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Characters / Heralds Of Valdemar Exile Duology
aka: Exile Duology

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Main Character Index | Deities and General Character Tropes | Mage Wars Trilogy | Last Herald Mage Trilogy | Collegium Chronicles | Brightly Burning | Vows and Honor | Exile Duology | Arrows Trilogy and Related Books | Mage Winds and Mage Storms | Darian's Tale

This subsection of the Heralds of Valdemar Character Sheet covers the characters featured in the Exile duology.

Queen Selenay and Companion Caryo

  • The Chains of Commanding: Her father's Heroic Sacrifice during the Tedrel Wars thrusts her very early onto the throne. Her sense of duty keeps her carrying on and she starts becoming a quite able leader, including in dealing with an obstructive and obstinate Council. But her forced maturation, unresolved grief, feelings of isolation, and despair seethe in her with no healthy outlet for quite some time, leading to a disastrous marriage. She never quite outgrows this, but she has more trustworthy friends in later books to share the burden.
  • A Child Shall Lead Them: Zig-Zagged. Selenay was Wise Beyond Her Years and a good Queen when she first took the throne at 20. However, her advisors can't take her seriously, she's painfully naïve at times and the stress of ruling when she should be enjoying her youth nearly breaks her.
  • Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Has blonde hair and is a genuinely good person.
  • The High Queen: What she has matured into by the "Arrows" trilogy.
  • Horsing Around: Caryo deliberately lets Thanel 'catch' and try to 'break' her in order to reveal his despicable character. When she decides things have gone on long enough, she kicks him, he threatens to kill her, and public sympathy runs away from him almost immediately.
  • Hunting "Accident": Prince Thanel tried to arrange one. It didn't end well for him.
  • Intergenerational Friendship: Talia, her Queen's Own, is almost young enough to be her daughter, but Selenay always respects her and listens to her advice.
  • Iron Lady: She tries to be this in public, and usually succeeds (it helps to have Talia to talk to in private). Her façade breaks at least once, when a messenger brings news that a group of child hostages had been murdered in a standoff gone awry — everyone at the Council table stares while Selenay weeps openly.
  • Lady of War: She's not in combat much, but when she is she is definitely queenly.
  • Lonely at the Top: Selenay is Exhibit A as to why the Monarch's Own Herald is so necessary. Talamir was an absent Queen's Own at best, leaving Selenay with no one to confide in or be friends with. This took a heavy toll on her mental and emotional state and led to to making poor decisions early in her reign.
  • Love at First Sight: With Prince Daren, in By the Sword. It helps that they met moments after he had come in with unexpected reinforcements and saved the day.
  • Love Makes You Dumb: Deconstructed with her and Prince Thanel. Sure, he's a bad choice, and she definitely overlooks a few red flags because she's decided it's True Love... but she's also under a massive amount of pressure and still grieving for her father, plus her therapist/main adviser is more or less out of commission, and Thanel seems like the only uncomplicated good thing in her life. So it's more like "being under stress with no one to trust makes you vulnerable".
  • Maiden Aunt: Selenay sees Caryo as this; a sweet but asexual figure who doesn't understand relationships, let alone sex.
  • Mama Bear: Comes through in a rather obstructive, somewhat belated way to Elspeth during Winds of Fate, much to the latter's frustration. Selenay is not pleased when her daughter quite reasonably points out that she's expendable, since Selenay has just had twins with Daren and Elspeth is no longer the sole Heir. It's hinted that Selenay feels guilty for leaving Elspeth to be raised by others, and her overprotectiveness is her way of trying to make up for it.
  • Maternally Challenged: As the Queen and as a Herald, she has no time to raise her own daughter. It doesn't help that she's just been through a disaster of a marriage and is very young herself. About twenty years later, Selenay makes an actual love-match, and consequently she is better able to cope with motherhood the second time around.
  • Mindlink Mates: She forms a Lifebond with Daren
  • Modest Royalty: Out of combat she wears Whites like all Heralds, with no other decoration but a simple gold circlet. Talia had no idea who she was for a good portion of their first conversation. Her armor is well-made but the only concession to her rank is a small gold crown on her helm.
  • Parents as People: Selenay is a Herald first, the Queen second, and a mother to Elspeth third. Between her royal duties and her very early forced maturation, she doesn't know how to treat or discipline Elspeth and mostly leaves her in the hands of her tutors, completely unaware that one of them has an agenda of her own. Talia has to provide the parenting that Selenay can't.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: In the general tradition of most rulers of Valdemar.
  • Seers: She has a minor secondary Gift of Foresight — not enough to see the future but enough to get a sense of when something would be a Very Bad Idea (e.g. marrying Elspeth to Prince Ancar). It works best when she is commanding the Army — once their strategy is in place, her Foresight tells her the right moment to put it into action.
  • Strangled by the Red String: Her lifebond to Daren is the clearest example of marriage by divine decree in the series. The gods need Valdemar and Rethwellan firmly allied to each other when the Mage Storms hit (and they need a Spare to the Throne so Elspeth is free to take up other duties), and accordingly both of them fall in Love at First Sight. invoked However, this is Reconstructed considering by the time they do get together, the audience knows that both of them are strong adults who are compatible enough that they probably would have gotten together on their own.
  • Warrior Princess: It helps that Valdemar requires Monarchs and Heirs to be Heralds too, so Princess Selenay had rigorous academic and martial training, took an active role in her father's council, and sat in the city's courts as an adjudicator. Though understandably terrified, she accompanied her father to the frontlines of a war and while there, visited different campfires and to the sick tents to visit the common soldiers. During the opening battle of the war with Hardorn in Arrow's Fall, she serves as the Field Commander, due to her Foresight working best on the battlefield (see the Seer entry)
  • Winter Royal Lady: As a Herald, she's going to have a rather limited color palette — white (though often with gold embellishments as her role as Monarch as well as black trim for mourning). However, this really comes into play during the Ice Festival, when she holds a party in an ice palace constructed on the river, with her royal regalia predominantly of white fur and diamonds.
  • Wrong Guy First: Big time. Her desire for a love story of her own leaves her vulnerable to Prince Thanel. About twenty years later, when she's become The High Queen, Prince Daren comes riding into Valdemar in circumstances straight out of a fairy tale and they fall in Love at First Sight.

