Shake

The Shake were a subjugated people within the Letherii Empire, who were the original inhabitants of the empire's central west coast and a number of islands off shore.Reaper's Gale, Glossary. They were hated and feared by both the Letherii and their tribal neighbours, and their population dwindled in numbers.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.338-339 Many of the Shake had interbred for so long with the Letherii that they retained only remnants of their original Shake blood.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.338 
==The Shore==
The Shake religion was known as "The Shore"Reaper's Gale, Glossary and the Shake people were known as "of the shore" or "children of the shore."Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.323 They believed the world began with only the sea and would one day return to the same. The sea's thirst was endless, gnawing at the shore, endlessly rising, and devouring all. The Shake were but helpless witnesses to the inevitable. Their god was the shore who was engaged in daily battle with the sea. Unlike the other tribes conquered by the Letherii, they had raised no army against the invaders as their belief in the shore held no vast power. It was a belief in the mutable and in transformation. Their god had no face but every face. Their temple was the shore where land and sea waged war eternally--an endless cycle of building and dissolution. It was the same battle fought by the Shake.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.337-339 
The high-cliffed island of Second Maiden Fort was known to the Shake as "The Isle" and was their sacred place, desecrated by the Letherii prison that now occupied it. It had once been connected to the mainland until the sea had risen to isolate it in the Katter Bight.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.337
The Shake calendar was based on the Year of the Isle with the events of Reaper's Gale taking place approximately in the 2113rd year of that calendar.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 14, US HC p.391
The word "Shake" could also be used to precede the given name of someone who was of the Shake. For example, the man named Brullyg could be referred to as "Shake Brullyg".
==History==
The Shake appeared to be descendants of a small number of Tiste Andii refugees who had hidden among the local Human population after the fall of the K'Chain Che'Malle and Scabandari Bloodeye's betrayal of Silchas Ruin, although this knowledge had been lost to them. Their royal titles, based on the stages of night between sunset and sunrise, originated from the Andii and retained their names from the Andii language.
The Shake bloodline was also impacted by the K'Chain Che'Malle as some children were born with features reminiscent of that lizard-like race. The children thus marked who were not killed at birth were trained as witches and warlocks.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12 Deadsmell theorised the Shake guarded the Shore because that was where the newborn K'Chain Che'Malle not claimed by a Matron came from.
==The Coven==
The two hundred Shake shoulderwomen (or witches) who remained were known as the coven and keepers of the Old Ways.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.323 Although the Shake were nominally ruled by their royal family, true power lay with the coven.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 14, US HC p.392-393 Their magic came from demons of the sea who had once faced a war of slaughter. Determined to survive, these demons had cast their seeds into the waves and tidal pools where they sought the right mother. From time to time they found a woman's womb where a child was already growing and stole its fate. A child thus born was considered demon-kissed and possessed true power from even a single drop of demon blood in their veins. Often such children possessed taloned hands and feet and they were brought into the coven to learn the Old Ways. But for most the taint was deeper, giving the infant scaled, elongated faces, twitching blunt tails, and lurid green eyes. These were seen as abominations and cast from the cliffs on the Isle as gifts of mortal blood to the thirsty sea.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.337-338 Male warlocks were much fewer in number than their female counterparts because male infants were more likely to possess unacceptable demonic traits and be thrown to their deaths.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 14, US HC p.392 Individually they were prodigious casters of curses, but united together they could "work nastier rituals."Reaper's Gale, Chapter 17, US HC p.522
Their practices did not endear the Shake to their neighbours. The Tarthenal viewed them with horror and the Nerek hunted their people in the forests. The Faraed thought them child-snatchers and left husks of bread for them on tree stumps as if they were malignant crows.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.339 The Letherii had launched a pogrom to exterminate the coven seeing them as a seed of resistance. But the coven remained.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.338
Shake witches and warlocks were able to communicate with each other long distance through a method known as "cob to web."Reaper's Gale, Chapter 14, US HC p.392
== Notable Shake ==
The queen of the Shake was Yan Tovis, or "Twilight", who had been an Atri-Preda in the Letherii Empire before she absconded and returned to the Shake to claim her throne. Her brother, Yedan Derryg held the titles of Prince and Watch of the Shake.
* Aras
* Brullyg
* Cellows
* Nithe
* Pully (Witch)
* Sharl
* Skwish (Witch)
* Teyan Atovis - long ago Rise
* Yan Tovis (Twilight)
* Yan Tovis' mother - former Queen of the Shake
* Yedan Derryg (Prince and Watch of the Shake)
== House of the Shake==
Despite their subjugation, the Shake maintained a matrilineal royal line.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 17, US HC p.521 There were several positions that were occupied by members of royal blood. Their titles the stages of night between sunset and sunrise and their names came from the Tiste Andii language.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 17, US HC p.521-522 The Queen appeared to choose the Rise.
