abstract
| - Barathol Mekhar was the blacksmith and nominal head of a tiny hamlet of a mere eighteen residents living in the scatter of hovels at a crossroads of the Tapur Road and a trail leading into the Path'apur Mountains in Seven Cities, about three days' trek north was the city of Ahol Tapur. He was the only resident not born there and had lived in the hamlet for eleven years at the time of his first appearance in the Malazan books. He had not been talkative in all the years there. He had deep, almost onyx-black skin and curled, military-looking scarification on his cheeks. His hands and huge forearms displayed puckering blade-cut scars. He was known as a man of few words and shared virtually no opinions, therefore perfectly suited to his role as the hamlet's unofficial leader. Barathol possessed some armour which he kept under lock, hidden in a trunk behind some hide bolts in the smithy. A round-shield, a camailed, grille-faced helm with quilted padding as well as some chain mail. The iron-scaled gauntlets reached up to his forearm and ended in a hinged elbow-cup where they were fastened just above the joint and the underside of the sleeves held a single iron-black notched bar which stretched from wrist to cup. The trunk also contained a heavy double-bladed axe. Its haft was encased in strips of iron with a looping chain at the weighted pommel. To carry the axe in a fight, Barathol slipped his right hand through the chain loop and twisted it twice before grapping the haft. The blades of the axe were made of Aren steel and the honed edges gleamed silver. From the top of the axe, a three-pronged punch-spike jutted out, edged like a crossbow quarrel. He was of the same height as L'oric. He belonged to the tribe of Mekhar which had lived west of Aren in Seven Cities. Barathol seemed to be the self-appointed protector of Chaur.
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