Weaponsmaster Alberich and Companion Kantor

The weapons master has no heart; his hide is iron cold
His soul within that hide is steel or so I have been told—
  • Almighty Janitor: Is officially only the Collegium's Weaponsmaster. Unofficially, he's the spymaster. During the several years where Talamir can't serve properly as the Queen's Own, but before he dies and Talia is Chosen, he also serves as Selenay's most honest friend and the closest thing to that role.
  • Big Damn Heroes: When Karse pulls a Burn the Witch! on Alberich, Kantor kicks down a wall and jumps through flames to get him out, then gallops through the night to get his badly-burned Chosen to the border and medical attention
  • Bodyguard Crush: The possibility of this is teasingly hinted at and Lampshaded by King Sendar when he approves Selenay's proposal that Alberich be her bodyguard for when she goes to the city courts. Of course, there is a foregone conclusion on Selenay's love life ( she's lifebonded to Prince Daren in By the Sword), but this comes up again at the end of Exile's Valor, when Alberich realizes that Selenary is worried he does have feelings for her and is able to honestly assure her that he respects her as his Monarch and friend and that's it.
  • Chaste Hero: Though not a virgin (he does offhandedly mention that he's been with at least one woman... whom he paid), he is adorably oblivious about romance and gets flustered when a woman pays him positive attention. Kantor notes drolly that Alberich really doesn't know how to interact with a woman who's neither unattainable nor a prostitute.
  • Combat Pragmatist: And ruthlessly tries to enforce that in his students.
    • Kantor, too: he purposely triggers Alberich's Foresight in such a way that Alberich can no longer hide it, to shut down his options and let Kantor yeet him out of Karse to Valdemar. He wasn't expecting the 'burn the witch' part.
  • Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: Has been both the rescuer and the rescued.
  • Conflicting Loyalty: During the Tedrel Wars which while fought by Tedrels, were backed by Karse. Since it was only a few years after he's chosen, people didn't trust that he wouldn't defect or betray Valdemar and so despite his experience and skills, he was benched until the final battle.
  • The Confidant: Before Talia comes along, Alberich is Selenay's closest friend (Talamir being unable to perform that duty). However, he's far too busy being Weaponmaster and Spymaster to be Queen's Own too.
  • Custom Uniform: Refuses to wear Heraldic Whites and sticks to his gray leather outfit. As mentioned in Arrows, he's a law unto himself. He actually weaponises this at one point; at Selenay's coronation, he is in diguise as a normal Herald wearing formal Whites - that can't possibly be Weaponmaster Alberich, because he never wears Whites!
  • Deadpan Snarker: Though Alberich wryly notes that Kantor is much better at the verbal barbs than he is, Alberich manages a few good one-liners every so often.
  • Defector from Decadence: Was a successful captain in the enemy's army (the youngest ever, in fact) before he became a Herald.
  • The Dreaded
    • After he kills Selenay's husband with his own sword, all the highborn know that their rank and power won't protect them if he thinks they're a threat. His non-Herald sellsword persona is in for this at a more normal level, as just a really good fighter who no one wants to cross.
    • The Mage Storms series reveals that the "Great Betrayer" has become a legendary figure in Karse to the same infamy that Vanyel holds.
  • Drill Sergeant Nasty: The Weaponmaster fits the "the more you will hate me, the more you will learn" line to a tee, and quotes it (in slightly different words and Karsite syntax) at one point. Of course, he embodies the positive side of the trope rather than the negative.
  • Dual Wielding: Both swords and knives.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: In the Arrows books he's really misogynistic towards many of his female students, shouting at one that all she's good for is lying back and giving birth. In later books he's harsh in teaching students to fight but he doesn't say that kind of thing.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse: Of the "Arrows" trilogy, which earned him a Deuteragonist role in Skif's book and then a duology of his own.
