Anomander Rake


Anomander Rake


Name: Anomander Rake

Pseudonyms: Anomandaris Purake, Son of Darkness, Knight of High House Dark, Mane of Chaos, Blacksword (Seguleh)

Age: 300 000+ years

Race: Tiste Andii Elient Soletaken

Appearance: Black skin, silver hair. Seven feet tall. Sharp featured.

Warren: Kurald Galain, Starvald Demelain

Further info: Anomander Rake, Lord of Moon's Spawn, Son of Darkness, Knight of Darkness - (GotM, Dramatis Personae) Bearer of Dragnipur, Archmage of the Tiste Andii




Description 


"Anomander Rake's skin was jet-black, befitting Gothos' description, but his mane flowed silver. He stood close to seven feet tall. His features were sharp, as if cut from onyx, a slight upward tilt to the large vertical-pupiled eyes.

 

A two-handed sword was strapped to Rake's broad back, its silver dragonskull pommel and archaic crosshilt jutting from a wooden scabbard fully six and a half feet long. From the weapon bled power, staining the air like black ink in a pool of water." - (GotM, US HC, p.159 )

 

"This moment marked the first time Baruk had ever seen a Tiste Andii face to face. He was more than a little disturbed. Such remarkable eyes, he thought. One moment a deep hue of amber, catlike and unnerving, the next gray and banded like a snake's - a fell rainbow of colors to match any mood." - (GotM, US HC, p.158)

 

"And I smell the reek of Tiama in you, Lord. There is more of her in you than Tiste Andii blood.' - (GotM, US HC, p.475)

 


Soletaken Appearance


"The Tiste Andii spread his arms wide, then rose upward. Kurald Galain sorcery swirled around him, blending his clothing, his massive sword, drawing all inward to the shape he now climbed toward. The veering was smooth, eloquent, as jet-black wings unfolded from his shoulders. Flesh and bone surged in size, changed in shape.

As he flew higher, eyes fixed on the stars, Anomander Rake became a black dragon, silver-maned and dwarfing even Silanah. His eyes gleamed silver, the vertical slits of the pupils dilating. His breath gusted in heavy grunts, the snap of his wings loud amid the deep groan of muscle on bone." - GotM, US HC, p.467 

 


History - on Wu


"'Anomander Rake once crossed blades with a score of Seguleh, one after the other.  He’d paid an unannounced visit to the island – knowing nothing of the inhabitants.  Taking human form and fashioning a mask for himself, he elected to walk down the city’s main thoroughfare. Being naturally arrogant, he showed no deference to any who crossed his path...Two bells.  That was the full duration of Rake’s visit to the island and its people. He described the ferocity of that short time, and his dismay and exhaustion which led him to withdraw into his warren if only to slow the hammering of his heart.'" - (MoI, UK TPB, p.130)

 

"'Anomander once spent almost two centuries in the guise of a royal bodyguard...human.'" - (HoC, UK TPB, p.429)

 

"Anomander Rake, in all the time [Korlat] had known him, had acknowledged but one friend, and that was Caladan Brood. And between those two men, thousands of years of shared experiences, an alliance never broken.  Countless clashes, it was true, but not once a final, irretrievable sundering." - (MoI, UK TPB, p.702)

 

"Whiskeyjack, in his heart, was certain that Anomander Rake was not dead.  Not even lost.  In the half-dozen late-night conversations he had shared with the Lord of Moon's Spawn, the Malazan had acquired a sense of Tiste Andii: despite the alliances, including the long-term partnership with Caladan Brood, Anomander Rake was a man of solitude - an almost pathological independence.  He was indifferent to the needs of others, for whatever reassurance or confirmation they might expect or demand." - (MoI, mmpb, p.1006)

 

"[Ditch] had once been a wizard of Pale, driven by desperation into betrayal. But Anomander Rake had not been interested in desperation, or any other excuses Ditch and his comrades might have proferred. Betrayers of the Son of Darkness kissed the sword Dragnipur..." - (TtH, US TPB, p.19-20)

 

"Then, from the very heart of that fiery maelstrom, virulent sorcery lashed out, striking Silanah in a coruscating wave. Thunder hammering the air, the dragon's scream of pain....He recalled Anomander Rake's rage, and how he could hold it in his eyes like a demon chained to his will, even as he stood motionless, even as he spoke in a calm, almost bored tone. A single word, a name.

Cowl.

And with that name, oh, how the rage flared in those Draconean eyes.

...At one point, Spinnock remembered standing on the high ledge on the face of Moon's Spawn, watching the mage-storms fill half the northern night sky. ...He had wondered, then, if the world was on the very edge of being torn apart...

Had it been Cowl who first blinked?...

