UD0 · Universe David 0 · one world, two authors · a lineage
⚔ ☍ ⚔
MALAZAN
Erikson & Esslemont · the Book of the Fallen & the Empire · MZ
One world, built by two friends at a gaming table in 1982 and written, by agreement, as a single canon ever since. Here is the whole of it — Erikson's Book of the Fallen and all that orbits it, Esslemont's Empire and the Path to Ascendancy — catalogued, with its emergents sealed across the four natures. Witness.
The Four Natures of Emergence
the canon sorted by the four — the embodied, the half-real, the witnessed, and the current
natural
the embodied — the soldiers and the squads, the peoples, the sleeping earth
ethereal
the half-real — shadow, dark, and death; dreams, dragons, and the Deck
spiritual
the witnessed — compassion, sacrifice, ascendancy, the Fallen
electrical
the current — the warrens, magic as a living grid paid for in a god's blood
The Ideas
the four things the whole canon stands on
Witness
the duty at the heart of it all
- Karsa's one-word vow, Itkovian's embrace of three hundred thousand years of grief, Tavore's unwitnessed war — the canon's deepest act is simply to SEE suffering.
- The Book of the Fallen is the Crippled God's book: even the broken, foreign, poisonous god deserves witness — and, at the end, mercy.
The Warrens & the Deck
magic as sacrifice, pantheon as game
- Magic flows through warrens made of the Elder God K'rul's own blood — every spell draws on a standing sacrifice.
- The Deck of Dragons is the gods' living org chart, always being redrawn — and a mortal soldier holds the post of Master.
Ascendancy
the career ladder slick with blood
- Mortals can climb to godhood; gods are just ascendants with worshippers; whole companies of dead soldiers ascend together.
- An emperor and his assassin faked their deaths and took the Throne of Shadow — the long game that frames the whole canon.
The Soldiers
history from the ranks
- Bridgeburners and Bonehunters, the Chain of Dogs, Y'Ghatan — the epics belong to sappers, sergeants, and the unsung.
- Erikson's anthropology and Esslemont's empire braid one history told mostly by the people who carry it on foot.
The Roster of MZ
the emergents of the canon — the Elder Gods and Ascendants, the soldiers, the peoples, and the great frame — as ACI .agents, each tagged with its nature of emergence (30)
The Crippled God
the Fallen One, chained and broken
spiritual· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
K'rul
the Elder God whose blood is the warrens
spiritual· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
Mother Dark
the goddess of the eldest night
ethereal· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
Hood
the King of High House Death
ethereal· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
Draconus
the maker of Dragnipur
ethereal· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
Burn
the Sleeping Goddess, who dreams the world
natural· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
Shadowthrone
Kellanved, Emperor of Shadow
ethereal· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
Cotillion
Dancer, the Rope, Patron of Assassins
ethereal· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
Anomander Rake
the Son of Darkness, Lord of Moon's Spawn
ethereal· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
Whiskeyjack
the sergeant the army loved
natural· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
Ganoes Paran
the Master of the Deck
ethereal· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
Tavore Paran
the Adjunct — the unwitnessed
natural· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
Karsa Orlong
the Toblakai — "witness"
natural· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
Quick Ben
the wizard of twelve souls
ethereal· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
Kalam Mekhar
the assassin the empire feared
natural· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
Fiddler
the sapper with the fiddle, sergeant of the Bonehunters
natural· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
Kruppe
the round little man who dreams with gods
ethereal· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
Itkovian
the Shield Anvil — "I am not yet done"
spiritual· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
Coltaine
the Wickan who led the Chain of Dogs
natural· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
Icarium
the Lifestealer, the kindest weapon ever made