  • Good Is Not Nice: His teaching philosophy.
  • Honor Before Reason: Struggles with this in Exile's Honor, where he broods himself to pieces over his personal code of honor. It's implied that it's a response to the corrupt Karsite priesthood; a good person like Alberich needs something to believe in but Karse was so corrupt and so he turned to personal honor.
  • Master of Disguise: Inherited from his predecessor, who was Weaponsmaster and second-in-command Spymaster. He most often takes on the role of a sword-for-hire but other roles have included a cantankerous scholar, carter, wealthy old man, priest of an obscure sect, and information broker.
  • Master Swordsman: Until Kerowyn shows up, he's the finest swordsman in Valdemar. By Winds of Fate, he's still top five - and two of the other top five (Elspeth and Herald Jeri) are his former students.
  • No Guy Wants to Be Chased: Hilariously averted. Kantor outright tells Myste that she has to make the first move, because otherwise he'd never make one at all.
  • Opposites Attract: With Myste an outspoken, Non-Action Guy, Herald Chronicler
  • Only One Name: His parents were not married (to each other), therefore Alberich has only a personal name — last names, like lineage, come from the father in Karse.
  • Running Gag: A minor one. Every so often, he'll get off a particularly good snark. Someone will do a double-take and ask "Did you just make a joke?!" Alberich will respond with a variation of "Of course I didn't. Everyone knows I have no sense of humor." In Take A Thief, after Kantor tells him a bit of strange news Alberich asks if he's joking and Kantor recycles the line, saying he certainly has no sense of humor.
  • Sadist Teacher / Stern Teacher: Lackey's song The Face Within is framed as a debate between these two views regarding Alberich. He has to be tougher on his students than any possible enemy... and he has to steel himself for the possibility that it won't be enough.
  • Seers: Alberich has a Gift of Foresight - it doesn't kick in frequently, but when it does it's very powerful. Kantor purposely triggers it in public to speed up Alberich being discovered as having 'witch-powers', so he could whisk Alberich away to Valdemar. Safe to say he didn't expect the 'being imprisoned in a building to be burned alive' part.
  • Slasher Smile: While watching Alberich duel four thugs at once, Skif notes that he's sporting a truly alarming grin the whole time.
  • Son of a Whore: Spent his childhood being called this. Inaccurately, for the record — his mother only had sexual relations with Alberich's father, and never for money. But given the legal status (none) of women in Karse before Solaris, a single mother who couldn't prove she was a widow would automatically be considered a prostitute.
  • Strange-Syntax Speaker: Valdemaran vocabulary, Karsite grammar. He's capable of using Valdemaran grammar when he wishes, and does sometimes while in disguise, but if he doesn't have to than he doesn't bother.
    • Eloquent in My Native Tongue: When he's using Mindspeech, Lackey writes it as normal grammar. Since Mindspeech acts as a universal language in this setting, he would be thinking in grammatical Karsite and being heard (by Valdemarans) in grammatical Valdemaran.
  • The Stoic: as part of his professional persona, whether military or Weaponsmaster. You can tell how close he is to someone from how many facial expressions he uses around them.
  • Training from Hell: Though in fact partly self-inflicted. Told by his armsmasters at the Karsite military academy that he's quite naturally talented, young Alberich then worked himself to the ground to prove that he's just as good as anyone else, if not better, especially because the social cards were stacked against him due to his status as an illegitimate child of an impoverished single mother, and the priesthood or the army were the only paths to any kind of success in life for such a boy.
  • The Un-Smile: Myste, noting that he never smiles when acting as Selenay's bodyguard, says he shouldn't change that because he can't fake a smile convincingly to save his life. When he tries he just looks like he's about to go for someone's throat.

