Jakata

See also: Jakatas (currency)

Jakata (also Jakatakan - see section below) was a city on the southwestern coast of Malaz Island which was known for its seafaring people, notably pirates. Jakata was referred to as Jakatan as well, but the name (in that form) was used only once in the Malazan main series by Steven Erikson (in "The Crippled God"),^[1] but it was used several times in Ian C. Esslemont's "Night of Knives".

Beak made a comment about the Jakata people having been the first on Malaz Island after the Stormriders retreated.^[2]

The city was located where the River Broland exited into the strait known as the Inside Passage. On the other side of the strait was a chain of islands which included Break Island. Upriver from Jakata was the town known as Upper Jakata.

It is unknown if the Malazan Empire coinage known as a Jakata originated or was named after the city of the same name.

Jakatakan

Based on its usage, Jakatakan in most cases meant 'from Jakata'. However, Jakata or the area around it may, in fact, have been called Jakatakan in the past and it was sometimes still used (in that form) by natives of the city (e.g., by Bottle). In some cases, the phrase indicated an origin from, or the location of, Malaz Island as a whole.^[3] The Island is named Jakatakan on the map of the Lands of Fist.

• When asked where he was selling appeasement dolls when he was younger, Bottle answered, "Jakatakan".^[4]

• Bottle remembered that once upon a time, there had been apes on 'Malaz Island'. He remembered seeing a cage of them "in Jakatakan" when he was about seven years old. He mentioned the dockside market in Jakatakan.^[5]

• Uru Hela had once stowed aboard a Jakatakan merchanter.^[6]

• Banaschar talked about wine served at Coop's as having been made from Jakatakan grapes.^[7]

Religion

Banaschar had once been a priest of D'rek in the Jakatakan temple on Malaz Island.^[8]

Fashion

Mosel had his hair braided and cut finger-length in the fashion of Jakatakan pirates.^[9]

The Jakatan style was to carry curved short swords sheathed pommel-forward.^[10]

Military

The Jakatakan Élites, renowned for their superior discipline and training, were likely either based in Jakata or had their origins in the city.^[11]

Shipping

The Malazan Empire gave charters to Jakatan vessels allowing them to intercept non-Imperial shipping off the coast of Quon Tali thus permitting the cities long tradition of piracy to survive.^[12]

The Jakatakan fleet patrolled the seas from Malaz Island west, to the island of Geni and on to the Horn of the mainland. At full strength, it comprised twenty-seven dromons and sixteen resupply ships.^[13]

At the time that four Malazan dromons, carrying the flags of the Jakatakan fleet, entered Malaz City harbour, the fleet had lost a number of ships clashing with an unknown foe. It was rumoured that eleven ships had been lost but that number was unconfirmed. The four dromons had delivered castaways from a remote reef island southwest of the Horn.^[14]

When Adjunct Tavore arrived at Malaz City, a longboat from the Jakatakan fleet’s flagship drew up alongside her flagship, the Froth Wolf, to convey the Jakatakan Commander, Exent Hadar with a message for the Adjunct.^[15]

The Bonehunters gave the Jakatakan dromons a memorable send-off as the dromons slid past them. Those on the Silanda for example, held some of the animated Tiste Andii heads under their arms which left the unseasoned Untan soldiers aboard the Jakatakan vessels scared witless.^[16]

Notable characters from Jakata

• Bottle
• Dassem Ultor^[17]

In The Bonehunters

It was rumoured that the priests and priestesses of D'rek's temple in Jakata had vanished because the goddess hungered for Wickan blood and sent her clergy on the hunt for any who remained on Malaz Island.^[18] In all likelihood, the temple faithful had met the same fate inflicting the other D'rek temples of the world.^[19]

Notes and references