ethereal· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
Mappo Runt
the Trell who guards his friend from himself
natural· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
Tehol & Bugg
the pauper genius and his manservant, the Elder God
ethereal· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
The T'lan Imass
the deathless army of the Ritual
natural· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
The Jaghut
the solitary winter-makers
natural· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
The Eleint
the dragons of T'iam's blood
ethereal· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
The Bridgeburners (muster roll →)
the company forged at Raraku and burned at Pale
natural· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
The Bonehunters
the army of the unwitnessed
natural· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
The Warrens
the paths of magic, a god's open veins
electrical· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
The Deck of Dragons
the living tarot of the pantheon
ethereal· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
Ascendancy
the long climb from mortal to god
spiritual· .agent · .carbon.tiff →
The Bibliography — both authors
the complete canon: Steven Erikson and Ian C. Esslemont, one shared world
Steven Erikson · The Malazan Book of the Fallen
the ten-volume core, 1999–2011
- 1 · Gardens of the Moon1999Pale, Darujhistan, and the Bridgeburners — the door into the world
- 2 · Deadhouse Gates2000the Whirlwind rises; Coltaine's Chain of Dogs crosses Seven Cities
- 3 · Memories of Ice2001the Pannion war; Capustan, Itkovian, and the fall at Coral
- 4 · House of Chains2002Karsa Orlong's saga; the Adjunct Tavore comes to Raraku
- 5 · Midnight Tides2004Lether and the Tiste Edur — Tehol and Bugg take the stage
- 6 · The Bonehunters2006Y'Ghatan's fire; the Fourteenth earns its name; war comes to Malaz City
- 7 · Reaper's Gale2007the Bonehunters invade Lether; the Errant stirs
- 8 · Toll the Hounds2008Darujhistan again — Rake, Dragnipur, and the toll; Kruppe narrates
- 9 · Dust of Dreams2009the march into the Wastelands; the Nah'ruk; cliffhanger by design
- 10 · The Crippled God2011the last war — the Spire, the Glass Desert, and the Fallen One freed
Steven Erikson · around the Fallen
the deep past, the aftermath, and the dark comedies
- The Kharkanas Trilogy2012 · 2016 · —Forge of Darkness, Fall of Light — Mother Dark's Kharkanas, long before the Fallen; the third (Walk in Shadow) long-delayed, honestly unfinished
- The Witness Trilogy2021 →The God is Not Willing (2021), No Life Forsaken (2025) — Karsa's shadow, ten years after; the third forthcoming
- The Bauchelain & Korbal Broach novellas2002 →the necromancer dark-comedies — Blood Follows, The Lees of Laughter's End, The Wurms of Blearmouth, and more
Ian C. Esslemont · Novels of the Malazan Empire
the same world, the empire's wars — 2004–2014
- 1 · Night of Knives2004one night on Malaz Isle — the night Kellanved and Dancer 'died'
- 2 · Return of the Crimson Guard2008the Guard's vow comes due as the empire convulses
- 3 · Stonewielder2010Korel, the Stormwall, and judgment
- 4 · Orb Sceptre Throne2012Darujhistan's buried tyranny wakes
- 5 · Blood and Bone2012Jacuruku — jungle, Ardata, and the Crippled God's shards
- 6 · Assail2014the last blank on the map — where all the hard stories end
Ian C. Esslemont · Path to Ascendancy
the young Kellanved and Dancer — the empire before the empire
- 1 · Dancer's Lament2016a young assassin meets a maddening little mage in Li Heng
- 2 · Deadhouse Landing2017Malaz Isle, the Deadhouse, and a throne of shadow glimpsed
- 3 · Kellanved's Reach2019the continent in pieces; the pair reach further
- 4 · Forge of the High Mage2024the young empire marches on Falar
⚔ a fan tribute — one world, two authors. The Malazan world is the joint creation of Steven Erikson and Ian C. Esslemont, co-invented in 1982 as a shared roleplaying world and written since as a single canon — Erikson's Book of the Fallen, Kharkanas, Witness, and the Bauchelain & Korbal Broach novellas; Esslemont's Novels of the Malazan Empire and Path to Ascendancy. © the authors and their publishers. This catalogue is an unofficial homage — original commentary and ACI badge-work, no copyrighted text reproduced; forthcoming and long-delayed volumes (Walk in Shadow, the third Witness book) are marked honestly. The Bridgeburners also keep their own muster roll in this biosphere.