Pannion Domin

Lore & Background

The Pannion Domin was an army composed largely of starving peasants driven into a frenzy of destruction and cannibalism. They were led by the Pannion Seer, who claimed to be the prophet of a new religion. The Seer's origins were revealed to stem from thousands of years of imprisonment in a barrow created by Kilava, a T'lan Imass, to imprison him alone—his human sister was killed, not imprisoned. The Seer was not a direct vessel of the Crippled God, though the Domin's true backing came from the Crippled God, with the Seer serving as their proxy until his sanity broke under the weight of his past trauma. The Ritual of Tellann is unrelated to their imprisonment. The K'Chain Che'Malle Matron was a separate entity, not imprisoned in the barrow with him; the Matron was discovered separately in the region of the Pannion Domin. The Seer used the Matron's K'Chain soldiers to torture prisoners like Toc the Younger, not the Matron herself.

In Their Own Story

The Pannion army besieged Capustan, where the Grey Swords defended against overwhelming numbers before turning to other gods after Fener was no more. Itkovian confronted the cannibal leader Anaster, causing him to flee in terror. After the White Face Barghast and Bridgeburners arrived, they drove the Domin out of the burning city into the path of the allied army. The Pannion forces were broken when Rake took a dragon-like form to demoralize them. Later, Toc the Younger was captured and tortured by the Seer in Coral using the K'Chain Che'Malle Matron. In the final battle at Coral, Quick Ben trapped the Seer as the keep collapsed, leading to his capture and eventual cooperation to use ice from his warren to slow the Crippled God's poisoning of the warrens.

Reader's Guide

The Pannion Domin operates on Genabackis as a new power emerging from the south. Their primary tactic involves mobilizing starving peasants into a cannibalistic frenzy to overwhelm defenses, as seen at Capustan where they defeated the Grey Swords before being repelled by allied forces. The leadership centers on the Pannion Seer, who utilizes K'Chain Che'Malle soldiers generated by a freed Matron from an ancient rift. To counter this threat, one must align with the Malazan 5th Army under Dujek Onearm and Whiskeyjack, Anomander Rake's Children of Darkness, and Caladan Brood's army. The decisive engagement occurs at Coral, where the Seer can be trapped through warren manipulation by a mage like Quick Ben, and his stronghold crushed by Moon's Spawn.

Did You Know?

• The Pannion Seer was kept in a barrow for thousands of years alongside his sister by Kilava to imprison them, not to protect them from the Ritual of Tellann.
• The Domin's army included starving peasants stirred into a frenzy of destruction and cannibalism.
• Anomander Rake took on a dragon-like form during the final battle at Coral, not at Capustan.
• The Seer used K'Chain Che'Malle soldiers, not the Matron herself, to torture Toc the Younger.