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Dassem Ultor

Page history last edited by Eloth 13 years ago

Dassem Ultor

 

Name: Dassem Ultor

Pseudonyms: First Sword of Empire, Traveller, Dessembrae

Age: unknown, at least 100 years

Race: human, Dal Honese

Appearance: Dusky skinned, grey-shot black curled hair cut short, though his eyes were a deep blue. His features were even, though crisscrossed with scars.

Warren: unknown, any magic he possesses will derive from his godhood and ascendancy since he doesn't appear to be a mage

Further info: He is Dessembrae, Lord of Tears, and was once sworn to Hood as the Knight of High House Death

 


 

Dassem Ultor – the First Sword of the Malazan Empire – who was supposed to be dead.  As if Hood would even want this one – Dassem Ultor, the one they had known as Traveller, unsheathed his sword, the water-etched blade flashing as if lapped by molten silver.  That sense that Samar Dev had, as of a rising wave, now burgeoned in her mind.  Two forces.  Sea and stone, sea and stone. (TtH)


 

Dassem Ultor, the First Sword of Empire, killed outside Y'ghatan, Seven Cities - GotM, Dramatis Personae

"Dassem Ultor – who was, like Kellanved, of Dal Honese blood." - Nok to Tavore Paran - HoC, Tpb, p.208

"Champion and 'First Sword' of the Empire."- NoK, UK mmpb, Dramatis Personae

"Dassem stepped out, his horsehair-plumed helm under one arm." - NoK, UK mmpb, p.249

 

"'The First Sword of Empire. Dassem Ultor. We heard it in the capital before we left. He's dead. Is it true? Is Dassem dead?'

The man Whiskeyjack seemed to flinch, his gaze unwavering on the Mouse. 'Such is war,' he muttered, under his breath, as if the words were not meant for anyone else's ears.

'You're with the Third. I thought the Third was with him, in Seven Cities. At Y'Ghatan --'

'Hood's breath, they're still looking for his body in the still-hot rubble of that damned city...'

'...It's said he betrayed a god.'" - Young Ganoes Paran and Whiskeyjack speak. - GotM, UK mmpb, p.4

 

"...he'd been there when they took Ubaryd. Upstairs they found the private chambers and the Holy One herself tied by silk ropes to a chair. Three Claws stood about her, knives out...He (Temper) and Point had held back, unsure, but Dassem surged forward and thrust aside the Claw standing before the woman...It happened so quickly it was if Dassem had merely shrugged. The Falah'd's head spun away...Thus the end of the last Holy Falah'd of Ubaryd." -Temper reminiscing - NoK, UK mmpb, p.46

 

The Fall of Dassem Ultor and the Breaking of the First Sword

 

"Well, the breaking of the Sword leaves Surly next in line for succession." - Agayla - NoK, UK mmpb, p.157

 

"He'd Hairlock joined the 2nd’s cadre at Pan'potsun – like Dujek himself he’d been there, with the Emperor’s old guard, when the first vipers of usurpation had stirred, the day the Empire’s First Sword was betrayed and brutally murdered." - thoughts of Tattersail - GotM, UK Trade p.52, UK mmpb p.69

 

"Back in Seven Cities,’ she said quietly, ‘the story goes that the Emperor’s First Sword – his commander of his armies – Dassem Ultor, had accepted a god’s offer. Hood made Dassem his Knight of Death. Then something happened, something went . . . wrong. And Dassem renounced the title, swore a vow of vengeance against Hood – against the Lord of Death himself. All at once other Ascendants started meddling, manipulating events. It all culminated with Dassem’s murder, then the Emperor’s assassination, and blood in the streets, temples at war, sorceries unleashed." - Tattersail to Whiskeyjack - GotM, Tpb. p. 98

 

"He saw Dassem, unbelievably thrust through, supported by Hilt. He recalled the glimpses he'd caught of Dassem stumbling, holding his chest." - Temper - NoK, UK mmpb, p.113

 

"Dancer trusted but two men. One was Kellanved. The other was Dassem Ultor, the First Sword. Dassem is dead." - Apsalar to Fiddler - DG, Tpb, p130

 

Duiker on Dassem Ultor

 

"Early in Kellanved's reign, cults proliferated among the Imperial armies, particularly among the Marines. It should be remembered that this was also the time of Dassem Ultor, First Sword and Supreme Commander of the Malazan forces...a man sworn to Hood..." - Malazan Campaigns, vol.II Duiker - DG, UK MMPB, p.211

 

"It is one thing to lead by example with half a dozen soldiers at your back. It is wholly another with ten thousand."

