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Janall Diskanar was the queen of the Kingdom of Lether and the wife of Ezgara Diskanar. The king and queen had one son, Quillas. In the tradition of Letherii royalty, she maintained four consorts. [1] It was rumoured she had given her heart to her First Consort, Turudal Brizad.[2]

Janall was beautiful,[3] ambitious, and greedy.[4][5] For many years she had been aligned in a faction with her son and Chancellor Triban Gnol against her husband and his supporters. She maintained interests in multiple mercantile ventures.[5]

When needed, she possessed an elaborate set of armour with a helm filigreed in silver and gold and a tabard covered in beadwork. Her sword was forged of the finest Letherii steel and its pommel was a cluster of pearls set in silver and its grip bound with gold wire.[6]

The queen commanded her own troops called the Queen's Battalion.[7] She also maintained her own keep at Dissent.[8]

In Midnight Tides[]

Janall, Quillas, and Triban Gnol helped orchestrate a war between the Tiste Edur and the Letherii in an attempt to grow richer off the spoils of conquered Edur territory.[9] They launched their scheme a month ahead of the Great Meeting between the Letherii and the Edur Warlock King, Hannan Mosag. The queen arranged for ships from seven merchant houses in which she held primary interest to violate the treaty with the Edur by illegally harvesting Tusked seals.[10] At the same time, she sent the unwilling merchant, Buruk the Pale, to the Warlock King's village ahead of the delegation with secret instructions.[11][12]

The Indebted aboard the ships perished at Edur hands as expected and the Queen hoped to make the harvested seals a bargaining chip in the Great Meeting.[13] As part of the Letherii delegation, Prince Quillas attempted to hold the Edur in debt for the missing seals to renegotiate the treaty at terms ruinous to the Edur.[14] But new Edur emperor Rhulad Sengar dismissed the Letherii position out of hand, sent the delegation home, and declared a state of war between the two nations.[15]

Janall quickly and secretly assembled the Queen's Battalion and the Quillas Brigade near High Fort on the Letherii northern frontier. She led them to the mountain pass leading to Edur territory hoping to strike first and strike hard. Unfortunately for Janall's ambitions, Fear Sengar's Edur crossed the pass before she reached it and the Queen and her army were forced to return to High Fort.[16] When the Edur army arrived to do battle, Janall had the Queen's Battalion and Quillas Brigade arranged on the earthen ramparts outside the fort's walls along with the Grass Jackets Brigade. During the Battle of High Fort, the Letherii sorcery was turned back by the Edur K'risnan tearing the Queen's Battalion to pieces. Both Janall and Quillas were captured and the fort fell. Janall was left in a state of shock, and the prince expected to be ransomed in the Letherii manner, but Fear announced that Emperor Rhulad wanted them for both himself.[17]

Janall and her son were carried along by cart with Rhulad's army as it advanced on Letheras. Each was given slaves to attend to their needs.[18] On the day of the Seventh Closure the capital fell to the Edur. After a mage battle between Ceda Kuru Qan and Hannan Mosag, Rhulad's entourage stood before King Ezgara in his throne room. The Warlock King produced two sacks and revealed their contents to the horrified king. Inside were the bound queen and prince, both horribly disfigured when Mosag used them to channel the Chaos magic of the Crippled God against the Ceda. Quillas' twisted form could only drool and gape, but Janall's eyes were fiercely aware even as she muttered only nonsense.[19]

Despite her seeming madness, Janall was clearly aware that the wine drunk by the king, First Eunuch Nifadas, and King's Champion Brys Beddict was poisoned. Trull Sengar noted her cackling as Brys drank the wine while Chancellor Triban Gnol stood nearby.[20]

In Reaper's Gale[]

After being brutally used as a conduit for the Crippled God's power, Janall's body was barely recognisable as human. Her bones were bent, her muscles stretched and bunched, huge bulges of fat hung off her, and she could not walk or lift her arms. Her skin oozed with foul smelling sores, her misshapen mouth drooled incessantly, and her eyes burned with a malevolent insanity. But she recognised the Crippled God as her master, claiming to be Queen of High House Chains and engaging with the god in conversation in her mind. And despite her misfortune her ambitions remained untamed.[21]

First Concubine Nisall visited the queen's chambers promising to send servants to clean the filthy room and bedding. Janall called her a liar and a whore and demanded to know where the prince was, but Nisall did not know. The queen also claimed Turudal Brizad stayed away to avoid the gaze of the Crippled God.[21]

Notes and references[]

  1. Midnight Tides, Chapter 4, US SFBC p.141
  2. Midnight Tides, Chapter 10, US SFBC p.311
  3. Reaper's Gale, Chapter 5, US HC p.130
  4. Midnight Tides, Chapter 17, US SFBC p.530
  5. 5.0 5.1 Midnight Tides, Chapter 2, US SFBC p.66
  6. Midnight Tides, Chapter 18, US SFBC p.549
  7. Midnight Tides, Chapter 14, US SFBC p.432
  8. Midnight Tides, Chapter 14, US SFBC p.432-433
  9. Midnight Tides, Chapter 4, US SFBC p.142
  10. Midnight Tides, Chapter 2, US SFBC p.66
  11. Midnight Tides, Chapter 4, US SFBC p.141-142
  12. Midnight Tides, Chapter 2, US SFBC p.63
  13. Midnight Tides, Chapter 4, US SFBC p.124-125
  14. Midnight Tides, Chapter 11, US SFBC p.356-358
  15. Midnight Tides, Chapter 13, US SFBC p.408-409
  16. Midnight Tides, Chapter 17, US SFBC p.529-530
  17. Midnight Tides, Chapter 18, US SFBC p.548-561
  18. Midnight Tides, Chapter 21, US SFBC p.632
  19. Midnight Tides, Chapter 25, US SFBC p.741
  20. Midnight Tides, Chapter 25, US SFBC p.741-746
  21. 21.0 21.1 Reaper's Gale, Chapter 5, US HC p.129-132
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