Herald Chronicler Myste and Companion Aleirian

  • Author Avatar: Mild example. Her name is close to the author's nickname, and her job is literally to write down everything important that happens in Valdemar.
  • Blind Without 'Em: Myste is severely myopic. Alberich notes the first thing an opponent would do is smash her glasses, and she knows it too; it's one of the arguments she uses to convince him to teach her a self-defense style based on running away rather than something more conventional.
  • Bookworm
  • Disabled Means Sexless: Averted. As noted above, Myste is visually impaired, but she is unapologetically sexual, as well as being sexually assertive.
  • Guile Hero: She's the only female Herald who is not a fighter, but she uses her brains (along with a dose of Obfuscating Stupidity) to play Alberich's sidekick and get information out of places where he can't go.
  • Living Lie Detector: More than most Heralds. She has a truth-sense that doesn't require the Truth Spell.
  • Plucky Comic Relief: She's the butt of more than her share of (affectionate) jokes.
  • Plucky Office Girl: A medieval version; she's the one who can find (or "find" as the case may be) any documents the Queen needs to support her position in Council. (Also, her usual role when she's spying.)
  • Rage Against the Author: "After Midnight" is a non-canonical story where several of Mercedes Lackey's protagonists confront her about the kind of suffering she's put them through. Myste defends her by telling them the author suffered with them and tragedy is a compelling narrative force. When they've gone Myste negotiates a larger role in the then-upcoming Exile books, including romance with Alberich and not getting killed or injured, as payment.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: a side effect of the anachronistic writing order. Myste is introduced in the Exile duology, but despite being Alberich's Love Interest and the Heraldic Chronicler is never mentioned in the Arrows trilogy, Mage Winds or Mage Storms (despite that fact that her records would have been very handy in training Talia and finding out what previous Herald-Mages did to weather patterns; and Elspeth knows about the Tayledras training Vanyel due to Heraldic records), which were written and published much earlier. Of course, her position and spy training mean that she's very, very, good at blending into the wallpaper so well everyone forgets she's there; as for Alberich, no student who gets to know him as an adult - even those he's particularly close to like Talia and Elspeth - would ever dream of gossiping about his love life!

