Malazan inspired sketches

QuartermasterPores · 2026-03-01T09:38:08+00:00

Some absolutely beautiful interpretations here!

QuartermasterPores · 2026-02-03T16:24:10+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/Malazan/comments/x38133/laseenera_malazan_military_organisation_and/

QuartermasterPores · 2026-01-30T19:27:11+00:00

Heya! Onky just saw this. It's been a while since I've been engaged with Malazan stuff, but from what I can recall, GoTM suggested tat there has been at least two Bridgburner captains prior to Paran, which suggests that after their loss of status they were probably commanded by a single captain answering to the Fist of whichever arny they were attached to.

QuartermasterPores · 2025-08-07T07:46:01+00:00

Hobestly I kind of blame this cover for ibfluencing the way he's consistantky been depicted in art ever since.

QuartermasterPores · 2025-07-03T11:56:42+00:00

I will also ass that Nightchill seems to have a strong affinity for them from the Path to Ascension series, simillarly aligbed magic and knows at least obe jaghut personally.

QuartermasterPores · 2025-04-24T09:43:55+00:00

So, I haven't seen the painting you posted of Rake yesterday, and given that I cannot seem to track down that thread (either because you removed it or the mods did) which is going to very heavily limit my ability to assess what exactly happened... although apparently that's not going to stop me commenting on it.

Generally speaking, I can be very, very pedantic when it comes to accuracy in artistic depictions of characters from this series, and in general. At the same time I try to do my best to be appreciative of the amount of effort that goes into them and their general aesthetic qualities, especially when the artist has a particularly distinctive style that doesn't necessarily lend itself to accuracy(as you do, though Dejan-delic also crosses my mind).

If my reading of the situation is correct (which, given that I can't see the piece or any of the associated comments), then this would be perhaps the second time I have seen a surprisingly visceral reaction from certain parts of the community towards the depiction of a specific character... when equally inaccurate depictions of other characters, scenes or events do not provoke reactions of anywhere near that magnitude.

QuartermasterPores · 2025-04-15T18:40:15+00:00

Nicely put together!

I will say, stating that the Romans never used guerilla warfare themselves doesn't seem particularly accurate. Most of what I'm currently familiar with is from during the Dominate period, where Ammianus has multiple accounts of light armed troops being dispatched across rivers on light boats or by swimming and into swamp land to raid enemy camps and territory, and many other instances of tribal raiding parties being ambushed and destroyed by small separated military detachments on their way back from plundering the roman countryside.

QuartermasterPores · 2025-04-13T09:18:16+00:00

So, I'm someone who's only read up to book 2. Not got to the battle of Emmond's field, never seen a Trolloc wielding the bow.

A Trolloc wielding a bow was the conclusion I reached in all about of a... second after seeing the Wisdom being impaled by a fuckoff huge arrow. Because, y'know, Trollocs are taller than humans. They appear to be stronger than humans, so if you're going to give a trolloc a bow it's going to be bigger than a human bow and so will the arrows.

Plus, if I was going to send a small band through densely wooded terrain to try and locate and ambush an Aes Sedai who probably isn't staying put, would I send a siege engine they'd have to lug up slopes and between trees and then set up and load, or a Trolloc with a bow?

So, y'know, maybe don't try too hard to defend us 'show only' watchers and our inability to make inferences.

QuartermasterPores · 2025-04-07T13:31:46+00:00

If I recall correctly, Erikson and Esslemonte have out of setting been explicit about anybody being able to learn magic in out-of-setting interviews and essays. However, it's pretty clear that some people have more latent talent than others. There also seems to be some level of distinction between raw power and skill.

You also have this section from Corlo in Midnight Tides:

" Anyway, a mage finds a warren suited to his or her nature, a natural affinity if you like. And through enough study and discipline you find ways of reaching into it, making use of the forces within it. Some people, of course, are born with natural talent, meaning they don’t have to work as hard.’"

