Dal Honese

The people who inhabited the Dal Hon Plains and the Forest Horn jungle were known as the Dal Honese.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 21, US HC p.642 They were made up of various tribes and described as onyx-skinned. Those from the northern savannah tended to be taller and more willowy than those from the southern jungle.
== Notable Dal Honese ==
* Badan GrukReaper's Gale, Chapter 21, UK BCA edition p.700
* Bala JesseltReturn of the Crimson Guard, Book 1 Chapter 4, US HC p.178
* BalmThe Bonehunters, Chapter 7, UK MMPB p.426/427
* Cal-Brinn
* Dassem Ultor
* Duiker
* Hektar
* Iskaral Pust
* Kellanved
* KisswhereReaper's Gale, Chapter 21, UK BCA edition p.700/701
* ManxThe Crippled God, Chapter 22, UK HB p.685
* Mara
* Masan Gilani
* Mogora
* Nep Furrow
* SinterReaper's Gale, Chapter 21, UK BCA edition p.700
* SuthStonewielder, Chapter 2, US TPB p.84
* Wu
* Yune
==History==
The Dal Hon league of kingdoms had once been a separate entity from the Malazan Empire two generations before the events of Gardens of the Moon. But the Dal Hon reliance on individual talented warriors was no match for the coordinated, disciplined tactics of the Malazans. Before then, the only nation able to successfully war against them was Itko Kan. The Dal Hon attributed their failures against the Malazans to poor generalship.Stonewielder, Chapter 2, US HC p.88Stonewielder, Chapter 4, US HC p.202
==Society==
Dal Honese adults had the right to take the path of wandering, a custom by which men and women left their tribes behind to explore the world. Parents were free to leave their children behind in the care of their extended kin, Shamans, and shoulder-witches. Although leave takers could be gone for many years, they usually returned eventually. After the Malazan Empire conquered Dal Hon, the once rare custom became observed much more frequently and by adults of younger age. As a result, fewer children were born and mixed-race children increased as a percentage of the population as wanderers returned with foreign husbands or wives. Dal Honese culture became suffused with new ways.The Bonehunters, Chapter 13, US SFBC p.537
The four sacred weapons of the Dal Hon tribes were bola, kout, hook-scythe and rock.The Bonehunters, Chapter 7, UK MMPB p.426 Another traditional weapon was the Vethbela, or "Bonekisser", prized for its ability to leave opponents' bones unmarked when collected as trophies.
A warrior who sought the heart of a woman would collect the femur bones of his enemies, polish them, and carve them with scenes of his glorious death. Many such bones would placed before the threshold of her family's hut as proof of the suitor's prowess and courage.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 21, US HC p.644
When a Dal Honese warrior thought they were going to die in battle, they decorated themselves in a death-mask of ash. Then they danced in tight circles while singing a death dirge — a strange monotonous nasal groaning sound. Those who interrupted such a ritual risked a lifetime of curses stretching down their bloodline.The Bonehunters, Chapter 6, US SFBC p.239/242
The Dal Honese drank the milk of cow's and the blood of bulls.The Bonehunters, Chapter 7, US SC p.352 Baked gourds and fillets of snake were considered a delicacy.The Bonehunters, Chapter 8, US SFBC p.380 
Dal Honese horses were faintly striped crossbreeds sharing genetic heritage with the zebras of the Dal Hon Plains. Such horses were barely tamed, likely to buck and bite, and some saw an evil intelligence in their red-rimmed eyes.The Bonehunters, Chapter 13, US SFBC p.538
==Gods and Goddesses==
The Dal Honese worshipped a menagerie of deities. Amongst them:
*Brithan Troop, the eleven-headed vulture goddessThe Bonehunters, Chapter 7, US HC p.286 
*The Cobra GodThe Crippled God, Chapter 22
*Imparala Ar, the Dung God
*Neethal Looru, the god that comes in the night whom no one has seenStonewielder, Chapter 8, US HC p.411
*Thesorma Raadil, the Witch EaterThe Bonehunters, Chapter 7, US HC p.285
==Dal Honese Expressions==
"I'll show you the inside of the Cobra God's nose" - probably north Dal HoneseThe Crippled God, Chapter 22, UK HB p.686
"Amen and a spit in the eye t'that" - "Amen and a spit in the eye back"
==In Toll the Hounds==
Almost a year before the Tiste Edur launched their attacks on Drift Avalii, two half-dead Dal Honese washed up on the island's shores. They had fled their homeland in an ancient dugout while making for Geni. Their tribe lived deep in the jungle and was obsessed with its own ancestors. The tribe's dead were not buried, but gradually walled into each family's ever-expanding mud-walled hut. Each time a person died, a single wall was built containing the corpse, their bodies covered in clay and posed as if dancing. It required three deaths to complete a room extending from the main home, which was then finished off with a roof of palm fronds. Some homes grew as large as castles with hundreds of chambers where the dead witnessed all and sat in eternal judgement.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 8, US SFBC p.313-314
Their villages grew so large they devoured the land and its resources, unleashing wars against rival tribes. The growing numbers of dead could not be properly buried and their ancestors demanded vengeance. By the time villages were being burned to the ground, the two Dal Honese could take no more and fled.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 8, US SFBC p.314
==Notes and references==
 
Category:Quon Talians
de:Dal Honese