Moon

The Malazan world had one easily visible Moon and at least three others too small or distant to see and perpetually occluded from the sun's light.^[1][2] There were several regions of the moon that appeared to some as seas, with the largest being known as Grallin's Sea.^[2]

In Gardens of the Moon

Apsalar and Crokus Younghand looked upon the moon from Darujhistan. The young assassin pointed out the sea that was home to Grallin.^[2]

In Midnight Tides

Menandore believed Scabandari Bloodeye had imprisoned her father, Brother Light, within the distant, latticed moon.^[3]

Ceda Kuru Qan revealed to Brys Beddict that there were three additional moons other than the one known to the general population. According to the Ceda, early texts suggested that the moons were not always so difficult to see.^[1]

In The Bonehunters

Apsalar recalled a story told to her by Crokus in which the goddess Apsal'ara had tried to steal the moon.^[4]

Kalam Mekhar observed that the moon in the night sky looked misshapen and rougher around the edges, as if the surrounding darkness was gnawing on it. He was not sure if it had always been that way or if he had just never noticed.^[5]

Mogora used a healing ritual that drew on the moon's power to save the life of Mappo Runt. To Iskaral Pust it appeared that his wife had pulled the moon from the sky to hang above them almost within reach.^[6] Elsewhere, Cotillion was mystified to see that the moon's light had been stolen.^[7]

While traveling on the Olphara Peninsula, Karsa Orlong and Samar Dev noted that the moon had grown larger and was surrounded by a strange corona. At the same time it appeared to be crumbling and breaking up. The Teblor noted that the desert folk believed gods dwelled there and he wondered if those gods waged war among themselves. Samar Dev scoffed at his superstition, and presented her scientific viewpoint. The moon was one of several heavenly bodies that had broken off from their world. Perhaps one of the others had collided with it as there was much more dust in the air in recent times. She suggested observing the tides to measure any change to the moon as it was the moon's own breath that regulated them.^[8]

The night after the battle between the Malazan Imperial Fleet and the Third Edur Imperial Fleet, Apsalar and Squint conversed aboard the deck of the Froth Wolf. Squint observed that the moon appeared to be nothing but a blur. He theorised that the moon was a distant world with armies clashing and kicking up dust that obscured its light. Apsalar said she once thought the moon was a place of cities without war and of beautiful gardens of flowers that were always in bloom. Crokus had once told her that he had fallen in love with her the night she told him her stories of the moon.^[9]

Scillara and Barathol Mekhar agreed that the moon looked as if holes had been poked through it with dark blotches where ash either rose or pieces had broken away. Barathol noted that the moon was said to be another realm with people on its surface. He speculated that something had fallen from the sky onto the moon much the way the Crippled God had fallen onto the Malazan world.^[10]

Barathol's musings appeared to be correct as not long after an arc of a dozen blazing suns fell from the sky towards Otataral Island. Ganoes Paran saw them and immediately thought he should have paid more attention to what had happened on the moon. He feared the descending balls of fire were a salvo in the war between the gods. The Master of the Deck made a hurried bargain with Hood that saw Heboric return to life.^[11] The historian sensed millions of voices akin to the Jade giants of the island plunging from the sky. They spoke of crossing a vast dark span of emptiness to crash through one world before falling towards another larger one. As they plummeted towards the ground dozens of jade hands like Heboric's own reached up through a green dome covering the island and stopped them.^[12]

In Reaper's Gale

The moon appeared to Seren Pedac as shrouded in dust, while Redmask described it as blurred.^[13]

In Toll the Hounds

Trapped within Dragnipur, Apsal'ara recalled the many accomplishments of her life. Among them was the time she had stolen the moon.^[14]

The Saelen Gara people of ancient Kharkanas believed the moon was Father Light's gift to Mother Dark to remind her of his love. They also believed it was but the backside of his baleful eye. If someone were to go to the moon, they would discover it was but a lens through which could be seen other worlds for which it was a sun.^[15]

As Lady Challice Vidikas regarded a wedding gift that recreated the moon in glass, she noted that the details on the moon's face exactly matched the real one from when its face had been fully visible instead of blurry.^[16]

Viewing the rising moon, Kallor compared "its ravaged scowl of reflected sunlight and the blighted dust of its stirred slumber" to his own face--beaten but unbowed.^[17]

On the last night of the Gedderone Fête, when powerful forces converged on Darujhistan and Hood walked the city's streets, the moon was late to rise and both Samar Dev and Torvald Nom thought it missing from the night sky.^[18][19] When it finally appeared above the southern horizon, it was shattered as if struck by a massive object from the depths of space. The concussive force shattered its crust and tore it apart.^[20][21][22] The mass of its scattered fragments made it appear twice the size as normal with huge chunks spinning away from its centre, surrounded by a cloud of thin rings of dust, and the light it cast was sickly yet astonishingly bright.^[23] Torvald feared the spinning pieces would rain upon them, but Rallick Nom noted the seemed to moving away and getting smaller in the distance.<^[21] Soon the momentum of the fragments slowed and they began to fall back upon the fast-darkening core.^[21]

Light cast by the moon's continent-sized fragments fell upon the Malazan world, flooding the city of Darujhistan and heralding the arrival of the ten Hounds of Light to claim Dragnipur for their unnamed master.^[24][25] The same moonlight fell upon Black Coral, fraying Kurald Galain's cloak of Darkness over the Tiste Andii city.^[25]

Torvald also spotted a second, smaller moon moving much slower across the sky at a further distance.^[21]

In Dust of Dreams

Olar Ethil told Torrent that one of her many identities throughout her ancient lifespan was that of "Ayala Alalle who tends the Gardens of the Moon, for ever awaiting her lover."^[26]

(Information needed)

In The Crippled God

(Information needed)

In Night of Knives

Two or three times a century, Malaz City experienced an event known as a Shadow Moon, when "every portal, every gateway, every fault between Warrens, all open a crack."^[27][28] It was unclear if this event had any connection to the physical moon.

In Orb Sceptre Throne

Darujhistan locals spoke of "the re-formed moon".^[29]

In Blood and Bone

(Information needed)

In Goats of Glory

When the Rams visited Glory, the moon was described as "the Broken Moon dragg[ing] its pieces above the horizon."^[30]

Notes and references