Numerous role-playing games influenced
Steven Erikson as he wrote The Malazan Book of the Fallen. Assassins,
bards and paladins (“Shield Anvils” in
Erikson’s stories) came directly from Dungeons & Dragons. Rat
catchers, obviously, were taken right out of Warhammer. But the most
influential game, in my opinion, was Empire of the Petal Throne. Here’s
why.
Non-Caucasians make up half of the entire Malazan world,
which is unheard of in any sword-and-sorcery fiction except for Professor Barker’s own books. Moorcock’s Young Kingdoms are rather white. Fritz Leiber’s
Nehwon is mostly white. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth is overwhelmingly white (see Where
is Middle-Earth in the archives below for an in-depth
Lily White explanation). Robert E. Howard’s Hyborian
Age is the most “ethnic” setting, ex aequo with the Malazan world – but
nothing comes close to Tekumel where there are simply no white people.
The Malazan world has two Caucasian continents, namely Genabackis and Lether,
and two Non-Caucasian continents. Quon Tali has Black
people (the Dal Honese) as well as “Native American” people (the Wickans). The
Seven Cities continent has Semitic people, but no Hindus,
alas. Emperor Kellanved himself is actually a
Dal Honese magic-user, and his greatest champion, the First Sword of Empire, is
also Dal Honese. And the legendary Fist / General Coltaine (who ascends to
quasi-godhood) is a Wickan warleader of the Crow clan.
Many heroes and heroines of The Malazan
Book of the Fallen are non-whites, including the most badass assassin
you’ve ever seen, and the boldest / craziest
magic-user. So that’s cool.
Vast Underworlds can be found beneath cities and mountain
ranges, none of these more extensive than the
multi-layered ruined city complex underneath Y’Ghatan.
The concept of Ditlána is there all right; Y’Ghatan has been levelled
and then rebuilt several times, and all the different iterations
of that city lay buried / compacted under the current city, just like it is
with most major Tsolyani cities.
Erikson even does the Underworld one better.
Case in point: if a city is really torn down and levelled and reconstructed
several times over, those subterranean layers ought to be flattened and
compacted like piles of old cars in a junkyard, and you shouldn’t be able to
ever find a hallway in which you can stand upright. That’s exactly how Erikson depicted
the Y’Ghatan Underworld: it’s a literal dungeon crawl. Sometimes, all
one guy can see is the naked soles of the feet of the guy crawling in front of
him. If the first guy comes face-to-face with a giant spider, the guy behind can’t
provide any assistance – if he happens to be a cleric, maybe he can touch the
sole of a foot and cast cure light wounds...
Remnants of Technology are scattered all across the
planet, and they appear to be especially easy to find on the continent of
Lether. These mysterious artefacts are quite similar to the long-lost
technology of Tekumel before the béthorm.
Erikson’s “Indifferent God” is rather
similar to the Tsolyani goddess Dra the
Uncaring. The names of Karsa and Hársan are almost identical. The Malazan Warrens
mirror Tekumel’s Nexus Points – they look absolutely identical when
they’re opened by a mage, and the various ways they can be used are pretty much
the same.
Erikson’s K’Chain Che’Malle are not an
“allied race” at first, but seem to be a mix between Shén and Hlüss. The
K’Chain Che’Malle have “Matrons” while the Hlüss have “great mothers”. Both
Shén and K’Chain Che’Malle K’ell Hunters are powerful warriors. Say it out
loud: Shén and K’Chain – the pronunciation is
identical.
Later in the Malazan cycle, those K’Chain
Che’Malle do finally become some sort of an allied race, like the Shén:
“It is the new way our mother foresaw.
The path of our rebirth.
“Humans, welcome us. The K’Chain Che’Malle
have returned to the world.”
Even the narrative techniques in the books
(the Tekumel novels) appear to be the same. In one book you are with the
Tsolyani Twenty-First Imperial Medium Infantry (or with Onearm’s Host), and then
comes the next chapter: you’re with the enemy now – the people of Yan Kor (or
Darujhistan). You keep going back and forth between the two... and of course
you grow attached to both sides of the conflict!
Aridani women are present throughout
the Tekumel novels and The Malazan Book of the Fallen alike: strong, independent
females who choose to be “liberated” from their traditional “clan duties”. Back
in 1984, this was almost unheard of in fantasy / sci-fi literature – the
Professor was a trailblazer, and certainly scored major points.
Here are a few other stunning symmetries
between Barker’s and Erikson’s worlds:
The
“First Palace”
|
The
“First Throne” / “First Empire”
|
Dharu (a
city)
|
Daru (a
people)
|
Jakalla
(a city)
|
Jakatakan
(Malaz Island)
|
Horusel
(a soldier / Tirrikamu)
|
Hurlochel
(a soldier / outrider)
|
Griggatsétsa is a “Mad King”, while Rhulad,
the Mad Emperor of the Tiste Edur, is quite literally a Man of Gold – a
resurrected corpse covered in hundreds of gold coins...
And Steven Erikson isn’t the only one, by
the way. Looking at the early years of TSR is quite fascinating in that regard:
it is a huge whirlpool of creativity. Take the “Eyes”, for example. Each of
them has one effect – slowing down enemies, petrifying foes, raising infernal
barriers, or disintegrating. Those awesome “Eyes” first appeared in the
original Empire of the Petal Throne (1975). But then you have the
equally awesome beholder, first introduced in the Greyhawk supplement of
1975. And what’s a beholder exactly, if not a living, floating collection of
eleven “eyes”, each one with its unique power – slow, flesh to stone,
disintegrate, etc? So, which of those two awesome things inspired the
other? They both appeared at the same time and in the same nascent company;
there must be a link.
The four-legged, four-armed ahoggyá was also
featured in 1975’s Empire of the Petal Throne, while the xorn (three-legged
and three-armed) first came out in 1977’s Monster Manual. This
one is much easier to call.
You also have a dlaqó / carrion crawler symmetry;
you have the biridlú / lurker above; you have the teqeqmu / grell... and the
list could probably go on. Professor Barker, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson
borrowed freely from each other: that’s how this hobby was born and became such
a huge phenomenon. A few more lawyers, and nothing at all would have ever happened.
Imagine that.
Today’s Sci-fi and Fantasy authors belong to
that generation: like Erikson, they began playing D&D or EPT as teenagers,
round ’75 or ’76. It figures.