This is a list of characters not associated with any particular faction from Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen. Please beware of spoilers. If you haven't finished the series you're probably best off not reading past the character descriptions.
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Unaligned Characters
Icarium Lifestealer
'I am my own curse, Mappo. I have lived centuries, yet what do I know of my own past? Where are my memories? How can I judge my own life without such knowledge?'
Icarium, a Jaghut halfblood, is an incredibly old being, forever wandering the world with a sole companion in tow. He is present in the mythology of many cultures, and is feared by most of them. He is known for his obsession with time — having gained sobriquets such as Lord of the Sand Grains — and as an inventor and maker of monumental machines, particularly those that measure time, by the building of which he tries to counteract his frequent bouts of memory loss. While an incredibly smart and gentle person, he is also one of the most powerful beings alive without being aware of it.
- Amnesiac Dissonance: After discovering what happens during his black-outs, Icarium is horrified and comes to the conclusion that only death or eternal imprisonment can redeem him.
- Amnesiacs are Innocent: His amnesia shields Icarium from what he has done in the past, allowing him to retain his generous and sometimes downright innocent nature. Fiddler wonders how Icarium never questions his partnership with Mappo despite having only Mappo's word about their long friendship to rely on, but Icarium later points out that while frustrated, he has become simply used to the feeling.Mappo: In your ignorance you are so pure, so noble.
- The Berserker: Once his Unstoppable Rage kicks in, he becomes utterly uncontrollable in a fight, unable to distinguish friend from foe and indifferent to his own life. Comes complete with a frightening, keening scream.
- Bow and Sword in Accord: He carries both a longbow, which seems to be his first choice of weapon, and a sword, and can be deadly with either, but wears little — if any — armour.
- Broken Ace: Literally broken. In trying to free his father, Icarium managed only to do a great deal of damage, including to himself.
- Bullying a Dragon: Iskaral Pust baits Icarium Lifestealer with supposed knowledge he possesses that Icarium is desperately looking for and calls Icarium — an ages old being capable of blasting entire cities away with his Unstoppable Rage — a fool. He gets choked pretty thoroughly for his trouble before Icarium can catch himself again just in time.
- Cosmic Plaything: Icarium Lifestealer is a Cosmic Plaything gone horribly wrong. The gods and other powers tried to break him and make him a weapon they could wield at will, but he snapped and now they have to make sure he never, ever loses his temper.
- The Dreaded: Everyone who's ever heard of Icarium is shitting their metaphorical pants at the mere thought that Icarium might lose his temper and level the next couple of cities.
- Genius Bruiser: Icarium is a seven foot tall, tusked, weathered and travel-worn looking warrior sporting a sword and a bow, one of the most lethal fighters ever born and infamous for his Unstoppable Rage. He is also a mapmaker, inventor and scholar.
- Glowing Eyes: While in an Unstoppable Rage, Icarium's eyes blaze silver as a sign of the enormous power that surrounds him like a maelstrom.
- Here We Go Again!: Though Icarium cannot remember it, it's implied that it's happened countless times before that he would have a companion, this companion would either die or be killed by Icarium in an unfortunate moment, and he would then wake up with a new companion who would claim that they'd been travelling together for ages. At the end of The Crippled God, he wakes up to find Ublala Pung at his side, and just accepts him as the feeling is already so familiar, and the cycle starts anew, while Mappo's corpse lies mere metres away.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With his travelling companion Mappo Runt. They spend their entire time together and obviously mean a lot to each other, although Icarium sometimes has trouble reconciling the depth of their friendship with his lack of memories. For him, there has simply always been someone at his side, and in whatever memories he does possess, it's always been Mappo.
- Human Weapon: The Nameless Ones treat Icarium as one. Although, technically, he was not made by them, they claim authority over how and when he gets to be used. Naturally, Icarium gets no say in the matter, not does he even know about the Nameless Ones.
