Hull Beddict

Hull Beddict [HUL BED-ickt]Critical Conversations 05: Midnight Tides Chapter 19 with Steven Erikson - A Critical Dragon - As pronounced by Steven Erikson at 01:14:36 was the older brother of Tehol and Brys Beddict. A former favourite of King Ezgara Diskanar, he had been named Sentinel and sent to study the tribes along the Kingdom of Lether's northern frontier. Ultimately, he had been disillusioned by his role and betrayed the Letherii to satisfy his own sense of honour. Afterwards, he remained a wanderer in the northern mountains.Midnight Tides, Chapter 2, US SFBC p.64/66-67 His name was synonymous with "traitor" among the Letherii.Midnight Tides, Chapter 16, US SFBC p.494
Hull was almost as tall as a Tiste Edur and had long, pale, braided hair. His skin was weathered and tanned from his many years in the wilderness. His eyes were bleached grey, and his thoughts always seemed to be elsewhere.Midnight Tides, Chapter 2, US SFBC p.64 Beneath his left shoulder were three bar tattoos of the Tarthenal people. Udinaas described him as "a big man, on whom every oversized muscle seemed to brood, somehow."Midnight Tides, Chapter 21, US SFBC p.640 Hull wore the white furs of the north wolf.
A brief love affair was described between Hull and the Acquitor Seren Pedac, but by all accounts it ended badly.Midnight Tides, Chapter 2, US SFBC p.67
==History==
Twelve years before the events in Midnight Tides Hull had been Preda of the Letherii Royal Guard and given the title and responsibilities of Sentinel by King Diskanar. As Sentinel, he was charged with studying the Nerek, Faraed, and Tarthenal tribes in the north. Hull took well to the work and forged blood-ties with the fierce and independent peoples. The Sentinel naively believed his work was to secure peaceful co-existence with the Letherii's neighbours.Midnight Tides, Chapter 2, US SFBC p.66-67
Unbeknownst to him, his reports were used by Letherii Chancellor Triban Gnol to subjugate those tribes. Hull witnessed the Letherii entangle the tribes in chains of debt as an excuse to seize their land. Letherii mercantile interests further degraded the tribal cultures with trade, false need, and destructive poisons. Native religious beliefs were forcibly replaced with the Letherii's own and the tribal cultures disintegrated. This led to Hull's complete disillusionment. He returned the King's Reed, the symbol of his office, and walked into the mountains.Midnight Tides, Chapter 2, US SFBC p.62/66-67
It was four years later near High Fort that he met Seren Pedac, who found him little more than a scavenging animal. She was able to bring him partly back to his senses before their falling out. Despite his betrayal, Hull was worshipped by the remnants of the very tribes he had helped despoil.
Some time during his travels he became blood brothers with Binadas Sengar.Midnight Tides, Chapter 13, US SFBC p.407
== In Midnight Tides ==
Hull made a surprise appearance in the mountains north of Lether to join the caravan of the merchant, Buruk the Pale, into Tiste Edur territory. The caravan was led by Seren Pedac, who was suspicious of his motives.Midnight Tides, Chapter 2, US SFBC p.63-66 In fact, Hull meant to crash the Great Meeting between the Edur Warlock King Hannan Mosag and a delegation of the Kingdom of Lether to push the Edur to war and bring "an end to the corrupt insanity" of his own people.Midnight Tides, Chapter 2, US SFBC p.93Midnight Tides, Chapter 24, US SFBC p.699 His people had betrayed him long ago and now only vengeance remained for him.Midnight Tides, Chapter 13, US SFBC p.413
When Rhulad Sengar overthrew Hannan Mosag and cast out the Letherii delegation, Hull quickly offered the self-declared emperor his allegiance in the war to come. This act finally severed whatever link still remained with Seren Pedac.Midnight Tides, Chapter 13, US SFBC p.409-410 The former Sentinel provided the Tiste Edur with details of every Letherii garrison and frontier fort as well as the location of every hidden supply cache and military repository. He also outlined Letherii tactical doctrine and likely strategy.Midnight Tides, Chapter 13, US SFBC p.413-414
Hull's advice saved the Edur from slaughter when he correctly anticipated the Letherii's pre-emptive sorcerous attack on the Edur villages. The Edur were evacuated in time and no lives were lost.Midnight Tides, Chapter 15, US SFBC p.463 He accompanied Rhulad's army first to Trate and then overland towards Letheras, but he soon found his advice ignored on the reshaping of Lether.Midnight Tides, Chapter 21, US SFBC p.640-641 He often conversed with Rhulad's slave, Udinaas, a former Letherii Indebted. When he discovered that Udinaas' family owed their debts to one of Tehol's moneylenders, he cancelled the generations-long debt in his brother's name.Midnight Tides, Chapter 21, US SFBC p.643 
The Tiste Edur armies advanced to Brans Keep where the Letherii armies gathered after a string of losses. The Battle of Brans Keep was a stunning loss for the Letherii, who were quickly slaughtered by the intensity of the Warlock King's magic. Hull was left dazed by the destruction, and Udinaas chastised him for his thwarted dreams of leading a charge against the poor souls who had been impressed into service against them.Midnight Tides, Chapter 23, US SFBC p.677-678
Hull was among the first in the Edur army to enter Letheras, but he quickly made his own way into the city's streets. He briefly grieved for Brys, who he knew would die at his king's side, but Hull's main concern was finding Tehol. If only he could explain why he had betrayed his people, Tehol would understand and forgive him.Midnight Tides, Chapter 24, US SFBC p.698-699 Near Tehol's home he saw a crowd of Edur kicking his brother to death. Before he could stop them he was set upon by two Nerek youths, who had followed him from the Warlock King's village. They stabbed him to death for betraying his own people, because forgiveness was not in his heart.Midnight Tides, Chapter 25, US SFBC p.724
==In Reaper's Gale==
Seren Pedac, Silchas Ruin, Udinaas, Fear Sengar, and Kettle travelled through the Bluerose Mountains and came across the ruins of a K'Chain Che'Malle city. Seren Pedac had never seen the area but from afar, when she had observed that the mountain appeared to be reshaped. She had asked Hull about it, but he had refused to tell her anything.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 2, US HC p.53 While arguing with Udinaas, the Acquitor momentarily lost control of her Mockra powers and a vision of Hull Beddict appeared before them to throttle the former slave. Unable to dismiss the illusion as it choked Udinaas to death, she ultimately summoned a vision of Trull Sengar to defeat Hull.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 16, US HC p.460-462
Seren Pedac considered her own childhood dreams of romance and how she once thought she had found them fulfilled in her relationship with Hull. But later she thought her love for him had stolen his belief of himself and subtly destroyed him under the siege of reality. She believed she had used him and he had died in her arms long before his body died in Letheras.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 19, US HC p.559-560
==Quotes==
==Notes and references==
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