The Kharkanas Trilogy is an epic fantasy series by the Canadian writer Steven Erikson. The series consists of three novels, two of which—Forge of Darkness and Fall of Light—have been published as of 2025. The series serves as a prequel to Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series, and tells the story of the Tiste, Jaghut and Azathanai, three hundred thousand years before the Malazan Empire began its conquest on Genabackis, with a focus on characters such as Anomander Rake, Draconus, Hood, Gothos and K'rul. The series draws inspiration from the Shakespearean declamation style, and is framed as being told by one poet to another. It was received positively by critics as well as readers.

Set 300,000 years before the events of Malazan Book of the Fallen, the story is divided into three main narratives. The first revolves around the Tiste and the events leading up to their divide into the Andii, Liosan and Edur. The second revolves around the Jaghut and the events leading up to the declaration of war on Death. The third centers on the Azathanai, some of whom are generous, while others only take advantage of the conflicts for their own benefit.

Like his earlier Malazan Book of the Fallen series, the Kharkanas Trilogy draws inspiration from Erikson's background as an anthropologist and archaeologist. Revelations from the Malazan series seem to be discredited as the story to give credence to the idea that the present distorts or forgets the past historic events. This is especially the case with long-lived characters. That's not to say that the styles of the two series are similar; the author made an intentional choice to the contrary. Where the Malazan series sprawled outward, the Kharkanas trilogy sprawls inward; down scaled and as close to claustrophobic as possible. The reason behind this was already alluded to in the Malazan series, where the author spoke of ambition and railing against the notion of the word being a pejorative. So since he'd already drawn inspiration from Iliad for the Malazan series, he went in another direction — Shakespearean direction. He noted that Shakespeare was all about declamations, and sentence structures dictated by breath-length, and that he'd fallen in love with it.

Characters, including lowborn ones, in both the Malazan series and the Kharkanas trilogy engage in lengthy philosophical discussions and introspection, can be attributed to the fact the author takes issue with assumption regarding the level of intelligence of people of lower social classes. In his experience, he has met numerous people who have shown evidence to the contrary.

There are themes that are running through the trilogy which relate to how civilizations destroy themselves, and one of the themes I'm advancing is that the various forms of art have to be destroyed first — the meaning of art, if you will.

— Steven Erikson, Wired's Geek's Guide to the Galaxy

Regarding the themes, again drawing inspiration from history, Erikson notes, "when art ceases to oppose — or to stand outside — the desires of the power bloc of a particular civilization, it gets into trouble".

Before completing the Malazan series, Erikson was already contracted to write two Malazan-related trilogies. Working on the eighth novel in the Malazan series, Erikson already had an idea how he wanted to approach his next project. He began planting seeds by adding flashbacks and introducing characters that would set the stage for the Kharkanas Trilogy. He also approached the project with new readers as well as old readers in mind, so as to give new readers an alternative entry point in the Malazan universe, while adding enough intriguing elements to satisfy the old readers.