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On The Nature of Warrens and Their Study

Page history last edited by Eloth 15 years, 8 months ago

On The Nature of Warrens and Their Study

 

Steven Erikson: Are warrens aspect specific? Generally, yes. The death of A'karonys in Gardens seems consistent with that.(Q and A with malazanempire No 1 (2003))

Steven Erikson: How does one become a mage? I'm sure I mentioned this elsewhere, but it's acquired through discipline and study, usually under the tutelage of another mage, but not always. Personality often guides the aspect, or warren, one chooses. But not always.(Q and A with malazanempire No 2 (2003))

Steven Erikson: Why do warrens seem to be weaker the younger they are? Just as a puppy is weaker than a full grown wolf, I guess.(Q and A with malazanempire No 2 (2003))

Steven Erikson: Are all human-accessed warrens descended from Elder warrens? Well, they're all variations on that extended list of elemental forces that make up the Elder Warrens, so I guess, yes is the answer.(Q and A with malazanempire No 2 (2003))

Seren Pedac: 'What’s a warren?’

 

Corlo: 'Well, even that’s not easy to answer, lass. It’s a path of magic. The forces that govern all existence are aspected. Which means...Paths of aspected magic. Like forces and unlike forces. Right? Unlike forces repel, and like forces hold together, you see. Same as water in a river, all flowing the same way. Sure, there’s eddies, draws and such, but it all heads down eventually. I’ll talk about those eddies later. So, the warrens are those rivers, only you can’t see them. The current is invisible, and what you can see is only the effect...that’s the other thing about warrens. They can be realms, entire worlds. Step through and you can find yourself in a land with ten moons overhead,

and stars in constellations you’ve never seen before. Places with two suns. Or places filled with the spirits of the dead – although if you step through the gates in Hood’s Realm you don’t come back. Or, rather, you shouldn’t. Anyway, a mage finds a warren suited to his or her nature, a natural affinity if you like. And through enough study and discipline you find ways of reaching into it, making use of the forces within it. Some people, of course, are born with natural talent, meaning they don’t have to work as hard.’

(MT, UK trade, p.554-6)

Quick Ben: "Unlike the sorcery that prevailed on this continent until recently, Preda, magic everywhere else exists in a more formalized state. The power, so raw here, is elsewhere refined, aspected, organized into something like themes, and these themes are what we call warrens. Many are accessible to mortals and gods alike; others are –" and he glanced at Bugg – "Elder. Some are virtually extinct, or inaccessible due to ignorance or deliberate rituals of sealing. Some, in addition, are claimed and ruled over by elements either native to those warrens, or so fundamentally related to them as to make the distinction meaningless." (DoD)

 

 

K'rul and Lady Envy on the Creation of the (Human?) Warrens

 

Visions flooded her (Lady Envy's) mind, staggering her. Darkness. Then chaos, wild, unfocused power, a universe devoid of sense, of control, of meaning. Entities flung through the maelstrom. Lost, terrified by the birth of light. A sudden sharpening – pain as of wrists opened, the heat spilling forth – a savage imposition of order, the heart from which blood flowed in even, steady streams. Twin chambers to that heart – Kurald Galain, the Warren of Mother Dark – and Starvald Demelain, the Warren of...Dragons. And the blood – the power – now sweeping in currents through veins, through arteries, branching out through all existence, and the thought that came to her then stole all warmth from her flesh. Those veins, those arteries, they are the warrens...in striding through the warrens, we travel through your very flesh. That, when we draw upon the power of the warrens, we draw your very blood? Who knows?

 

K'rul: Anomander Rake, Draconus, Osric, a handful of others. And now you. Forgive me, Lady Envy, I have no wish to be a tyrant. My presence within the warrens has ever been passive – you are free to do as you choose, as is every other creature who swims my immortal blood.

 

(MoI, UK Trade, p.236)

 

The Role of K'rul and the Eleint in the Creation of the (Human?) Warrens - Cotillion's observations.

 

'I am Eloth, Mistress of Illusions - Meanas Mockra and Thyr. A Shaper of the Blood. All that K'rul asked of me, I have done.'

'And I should now presume that for each of the warrens, Elder and new, there is a corresponding dragon? You are the flavours of K'rul's blood?

'As I understand things,' Cotillion said, ' once these dragons did what K'rul asked of them, they were compelled to return to Starvald Demelain. As the sources of csorcery, they could not be permitted to interfere or remain active across the realms, lest sorcery ceased to be predictable, which in turn would feed Chaos - the eternal enemy in the grand scheme.'

 

all above from (BH UK Tpb, p51/53)

 

'The Warrens of Magic dwelt in the beyond. Find the gate and nudge it

open a crack. What leaks out is yours to shape. With these words a

young woman set out on the path to sorcery. Open yourself to the

Warren that comes to you – that finds you. Draw forth its power – as

much as your body and soul are capable of containing – but remember,

when the body fails, the gate closes.' (GotM, p.58)

 

Mhybe: 'Bone and flesh can hold only so much power – the limit is always finite. For such beings as you (Caladan Brood)and Anomander Rake – and you, too, Korlat – you

possess the centuries of living necessary to contain what you command.'(MoI, UK Trade, p.138)

 

 

'Kulp could sense his own warren. It felt ready - almost eager - for release...uncharacteristic attentiveness. It wanted to join the game...the trap of thinking Meanas as an entity, a faceless god, where access was worship, success a reward of faith. Warrens were not like that. A mage was not a priest and magic was not divine intervention. Sorcery could be the ladder to Ascendancy - a means to an end, but there was no point in worshipping the means'(DG, UK MMPB, p.325)

 

Kulp: 'We're in a warren...No telling how time works here.'(DG, UK MMPB, p.334)

 

Tattersail, while still recovering from an illness caused by exposure to chaotic magic:

'If I attempted to open my Warren in this state the power would consume me, burn me to ashes.'(GotM, UK Trade, p.209)

 

The effects of drawing too much on one's warren

 

Duiker: 'They've (the healers of the Chain of Dogs) drawn so much on their warrens that it's begun to damage their own bodies - I saw one healer's arm snap like a twig when he lifted a pot from a hearth'(DG, UK MMPB, p.624)Denul-specific?

 

 

 

 

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