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Toc the Younger

Page history last edited by Eloth 13 years, 2 months ago

Toc the Younger

 

Name: Toc the Younger

Pseudonyms:  Aral Fayle

Age: ?

Race: Human

Appearance: burned face, missing one eye

Further Info: A Claw scout of the Malazan 2nd Army.


Physical Description

 

Toc the Younger, scout, 2nd Army, a Claw agent badly scarred at the Siege of Pale - (GotM, Dramatis Personae)

 

Toc the Younger, Aral Fayle, a Malazan scout - (MoI, Dramatis Personae)

 

"Half the man's face had been burned away. A patch covered the right eye and the man held his head at an odd angle." - (GotM, US HC, p.95)

 


History

 

Early History

 

"...seated alongside Toc's own son, a runt of a boy who always seemed to be suffering from a cold - the sleeves of his shirt were crusty with dried snot.   It had taken longer than six months, but by then it had been Toc the Younger doing the teaching." - Duiker - (DG, UK mmpb, p.491)

 

Military History

 

"Only, if you get into trouble, you get word to Toc the Younger, that's me.  I'm in the Messenger Corps, outrider class, the Second." -(GotM, US HC, p.97)

 

"The Claw laughed. 'You've really been out of touch, haven't you? They called me in because I'm the last Active in the Second. And as for the Fifth and Sixth - forget it. Brood's Tiste Andii could pick out a Claw from a thousand paces." -(GotM, US HC, p.96)

 

History of Toc since GotM

 

A scout in the Malazan 2nd Army and a Claw agent, he lost an eye at the siege of Pale.  He was sent by Adjunct Lorn to accompany  Ganoes Paran from Pale to Darujhistan.  However they were intercepted by Hairlock who threw Toc into the warren of Chaos.   Within the warren his body was discovered by the Wolf God - Togg, who was looking for his mate Fanderay, missing since the calling down of the Crippled God.  Togg found that Toc was also missing the same eye and placed his spirit in the body of Toc the Younger re-entering the mortal realm near the rent in Morn.  

 

When Toc woke up he found the T'lan Imass, Tool, whom he had once met previously.  They were joined by Lady Envy, three Seguleh,  the dog Garath and the ay, Baaljag.  They journeyed together across Genebackis until eventually Toc decided to join with the Pannion Domin as he thought it would be his best way of getting through the Pannions lines to re-join the Malazan army.  However the Pannion Seer recognised there was a wolf spirit hiding inside Toc and imprisoned him with an insane K'Chain Che'malle matron.  In her embrace he was constantly tortured, his bones being broken and "mended" time after time by the power of the Pannion Seer.  Eventually he was rescued but in order to free the wolf spirit of Togg he killed himself.   Because of his sacrifice Togg placed his spirit/soul in the now empty one-eyed body of Anaster and for a time he became Anaster Toc.  In that guise he led the Grey Swords who were sworn to the Reve of Togg and Fanderay.  They travelled to Letheras and were hired as mercenaries to protect the herds of one of the clans of the Awl, who in turn, betrayed them.  He was the only survivor from the Grey Swords and was taken prisoner by the Awl, and eventually discovered by Redmask who took him with him using Toc's military knowledge to help fight his battles against the Letherii.

 

History with the Grey Swords

 

A prophecy, War Leader,  Natarkas had continued.  A final war.  They came seeking a place they called the Battlefield of the Gods.  They called themselves the Grey Swords, the Reve of Togg and Fanderay.  There were many women among them, including one of the commanders.  The other is a man, one-eyed, who claims he has lost that eye three times -- 

 

“I am Redmask --”

“I know who are you.  I even know what you are.”

“How?”

“Can’t help you there.” 

Redmask tried again.  “What hidden knowledge of me do you think you possess?”

The smile faded, and the man looked down, seeming to study the turgid stream of thinned blood round his knees.  “It made little sense back then.  Makes even less sense now.  You’re not what we expected, Redmask.”  He coughed, then spat, careful to avoid the women’s blood.

“Tell me what you expected?”

