Human First Empire

'The First Empire... An empire of humans, born from the legacy of the T’lan Imass, from whom it took its name.'(MoI, UK Trade, p.13)

"Ceda, a degradation of 'Cedance,' I'd wager.  'Cedance' was some sort of ritual back in the days of the First Empire."(RG)

Few military forces were by nature introspective.  Conservatism was bound to tradition, like knots in a rope.  Brys sought something new in his army.  Malleable, quick to adapt, fearless in challenging old ways of doing things.  At the same time, he understood the value of tradition, and the legion structure was in fact a return to the history of the First Empire.(DoD)

Nifadas : Lether was born of colonists who came here from the First Empire. That First Empire was then destroyed, the paradise razed to lifeless desert. Yet it was the First Empire in which the Holds were first discovered. (MT)

Dating the First Empire

From the prologue of MoI (see the entry for the Kallorian Empire), we know that The Human First Empire arose before Kallor's empire but that it 'had not been alone for long' before Kallor established his empire. Kallor's empire was destroyed approximately 119,736 years before Burn’s Sleep and Kallor says that it took him 50 years to conquer Jacuruku. So, the First Empire was established some (relatively short) time before 119,786 years before Burn's Sleep, likely somewhere between 120 000 and 121 000 years before Burn's Sleep.

If Icarium's calculations were accurate (see: Icarium's Mechanisms), then the First Empire was still at least partly intact at 94 000 years B.P. (before present), which would work out to be roughly 92 835 years before Burn's Sleep.

Kuru Qan's speculation on the timing of the Fall of the First Empire

...So, if Kuru Qan is on the right track, the Fall of the human First Empire occurred roughly 69 000 years before Burn's Sleep +/- 500 years, having lasted somewhere around 50 000 years +/- 2000 years (by my calculations)

'The First Empire, from which vast fleets had sailed forth to map the world. The coasts of all six continents had been charted, eight hundred and eleven islands scattered in the vast oceans, ruins and riches discovered, ancient sorceries and fierce, ignorant tribes encountered. Other peoples, not human, all of whom bled easily enough. Barghast, Trell, Tartheno, Fenn, Mare, Jhag, Krinn, Jheck . . . Colonies had been established on foreign coasts. Wars and conquests, always conquests. Until . . . all was brought down, all was destroyed. The First Empire collapsed in upon itself. Beasts rose in the midst of its cities, a nightmare burgeoning like plague...The Emperor who was One was now Seven, and the Seven were scattered, lost in madness. The great cities burned. And people died in the millions.'(MT, UK Trade, p.421)

note: on a First Empire road (see Tremorlor for description), temporarily exposed because of the Whirlwind Wall, Fiddler, Crokus and Apsalar encounter chariot wheels amongst the artifacts. Seems likely that the human First Empire employed chariots (DG, UK MMPB, p.257)

The First Empire, from whence this colony originally came all those centuries ago, seemed to be a complicated place, home to countless peoples each with their own languages and gods.  For all the imperial claims as being the birth of human civilisation, it was clear to Feather Witch that no such claim could be taken seriously.  Perhaps the First Empire marked the initial nation consisting of more than a single city, likely born out of conquest, one city-state after another swallowed up by the rampaging founders.  Yet even then, the fabled Seven Cities was an empire bordered by independent tribes and peoples, and there had been wars and then treaties.  Some were broken, most were not.  Imperial ambitions had been stymied, and it was this fact that triggered the age of colonization to distant lands. 

The First Empire had met foes who would not bend a knee.(RG)

Heboric, re: the Human First Empire and Soletaken...'Her daughter chose the Path of the Soletaken, a fraught journey, that. She was hardly unique, the twisted route was a popular alternative to Ascension. More...earthly, they claimed. And older, and that which was old was in high favour in the last days of the First Empire...It was understandable that Elders of the day sought to ease their children's chosen path. Sought to create a new version of the old, risk-laden one - for that had crumbled, weakened, was cancerous. Too many of the Empire's young were being lost - and never mind the wars to the west-' (DG, UK MMPB, p.514)

The Beast Ritual and subsequent Fall of the First Empire

Febryl nodded. ‘The First Empire of Dessimbelackis, Kamist Reloe, was not the first. That belonged to the T’lan Imass. There was little, it is true, that you or I might recognize as being . . . imperial. No cities.