Or had it been the Son of Darkness?" -thoughts of Spinnock Durav (recalling the battle for Mott Wood) - (TtH, US TPB, p.62-3)

 

"There had been a time, after all, when Anomander Rake had warred against the pureblood dragons." -thoughts of Spinnock Durav - (TtH, US TPB, p.62)

 


The Children of Anomander Rake


There had been a keep, somewhere, a place of childhood secure and protected by the one they all called Father.  Ridged spines of snow lining the cobbled track leading to the embrasure gate, a wind howling down from grey mountains – a momentary abode where scores of children scurried about wild as rats, with the tall figure of Anomander Rake wandering the corridors in godlike indifference....

 

There had been a priest, an ancient companion of the Son of Darkness, whose task it had been to keep the brood fed, clothed, healthy......

 

Such a cruel fire, lighting up all these ghastly recollections.  Deadsmell, in his sleepy, seemingly careless way, had drawn out their tale.  From that keep hidden in the fastness of some remote range of mountains, to the sudden, startling arrival of a stranger – of the aged, stooped Tiste Andii who was – it was learned with a shock – Anomander's very own brother.  And the arguments echoing from their father's private chambers, as brothers fought over unknown things – decisions past, decisions to come, the precise unfolding of crimes of the soul that led to harsh accusations and cold, cold silences......

 

Somehow, in the dark of night, and their father came to them then, to tell them how Andarist was taking them all away.  To an island, a place of warmth, of stretches of soft sand and pellucid waters, of trees crowded with fruit.  ... 

 

...as the children were drawn together and a warren was opened, a portalway into an unknown, mysterious new world where anything was possible.

Andarist led them through. - (TtH UK pb p.395

 


The Lord of Moon's Spawn 


"Pale's wizards had found a powerful ally. Tattersail recalled that the Empire had locked horns with the Moon's mysterious lord once before, in the days of the Emperor. Things had threatened to get ugly, but the Moon's Spawn withdrew from the game. No one still living knew why - just one of the thousand secrets the Emperor took with him to his watery grave." -thoughts of Tattersail - GotM, UK mmpb p.61

 

"But, clearly, Caladan Brood and the Tiste Andii weren't the only inhabitants of Moon's Spawn.  An unseen lord remained in control of the fortress, bringing it here and sealing a pact with Pale's formidable wizards." -thoughts ofTattersail - (GotM, UK mmpb p.62)

 

"A figure had appeared on the ledge before the portal, its arms upraised, long silver hair blowing from its head.

 

Mane of Chaos. Anomander Rake. Lord of the black-skinned Tiste Andii, who has looked down on a hundred thousand winters, who has tasted the blood of dragons, who leads the last of his kind, seated in the Throne of Sorrow and a kingdom tragic and fey – a kingdom with no land to call its own." -thoughts of Tattersail - (GotM, UK TPB p.56)

 

"Anomander Rake looked tiny against the backdrop of his edifice, almost insubstantial at this distance. The illusion was about to be shattered. She gasped as the aura of his power bloomed outward..." -thoughts of Tattersail - (GotM, UK mmpb p.75, UK TPB p.56)

 

"Tattersail cleared her throat. 'What do we know about the Lord of Moon's Spawn?"

 

'Scant little, I'm afraid,' Tayschrenn said, his eyes veiled. 'A Tiste Andii, for certain. An archmage.

Hairlock leaned forward and deliberately spat at the floor in front of Tayschrenn. 'Tiste Andii, High Mage? I think we can be a little more specific than that, don't you?'

....'An archmage,' Tayschrenn repeated. 'Perhaps...'

...Hairlock bared his teeth. 'The Tiste Andii are Mother Dark's first children.  You've felt the tremors through the Warrens of Sorcery, Tayschrenn.  So have I.  Ask Dujek about the reports coming down from the North Campaign. Elder magic - Kurald Galain. The Lord of Moon's Spawn is the Master Archmage - you know his name as well as I do.'" - (GotM, UK mmpb p.67)

 

"'Imagine a lord who's kept thirty thousand Great Ravens well fed!'" - GotM, UK mmpb p.74

 

She had nodded then, and looked across to her two companions.  Prazek Goul, who had once been Orfantal’s sword-master.  And Dathenar Fandoris, abandoned spawn from a High Priestess and then, much later, Korlat’s own Mistress of Assassination.  The three of them, all that remained of his father’s cadre of Soletaken dragons. - Korlat - (TCG)

 

 


 Lord of Black Coral


"'He stands of the wall of the new keep. And, like me, he stares out to sea.'

'He favors . . . solitude,' Spinnock said.

...

