Dassem Ultor - Spoilers

Malazan and other stuff.

Moderators: lucimay, Onos T'oolan

Post Reply
User avatar
Avatar
Immanentizing The Eschaton
Posts: 61651
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2004 9:17 am
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
Has thanked: 13 times
Been thanked: 19 times

Dassem Ultor - Spoilers

Post by Avatar »

So, I'm a bit confused.

Dassem was the First Sword of the Malazan Empire, right? And then he and his bodyguard (The Sword) were betrayed and disappeared, right?

And he used to be sworn to Hood, (Knight of High House Death) until hood screwed him over by taking his sister.

And then he became Dessembrae, god of tragedy right?

But all of that happened during the last hundred years or so, in Kellanved's reign. (And in Dancer's Lament, we meet the young Dassem Ultor.)

But Dessembrae was present at the Chaining, which happened 2,000 years ago.

So was that just a different incarnation of Dissembare? It can't have been Dassem.

Right?

--A
User avatar
Holsety
The Gap Into Spam
Posts: 3422
Joined: Sun May 21, 2006 8:56 pm
Location: Principality of Sealand

Post by Holsety »

Almost certainly correct - IMO.

I believe there's actually some point in the books where the gods laugh at Dessembrae the ascendant force, and compare him/it to Dassem and point out how much better, more authentic, or less of a self obsessed toad Dessembrae is - or something along those lines (I really don't remember the scene that well).

I don't know how Vishnu as a god is compared to various incarnations of Vishnu, all things considered. I know my mom read me a bit of a story once where Vishnu, Shiva and Bhrama are gonna rape some woman and then a sage who is married to her is like "no stop you assholes," and they're cowed and stop. Really, that's how it was put. So it seems like maybe, there are traditions where mortals can become recognized as incarnations of a godlike force and be more honorable and worthy of note than the immortal gods.

That's actually a common thing, I think. Generally, the mortal greek heroes/demigods are seen as grander than the greek gods, because the greek gods really just fuck around and do what they want half the time. The Norse gods not so much, because there's a big end waiting for most of them.

If I'm just the spirit of human tragedy (or comedy, whatever), constantly aware of all its permutations...I dunno how much that matters. If you live a life of complexity and cost and reward and loss and gain to yourself, but you have some conception of that tragedy and keep it in mind in what you do and exercise some judgment - that seems a more worthy life than someone who lives in indolence contemplating past and future tragedies.
User avatar
Avatar
Immanentizing The Eschaton
Posts: 61651
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2004 9:17 am
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
Has thanked: 13 times
Been thanked: 19 times

Post by Avatar »

Yeah, I actually think that later in the series they clarified it a bit. Also, seems there were multiple chainings (not sure why).

--A
Post Reply

Return to “Steven Erikson Forum”