Skinner

Skinner was an Avowed within the Crimson Guard, who had founded and once commanded the Ninth Blade of the Guard.Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 1 Chapter 1, UK PB p.8 He was described as a tall man who Kyle thought was as big as a Jhag. Skinner had reddish-blond hair and a face marked by scars.Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 2 Chapter 5, UK PB p.467
He wore a magical suit of layered iron armour with long blackened and scoured mail given to him by Ardata that covered him from head to toe. It glittered darkly in moonlight and Shimmer described it as something she had never seen before, with a "dark patina that covered it with a crystal-like glitter". He also wore a tall closed helm that accented his height and scaled, articulated iron gauntlets. He apparently he never removed his armour, and slept sitting up, fully equipped. Skinner never hid that Ardata was the one who had given it to him.Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 1 Chapter 4, UK PB p.168-170Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 1 Chapter 5, UK PB p.226Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 2 Chapter 4, UK PB p.364-365 Over his armour he wore a surcoat of an almost black, shimmering cloth dusted by flower petals displaying Ardata's heraldry. 
He wielded a greatsword that he kept belted at his waist, whose blade was "mottled black in corrosion". Just seeing it made Kyle flinch and think that merely being touched by the sword would prove fatal.Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 1 Chapter 4, UK PB p.168-170
It was said among the Guard that he was a rather unpleasant person, and at the same time, the only one capable of putting Cowl in his place.
He spoke Talian.
==In Midnight Tides==
After Iron Bars killed the preternaturally skilled Emperor of the Tiste Edur, Rhulad Sengar, he remarked at how good and fast with the sword his enemy had been. With another five years of experience, he noted, the emperor would have been skilled enough to give Shimmer, Blues, or even Skinner trouble.Midnight Tides, Chapter 16, US SFBC p.505 When the young emperor awoke on the island of the Crippled God, the god marveled that an Avowed of the Crimson Guard had unwittingly aided their cause. He told Rhulad to be glad it had not been Skinner or Cowl for surely they would have taken more notice of the emperor and that would not have been a good thing.Midnight Tides, Chapter 16, US SFBC p.513
==In The Bonehunters==
The Soldier of High House Death and Hood's other servants searched for Skinner. The mounted Seguleh warrior was hot on Skinner's trail when Hood intervened and temporarily sent him to a monastery of D'rek in Seven Cities. After conversing with Cutter and Heboric, the enraged Soldier opened a portal and departed shouting, "Skinner! Hear me, you damned Avowed! Cheater of death! I am coming for you! Now!"The Bonehunters, Chapter 4, US SFBC p.159-162
==In Toll the Hounds==
Gruntle and Master Quell entered Hood's realm to investigate why the Trygalle Trade Guild's way was blocked by an army of the dead, and were confronted by the Seguleh Second, Iskar Jarak, Brukhalian, and Toc the Younger. The Seguleh yearned to kill Gruntle until Iskar Jarak warned him to save his wrath for Skinner. The Seguleh raged, realising Hood had caused him to forget his old foe, and stalked off.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 14, US SFBC p.557-560
When Hood brought his army of death within Dragnipur to defend The wagon from the legions of Chaos, the Second protested at throwing away his life without ever having had the chance to kill Skinner.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 22, US SFBC p.911-912 Once the battle commenced, Hood pulled the Second aside to give him a final task in the god's service, which would free him to face Skinner once complete. The gleeful Second travelled to Darujhistan to aid in the defence of Dragnipur against the Hounds of Light. Riding into battle he shouted, "Skinner! I'm coming for you! But first, these guys..."Toll the Hounds, Chapter 24, US SFBC p.962-963
==In The Crippled God==
During a conversation with Shadowthrone the Crippled God stated: "It is my understanding that the one named Skinner, usurper and tyrant king of my House of Chains, has many enemies. He can now count me among them."The Crippled God, Chapter 21
== In Night of Knives ==
The Malazan First Sword Temper mentioned that Skinner was the only Guardsman reported to have survived a clash with Dassem Ultor.Night of Knives, Chapter 1
== In Return of the Crimson Guard ==
thumb|Skinner and Cowl by [https://www.instagram.com/shadaan_studios/?hl=de Shadaan]
Skinner was a key figure in the defense of the Guard's holdings on Stratem during the Malazan invasion. He claimed to have nearly taken Kellanved in the fighting before Dassem Ultor's intervention. Afterwards, he supported the Diaspora that scattered the Guard across the world. Skinner spent at least some of the intervening period with his new patron Ardata on Jacuruku.