King's/Queen's Own Herald Talamir and Grove-born Companions Taver/Rolan

  • Death Seeker: After Taver's death, Talamir seems to always have one foot in the grave and on the edge of death.
  • The Confidant: Talamir is this for Sendar and is supposed to be this for Selenay... but in practice, as a man of advancing years he finds it difficult to connect with and properly advise a much younger woman. It doesn't help that he's traumatized from Taver's death and having been mostly dead himself.
  • He Knows Too Much: While he didn't connect all the dots on Orthallen's treachery, he did realize that Elspeth was becoming the Brat. Orthallen had him killed before he could send her as a foster to another household that wouldn't tolerate her behavior (which would have spoiled The Plan).
  • Honest Advisor: Again, Talamir is this for Sendar and is supposed to be this for Selenay.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: While he's incompetent as an advisor and confidant to Selenay, and he's half-dead inside after losing Taver and Sendar, there's nothing wrong with his brain. He's the first one in the Court who realizes that Elspeth is in need of a course correction if she's ever to qualify for the throne.

King Sendar and Companion Lorenil

  • Friendless Background: It's hinted that Sendar didn't really have close friends before he was Chosen for whatever reason. It's how Orthallen was able to earn Royal favor and become so powerful; he deliberately sought out and befriended Sendar before he was Chosen as heir.
  • Good Parents: Between what we see of him in Honor and what Selenay thinks of him in Valor, it's made very clear that Sendar is as good a father as he is a king, and has a very close bond with his daughter despite all his responsibilities.
  • Happily Married: to Selenay's mother, until her fatal illness. It's mentioned she proposed to him!
  • Heroic Sacrifice: He dies in the Tedrel Wars, and Selenay nearly follows him.
  • Hot-Blooded: His Fatal Flaw. Sendar wants to fight and acts before he thinks which is what causes his death.
  • Modest Royalty
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: A rare deconstruction. Sendar's insistence in being on the front lines and leading the charge ends up killing him.

Lord Orthallen

See entry on the Arrows Trilogy And Related Books page.

Prince Karathanelan

  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He and Selenay have so much in common! He's so charming and witty and nice! He's going to be a great husband! He's... actually a massive Jerkass who deliberately seduced her in order to bump her off and become regent once they have a child.
  • Black Sheep: He does an excellent job of alienating himself from his brothers and marking himself as unfit for the throne of Rethwellan. When his father dies, the Rethwellan court sends word of the death... after the oldest brother is crowned.
  • Hunting "Accident": He attempted to assassinate Selenay and call it this. Also the official explanation for his death when he and his assassins are killed in the act.
    Talia: I suppose that's marginally true. They were hunting Selenay.
  • Prince Charmless: When he starts showing his true colors... and then he morphs right into The Evil Prince.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Thanel turns out to be his own worst enemy. He seduces and marries Queen Selenay — and then promptly blows up all his goodwill by throwing a fit when he learns it doesn't make him the King. When he goes out to put a saddle and bridle on Selenay's own Companion to prove a point, everyone knows exactly the kind of person he is.
  • Royal Brat: Tarma notes sourly in By the Sword that he was horrifically spoiled by his mother and had no redeeming features except for oily charm that he used to great effect in riling his brother Daren up and pinning trouble on him. When no one in Rethwellan is willing to put up with him, he turns his sights to Valdemar, where his reputation is not as well-known.
  • Too Dumb to Live:
    • Not understanding exactly what Heralds and Companions are? Understandable, since even Valdemarans don't know all the details. Not understanding that he must be Chosen to rule, after having had it explained to him multiple times by multiple people, including in his marriage contract? Incredibly dumb. Trying to break a Companion to saddle and then threatening to murder her when he fails? Unforgivably dumb. (For bonus idiocy points, he also expected Selenay to take his side.)
    • Thanel not understanding Companions are as intelligent as people makes less when Rethwellan has contact with sentient magical beasts. Kyree make their home in Rethwellan and Thanel should have interacted with them before. Alberich even points out how ignorant he was.

Healer Crathach

  • Deadpan Snarker
  • Deadly Doctor: Excellent Mind Healer and terrifyingly skilled with knives. He gets added to Sendar's bodyguard detail during the Tedrel Wars as a result. As he tells Alberich, "Healers know how bodies are put together. We can take them apart far more easily."
  • Good Is Not Nice: After several years of seeing to the wounded and traumatized at the Healers' Collegium, he has no compunction about killing would-be Tedrel assassins.

Alternative Title(s): Exile Duology

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