Talmanes Delovinde

General

Talmanes Delovinde is a young Cairhienin lord who is a Lieutenant-General in the Band of the Red Hand (KoD, Ch. 26). He is short, even shorter than Daerid and is young, just a few years older than Mat (TFoH, Ch. 43). When Mat first meets him, he is dressed plainly and reminds Mat of a coiled whip or spring (TFoH, Ch. 43; LoC, Ch. 5). He also takes on the soldiers' style of shaving and powdering the front of the head (LoC, Ch. 5). After the final battle outside Cairhien, he and Nalesean nearly come to blows over who was to provide Mat's escort (TFoH, Ch. 45).

When presented with a map showing the Aiel, he studies it and Mat carefully (TFoH, Ch. 43). He maintains this cautious observant nature, and later keeps an eye out for raken even though he has only heard of them (KoD, Ch. 26). Even before meeting Mat, he was a good enough commander to judge the outcome of skirmishes with the Aiel and to adjust his way of thinking to take account of how quickly they moved (TFoH, Ch. 44).

He brokers a deal with Roedran in which the Band poses a threat to Murandy so Roedran can unite the country behind him. Talmanes gains sufficient coin from this deal to pay for the Band for a whole year, even at its vastly increased size (KoD, Ch. 25). He also gets a copy of Comadrin's "Fog and Steel" (KoD, Ch. 26). He notes that the rebel Aes Sedai's actions in Murandy effectively changed the border between Murandy and Andor (TPoD, Ch. 18).

Talmanes does not appear to have much of a sense of humour to others, although sometimes it becomes more apparent (LoC, Ch. 22). When Mat sarcastically says that an attack by the Aiel will be wonderful, Talmanes raises an eyebrow at him (TFoH, Ch. 44), and he hums A Frog on the Ice when he thinks Mat is struggling to impress Betse (LoC, Ch. 5). Talmanes considers himself to possess a sense of humour, just one that is subtle and tightly concealed. He thinks it is more amusing when people don't understand his jokes (AMoL, Prologue). He likes battles and bar fights (TGS, Ch. 22).

His banner is a black fox and his con is three yellow stars on blue. He is entitled to a considerable number of stripes due to his noble rank, but instead wears just a small red hand (KoD, Ch. 25). Talmanes does not dress extravagently and Mat thinks he has bad fashion sense (TGS, Ch. 20). Talmanes is aware enough of people that he notices something wrong in Hinderstap before Mat does (TGS, Ch. 22).

