Ratcatchers
Ratcatchers are specialised squads deployed in Ilmar during the Palleseen occupation for the singular purpose of capturing gods and magical spirits so that their supernatural power can be extracted and harvested, presumably for use in tablethi. They operate under the direct authority of the new Perfector, a Palleseen officer dispatched to Ilmar expressly to strip the city of its magical resources, and they function as the operational arm of a broader campaign of institutional dismantling that also saw raids on the Guildhall and the Armigers. In the narrow window of the narrative, the Ratcatchers represent the occupying power's most intimate instrument of spiritual control: a methodical, city-wide sweep that reduces living deities to raw material.
Their presence is felt in the series primarily through the figure of Jack, a former shrine-keeper who spent time smuggling gods out of Ilmar one box at a time, racing the squads block by block before they could seal a neighbourhood. His eventual capture-and his reprieve from hanging, earned only because the ongoing war made his healing skills more valuable than his criminal sentence-illustrates the Ratcatchers' role as both a mechanism of spiritual extraction and a feeder of human resources into the military machine that demanded them. They are, in effect, the reason a shrine-keeper became a smuggler, and the reason a smuggler became a soldier.
The Group
Composition
The books identify the Ratcatchers only as "special squads" rather than a named corps with a fixed roster, rank structure, or internal hierarchy. What can be said of their shape is that they deploy in multiple units simultaneously, advancing through Ilmar in a coordinated, block-by-block progression, which implies a sizeable force and a centralised command capable of synchronising movement across a whole city. That command rests with the new Perfector, who is both their operational superior and the political figure who ordered the wider campaign of which the Ratcatchers are one component alongside the Guildhall and Armigers raids. No individual squad leader, rank titles, or recruitment criteria are named.
Purpose & Method
The Ratcatchers exist to capture gods and magical spirits alive, after which their power is harvested-presumably converted into usable form through tablethi. Their method is methodical and sequential: they advance through the city neighbourhood by neighbourhood, sealing and clearing each area before moving on. This predictable progression is their operational signature and, as Jack observes, their exploitable weakness: a smuggler who knows the schedule can stay one step ahead by relocating captive deities before the squad reaches a given block. Those caught by the Ratcatchers face execution by hanging, though the books record one case in which wartime need for healers commuted that sentence to military conscription.
Standing
The Ratcatchers answer to the new Perfector, a Palleseen officer attached to Correct Erudition, who was sent to Ilmar specifically to harvest magic. Their authority is therefore both military and institutional: they are an occupation-force instrument, licensed to raid, seize, and capture within the occupied city. The same authority that deploys them also directed raids on the Guildhall and the Armigers, placing the Ratcatchers inside a single campaign to dismantle every organised source of power-spiritual, mercantile, and martial-remaining in Ilmar. Their standing against other powers is thus purely adversarial: they are the extractive arm of the Palleseen presence, and the gods, shrine-keepers, and smugglers they pursue are not combatants in a war but resources to be collected.
History
House of Open Wounds
Ratcatchers are special squads deployed in Ilmar for the purpose of capturing gods and magical spirits so that their power can be harvested - presumably for use in tablethi. They operate under the authority of the new Perfector, a Palleseen officer from Correct Erudition who was sent to Ilmar specifically to harvest magic; alongside the Ratcatchers, this officer raided the Guildhall and the Armigers as part of the same campaign - ch 7. The squads advance through the city methodically, which means a smuggler of gods can stay one step ahead by moving them along before the squads arrive. Jack describes doing exactly this during his time as a shrine-keeper in Ilmar: "I started smuggling gods out of the city. I would get them into my box. I'd go ahead of the Ratcatchers." - ch 7. Jack was eventually caught, but because the ongoing war required healers he was conscripted into the army rather than hanged - ch 7.
Relationships
- Jack - Jack is the principal human witness to the Ratcatchers' operations. As a shrine-keeper in Ilmar he turned to smuggling gods out of the city in a box, exploiting the squads' methodical pace to move ahead of them. He was eventually caught; because the war required healers, he was conscripted into the army rather than hanged. The relationship is one of pursued and pursuer, and it is the Ratcatchers' relentless advance that forges a shrine-keeper into a smuggler and then a soldier.
Notable Quotes
- "I started smuggling gods out of the city. I would get them into my box. I'd go ahead of the Ratcatchers." - Jack, House of Open Wounds, ch 7
Tags
- special-squad · #god-harvesting · #palleseen-enforcement