Dying God

The Dying God was the centre of a cult based in Bastion and spread across central Genabackis amongst many of the towns and cities of the former Pannion Domin.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 4, US SFBC p.126 The production and consumption of the drink Kelyk was central to the cult's activities.
The cult celebrated the act of dying-- a death that lasted for all eternity--where worship was an act of self-destruction in which all choice was lost.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 20, US SFBC p.812Toll the Hounds, Chapter 22, US SFBC p.895
==In Toll the Hounds==
Nimander's group, led by Clip, first learned of the Dying God's cult while passing through Morsko on their way to Black Coral. Surrounding the town were fields of corpses dressed as scarecrows, which oozed a black liquid to feed plants that were harvested by the townspeople and sent to Bastion to make kelyk. Clip wanted to meet the so-called Dying God at one of the cult's rituals during the course of which his soul was stolen and he was left at the very edge of death.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 4, US SFBC p.120-127Toll the Hounds, Chapter 6, US SFBC p.202-211
Nimander and the others put Clip's comatose body in a wagon to make the journey to Bastion where they hoped he could be restored. Along the way, they were joined by Kallor who hitched a ride on the wagon as he was tired of walking. They found the city abandoned, its streets empty and its walls and buildings marred by sigils and glyphs. Only the distant sound of singing and the feeling of watching eyes gave indication that anyone remained. The wreckage of an "enormous mechanism" which seemingly had fallen from the sky drew the High King's attention. He thought that the original makers had been K'Chain Che'Malle.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 10, US SFBC p.407-416
Eventually they found hordes of raving cultists, their mouths blackened by kelyk addiction, surrounding the Dying God's temple. The group fought its way inside the Dying God's place of power where Nimander and Aranatha confronted him in a room filled with thousands of dolls. Showing a preternatural knowledge, Aranatha named him Bellurdan Skullcrusher. He was the ascended fragment of the former Malazan High Mage that was discarded after the Soulshifting that created Silverfox. Finding itself on the floor of The Abyss, it consumed the bodies of the fallen gods who collected there, becoming a god in its own right. Encountering Hairlock at the bottom of the Abyss, he was inspired to fashion a similar vessel for himself of wood, twine, and clay, as Hairlock had done with a puppet. Then it rode the broken machine up out of the Abyss to crash at Bastion. The scarecrows were all failed versions of the god's new form. His blood was the toxic beverage saemankelyk, which poisoned people's spirit, making them his followers and worshippers.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 12, US SFBC p.479-484/490-499
After Aranatha summoned the Dying God by name, she apparently destroyed him and Clip recovered. However, the Dying God actually now possessed Clip's body, killing Kedeviss when she confronted him with the truth, then trapping Nimander and the others in Darkness while he journeyed on to Black Coral.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 18, US SFBC p.758-759Toll the Hounds, Chapter 22, US SFBC p.888-889
At the same time, the Dying God's cult and his kelyk spread through the Pilgrim camp that had grown around the Barrow of the Redeemer outside Black Coral. Gradithan force fed the Redeemer's High Priestess, Salind, with kelyk and sent her to conquer her god in the Dying God's name. A days' long spiritual battle ensued between Salind and the Redeemer's defender, Seerdomin.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 12, US SFBC p.471/487-489/493Toll the Hounds, Chapter 22, US SFBC p.895-896 
Nimander escaped the Darkness with the help of Aranatha, who was revealed to be possessed by Mother Dark. She brought him to the Temple of Shadow in Black Coral where Clip and the Dying God confronted Endest Silann in Anomander Rake's absence. If the Dying God could overcome the struggling castellan he would claim the Tiste Andii and corrupt Kurald Galain so that it would feed his mad hunger for power. Once Seerdomin fell, the Dying God would take the Redeemer's body for his own. But Mother Dark expelled the Dying God from Clip, and then the Redeemer finally destroyed him for good by taking Salind into his arms and blessing her. The Dying God had no defence.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 24, US SFBC p.975-977/984-987
==Notes and references==
Category:Gods