Nightchill was a High Mage of the Malazan Empire.[1] She was raven haired, tall, and imperious.[2] Her face was "broad and flat, the eyes strangely far apart, the lips thick and downturned".[3] She often displayed a cruel streak which it was said the Emperor "used to drool over".[2]
Nightchill had taken Bellurdan as a life-long companion.[2] Her Warren was Rashan.
In Gardens of the Moon
Nightchill had come down from the Fenn Mountains on the Quon Tali mainland during the Unification Wars. She commanded a company of Adepts during the Emperor's time.[4]
Nightchill and Bellurdan had been told to report to Nathilog where they sat idle for the six or seven years prior to the Siege of Pale. Their last campaign had been Seven Cities.[5]
Nightchill, Bellurdan, and A'Karonys were grouped together on a hill near Moon's Spawn immediately prior to the last battle of the Siege of Pale.[2] During the confrontation a Kenryll'ah demon spawned and tore her limb from limb.[6] Her remains were collected by her lover, Bellurdan. He kept them in a sack into which was woven a spell of protection by Tattersail so that he could find the right place to bury her remains.[7]
When being attacked by Bellurdan, Tattersail remembered the preservation spell she had put on Nightchill's body and tried to make use of it to protect herself. The following conflagration resulted in the creation of a creature that was then reborn as the Rhivi child Silverfox, in whom the souls of Nightchill, Bellurdan and Tattersail came together.[8][9]
In Memories of Ice
Quick Ben pondered that throughout history, several Nightchills had been mentioned in different places. She was presumably present at the expulsion of the Seti from Fenn on Quon Tali (almost two thousand years prior), in the First Age of the Nathilog Wars and the Liberation of Karakarang on Seven Cities (nine centuries prior)... again and again a sorceress by the same name. He considered that it might have been the same one each time.[10]
It gradually became obvious that beyond having been a Malazan mage, Nightchill had been the Elder Goddess referred to as the "Sister of Cold Nights" and had chosen "to play the mortal game". Along with the Elder Gods K'rul and Draconus, she had taken part in the punishment of the High King Kallor 119,736 years before Burn's Sleep. The three gathered together for the first time in millennia intending to liberate the people of Jacuruku from their cruel tyrant Kallor after the destruction wrought by the fall of the Crippled God. But Kallor had prepared for their arrival by spitefully incinerating the continent and killing his seven million citizens. The shocked Elder Gods cursed the High King to live forever and never Ascend, and yet still suffer the ravages of time. At the same time, Kallor used the power of his subjects' deaths to curse each of his accusers in turn. The High Kings's curse for her said that "unhuman hands shall tear your body into pieces, upon a field of battle, yet you shall know no respite - thus, my curse upon you, Sister of Cold Nights" - a fate that proved true with her soul having become part of Silverfox.[11][12]
After dealing with Kallor, K'rul created a new Warren into which the three gods swept the ruins of the High King's empire.[13]
See also: Sister of Cold Nights (sorceress)
Notes and references
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Dramatis Personae, UK MMPB p.xiii
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 2, UK MMPB p.72
- ↑ Dancer's Lament, Chapter 5, US TPB p.103
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 2, UK MMPB p.73
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 2, UK MMPB p.73
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 2, UK MMPB p.79
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 2, UK MMPB p.100-103
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 10
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 11
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 5, UK MMPB p.193
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Prologue
- ↑ Gardens of the Moon, Prologue
- ↑ Memories of Ice, Prologue