Location from Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson
The island where Kellanved and Dancer began their conquest — a backwater harbor town that accidentally birthed the most powerful empire in the world.
Malaz Island is where it all started. Kellanved — a small, unremarkable man with a genius for strategy and a frightening willingness to use any means necessary — seized Mock's Hold from the pirate Mock and began building an empire from a harbor town that had no business producing conquerors. Dancer, his assassin partner, eliminated obstacles with surgical precision while Kellanved schemed. The island's true significance is the Deadhouse — an Azath House that Kellanved and Dancer eventually entered, dying to the mortal world and ascending as Shadowthrone and the Rope. The island that birthed the Empire also birthed the gods who would eventually help dismantle it.
A small, storm-battered island with a single harbor town climbing the slope toward Mock's Hold at the summit. The streets are narrow, the buildings weathered by salt air, and the harbor is perpetually busy with fishing boats and imperial vessels. The Deadhouse sits at the edge of town — an Azath House surrounded by a garden of tangled roots and an aura of wrongness that locals have learned to walk around without looking at.
Also known as: Malaz Island, Malaz Isle