T'lan Imass

The T'lan Imass [tuh-LAN ih-MASS],Read for Pixels 2016 Interview - As pronounced by Steven Erikson at 54:30 also known as the Silent HostDeadhouse Gates, Chapter 15, US HC p.414 or the Army of Dust and Bone,Kellanved's Reach, Chapter 15, US HC p.224 were undead members of the mortal Imass race, transformed by participating in the Ritual of Tellann. 
Tellann, was the Elder Warren of Fire used by the Imass.The Bonehunters, Glossary Adjunct Lorn referred to the Imass Warrens as "Elder-, blood-, and earthbound", and as such impervious to Otataral.Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 9, UK MMPB p.277 Their shamans were called Bonecasters.Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 9, UK MMPB p.320
==The Ritual of Tellann==
T'lan Imass immortality was achieved via the Ritual of Tellann approximately three hundred thousand years prior to the main events of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, transforming the mortal Imass, one of the four Founding Races,Gardens of the Moon, Glossary, UK MMPB p.705 into the undead T'lan Imass.
The Imass chose to undergo the ritual in order to be more efficient in their war of extermination with the Jaghut. As mortals, the Imass were scattered, their unity lost. They could not cross the ice barriers of the Jaghut. There was starvation. As Tellann undead, the armies could cross such obstacles.
Some Imass did not take part in the original ritual, either choosing to remain mortal or arriving too late. Of those who chose to remain mortal, some later took part in a second evocation of the ritual which was only partially successful (see Brold ).
===Resulting Appearance===
After countless centuries, those who participated in the ritual resembled walking mummified corpses. Desiccated flesh, where it still remained, clung to their bones and dried ligaments as a layered tannic-hued veneer.Kellanved's Reach, Chapter 15, US HC p.224-225 Where dried flesh had withered or been torn away from from the face, it left open cavities and permanent rictus grins of stained teeth. Their eyes were dark pits that nevertheless seemed animated by intelligence and awareness. The clothes they wore were as tattered and half-rotted as their bodies. 
They could travel great distances with incredible speed by becoming one with the earth beneath their feet, turning to dust and traveling as if on the wind. This also enabled them to seemingly materialize out of nowhere to ambush their prey. They could also cross bodies of water, but could only find their shape on land.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 9, US HC p.242 It was even possible to transform and carry non-T'lan Imass with them in their dust-like states.The Bonehunters, Chapter 12, US SFBC p.501/503
===Impact on Senses===
Mundane senses had for the most part withered along with the flesh. Through the shadowed orbits of (Onrack's) eyes, for example, the world was a complex collage of dull colours, heat and cold and often measured by an unerring sensitivity to motion. Spoken words swirled in mercurial clouds of breath - if the speaker lived, that is. If not, then it was the sound itself that was detectable, shivering its way through the air. Onrack sensed sound as much by sight as by hearing. They communicated with each other mostly by thought/telepathy which was no longer possible if they were severed from the ritual as Onrack was.House of Chains, Chapter 6 Their breathless guttural utterances were somehow conveyed to non-Imass as if through magic. 
===Values===
The T'lan Imass abhorred failure. Anyone too shattered to remain with their kin was left behind. Failure's sentence was abandonment, an eternity of immobility. When failure was honourable, their sentient remnants were placed open to the sky, to vistas, to the outside world, so that they might find peace in watching the passing of eons.House of Chains, Chapter 1 Dishonourable behaviour was punished by severing the head from the body, dismembering the headless corpse and scattering the limbs. Weapons would be taken and returned to the place of birth.
===Achieving Death===
Dissolution in water was the only escape possible from the eternal ritual. Some were known to have chosen that path as, even when cut to pieces, each part was still sentient.House of Chains, Chapter 6 Using body parts from other T'lan Imass to 'patch oneself up' was possible but was looked upon as the greatest abomination, the most dire twisting of the powers of Tellann.
==The Jaghut Wars==
The T'lan Imass exterminated Jaghut wherever they could be found, children as well as adults. They often crushed their enemies under heavy, warded stones.The Bonehunters, Chapter 2, US SFBC p.82 This method often meant their victims took years to die.House of Chains, Chapter 14, US SFBC p.517-518
==The Armies of the Diaspora==
The time after the ritual was referred to as the Diaspora. It was due to end in the Year of the Three Hundredth Millennium.Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 9, UK MMPB p.321 
The following T'lan Imass nations were named Armies of the Diaspora:Memories of Ice, Glossary, UK MMPB p.1183
*Bentract
*Betrule
*Ifayle
*Kerluhm
*Kron
*Logros
*Orshayn
=== The Logros T'lan Imass ===
The Logros were tasked with remaining at the site of the First Empire and guarding the First Throne against any threats. Shortly before the founding of the Malazan Empire, the Logros were awakened by Kellanved when he located and took control of the First Throne. 
