Gardens of the Moon

“They’ll put a sword in your hand, they’ll give you a fine horse, and they’ll send you across the sea. But a shadow will embrace your soul. Now, listen! Bury this deep! Rigga will preserve you because we are linked, you and I.”

This is a piece of prophecy, a recurring motif in the novel. Here, Rigga the Seer is divining the future of the girl who will soon become Sorry, possessed by Cotillion. Later, the Bridgeburners’ healer surmises that some force was protecting Sorry’s spirit from the full memory of her possession to protect her innocence. Rigga is likely that protective force.

“I am anathema to sorcery. That means, Lieutenant, that, even though I'm not a practitioner, I have a relationship with magic. Of sorts. We know each other, if you will. I know the patterns of sorcery and I know the patterns of the minds that use it.”

Adjunct Lorn speaks with Paran about her Otataral sword and the effects it has had on her. Adjunct Lorn is a foil to the sorceress Tattersail; where Tattersail is defined by magic, Adjunct Lorn is defined by her magic-negating abilities. As is often the case with character foils, the two understand each other well and define each other in opposition.

“Always an even trade, Sorceress.”

This line is spoken by a member of the army to Tattersail. It is a line that Tattersail has heard often from the soldiers with whom she serves. It reflects the loyalty and affection that many of the soldiers have for each other, the kind of affection that the Bridgeburners share. This personal affection and loyalty will prove to be stronger than loyalty to the empire for many characters in the novel, including Tattersail.

“Mane of Chaos. Anomander Rake. Lord of the black-skinned Tiste Andii, who has looked down on a hundred thousand winters, who has tasted the blood of dragons, who leads the last of his kind, seated in the Throne of Sorrow and a kingdom tragic and fey—a kingdom with no land to call its own.”

This passage is a prime example of the dense world-building that Erikson accomplishes in Gardens of the Moon. In this introduction to Anomander Rake, lord of Moon’s Spawn, the reader discovers his ancientness and that the non-human race of Tiste Andii is dying out.

“The Warrens of Magic dwelt in the beyond. Find the gate and nudge it open a crack. What leaks out is yours to shape…Open yourself to the Warren that comes to you—that finds you. Draw forth its power—as much as your body and soul are capable of containing—but remember, when the body fails, the gate closes.”

Tattersail reflects on the nature of Warrens and how she accesses her power. This is a crucial moment of world-building, helping to establish the reader’s understanding of the magic forces in Erikson’s fictional setting. The relationship between an individual’s body and their ability to wield magic also highlights the intimate connection magic users have to their powers; throughout the novel, Warrens are a characterization device for mages and magic users that reveal details about their motivations and backgrounds.

“Dujek’s soldiers will follow him…anywhere. And that goes for the Fifth and Sixth armies too. What’s been gathered here is a storm waiting to break.”

The imperial army’s loyalty to Dujek rather than to Empress Laseen develops the theme of Rebellion Against Conquest. At the conclusion of the novel, the Bridgeburners and others will choose to follow Dujek into open rebellion, events that later novels in the series describe. The metaphor of “a storm waiting to break” illustrates the inevitability of rebellion.

“What frightened Paran most, these days, was that he had grown used to being used. He’d been someone else so many times that he saw a thousand faces, heard a thousand voices, all at war with his own.”

The motif of masking one’s true identity recurs throughout Gardens of the Moon; here, Paran reflects on feeling detached from himself while he is in service of the empire and wielding a token of Oponn. Paran’s character arc leads him to feel more honest and in touch with himself once he leaves Pale and decides to throw his weight in with the Bridgeburners.

“Yes, as certain as an ever-spinning coin—but who spoke of coins? Kruppe proclaims his innocence!”

Kruppe’s diction is a key element in his characterization; he often speaks in indirect sentences and refers to himself in the third person. This moment of prophecy occurs in one of Kruppe’s dreams when he realizes that Oponn’s coin will soon fall into Crokus’s hand. The ever-spinning coin symbolizes the ever-changing nature of luck.