- I Am Not a Gun: When, in The Bonehunters, Taralack Veed urges him to kill the defenders of the Throne of Shadow, Icarium retorts that he's had enough of this. Unfortunately, he goes berserk anyway, as too much fighting is going on around him.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Averted. However, the unusual shape of his sword — a thin, long, single-edged, curved blade — is remarked upon several times, although it is not treated any differently in combat than other swords.
- Lightning Bruiser: Especially once he loses control, Icarium can both dish out and receive potentially catastrophic amounts of damage without even blinking, all while doing it too fast for some to register. But even without the rage mode, he is frighteningly fast. Fast enough to startle Karsa Orlong.
- Made of Iron: It's unclear if he can be truly killed. Serious wounds only knock him out and trigger his amnesia, and he seems to grow even tougher when angry.
- Mad God: There are cults on the island of Cabal which worship Icarium as the One God, the Stealer of Life, essentially claiming he is a mad puppet with unimaginable power, turning any power of creation he may possess into random destruction. One sect calls itself that of the Mockers, asserting that a god who never left his worshippers any doctrine to live by but allows them to make and interpret their own, cannot be anything but insane.
- Martial Pacifist: He demonstrates on several occasions that he'd prefer not to get into a fight, but he also doesn't have the greatest patience, so annoy him long enough and you are dead meat. And Icarium will not even remember having mopped the floor with you afterwards.
- Master Swordsman: Icarium Lifestealer is Famed In-Story, though unfortunately not for his sword skills. But secretly, he is very capable with both his sword and his bow, and can take on Barbarian Hero Karsa Orlong with no problem, provided he can stay calm long enough. He's had thousands of years to hone his sword fighting skills, coupled with his incredible speed.
- Mind Hive: After the end of Reaper's Gale, where his previously built memory machine turns out to be broken and sucks not only his own mind in but also that of several random bystanders, Icarium ends up with a fractured mind and the ghosts/personalities of eight other people stuck in one — his — body. While that body wanders the Waste Lands aimlessly, the caught ghosts perceive themselves as separate entities undertaking that same trip, constantly arguing among each other, with the original Icarium — reduced to a ghost not even the others can perceive — floating around them in hopeless confusion. Ultimately, however, they do act as one, simply because they — unknowingly — share one body.
- Missing Time: Whenever he goes into Unstoppable Rage, effectively transforming into a monster capable of destroying entire civilizations, Icarium afterwards forgets all that he's done. He then usually shows concern about the Missing Time, but whatever companion he is currently travelling with makes sure to make the right noises to help Icarium with rationalizing the memory loss away.
- Mook Horror Show: At the end of The Bonehunters, Icarium loses control after witnessing children die and almost annihilates the Tiste Edur contingent sent to the Throne of Shadow. They practically melt several at a time; that is, those that don't get thrown around like toys.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: To those who have heard of Icarium's reputation or have been witness to its cause, his byname Lifestealer is something to run away from really fast indeed. Other variations on the name exist, such as Slayer of the Ten Thousand.
- Nonhuman Humanoid Hybrid: Icarium is half Jaghut (from his father's side) and — presumably, as it's never fully disclosed — Thelomen Toblakai (from his mother's side). Both races are roughly humanoid, so in consequence, Icarium is as well, although he visibly leans more towards Jaghut than Toblakai.
- No Social Skills: As he spends most of his time wandering the deserts of Seven Cities with Mappo as his sole companion, and due to his memory problems, Icarium is not very good with social interactions beyond the basics. May also be because he's half Jaghut, and Jaghut are notorious loners preferring their own company above all else.Mappo: 'He entertains your companions. Feebly, I admit. For all his years, Icarium has never mastered the social grace necessary to put others at ease.'
- Person of Mass Destruction: Icarium may be one of the nicest and most caring people one can come upon in the books. Piss him off, though, and you may say goodbye to your city/country/civilization. And it's not even intentional, as afterwards he will not remember how he just levelled the city in the ruins of which he's now standing and will even be shocked at how someone could possibly bring so much destruction and death. In trying to use him as a weapon the Nameless Ones might have bitten off more than they could chew and characters who encounter Icarium have a hard time reconciling the person they've met with the stories trailing in his wake.
