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Malazan Empire

Malazan World Map by D'rek

Unofficial Malaz World Map by D'rek

Falar, or the Falar subcontinent, was made up of a mainland peninsula north of the Great Fenn Range as well as the Falari Isles (or Falaran Isles)[1] located off the north-eastern coast of Quon Tali. The Falari Isles were an extensive chain of islands running north towards Seven Cities. In addition to the many islands that were permanently settled, there were hundreds of tiny islands without names.[2] Most of the waters in the archipelago were relatively shallow and pale green in colour.[3][4] The long-acknowledged patron and guardian of Falar was Mael, Elder God of the Sea.[5]

The region was under the rule of the Malazan Empire which had crushed their fleets in a series of great naval battles.[6][7] The Falari Isles were the Empire's first major overseas conquest. The Falari had since had an outsized reputation as soldiers in the Malazan Military.[8] Talian was the unofficial second language of the archipelago.[9]

Positioned halfway between Quon Tali and Seven Cities, the islanders had long engaged in trade with both continents.[10] The Falar were capable ocean explorers since antiquity, producing maps of sea-currents and coastlines as far away as Nemil.[10] As a sea-going people, their maps tended to show highly detailed and accurate coastlines, with inland interiors left blank because of their lack of interest.[11] Land masses tended to be distorted relative to their significance, so important islands might appear significantly larger on the map than entire land masses that were of no interest.[11]

Generations of shipbuilding had left the islands largely bare of suitable timber. Only undesirable softwoods remained.[12] Pre-Malazan attempts to establish colonies on the forested shores of the southern mainland to harvest lumber were driven off by the howling savages of the barbarian tribes who lived there.[13]

The people of the archipelago were distinguished by their red and gold hair and fair-skin. However, it was the contention of Ruthan Gudd that the red-haired Falari were in fact invaders from another island who had forgotten where they came from. The original denizens of Falar were said to be those from the island of Strike.[10] The unofficial "uniform" of a Falari was a short-sleeved cotton shirt and short sashed trousers.[14]

The Falar Islands were chilled and damp all year round and the Falari kept the inside of their homes in the same conditions. Moulding walls were commonplace.[15]

Santos fish caught from waters off the islands were considered fit only for consumption by the poor.[16]

Notable Falari[]

Geography[]

Islands (a partial list)[]

Seas and Waterways[]

Other Features[]

Cities and Settlements[]

History[]

Old Falar[]

According to the legends of the Strike Islanders, the more commonly known red- and gold-haired residents of the Falari Isles were actually invaders from across the other side of Seeker's Deep. Only the Strike islanders were the original residents of the islands, and their old maps of the island chain did not use the word "Falar".[10]

Falar's main island had once been the home of the Walk people. This indigenous civilisation had thrived before the development of iron, and as miners and traders of tin, copper, and lead were the predominant traders of bronze weapons and ornamentation in the Falari Isles. Unlike the later arriving red-haired, blue-eyed, fair-skinned Falari, the Walk were black-haired with olive-hued skin.[17]

At the height of Old Falar's original civilization, its political and religious centre was at the ancient and semi-mythical island of Kynarl in the Walk Sea. After the island was reduced to rubble by what some claimed was Mael's judgement, Cabil rose to take its place under the stewardship of the Cult of Mael.[18][19]

Before the Malazan Empire[]

Before its conquest by the Malazan Empire, Falar had been ruled as a theocracy by a Grand Council run by the Cult of Mael.[20][21] Under the rule of the Cult, every island begrudgingly paid annual tribute in treasure and in the enrolment of youths each generation.[22][23] Every ship owed excises and was held to an honorary allegiance to the Faith so that they could be requisitioned and repurposed at a moment's notice.[22] The expenditure of coin, food, and blood was preached by the cult as a necessary sacrifice so that the cult could protect them from outsiders.[22] But all understood the payment was to protect the Falari from the cult itself.[22]

Those of the old Falar racial stock were easily recognised by their thick, dark hair and were known as the Old People, the sons and daughters of Mael, or the favoured of Mael.[24]They were subject to a special recruitment by Mael's cult, known as "the Call",[24] and those gathered were seemingly used as blood sacrifice.[25][26][27]

Falar had no formal army, but the cult possessed a large body of the fanatically armed faithful known as the Faith Militant.[28] Rather than a single navy, each island fielded its own fleet of ships.[29]

In Deadhouse Gates[]

The Ragstopper made for Bantra in the northern Falari Isles after its eventful crossing from Aren with Kalam Mekhar, Salk Elan, and the Aren city treasury.[30]

In Reaper's Gale[]

Gesler and Stormy were well-known figures in Falar, where some of their countrymen sought to see them dead for their purported betrayal of the Cult of the Boar.[31]

In Return of the Crimson Guard[]

An invasion force of Falari soldiers under the command of Urko Crust landed at Cawn to join the Talian League.

In Forge of the High Mage[]

(Information needed)

Trivia[]

Ian C. Esslemont sees Falar "sort of as an eastern Mediterranean/Aegean sort of setting. The islands were like the Ionian. The seas were very warm and shallow and there's lots of wrecks to be hunted for."[32]

Notes and references[]

  1. Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 11, UK HC p.161
  2. Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 16, UK HC p.244
  3. Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 2, UK HC p.19
  4. Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 24, UK HC p.367
  5. Forge of the High Mage, Prologue, UK HC p.1
  6. Gardens of the Moon, Glossary, UK MMPB p.711
  7. Stonewielder, Chapter 3, US HC p.176
  8. The God is Not Willing, Chapter 23, US HC p.453
  9. Stonewielder, Prologue, US HC p.32
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 The Bonehunters, Chapter 13, US SFBC p.547-548
  11. 11.0 11.1 Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 16, UK HC p.246-247
  12. Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 6, UK HC p.91
  13. Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 6, UK HC p.91
  14. Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 10, UK HC p.157
  15. The God is Not Willing, Chapter 18, US HC p.324
  16. The Bonehunters, Chapter 8, US SFBC p.380
  17. Reaper's Gale, Chapter 22, US HC p.671
  18. Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 13, UK HC p.200
  19. Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 2, UK HC p.21-23
  20. Toll the Hounds, Chapter 6, Epigraph
  21. Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 6, UK HC p.88
  22. 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 2, UK HC p.21
  23. Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 17, UK HC p.257
  24. 24.0 24.1 Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 11, UK HC p.167-171
  25. Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 6, UK HC p.90
  26. Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 15, UK HC p.231-234
  27. Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 18, UK HC p.277-280
  28. Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 17, UK HC p.263
  29. Forge of the High Mage, Chapter 3, UK HC p.37
  30. Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 17, US HC p.469
  31. Reaper's Gale, Chapter 22, US HC p.671-672
  32. Forge of the High Mage, Ian C. Esslemont on his New Malazan Novel - Books with Banks - See 45:35
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