The Bridgeburners

The Bridgeburners are a fictional elite unit of soldiers in the Malazan Empire described in the "Malazan Book of the Fallen" by Steven Erikson. The unit and its major characters play a significant role in the plot of all the books in the series to date except "Midnight Tides". Their sigil is an arched bridge of stone with a background of licking flames, which is very well-known in the Malazan Empire, along with their motto: "First in, last out". Like a modern platoon, the unit is broken into numbered squads. In addition to combat, the Bridgeburners were used as sappers, saboteurs and became masters of the use of explosive Moranth munitions.

History

The Bridgeburners were transformed in the Holy Desert Raraku, in Seven Cities, from being regular soldiers to becoming much more. The unit has had a combat role in military operations on the continents of Seven Cities, Genabackis, and Quon Tali. The unit was merged from the remnants of several units and was forged into a single force through their journey across the Holy Desert of Raraku. Their pasts were then burned away. In "Gardens of the Moon", only 35 of the original 1,400 Bridgeburners survived the sorcerous enfilade at the end of the siege of Pale. The company as a whole was given a song by the Tanno Spiritwalker Kimloc at some point between the events of "Deadhouse Gates" and "House of Chains", a song which allowed the Bridgeburners - both alive and deceased - to Ascend to godhood. They are also blessed in "Memories of Ice" by the Master of the Deck, Ganoes Paran, allowing them to become part of High House War. Paran calls upon the Bridgeburners in "The Bonehunters" to assist his goal of securing the Malazan world against The Crippled God.

Command

* Captain Ganoes Stabro Paran

9th Squad

* Sergeant Whiskeyjack
* Corporal Kalam Mekhar, a male assassin, formerly a Claw
* Quick Ben, a male mage with access to twelve warrens
* Fiddler, a male sapper (aka, Strings)
* Hedge, a male sapper
* Mallet, a male healer
* Trotts, a male Barghast soldier
* Apsalar/Sorry, a female assassin, possessed by Cotillion

7th Squad

* Sergeant Antsy, red-faced man with an enormous handlebar mustache
* Corporal Picker, female soldier who delivered Treach's torcs to Gruntle
* Blend, a female soldier who has raw but pure talent to become unnoticeable by others
* Detoran, a female soldier
* Spindle, a male mage sapper whose warren disrupts animals when he unveils it

quad unknown

* Sergeant Bucklund
* Corporal Aimless
* Toes, claimed to be a necromancer, collector of toes to keep the ghost following him off-balance.
* Shank, a Seti Ritualist
* Bluepearl, a Napan mage of Ruse
* Mulch, a soldier
* Runter, a soldier
* Story, a soldier
* Liss, a soldier
* Dasalle, a soldier
* Ash, a deserter

Ganoes Paran

Captain Ganoes Stabro Paran started off as a Lieutenant in Itko Kan and was reassigned to Adjunct Lorn after the massacre of the Nineteenth Regiment of the Itko Kanese Eighth Cavalry by the Hounds of Shadow. On Genabackis, he has a relationship with Tattersail, a cadre sorceress and reader of the Deck of Dragons. Despite the title of captain, Paran realizes that the real commander of the Bridgeburners is Whiskeyjack.

Paran was slain by Sorry while she was possessed by Cotillion, and revived by Oponn, the Twin Gods of Chance. He was then pursued by the insane animated puppet Hairlock, who was eventually captured by the Hounds of Shadow. The Hounds would have killed Paran next were it not for the intervention of Anomander Rake, who slew two Hounds. Paran tasted the blood of the dead Hounds and was drawn into the Warren within Dragnipur. Through these actions, Paran became the Master of the Deck of Dragons, the Wanderer within the Sword, and something akin to a Soletaken assuming the form of a Hound but perhaps larger than the Hounds and assumed a variety of magical abilities of which even he is uncertain of but include travel through temporarily created cards which only need be drawn (on any surface), the ability to traverse the Houses of the Azath and the power to summon gods. Paran's has since been active on a variety of continents and Warrens, working to oppose the Crippled God and support the Malazan Empire. His most notable action to date as Master of the Deck was to bless High House Chains, forcing it into the role of a one of many Houses in the pantheon rather than allowing it to exist outside of it. He became an unofficial High Fist after first impersonating another captain becoming the only officer fit for duty in the remnants of the Malazan 2nd Army decimated by disease. Elected as High Fist by the surviving officers and Fists after instigating the removal of the disease by causing the death of Poliel, Goddess of Disease, and after the Fists read reports that Dujek had written about him.

