History
The history discussed in the novels to date extends back for over 300,000 years and has not been fully revealed. Erikson has stated that he has kept the history of his world purposefully ambiguous.
At the beginning of the series, the reader is uninformed about the nature of the Malazan world. The history of the world is deeply tied to the many intelligent humanoid races that populate the world. By employing the viewpoints of extremely long-lived characters, and through a few scenes from the ancient past, Steven Erikson reveals details of the world, its history, and its inhabitants.
Read more about this topic: Malazan Book Of The Fallen
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The greatest horrors in the history of mankind are not due to the ambition of the Napoleons or the vengeance of the Agamemnons, but to the doctrinaire philosophers. The theories of the sentimentalist Rousseau inspired the integrity of the passionless Robespierre. The cold-blooded calculations of Karl Marx led to the judicial and business-like operations of the Cheka.”
—Aleister Crowley (1875–1947)
“All history is a record of the power of minorities, and of minorities of one.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I feel as tall as you.”
—Ellis Meredith, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 14, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)