Life of Dassem Ultor - Duiker - DG, Tpb, p.270


Dassem Ultor and Hood 

 

The Adjunct Lorn had believed that it was the murder of the Emperor that had broken the human empire’s alliance with Logros T’lan Imass. She had been wrong. The spilled blood you should have heeded was Dassem Ultor’s, not Kellanved’s. And for all that neither man truly died, but only one bore the deadly kiss of Hood in all the days that followed. Only one stood before Hood himself, and learned of the terrible thing Logros had done to him.

They said Hood was his patron god. They said he had avowed service to the Lord of Death. They said that Hood then betrayed him. They understood nothing. Dassem and his daughter, they were Hood’s knives, striking at us. What is it, to be the weapon of a god?
Where are you now, Logros? Do you feel me, so fiercely reborn? My heir – your chosen child – has rejected the role. His footfalls now mark the passing of tragedy. You have made him the God of Tears, and now that Hood is gone he must hunt down the next one who made him what he was. Do you tremble, Logros? Dassem is coming for you. He is coming for you. (TCG)

 

Dassem's Daughter

 

"Upon entering the door, they entered the tower's ground floor. A stone staircase spiralled up from its centre. At the foot of the saddlebacked steps lay another body, a young, dark-skinned woman who looked as if she had been placed there but an hour before. She was dressed in what were clearly underclothes, though the armour that had once covered them was nowhere to be seen. Vicious wounds criscrossed her slight form.

...

'This is Dassem Ultor's daughter. The first sword recovered her after Hood was done using her, and brought her here it seems.'

'Before breaking his vow to Hood --'

'Aye, before Dassem cursed the god he once served.' - DG, UK mmpb, p.812-3

 


 

 

 


 

Dessembrae

 

"Dessembrae. The Cult of Dassem." - thoughts of Fiddler. - DG, TPB p.321, UK mmpb p.452

 

"We have lost allies in our foolishness. Dassem Ultor, who was broken by Hood’s taking of his daughter at the Time of the Chaining – this was a devastating blow. Dassem Ultor, the First Sword reborn—...Dassem, his (Hood's)Champion – Dessembrae – had grown to rival his power... Consider: from Dassem’s fall, a mortal empire now totters on the edge of chaos. From Dassem’s fall, the Shadow Throne found a new occupant." - K'rul - MoI, UK Trade, p.236-7

 

Traveller

 

"The man's skin was dark, for he had been born on a savannah. His was a war-riot's build, the muscles lean and sharply defined on his frame. His height was average, though something in his posture made him seem taller."

TtH

 

"Dying was unthinkable, and that was no exaggeration. When a man has forsaken Hood, the final gate is closed. Oblivion or the torment of a journey without end - there was no telling what fate awaited such a man. In any case, Traveller was in no hurry to discover an answer. No, he would invite Hood to find it himself." - TtH

 


 

 

Dassem Ultor - Quotes

 

'Do what's right,' Dassem told us.  Gods, even after all this time he still remembered the First Sword's words.  'That's a higher law than the command of any officer.  Higher even than the Emperor's own words.  You are in a damned uniform but that's not a license to deliver terror to everyone – just the enemy soldier you happen to be facing.  Do what is right, for that armour you wear doesn't just protect your flesh and bone.  It defends honour.  It defends integrity.  It defends justice.  Soldiers, heed me well.  That armour defends humanity.  And when I look upon my soldiers, when I see these uniforms, I see compassion and truth.  The moment those virtues fail, then the Gods help you, for no armour is strong enough to save you.' - thoughts of Monkrat - (TtH)

 

 

 

See also Ascendants

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