Another half-smile, yet Toc would not look up as he said,  “Why, when one seeks the First Sword of the K’Chain Che’Malle, well, one assumes it would be … K’Chain Che’Malle.  Not human -- an obvious assumption, don’t you think?”

“First Sword?  I do not know this title.”

Toc shrugged.  “K’ell Champion.  Consort to the Matron.  Hood take me, King.  They’re all the same in your case.”  -(RG UK HB, p.

 

 


Hood's Herald

 

The beast was too gaunt, its hide worn away in patches, its long, stained teeth gleaming, the holes of its eyes lightless, lifeless.

The rider was no better.  But he held a horn bow, and from a saddle quiver a dozen or so of Onos Toolan's arrows were visible.  A cowl was draped over the warrior's head, hiding what was left of his face and seemingly impervious to the gale.  He let his horse slow to a walk, and then halted it ten paces away with a twitch of the reins.

He seemed to study them, and Stavi caught an instant's blurred spark of a single eye. 

 

"I know your name.  The one-eyed Herald begged me on your behalf."  She snorted.  "As if I am known for mercy."

"The one-eyed Herald?"

"The Dead Rider, out from Hood's Hollow.  He knows little respite of late.  An omen harsh as a crow's laugh, thus comes Toc the Younger – but do I not cherish the privacy of my dreams?  He is rude." - Olar Ethil to Torrent - (DoD UK HB, p..

 

Collecting himself with a groan, Toc the Younger straightened in the saddle and fixed his eye upon the ancient Bonecaster standing now in the place where Tool had been.  He bared dull, dry teeth.  "Your hand was colder than Hood's own, witch.  Do you imagine Hood is pleased at you stealing his Herald?  At using him as you will?  This will not go unanswered –"

"I have no reason to fear Hood –"

"But you have reason to fear me, Olar Ethil!" - (DoD UK HB, p.


 

References

 

How the Pannion Seer had lusted for its death.  Toc recalled the cage, that spiritual prison and the torment as his body was broken, healed, then broken yet again, a procession seemingly without end.  (RG)

 

In the Seven Cities, superstition held that loss of an eye was also the birth of inner sight. He’d been reminded of that belief at least a dozen times in the last couple of weeks. There had been no secret gift granted him in exchange for his eye. Flashes of searing light ripped through his mind every now and then, but he suspected that was no more than a memory of the last thing his eye had seen: fire. -(GotM UK Tpb, p.222)

 


 

Attributed Works

 

The Bridgeburners

 

What see you in the horizon's bruised smear

That cannot be blotted out

By your raised hand?

The Bridgeburners

Toc the Younger

DG, UK MMPB, p.21

 

He stepped down then

among women and men,

the sigil stripped

in her foul cleansing

there on the blood-soaked sand

spilled the lives

of Emperor and First Sword –

so tragic this treachery . . .

He was of the Old Guard,

commanding the honed edge

of Empire’s fury,

and so in stepping down

but not away

he remained the remembrance

before her eyes, the curse

of conscience she would not stand.

A price was placed before him

that he glanced over in first passing

unknowing and so unprepared

in stepping down among women

and men, he found what

he’d surrendered and damned

its reawakening . . .

The Bridgeburners

Toc the Younger

GotM, UK Trade, p.188

 

They were of a kind, then

the histories writ large

in tattooed tracery

the tales a tracking

of old wounds

but something glowed hard

in their eyes – those

flame-gnawed arches,

that vanishing span,

they are their own past

each in turn destined

to fall in line

on the quiet wayside

beside the river

they refuse to name . . .

The Bridgeburners (IV.i)

Toc the Younger (b.1141)

GotM, UK Trade, p.93

 

Lay of Onos T'oolan

 

Have you seen the one

who stands apart

cursed in a ritual

sealing his kind

beyond death the host

amassed and whirling

like a plague of pollen –

he stands apart

the First among all

ever veiled in time

yet outcast and alone

a T’lan Imass wandering

like a seed unfallen

Lay of Onos T’oolan

Toc the Younger

GotM, UK Trade, p.197

 

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