Udinaas

Udinaas [OO-din-us]Read for Pixels 2016 Interview - As pronounced by Steven Erikson at 29:47 was a Letherii slave serving the Sengar household of the Hiroth tribe of the Tiste Edur.Midnight Tides, Chapter 1 Compared to his former life as a Letherii Indebted, he did not find life as a slave particularly harsh.Midnight Tides, Chapter 1, US SFBC p.43-44 
He was described as having regular, unimpressive featuresReaper's Gale, Chapter 20 and a lean, tanned body.Midnight Tides, Chapter 25 Kettle described his face as that of a kind person. Over his coarse woolen trousersMidnight Tides, Chapter 5, US SFBC p.159 or loincloth, he wore a tunic tightened by a rope belt.Midnight Tides, Chapter 3, US SFBC p.104 On his feet he wore moccasins.Midnight Tides, Chapter 11, US SFBC p.336
== History ==
Udinaas had been a young sailor in the third year of his family's multi-generational indenture to the merchant, Intaros of Trate, when he was aboard the whaler Brunt on an illicit return run from Beneda waters. The crew were tugging the carcasses of three sows back to the neutral waters west of Calach Bay when they were spotted by five K'orthan ships of the Hiroth tribe of the Tiste Edur. Due to his greed, the captain refused to dump his prize and escape. After being captured, the captain and officers were tied to one of the sow corpses to be eaten by sharks whilst Udinaas and the rest of the crew were taken as slaves. Thus, Udinaas became part of the Sengar household and developed his hatred of the sea.
== In Midnight Tides ==
thumb|180x180px|Udinaas and the Wyval by [https://www.instagram.com/shadaan_studios/ Shadaan]
Udinaas had romantic inclinations towards a fellow slave, Feather Witch, who was a caster of the tiles. But Feather Witch's superior place within the Sengar household made his interest futile.Midnight Tides, Chapter 1, US SFBC p.50 On the same night that Warlock King Hannan Mosag gathered his warriors to discuss a Letherii incursion, Udinaas spotted a white crow. Recognising it as a dire omen, he arrived too late to stop Feather Witch's latest casting. She came under attack from a Wyval and he rushed to her rescue. While wrestling with the Wyval, Udinaas became infected with its blood.
Shortly after, Udinaas had a dream in which he found himself on a plain of ash below a sky of fire. Dead warriors converged on him and one grabbed him by the leg and dragged him off. Suddenly, Menandore, the feared goddess of dawn, appeared atop a huge skeletal horse bound by fire. She struck the warriors down with her sword and axe and crushed Udinaas with her boot sensing the Wyval within him. The goddess demanded Udinaas decide whether he would ride his Wyval blood or his slave body. In the face of her taunts, he chose Wyval and she raped him. Feather Witch also appeared in the dream to tell him the vision was a result of the Wyval blood poisoning his brain.Midnight Tides, Chapter 3, US SFBC p.102-105
The Shadow wraith, Wither, approached Udinaas, offering to hide in his shadow and to serve as "your eyes behind you, whom no-one else can see or hear". Together they would seek retribution against the Edur. To seal the bargain, Udinaas collected an ancient arrowhead from the sand of the bay that had once belonged to the wraith.Midnight Tides, Chapter 5, US SFBC p.157-160/180 Later, Udinaas realised that the wraith hid within the blood of the Wyval and the Wyval hid in the shadow of the wraith, effectively negating his Edur masters from detecting either.Midnight Tides, Chapter 15, US SFBC p.474 This likely spared Udinaas from execution.Midnight Tides, Chapter 5, US SFBC p.170
The Edur Warlock King, Hannan Mosag, sent the Sengar brothers into the ice fields to retrieve a gift shown to him in a dream. The expedition returned with a sword and the body of Rhulad Sengar. Udinaas was tasked with the ritual dressing of the corpse with heated coins and witnessed as the coin-covered Rhulad came back to life, a consequence of the cursed sword the young Sengar clutched in his hands. Udinaas comforted Rhulad upon the resurrection and removed the coins from the man's eyelids.Midnight Tides, Chapter 9 Rhulad quickly grew to depend on Udinaas and demanded that he should become his personal slave.Midnight Tides, Chapter 13, US SFBC p.401
Udinaas continued seeing visions of the past, such as Scabandari's betrayal of Silchas RuinMidnight Tides, Chapter 5, US SFBC p.170-174 and the capture of Sheltatha Lore by Menandore and Sukul Ankhadu,Midnight Tides, Chapter 7, US SFBC p.229-233 and Wither shared knowledge that few other mortals possessed.Midnight Tides, Chapter 7, US SFBC p.242-243 He had a falling out with Feather Witch, who revealed that she had purposefully summoned the Wyval hoping to be the one infected.Midnight Tides, Chapter 15, US SFBC p.479-480 She forced Udinaas to take her into one of his dreams where they found themselves among the Imass of the Refugium. There Udinaas discovered he had a son, Rud Elalle, beget from the seed stolen by Menandore. The slave left the boy without revealing their relation.Midnight Tides, Chapter 15, US SFBC p.476-486 
