Tiste Liosan

The Tiste Liosan [TĪST lee-OH-san]Steven Erikson Gardens of the Moon 20th Anniversary Interview - Ten Very Big Books podcast - As pronounced by Steven Erikson at 01:18:23 were a non-human elder race also known as the Children of Light.Stonewielder, Glossary They were the second of Mother Dark's children.Memories of Ice, Chapter 10, Epigraph They were not one of the four Founding Races and only had contact with the Malazan world due to a breach in the barriers surrounding their Warren of Kurald Thyrllan possibly through the human use of Telas and of Thyr, the Paths of Fire and of Light and the Imass use of the Tellann, the Hold of Fire.
The Tiste Liosan made the fewest appearances of the Tiste races in the Malazan series.
== Anatomy ==
The Tiste Liosan were taller than humans, though of similar proportions. Their features were similar to a Tiste Edur's, apart from their white, almost luminous skin and the silver colour of their slanted, epicanthic, almond-shaped eyes. Their hair was silver or gold and generally kept long. The Tiste Liosan were close kin to the Tiste Edur and Tiste Andii, though they did not share genetic descent. Internal anatomy differed from the human norm; specifically, the heart was known to be buried deeper in the torso.House of Chains, Chapter 26
== Culture ==
The Tiste Liosan were the least well-known of the Tiste races, and had the least contact with the Malazan world.House of Chains, Chapter 9, US SFBC p.382 They inhabited Kurald Thyrllan, the Elder Warren of Light, and were not native to the Malazan world. In contrast to their apathetic kin, the Tiste Andii, the Liosan were high-tempered, arrogant and zealous. Dedicated warrior-priests called Seneschals acted as a bridge to their god of light, Osserc. 
Although recognising the Andii as the first of Mother Dark's children, they viewed their cousins as enemies and vermin, tainted by the lack of Father Light's purifying blood. As such, they deserved only death. Only among the Liosan, children of Father Light, was the Tiste blood pure. The Edur were tolerated as their blood contained something of the Father, but they were viewed as a lesser species of Tiste.House of Chains, Chapter 9, US SFBC p.379 Enias referred to the Tiste Liosan language as 'The Language of Purity'. 
Socially, the Liosan appeared to be martially organized and hierarchical, led by warrior-priests. Their Liosan armour was white enamel. They had a visored helm of the same material with a leather underlining webbed over eyes and cheeks by black iron mail. They employed light, narrow-bladed ivory longswords, scabbarded in pale woodHouse of Chains, Chapter 21 as well as curved scimitars that appeared to be carved from ivory. They rode white, long-limbed horses with rust coloured manes.House of Chains, Chapter 9, US SFBC p.377-378
The Liosan held the text of Osric's Visions sacred, and consulted it for wisdom.House of ChainsChapter 16, US SFBC p.567
==Language==
For a list of known Tiste Liosan words and phrases as well as translations please visit the Tiste Language page.
== In House of Chains ==
Unbeknownst to the Tiste Liosan, their god Osric had vanished from Kurald Thyrllan. To hide his father's disappearance and allow Liosan seneschals to continue calling upon their magic, Osserc's son L'oric used his own demon familiar as Osserc's stand-in. The demon answered the seneschals' prayers without their knowledge.House of Chains, Chapter 12, US SFBC p.462/476-477House of Chains, Chapter 13, US SFBC p.487-491
Trull Sengar, a Tiste Edur, and Onrack, a T'lan Imass, sought to escape the Nascent via a portal they discovered within the flooded fragment of Kurald Emurlahn. Without knowing where the gate led, they destroyed its protective ward with Moranth munitions. Four outraged Liosan warriors on horseback burst from the now unprotected gate to Kurald Thyrllan to challenge the intruders. Onrack engaged briefly in combat with Seneschal Jorrude and his fellow warrior-priests before Monok Ochem and other T'lan Imass arrived as reinforcements. The Tiste Liosan were then forced to co-operate with Sengar, Onrack, and the other T'lan Imass in order to escape the shattered Warren in which they were all now trapped.House of Chains, Chapter 9, US SFBC p.376-382
Monok Ochem revealed the demon familiar's deception and tricked Jorrude's group into sending the T'lan Imass into Kurald Thyrllan where the Bonecasters slew the imposter.House of Chains, Chapter 12, US SFBC p.467-469/477House of Chains, Chapter 16, US SFBC p.567-568
Meanwhile, the Liosan escaped into the Malazan world where they continued tracking the intruders into Kurald Thyrllan. Stumbling into the aftermath of the Battle of Raraku, they nearly died at the hands of Gesler's sappers before deciding to retreat back to their own Warren.House of Chains, Chapter 26 
L'oric was himself gravely wounded by the Talons Korbolo Dom sent to murder the Whirlwind Goddess. He was found by Osric, who brought him his keep in Kurald Thyrllan to recover.House of Chains, Chapter 26
==In Toll the Hounds==
Nimander Golit fell through a gate of Omtose Phellack in a former Azath House occupied by Gothos. The Tiste Andii found himself in a world of ash surrounded by the hostile spirits of Tiste Liosan, Tiste Edur, and Tiste Andii who fell in the first wars, when dragons burst through every gate to slay and die. The pumice and ash that had been the breath and blood of the dying dragons had trapped the spirits as if in amber. Nimander convinced Elder, the mason also trapped there, to build an Azath House from the dragons' stony remains.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 8, US SFBC p.330/332
== In Dust of Dreams==
A group of about eight Tiste Liosan encountered and were killed by Yedan Derryg along Blind Gallan's Road, a private Warren/path created or opened by Yan Tovis.
== In The Crippled God==
The armies of the Tiste Liosan amassed to invade and sack Kharkanas. Kadagar Fant, Lord of the Liosan, conscripted the entire population of the Liosan City of Light to fight alongside eleven Soletaken Eleint and the Liosan Legions. The invasion proved to be a mass slaughter on both sides, with the corpses on the First Shore massing "three deep" to the ground, while the wounded were piled into trenches en masse.
Only after killing all of his conscripts did Kadagar order the Liosan professional army into battle, and even then, the battle ended in failure for the Liosan. The Liosan Eleint were killed by Yedan Derryg, Silanah and the Andii Soletaken Eleint. The Tiste Andii pursued the retreating Liosan into their city of Light, promising to finish the eternal war between light and dark.
== In Return of the Crimson Guard==
A small group of Tiste Liosan, including Jorrude and Enias, had a brief and humiliating encounter with Cowl and Skinner within the Warren of Thyr, close to the borders of Kurald Thyrllan.Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 2 Chapter 3
== In Stonewielder ==
Kiska and Jheval encountered the Army of Light, a Tiste Liosan army, encamped near the "whorl" in Kurald Emurlahn which led to the Warren of Chaos.Stonewielder, Chapter 10
== In Forge of Darkness==
The first known Tiste Liosan was Syntara, High Priestess of Kharkanas. A Tiste, Syntara witnessed the meeting of Mother Dark with T'riss, the Azathanai. She revealed few details of what was said, but when it was over Syntara stumbled out of the room, skin now alabaster and eyes now dark pools of ink, shouting that she had chosen her gift from the Azathanai. She was now the first high priestess of Light, and a Tiste Liosan.Forge of Darkness, Chapter 9, UK HC p.270/275Forge of Darkness, Chapter 18, UK HC p.576
== Notable Tiste Liosan ==
*Aparal Forge
*Enias
*Hunn Raal
*Jayashul
*Jorrude
*Kadagar Fant
*L'oric
*Osserc
*Syntara
*Vatha Urusander
==Notes and references==
 
Category:Tiste races
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