The Hounds of Shadow
Tulas Shorn
Tulas Shorn claims to be the original master of the Hounds of Shadow:
Would they remember Tulas Shorn? The first master, the one who had taken them raw and half-wild and taught them the vast power of a faith that would never know betrayal?
They are close, yes.
My Hounds of Shadow.
(Toll)
Tulas Shorn upon seeing Pallid and Lock among the Hounds of Shadow:
"By the Abyss," it whispered, "have you two lost your minds? They cannot be here – they must not be among you –"
"Why?" Cotillion demanded, leaning forward in sudden interest.
But the Tiste Edur simply shook its head.
The two bone-white Hounds looked barely restrained, moments from exploding into a deadly charge. The hate was avid in their eyes.
"Why?" Cotillion asked again.
"The … implacability of forces – we think to tame, but the wildness remains. Control is a delusion in the mind of self-proclaimed masters." And that last word dripped with contempt. "The leash, you fools, is frayed – don't you understand anything at all?"
"Perhaps –"
Tulas Shorn lifted both hands again, but this time in a warding gesture. "We'd thought the same, once. We'd deceived ourselves into thinking we were the masters, that every force bowed to our command. And what happened? They destroyed everything!"
"I don't –"
"Understand! I see that! They are conjurations – manifestations – they exist to warn you. They are the proof that all that you think to enslave will turn on you." And he backed away. "The end begins again, it begins again."
Cotillion stepped forward. "Light, Dark and Shadow – these three – are you saying –"
"Three?" Tulas Shorn laughed with savage bitterness. "What then of Life? Fire and Stone and Wind? What, you fools, of the Hounds of Death? Manifestations, I said. They will turn – they are telling you that! That is why they exist! The fangs, the fury – all that is implacable in nature – each aspect but a variation, a hue in the maelstrom of destruction!"
(Toll)
Mappo on the Ay : "An ancient wolf, from the age of the Imass. Their blood line was harvested in the shaping of the Hounds of Shadow … but not the Hounds of Darkness. For those, it was the blood line of a breed of plains bear. Ty'nath okral, in the language of the Bentract Imass." (DoD)
Baran
Blind
Gear
Rood-mangy brown, scarred, glowing yellow eyes (GotM, UK Trade, p.347)
Shan
Doan -imprisoned in Dragnipur, released by Ganoes Paran, whereabouts unknown
Ganrod -imprisoned in Dragnipur, released by Ganoes Paran, whereabouts unknown
Cotillion to Paran: 'Do you realize that those precious creatures had lived for a thousand years? Do you realize that no man – mortal or Ascendant – has ever before killed a Hound?’ (GotM UKTpb. p.487)
Trull Sengar: 'What do you know of the Hounds of Shadow?’
Onrack: 'Very little. The Logros crossed paths with them only once, long ago, in the time of the (Imass) First Empire. Seven in number. Serving an unknown master, yet bent on destruction.’ (HoC, UK Trade, p.320)
Trull Sengar: 'The Hounds of Shadow are not worthy of worship. They are indeed untethered, wild and deadly. To truly command them, one must sit in the Throne of Shadow – as master of the realm. But more than that. One must first draw together the disparate fragments. Making Kurald Emurlahn whole once more.’(HoC, UK Trade, p.321-2)
Onrack : 'Shadow and spirit reunited . . . the beasts had possessed something. . . unusual. As if each was shaped of two distinct powers, two aspects chained together. Onrack had unleashed those hounds, yet, on second consideration, perhaps not freed them. Shadow from Dark. That which
is cast . . . from that which has cast it.' (HOC UKTpb.p. 406)
Apsalar:'he (Cotillion) cannot rely upon the Hounds when dealing with the Tiste Edur, for the Hounds remember their original masters.’ (HoC, UK Trade, p.576)
The beasts possess a capacity to detect a rabbit's rapid heartbeat half a league away(Toll)
The Deragoth and the Hounds of Shadow and Light
Cotillion's musing on the subject:
The Deragoth are the dark, and in their savage solidity would claim ownership of the shadows they cast. Lock and Pallid, however, are the light that gave the Deragoth shape, without whom neither the Deragoth nor the Hounds of Shadows would exist.
...
"Listen – what was the mess behind the origin of the Deragoth? Wild beasts from the dusty eons of past ages, seven left in all the world, and the First Emperor – who was anything but – chooses them as the repositories of his divided soul. All very well, but then we have the Hounds of Shadow, and, presumably, the Hounds of Light –"
(Toll)
Other Ascendants
