The Bridgeburners
'a silver brooch: a bridge of stone, lit by ruby flames. A Bridgeburner.' (GotM, UK Trade, p.3)
Bridgeburners sigil (from NoK) p.46
An arched bridge a background of licking flames (tattoo)
'...a few showed on their uniforms the flame emblem of the Bridgeburners.' (GotM, UK Trade, p.89)
'First in, last out.'
Motto of the Bridgeburners
(MoI, UK Trade, p.660)
'Bridgeburners. They’d been the old Emperor’s élite, his favourites, but since Laseen’s bloody coup nine years ago they’d been pushed hard into every rat’s nest in sight. Almost a decade of this had cut them down to a single, under-manned division. Among them, names had emerged. The survivors, mostly squad sergeants, names that pushed their way into the Malazan armies on Genabackis, and beyond. Names, spicing the already sweeping legend of Onearm’s Host. Detoran, Antsy, Spindle, Whiskeyjack. Names heavy with glory and bitter with the cynicism that every army feeds on.'(GotM, UK Trade, p.42-3)
'Crossing it (Raraku) had etched the souls of the three companies that would come to be called the Bridgeburners. We coulde imagine no other name. Raraku burned our pasts away, making all that came before a trail of ashes. (DG, UK MMPB, p.199)
'Kalam could make little sense of the ascendancy. This Spiritwalker's blessing on a company of soldiers. The parting of the fabric at Raraku. He was both comforted and uneasy with the notion of guardians..' (BH UKTpb, p. 71)
'They were of a kind, then
the histories writ large
in tattooed tracery
the tales a tracking
of old wounds
but something glowed hard
in their eyes – those
flame-gnawed arches,
that vanishing span,
they are their own past
each in turn destined
to fall in line
on the quiet wayside
beside the river
they refuse to name . . .
The Bridgeburners (IV.i)
Toc the Younger (b.1141)'
(GotM MMPB, p. 126)
Malazan Empire