* Twilight, Queen of the Shake (Yan Tovis)
* The Rise, King of the Shake (unoccupied)
* The Watch (Yedan Derryg)
* Awakening Dawn (unoccupied)
In ancient times a 'Sister of Cold Nights' used to stand by the Queen of the Shake. Korlat offered to fill that role and Yan Tovis accepted her into the House of the Shake.The Crippled God, Chapter 19 This tradition may have been based on repeated appearances of the Elder Goddess Sister of Cold Nights amongst the Shake.
== In Reaper's Gale ==
After returning to Lether from her voyage around the world with the Third Edur Imperial Fleet, Yan Tovis left Letheras with her company of Shake to return to Fent Reach.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 7, US HC p.159-160 At Boaral Keep, she learned from Pully and Skwish that her mother had died, making Yan Tovis the new Queen of the Shake.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.321-324 When she simultaneously discovered the Malazan invasion of Lether and reunited with her half-brother, Yedan Derryg the Watch, she abandoned her post in the Letherii Army to return to the Isle and take her throne.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.337-342 
Already at the Isle was Shake Brullyg, who sought to claim rule over the Shake as its Rise, using the Malazan invasion as a pretext to call for independence. When Adjunct Tavore Paran sought to make Second Maiden Fort her headquarters at the start of the invasion, her advanced squads isolated Brullyg in his rooms, effectively holding him prisoner. Both Adjunct Tavore and Yan Tovis reached the island at nearly the same time, and negotiations for its future began. Yan Tovis was convinced not to have Brullyg thrown out a window and the Malazans were encouraged to depart and support Shake sovereignty over the Isle.
As Queen of the Shake, Yan Tovis broke from tradition and refused to bend to the will of the coven. No more would the witches and warlocks be their peoples' secret rulers, nor would theirs be the sole decision on the choice of the next Rise.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 14, US HC p.390-392 At the same she needed the witches on her side to maintain control over the Isle's large population of Letherii criminals, who had freed themselves during the Tiste Edur invasion. Without the witches to bolster her as queen, she was just another hated Letherii officer.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 20, US HC p.608-610
Some time later, Clip arrived to escort Nimander Golit and his Tiste Andii relatives off the Isle. The Mortal Sword told Nimander that the Shake were their kin--a mix of Andii, Edur, Human, and possibly even Tiste Liosan blood. But he argued the Shake were not ready for this knowledge and perhaps never would be.Reaper's Gale, Epilogue, US HC p.824-825
== In Dust of Dreams==
Following the chaos brought by the Malazan defeat of the Letherii Empire and the destruction of their homeland, the Shake were forced onto the mainland where they were brutally attacked by the inhabitants. Yan Tovis made the decision to save her people by attempting to find their ancestral homeland, hidden somewhere within a Warren. Along the way, they were accidentally pulled into another Warren protected by a group of Tiste Liosan. Narrowly defeating the group, the remnants of the Shake continued their journey.
The Shake eventually reached the city of Kharkanas, also the ancestral home of the Tiste Andii. While there, Yan Tovis and Yedan Derryg learned the truth of their people's past when it was revealed that it was actually the Shake who were born of the intermingling between Light and Dark. This was represented by a shore near Kharkanas, vaguely remembered and referred to by the Shake as the Shore.
== In The Crippled God ==
(Information needed)
==In Forge of Darkness==
Long ago the Shake were a sect of the Tiste that worshipped the spirits of the land in Kurald Galain and appeared to be relatives of the Deniers. They lived in monasteries divided into two segments--Yan, Sons of the Mother and Yedan, Daughters of the Father. Many Sons and Daughters were lifebound mates of each other, a bond somewhat similar to marriage.Forge of Darkness, Chapter 7, UK HC p.191 
The great temple at Kharkanas was once dedicated to the river god, Dorssan Ryl, who was worshipped by the Shake. Since then the sect had devolved into a cult of asceticism and self-abnegation that conflated suffering with faith.Forge of Darkness, Chapter 9, UK HC p.245 The Azathanai, T'riss, claimed that the Shake killed the river god by chaining him to their fountains before she broke the bond and resurrected the god.Forge of Darkness, Chapter 9, UK HC p.249
The monks' holy language was called 'Shake', also referred to as 'Yedan' dialect.Forge of Darkness, Chapter 6, UK MMPB p.254 
The Shake population was so devastated by the wars against the Forulkan and the Jheleck that the monks resorted to child theft to increase their numbers.Forge of Darkness, Chapter 9, UK HC p.249
==In Fall of Light==
(Information needed)
==Notable ancient Shake==
*Caplo Dreem
*Warlock Resh
*Witch Ruvera
*Sheccanto Derran
*Skelenal
==Quotes==
==Notes and references==
Category:Humans
Category:Kurald Galain
Category:Lether natives
Category:Races
 
Category:Tiste
es:Temblor
de:Triller
it:Shake