Andarist

Andarist was a Tiste Andii and the younger brother of Anomander Rake. Unlike Rake, Andarist had not become a Soletaken dragon and thus, although still long-lived, he aged.^[2]

He was described as an extremely tall, ancient old man. His hair was long, white and dishevelled and he wore a beard. His skin was black as ebony and his eyes glittered amber, actually emitting light. The heat radiating from his body shrivelled plants in his vicinity.^[1] He had weathered features.^[3] He spoke very good Malazan, although haltingly, as if he rarely used the words.^[4]

Andarist had long surrendered himself to a grief that could never heal.^[5] He did not at first appear much of a warrior as he carried himself like an absent-minded scholar who bore a perpetual look of confusion.^[6]

He wielded the huge, double-handed sword Vengeance (also called Grief).^[7] His silver chain armour had seen centuries of use.^[8]

Andarist possessed a stoic attitude having seen many of his kin perish over the years. He did not concern himself with events beyond the island.^[9]

He was the author of a treatise entitled Combat and Negotiation.^[10]

In House of Chains

Calling himself Darist, Andarist lived on the floating island Drift Avalii with a number of young descendants of his brother, Anomander. They had been settled on the island by Rake to guard the Throne of Shadow, but Rake had never returned and they had been isolated for many decades.^[11][6] Left alone to face the Throne's enemies, he appeared to resent his brother for his neglect and for Rake's eternal youth as a draconic Soletaken.^[12][13]

When Andarist detected a half dozen Tiste Edur ships off the island's coast, he sent Phaed and his other young relatives into hiding on the island. Andarist fully expected to perish while defending the Throne.^[14][13]

Cotillion sent Cutter and Apsalar to the island to help defend the Throne, but their boat wrecked on the island's treacherous coast. Andarist fished Cutter from the water, but Apsalar was lost. The Tiste Andii suspected that Cutter was an agent of Rake, but allowed him to accompany him to the Hold of the Throne.^[15]

When asked about his sword by Cutter, Andarist remarked that it had been made by Rake who named it Vengeance. The sword came into Andarist's possession when Rake found Dragnipur more suited to his nature. Andarist called the sword Grief and claimed that if it was wielded by an individual with enough willpower, the sword was unbeatable in combat. He added that he did not possess such talent and so he expected the upcoming battle to be his last.^[16]

During the first Edur assault, Andarist proved to be an extremely skilled fighter, using both sword and magic to repel a score of attackers. Before he and Cutter could be overwhelmed, Apsalar appeared with Andarist's kin, who she had found in hiding. Cutter later secured help from Traveller and a small number of Malazans who had been washed up on the island. Cotillion himself appeared during the final Edur attack, but it was not enough to save Andarist, who fell to Tiste Edur sorcery.^[17]

Traveller claimed Andarist's sword, Grief, something Cotillion advocated, but returned its name to Vengeance. Then he vowed to take up defense of the Throne for a time.^[18]

In Midnight Tides

Shortly after the sundering of Kurald Emurlahn, the Malazan world was invaded through a violent rent by the combined armies of Silchas Ruin's Tiste Andii and Scabandari Bloodeye's Tiste Edur. After the invaders defeated an army of K'Chain Che'Malle, Scabandari betrayed his fellow commander and noted that Silchas Ruin was brother to Andarist and Anomandaris Irake. Scabandari claimed that Andarist had long ago surrendered his power in answer to a grief that would never heal. Scabandari also claimed to secretly be the hand that had delivered Andarist's grief.^[19]

In The Bonehunters

The Tiste Andii of Bluerose possessed an ancient tapestry depicting Mother Dark and the three brothers born in Darkness who were her most cherished children: Andarist, Anomandaris Purake, and Silchas Ruin. But all three had eventually been cast out by her. Andarist was the first, after Mother Dark made an accusation of betrayal that all knew to be mistaken. Filled with unbearable grief, he accepted his banishment by Mother Dark, but vowed to continue his guardianship of her from exile. Anomander and Silchas saw Mother Dark's turning away from her son as a crime and Anomander confronted her. Afterwards, he too walked away, denying the Darkness in his blood and seeking out Chaos. Silchas Ruin's indecision and failed efforts to forge reconciliation led to the greatest betrayal of all—an alliance with Shadow.^[20]

In Reaper's Gale

Silchas Ruin told Fear Sengar that before the sundering of Kurald Emurlahn, Andarist had been betrayed in a manner that set such grief upon his soul that he was driven mad. It was implied that Scabandari was somehow involved.^[21]