With the end of the Diaspora, the Crimson Guard gathered at Fortress Haven on Stratem where Skinner was expected to lead them if the missing Duke K'azz D'Avore was not found. Shimmer met with Skinner for the first time in nearly a century and Kyle thought she "looked shaken" afterwards.Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 1 Chapter 4, UK PB p.190 She no longer recognized the man she once knew and thought it strange that he never removed his new patron's armour, even to sleep.Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 1 Chapter 5, UK PB p.226
Unbeknownst to most of the Guard, Skinner and Cowl had secretly betrayed K'azz D'avore, trapping him in the Dolmens of Tien. The pair murdered fellow Guard Stoop when he questioned their indifference to locating their missing leader, and blamed the crime on Kyle, the new recruit who had witnessed the attack.Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 1 Chapter 4, UK PB p.191-192 
The Guard, now reunited under Skinner's leadership, made haste towards the Malazan imperial capital at Unta. Skinner led a select squad of Avowed to the Malazan Imperial Palace, but was disappointed not to find Empress Laseen in residence.Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 2 Chapter 2, UK PB p.293-294When a clash between the Crimson Guard and the Malazans on Quon Tali became inevitable, Shadowthrone and Cotillion struck a deal with Dassem to counter Skinner's influence on the battlefield, which would have been deadly for the Malazans during the impending clash.Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 2 Chapter 5 During the Battle of the Plains, Skinner and five of the Avowed faced Temper and Ferrule, who were joined at the last moment by Dassem. The three remnants of Dassem's First Sword successfully countered Skinner and his Disavowed, and finally repulsed them; in the fight between Skinner and Dassem, Skinner taking a heavy wound to his neck. Skinner and the remaining Disavowed retreated through the Crippled God's warren.Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 3 Chapter 2
Skinner was disavowed by K'azz D'Avore for his conduct leading up to and during the Battle of the Plains,Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 3 Chapter 2 after which he allied himself with the Crippled God and claimed the title of King of the High House Chains.Return of the Crimson Guard, Epilogue, UK PB p.688-689
==In Stonewielder==
Skinner led Mara, Shijel, and others of the Disavowed to assault the Sky Tower and seize the fragment of the Crippled God that the Stormguard kept as their holiest relic. As they were making their escape by warren, they were approached by their former comrades Blues, Shell, Fingers, Lazar, and Iron Bars. Skinner took the opportunity to mock Bars over the deaths of his command before making his exit.Stonewielder, Chapter 12, UK TPB p.618
==In Blood and Bone==
Skinner and the other Disavowed turned up on Jacuruku, ostensibly as mercenaries in the employ of the Thaumaturg expedition against Jakal Viharn. Instead, Skinner pursued several fragments of his patron, the Crippled God: one at the Dolmens of Tien,Blood and Bone, Chapter 3 a second on a wrecked city of Meckros,Blood and Bone, Chapter 5 and a third within the Stormwall on Korelri.Blood and Bone, Chapter 14 Results of these searches were mixed, and it was revealed that Skinner actually sought the power of the fragments for his own purposes. 
During his travel in the Jungle of Himatan, he and the other Disavowed fought against Ardata's sons and protectors. Afterwards, Rutana and Citravaghra showed themselves to taunt Skinner with the idea that K'azz was also in Jacuruku and that Ardata had made him her new consort.Blood and Bone, Chapter 13 
When Skinner later found K'azz with Ardata at Jakal Viharn he attempted to challenge K'azz for control of the Guard. Before the two came to blows, Ardata asked Skinner to "reconsider my offer and stand here by my side". When he declined, Ardata reclaimed the magical armor she had given him, which turned into a swarm of spiders that consumed Skinner down to his bones.Blood and Bone, Chapter 15
==In Kellanved's Reach==
In the very early days of the creation of the Malazan Empire, Skinner was the commander of his own troop of mercenaries. At the time that Malle served as the ruler of Gris, Skinner and his troop had been hired by Duke Baran of Baran to slay as many Wickans in the Wickan Plains as possible and to then bring the scalps of the slain to the Duke. It was because of this sort of characteristic activity that Skinner had 'earned' himself his nom de guerre: "Skinner".Kellanved's Reach, Chapter 7, US TPB p.119-120
Skinner and his troop - some four hundred strong - were notorious. The mercenaries and their commander were commonly considered to be the "worst of the worst" of all the then existing mercenary groups. Many people thought that Skinner and his troop were no more than "hired bloody-handed murderers and killers".Kellanved's Reach, Chapter 21, US TPB p.321
Skinner, at this period, was a tall, powerful-looking man, clad in a long mail coat with a two-handed sword belted at his side. His hair was blond, long and thick, and it and his thick beard were both curled. Others tended to think that Skinner seemed to be "too self-satisfied and smug", with a rather sardonic manner. Surprising many, the Crimson Guard under Courian D'Avore - usually considered by many to be mercenaries who were "paragons of merit" - recruited Skinner and his troop. Thus, Skinner and those he had brought with him, became Crimson Guardsmen. Both Courian's son, K'azz D'Avore, and Surat - the Guard's reigning champion - were greatly troubled and made uneasy by this inclusion of Skinner and his troop into the ranks of the Guard.Kellanved's Reach, Chapter 21, US TPB p.321-322
==In Forge of the High Mage==
At the time Malazan Emperor Kellanved sent his army and navy to conquer Falar, Skinner was already a year late to bring a contingent to the Guard's Red Fort in the Great Fenn Range to relieve Gwynn and Blues.Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 2, UK HC p.30 When it became clear that more than twenty thousand Malazan soldiers were passing through Eagle Summit Pass below the fort, Blues and Gwynn reached out to Skinner for reinforcements. Gwynn and Smoky struggled to use their magic to open communication with Skinner because a powerful aura shielded his location. When Skinner's image appeared before them, he was wearing a coat of fine dark mail with the tangled coils of a massive snake at his feet and other members of the Guard fighting in the jungle behind him. The irritated Skinner said he could not come to their aid because he was in the midst of a challenging contract in Jacuruku. He recommended they slay the Malazans on their own, then warned they must sever the connection as his new patroness did not suffer trespassers in her demesne. Blues caught a final glimpse of gigantic butterflies descending upon Skinner's soldiers before the connection was painfully cut off. The bleeding Gwynn concluded that Skinner's unnamed patron was Ardata, Witch Queen of Jacuruku.Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 3, UK HC p.43-45
==Quotes==
==Fan art gallery==
<gallery navigation="true" hideaddbutton="true">
The Crimson Guard - C I V I L W A R final 2.jpg|'Civil War', Shimmer on a book cover simulation by Corporal Nobbs 
==Notes and references==
Category:Avowed
Category:Crimson Guard members
Category:Disavowed
Category:High House Chains
Category:Males
de:Schinder
es:Despellejador