Mhybe

Mhybe [MIBE]An Evening with Steven Erikson by Nerdaí Irish Nerds - As pronounced by Steven Erikson at 15:52, rhymes with "tribe" was the title given to a matron of the Rhivi tribesMemories of Ice, Dramatis Personae who carried the Soletaken child Silverfox to term.Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 11, UK MMPB p.352-359 At the time of giving birth, she was initially described as "perhaps middle-aged" with a dark round face, but later it became clear that she was barely twenty summers old.Memories of Ice, Chapter 3, US SFBC p.105 She had the recently traced tattoo of a white-haired fox on her belly. Immediately after the birth, the tattoo was gone.Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 11, US HC p.253
Her mother had been a reader of bones and her father had held the Spear of War against the White Face Barghast and the Malazan Empire.Memories of Ice, Chapter 3, US SFBC p.88
The word 'Mhybe' was derived from the ancient term 'Mahybe' which meant 'vessel'.The Bonehunters, Glossary, UK MMPB p.1212 The Rhivi called "mhybe" a container intended for a single use after which it would be discarded.
==In Gardens of the Moon==
The Elder God K'rul brought the Mhybe, the Bonecaster Pran Chole, and the mage Kruppe into one of Kruppe's dreams. The Mhybe was already pregnant with a child that bore no soul. Soon they were joined by the creature that had once been the mages Tattersail and Nightchill. The group transferred Tattersail's soul to the Mhybe's child, who became the Soletaken Silverfox.Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 11, US HC p.252-256
==In Memories of Ice==
After Silverfox's birth, the Mhybe and Silverfox came under the protection of Caladan Brood. The Mhybe grew old in a very short space of time, her life-force being unwittingly used by Silverfox, who grew up at a similarly alarming pace. Although appearing as a withered crone, she was in fact only around twenty summers old.Memories of Ice, Chapter 3, US SFBC p.88/105 As her own body deteriorated and her child matured into womanhood, the Mhybe grew bitter towards her daughter, and despite her love and fear for her child's safety, this led to an estrangement between them. Brood's allies, Korlat and Crone, felt pity for the woman and attempted to ease her physical pain and mental anguish.Memories of Ice, Chapter 5, US SFBC p.199-200
Throughout the Pannion Campaign, the Mhybe continued to age at a rapid pace to the point where she could no longer stand on her own. Thereafter, she spent the majority of the Campaign sleeping in a Rhivi wagon guarded by Tiste Andii and fed and tended by the Darujhistan envoys, Coll and Murillio.Memories of Ice, Chapter 15, US SFBC p.498-499/515 A simple-minded Rhivi woman cleaned and bathed her.Memories of Ice, Chapter 18, US SFBC p.619-620 Kruppe also brought her copper ornaments that had once belonged to the First Rhivi which he said would ease her pain.Memories of Ice, Chapter 8, US SFBC p.310-311Memories of Ice, Chapter 15, US SFBC p.513
While the Mhybe slept, she dreamed of being chased across the tundra of Tellann by giant wolves, but each time awoke before being caught.Memories of Ice, Chapter 8, US SFBC p.308-309Memories of Ice, Chapter 15, US SFBC p.514-515 She grew to believe that the wolves had been sent by her daughter to maliciously torment her.Memories of Ice, Chapter 15, US SFBC p.518Memories of Ice, Chapter 18, US SFBC p.620 Once while hiding from the wolves in a cave, she discovered an agonized man and beast trapped in a prison of broken flesh.Memories of Ice, Chapter 19, US SFBC p.692-695 Afterwards, she continued to see the prison in her dreams, which sought to draw her within its touch.Memories of Ice, Chapter 22, US SFBC p.801-802Memories of Ice, Chapter 25, US SFBC p.906
After the Siege of Capustan, Coll and Murillio grew more and more concerned at seeing her a prisoner in her own body and seemingly cast away by her daughter. They took it upon themselves to steal her away to Capustan in the hopes of finding a priest who would grant her a dignified end.Memories of Ice, Chapter 19, US SFBC p.690-692Memories of Ice, Chapter 21, US SFBC p.746 The necromancer Korbal Broach attempted to seize the Mhybe, but was driven away by Hood's Knight of Death.Memories of Ice, Chapter 21, US SFBC p.758-760 The Knight brought Coll, Murillio, and the Mhybe to the Temple of Hood which had been readied for her arrival.Memories of Ice, Chapter 21, US SFBC p.760 They were soon joined by K'rul who assured her guardians that he had come for her salvation and announced it was time for her "dream for real".Memories of Ice, Chapter 25, US SFBC p.903-904 
