The Rent (Morn)

The Rent was a magical wound between the mortal world and Chaos.Memories of Ice, Chapter 25, UK MMPB p.1135-1140 The Rent was located at Morn, near a blackened ruined Jaghut tower that stood at the edge of a line of hills too evenly spaced to be natural. Nearby to the southeast were concentric rings of mounds surrounding a central dome that was at least three man-heights tall. 
The Rent was described as a red welt, regularly pulsing and causing the sky about it to be a sickly colour.Memories of Ice, Chapter 1, UK MMPB p.59 It was suspended in the air at a height about six times that of an adult Imass. Lady Envy thought the portal to be almost mechanical in nature. 
==Jaghut tower==
The tower was made of stone and surrounded by a deep field of crushed black glass. Entrance was gained through what had once been a balcony. Inside, a curved hallway led to a central chamber. A spiral staircase at its centre rose upwards. The room contained three limestone sarcophagi whose lids had been removed and set against the wall nearby. The tower was most recently occupied by Lady Envy while she studied the Rent.
== In Memories of Ice ==
298,665 years before Burn's Sleep: Kilava erroneously believed the rent to be a gate to Omtose Phellack due to the tower nearby and not sensing the familiarity of Tellann through it.Memories of Ice, Prologue, UK MMPB p.29-34 As such she tried to defy other Imass hunters (pre-Ritual of Tellann), namely Clan Leader Cannig Tol and Bonecaster Pran Chole, by allowing two Jaghut children, a boy and a girl, that were being chased to escape into it. After Cannig Tol's party caught up with Kilava however, Pran Chole revealed that the "gate" was in fact a wound, and one that had once destroyed the city around it. By letting the children inside, one of their souls was exchanged for the one currently keeping the wound sealed, and that while the nearby tower was indeed Jaghut, the ruined city in the surrounds was in fact a much older K'Chain Che'Malle construction. This allowed the soul of a Matron that had been held within the rent to return to the central dome where its body was imprisoned only by wards. Its escape was inevitable.
1164th year of Burn's Sleep: Toc the Younger came across the central barrow noting signs that something had burst from its northern slope years ago.Memories of Ice, Chapter 1 It turned out that one of the Jaghut children, the boy, had been taken along by the Matron upon her escape.Memories of Ice, Chapter 25, UK MMPB p.1137 He became the Pannion Seer, and was corrupted by his use of Chaos, which was the Warren he had access to through his Matron "mother". Quick Ben and Ganoes Paran severed the link and released Pannion's sister from the Rent then moved the siblings into Burn's Warren where they could counteract the Crippled God's infection.
==In Toll the Hounds==
After being shipwrecked off the coast of Genabackis, Traveller found himself at Morn. An earthquake had opened an inlet to the sea and destroyed a number of tholos tombs, leaving the bones of K'Chain Che'Malle cluttering the water. The rent remained as a mottled scar in the air thar bled with pain.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 6, US SFBC p.196-197
== Speculation on Origin ==
Kallor claimed that the Rent was created during a civil war between the K'Chain Che'Malle and the Short-Tails (Nah'ruk),Memories of Ice, Chapter 15, UK MMPB p.592-593 however the Rent was potentially caused during the war between the K'Chain Che'Malle and Forkrul Assail when a gate to Chaos was known to have been opened.The Crippled God, Chapter 18, UK MMPB p.706 
For more speculations about the Rent see post five onwards on this Malazan Empire forum thread.
==Notes and references==
Category:Genabackis
Category:Locations
de:Der Riss (Morn)