You always did hide behind your anger, Ganth. When you couldn't have what you wanted, you tried to tear down everything, at whatever cost to anyone else. You were hurt, by your brother, by your father, by life, so you hurt others.
”
– Trishien, The Sea of Time, "Chapter VIII: Pounding on the Door", II
Ganth Gray Lord was Highlord of the Kencyrath before his defeat in the White Hills, after which he renounced house and titles and went into exile with those still loyal to him. He settled in a fortress known only as The Keep, closer to The Barrier and Perimal Darkling than any other Kencyr holding.
Ganth and Trishien were close when they were young, but Gerraint thought the Jaran were not good breeding stock.[8]
Ganth was a randon cadet at Tentir for a short time, the same year Greshan was there (the Knorth lordan traditionally attends Tentir). At the college, Greshan and his friend Roane called upon Ganth one night, and it ended with Roane's death. After that, Ganth left Tentir. He never became a randon.[9]
Roane's death caused friction between the Knorth and Randir. Gerraint tried to make a match between Ganth and Rawneth, to heal things between their houses,[10] though that didn't happen.
The following year Greshan was killed. Gerraint made a deal with Gerridon and tried to restore him, but it ended in his death too. That night, Ganth saw Jamethiel Dream-Weaver.
With his father and brother dead, Ganth became Highlord.[11] He ruled for 10 years. He never took a consort, already wasting away over the Dream Weaver.[12]
On the day of the Knorth Massacre, Ganth was out hunting a rathorn.[12] He came home to find them all dead, and Tieri still in hiding. He declared that the Seven Kings of the Central Lands had sent the assassins, and marched the Northern Host down to the White Hills, where the Battle of the White Hills took place. After the battle, he was partly stripped of his power by the Seven Kings, and partly threw it down himself. Leaving his very name behind in the Riverland, Ganth went into exile.[13][14]
The Oath-breakers stayed with the Host when he went into exile. Those-Who-Returned went with him, but he drove them back in the passes of the Ebonbane. The Exiles he let stay, and they followed him all the way to North Kenshold, in the Haunted Lands, and there they stayed.
There, the Dream-weaver came to him, and he was happy for a short time. She bore him twins; the girl was named Jamethiel after her mother, but was generally called Jame, while the boy was named Torisen, and called Tori.
The Dream-weaver leaving ruined him. Furious and devastated, he kept going into the Haunted Lands, trying to get her back.
Around this same time, he took a Kendar woman from his garrison as his mistress. She, with Ishtier, ran away. They went to Tai-tastigon, and there she married Abbotir, and bore Bane, Ganth's son who she was pregnant with at the time.[15]
When Jame and Tori were 7, Jame's Arrin-thari claws emerged through her fingertips. He drove her out of the Keep, and she crossed over the Barrier.
Years later, when Tori was 15, he left too, running away and crossing back over the Ebonbane.
The Keep finally fell when Gerridon's forces fell upon it.
Shanir[]
Like all lords and matriarchs, Ganth was Shanir with the power to bind Kencyr to him. Because of the way Greshan had used his abilities as a blood-binder to rape Ganth when he was young, Ganth came to hate, fear, and violently deny his own Shanir traits, though he was a blood-binder and berserker himself.
References[]
↑God Stalk, "Appendix III: The Kencyrath" — "This debate came to a head when Ganth of Knorth was invested as Highlord."
↑To Ride a Rathorn, "Chapter X: Battles Old and New", I — "A hesitant footstep on the threshold and there he stood, flanked by two guards, the boy Ganth Grayling with sick terror on his face."
↑ 3.03.1To Ride a Rathorn, "Chapter XIII: Blood and Ivory", IV — " 'Dear little Gangoid. Sweet little Gangrene.' "
↑To Ride a Rathorn, "Chapter XXII: Casting the Stones", V — " 'What have you brought me, Gander?' "
↑To Ride a Rathorn, "Chapter XXII: Casting the Stones", V — " 'Gangray, get out.' "
↑Blood and Ivory: A Tapestry, "Among the Dead" — "Anar shivered, remembering the Highlord's rage as he turned from his grandmother Kinzi's pyre, his berserker madness that had infected them all."
↑Blood and Ivory: A Tapestry, "Hearts of Woven Shadow" — "the long-desired, half-despaired of heir to a house desperately short on sons. Five years later, Ganth had come as such a surprise that Telarien had nearly died giving birth to him. She had never been well again."
↑Bound in Blood, "Chapter VIII: Glass of a Different Color", II — " 'when we were both young, I was fond of your father and he of me. Under other circumstances, you might have been our son.' […] 'What happened?' […] 'Your grandfather considered me to be of unsound breeding stock.' "
↑To Ride a Rathorn, "Chapter VII: In the Bear's Den", I — " 'his brief career at Tentir. […] When the randon broke in, Roane was dead, Greshan was fouling himself in a corner, and Roane's servant was floundering around on fire. Also, for some reason, Ganth was stark naked. […] Ganth put on some clothes and walked out of Tentir without a word to anyone. That was the end of him as a randon.' "
↑Blood and Ivory: A Tapestry, "Hearts of Woven Shadow" — " 'You s-sent me to Wilden to make a contract with "that woman," Lord Randir's daughter, to heal the breach between our houses.' "
↑Seeker's Mask, "Part VIII: Kithorn" — " 'Did you know how our father came to power? His older brother, the Knorth Lordan, was killed in training at Tentir.' "
↑ 12.012.1Blood and Ivory: A Tapestry, "Lost Knots"
↑God Stalk, Book II: Crown of Nights, "Chapter 8: Voices of the Past" — " 'When the Kencyr lords, his own allies, let the Seven Kings strip him of power, he threw down his name as well, in a sense leaving it and his shame with them in the Riverland.' "
↑The Sea of Time, "Chapter V: An Unexpected Guest", I — "when his father had marched out the Northern Host to disastrous battle in the White Hills […] Then he had thrown down the Highlord’s collar in petulant despair and gone away, leaving them to fend for themselves in a world echoing hollowly with his departure. […] Ganth hadn’t then known Tori’s mother […] yet he had seemed drawn to her across the Ebonbane, into the Haunted Lands. There she had come to him and he had been happy, for a while. Her departure had destroyed him."
↑God Stalk, Book II: Crown of Nights, "Chapter 9: A Matter of Honor" — " 'The other, once mistress to the old lord himself, was taken to wife by a high official of the Thieves' Guild. What no one knew then, or has guessed to this day, is that she crossed his threshold already quick with child.' "