On Second Maiden Fort with Adjunct Tavore Paran's Bonehunters, Nimander Golit despaired that Andarist had chosen him to lead the other Andii survivors of Drift Avalii. Andarist had known he was going to die in defence of the island, but Nimander believed his faith in him had been mistaken.^[22]

In Toll the Hounds

Atop The wagon carrying the damned of Dragnipur, Ditch encountered a Tiste Andii artist named Kadaspala, who was the brother of Andarist's wife, Enesdia. Kadaspala had been among the first to fall to the sword after he attempted it to wrest it from Draconus to kill Anomander Rake. The artist believed Rake deserved to be enslaved by the sword for "what he'd done. To his brother. To my sister." The sight of Rake's unspecified act had driven the artist to blind himself.^[23]

Nimander recalled the first time he had met Andarist. Scores of Anomander Rake's progeny spent their childhoods together in a snowswept keep in a remote mountain range. Rake lived among them in godlike indifference, but their daily needs were tended to by Endest Silann. The priest looked upon the children with dismay, knowing what kind of future awaited them. Consequently, he withheld his warmth and treated them like an ogre, although he never did them harm. The children endlessly tormented the old man, mocking and tripping him. Eventually, an aged and stooped Tiste Andii came to the keep and they were shocked to learn it was Rake's brother, Andarist. Rake and Andarist argued bitterly for days. When it was over, Rake told the children Andarist was taking them away to an island. Andarist proved a stern teacher, ending any insolence with a cuff to the head. The children eagerly took up arms and Andarist made them soldiers.^[24] Although each of the children bore the blood of the Eleint, a bitter Andarist commanded they suppress it, trying to make them more his own children than Rake's.^[25]

Endest Silann recalled the days of civil war among the Tiste Andii when the High Priestess of Kharkanas sent him to Suruth Common Forest to witness a meeting between Anomander Rake and his brothers, Silchas Ruin and Andarist. Endest's modest rank had been a sign of the High Priestess' contempt for the participants, but the three were among the few not trying to kill each other. The brothers cryptically discussed a strategy for ending the conflict that brought the parties together to form a pact. Andarist, who claimed not to have the same courage or cruel madness to follow his brothers' path, would turn away and do nothing. Ruin, his eyes wet with despair, would be required to betray Andarist.^[26]

The next time Endest saw Rake was at the Citadel of Kharkanas, which was strewn with bodies from the various factions, including those of the three brothers. Endest had guided Rake, now a Soletaken with the blood of T'iam, to the chamber of Mother Dark. Rake reported that he would unite the Tiste Andii and resistance from Andarist, Drethdenan, and Vanut Degalla was ending, while Silchas Ruin, Hish Tulla, and Manalle had fled. The goddess scolded her son for his shortsighted tactic that had ended the war, before forsaking him and turning away from her children.^[27]

Endest also remembered standing over the body of Andarist's wife, Enesdia, with blood-covered hands as Kharkanas burned.^[28]

In Forge of Darkness

Millenia before the events of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, Andarist and his brothers, Anomander Rake and Silchas Ruin, were still Tiste. Their father Nimander had been dead for two years, but Mother Dark had rewarded his loyalty by granting each of his sons the title, Son of Darkness.^[29]

Andarist became one of the Tiste Andii, his skin turned black by exposure to Mother Dark, alongside his brother Anomander.^[30]

Andarist's betrothed, Enesdia, was brutally murdered on the way to their wedding as part of Hunn Raal's political schemes in Kurald Galain.^[31] Her brother Kadaspala, who ended up being held prisoner in Dragnipur, would later claim that Enesdia was Andarist's wife, but the marriage never actually took place. The murder caused a rift between Andarist and Anomander when Anomander was inspired by the crime to name his sword "Vengeance" rather than "Grief" as Andarist requested.^[32]

Enesdia was posthumously titled High Priestess of Dark by Mother Dark as the acolyte, Endest Silann, bled over her grave, an event that happened slightly differently in later memory.^[33]

He [Endest] had clasped the hand of the dying High Priestess, sharing with her the bleak knowledge that nothing waited for her, nothing at all. He had stood, gods, so long along now, staring down at his blood-covered hands, above the body of a sweet, gentle woman, Andarist's wife. ―Endest Silann • Toll the Hounds

In Fall of Light

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