- Quest for Identity: His eternal search for his own memories, without which he feels he cannot assert a proper sense of his own self. And later, more literally, when he wakes up in the Waste Lands, his mind splintered and his core having become a ghost with no recollection of even its own name.
- Screaming Warrior: Whenever his Unstoppable Rage is triggered, it is both prefaced and accompanied by a high-pitched, haunting keening sound coming from his throat.
- Talking to Themself: During his wandering around the Waste Lands with a split mind and a host of other minds populating his body, everything that the other ghosts/personalities say to each other, is actually also said out loud by Icarium's body, creating the image of a lone wanderer ceaselessly talking to himself.
- Tragic Bromance: He and Mappo have been Heterosexual Life-Partners for centuries, wandering the world together, and are close enough to openly speak about their deep feelings of friendship. Even though Mappo was originally meant as a guardian and minder for Icarium, Icarium's generous and noble nature makes Mappo cherish him, and despite having severe problems with memories, Icarium can by the feeling of familiarity alone tell that Mappo is indeed who he claims to be. When they are attacked and separated, Mappo crosses half the world to find Icarium again, only to die mere metres away from his friend. However, it is heavily implied that this is the turning point for Icarium and the latter finally regains at least some of his memories, enabling him to take his life back into his own hands.
- Trauma-Induced Amnesia: It is stated in Memories of Ice that Icarium once tried to destroy an Azath House to free his father — who didn't want to be 'freed' — but only managed to wound it and destroy a warren, receiving enough trauma in return that he not only forgot that incident altogether, but has been suffering bouts of Unstoppable Rage and subsequent Missing Time ever since.
- Unstoppable Rage: Icarium suffers bouts of Unstoppable Rage in which he utterly loses control and attacks everything and everyone (with the sole exception of machines he has built himself). They are rooted in a traumatic incident with an Azath House, and make him one of the, or possibly the most feared entity in the entire realm, as they're almost impossible to predict or stop, and he has gone so far as to destroy entire civilizations in the past. When enraged, Icarium becomes surrounded by a magical maelstrom that basically melts anything in his way. Afterwards, he never remembers what he's done.
Mappo Runt
Fiddler: Mappo, a name ever chained to another's. And enough rumours to fill a tome. If any were true...
Mappo Runt is a Trell whose name is eternally associated with being the companion of Icarium Lifestealer. He is Icarium's close friend and — unbeknownst to Icarium — also his guardian and minder, tasked by the Nameless Ones with keeping Icarium out of trouble and ignorant of his own past. However, due to Icarium's gentle nature, Mappo is eternally conflicted about whether ending a potential threat is worth losing the friend he loves so much.
- Bag of Holding: He was given a bag with an entire warren inside of it by the shoulderwomen of his tribe. Some irritating people have also found their way into it on occasion.
- Carry a Big Stick: Mappo carries a mace around for fighting purposes. It is made of a big long-bone with a ring of iron spikes at the business end and is invested with sorcery to make it as durable as possible.
- Doomed Hometown: Mappo's hometown was destroyed, allegedly by Icarium, and Mappo, as the only survivor, was recruited by the Nameless Ones as Icarium's new guardian. Deadhouse Gates reveals that actually, the town was destroyed by the Nameless Ones themselves, as they urgently needed a new guardian for Icarium and wanted to make sure Mappo would hate Icarium and take the threat seriously enough to fit the job.
- Gentle Giant: Although shorter than Icarium (who is seven feet tall, mind you), as a Trell Mappo is rather wide and thus even more imposing. But while he can dish out serious damage with his mace, he prefers to stay out of the way of trouble, find peaceful solutions and generally be on friendly terms with people.
