The Nascent was a flooded fragment of Kurald Emurlahn, the warren of Shadow. It had two suns and at least three moons.[1]
In at least one area of the Nascent, the water was "thick as soup and pale blue in colour". It was "cool, strangely slick and not easy to swim through". The marine Stormy likened it to goat's milk.[2] The water was heavy with silt and contained grass seed and rotting plants from the prairie it had flooded.[3]
In Deadhouse Gates
The crew of the Malazan Coastal Guard vessel Ripath found themselves sinking in the Nascent after passing through a rent off the coast of Otataral Island. Gesler, Stormy, Truth, Kulp, Felisin Paran, Heboric, and Baudin were forced to swim through the Nascent's waters to safety on the derelict vessel Silanda.[4]
During their time in the Nascent they were visited by members of the Logros T'lan Imass as well as an undead Soletaken dragon Kulp called The Unwelcome. While escaping the Warren, Kulp nearly flooded Meanas with the Nascent's waters.[5][6]
In House of Chains
The Nascent's flooding was revealed to have been caused by a rent into another world with a massive, continent-crossing river. For months, a torrential deluge had poured into the flat plains of the Nascent's world, creating storms and spreading plague.[7]
In one area of the Nascent, there was a great wall strengthened by magic that ran from horizon to horizon holding back the water. It was seven or eight man heights tall and was built near a city whose structures' upper levels still poked above the surface of the water. The bodies of the city's former inhabitants collected along a silt shoreline that formed along the waters crest. They had been a short, squat, flat-featured race with long, pale hair. Their world had been cold given the evidence of their thick-padded clothing.[7]
The Tiste Edur, Trull Sengar, was brought to the Nascent to be Shorn by his brothers and kin. He was chained atop the wall and left to drown as the water slowly rose.[7]
At another time, Karsa Orlong and Torvald Nom found themselves in a shallow area of the Nascent. They came across the wreckage of a naval battle involving twenty or more low and sleek raiding vessels and six larger black ships. The water was milky in colour and fell in a foul rain that left greasy remnants. Giant catfish capable of swallowing a man whole feasted on the battle's bloated casualties.[8]
Karsa and Torvald escaped the wreckage aboard a dory before encountering the Silanda, flagship of the black ships. After dealing with the ship's Tiste Edur crew, they rowed on until they found a seawall that had been breached by the water. Before they could be dragged through the raging cataract, they took on the mage Silgar as passenger, who transported them away by Warren.[9]
In Midnight Tides
It was revealed that, in order to enlist the aid of a Kenyll'rah Tyrant, Rhulad Sengar used the power gifted to him by the Crippled God to divert a large river in the Kenyll'rah's lands, presumably Aral Gamelon, into a fragment of Kurald Emurlahn, to help aid them in the war between Kenyll'rah and Korvalahrai. This diversion led to the "drowning of an entire world.". The flooded fragment would then be used to speed the journey of the Tiste Edur fleets in their war against the Letherii.[10]
Notes and references
- ↑ House of Chains, Chapter 9, US SFBC p.369
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 8, US HC p.213
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 9, US HC p.240
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 8, US HC p.212-214
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 9, US HC p.241-246
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 11, US HC p.281-283
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 House of Chains, Prologue, US SFBC p.21-25
- ↑ House of Chains, Chapter 3, US SFBC p.160-165/171/176
- ↑ House of Chains, Chapter 3, US SFBC p.171-173/177-179
- ↑ Midnight Tides, Chapter 21, UK MMPB p.767/770/771