Whiskeyjack

Once the commander of the second and the third army, then demoted when Empress Laseen inverted the command structure.

In the 96th year of the Malazan Empire, during the final year of the Emperor Kellanved, Whiskeyjack speaks to the young Ganoes Paran. Paran tells Whiskeyjack that he wants to be a soldier, to Whiskeyjack's disapproval. In the book "Memories of Ice", Whiskeyjack was promoted to High Fist Dujek's second-in-command. And at the end of the book, he is slain by the High King Kallor, Caladan Brood's second in command.

He now appears in the latest edition, Toll the Hounds, going by another name as the leader of Hood's army to save the warren of darkness travelling within the sword Dragnipur from Chaos.

Kalam Mekhar

Kalam was once an assassin for the Holy Falah'dan's, a religious leader in the Seven Cities. He was recruited by the Malazan Empire's assassin sect and secret police, the Claw, who gave him command of one of their units. The recruitment is a testament to Kalam's skill as an assassin, as the Claw normally eliminates, rather than recruits its competition, and prefers to train children to be members from birth. He is black-skinned and has a northern Seven Cities accent.

Kalam's first appearance in the series is in the beginning of "Gardens of the Moon" outside the city of Pale, where he assists the remainder of the Bridgeburners in resurrecting the mage Hairlock.

Ben Adaephon Delat

The thin, black-skinned mage is a former priest of Shadow from the Seven Cities. He encountered the Bridgeburners in the Holy Desert Raraku when in the employ of one of the Seven Holy Protectors during a rebellion originating in Aren. Eleven other mages and him made up the Protector’s cadre. The eleven throughout the flight in the desert gave their souls and power to Quick Ben rather than dying. At the end of Quick Ben's flight, Whiskeyjack uncovers Quick Ben and Kalam's scheme, but instead of fighting, Quick Ben and Kalam join the Bridgeburners. This left him with at least 7 warrens to access or use (there may be more but the most ever used at once was 7 perhaps some of the mages warrens double up). One of the mages was also noted as a Soletaken and other characters in the books have suggested at times that there was a "whiff" of soletaken about him.

Apsalar

Apsalar was also known as Sorry during her possession by Cotillion, the patron of assassins.

Her story begins in the Gardens of the Moon with her possession on Itko Kan, with the goal of assassinating the Malazan Empress Laseen. Following her possession the Nineteenth Regiment of the Itko Kanese Eighth Cavalry was massacred by the Hounds of Shadow, thus bringing in the young Lieutenant Ganoes Paran.

On Genabackis, Anomander Rake confronts Cotillion/Sorry which ends with Cotillion releasing her. Wandering lost on the plains, she has forgotten her real name. She meets Crokus Younghand, a young Daru thief, who gifts her with the name Apsalar from the patron Goddess of thieves. The two fall in love. In Deadhouse Gates, Apsalar rediscovers the God's mortal memories as Dancer, right-hand man to the departed Emperor Kellanved, and all the deadly assassin's tricks that come from him. In order to protect Crokus, Apsalar decides to leave him and work for the Shadow gods. In The Bonehunters, Apsalar is depressed and upset for leaving Crokus. She is working on a list of assassinations for the Shadow gods which brings her back into the fold of the 14th Army. In the ensuing events, Crokus or Cutter as he is now called, is thought dead by Apsalar and Cotillion, which causes her to break down en route to Malaz City. In Malaz, she unleashes her shadow dancing talents, enabling her to obliterate a full gauntlet of Claw assassins (the Empire's Assassin cult) without getting a scratch, this is at the same time of Adjunct Tavore Paran, Kalam, and T'amber's retreat from Mock's Hold.

Fans of the book series have speculated that she is ascending, and will fill the empty spot of "queen" in the house of shadows.