Jaghut Wars

The Jaghut Wars were a series of conflicts between the Jaghut and the Imass, known as T'lan Imass after the Ritual of Tellann, which stretched over a period of approximately 300,000 years.

It is unknown how the numbers were allocated. It could be that they differed from one T'lan clan to another or that each number related to the conflict against a specific group of Jaghut.

6th Jaghut War

Onos T'oolan was whetted as warrior in the 6th Jaghut war.^[1]

17th/18th Jaghut War

The Kron T'lan Imass fought either their 17th or 18th war against the Jaghut in the Laederon Plateau. According to Kenemas Trybanos, a chronicler of the Nathii expedition to the Laederon Plateau, a mage who had accompanied them confirmed that a Jaghut still lived in the Laederon glacier, injured yet in possession of formidable sorcery. This seemed to indicate that the Kron failed and at least one Jaghut survived.^[2]

The L'aederon Wars and the Spirit Wars may have been different names for the same conflict.

28th Jaghut War

The 28th war was fought during the time of Empress Laseen. The Logros T'lan Imass interrupted their service to the Malazan Empire and departed Seven Cities without warning after detecting a Jaghut enclave in the Jhag Odhan. Imperial Adjunct Lorn estimated that of the 19,000 warriors of the Logros who had originally answered Emperor Kellanved's call to service, only about 14,000 remained and that most of the missing had fallen beyond the Empire's borders.^[3] It was possible that the war involved only a single Jaghut family as Onrack T'emlava referred to being injured in "the final battle against the Jaghut family in the Jhag Odhan".^[4] The war was also indirectly mentioned in House of Chains when Karsa Orlong was passing through the Jhag Odhan.

33rd Jaghut War

The 33rd War, also called Maeth'ki Im (Pogrom of the Rotted Flower), took place just prior to the Ritual of Tellann, 298,665 years before Burn's Sleep. The last surviving Jaghut on their continent were a mother and her two children who were pursued by members of the Kron Imass under Cannig Tol and the Bonecaster Pran Chole. The Imass eventually caught up with the Jaghut and killed the Jaghut mother thus, according to the text, ending the 33rd war. One has to assume that the Kron considered the fate of the children, who had escaped with the help of the renegade Bonecaster, Kilava, worse than death.^[5]

51st Jaghut War

The Ifayle T'lan Imass fought in the 51st war 6,031 years before Burn's Sleep. In one incident, while hunting Jaghut, a band led by Shalt Li'gar discovered a settlement of mixed Jaghut-human stock on Assail. A bloody argument broke out amongst the band with some declaring that the "abominations" should be killed. The conflict resulted in the deaths of the entire band.^[6]

Other Jaghut Campaigns

It is possible that the time reference at the opening of Assail refers to a 12th Jaghut War, possibly on the Lamatath Plain.

Seventh century of the 12th Lamatath campaign
33,421 years before Burn’s Sleep

In Reaper's Gale

Hedge opined that the Jaghut Wars were a backwards kind of vengeance where the Imass had hurt themselves more than their proclaimed enemy ever had. There had only been a few Jaghut Tyrants, and those had quickly earned the wrath of their kin before any T'lan Imass army arrived. When the Jaghut used ice against the Imass, the Imass underwent the Ritual of Tellann to make their hearts colder and more lifeless than any glacier.^[7]

Trivia

Author Steven Erikson has this to say about the 33rd Jaghut War and the Jaghut Wars in general:
    "[T]he irony continues in [the Memories of Ice] prologue, as the vast 'war' actually involved, what, nine or ten people and three 'enemies,' two of them children. Which in turn dismantles the veracity of every one of those 'wars' and the number attributed to each one. History books (especially early, early ones, like the fabulous history of the Goths) are all about grand narratives. In one way, so is the Malazan Book of the Fallen, but in another way, the Malazan Book of the Fallen is a refutation of the grandiose elements of history told, recorded, and recounted."^[8]

Notes and references