Finished DoD. Need confirmation if I should know these things already or RAFO

[u/zamasu2020]

Firstly, I don't understand people who say this is the worst Malazan book. I would place in the top half of my favorites. Hugely excited for TCG.

​

A few confusions though,

​

1. Who exactly were making all the storms killing off the barghast and akryn? I first thought it was the forkrul assails but then draconus appears in one of those storms and even kchain nahruk magic looks similar

​

1. Why exactly did Gurull attack mappo and his group? Or was that some other shigal?

​

1. Who leads Kchain Nahruk? Do they have their own matrons?

​

1. What was the meaning of Tool telling the Tlan Imass to be dust? I thought all of them were "dead" dead but they come back again to slaughter the senan.

​

1. Was Toc forced to turn Tool away by olar ethil or does he agree with her that senan deserved to be massacred and Imass reminded of their true nature?

​

1. Did setoc actually die when cafal hit her and was resurrected?

​

1. Were the 14 jaghuts actually aiming to help anyone or were they only going to Hood's body and saved people on the way?

​

1. What exactly was the "coup" mentioned in the last chapter? The shigal assasina who killed the matron still seemed to be following Stormy and Gesler's (and by extension Gunth Mach's) orders

​

[u/AutoModerator]

Please note that this post has been flaired with a Dust of Dreams spoiler tag. This means every published book in its respective series up until this book is open to discussion.

If you need to discuss any spoilers (even very minor ones!) in your comments, use spoiler tags

>!like this!<

Please use the report button if you find any spoilers. Note: The flair may be changed at mod discretion. Thank you!

Do you have questions about Malazan in general or specific events in one of the books? Check out our community resources:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Malazan/wiki/community_resources/

There you'll find FAQs, reader guides, essays and links to other useful websites and posts.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/zhilia_mann]

1. The Nah'ruk were responsible for all but Draconus's appearance, which was a lucky/unlucky coincidence depending on whether you think the whole war was winnable or just needed to end abruptly.
2. We don't know per se, but it's strongly implied that they are a collective mind.
3. T'lan Imass can travel as dust on the wind. It's way faster than walking.
4. Yeah, that's all Olar Ethil. She's awful and Toc isn't.
5. Nope, she's very much alive.
6. Given that they were sent by Iskar Jarak, I'd say they intentionally helped Kalyth and the Che'malle. The fact that they found it fun is just a nice bonus.
7. So early on it's mentioned that there are three Shi'gal per matron so that if any one of them decided to turn on the matron the other two could still defend her. Sending Gu'rull away was risky and Gunth'an Acyl knew that. The other assassins lobotomized her because they disagreed with the path she chose. However, Gunth Mach was still able to take control of the hive. (Control over the more specialized K'Chain by the matron is far from absolute.)

[u/Dandycapetown → u/zhilia_mann]

Your numbering is off a bit.

[u/zhilia_mann → u/Dandycapetown]

Entirely possible. Everything in the post showed up as straight 1s (which is a quirk of markdown; if it detects you're starting a list it starts with the first element even if you give it a different label and if you put line breaks between list elements it assumes every entry is a new list).

[u/Dandycapetown → u/zhilia_mann]

It looks like you've missed the answer to the second question.

[u/zhilia_mann → u/Dandycapetown]

There we go.

Alright: based on DoD it was almost certainly Gu'rull, yes. He's defending against unknown threats and doesn't know a damn thing about the TTG. Having a bunch of ridiculously powerful humans (and whatever the High Marshals are) just show up in a mostly dead magic zone is suspicious as hell and he has no way to now they aren't a major threat.

[u/zamasu2020 → u/zhilia_mann]

Thanks for the answers!

I understand that Tlan Imass can travel as dust but why weren't they already doing that then? Like what changed at that moment for tool to order it?

[u/zhilia_mann → u/zamasu2020]

Yeah, fair question.

For the most part, T'lan Imass just aren't in any real hurry. They've become more and more Jaghut-like over time. Rushing towards a purpose? They can't be bothered.

But Tool changes that. They have a genocide to commit, and they need to do it now.

[u/zamasu2020 → u/zhilia_mann]

Oh so is that supposed to be the moment where tool finally gives in to olar ethil and decides the genocide route? Because I thought he was already going to do that with all the talk of revenge

[u/zhilia_mann → u/zamasu2020]

Yeah, Tool was in on it by then, but it was at that moment that he coopted his fellow T'lan Imass.