipilova-icarium

Icarium by Kremena Chipilova (krewi)

Icarium [ick-kair-ee-um][3] was a mixed-blood Jaghut — a Jhag.[4] He was known under many names: Lifestealer,[5] the maker of machines, the chaser of time, lord of the sand grains,[6] slayer of the ten thousand, and the maker of time.[1] Fiddler recalled the legend of "a Jaghut-blood wanderer around whom swirled, like the blackest wake, rumours of devastation, appalling murders, genocide".[7]

His constant companion was Mappo Runt the Trell.

Appearance

Icarium was described as seven feet tall, but not excessively muscled. His hairless skin was grey, turning to an olive-green colour under intense sun. His skin was usually dyed to disguise its colour. He had a lined, weather-worn face with grey eyes whose pupils were vertical. His canines were prominent, almost tusks. He had long, braided grey hair which he kept dyed black at times.[8][9][10][11] The resemblance between him and his father was unmistakeable.[12]

Abilities

Icarium was known across the Malaz world as The Slayer, a dangerous being whose rage signified unconstrained destruction. He carried an ancient single-edged longsword sheathed in a bronze-banded boiled-leather scabbard, as well as an antlered hornwood longbow with Warren-etched stone-tipped arrows,[13] capable of killing even a dragon. When enraged, Icarium was able to draw on his anger as a form of power, making him lightning fast, tireless, able to withstand extremely powerful magic attacks, and forcing him to kill relentlessly until all around him was lifeless. This fate befell the city of Shikimesh, for example. When the Jhag was on the verge of raging he emitted a deathly high-pitched keening sound and his sword began to take on a strange shivering blur.[14]

His destructive abilities also brought about the annihilation of the city of E'napatha N'apur, a major city in the Seven Cities. A misfired arrow took the life of his travelling companion, enraging him and Icarium killed everyone within the city.[15]

He possessed the ability to see in the dark,[16] piercing even the magical shadows of Kurald Emurlahn.[17]

In Deadhouse Gates

Icarium

Interpretation of Icarium by Yapattack

Icarium and Mappo traveled to the Pan'potsun Odhan on Seven Cities ostensibly in search of Icarium's ever elusive past.[18] There the two stumbled upon the dangerous convergence of Soletaken and D'ivers known as the Path of Hands. They narrowly avoided a confrontation with Ryllandaras before encountering the Trell's old friend Messremb. Icarium thought the answers promised at the end of the Path might apply to him as well.[19][20]

By accident they discovered the gate sought by the shape-shifters within Tesem, a temple of Shadow occupied by High Priest Iskaral Pust. Pust schemed to keep the gate hidden and he manipulated the Jhag and his companion into serving as its powerful guardians.[21] They were soon joined at the temple by Fiddler, Apsalar, and Crokus. Icarium and Mappo sought to reunite Apsalar with her father Rellock and promised to lead Fiddler and Crokus to the Azath House Tremorlor. Along the way, they passed through the ruins of an ancient First Empire city that still contained one of Icarium's mechanisms. The Jhag was astonished to discover that the device was 94,000 years old, and Mappo could not bear to tell him that Icarium had been responsible for the city's ruin.[22] Ultimately, Mappo revealed to Icarium his history of destructive rages and the Jhag came to believe that imprisonment within the Azath would be a just punishment for his crimes.[23]

Icarium's Wrath by slaine69

Icarium's Wrath Interpretation of Icarium by slaine69

Arriving at Tremorlor, they fought their way through hordes of Soletaken and D'ivers with the aid of the Hounds of Shadow. All the while Mappo struggled to keep Icarium from raging or from becoming imprisoned by the house. After entering the house and passing into the Azath Warren, Icarium and Mappo were separated from the others and soon found themselves near the village of Balahn on the Aren Way. Icarium no longer remembered the events of the last few days or Mappo's admission, and so they headed westward into the Jhag Odhan on their never-ending search for answers.[24]

In Memories of Ice

The High Alchemist Baruk of Darujhistan sent a bhokaral servant to Quick Ben while the Seven Cities rebellion was ongoing offering his assistance and alliance. Among the string of words the inarticulate beast shouted was "Danger! Azath! Icarium!"[25]

In House of Chains

Icarium by Rukuarimo

Interpretation of Icarium by Rukuarimo

As Karsa Orlong traveled through the mountains on the western edge of Raraku he was hunted by a score of Ryllandaras' wolf forms. The D'ivers eventually gave up the chase, but warned the Teblor of two men further up the trail. It noted that if Karsa were to come to blows with one of them, the world would regret it.[26]

