T'iam

T'iam, also known as Tiam, T'matha,Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 20 Tiama,Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 24 or TiamathaToll the Hounds, Chapter 6, was the Elder Goddess of the Eleint, also known as dragons. Kilava Onass referred to her as the Mother of all Dragons. Olar Ethil said she had spawned all dragons.Memories of Ice, Chapter 19 The blood of T'iam was Chaos and allowed the Tiste to become Soletaken long ago.
==In Midnight Tides==
Sukul Ankhadu bitterly told Osserc and Menandore that T'iam was a "she-nightmare" and "whore" who had "sail[ed] out on feathered wings from the dark of another realm."Midnight Tides, Chapter 7, UK MMPB p.277
By a process not yet fully understood, some Tiste became Soletaken by drinking T'iam's blood. The female Soletaken thus created subsequently referred to themselves as T'iam's daughters. It seemed that the transformation also required T'iam to mate with a male Tiste.Midnight Tides, Chapter 7, UK MMPB p.277/278 She was known to have mated with Scabandari Bloodeye and to 'give birth' to Sheltatha Lore. She also mated with Osserc, producing two more daughters, Menandore and Sukul Ankhadu. The creation of the Soletaken resulted in T'iam's death, although she appeared to have died and been reborn thousands of times.The Bonehunters, Chapter 2
Osserc referred to the Soletaken as an extended family whose most precious (or if not precious then certainly most popular) trait was treachery and betrayal.Midnight Tides, Chapter 7, UK MMPB p.278
Udinaas and Feather Witch accidentally travelled to the Refugium where they met the Imass, Ulshun Pral, and the boy, Rud Elalle. Ulshan Pral spoke of a Hold the two Letherii had never heard of called Starvald Demelain. In an attempt to explain, he listed the names of many of its notable denizens including T'iam. He finished by calling them "Eleint. Draconean. Dragons. The Pure Dragons."Midnight Tides, Chapter 15, US SFBC p.485
==In The Bonehunters==
The imprisoned Eleint, Ampelas, Eloth, and Kalse, discussed the rivalry between their kind and the Soletaken Eleint with Cotillion. Cotillion noted that as the sources of sorcery, the Eleint were compelled by K'rul to return to Starvald Demelain lest sorcery cease to be predictable. Meanwhile their Soletaken brethren, who also possessed the blood of Tiam and the power that came with it, were free to travel as they pleased. When Cotillion declared it clever of K'rul to force the Eleint and the Soletaken Eleint to share the same aspects, Ampelas stated that "unlike Tiam, when we're killed we stay dead."The Bonehunters, Chapter 2, US SFBC p.78-79
==In Reaper's Gale==
The Soletaken Eleint, Menandore, Sheltatha Lore, and Sukul Ankhadu, were said to possess "the blood of Tiam, the mother".Reaper's Gale, Chapter 23
==In Toll the Hounds==
Anomander Rake gave Baruk a copy of Dillat's Dark and Light from his personal library. The archaic book described a conflict which pitted Rake and Osseric against the evil tyrant Draconus, Slayer of Eleint. The Children of Tiam called out for punishment for Draconus and his daughter Spite, who abetted him, so Rake and Osseric hunted them both. 
The book also recorded the war among the dragons when all the First Born (but one) had bowed their necks to K'rul. The children of the dragons, bereft of their inheritance, rose in battle to reject the First Born. Rake and Osseric had already tasted the blood of T'iam and others came to do the same. War raged upon all the Realms as long as the Gates of Starvald Demelain remained open. Under Osseric, Kurald Liosan was the first Realm to seal the portal between itself and the Realm of the dragons.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 1, US SFBC p.51-54
Endest Silann recalled an important moment from the long-ago civil war amongst the Tiste Andii when he was just a lowly Acolyte serving the Temple of Mother Dark in the Citadel of Kharkanas. On that day, Anomander Rake had come to the Citadel, freshly changed by the murder of T'iam, to confront Mother Dark. Rake brought Endest Silann with him as they walked to Mother Dark's temple. War had already come to the Citadel and bodies from the various Tiste Andii factions littered the ground. Rake told Mother Dark that he planned to unite the Andii and end the civil war. Mother Dark sensed the new blood within him and warned that Silchas Ruin would seek the same. Saying Rake sought peace in murder, she forsook him, denied all her first children, and closed the Dark to them all.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 4, US SFBC p.131-135
== In The Crippled God ==
thumb|T'iam by [https://www.instagram.com/p/Ck46DLFqWTb/ Shadaan] 
After Korabas was freed, she mentioned multiple times that she felt like her mother Tiam would awaken, and along with other Eleint kill her.
The Eleint, after being freed from Starvald Demelain, tracked Korabas down and attacked her. The battle was dragged into the mortal realm as Korabas had been summoned by Adjunct Tavore Paran's Otataral sword, which she had placed in the Glass Desert. At the same time, the ensuing battle drew so many dragons that T'iam began to manifest-- both due to the convergence of so many dragons, and in counter to the freeing of Korabas (because manifesting T’iam requires a massive “Storm” of Eleint i.e both a large amount of Eleint and a common, clearly defined purpose). 
Korabas and T'iam are opposing forces. Korabas destroys magic (and by association, life), whereas T'iam and the dragons represent the different aspects of the Warrens/magic system. So T'iam began to manifest in order to destroy Korabas, and since the blood of T'iam was that of Chaos, the manifestation of raw Chaos would have thoroughly destroyed the world of mortals. However, this was prevented by the renewed chaining of Korabas in a barrow beneath the Otataral sword which nullified the aforementioned purpose and made T'iam disperse (like she had been dispersed time and again so many times throughout millenia).
==Quotes==
== Trivia ==
T'iam, the Mother of all Dragons from the Malazan universe, may be an homage to the book series' origins as a fantasy role-playing game since a similar draconic character appears in Dungeons & Dragons. The 1975 edition of the game included a character known as "the Dragon Queen" and "the Chromatic Dragon". By the time of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons' publication in 1977, this character was named "Tiamat", the queen, mother and "Creator of Evil Dragonkind." It is also possible that Steven Erikson is referring directly to Tiamat, the Mesopotamian goddess who was known to take the form of a dragon and who was herself an inspiration for the Dungeons and Dragons character.
==Notes and references==
Category:Ascendants
Category:Elder Gods
Category:Eleint
Category:Females
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