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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