Karsa soon came upon Icarium and Mappo at the site of an ancient city built on the side of a mesa. Mappo invited Karsa to eat by the fire while Icarium picked through the rubble that partially buried the city. The Trell spoke of Convergences while preparing for the inevitable clash between Icarium and Karsa. Icarium recognised Karsa as one of the fallen Teblor then apologised to Mappo for what the Trell was about to witness and drew his sword.[27]

Icarium shattered Karsa's Ironwood blade at the hilt, causing the furious Teblor to knock out the Jhag with a punch to the face. Mappo ended the battle by striking the Teblor in the back of the head with his mace. As both combatants still lived, Mappo was pleased with the results. When Karsa awoke, he discovered that Icarium's work on the landslide had revealed an enormous statue of a seven-headed dog.[28]

Karsa later encountered the Jaghut, Cynnigig and Phyrlis, in the Jhag Odhan. As a child, Phyrliss had been impaled upon a T'lan Imass spear that had been driven into the earth unknowingly amidst the ruins of the Azath House mortally wounded by Icarium millennia ago. Before it died, the House's life spirit had joined the spear and Jaghut into one immense and eternal tree. With no memory of his previous actions, Icarium periodically returned to the tree to receive wood for his bow and arrow shafts. Phyrlis rejected his requests for her heartwood, with which the Jhag would create a time mechanism, because the loss would have resulted in her death.[29]

Later, a band of Tiste Liosan led by Seneschal Jorrude traveled through Seven Cities in pursuit of a band of thieves who had trespassed in Kurald Thyrllan. Lost and bewildered by the strange world they found themsleves in, they sensed the proximity of Icarium, an "old friend" of their people. Jorrude sought out Icarium so the Jhag could "acquaint us with the rigours of this world".[30]

In Midnight Tides

During the Tiste Edur invasion of the Letherii Empire, Trull Sengar led fifty of his soldiers across the Katter River at Narrow Chute. The "bridge" over the river was in actuality an enormous and ancient mechanism. It moved almost imperceptibly as if it were a timepiece. Trull's captain, Ahlrada Ahn, discovered a stone panel carved with arcane symbols. He recognised the language as that of the Tusked Man, a mysterious grey-green figure with white tusks sighted now and then by the Den-Ratha over generations on the northern ice.[31]

In The Bonehunters

Icarium and Mappo explored the western shore of the new inland sea now covering Raraku. The Jhag remembered when the same sea covered the land thousands of years ago. Deciding on their next destination, Mappo had to reluctantly reveal that many of the cities Icarium recalled in the region had long since turned to dust.[32]

Icariums' mechanism by Slaine69

Icarium and Mappo inside the skykeep by Slaine69

Later in their travels, they discovered a vast chasm that had recently been exposed by a shifting of the sand. The two explorers climbed to the chasm's bottom where they found a K'Chain Nah'ruk mechanism, still containing the corpse of its pilot, within a pool of melting Omtose Phellack ice. Mappo realised they had found the entrance to a K'Chain Nah'ruk Skykeep that had mistakenly travelled through a gate into solid bedrock. The Trell found the skykeep's entrance and the pair explored the alien structure. In the skykeep's immense hollow centre, was a fortress floating in space, reached only by a single stone span. Inside the fortress they found the crucified remains of Sorrit, the Eleint aspected to Serc.[33]

Some time after leaving the skykeep, Icarium and Mappo were ambushed by Dejim Nebrahl. The fierce T'rolbarahl had been unleashed by the Nameless Ones to destroy Mappo because the Trell had broken his vow to the cult. Icarium was gravely wounded and Mappo seemingly fell to his death while driving Dejim Nebrahl away.[34] The Nameless Ones' handpicked replacement for Mappo, the Gral Taralack Veed, ministered to Icarium's wounds and convinced the amnesiac Jhag that they had always been companions. Icarium was none the wiser.[35] While Mappo recovered, he learned from Ardata that it was the Nameless Ones who had originally made Icarium so terrible in power and that they intended to use the Jhag for some unknown purpose.[36]

