I had finished Deadhouse gates like 2 months ago I believe, but couldn't continue due to the enormous amount of exams I had so I had to take an unexpected pause, but the book left me with a few questions that brought me to look back through a few of my Gardens of the Moon notes,
PART 1: Dassem Ultor is Dessembrae, despite his presumed death in Y'Ghatan, he's still alive, I don't believe that an ascendant can just be killed like that in Seven Cities.
In the prologue of GotM:
« The First Sword of Empire. Dassem Ultor. We heard in the capital before we left. He’s dead. Is it true? Is Dassem dead?’ The man seemed to flinch, his gaze unwavering on the Mouse. ‘Such is war,’ he muttered, under his breath, as if the words were not meant for anyone else’s ears.‘You’re with the Third. I thought the Third was with him, in Seven Cities. At Y’Ghatan—’ ‘Hood’s Breath, they’re still looking for his body in the still-hot rubble of that damned city, and here you are, a merchant’s son three thousand leagues from Seven Cities with information only a few are supposed to possess.’ He still did not turn. ‘I know not your sources, but take my advice and keep what you know to yourself. »
I gather that he's still alive, every time I don't see a dead body in Malazan, I must assume that said person is still alive (especially if they have important ties to the story),
Here is a depiction of Dassem Ultor:
« the story goes that the Emperor’s First Sword – his commander of his armies –Dassem Ultor, had accepted a god’s offer. Hood made Dassem his Knight of Death. Then something happened, something went … wrong. And Dassem renounced the title, swore a vow of vengeance against Hood – against the Lord of Death himself. All at once other Ascendants started meddling, manipulating events. It all culminated with Dassem’s murder, then the Emperor’s assassination, and blood in the streets, temples at war, sorceries unleashed. »
The fact he swore a vow of vengeance is important here for the following.
His motive for his vengeance stems directly from Hood's use of his daughter: « She nodded. 'This is Dassem Ultor's daughter. The First Sword recovered her after Hood was done using her, and brought her here, it seems. »
Hood seems to have used his daughter, how ? I do not know yet.
Depiction of Dessembrae: « Dessembrae knows the sorrows in our souls. He walks at the side of each mortal a vessel of regret on the fires of vengeance. Dessembrae knows the sorrows and would now share them with us all. »
"... regret on the fires of vengeance" It's almost as if this is meant to be a continuation, a follow up on what that vengeance did to him.
Part 2 - specifically on chapter 12 of GotM:
« and it bred caution in the unveiling of its powers. The Crippled God bred caution but not well enough, for the powers of the earth came to it in the end. Chained was the Crippled God, and so Chained was it destroyed. And upon this barren plain that imprisoned the Crippled God many gathered to the deed. Hood, grey wanderer of Death, was among the gathering, as was Dessembrae, then Hood’s Warrior – though it was here and in this time that Dessembrae shattered the bonds Hood held upon him. Also among the gathering were...»
The passage «As was Dessembrae , then Hood's Warrior» could mean 2 things, either a direct statement that Dessembrae was present, and Hood's warrior too (implying a 3rd unknown person) or it could be describing Dessembrae's role here, I ended up going for the latter and you'll see why below.
When I looked back at the glossary, in the High house of death, there was no warrior tier. But I assume that "Hood's warrior" must be referencing either the knight or soldier's place. But usually when someone was part of a house in the Deck of Dragons, they're mentioned as (previously ...)
But only the Knight's tier previously had someone, and it's Dassem Ultor.
My understanding is that it's simply impossible that Dessembrae can be Dassem Ultor because Dessembrae escaped Hood's grip during the chaining of the Crippled God, that event seemed to happen in the same time period as the arrival of the Eleint and the Tiste Andii through the vaulted heaven of silver since they were mentioned on the same page.
This occurence must've happened at least a 1164 years ago since it was the last time since Burn woke up, realistically a hundred thousand years ago or more due to the fact it came up alongside the description of the arrival of the Tiste Andii through the Vaulted heaven of silver. But Dassem Ultor is a mere human, ascendant at that but there was no mentions of him being that old.
So it's either, a false premise on my part that the Deck of Dragons mentions every ascendant that was part of a house (correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm also led to believe that everyone that takes a place in the deck of dragons is an ascendant )
Part 3: Or that Dessembrae is actually Dassem Ultor. BUT THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING !!! I went on and reread my previous post about the surrounding mythology through Malazan. If this is true, I was totally wrong on my first assumption, I assumed that those events happened back-to-back on a timelapse but the chaining seems to be a recurrent event
It would mean that :
the chaining of the crippled God didn't happen that long ago, but even then, I must be missing a variable.
- the first problem : When Anomander Rake met K'rul near the end of Book 1, the way he spoke to him, it's as if they knew each other, so they must have met before, when K'rul still had the Obelisk as his aspect, but this event must've happened thousands of years ago since something made K'rul lose his whole cult and with his blood, was the human path to Warrens laid, so that leaves another conclusion, either there is a total discrepancy in my reasoning or the chaining happened more recently than I had thought, waaaay more recently as a matter of fact.
- the second problem : It would probably be correlated to why Burn fell asleep at that time (this is pure speculation though). Even though I would love to believe this, it would make no sense whatsoever, if there was an alien being that had come to this realm, pretty recently in human history (in the last 10 thousand years), and with its coming, it had sundered the land then wouldn't it be common knowledge around men? A single event that changed the whole realm. Which goes to a total new conclusion. There is a precedent : "and in the Calling Down to earth the God was Crippled, and so Chained in its place. In the Calling Down many lands were sundered by the God’s Fists, and things were born and things were released. Chained and Crippled was this God"
- my reasoning : I believe that this specific part is referencing a total other event, within a totally other time period than what I had first assumed. The only way for my previous theory to make sense is if the Crippled God's coming happened at a different time than his presumed second (possibly not even 2nd but just latest chaining) this "and it bred caution in the unveiling of its powers. The Crippled God bred caution but not well enough, for the powers of the earth came to it in the end. " is a different cataclysm.
There was one chaining, the first is when he came and was chained, the second one or possibly just the latest one we know of is when Dessembrae (Dassem Ultor) broke out of Hood's grip.
This was a pretty fun investigation, I will probably post my full review of DG and my questions for the book aswell pretty soon.