Timeline

• Mat meets Talmanes leading a band of Cairhienin into an Aiel ambush and suggests a plan. Talmanes agrees to lead half the men, as long as Mat leads the other half (TFoH, Ch. 43).
• After the battle, Talmanes insists that they have a place at the head of the procession and offers his manservant to polish Mat's boots (TFoH, Ch. 45).
• He pledges his allegiance to Mat (TFoH, Ch. 45).
• He notices how often Mat is drawn to battle and vice versa (TFoH, Ch. 51).
• He watches when Lanfear and Moiraine fight (TFoH, Ch. 53).
• He is injured when one of the Forsaken drops a group of Aiel into the camp (LoC, Ch. 22).
• He leads half the band's cavalry (TFoH, Ch. 51), his banner of horse being known as “Talmanes' Thunderbolts” (LoC, Ch. 22).
• He is given control of the Band until Mat returns when Mat goes to Salidar. He insists Mat takes Nerim (LoC, Ch. 38).
• He is told to stay close to the Salidar Aes Sedai in case Egwene seeks protection (LoC, Ch. 44).
• He keeps the Band close to the rebel Aes Sedai, ten miles apart, never varying by more than a mile in the sixteen days it takes to travel the first two hundred miles (LoC, Ch. 51).
• He keeps contact with Gareth Bryne during the march until Bryne is told not to (ACoS, Ch. 12).
• He meets with Egwene when she meets with the Andoran and Murandian nobles (TPoD, Ch. 18).
• He agrees with King Roedran to keep the Band in Murandy so that Roedran can unite the nobles behind him (TPoD, Ch. 18).
• Talmanes meets Mat three hundred miles into Altara, with three banners of horse and four thousand mounted footmen. Mat promotes him to lieutenant-general (KoD, Ch. 25).
• He goes with Mat to Hinderstap (TGS, Ch. 22).
• Mat is intending to take him back when he returns (TGS, Ch. 34).
• He is present when Verin tells Mat how she found him (TGS, Ch. 35).
• Talmanes accompanies Mat when Mat goes to see Elayne but does not go into the actual meeting (ToM, Ch. 17).
• When Mat decides to defeat the gholam, Talmanes acts as backup. He is almost killed, but is saved by Mat at the last moment (ToM, Ch. 31).
• After defeating the gholam he tells Guybon that they are entitled to combat pay as it had been murdering citizens (ToM, Ch. 31).
• After Olver opens Verin's letter, he reads it and realises the glow they see over Caemlyn is a Trolloc attack. He rallies the Band to try and save the Dragons (ToM, Epilogue).
• Talmanes and the Band march into Caemlyn to fight the Trollocs and try to save the Dragons.
• Talmanes and the Band approach Caemlyn, which is burning. When he sees that Trollocs are trying to seize the nearest gate, from which refugees are trying to escape, Talmanes orders the Band to hurry (AMoL, Prologue).
• Talmanes manages to secure the gate that the Trollocs were trying to seize. In the process, Talmanes kills a Myrddraal but is injured by its Thakan’dar blade. He knows he only has a few hours left to live unless he can find a Channeler who can Heal him (AMoL, Prologue).
• Talmanes manages to convince the mercenaries outside Caemlyn to help defend the city (AMoL, Prologue).
• Melten uses blisterleaf to help slow Talmanes’s death. Melten also tells him to drink some Shienaran brandy or he won’t be able to keep standing. He calls Talmanes “Dreadbane,” a name for those who have killed a Myrddraal, and tells Talmanes to let him know when he can’t bear the pain anymore so that Melten can end his pain (AMoL, Prologue).
• Talmanes wants to reach the dragons, but knows he has to go to the Palace first to find any resistance that is fighting there. As they fight their way up to the Palace, Guybon comes from the Palace to meet them (AMoL, Prologue).
• Talmanes learns from Filger that the Trollocs have taken the walls, although the Band still holds the gate. Talmanes convinces Guybon to send men to help hold the gate, but Guybon himself insists on going with Talmanes to try to rescue the dragons (AMoL, Prologue).
• Talmanes’s wound is growing worse, and Jessamyn, the one Kinswomen left in the city, is unable to Heal. She gives him some herbs to help with the excruciating pain. Talmanes is no longer able to fight and must watch as Guybon and the others take care of Trollocs they come across (AMoL, Prologue).
• Talmanes and the others reach the warehouse where the dragons were stored only to find that it has been burned and the dragons are gone. Just then, however, they hear explosions and Talmanes hopes that perhaps Aes Sedai have arrived. They run towards the sounds; Talmanes is temporarily reinvigorated and kills another Myrddraal. They find that Aludra is responsible for the explosions, and that she has saved the dragons and is protecting them with the help of some townspeople (AMoL, Prologue).
• Talmanes organizes their retreat, with the dragons, towards the east gates of Caemlyn (AMoL, Prologue).
• Talmanes and the others become cornered against the city wall during their retreat. Talmanes is becoming delirious from his wound, and Melten is just about to end Talmanes’s life out of mercy when Talmanes stops him. Aludra suggests blowing up the dragons so that they can’t fall into the hands of the Shadow, when Talmanes suddenly realizes that they can use the dragons to take down the city walls and escape. Just as the wall comes down, Talmanes lapses into unconsciousness (AMoL, Prologue).
• Elayne sends Serinia to check on Caemlyn because Jessamyn hasn’t checked in as instructed. Talmanes and the others are found and he is brought to the Field of Merrilor through a gateway. He is nearly dead, but Nynaeve is able to Heal him (AMoL, Ch. 1).
• Talmanes accompanies Elayne and her forces back to Caemlyn as they prepare to draw the Trollocs away from the city and into Braem Wood (AMoL, Ch. 8). Once they have done so, he helps to fight the Trollocs in Braem Wood (AMoL, Ch. 10).
• About a week later, still in Braem Wood, Talmanes reports to Elayne that the dragons are having little success because it is difficult to get a good shot in the forest (AMoL, Ch. 13).
• Elayne and her troops, including Talmanes, are retreating towards Cairhien (AMoL, Ch. 13; AMoL, Ch. 19).
• As Elayne’s troops ready themselves to make a stand at Cairhien, Talmanes and Aludra prepare to use the dragons (AMoL, Ch. 24). When Elayne realizes that a second army of Trollocs has reached them ahead of schedule, she has orders sent to Talmanes to turn the dragons on them. When Bashere suggests that they retreat into the city, Talmanes protests that such a move would cost them dearly only for them to end up trapped anyways. When Elayne comes to the conclusion that Bashere is a Darkfriend, she has Talmanes order the Band to have Davram and Deira Bashere put under guard (AMoL, Ch. 26).
• After the fight at Cairhien is narrowly won, and the armies of the Light prepare to gather at the Field of Merrilor, Talmanes is horrified at the thought that they have to go through such fighting again (AMoL, Ch. 32).
• As the fighting gets under way at the Field of Merrilor, Talmanes, Aludra, and the Band are stationed with Uno on the Heights. They receive orders from Mat to retreat, which confuses them all until they begin to be attacked by the Ayyad and Demandred. Talmanes is injured during the attack, although not so badly that he isn’t able to retreat (AMoL, Ch. 37).
• Mat sends a message in code to Talmanes and Talmanes sends a message in return, also in code. Mat determines from the message that the dragons can still be used (AMoL, Ch. 37).
• On Mat’s orders, Talmanes, Aludra, and the Band Travel to a cavern that can only be reached by gateway. There, they repair the dragons. Talmanes starts up a round of “Jak o’ the Shadows” to bring up everyone’s spirits (AMoL, Ch. 37).
• As Mat prepares for a last stand against the Shadow, he has Neald bring a message to Talmanes to go ahead with their plan (AMoL, Ch. 37). Once he is in the cavern, Neald opens a gateway so that the dragons can fire from a protected location and can aim at different parts of the Sharan and Trolloc armies (AMoL, Ch. 40; AMoL, Ch. 41).
• Presumably, Talmanes survives the Last Battle as he and Aludra are still firing dragons at the very end of the fighting (AMoL, Ch. 43).