They were the perfect army. The T'lan Imass never had to be fed or transported, they could not desert, and they could go anywhere.Memories of Ice, Chapter 1, UK MMPB p.62 They served the Malazan Empire until shortly after the Emperor's death. Onos T'oolan, the First Sword of the Logros T'lan Imass, told Imperial Adjunct Lorn that the Logros had gathered minds after the Emperor's death, the first time since before the Diaspora, and due to the resultant binding he could not answer her questions about the First Throne.Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 9, UK MMPB p.320
According to Tattersail, the T'lan Imass refused to acknowledge the new Empress Laseen and traveled into the Jhag Odhan, eventually returning at half-strength.Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 2, UK MMPB p.73 
The T'lan Imass had in fact hunted newly discovered Jaghut. Following that Jaghut War, they began hunting the Seven of the Dead Fires who were traveling across Seven Cities and through the Nascent.
Known clans within the Logros included:
* Tarad
* L'echae Shayn
=== The Kron T'lan Imass ===
According to Onos T'oolan the binding which was the result of the Logros gathering minds, also applied to the Kron and they, too, would not be able to answer her questions about the First Throne.Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 9, UK MMPB p.320
The Kron T'lan Imass were the largest army to attend the Second Gathering called by Silverfox. At her behest, they stood against the K'Chain Che'Malle in the Pannion War following the Battle of Black Coral.
=== The Betrule ===
Believed to have been lost.
=== The Bentract T'lan Imass ===
Olar Ethil was sent off by Logros to search for remaining T'lan Imass armies. She believed four remaining clans of Bentract T'lan Imass were on Jacuruku, trapped within the Warren of Chaos. She could not find them however.Memories of Ice, Chapter 19, US SFBC p.674-675 A Bentract clan was found in the Refugium.
=== The Kerluhm T'lan Imass ===
Roughly eight months prior to the Second Gathering, the Kerluhm entered into a war against human opposition on the continent of Assail. The army had since been annihilated and it was believed that Lanas Tog, sent by Kerluhm to the Second Gathering, was the last of them.Memories of Ice, Chapter 20, US SFBC p.741
=== The Ifayle T'lan Imass ===
The Ifayle joined the Kerluhm in the war on Assail and, as of the Second Gathering, there was still a small number of them unable to withdraw from the engagement.
=== The Orshayn T'lan Imass ===
Three broken clans - Six hundred and twelve warriors and three damaged Bonecasters were left, having fled The Spires.
==Other==
=== The Brold T'lan Imass ===
The Brold were descendants of a group of Imass that did not participate in the original Ritual of Tellann. They were located on the continent of Lether and eventually attempted their own Ritual but deemed it a failure, however, when Onos T'oolan issued a call to all T'lan Imass the Brold joined him, thus proving that their ritual had in fact succeeded.Dust of Dreams, Chapter 19, UK HB p.658
=== The Irynthal Clan ===
The Irynthal clan of the Imass lived on the shores of the Jhagra Til until Raest enslaved them and brought them to work in the mines near modern day Darujhistan. Dev'ad Anan Tol claimed to be the last of their number--the others all perishing in the mines. He was cast into a crevasse and would have joined them in death but for the occurrence of the Ritual, which left him immortal but trapped.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 9, US SFBC p.371-373 
=== The D'Avore T'lan Imass (Red Clan) ===
The Crimson Guard was created by a vow sworn in the 1066th year of Burn's Sleep by six hundred of K'azz' original followers. These Avowed gained unnaturally long life, strength, speed, and regenerative attributes in return for their oath. The vow was often compared to the ritual of the T'lan Imass as both the ritual and vow were inspired by a desire to reach a goal. 
Much later, when Shimmer led an expedition to Assail to rescue Cal-Brinn and the missing Fourth CompanyAssail (novel), Chapter 2 they met Silverfox and Kilava Onass in the Salt Mountains, and the Guard discovered that Kilava had been present at the invocation of their Vow. It had drawn on the same power of Tellann that had created the T'lan Imass. Therefore the Guard were, in essence, a tribe of T'lan Imass--the D'Avore T'lan Imass or the Red Clan.Assail (novel), Chapter 15 They would continue to have physical form even after their deaths. Those who died could choose to come back. Silverfox could not redeem them as she could the other tribes. That task was left for another. Assail (novel), Epilogue
==T'lan Imass relationship with Soletaken and D'ivers==
==Language==
For a list of known T'lan Imass words and phrases as well as translations please visit the Imass Language page.