Udinaas accompanied Rhulad during the conquest of the Kingdom of Lether and he was always by the emperor's side to ease the madness and suffering of his repeated deaths resurrections.Midnight Tides, Chapter 16, US SFBC p.519Midnight Tides, Chapter 22, US SFBC p.661 Trull Sengar saw the slave as his brother's de facto adviser and caretaker and was comforted by his presence.Midnight Tides, Chapter 23, US SFBC p.685-686 Theradas Buhn and others in Rhulad's entourage hated the foreign slave for the emperor's reliance on him.Midnight Tides, Chapter 23, US SFBC p.681-682 When the Letherii traitor, Hull Beddict, discovered that Udinaas' family debt amounted to 722 docks and was owed to one of Tehol Beddict's lenders, he wiped the debt clear in his brother's name.Midnight Tides, Chapter 21, US SFBC p./640-643
When the Edur army entered Letheras, Udinaas was left with the other slaves, but his body was hijacked by the Wyval within him. He swelled into a massive, gnarled form with talons and raced for the grounds of the Azath Tower where the Wyval's master, Silchas Ruin, was imprisoned. Along the way, he killed more than thirty Soletaken Jheck and six Edur with his bare hands.Midnight Tides, Chapter 24, US SFBC p.699-700/705-706Midnight Tides, Chapter 25, US SFBC p.728 Thus Udinaas was not there to comfort Rhulad as he came back to life again after being slain in a duel with Finadd Moroch Nevath, something that was viewed as a betrayal by the Sengars. Uruth Sengar was filled with hate and an angry Trull sent Theradas and his warriors to hunt the slave down.Midnight Tides, Chapter 24, US SFBC p.702-704Midnight Tides, Chapter 25, US SFBC p.713-714
At the Azath House, the Wyval tore free from its host body, leaving Udinaas badly torn and broken from the ordeal. Wither prompted Kettle to save Udinaas' life by dripping a little of her blood on to his dying body.Midnight Tides, Chapter 24, UK MMPB p.846/851-854Midnight Tides, Chapter 25, UK MMPB p.863/864/879/880/890 After Ruin's release, Wither dragged Udinaas' unconscious form to the home of Seren Pedac. The Acquitor agreed to guide the group of Ruin, Kettle, Wither, the Wyval, and Fear Sengar out of the captured city.Midnight Tides, Chapter 25, US SFBC p.756/765
==In The Bonehunters==
A company of Arapay warriors led by Ahlrada Ahn was sent in search of Udinaas, Fear, and the others, but returned empty handed. When no sign of the betrayers was found, Emperor Rhulad's rage nearly led to the mass executions of Ahn and his company. Only the words of Hannan Mosag prevented bloodshed.The Bonehunters, Chapter 17
== In Reaper's Gale ==
After escaping Letheras, Udinaas travelled eastward with Silchas Ruin, Seren Pedac, Fear Sengar, Kettle, and Wither for months with Edur and Letherii hunters in pursuit, although Fear kept their ultimate destination to himself. During their travels, the Wyval abandoned them. Fear, meanwhile, fostered a murderous hatred for Udinaas, who he believed betrayed his brother, Rhulad. Seren suspected the Edur's hatred was a manifestation of his own guilt over Rhulad's fate. Udinaas and Kettle were briefly captured by Hiroth and Letherii slave-trackers near the Bluerose Mountains when trying to steal food from a farm. His Edur captors planned to bring the escaped slave back to Letheras to face The Drownings before Silchas Ruin violently intervened. While the Tiste Andii dispatched most of their captors, Udinaas used his chains to strangle a Letherii guard who had raped Kettle during their captivity.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 1, US HC p.40-46
His group were welcomed by the Tiste Andii of Bluerose when they met Clip, who had been sent by the Onyx Order, specifically Ordant Brid, and the group traveled by Kurald Galain to Andara.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 6
He continued his travels with Fear Sengar, Seren Pedac, Kettle, Wither, and Silchas Ruin, ostensibly in search of the soul of Scabandari Bloodeye, but it became clear that different members sought different goals. 
During his travels the Errant, Feather Witch, and Menandore all sought to use him, but he refused all of them. 
When they arrived at the Refugium, Wither attempted to strangle Udinaas, but he was saved by Seren who used Mockra to dispel Wither.
== In Dust of Dreams ==
Udinaas agreed that Silchas Ruin should take on the training of Rud Elalle.
== In The Crippled God ==
Udinaas took to talking to himself. Kilava asked him to lead her people out of the Refugium to a place of safety. 
==Author comments==
Steven Erikson says, "I loved writing Udinaas...I saw him as a character with nothing to lose. You know, he was sort of already put in a position where the whims of others could take his life at any time and he's already been...invaded internally, and then the dreams, and...[Menandore] has already got to him. So he really has nothing to lose, and yet there's some element of him that's still capable of caring, of extending empathy to another character, to another person. And that's the thing that keeps dragging him sort of back into the decisions he keeps making. That he then immediately regrets."Critical Conversations 05: Midnight Tides Chapter 19 with Steven Erikson - A Critical Dragon - See 18:00
==Quotes==
==Fan art gallery==
2020 - Udinaas by AJK.jpeg|Udinaas by AJK
Day 24 - Wyval by Shadaan.PNG|Udinaas and the Wyval by Shadaan
==Notes and references==
Category:Humans
Category:Letherii
Category:Males
Category:Sailors
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