Quick ben faces icarium by slaine69

Interpretation of Quick Ben facing Icarium by slaine69

Icarium was taken by the Tiste Edur to Drift Avalii to help them take the Throne of Shadow. There, Icarium went berserk. To stop him from hurting the army of Shadowthrone, which was composed of children, he was brought to a temporary standstill by Trull Sengar's excellent spearsmanship. However, Trull was overcome. Icarium then faced Quick Ben who would have failed to stop Icarium were it not for the intervention of Eres'al. She rendered him unconscious and healed his mental wounds that had been afflicted after he had wounded Kurald Emurlahn.[37]

In Reaper's Gale

Bereft of his companion Mappo, Icarium was led to the continent of Lether by Taralack Veed, an Agent of the Nameless Ones, who intended to use Icarium as a weapon to destroy the Emperor of a Thousand Deaths, the Edur Emperor Rhulad Sengar. However, before this could be accomplished, Icarium disappeared into an ancient mechanism, apparently of his own devising.

In Dust of Dreams

Icarium by Shadaan

Icarium by Shadaan

The ancient mechanism into which Icarium disappeared, was later thought to have been devised to re-structure the Warrens when activated, causing unpredictable reactions when mages accessed their Warrens on Lether. Icarium reappeared in an ancient K'Chain Che'Malle skykeep during the pivotal battle between the Nah'ruk and the Che'Malle, helping to destroy numerous Nah'ruk skykeeps and seal the portal through which the Nah'ruk were attacking, leaving them trapped to die.

In The Crippled God

After the battle, Icarium was found unconscious and pinned to the ground by the Forkrul Assail, Sister Calm. She intended to use him as a weapon of last resort to cleanse the world of all human life. Mappo was killed by Sister Calm when he came within sight of his friend. Icarium was saved and released by Ublala Pung, who defeated and killed Sister Calm. He left with Ubala Pung and Ralata, after staring at the body of Mappo and stating in a voice heavy with emotion that he had remembered something.

History

He was the son of the Jaghut, Gothos.[38] Little was known about his mother whom the Errant referred to as the 'overgrown hag', possibly implying that Icarium might have been the son of Kilmandaros.[39] She was a member of the Thelomen Toblakai race.

Raest was his half-brother.[38]

Little was known of Icarium's history. He had wandered the world for millennia. In his early youth, his father[40] the Jaghut Gothos, voluntarily took up residence inside a House of the Azath. Icarium, abandoned and not understanding his father's actions, first wandered into the place that would become the city of Letheras. He met K'rul, but did not find answers that would lead him to his father.[41] Later, he assaulted the Azath House in the Jhag Odhan where his father was.[42] It was at that time that Icarium's legendary rage was unleashed. Icarium mortally wounded the Azath and would have freed his father if his Toblakai companion of the time had not struck him unconscious.[42] Icarium's efforts left him in a delirious state.

"It is less a curse, than a…residue. The death of an Azath House releases all manner of forces, energies – not just those belonging to the denizens in their earthen tombs. There is, burned into Icarium’s soul, something like an infection, or, perhaps, a parasite. Its nature is chaos, and the effect is one of discontinuity. It defies progression, of thought, of spirit, of life itself. Mappo, that infection must be expunged, if you would save Icarium."
―Cotillion, speaking to Mappo Trell regarding how Icarium contracted his condition, and how it can be cured[src]

The Jhag Odhan House's death weakened the Warren Kurald Emurlahn leaving it open for the destruction and shattering that was visited upon it.[42] This act in turn wounded him mentally, causing him to lose his memory whenever he flew into a rage. He wandered the world suffering from amnesia constantly searching for answers to his past. Cotillion stated that Icarium could be healed through the help of his guide Mappo Runt.

Icarium - Wrath of time by Shadaan

Icarium - Wrath of Time by Shadaan

The group known as the Nameless Ones decided that he was too dangerous to allow to wander unsupervised, and so had taken it upon themselves to recruit his "guardians", such as Mappo Runt the Trell and later Taralack Veed of the Gral. Their task was to protect Icarium from the world, and protect the world from Icarium. The Jhag had many companions over his lifetime and sensed that he had betrayed or killed them.[43] The last before Mappo had taken his own life.[44]

Some time during the Nameless Ones' stewardship of Icarium they began to subtly increase his power and deadliness, transforming him into a weapon that they could use toward their own hidden goals. When Icarium was recruited by the Tiste Edur as a Challenger to the emperor, en route, he assaulted the First Throne. There he came into contact with the Eres'al, who healed the mental damage/scarring from his wounding of Kurald Emurlahn.