- Guilt Complex: After losing Icarium, Mappo develops one, until he eventually feels guilty for anything and everything. He feels guilty for not being good enough anymore in the eyes of the Nameless Ones to remain Icarium's guardian, for having believed the Nameless Ones, for lying to Icarium for centuries, for having spurned the opportunity to free the world of Icarium by handing him over to Tremorlor just because he didn't want to give up his friend, for outwardly looking like a noble friend even though he had selfish motives, and eventually for turning away from people — children — in need just so he could keep looking for Icarium.
- Heartbroken Badass: Not a love interest, but when Mappo loses Icarium, whom he loves as a friend, he becomes utterly heartbroken, even going so far as crossing the entire world to get him back, all the while fighting his guilt.
- Heroic BSoD: Mappo experiences one in Deadhouse Gates when Icarium finally understands what he is and Mappo is flooded with conflicting thoughts about saving the world from the threat that Icarium represents but at the same time losing the only friend he's ever cared this much for. He doesn't even notice how he falls to his knees, and has to be brought back to reality by Icarium.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Icarium, with whom he has travelled for hundreds of years. Initially only meant as a guardian for Icarium, they have developed a deep friendship and trust each other unconditionally, although Mappo has to live with — and is tortured by — the knowledge that he is eternally lying to his friend. When Icarium is taken from him by the Nameless Ones, Mappo becomes heartbroken and crosses half the world to find him again, all the while thinking, in tears, of how much he wants Icarium back.
- My Greatest Failure: Mappo considers his blunder in keeping Icarium safe and the world safe from Icarium by almost dying when attacked by Dejim Nebrahl to be his greatest failure and incentive to set things right again.
- Power of Trust: Icarium reminding Mappo of his unconditional trust for the latter is what snaps Mappo out of his Heroic BSoD in Deadhouse Gates.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: Mappo used to be one in his youth, when he left his hometown, which specialized in trade, and joined one of the outlying tribes that were following the traditional Trell way of war and wandering. He spent a couple hundred years there, before snapping out of it by finding his hometown burned to the ground.
- Sidekick: Mappo is best known in-universe as Icarium's companion and sidekick. While Icarium is tall, lean, skilled with a sword and widely-read, Mappo is shorter, wider, hairier, fights using a mace and purports to know little, even though he is actually quite knowledgeable in everyday survival matters. Subverted in that it's Mappo who's in charge of keeping Icarium out of trouble, even though Icarium is unaware of that.
- Tragic Bromance: He and Icarium have been Heterosexual Life-Partners for centuries, wandering the world together, and are close enough to openly speak about their deep feelings of friendship. Even though Mappo was originally meant as a guardian and minder for Icarium, Icarium's generous and noble nature makes Mappo cherish him, and despite having severe problems with memories, Icarium can by the feeling of familiarity alone tell that Mappo is indeed who he claims to be. When they are attacked and separated, Mappo crosses half the world to find Icarium again, only to die mere metres away from his friend. However, it is heavily implied that this is the turning point for Icarium and the latter finally regains at least some of his memories, enabling him to take his life back into his own hands.
- Unbreakable Weapons: Mappo's mace was invested by his tribe's shoulderwomen to make it practically unbreakable. At least, it's never shown any sign of the spell failing within hundreds of years.
Fisher kel Tath
'I sing them all. Lies, truths, the words make no distinction in what they tell, nor even the order they come in. We do as we please with them.'
A famous bard, who is often quoted by characters in the setting and seems to be the main source of information on all things Anomander Rake, due to his epic poem Anomandaris. Many of the epigraphs preceding chapters in the books are written by him and he has allegedly met with Gallan — a fellow but even older famous Tiste poet — to get a first hand account of the events of the Tiste diaspora. Which makes him the de-facto author of The Kharkanas Trilogy.
- Author Filibuster: Some excerpts from Fisher's Mane of Chaos (which may or may not be a part of the bigger epic Anomandaris) show him halting midway through the telling to accuse his listeners of being too pre-occupied with inconsequential things and of lacking in courage to truly understand Anomander Rake's sacrifices. It is delivered in verse, of course.
