The Deragoth

The Hounds of Darkness

Description

As large as a steppe horse, but bulkier by far, padding with heads lowered into the flagstoned square. There was something about them that resembled a hyenea, and a plains bear as well. A certain sly avidness merged with arrogant brutality.

Their bristly hackles were raised above their strangely humped, massive shoulders. Thick, long necks and broad, flattened heads, the jaw muscles bulking. Scarred, black hides, and eyes that burned pure and empty of light. (HoC mmpb p. 961)

Osric to L'oric. 'The Hounds of Darkness. The seven beasts that Dessimbelackis made pact with - and oh, weren't the Nameless Ones shaken by that unholy alliance? The seven beasts, L'oric, that gave the name to Seven Cities, although no memory survives of that particular truth. The Seven Holy Cities of our time are not the original ones of course. Only the number has survived.'(HoC uk mmpb, p.818)

'Deragoth. What happened to them? Why are they here and not there?'

'I don't know. Probably it had something to do with the violent collapse of the First Empire'.

'What warren is this.'

'not a warren at all... a memory.' 'Raraku's'(HoC UK mmpb, p.818)

'"You called the Deragoth "Hounds of Darkness". Are they children of Mother Dark, then?'

'They are no-ones children.' Osric growled, then he shook his head. "They have that stench about them, but in truth I have no idea. It just seemed an appropriate name. "Deragoth" in the Tiste Andii tongue'.

'Well', L'oric muttered, 'actually it would Dera'tin'jeragoth.' (HoC UK mmpb, p.819)

'T'rolbarahl, demonic creations by the hand of Dessimbelackis himself, long before the Dark Hounds took shape in the Emperor's mind'...... 'He [dejim nebrahl] fed on some of them [Soletaken and D'ivers] as well, for he was smarter than they and quicker, and had not the Deragoth stumbled onto his trail....the Dark Hounds had a master in those days, a clever master, who excelled in ensnaring sorceries and, once decided upon a task, he would not relent.' (BH UK Tpb, p8)

'..as the Deragoth arrived, bristling with rage and hunger, Elder as any god..' (BH UK Tpb, p.553)

Cotillion  "– what was the mess behind the origin of the Deragoth?  Wild beasts from the dusty eons of past ages, seven left in all the world, and the First Emperor – who was anything but – chooses them as the repositories of his divided soul." (TtH)  

Cotillion - The Deragoth are the dark, and in their savage solidity would claim ownership of the shadows they cast.  Lock and Pallid, however, are the light that gave the Deragoth shape, without whom neither the Deragoth nor the Hounds of Shadows would exist.(TtH)

Origins of the Deragoth

Mappo, speaking of the Ay: "An ancient wolf, from the age of the Imass. Their bloodline was harvested in the shaping of the Hounds of Shadow... but not the Hounds of Darkness. For those, it was the bloodline of a breed of plains bear. Ty'nath okral, in the language of the Bentract Imass."

DoD, mmpb, p.1038

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