Location from Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson
Northern continent of free cities, ancient T'lan Imass wastelands, and Malazan invasion routes — a land where every hill conceals a barrow and every city has been sacked at least twice.
Genabackis is a continent defined by contested ground. The Malazan Empire invaded from the south, grinding through free cities one siege at a time — Pale fell, Genabaris capitulated, and the Bridgeburners bled across every battlefield in between. But the Empire is only the latest power to claim ownership of land that refuses to stay claimed. T'lan Imass hunting grounds underlie the northern wastes, their ritual sites now barely-visible depressions in the permafrost. Jaghut towers stand in remote valleys, ice still radiating from their foundations millennia after their builders were hunted to extinction. The free cities — Darujhistan, Pale, Capustan, Saltoan, Elingarth — resist annexation through wealth, guile, and the sheer impracticality of holding a continent where every local power has a thousand years of grievance to draw upon. The Pannion Domin devoured the south in a tide of religious cannibalism before shattering against an unlikely alliance of Malazan soldiers, Tiste Andii, and Barghast warlords. Beneath the political surface, older forces move: Azath Houses root in city foundations, Elder Gods stir in deep lakes, and the Warrens bleed through where reality has worn thin from overuse.
A vast landmass of temperate forests, rolling plains scarred by glacial retreat, and mountain ranges still echoing with Jaghut ice. Cities cluster along trade roads that follow paths worn by civilizations predating human memory. The soil is dark with old ash — volcanic, funereal, or both. Rivers cut through bedrock exposing strata of former cities. The horizon carries a weight, as though the sky itself remembers what has marched beneath it.
Also known as: Genabackis