'It is what comes from lordship, from rule. Most of the original court is gone. KorlatOrfantalSorritPra'iran. Vanished or dead.' ... 'Still, there are some that remain. Endest Silann, for one.'" -conversation between Spinnock Durav and Seerdomin - (TtH, US TPB, p.55)

 

"'Before this, there was the vast and costly war with the Pannion Domin. Before that, an even deadlier and far longer feud with the Malazan Empire.  Before that, Jacuruku. Seerdomin, Anomander Rake has earned his rest. This peace.'" -Spinnock Durav to Seerdomin - (TtH, US TPB, p.55)

 


History - The Break with Mother Dark 


 

"'Anomandaris Irake, who broke with his mother and with his kind. Who then vanished before I could deal with him. Vanished, probably never to be seen again.'" - (MT, HC, p.5)

 

"Anomander Dragnipurake had led his score of surviving followers on to the strand of a new world. Behind the flaring rage in his eyes there had been triumph." -thoughts of Endest Silann - (TtH, US TPB, p.50)

 

"And he will stand before her, yes. Tall, unyielding, a son who is not afraid. Not of her. Not of his own anger. The storm, oh, the storm is just beginning." -thoughts of Endest Silann - (TtH, US TPB, p.109)

 

 

"'Hold the way open, Endest Silann. She will rage against you. She will seek to drive me away, to close herself to me. Hold. Do not relent.'

'But Lord, I have sworn my life to her.'

'What value is that if she will not be held to account for her deeds?'

'She is the creator of us all, Lord!'

'Yes, and she will answer for it.' -Anomander Rake and Endest Silann - (TtH, US TPB, p.109)

 

 

"Anomander took his first step on to the stone stairs.

And was held there, as her voice filled them.

No. Be warned, Anomander, dear son, from Andii blood is born a new world. Understand me. You and your kin are no longer alone, no longer free to play your vicious games. There are now . . . others.

Anomander spoke. 'Mother, did you imagine I would be surprised? Horrified? It could never be enough, to be naught but a mother, to create with hands closed upon no one. To yield so much of yourself, only to find us your only reward - us slayers, us betrayers.'

There is new blood within you.

'Yes.'

My son, what have you done?

'Like you, Mother, I have chosen to embrace change. Yes, there are others now. I sense them. There will be wars between us, and so I shall unite the Andii. Resistance is ending. AndaristDrethdenanVanut DegallaSilchas is fleeing, and so too Hish Tulla and Manalle. Civil strife is now over, Mother.'

You have killed Tiam. My son, do you realize what you have begun? Silchas flees, yes, and where do you think he goes? And the newborn, the others, what scent will draw them now, what taste of chaotic power? Anomander, in murder you seek peace, and now the blood flows and there shall be no peace, not ever again.

I forsake you, Anomander blood of Tiam, Dragnipurake. I deny my first children all. You shall wander the realms, bereft of purpose. You deeds shall avail you nothing. Your lives shall spawn death unending. The Dark - my heart - is closed to you, closed to you all.

And, as Anomander stood unmoving, Endest Silann cried out behind him, falling to his knees in bruising collapse. A hand of power reached into him, tore something loose, then was gone - something, yes, that he would one day call by its name: Hope. - (TtH, US TPB, p.111

 


 General References


 

'Hold!'

Kyle and the man spun.

A slim figure came walking upon them, dark-skinned in a night-black cloak over sombre clothes, tall with long white hair.  Noting the hair, Kyle wondered at a common ancestry between these two.

'Anomandaris,' the man greeted the newcomer, straightening, and loosening his arms at his sides.

Anomandaris bowed.  'Liossercal.'  Closer now, Kyle saw that the man was no Dal Hon or of any other darkly-hued tribe, but nonhuman: his black skin seemed to absorb the dull light that fell upon it, yet his eyes were bright gold lamps that shone now with a kind of reckless amusement. - (RotCg, US MMPB, p.544)

 

 

"'My master was most amused at the notion of falling to his knees and crying out to the Hundred Gods--'

'Thousand. The Thousand Gods.'

...'Or even making a vow to battle Osserc. Their alliance fell apart because of a growing mutual dislike. The disaster with Draconus probably delivered the death-blow. Imagine, falling for a woman's wiles - and a daughter of Draconus at that! Was Osserc not even remotely suspicious of her motives?...'

Baruk smiled. 'If I recall Fisher's Anomandaris, Lady Envy managed pretty much the same with your master, Crone.'" -Baruk and Crone - (TtH, US TPB, p.46)

 

 

"And was [Endest Silann] not the oldest by far? Excepting Anomander Dragnipurake." -thoughts of Endest Silann - (TtH, US TPB, p.50)

 

 

 

 

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