- Badass Bystander: He's just an old bard plucking a lute in his quiet corner of K'rul's Bar — until assassins storm the building and the aftermath sees a half-dozen bodies on the stage and some smidgen of blood on Fisher's shirt, indicating his victorious involvement.
- The Bard: The most famous bard of contemporary literature in the setting. His specialty is poetry.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Fisher's Author Filibusters are known in-universe as "Fisher's challenge to his listeners", in which he breaks the narration to address his listeners directly. There are also entire poems in which Fisher addresses his listeners directly.
- Exposition of Immortality: It is hinted at that Fisher may not be entirely mortal, or even be outright immortal. In Toll the Hounds, Blend points out how he's sung verses of Anomandaris she's never heard before, and some of the songs he knows are over a hundred years old and stem not only from different cultures, but also different worlds. Duiker cryptically states that the poet is immortal, prompting Blend to question whether he speaks in metaphorical terms or about Fisher in particular. And Lady Envy, herself practically immortal, questions Fisher's mortality.
- Famed In-Story: Provides many chapter epigraphs, occasionally cited by other characters. But mostly, he's the one that everyone quotes when discussing Anomander Rake, since his epic poem Anomandaris seems to be the main source of information concerning Rake.
- The Ghost: His name is tossed around a lot, but he himself doesn't appear until Toll the Hounds.
- Magnum Opus: Anomandaris, the epic poem chronicling the life and deeds of Anomander Rake.
- Meaningful Appearance: Fisher has both grey eyes and hair and is quite a mysterious figure. Neither is it clear how old he truly is, nor where he comes from, nor what his purpose is. He knows songs from various cultures and worlds and there's an air of immortality and divinity about him, as well as hints of a possible prophetic ability.
- Old Master: An old, gaunt, grey-haired bard who prefers to be an observer and the extent of whose involvement usually amounts to giving voice to those who have none. But not only is he a Badass Bystander, when — in Toll the Hounds — it looks like the conflict with the Guild of Assassins has come to a standstill, he casually steps up, throws Guild Master Seba Krafar around like a doll and threatens him into cancelling the contract on the Bridgeburners like it's nothing, giving Seba a serious case of brown pants.
- Romance Ensues: Fisher and Lady Envy spend an unstated number of evenings sequestered within her estate, presumably discussing the current situation and Fisher going through his repertoire of songs and poems, then suddenly Lady Envy has a Love Epiphany based on how many Hidden Depths Fisher has.
- Sage Love Interest: Fisher's all-encompassing ability to see and understand and reveal the world where it needs revealing and to understand that some things need to remain untold is what draws Lady Envy to him in the first place.
- Second Love: Provided Spite's assertion that Lady Envy did really love Anomander Rake is true, Fisher is her second love. This is made particularly interesting by the fact that Fisher is best known for the epic poem he's written about Anomander Rake and that they hook up right before the culmination of Rake's epic quest to bring Mother Dark back, which includes him dying.
- Signature Style: Fisher's poems are often instantly recognizable due to their bleak and rambling tone, dealing with issues like loss, death, violence, sacrifice, despair, grief, parting of ways, personal tragedy, the gods' fallibility, childhood burdens, longing for love and all that fun stuff.
- The Storyteller: His main occupation is being a wandering bard and to chronicle important events and many of the chapter epigraphs are excerpts of works written by him, both prose and poems, though mostly poems.
- Take That, Audience!: Fisher is fond of inserting verses into his poems which call out the audience on something, like what he perceives as their lack of courage.Sacrifices made
Vows given
He stands alone
Because none of you dare
Stand with him. - Unreliable Narrator: While it is true that he has chronicled the life story of Anomander Rake (and the stories of many other events), the reliability of his accounts is somewhat questionable as Fisher himself admits that he puts impact and meaning over truth.
- Vague Age: Fisher is described as an old, grey-haired man, yet his exact age is often called into question by other characters. When he is angry, Scillara wonders if he's not younger than she initially thought, and Blend points out how some songs supposedly written by Fisher are over a hundred years old; and all Lady Envy can say for certain is that he is not a young man.