Icarium was worshipped by the people of the Cabal Archipelago, who saw him as their One God.

He was obsessed with time and was responsible for creating many complicated mechanisms to measure it over the millennia.[45] He was the builder of the Wheel of Ages in Darujhistan[46] as well as a device found in the ruins of a First Empire city.[47]

Icarium had once lived among the ancestors of the Teblor of the Laederon Plateau. Seeing the decline and degeneration of their bloodlines, the Jhag had given the Teblor the Laws of Isolation that were used to create their clans.[48] Icarium also attempted to mediate the Spirit Wars on the plateau, but he arrived too late. The T'lan Imass victors knew too well the folly of trying to combat Icarium, as they had other mediators, and so did not try.[49]

He was considered a friend by the Tiste Liosan, who knew him as "the maker of time" and "slayer of the ten thousand." Who exactly he slew was unclear.[30]

Speculations

The Azath House that sheltered Gothos and drove Icarium mad was the same House in the Jhag Odhan that transformed Phyrlis. The House's death led to a "weakening of the fabric" that was sufficient "for the warren to be torn apart".[42] Previously, it had been speculated that the House was Tremorlor. Icarium's legends stated he came from Raraku, home of Termorlor, and Iskaral Pust claimed the House held together a knotted, torn piece of Warren.[50]

Quotes

"...could Icarium be killed? Could he die? He was not immortal, after all –although it could be argued that his rage was, the rage of the victim, generation after generation, a rage against injustice and inequity, and such a thing was without end."
―Taralack Veed's thoughts on Icarium[src]

Fan art gallery

Notes and References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 House of Chains, Chapter 16, US SFBC p.568
  2. Reaper's Gale Chapter 10, Epigraph
  3. Ten Very Big Books podcast As pronounced by Steven Erikson at 01:19:26
  4. Deadhouse Gates, Dramatis Personae, UK MMPB p.17
  5. Reaper's Gale, Chapter 24, BCA edition p.871
  6. Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 8, US HC p.221
  7. Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 11, US HC p.292
  8. Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 1, UK MMPB p.42
  9. Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 2, US HC p.78
  10. Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 7, US HC p.195
  11. The Bonehunters, Chapter 2, US SFBC p.82/84
  12. Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 23, US HC p.574
  13. Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 1, US HC p.34/36
  14. Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 20, US HC p.514-515
  15. The Bonehunters, Chapter 6
  16. Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 4, US HC p.113
  17. Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 8, US HC p.224
  18. Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 1
  19. Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 1, US HC p.36
  20. Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 2, US HC p.74
  21. Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 4, US HC p.115
  22. Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 15, US HC p.414
  23. Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 16, US HC p.440
  24. Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 24
  25. Memories of Ice, Chapter 21, US SFBC p.776-777
  26. House of Chains, Chapter 14, US SFBC p.500-503
  27. House of Chains, Chapter 14, US SFBC p.506-509
  28. House of Chains, Chapter 14, US SFBC p.509-511
  29. House of Chains, Chapter 17, US SFBC p.583/587-588
  30. 30.0 30.1 House of Chains, Chapter 16, UK MMPB p.676-677
  31. Midnight Tides, Chapter 15, US SFBC p.472-473
  32. The Bonehunters, Chapter 2, US SFBC p.81-85
  33. The Bonehunters, Chapter 4, US SFBC p.148-154/162-167
  34. The Bonehunters, Chapter 6, US SFBC p.265-267
  35. The Bonehunters, Chapter 9, US SFBC p.399-401
  36. The Bonehunters, Chapter 11, US SFBC p.458-459
  37. The Bonehunters, Chapter 24
  38. 38.0 38.1 Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 23, UK MMPB p.898/899
  39. Reaper's Gale, Chapter 7, UK BCA edition p.165
  40. Reaper's Gale, Chapter 7, BCA edition p.165
  41. Reaper's Gale, Chapter 7
  42. 42.0 42.1 42.2 42.3 House of Chains, Chapter 17, US SFBC p.587
  43. Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 18, US HC p.472
  44. Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 23, US HC p.574
  45. Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 3, US HC p.100
  46. Gardens of the Moon, Dramatis Personae, UK MMPB p.xvi
  47. Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 15, US HC p.414
  48. House of Chains, Chapter 2, US SFBC p.70-74
  49. House of Chains, Chapter 2, US SFBC p.78-85
  50. Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 15, US HC p.417
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