Clarification of the Tlan Imass

[Daemon]

Anyone please explain what is the biology of the Tlan Imass?

1) Are they Alive or Undead?
2) Are they eat or drink?
3) Is there blood flows in their veins?
4) Can they be killed by melee attacks?
5) They breed but how?
6) If they have living organisms why are they look rotten and dead?

your time has started

 

[nixie]

The T'lan Imass are undead, I don't think they eat
Rane will likely be able to answer the rest of your questions

 

[Mulch]

The T'lan Imass were a type of tribal neandertal people who eventually evolved into humans. They were originally subjected to the slavery of the Jaghuts before they started a war with them.

They realised that they could not win a war due to their short lives and the jaghuts immortal ones so they bound themselves into a ritual which made them undead and more powerful and able to track the jaghut over thousands of years.

They do not drink or eat. There is no blood flowing in their veins, they don't breed, and they can't be killed unless by (I think it's GOTM that tool says this) having their heads chucked into the sea. They can also turn themselves to dust and use it as a means of travel. As for melee attacks I think they can be disabled but not killed, ie you can chop off their limbs.

 

[Rane Longfox]

Anyone please explain what is the biology of the Tlan Imass?

1) Are they Alive or Undead?
2) Are they eat or drink?
3) Is there blood flows in their veins?
4) Can they be killed by melee attacks?
5) They breed but how?
6) If they have living organisms why are they look rotten and dead?

Well thank you for your confidence nixie I shall try...

1) T'lan Imass are Undead creatures. Originally, they were just another race, the "Imass". They were subjected in their millions to the rule of the Jaghut, and so decided to perform a ritual to make themselves undead, so they could pursue their aim of destroying the Jaghut race.

2) I assume you mean "Do they eat or drink?" and the simple answer is no. They need no nutrition, as they are simply a sack of bones, held together by the ritual that made them undead.

3) Again... no.

4) They can't be "killed" as such, because the ritual still holds them together. Once their body has been completely destroyed, however, they are generally just a head rolling around doing nothing The other T'lan Imass then simply put the head in a tree or something, so they have a nice view for the rest of eternity

5) They don't. Obviously before the ritual they were just a normal society, but once they were undead, there was no need for them to breed, and it probably wouldn't work anyway

6) Again, they aren't "living", as such. They're just undead, like zombies.



That said, after Memories of Ice, this all changes...

 

[bendoran]

***SPOILER***

plus in midnight tides udinaas meets imass in the dreamworld of tellann were the reside in a sort of memory. Also when onrack loses an arm he feels the memory of the arm in tellann.

a point of fact though in the prologue of MOI they are into something like the twenty seventh war against the jahgut and they still havent performed the ritual. It is only when they are faced with traversing the icefields that they perform the ritual as they know as dust they can travel without need for warmth or food etc. The other races decended from Imass becuase they arrived to late to join in.

 

[Jason_Taverner]

argh don't say too much Rune and bendoran I am on page 750 in MOI so far pretty awesome didn't think deadhouse gates could be topped but this looks like its going to

 

[Jason_Taverner]

don't worry about it I stopped reading your post

 

[Rahl Windsong]

The only part that bothered me at all was when say one of them gets hacked into pieces, why then can't they still turn to dust and travel to other locations? After all they would have no need of limbs in dust form would they?

Rahl

 

[williamjm]

The only part that bothered me at all was when say one of them gets hacked into pieces, why then can't they still turn to dust and travel to other locations? After all they would have no need of limbs in dust form would they?

That's a good point, I can't see any good reason why they can't. Of course, they would still be in pieces so it might be a bit pointless moving around too much.

 

[Rahl Windsong]

Also if Erikson had chosen it would have been very easy to just have it so if they were hacked up then turning to dust reassembles them. However obviously that would make them even much more a "heavywieght" then they already are.

Rahl

 

[Rane Longfox]

Once they are damaged beyond a certain point, their ability to use the Tellan warren deserts them, and all that's left is the power of the ritual holding their soul to their body. This is explained somewhere in Memories of Ice, I think.

 

[Rosemary]

Thank you Cal
Have been wondering about that for a while now. Well that is one puzzle solved at least

 

[Rahl Windsong]

Once they are damaged beyond a certain point, their ability to use the Tellan warren deserts them, and all that's left is the power of the ritual holding their soul to their body. This is explained somewhere in Memories of Ice, I think.

Aye thanks for that, I need to get my books back from my brother so I can read that part again.

Rahl

 

[Skaffen-Amtiskaw]

When they sustain a critical amount of damage they become severed from the Ritual and lose many of their powers (mental communication, falling to dust). They just become really broken down skeletons. This is what happens to Onrack in HoC, he sustains too much damage while defending Trull.

But his soul is still attached to his body, and the only known way to remove the link is to throw the Imass body in water so that it dissolves entirely.