Kenryll'ah and Kenyll'rah

Kenryll'ah Tyrants by Corporal Nobbs

The Kenryll'ah and Kenyll'rah were demons who inhabited a fragment of Kurald Emurlahn. They had a structured society, their leaders were known as Kenryll'ah tyrants, whereas the subjects were the Kenyll'rah.

Kenryll'ah were tall, thin, and extremely boney. They were taller than a Tiste Edur sitting atop a horse. Their skin was black as chiseled basalt and their facial features were sharper than a Kenyll'rah's. They possessed protruding upper and lower canines that glinted silver. They made use of their knife-like talons as a primary weapon, but were known to make use of weapons such as a double-bladed axe, tulwar, or matlock. They were not mindless beasts, but rather intelligent. They would feed on their fallen enemies. The tyrants had ruled over their Kenyll'rah kin for a long time and grown weak with complacency.

Kenyll'rah, which meant roughly "to sleep peacefully", were huge, lumbering demons twice the height of a man. They had small blue eyes, bestial faces, broad, flattened noses, and massive hands. Their voices were thin and strangely childlike. They breathed in an unusual pattern, with one heavy breath, then one short breath, then a faintly whistling breath that did not come from their nose. They were peasants with such jobs as casters of nets, tillers of soil, and herders in pastures. They were not soldiers, but could fight when called upon. They were surprisingly philosophical.

Notable Kenryll'ah

• Kenryll'ah demon princes
• Smiley's proprietor

Notable Kenyll'rah

• Lilac

In Gardens of the Moon

During the Siege of Pale, a Kenryll'ah demon ripped Nightchill apart and consequently had his head crushed by Bellurdan. Tattersail claimed the demon had been summoned in an act of betrayal by Tayschrenn, but Bellurdan disputed the idea.

In Deadhouse Gates

The Aptorian demon Apt attacked Pearl aboard the Ragstopper, but was too late to prevent the Claw from stabbing Kalam Mekhar and tossing him overboard in Malaz Bay. Overwhelmed by Apt, Pearl unleashed a Kenryll'ah demon and fled. In the resulting battle, Apt killed the demon and the ship was destroyed.

In Midnight Tides

During Emperor Rhulad Sengar's invasion of the Kingdom of Lether, the Tiste Edur army summoned around a hundred Kenyll'rah demons to fight for them. One of these, Lilac, was mortally wounded at the Battle of High Fort, but Trull Sengar took pity on it and had it healed by Hanradi Khalag's elder sister. Discovering Lilac fought unwillingly, Trull took charge of it and ultimately bound the demon to himself enabling it to return to its home.

From speaking to Lilac, Uruth Sengar (along with Trull and Fear Sengar) learned that the Kenyll'rah were already engaged in a war by their tyrant kin in their own realm. They fought the invading Korvalahrai and they were not prevailing. Already four of the tyrant's towers had fallen and a vast fleet of Korvalahrai made its way up the Chirahd River into Kenryll'ah lands. Although the tyrants had not been pleased by the Edur's theft of their soldiers, Uruth hoped to forge an alliance with the Kenryll'ah which would help the demons defeat their own invaders in return for supplying the Edur with more demon soldiers. Rhulad diverted the course of the Chirahd River into another warren destroying the fleet and flooding the Nascent.

As part of the alliance, more than a dozen Kenryll'ah led hundreds of their Kenyll'rah peasant subjects into battle alongside the Edur at the Battle of Brans Keep. Two Kenryll'ah demon princes, brothers, also joined Rhulad's entourage. They saved Fear and Trull Sengar from Serenity, a Forkrul Assail encountered in the village of Brous, although Rhulad Sengar was temporarily slain. After the Forkrul Assail fled, the two Kenryll'ah demons were given leave to hunt him down. Although they had never heard of the Assail race they hoped to have a chance to tell him how much they did not like them. Ultimately, they found Serenity and cast him down a deep hole.

In The Bonehunters

Hellian and Banaschar tried to avoid an angry Malaz City mob by slipping into Smiley's. The pike-thin Dal Honese proprietor of indeterminate age, and eyes pointing in two different directions, unctuously welcomed them and found them a seat. When the mob tried to follow the pair inside, the proprietor met them at the door, veering into his true form as a Kenryll'ah demon. The demon picked up one man in his huge hands and tore off his head, sending the others away screaming before tossing the head and body separately after them. A whore who frequented the bar said the demon was not so bad when you got to know him.

In Reaper's Gale

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The same two Kenryll'ah demon brothers introduced in Midnight Tides encountered Fiddler and Gesler's squads of Bonehunter Marines during the Malazan invasion of Lether. The demons were attempting to retire peacefully as farmers when the marines stumbled upon their isolated farmhouse. The brothers killed Uru Hela, but were badly injured due to the marines' use of multiple Sharpers. Before they could avenge their lost dignity on the retreating marines, the demons set off The Drum, a legendary configuration of Moranth munitions left behind by Fiddler. It was unknown whether they survived the explosion.

Bottle identified the brothers as Highborn of Aral Gamelon.

In Blood Follows

The necromancer, Bauchelain, summoned a Kenyll'rah demon to capture the Soletaken rat, Whitemane, before it could escape. When the demon tossed the rat into its mouth, Bauchelain made it spit the rat back out.

Trivia

Author Steven Erikson explains the two very similar names as a case where he "screwed up the spelling somewhere in the background" and he had to invent a second species.

Notes and references

List of abbreviations • Paginations • How to reference an article