Empress Laseen

Empress Laseen, Ruler of the Malazan Empire

GotM, Dramatis Personae

Surly, Laseen's old name when Commander of the Claw

GotM, Dramatis Personae

"'She's taking a new name, you know. Laseen.'

'Laseen?'

'Napan word. Means -'

'I know what it means.'

'Hope the Emperor does too.'

Ganoes said, 'It means Thronemaster.'"

- Conversation between Whiskeyjack and Fiddler.
GotM, UK mmpb, p.6

"She wore her typical shirt, sash, pants, and her feet were bare. The woman's plain face was flat and narrow, tight with concentration. Her hair was cropped short in the fashion common to the many women who served in the Malazan military, and her hands bore dark calluses. She struck Temper as all hard edges."

NoK, UK mmpb, p.280

"A new voice spoke behind the, a woman's, imperious and cold."

GotM, UK mmpb p.6

"Her dusky blue skin marked her as Napan, but she was otherwise plain, wearing a salt-stained grey robe, her mousy hair cut short like a soldier’s, her features thin and unmemorable."

GotM, UK Trade p. 5, UK mmpb p.6

"Surly had created the Claw, making it a power rivalled only by the Emperor himself."

GotM, UK mmpb p.6

"'You must be feeling confident in the Emperor's absence. He's not the only one who remembers you as nothing more than a serving-wench down in the Old Quarter.'"

- Whiskeyjack to Laseen.
GotM, UK mmpb p.6

"'That was in the days of the Emperor,' the hag Rigga continued. 'Hood roast the bastard's soul on a spit. But look on, lass. Laseen scatters bones with the best of them. Heh, she started with his, didn't she, now?'"

GotM, UK mmpb p.12

"Laseen had changed little since the only other time he'd been this closer to him; plain and unadorned, her hair short and fair above the blue tint of her unmemorable features. Her brown eyes regarded him narrowly."

GoTM, US HC p.51, UK mmpb p.42

"The woman's brown hair was cut short, military-style. The bluish tinge of her skin marked her as Napan. She wore a green silk shirt, torn and blood-spattered, a wide sash of emerald green, and loose pantaloons gathered snug at the ankles. Her feet were dark and calloused as if always bare."

NoK, UK mmpb, p.336

‘Has a drowned Napan’s body ever surfaced?’

Empress Laseen to High Mage Tayschrenn
Life of Empress Laseen
Abelard
HoC, UK Trade, p.163

following the Disappearances