“Had the city’s wizards remained, the assault would have been repelled. Tayschrenn, it seemed, was preoccupied with…other imperatives. He’d saturated his position—a hilltop—with defensive wards. Then he unleashed demons not against me but against some of his companions. That baffled me, but rather than allow such conjurings to wander at will, I expelled vital power destroying them.”

Anomander Rake, in describing the battle of Pale to Baruk, confirms Tayschrenn’s betrayal. Up until this point, Tayschrenn’s betrayal during battle had been conjecture. This betrayal is a motivating factor in the Bridgeburners’ Rebellion Against Conquest and is the primary motivator for Tattersail.

“Oponn had a way of making ruins of the most finely wrought plans. Baruk despised that prospect of chance operating in his affairs. He could no longer rely on his ability to predict, to prepare contingencies, to work out every possibility and seek out the one best suited to his desires. As the Coin spun, thus the city.”

The symbol of Oponn’s coin is prevalent throughout the novel, representing luck or fate and its fickle nature. Baruk, a careful planner who understands the stakes of the conflict for Darujhistan, is unnerved to think that Oponn, god of chance, is active in the city. The contrast between Baruk’s organizational prowess and the fickle nature of luck underscores the theme of Fate Versus Free Will.

“There are worms within your empire’s flesh. But such degradation is natural in all bodies. Your people’s infection is not yet fatal. It can be scoured clean.”

In a gesture of loyalty and respect for both Dujek and Whiskeyjack, a Morath solider speaks with Whiskeyjack about the injustices of imperial rule. This foreshadows the Moranths’ eventual support of Dujek’s Rebellion Against Conquest. The soldier’s metaphor of a “natural” disease that “can be scoured clean” furthers the novel’s exploration of rebellion as an inevitable, cyclical condition.

“There was something about her that seemed to disregard her physical mundanity, overwhelmed it, in fact, so that the captain found himself responding in ways that surprised him. It was, he saw, a friendly face, and he couldn’t recall the last time he’d experienced such a thing.”

Paran is drawn to Tattersail’s kindness and her spirit. The two have a brief romance before Tattersail departs Pale. Paran’s desire for revenge after Tattersail’s death is important in his character growth, motivating him to sever ties with the empire and to seek Adjunct Lorn’s death.

“[S]he believes Lorn’s plan includes killing Whiskeyjack and his squad. I do not agree. My role in the mission was to keep an eye on one member of the sergeant’s squad, and that person was to be the only one to die. She gave me the command after three years of service to her—it's a reward, and I can’t believe she would take it from me.”

In Chapter 10, Paran has yet to leave Pale and still doubts what Tattersail suspects about Adjunct Lorn’s duplicity. Paran holds on to a lingering trustfulness, which will vanish after Tattersail’s death. His trust in Lorn relies on his conviction that she would not revoke his well-earned reward, reflecting a naïve belief Lorn (and the empire she represents) is governed by fairness.

“One whose blood was poisoned by the ambition to rule over others. This Jaghut Tyrant enslaved the land around it—all living things—for close to three thousand years.”

One of the novel’s primary antagonists, the Jaghut Tyrant is characterized by an insatiable thirst to control and enslave. The novel reaches its climax when the Jaghut is defeated and his magic contained, thus eliminating the risk of conquest that he poses. The description of the Jaghut Tyrant as “poisoned” by ambition suggests that the desire for empire and control is not natural or innate.

“‘Convergence,’ Tool said. ‘Power ever draws other power. It is not a complicated thought, yet it escaped us, the Imass […] as it escapes their children.’”

“Power draws power” is a repeated refrain throughout Gardens of the Moon. The “children” whom Tool refers to in this passage are humankind. Here, Tool discusses the cyclical nature of history with Adjunct Lorn, reinforcing the theme of The Positive and Negative Aspects of the Human Condition.