- Virtue Is Weakness: Discussed by Lady Envy regarding Fisher. She muses that only fools would see Fisher's stunning capacity for compassion as a weakness.
- Warrior Poet: He is mostly known for his poetry, but is surprisingly capable in a fight when provoked sufficiently. Fisher turns out to be a valuable asset to the retired Bridgeburners when they are assailed in their bar. He even kills a sizeable number of the attacking assassins himself.
Lady Envy's Companions
Lady Envy
A sorceress of considerable power and age, Lady Envy is one of the daughters of Draconus and former lover of Anomander Rake. She is described as tall and wearing a white dress of Seven Cities' descent even while wandering the wilderness. Toc comes across her in Morn, where she is preparing to travel north with three Seguleh companions and two large hounds to march against the Pannion Domin.In The Kharkanas Trilogy Envy is still a child and resides at Dracon's Hold together with her sisters Spite and Malice and seems to have a rather cold relationship with her father.
- Betrayal by Inaction: Is said to have stood by while her then-lover Anomander Rake killed her father and took his Soul-Cutting Blade Dragnipur from him. It is heavily implied that she did this just to spite Lord Draconus, and because she wanted Dragnipur for herself in the long run, not to stay out of a conflict between her father and her lover.
- Cain and Abel: She and her sister Spite cannot bear to be in the same city without trying to kill each other. The two of them also play the Cain to Malice's Abel. And all three of them are the Cain to Aranthan's Abel. Loving family, really.
- Enfant Terrible: In The Kharkanas Trilogy where she plots with sister Spite against first their brother Aranthan and then Malice, who they eventually burn alive in the hold's oven. It gets so bad, that Caladan Brood himself has to deal with them personally in Fall of Light.
- Everyone Has Standards: Immortal sociopathic sorceress she may be, but Envy is visibly and genuinely squicked to learn about some of the practices of the Faith of the Pannion Seer, especially how Children of the Dead Seed are made.
- Green-Eyed Monster: In accordance to her name she appears envious of her sister, Spite. They are able to work together briefly in Toll the Hounds to try and get their hands on Dragnipur, but both are already scheming to kill the other and take it for themselves.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Draconus intentionally named his daughters Envy, Spite and Malice, and would've named a fourth one Venom. He hit the nail on the head with each one.
- Upper-Class Twit: Envy does an amazing impression of one while journeying to Coral; she even brought a full-sized bathtub with her that her Seguleh errant boys have to carry and clean. She is also travelling and fighting in a stark white dress and refuses to don something more practical. Though, she's actually quite bright, if a little ditzy. Of course, when you're as powerful as Envy is, you can afford a little eccentricity.
Toc the Younger
A Malazan Scout of the Second Army, son of Toc the Elder, and agent of the Claw. He loses his eye thanks to getting caught by falling debris from Moon's Spawn during the Siege of Pale, the start of a progressively more insane series of events related to magic, with much suffering to accompany it.
- Achey Scars: Toc the Younger bears a scar in place of a lost eye. The scar itches in the presence of magic and during pivotal scenes the outcome of which furthers the novels' plot(s).
- Action Survivor: Feels like one alongside Envy, Tool, Baaljaag, Gareth and the Seguleh.
- Blind Seer: Toc the Younger, when he is introduced, is a one eyed youth who originally believes the legend that the loss of an eye or eyes can result in clairvoyance. He eventually starts to have visions in Gardens of the Moon, shortly before being lost in a warren.
- Butt-Monkey: Toc the Younger loses an eye, is sucked into a magic black hole, is thrown out a half year later, killed, resurrected in a new body, loses the same eye at least twice more, is betrayed, dies again, is made to serve Hood, the Lord of Death, and is forced to make his best friend his enemy.
- Can't Stay Normal: Or dead. He's been attacked by Hairlock and thrown into a rent, accompanied Lady Envy, body snatched Anaster and become Mortal Sword of Togg and Fanderay, been killed again, and now serves Hood.