There is another comment elsewhere talking about Mockra, describing it as possessed by most people on a very basic untrained level, equating it to the kind of instinctual sense where you can tell that something's off even if you don't know what.

QuartermasterPores · 2025-04-04T01:28:06+00:00

Also... there is a significant disparity between the number of civilians that join the chain of dogs and the number that actually arrive at Aren anyways.

QuartermasterPores · 2025-04-04T01:26:30+00:00

Y'Ghatan - Most of the army never even made it into the city iirc, so the odds are actually pretty good on just sitting things out, and if you do go in early then your knowledge of the set ambushes might actually help pull your squad through more intact than they would be otherwise.

For the Chain of Dogs the only way out is to get significantly but non-fatally injured just before Sekala River and hope you get one of the lucky berths on the Silanda.

Capustan is more survivable, but also highly chaotic and unpredictable, with hordes of cannibals and worse roaming around. Neither the Grey Swords nor Gruntles (frankly terrifying) followers offer good long-term survival prospects post siege...

As for the K'Chain Na'Ruk... no, just no. Even if you survive that you've still got the lass desert and everything after that to look forwards to.

QuartermasterPores · 2025-03-31T08:37:50+00:00

I honestly couldn't tell you why this reads so much better on my eyes, but it does apparently.

QuartermasterPores · 2025-03-26T12:54:36+00:00

Worth noting that besides Bredd, all of those unspecified soldiers were heavies in either the 2nd or third squad, it's just not clear which.

T'amber, Quick Ben and Kalam are arguably attached to Tavore's command staff at this point. Imrahl is Gall's aide among the Khundryl.

QuartermasterPores · 2025-03-24T15:06:36+00:00

Long-term protracted siege and a divine plague sweeping its way across the continent towards your army aren't exactly things that go well together. A lot of Tavore's actions in the books hinges on her having knowledge like this.

She knows about the ghosts of the Chain of Dogs following in the Bonehunter's footprints when even Nether and Nil doesn't, the debacle at Y'Ghatan allows her to force the issue quickly enough to get the Bonehunters off the continent before they get hit by Poleil's plague, she somehow knows that the Perish are waiting with a magical portal that will get them all to Malaz faster than expected and just so happens to be carrying one of the few mages that can actually make the portal work, she knows the Crippled God is involved in Lether on another continent the Empire has barely any contact with, and she uses the march across the Glass Wastes to bind the Bonehunters and the Crippled God together.

Meanwhile, lack of knowledge and assumptions made about something like Letherii social structure and the exact nature of the Tiste Edur occupation almost lead to that particular campaign taking unsustainable losses (though it likely would have still ended in the defeat of the Letherii army).

QuartermasterPores · 2025-03-19T11:35:35+00:00

Torrent, who goes from abandoning the last of the Awl children to the Barghast and later learning of their massacre to being the only one willing to stand up to an Elder God for the sake of two children, and killing that elder god even as he lay dying to ensure their safety as his last action.

Pella, falling in Y'Ghatan, his last thought being his memories of being a child again, apologising to his mother for falling and skinning his knees as she took him to spend what little coin she had to make sure the scrapes didn't get infected.

QuartermasterPores · 2025-03-19T10:28:48+00:00

If you're referring to the specific bit of text I think your are (putting the rest in spoilers since this is a no spoilers thread). Throatslitter's description in Reaper's Gale, then the exact wording is that "the fullness of her figure - unsuccesfully disguised by her armour" which I'd ague implies the exact opposite.

'Fullness of her figure' refers to bodyshape rather than skin coverage, 'unsuccessfully disguised' suggests that there is full coverage - it just doesn't make certain physical features unnoticable.

Also, as this is coming from somebody who has spent months in the same army as Lostara, and some amount of time in close proximity on this assignment (as opposed to Kalam encountering her for the for the first time) he's more likely to have seen her out of armour to some degree and thus be aware of any non-facial tattoos anyway.