Relationships

Talmanes has a great deal of respect for Mat. He considers Mat to be inspiring, and Mat has made Talmanes consider common folk in a different light (AMoL, Prologue). Although Mat sometimes thinks Talmanes is too eager for battle (LoC, Ch. 38), when Mat goes to Ebou Dar he trusts Talmanes enough to leave him in command of the part of the Band that remains in Salidar (LoC, Ch. 44).

Talmanes and Nalesean aren’t on the best of terms, although both follow Mat (TFoH, Ch. 47).

Nerim is Talmanes’s manservant, although Talmanes lends Nerim’s services to Mat (LoC, Ch. 38).

Egwene is impressed by Talmanes; she thinks he is good for Mat (AMoL, Ch. 1).

Talmanes is nervous around Elayne and thus treats her with a “flowery respect” (AMoL, Ch. 8).

Talmanes thinks very highly of Harnan (AMoL, Ch. 33).

Miscellaneous

• He has a horse named Selfar (AMoL, Prologue).

Quotes

"The Tairens are no friends of mine. And Daerid is. . . useful. Certainly not a friend" (To Mat, The Fires of Heaven, Chapter 43).

"Until yesterday I have followed men of other lands because I must. You I will follow because I want to. Perhaps you are not a lord in Andor, but here, I say that you are, and I pledge myself your man." (To Mat, The Fires of Heaven, Chapter 44)

"You're starting to sound downright husbandly" (To Mat, The Gathering Storm, Chapter 20).

"'You won't go soft just because you got married, Mat. Why, some of the Great Captains themselves are married, I believe. Davram Bashere is for certain, and Rodel Ituralde. No, you won't go soft because you're married.' Mat nodded sharply. Good that was settled. 'You might go boring though,' Talmanes noted." (Talmanes to Mat; The Gathering Storm, Chapter 20)

"Let me guess, I'm a travelling merchant who once trained with the Aiel and has come to the village because he heard there's a trout that lives in the lake who insulted his father" (To Mat, The Gathering Storm, Chapter 34).

“Talmanes reluctantly forced his way across, ignoring pleas for help. Time he’d spent with Mat made him wish there were more he could offer these people. It was downright strange, the effect Matrim Cauthon had on a person. Talmanes looked at common folk in a very different light now. Perhaps it was because he still didn’t rightly know whether to think of Mat as a lord or not.” (Talmanes; AMoL, Prologue)

“Blood and bloody ashes, he thought. What I’d give for another few hours with my pipe and a book, alone and peaceful. The people who spoke of glorious death in battle were complete flaming fools. There was nothing glorious about dying in this mess of fire and blood. Give him a quiet death any day.” (Talmanes; AMoL, Prologue)

“Maybe if I smiled more when I made jokes, he thought idly, leaning against the side of the barricade. Then they’d understand what I meant. That, of course, raised the question: Did he want people to understand? It was often more amusing the other way. Besides, smiling was so garish. Where was the subtlety?” (Talmanes; AMoL, Prologue)