- The Champion: Mortal Sword of Togg and Fanderay, then Herald of Death.
- Cosmic Plaything: Toc the Younger never seems to catch a break — in his first appearance alone, he loses an eye and is tossed into the Warren of Chaos to die. In each subsequent appearance, something catastrophic happens to him, and all of it Played for Drama. Only with his last appearance does something go his way.
- Death Is Cheap: How many times has he come back from the dead now?
- Eyepatch of Power
- Grand Theft Me: Following his initial death, Toc's soul is transplanted into that of Anaster in order to give them both a second chance at life.
- Private Military Contractors: As leader of the Grey Swords.
Mok, Thurule & Senu
Toc the Younger: Their homeland is an island south of here, and they're raised to be a private lot, disinclined to travel. But they are known of as far north as Nathilog. And Hood take me, aren't they known.
Three masked Seguleh warriors that were either coerced or entranced by Lady Envy to be her companions on the way north to the Pannion Domin. The three of them form the so-called 'Punitive Army of the Seguleh' and are high ranked warriors of their culture with Mok being the Seguleh Third.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Seguleh hierarchy is modelled on combat ability, with each warrior having to challenge his betters if he wants to rise in rank. As the Third, Mok can and does kick a lot of ass.
- Badass Army: They're the 'Punitive Army of the Seguleh', because Seguleh are just so good at fighting, that they only need to send three people.
- Badass Normal: They are neither Ascendants, nor magic-users —they simply grew up in a warrior culture and fought all their lives. Still, they manage to fight their way through hundreds -if not thousands- of Tenescowri to the heart of the invasion.
- Blood Knight: Three representatives from an entire nation of masked, battle-crazy warriors. That said nation only sent three people as their force against an entire empire is a testament to their prowess.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: As far as is known the Seguleh don't use magic in their training and just become supreme warriors through discipline and training alone. Mok and Co. are among the very few non-Ascendants of the series who are able to fight an undead K'ell Hunter and live to tell the tale.
- Cool Mask: All Seguleh go masked, and the markings on their mask indicate their rank. Mok is the third-ranked Seguleh, so his mask has two slashes on it.
- Dual Wielding: At least two of them prefer to fight with a weapon in each hand: Senu with two broadswords and Mok with two short blades.
- Honour Before Reason: If the Seguleh think you might be tough, they will challenge you, no matter where or when. And they'll make it a fair fight, too. All three challenge Tool over the course of Memories of Ice, which forces Lady Envy to magically knock out Mok, because they just would not stop fighting.
- Improbable Age: Senu is all of fourteen years old and an Eleventh Level Initiate in the Seguleh hierarchy. Not too young to join of a punitive army against a cannibalistic empire, apparently.
- Master Swordsman: The Seguleh are a whole race of these; their culture focuses on swordsmanship to the exclusion of all else, to the extent that they're ranked according to their sword skill, and as such are regarded as some of the deadliest hand-to-hand combatants in the whole World of Badass. In Memories of Ice, the Seguleh send a Punitive Army to the Pannion Domin, which consists of... three Seguleh warriors, and one of them, Senu, is fourteen years old. They are confident that three Seguleh swordsmen are enough to kick the Pannion Seer's army in the butt. They use shortswords to decimate what is effectively an armed and armoured undead velociraptor.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Seguleh challenge everyone whom they perceive to be a strong fighter. To rise in their society they have to challenge people who are stronger than them. If they win, they will then take that person's place. Indivitual rank is indicated by the number of marks on their masks; the fewer marks, the higher the rank.
- The Quiet One: All three of them choose not to speak, but rather communicate using body language amongst themselves. Though they do rarely deign to speak to outsiders, if they don't understand sublte head movements.Envy: They are not a loquacious lot, I have found.
- The Stoic: They fight undead dinosaurs without batting an eyelash, are on a mission to crush an empire with incredible odds and don't ever complain about it or show any weakness.
Baaljagg
——
- Amnesiac God: The wolf-goddess Fanderay is trapped inside her.