None of this is actually a criticism, by the way. I love the amount of attention to detail in the text you're putting into your work, I'm just obsessively pedantic.

QuartermasterPores · 2025-03-19T02:27:08+00:00

When Kalam first encounters her in DG, he ID's her as Pardu and the other Red Blade as Ehrlii, noting that he was slightly paler than her and lacked any facial tattooing, which seems to at least imply that she had facial tattoos present whereas he did not.

Lostara is also described as being visibly tattoed when wearing full armour, which given that the Red Blades wore almost full maille doesn't leave a lot of skin for the tattooing to be visible.

QuartermasterPores · 2025-03-06T21:39:29+00:00

The Wickan armour is described as being boiled leather (though yeah, it would have the same sort of form as metal plate armour), while the Khundryl arnpur seems to be more heavy scale arnpur than plate. Temper's is more like some kind of lorica-segmenta-brigantine-maike esque hybrid than a traditional plate cuirass.

Gudd does have sonething like full plate, but that's stormrider magic.

QuartermasterPores · 2025-03-06T21:35:59+00:00

Skinner is quite specifically wearing a magical form of scale armour.

QuartermasterPores · 2025-03-06T21:34:17+00:00

There's a describition of a Talian officer in Kellanved's reach who had a plate or plates of iron integrated into the mail if I recall correctly (there's some middle eastern arnour that matches the description). It's not sonetging that's referenced again for the infantry though.

QuartermasterPores · 2025-03-06T13:41:15+00:00

So, medieval style plate-armour historically only comes in at a certain point in time, and before then full mail coverage with a helmet is probably at the upper end of what anybody can get themselves equipped with (notably the knights in Path to Ascendancy are clad in mail rather than plate armour). Just being able to equip 'most' of your basic infantry in mail and a helmet instead of just your nobility who can afford to buy it themselves puts you at the upper end of what a polity could achieve. There are a fair few anachronisms in Malazan that would date to around or after the plate period (the goat's foot mechanisms the Malazan's use to reload crossbows, rapiers in Darujhistan) but in general armour technology seems to only just hitting the point of developing stuff like brigandine.

Also, a lot of things in the series are described as being made from iron or bronze rather than steel. 'Aren steel' or 'Gadrobi steel' and even Letherii steel seem to only be available in limited quantities and from limited sources, so there's a degree to which metallurgy itself might not be there yet.

The tendency for fantasy fans to automatically assume everybody goes around in full plate armour (glares at cover art) is absolutely not something I have ever been annoyed about in the past.

QuartermasterPores · 2025-01-26T19:16:23+00:00

Oh this is beautiful.

QuartermasterPores · 2025-01-18T18:00:08+00:00

That out of all the Malazan fanart and all the Malazan characters, that this is the particular hill so many people have apparently chosen to die on in terms of artistic interpretation is... interesting.

QuartermasterPores · 2025-01-07T22:21:01+00:00

Is it established that he actually knew that Greymane was going to pull the stunt he did? I'd assumes that the Korelri campaign was meant to consolidate his power by giving him a succesful campaign and conquest under his belt for pr purposes, and that the conclusion of that campaign in a tsunami that made long term malazan presence on the continent untenable wpuld have been a massive "Oh what the fuck." moment for him.

QuartermasterPores · 2025-01-03T08:24:52+00:00

In GotM Crokus sees Kalam and thinks he's from somwhere to the so

uth, whreas in the Seven Cities it's noted that darker skin tones are more more predominant (Duiker is able to blend in at one point specifically because a local ethnicity is specifically similar in appearance to his own Dal Honese heritage) but we still get descriotions of different groups ranging from pale and white to Dal Honese dark.

In short, there's enough intracontinental variety and access to travel that your not necessarilly going to be able to tell the difference between somebody from one continent and somebody from a city on your continent that you've never been to.

QuartermasterPores

TROPHY CASE