Falar

Falar, or the Falar subcontinent, was made up of a mainland peninsula north of the Great Fenn Range as well as the Falari Isles (or Falaran Isles)Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 11, UK HC p.161 located off the north-eastern coast of Quon Tali. The Falari Isles were an extensive chain of islands running north towards Seven Cities. In addition to the many islands that were permanently settled, there were hundreds of tiny islands without names.Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 16, UK HC p.244 Most of the waters in the archipelago were relatively shallow and pale green in colour.Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 2, UK HC p.19Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 24, UK HC p.367 The long-acknowledged patron and guardian of Falar was Mael, Elder God of the Sea.Forge of the High Mage, Prologue, UK HC p.1
The region was under the rule of the Malazan Empire which had crushed their fleets in a series of great naval battles.Gardens of the Moon, Glossary, UK MMPB p.711Stonewielder, Chapter 3, US HC p.176 The Falari Isles were the Empire's first major overseas conquest. The Falari had since had an outsized reputation as soldiers in the Malazan Military.The God is Not Willing, Chapter 23, US HC p.453 Talian was the unofficial second language of the archipelago.Stonewielder, Prologue, US HC p.32 
Positioned halfway between Quon Tali and Seven Cities, the islanders had long engaged in trade with both continents. The Falar were capable ocean explorers since antiquity, producing maps of sea-currents and coastlines as far away as Nemil. As a sea-going people, their maps tended to show highly detailed and accurate coastlines, with inland interiors left blank because of their lack of interest.Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 16, UK HC p.246-247 Land masses tended to be distorted relative to their significance, so important islands might appear significantly larger on the map than entire land masses that were of no interest.
Generations of shipbuilding had left the islands largely bare of suitable timber. Only undesirable softwoods remained.Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 6, UK HC p.91 Pre-Malazan attempts to establish colonies on the forested shores of the southern mainland to harvest lumber were driven off by the howling savages of the barbarian tribes who lived there.Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 6, UK HC p.91
The people of the archipelago were distinguished by their red and gold hair and fair-skin. However, it was the contention of Ruthan Gudd that the red-haired Falari were in fact invaders from another island who had forgotten where they came from. The original denizens of Falar were said to be those from the island of Strike.The Bonehunters, Chapter 13, US SFBC p.547-548 The unofficial "uniform" of a Falari was a short-sleeved cotton shirt and short sashed trousers.Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 10, UK HC p.157
The Falar Islands were chilled and damp all year round and the Falari kept the inside of their homes in the same conditions. Moulding walls were commonplace.The God is Not Willing, Chapter 18, US HC p.324
Santos fish caught from waters off the islands were considered fit only for consumption by the poor.The Bonehunters, Chapter 8, US SFBC p.380
== Notable Falari ==
* Antsy
* Fiddler
* Gesler
* Mallick Rel
* Stormy
==Geography==
===Islands (a partial list)===
*Deep Wood Isle
*Delanss Island (or Big Island)
*Flood Isle
*Lurk Isle
*Old Guando Isle
*Rubble Isle
*Silver Caye
*Sleep Isle
*Sparrow Pass Island
*Strike Island
*War Isle
*Hundreds of unnamed islands
===Seas and Waterways===
*Dhab Strait
*Heft Strait
*Jook Strait
*Look Bay
*Lure Sea
*Old Guando Sea
*Sparrow Pass Cut
*Strait of Lure
*Strom Sea
*Walk Sea
===Other Features===
*East Reach
*Mount Lessen
*Walk Mountains
==Cities and Settlements==
*Bada
*Bantra
*Belade - major city
*Belid - major city
*Belikan
*Cabil - major city
*Chenang
*Clump
*Curaca
*Cutip
*Delanss - major city
*Dhab
*Falair - major city
*Fallen Towers	
*Flood
*Gorge
*Gravid
*Grevod
*Guando
*Gung
*Heft
*Ictor - small city
*Iguan
*Ilk
*Jick
*Jook
*Jrapp
*Lurk	
*Muheres
*Old Falar
*Old Ilk - town
*Pull
*Rope
*Strike - major city
*Tenak
*Torn
*Torvo
*Walk - major city
*Wett
*Woad
==History==
===Old Falar===
According to the legends of the Strike Islanders, the more commonly known red- and gold-haired residents of the Falari Isles were actually invaders from across the other side of Seeker's Deep. Only the Strike islanders were the original residents of the islands, and their old maps of the island chain did not use the word "Falar".
Falar's main island had once been the home of the Walk people. This indigenous civilisation had thrived before the development of iron, and as miners and traders of tin, copper, and lead were the predominant traders of bronze weapons and ornamentation in the Falari Isles. Unlike the later arriving red-haired, blue-eyed, fair-skinned Falari, the Walk were black-haired with olive-hued skin.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 22, US HC p.671 
At the height of Old Falar's original civilization, its political and religious centre was at the ancient and semi-mythical island of Kynarl in the Walk Sea. After the island was reduced to rubble by what some claimed was Mael's judgement, Cabil rose to take its place under the stewardship of the Cult of Mael.Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 13, UK HC p.200Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 2, UK HC p.21-23 
===Before the Malazan Empire===
Before its conquest by the Malazan Empire, Falar had been ruled as a theocracy by a Grand Council run by the Cult of Mael.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 6, EpigraphForge of the High Mage, Chapter 6, UK HC p.88 Under the rule of the Cult, every island begrudgingly paid annual tribute in treasure and in the enrolment of youths each generation.Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 2, UK HC p.21Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 17, UK HC p.257 Every ship owed excises and was held to an honorary allegiance to the Faith so that they could be requisitioned and repurposed at a moment's notice. The expenditure of coin, food, and blood was preached by the cult as a necessary sacrifice so that the cult could protect them from outsiders. But all understood the payment was to protect the Falari from the cult itself.
Those of the old Falar racial stock were easily recognised by their thick, dark hair and were known as the Old People, the sons and daughters of Mael, or the favoured of Mael.They were subject to a special recruitment by Mael's cult, known as "the Call",Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 11, UK HC p.167-171 and those gathered were seemingly used as blood sacrifice.Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 6, UK HC p.90Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 15, UK HC p.231-234Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 18, UK HC p.277-280
Falar had no formal army, but the cult possessed a large body of the fanatically armed faithful known as the Faith Militant.Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 17, UK HC p.263 Rather than a single navy, each island fielded its own fleet of ships.Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 3, UK HC p.37
== In Deadhouse Gates==
The Ragstopper made for Bantra in the northern Falari Isles after its eventful crossing from Aren with Kalam Mekhar, Salk Elan, and the Aren city treasury.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 17, US HC p.469
==In Reaper's Gale==
Gesler and Stormy were well-known figures in Falar, where some of their countrymen sought to see them dead for their purported betrayal of the Cult of the Boar.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 22, US HC p.671-672
==In Return of the Crimson Guard==
An invasion force of Falari soldiers under the command of Urko Crust landed at Cawn to join the Talian League.
==In Forge of the High Mage==
(Information needed)
==Trivia==
Ian C. Esslemont sees Falar "sort of as an eastern Mediterranean/Aegean sort of setting. The islands were like the Ionian. The seas were very warm and shallow and there's lots of wrecks to be hunted for."Forge of the High Mage, Ian C. Esslemont on his New Malazan Novel - Books with Banks - See 45:35
==Notes and references==
Category:Continents
 
Category:Islands
de:Falar
es:Falar
it:Falar