“Disturbing indeed, proclaims Kruppe. Are these visions of instinct, then, unfurled in this dream for a purpose? Kruppe knows not, and would return to his warm bed this instant, were the choice his.”

Kruppe is an archetypal jester: He is a comical character who speaks in circles as if attempting to distract others from noticing his intelligence. Kruppe’s insights, like this one, are often buried in the winding sentences that characterize his dialogue.

“[T]he Tellann Warren of the Immas of our time has birthed a child in a confluence of sorceries. Its soul wanders lost. Its flesh is an abomination. A shifting must take place.”

This wandering soul is Tattersail, who occupied Nightchill’s corpse for a time after dying and leaving her own body. Tattersail’s rebirth is a “soul shifting;” she is reborn as a creature of magic in a little girl’s body. This is the final act in her character arc until the next novel in the series.

“Designs? Perpetuating a status quo defined by aversion to tyranny. Or so it’s said. Influence? Far-reaching; even if one discounts nine out of ten rumors associated with the Eel, his or her agents must number in the hundreds. All devoted to protecting Darujhistan.”

In this passage, Baruk is describing what he knows about the mysterious Eel (who is, in fact, Kruppe). This “aversion to tyranny” is a strong motivator for the Phoenix Inn crew as well as the Bridgeburners in their Rebellion Against Tyranny.

“One of the Elder Peoples was believed to have been entombed among the hills, an individual of great wealth and power, that was the extent of his knowledge. But it had been a rumor with many consequences. If not for the thousands of shafts sunk into the earth the caverns of gas would never have been found.”

Darujhistan’s history is closely associated with the Jaghut Tyrant. People coming to search for his barrow were the original founders of the city. In keeping with the novel’s exploration of Fate Versus Free Will, this origin story emphasizes the positive role that chance can play in history. 

“I know why we fear this Jaghut Tyrant. Because he became human, he became like us, he enslaved, he destroyed, and he did it better than we could.”

Here, Adjunct Lorn reflects that the Jaghut exhibits human-like qualities when he seeks to dominate, positing that the fear of the Jaghut stems from a desire to destroy and enslave. Lorn’s thoughts reveal her character’s compliant attitude toward empire and conquest; while she suggests that humans innately seek domination, characters like the Bridgeburners and the Phoenix Inn crew think differently.

“The T’lan Imass worked in the span of millennia, their purpose was their own. Yet their endless war had become her endless war. Laseen’s Empire was a shadow of their First Empire. The difference lay in that the Imass conducted genocide against another species. Malaz killed its own. Humanity had not climbed up since the dark age of the Imass: it had spiraled down.”

Near the end of her life, Adjunct Lorn experiences some level of disenchantment with the empire that she has served so faithfully, doubting Empress Laseen’s cruel methods of conquest and domination. Her reflections complicate the theme of Rebellion Against Conquest by revealing that even an obedient auxiliary of the Empress can be cynical about the nature of empire.

“Some things went beyond a single man’s life, and maybe justice existed outside the minds of humanity, beyond even the hungry eyes of gods and goddesses, a thing shining pure and final.”

Paran wonders if justice, or morality in general, exists as a truth separate from humanity’s flawed implementation of it. This question is one that the novel contends with throughout the narrative. The theme of Rebellion Against Conquest asserts that justice and good do exist but must be fought for.

“She’d seen them all before, those faces. She knew them all, knew the sound of their voices, sounds mired in human emotions, sounds clear and pure with thought, and sounds wavering in that chasm between the two. Is this, she wondered, my legacy? And one day I’ll be just one more of those faces, frozen in death and wonder.”

When Darujhistan’s streets are alive with holiday celebrations, Adjunct Lorn watches the crowd, feeling alienated from their display of emotion and insignificant in her solitude. This moment is an important development in her tragic character arc; shortly before her death, she realizes that she has built a life that she no longer believes in.