==In Gardens of the Moon==
(Information needed)
==In Deadhouse Gates==
Felisin Paran, Heboric, and Kulp took shelter in a cave in Raraku that led to a buried and largely preserved city of the First Empire. The first room they entered contained the remains of a ritual gone awry, the bodies of the participants turned to stone where they fell. Heboric's enhanced sight revealed that the fallen had attempted the Path of the Soletaken.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 12, US HC p.323-331 The rest of the city's torturous streets and alleys were filled with the bodies of humans, Soletaken, and T'lan Imass from some cataclysmic battle. Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 14, US HC p.371-373
==In Memories of Ice==
(Information needed)
==In House of Chains==
The Tiste Liosan, Enias, referred to Onrack as; "Lifeless One". Also calling him "servant of Death." Suggesting that these beings who bring death can only be answered with death.House of Chains, Chapter 9
==In Midnight Tides==
The Forkrul Assail had once tried to serve as impartial arbiters in the war between the Jaghut and the T'lan Imass. The Jaghut hoped to escape the T'lan Imass by leaving their bodies in a death-like status in specially built tombs while their souls traveled to the Hold of Ice. The Forkrul Assail carved cursed wards into the tombs' doors, but this proved not good enough for the T'lan Imass. These tombs could still be found beneath Letheras, but whenever the Letherii entered them they were empty.Midnight Tides, Chapter 12, US SFBC p.372
==In Reaper's Gale==
Hedge opined that the Jaghut Wars were a backwards kind of vengeance where the Imass had hurt themselves more than their proclaimed enemy ever had. There had only been a few Jaghut Tyrants, and those had quickly earned the wrath of their kin before any T'lan Imass army arrived. When the Jaghut used ice against the Imass, the Imass underwent the Ritual of Tellann to make their hearts colder and more lifeless than any glacier.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.309
==In Toll the Hounds==
Gothos told the story of how Bek'athana Ilk and the Kron T'lan Imass had allied with him and other Jaghut to imprison the Jaghut Tyrant, Raest. But when the Tyrant was safely locked away, the T'lan Imass turned on their allies, sending Gothos to flight. A group of Bek'athana Ilk's clan, made up of forty-three hunters and a Bonecaster, tracked Gothos down but were themselves all slain by the Jaghut.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 8, US SFBC p.320
==In Assail==
(Information needed)
==In Kellanved's Reach==
Kellanved and Dancer, in search of the First Throne, followed the path indicated by a stone artifact through a gate in Shadow to the Place of the Blooming Ice in the Warren of Tellann. There they found the Imass Bonereader, Jahl 'Parth, amidst a village built near the remains of a K'Chain Che'Malle city. The Bonereader attempted to warn them away saying those who sought out the Throne never returned, but eventually she relented and directed them to an island offshore. The waters about the island had risen over the centuries threatening to submerge it, but the pair managed to find a dry cave leading to the cavern containing the Throne.Kellanved's Reach, Chapter 13, US HC p.198-209 
They were shocked to discover the feared Witch Jadeen already seated upon the Throne, and after Dancer attempted to strike her with a throwing knife, she summoned five warriors from the Army of Dust and Bone from the ground around her. The Bonecaster, Tem Benasto, introduced himself and the others--Ulpan Nodosha, Tenag Ilbaie, Ay Estos, and Onos T'oolan--as the Logros guardians tasked with protecting the Throne. The Witch soon put a stop to the pleasantries and ordered Onos to slay the two intruders. But when the T'lan Imass drew his sword, it found the witch's neck, decapitating her and sending her body tumbling from the Throne. Onos declared her unworthy before Kellanved stepped forward to claim the Throne himself.Kellanved's Reach, Chapter 13, US HC p.208-209Kellanved's Reach, Chapter 15, US HC p.224-227 
Kellanved sat and the T'lan Imass bowed before him as they considered whether he was worthy. When Tem asked the mage for his orders, Kellanved had none but for them to continue with whatever they had already been doing. The T'lan Imass were pleased and departed to search for their brothers and sisters. Onos told Kellanved they would return at his call. Afterwards, the mage theorised that those who sat on the Throne required the T'lan Imass' permission and could not issue just any command they desired.Kellanved's Reach, Chapter 15, US HC p.227-229
==Trivia==
*In response to a fan question, author Steven Erikson described the T'lan Imass as "Undead archaic hominids...Neanderthal, with Denisovan variants."Reddit AMA 2012
*Bellurdan notes that the T'lan Imass' "Eldering powers" generate a magical dead space around themselves that devours sorcery.Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 10 This property of the T'lan Imass is not mentioned again after Gardens of the Moon.
==Notes and references==
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