Our Lady the Blessed Saviour

Our Lady the Blessed Saviour, also referred to as just The Lady and Blessed Lady, was worshipped as a goddess in the Lands of Fist as it was said that she protected the inhabitants from the dreaded Stormriders. Religious texts recorded that she was responsible for bringing her people to the virgin, unspoiled continent, and that she enlightened those primitives already there with flame and sword. The continent's indigenous people named her Shrikasmil, the Destroyer.

The Lady controlled all access to warrens within Fist excepting tribes like the Drenn, who were beneath her notice, and the Marese, who looked to the sea and the mysteries of Ruse. Enemy mages who came to Fist were usually powerless. She also had direct control of the land, causing earthquakes, floods, rockslides, and sinkholes.

The three most precious relics of the Lady (known as the Holy Trilogy) were kept in chests at The Hole on Ring Wall, the Sky Tower, and the Holy Cloister of Banith. The Korelri Chosen, also known as the Stormguard, were her most fanatical followers and guarded the Stormwall. Her priests were granted powers to dessicate their enemies and turn them to dust. They could also cast bursts of explosive energy. In times of great need, she endowed on her followers an aura of blue fire known as the "Lady's Grace" that granted them resistance from wounds. Her adherents wore a starburst symbol.

The Lady rarely appeared in person, preferring instead to communicate by possessing and speaking through others. She once appeared as a gigantic out of proportion figure twice the size of a Jaghut. Reeking of rotting flesh and covered in open sores, she resembled a pale dead fish with vaguely female features and long greasy hair.

Other than the Stormriders her primary antagonist was the Queen of Dreams, who interfered with her attempts to divine the future and view her enemies.

In Stonewielder

The Lady appeared before Temal and his clan on Korel Island 3,411 years before Burn's Sleep (4,574 years before the events of Gardens of the Moon). She offered her protection against the Stormriders, gave him a portion of her flesh, and instructed him to build a wall along the island's coast. The structure became the Stormwall and Temal was the first of its Lord Protectors.

In 1167 BS the Lady was beset by enemies on all sides. The Malazan Expeditionary Force attacked her allies in Rool, Skolati, Mare, and Korelri while the Jourilan Army of Reform and the Synod of Stygg occupied her worshippers in Jourilan. Meanwhile the Queen of Dreams did her best to disrupt the Lady's plans. The Lady turned the Synod against itself, claimed Quint as her Mortal Sword, and tried to recruit High Mage Ussü to her service, but it was not enough.

Spoiler warning: The following section contains significant plot details about Our Lady the Blessed Saviour.

It was revealed that the Lady was actually several fragments of the Crippled God which were protected in three locations by her followers. The true purpose of the Stormwall was to protect the goddess from her enemies the Stormriders using blood sacrifice. After High Fist Greymane brought down the Wall, the Stormriders were free to seek the Lady's destruction. At Ring Wall they destroyed the first fragment with the aide of Sister Gosh and Brother Carfin. They destroyed the fragment from the Banith Cloister near Thol with the help of Fist Rillish Jal Keth and Ipshank. Ostensibly working for the Crippled God, the renegade Crimson Guard Skinner and his Disavowed retrieved the final fragment from the Sky Tower and killed its Stormguard protectors.

Significant plot details end here.

Notes and references

List of abbreviations • Paginations • How to reference an article