Within the dreamworld, the memories of the T'lan Imass fell onto the land like ice after Itkovian's benediction.Memories of Ice, Chapter 25, US SFBC p.910 The Mhybe moved towards the cage of bones where she heard a beast's agonized howling. Kruppe helped her to the cage of ribs and requested her to touch it. As she did, Togg burst free and the Mhybe passed out.Memories of Ice, Chapter 25, US SFBC p.932-933 When she awoke, Kruppe begged her to take the dream as her own and let it fill the vessel of her spirit. She was approached by the spirits of the First Rhivi, who explained that the dreamworld had been made by Silverfox, as a request for forgiveness, along with Kruppe, K'rul, and Pran Chole. Silverfox had made a deal with Hood to keep the Mhybe in an eternal sleeping stasis where the Mhybe's dreams would become a new world, one where she would live, young and undying. The Mhybe longed to apologise to her daughter.Memories of Ice, Chapter 25, US SFBC p.950/955-956 
The memories of the T'lan Imass brought unexpected life to the realm. It was also now home to the Beast Thrones where the united Togg and Fanderay lived with their children, the once again mortal T'lan Ay. Togg addressed the Mhybe as the world's mistress and requested that she free the cherished mortal spirit of Toc the Younger within him. The Mhybe agreed.Memories of Ice, Chapter 25, US SFBC p.955-956 
In Capustan, the Mhybe's living body was interred in a sarcophagus where it was to be eternally warded and protected by Hood. K'rul explained to Coll and Murillio that she slept to dream, and within her dream an entire world lived.Memories of Ice, Chapter 25, US SFBC p.960
==In The Crippled God==
Olar Ethil told Precious Thimble that she had made Precious' soul into a Mahybe, a vessel that waits.The Crippled God, Chapter 2 This suggested that the Rhivi title may have derived from the Imass language.
==In Forge of Darkness==
The Hostage Korya Delath was told that she was being prepared to be a Mahybe (suggesting that the term was in wider use at the time).Forge of Darkness, Chapter 3
==Trivia==
*The Mhybe's given name is never revealed.
*The character of the Mhybe seemed to have undergone a transformation between her first appearance in Gardens of the Moon and her second appearance in Memories of Ice. In her first appearance, she was clearly an older woman already heavy with child. But in her second appearance she was only a young woman on the brink of maturity. Not yet ready to accept a marriage proposal from one of the young men of her tribe, her "defiance of accepting a man's touch" was said to make her an ideal candidate for bearing Silverfox. The fact that she had already been pregnant at the time of the Gardens of the Moon account was not mentioned again.Memories of Ice, Chapter 3, US SFBC p.88
*Author Steven Erikson has said with the Mhybe he was inspired to take a metaphor of postpartum depression and make it visceral in a fantasy sense. "It's not just the belief in a mother's suffering through postpartum depression that the child is somehow vampiric, I actually made the child vampiric...to basically push the imagery, push the analogy further."Ten Very Big Books podcast - Memories of Ice - See 04:30
*When pressed to explain the nature of the Mhybe's dreamworld, Erikson said it was probably a "kind of pocket warren...as real as any other place." But "thematically it does not matter whether it's a dreamworld, whether it's a fantasy creation within the Mhybe's mind...if she's smiling, that's what counts more than any physical reality."Ten Very Big Books podcast - Memories of Ice - See 10:25
*Erikson was surprised by initial negative reader reaction to the Mhybe as he found the character rewarding to write.DLC Bookclub Special: Our 2nd Interview with Steven Erikson, author of Memories of Ice - See 43:30
==Notes and references==
Category:Females
Category:Rhivi
de:Mhybe