Raest

Raest battling Silanah outside Darujhistan. (Official art by Michael Kormack)

Interpretation of Raest by Yapattack

'Silanah vs Raest' Interpretation by Shadaan

Raest was a Jaghut Tyrant who was imprisoned with his Finnest in a barrow in the Gadrobi Hills when his own people formed a truce with the T'lan Imass.

His father was Gothos and Icarium was his half-brother.

Raest was described as gaunt and nearly fleshless. His ribs were broken and jutting, and strips of flayed skin and muscle hung in ribbons from his arms. He dragged his bare feet as if the bones were grinding and broken.

In Gardens of the Moon

The Malazan Empire learned the location of Raest's prison just east of Darujhistan from newly discovered fragments of Gothos' Folly. Adjunct Lorn and the T'lan Imass Onos T'oolan were sent to release him as part of the Empire's strategy to seize Darujhistan and eliminate its defender, Anomander Rake. The Malazans expected Rake to defeat Raest but be so weakened in the process that Rake could be defeated by the Empire's mages. In this way the city could be conquered relatively quickly and efficiently.

Lorn guaranteed that Raest would go to Darujhistan by burying the Tyrant's finnest within the city on the grounds of Simtal's estate. After a battle with Silanah and Rake's Tiste Andii sorcerers he possessed the body of Mammot, but was subsequently imprisoned in a new Azath house, the Finnest House, in the city.

In Memories of Ice

Two months after his release by the Malazan Empire, the region was still recovering from Raest's destructive path towards Darujhistan. He had destroyed a key bridge over the River Catlin on the caravan route between Darujhistan and Capustan, which choked trade along the route. The necromancers Bauchelain and Korbal Broach arrived to investigate his former tomb finding a crater forty paces across and four or five arm-lengths in depth.

When Ganoes Paran made an unwilling visit to the Finnest House, it was revealed that Raest had become the House's guardian. Raest confirmed that the Azath had chosen Paran as the Master of the Deck and warned that a war had begun that would not spare the Azath, the gods, or insignificant humans. He escorted Paran down seven flights of stairs to a place that took the captain to the Beast Hold and Burn. The Jaghut was annoyed by Paran's reluctance to embark on the offered path and threatened to kill him for making the Jaghut waste his effort.

In Toll the Hounds

Raest was given an undead white cat, Tufty, as a gift, by Antsy for helping the retired Bridgeburners contact Ganoes Paran.

History

A young Raest was drawn to the power of the wind, demonstrated by its raw banshee fury and its ability to manipulate and shape seemingly immutable stone over thousands of years. His growing reach for power led his mother to declare a Sundering of Blood between them, breaking herself in the process. Raest saw this as an inevitable fate for those resisting his command.

Raest's first attempted to subjugate the Jaghut, then the beasts, and then the earth, but all were unsatisfying failures. He finally succeeded with the Imass, creating an empire that followed his cruel will even without his direct intervention. The Imass worshipped him as a god and created temples in his name.

But his empire came crashing down around 300,000 years before the events of Gardens of the Moon when a community of Jaghut (allied with the Imass) came together to stand against him. The collaboration of his notoriously solitary race came as a complete surprise. They separated him from his power, imprisoned him, and destroyed his empire. One of the Imass collaborators referred to his imprisonment as a "chaining".

Notes and references

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