- Canine Companion
- Sizeshifter: Can greatly alter her size, though not to the extent Gareth can.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Is searching for the spirit of her mate, the wolf-god Togg. He's hiding inside Toc.
Gareth
——
- Hellhound: Has the potential to be a Hound of Shadow.
- Canine Companion
- Sizeshifter: Can grow to tremendous size.
Eleint
Silanah
A red dragon which lives in Moon's Spawn with the Tiste Andii. The lover of Anomander Rake.
- Good Is Not Nice: She's a close ally of Anomander Rake, but she's still an Eleint, which means she is cold, distant and has an unyielding sense of pure justice.
- Interspecies Romance: With Anomander Rake, although he presumably still shifts into his Soletaken from for romantic moments.
- Nobody Here but Us Statues: She remains incredibly still when perched over Black Coral, being mistaken for a statue by its denizens.
- Token Heroic Orc: She is the only Pure Eleint in the series who is truly heroic. While some other Eleint (such as Kalse, Eloth and Ampelas) help the heroes conditionally, she aids them freely. How she has so effectively repressed the Chaos within her veins is unknown.
- X-Ray Vision: Her gaze is described as being capable of seeing through stone if she so desires.
Korabas
But she knew that there would be no reasoning with such a creature. From the moment of its creation, the Otataral Dragon had been doomed to an eternity of anguish and rage. Unmatched in power, yet that power was abnegation. Its only food was sorcery, but life itself was a manifestation of magic, and so all it touched it killed. Only the Eleint possessed the will to withstand that.
Within an isolated pocket warren, a dragon aspected to otataral is crucified and warded with magic. Known as the "Eye of Abnegation" Korabas' life is necessary for the continued existence of the Warrens, but she also brings death wherever she travels, necessitating her imprisonment.
- Anti-Magic: Korabas's otataral aspect negates all magic in a radius around her. When the other Eleint do battle with her, they are unable to use their magical breath, instead attacking her with their claws and teeth. If left unchecked to damage the warrens, she would even be able to kill K'rul and destroy the world's magic.
- Blessed with Suck: She's a flying End of the World as We Know It, and the lynchpin of the world's magic system, but these powers have brought her nothing but misery.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Probably the biggest example of this in the entire series. First encountered in House of Chains by Pearl and Lostara, she plays a major role in the climax of the series.
- I Just Want to Be Free: Korabas desires freedom from imprisonment, and fights desperately to preserve freedom when she is released. Unfortunately, her freedom would bring untold destruction, yet her life is required to sustain the Malazan world's magic system, making her imprisonment a necessity which even the Crippled God, who himself understands the pain of imprisonment, partakes in.
- Unwitting Pawn: Korabas desires unrestricted freedom and is drawn to exposed otataral. These two aspects make her easily manipulated, first by the Elder Gods in their plan to destroy the warrens and later by Adjunct Tavore as part of the freeing the Crippled God.
- Walking Wasteland: Well, a flying wasteland. Wherever she goes, Korabas turns the area surrounding her into a wasteland that is not only devoid of all life, but will never be able to sustain life again.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Perhaps the most destructive being in the Malazan universe, one who must be chained perpetually for its survival, yet also a pitiable creature who desires freedom and the chance to create something of her own, a chance forever denied to her.
T'iam
The Mother of all Dragons.
- Above the Gods: In terms of power, she is above all Gods and Ascendents in the Malazan setting.
- Draconic Abomination: Her mere presence in a world is sufficent to destroy it.
- Final Boss: Of the main Malazan series, as it takes the combined efforts of Heboric Light Touch and the Crippled God himself to prevent her from manifesting.
- Kaiju: Korabas is large enough that she can fit normal sized Eleint in her mouth. T'iam is large enough that she can crush Korabas with ease.
- Our Hydras Are Different: T'iam's manifestation is described as a "multi-headed leviathan."
- Spell My Name Withan S: Her name is spelled in an almost dizzying number of ways in-universe, although "Tiam" and "T'iam" are the ones used most often.
