Talmanes Delovinde

Talmanes Delovinde is a member of a Cairhienin noble house and a senior officer of the Band of the Red Hand. Talmanes' men are the First Banner of Horse and call themselves Talmanes' Thunderbolts. Talmanes is considered to be second in command to Matrim Cauthon; as such, Talmanes will assume command of the Band in the event of Mat's incapacitation or death.
== Appearance ==
He is a head shorter than Mat Cauthon. He is short and wiry with the front of his head shaved and powdered. He wears plain coats despite being entitled to a number of stripes. He was at most 3 years older than Mat and looked like a coiled whip.Character infobox art by Adam Masterman 
==History==
He was born in Cairhien around the year .
He is from House Delovinde. His con is three yellow stars on blue and his banner is a black fox.
==Activities==
=== Siege of Cairhien ===
Talmanes first met Mat Cauthon during the battle to save the city of Cairhien from the Shaido Aiel. Talmanes led a unit of Cairhienin cavalry outside the city, and very nearly walked into a Shaido ambush. Mat saw the ambush in waiting while trying to get clear of the city, and felt he should warn the unit. Mat's memories led him to derive a strategy to beat the Shaido waiting, and ultimately had Talmanes' unit following him by the end of the battle because of his knowledge of tactics and his luck. Talmanes himself is highly impressed by Mat's command of battle tactics and strategy and after the battle pledges his personal loyalty to Mat, acknowledging Mat as his commander and his lord. He dislikes the Tairen Nalesean Aldiaya. At first he followed Mat because Mat was a winner, but his personal loyalty also increased over time. 
Talmanes is generally quieter and more contained than most of the other men of the Band of the Red Hand. This is partially his nature and partially due to his nobility - most of the men of the Band of the Red Hand are commoners, below him in social rank. He is thus somewhat cool towards Daerid Ondin, a commoner and fellow member of the Band. Later, after getting to know each other, Talmanes and Daerid jest and seem to get along quite well.
=== Command of the Band ===
Talmanes drunkenly stumbles across an assassination attempt by Shaido Aiel on Mat and is saved when Mat draws them away and raises the alarm. Talmanes is left in charge of the Band when Mat leaves for Ebou Dar.
Talmanes attends the meeting between the Andoran nobles and Egwene al'Vere with the Little Tower Hall. He stops trailing the Salidar Aes Sedai army on the border of Andor and Murandy to accept King Roedran's offer to unite the country of Murandy against a foreign army. Egwene warns him to be careful. He tells her of Mat's need of the Redarms coming from the south. While in Murandy, the Band manages to purchase a crank that allows crossbowmen to fire more rounds per minute. This particular invention helps the Band to stay alive when they are chased by the Seanchan in Altara.
=== Reunion with Mat ===
Chel Vanin finds Talmanes and some of the Band while scouting for a smuggler's pass in the Damona Mountains. Vanin brings him back to where Mat is camped. He informs Mat of the lucrative deal with King Roedran and how large the Band has become. Mat promotes him to Lieutenant-General.
Talmanes' bloodline is considered both ancient and distinguished in Cairhien. When Mat introduces Talmanes to Tuon, Talmanes recites his lineage.
He greets Furyk Karede, who enters the Band's camp to return Tuon back to Ebou Dar. He engages the Seanchan force sent to kill Tuon for the one hundred thousand gold crown reward. Because they attacked from the rear, the Seanchan force didn't even notice his force was there until it was too late.
He rides with Mat into the cursed village of Hinderstap and is attacked by the crazed villagers when nightfall comes. The group only just manages to escape the village and wait the night away before entering the village again at daybreak to find everyone is back to normal. Later he meets with Mat, who is planning how to approach Trustair, the next village along after Hinderstap. He is present when Verin Mathwin arrives in the Band's camp.
He rides with Mat into Caemlyn, when he meets with Queen Elayne Trakand. He is part of the group that protects Mat as he stalks the gholam through the back alleys of Caemlyn. A couple of groups of thugs and assassins try to attack Mat but are scared off after Talmanes and his group intervene. Mat finds the gholam and begins attacking it before it breaks off and makes for Talmanes and his men. The gholam is fighting Talmanes when Mat manages to distract the gholam long enough for Talmanes to escape. When Mat finally defeats the gholam Talmanes backs up Mat's claim to Charlz Guybon that they are owed a Crown Contract.
=== In Caemlyn ===
Some time after Mat's departure, Olver opens Verin's letter, warning Mat about a nearing Shadowspawn invasion of Caemlyn through the ways. Talmanes immediately takes charge of attacking the city's gates, securing them and allowing peasants to escape. He also kills a Myrddraal, earning the Borderlander title of Dreadbane, though he takes a wound from a Thakan'dar wrought blade during the fight. The Kin at the palace fails to heal this wound, and Talmanes believes he is a dead man.
He next leads his men to where the Dragons are stored but finds the area empty. He hears them firing which rejuvenates his men and they set out again only to find another large force of Trollocs ahead of them. During the confrontation Talmanes manages to kill another Myrddraal singlehanded, astonishing Melten. Later his forces are cornered along with Aludra and her Dragons, and he loses consciousness as the Dragons breach Caemlyn's walls, killing many Trollocs in the process. Later he's brought to the Field of Merrilor where Nynaeve al'Meara Heals his black wounds with help of an angreal, leaving herself exhausted. Talmanes, although not fully recovered, takes command of the Band again. He fights under Elayne's and Davram t'Ghaline Bashere's command, trying to take back Andor. Talmanes is with Elayne, when she orders Caemlyn to be burnt to the ground, in order to flush the Trolloc army out. Elayne's forces are finally able to lure out from the ruins of Caemlyn the Trolloc's army and to attract the enemy to Braem Wood. Talmanes is in command of the dragons and gives the orders to fire on the approaching Trollocs, destroying thousands. Talmanes reports to Elayne that Aludra has created dragon teeth, which release bits of metal everywhere when ignited. Unfortunately the dragons have begun to lose a lot of their effectiveness in the forest due to no clear targets. Elayne is forced to give the order to retreat back to the River Erinin.
Elayne's army finally makes it to Cairhien. Elayne has Aludra and Talmanes set up the dragons in-front of the following Trolloc army and has them fire on the army once they are in range. The dragons decimate the Trolloc ranks.
== The Last Battle ==
Talmanes spends much of the Last Battle with Aludra directing the repair of the dragons in a sealed underground cavern accessible only via gateway. After the dragons are repaired as much as possible, he joins the fight by having gateways made to the surface, allowing the dragons to fire at nearly point-blank range against targets, then closing the gateway. After reloading, this process is repeated over and over again. One of these attacks fires upon the remaining Ayyad as Moghedien assumes command of the Sharan army by disguising herself as Demandred.
Category:POV character
Category:Nobility