No breaking of the ground to plant crops or irrigate. And its armies were undead. There was a throne, of course, upon which was meant to sit a mortal – the progeny race of the T’lan Imass. A human. Alas,

humans viewed empire . . . differently. And their vision did not include T’lan Imass. Thus, betrayal. Then war. An unequal contest, but the T’lan Imass were reluctant to annihilate their mortal children. And

so they left—’

‘Only to return with the shattering of the warren,’ Kamist Reloe muttered, nodding. ‘When the chaos erupted with the ritual of Soletaken and D’ivers.’ (HoC)

cont'd: 'Soletaken and D'ivers...The ritual unleashed powers that ran wild. Like a plague, shapeshifting claimed thousands, unwelcomed, no initiation - many went mad. Death filled the city, every street, every house. Families were torn apart by their own...All within but a handful of hours' (DG, UK MMPB, p.516-7)

"Dessimbelackis,"  said Curdle.  "He held Chaos in his hands.  He told us its secret – what he had made of it.  He was desperate.  His people – humans – were making a mess of things.  They stood as if separate from all the animals of the world.  They imagined they were the rulers of nature.  And cruel their tyranny, so cruel.  Slaughtering the animals, making the lands barren deserts, the skies empty but for vultures."

"Soletaken,"  said Olar Ethil.  "D'ivers.  He created a ritual out of chaos – to bind humans to the beasts, to force upon them their animal natures.  He sought to teach them a lesson.  About themselves."

"Yes, Elder.  Yes to all of that.  He brought the ritual to his people – oh, it was an old ritual, much older than Dessimbelackis, much older than this world.  He forced it upon his subjects."( DoD) 

Apsalar frowned.  “There were no Shadow Temples in the time of the First Empire.”

Curdle’s head dipped, then lifted suddenly.  “Dessimbelackis, a curse on his multitude of  souls!  We speak of the time of the Forests.  The great forests that covered this land, long before the First Empire.  Before even the T’lan Imass --” 

“Shhh!”  Telorast hissed.  “Forests?  Madness!  Not a tree in sight, and those who were frightened of shadows never existed.  So why would they worship them?  They didn’t, because they never existed.  It’s a natural ferocity, this shadow power.  It’s a fact that the first worship was born of fear.  (BH)

First Empire Cities

Mappo's thoughts: 'Seven main avenues within each city of the First Empire. The Sky Spirits look down upon the holy number, seven scorpion tails, seven stings facing the circle of sand. To all who would make offerings to the Seven Holies, look to the circle of sand.'(DG, UK Trade, p.463)

'...curving avenues...The seven scorpion-sting thrones had once towered over the enclosure, each seventy-seven arm-spans high.'(DG, UK Trade, p.463)

Yadeth Garath, the first human city, was now little more than salt-rotted rubble swallowed in silts, buried deep and unseen beneath the marsh. No history beyond the countless derivations of its ancient name remained, and of the lives and deaths and tales of all who had once lived there, not even bones survived. (BH)

Kanarbar Belid, now nothing but dust. Vithan Taur, the great city in the cliff face -- now even the cliff was gone. A swath of potsherds reduced to gravel was all that remained of Minikenar, once a thriving city on the banks of a river now extinct. The string of villages along that lifeless, bone-dry sweep north of Minikenar revealed no signs at all that they had ever existed.(BH)

Yareth Ghanatan -City of the First Empire (BH)

E'napatha N'apur - residents were slain by Icarium

First Empire Miscellaneous Info

'The pool lay in the centre of a garden. Pale undergrowth carpeted the cracked flagstones on the footpath, white and pink leaves like shreds of flesh, colourless globes of some kind of fruit depending from vines wrapping stone columns and fossilized tree trunks. A garden thriving in darkness...Eyeless white fish darted in the pool, seeking shadows...Kulp: Is this fruit edible?...Heboric: It was when it was bright red, nine thousand years ago.'(DG, UK MMPB, p.518)

First Empire Titles  

Samar Dev : 'Preda.  Would that be a variation on Predal’atr, I wonder?  A unit commander in a legion of the First Empire, Middle Period.' (BH)

First Empire Alchemies

'Alchemies that slowed ageing...Six, seven centuries for each citizen. The ritual killed them, yet the alchemies remained potent.'(DG, UK MMPB, p.515)

'(Felisin) reached trembling hands down, slipped them into the cool water. The sensation rushed through her like ecstacy...Heboric: 'Residue of alchemies...There will be...benefits to drinking this nectar.'(DG, UK MMPB, p.518)

Why no histories? 

Enqura had well understood the Mezla thirst for knowledge, the Emperor’s lust for foreign secrets, and the city’s Holy Protector would give them nothing. Instead, he had commanded Febryl, a week before the arrival of the Malazan armies, to shut down the schools, to confiscate the hundred thousand scrolls and bound volumes, the ancient relics of the First Empire, and the teachers and scholars themselves. By the Protector’s decree, Ugarat’s coliseum became the site of a vast conflagration, as everything was burned, destroyed. The scholars were crucified – those that did not fling themselves on the pyre in a fit of madness and grief – and their bodies dumped into the pits containing the smashed relics just outside the city wall.

Febryl had done as he had been commanded. His last gesture of loyalty, of pure, unsullied courage. The terrible act was necessary.

Enqura’s denial was perhaps the greatest defiance in the entire war. One for which the Holy Protector paid with his life, when the horror that was said to have struck Dassem Ultor upon hearing of the deed transformed into rage.

(MT, UK Trade, p.531) 

Tribes, Nations and Empires