The T'lan Imass

T’lan Imass: one of the Four Founding Races, now immortal

Appearance: in life, Pran Chole has "smooth, gold skin" with eyes "a startling amber in color."

'Among the Malazan Empire, the T’lan Imass were also known as the Silent Host.' (GotM, UK Trade, p.234)

'T’lan Imass, who travelled as easily as dust on the wind' (GotM, UK Trade, p.46)

'The skin that stretched across the squat man’s robust bones was a shiny
nut brown in colour, the texture of leather. Whatever flesh it had once
covered had contracted to thin strips the consistency of oak roots – such
muscles showed through torn patches here and there. The creature’s face,
what Toc could see of it, bore a heavy chinless jawbone, high cheeks and
a pronounced brow ridge. The eye sockets were dark holes.' (GotM, UK Trade, p.202)

'The mud was transmogrifying, coalescing into the shapes of figures. Flint blades appeared, some grey, some the deep red of chalcedony. Bedraggled fur slowly sprouted, riding broad, bony shoulders. Bone helmets gleamed polished gold and brown - the skulls of beasts that Felisin could not imagine existing anywhere. Long ropes of filthy hair were now visible, mostly black or brown. The mud did not so much fall away as change. These creatures were one with the clay...All wore furs except one, who was smaller than the others and last to appear. It was bedecked in the oily, ragged feathers of colourful birds, and its long hair was iron grey streaked with red. Shell, antler and bone jewellery hung from its rotting hide shirt, but it appeared to carry no weapons.'(DG, UK MMPB, p.375)

'Their faces were withered, the bones underneath close to the surface and robust. The sockets of their eyes were black pits. The wiry remnants of beards remained, except on the silver-haired one...' (DG, UK MMPB, p.375)

'The fur humped over its shoulders came from some kind of bear, the hairs were silver-tipped.'(DG, UK MMPB, p.375)

'We can cross bodies of water...But we can only find our shapes on land'(DG, UK MMPB, p.377)

'The Warrens of the Imass are similar to those of the Jaghut and the Forkrul Assail – Elder-, blood- and earthbound –'(GotM, UK Trade, p.204)

Onos T'oolan: "Life is fire... With such words was born the First Empire. The Empire of Imass, the Empire of Humanity." (GotM, US HC, p.239)

T'lan Imass senses

'Of course, the word 'smell' had acquired new meaning for the T'lan Imass in the wake of the Ritual. Mundane senses had for the most part withered along with the flesh. Through the shadowed orbits of his (Onrack's) eyes, for example, the world was a complex collage of dull colours, heat and cold and often measured by an unerring sensitivity to motion. Spoken words swirled in mercurial clouds of breath - if the speaker lived, that is. If not, then it was the sound itself that was detectable, shivering its way through the air. Onrack sensed sound as much by sight as by hearing.'(HoC, UK MMPB, p.324)

T'lan Imass 'Dusting'

'Hentos Ilm tilted her head back, then began dissolving, the dust of her being spinning in place. A moment later it spiralled upward...'(DG, UK MMPB, p.378)

T'lan Imass and Soletaken

Heboric: 'There is a bond between the T'lan Imass and Soletaken and D'ivers, a mysterious kinship that was unsuspected by the dwellers of this city - though they claimed for themselves the proud title of First Empire. That would have irritated the T'lan Imass - assuming such creatures can feel irritation - to have so boldly assumed a title that rightly belonged to them. Yet what drew them here was the ritual, and the need to set things right.'(DG, UK MMPB, p.517)

T'lan Imass Customs and Rituals

The Ritual of Tellann

Silverfox:'The last Gathering...was hundreds of thousands of years ago, at which was invoked the Ritual of Tellann – the binding of the Tellann warren to each and every Imass. The ritual made them immortal...The life force of an entire people was bound in the name of a holy war destined to last for millennia...Logros and the clans under his command were entrusted with the task of defending the First Throne. The other armies departed to hunt down the last Jaghut strongholds – the Jaghut had raised barriers of ice. Omtose Phellack is a warren of ice...a place deathly cold and almost lifeless. Jaghut sorceries threatened the world . . . sea levels dropped, whole species died out – every mountain range was a barrier. Ice flowed in white rivers down from the slopes. Ice formed a league deep in places. As mortals, the Imass were scattered, their unity lost. They could not cross such barriers. There was starvation...As Tellann undead, our armies could cross such barriers. The efforts at eradication proved . . . costly. You (Dujek Onearm) have heard no whispers of those armies because many have been decimated, whilst others perhaps continue the war in distant, inhospitable places.’(MoI, UK Trade, p.88-9)

'Failure'
'Too shattered to remain with their kin, they had been left behind, as was the custom of their kind. Failure's sentence was abandonment, an eternity of immobility. When failure was honourable, their sentient remnants would be placed open to the sky, to vistas, to the outside world, so that they might find peace in watching the passing of eons. But for these seven, failure had not been honourable. Thus, the darkness of a tomb had been their sentence.'(HoC, UK MMPB, p.36)

Ritual of Binding
'Their kin had marked this place of internment, with carved faces, each a likeness, mocking the vista with blank, blind eyes. They had spoken their names to close the ritual of binding, names that lingered in this place with a power sufficient to twist the minds of the shamans of the people who had found refuge in these mountains...' (HoC, UK MMPB, p.37)

T'lan Imass and Warrens

'...Kurald Emurlahn, fragmented or otherwise, was not amenable to the T'lan Imass. Without a Bonecaster beside him, Onrack could not extend his Tellann powers, could not reach out to his kin...'(HoC, UK MMPB, p.322)

T'lan Imass 'Dissolution'

'The roiling waters...offered true oblivion. Dissolution was the only escape possible from this eternal ritual...Onrack knew of kin who had chosen that path.'(HoC, UK MMPB, p.322)

The Clanless among the T'lan Imass

'With his (Onrack's] link, born of the Ritual, now severed, he could only communicate with these T’lan Imass by speaking out loud.'(HoC, UK Trade, p.330)

T'lan Imass Clans

T’lan Imass (the Armies of the Diaspora):
Logros, Guardians of the First Throne
Kron, First to the Gathering
Betrule (lost)

Bentract (lost)
Olar Ethil: '‘The four remaining clans of Bentract T’lan Imass are on Jacuruku, I believe, yet trapped within the Warren of Chaos. I searched there, Summoner, without success' (MoI, UK Trade, p.596)

Ifayle (lost)
Orshayn (lost)
Kerluhm (lost)

Olar Ethil:'Of the Orshan, the Ifayle and Kerluhm, I report my failure in discovering any sign. It follows that we must conclude they no longer exist.’(MoI, UK Trade, p.596)

(MoI, Glossary)

Kron T’lan Imass: the name of the clans under the command of Kron
'They call themselves the Kron T’lan Imass..their warriors...number perhaps fourteen
thousand.’(MoI, UK Trade, p.244)

Logros T’lan Imass: the name of the clans under the command of Logros
'..the Logros - Guardians of the First Throne itself -'(HoC, UK MMPB, p.322)

Kerluhm T'lan Imass: destroyed on the continent of Assail, aside from Lanas Tog

Ifayle T'lan Imass: decimated on the continent of Assail, the few remaining unable to extricate themselves, see Lanas Tog.

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