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Tamello "Tammo" de Fformelo Tussock

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tammo_7053.jpg

A young hare who jumps at the chance to join up with the Long Patrol, Tammo is poorly prepared for the realities of war. Innocent and unready for violence, Tamello loses friends, and eventually, his illusions, during the battle against Damug Warfang and his Rapscallions.


  • Break the Cutie: This idealistic young rip goes through a lot after running away from home, but the incident that hits him hardest is the death of his mentor figure, the squirrel Russa Nodrey.
  • Butt-Monkey: The young hare goes through quite a few mishaps during the early stages of his adventure. Even after he gets some experience under his belt, he still finds himself dealing with the odd misfortune here and there.
  • Idiot Hero: Well, more naive than an idiot, but you get the idea.
  • Jumped at the Call: He's quite eager to run away from home to join the Long Patrol.
  • Obfuscating Disability: Tammo and Midge Manycoats disguise themselves as vermin to infiltrate Damug's camp. However, Tammo cannot imitate a vermin accent nearly as well as Midge can, so the two agree to have Tammo pretend to be mute and let Midge do all the talking.
  • Official Couple: With Pasque.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: See Overly Long Name below.
  • Overly Long Name: So everyone calls him Tammo.
  • Rascally Rabbit: A hare, technically.
  • Took a Level in Badass: He starts out naive and having trouble killing the foebeast. By the end of the book, he's learned how to hurl his dirk with incredible accuracy, and even avenges Russa's death by slaying her murderer with one well-flung javelin.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: He and his father butt heads often in the beginning of the book, and part of his mother's motivation for encouraging him to run away is because she knows that it won't end well if they stay under the same roof. In the epilogue, it's hinted that his father finally admits how much his son has grown up.

Russa Nodrey

  • The Drifter: Thus her name, since a drey is a squirrel nest.
  • Guile Hero: She knows how vermin think, and thus where they'd usually ambush.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She starts off as aloof and stern, but eventually warms up to Tammo.
  • Meaningful Name: Nodrey = no drey = wanderer. This is pointed out in the book.
  • Mentor Occupational Hazard: She dies protecting an infant badger—the future Badger Lord, Russano the Wise—from the Rapscallions, but gives Tammo some final advice before succumbing to her wounds.
  • Murder Is the Best Solution: Her attitude toward vermin is to kill them before they can kill someone else, and is displeased when Tammo stops her from killing a pair of ferrets that just tried to rob him. She turns out to be entirely justified when the two have another go at her and Tammo in the night, resulting in her killing one, and the survivor comes back a third time with other Rapscallions in tow.
  • Sacrificial Lion: Her death marks the point where Tammo starts taking a level in badass.
  • Weapon-Based Characterization: She's a solitary nomad with little to her name, and appropriately her only weapon is a simple hardwood stick.

Arven

Midge Manycoats

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/midge_manycoats_1.jpg

A hare who is part of the Long Patrol. He's a master of disguise who specializes in impersonating other creatures. He disguises himself and Tammo as rats to sneak into the Rapscallions' camp and rescue Fourdun.

  • Fortune Teller: Invoked and exploited. Midge pretends to be an elderly seer to gain Damug's interest and trust. He pretends to see Damug's future, but secretly convinces Damug to fight Redwall's army at the Ridge of a Thousand to keep Damug's army away from Redwall Abbey itself.
  • Gender-Blender Name: "Midge" is typically a female name, but this Midge is male.
  • Man of a Thousand Voices: Implied In-Universe. Midge is already a Master of Disguise who can impersonate most animals. We see him do a good impression of a vermin accent, implying that he's good at other voices.
  • Master of Disguise: Midge is a master of makeup and costuming, and uses these skills to disguise himself and Tammo as vermin.
  • Nice Guy: He's very friendly in general. He doesn't have much interaction with Tammo before they're sent out to infiltrate Damug's camp together, but when they are, Midge is as kind to Tammo as if they'd been friends for years. He's even cordial to Damug while in disguise, and uses a very "catch flies with honey" approach, manipulating Damug into not attacking Redwall Abbey through subtle suggestion. Although, to be fair, Damug probably wouldn't have put up with Midge if he hadn't been respectful.
  • Pintsized Powerhouse: Midge is described as short for a hare, but he's still a badass fighter.
  • Real Men Wear Pink: He may have a Gender-Blender Name, and he may be a Stealth Expert who specializes in clothes and makeup, but he's still capable of fighting head-on.
  • Stage Magician: While infiltrating the Rapscallions, Midge performs magic tricks to impress them, mostly pulling chestnuts from their ears.

Friar Butty

  • Supreme Chef: In Redwall, "Friar" means "Head Cook." Butty does marvelously.

Lady Cregga Rose Eyes

Badger Lady of Salamandastron in this book. She also appears in Marlfox and Taggerung. See Redwall Multiple for her entry.

Russano the Wise

  • The Berserker: A rare aversion. Russano is one of the few Badger Lords that didn't suffer from Bloodwrath.

Damug Warfang

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/damug_1208.jpg

The son of Rapscallion Firstblade Gormad Tunn, Damug Warfang slays his brother Byral Fleetclaw and takes command of his family's thousand-strong army following his father's death. Seeking an easy victim who won't fight back, Damug steers clear of Salamandastron—where his father was mortally wounded—and instead seizes on Redwall Abbey, then saddled with a collapsing wall, as a perfect target.


  • Archenemy: Lady Cregga was the archenemy of his father and Damug has inherited the grudge. In a twist, Damug has no interest whatsoever in avenging his father or pursuing conflict with Cregga and tries to stay as far away from her as he can.
  • Avenging the Villain: Discussed. Numerous Rapscallions assumed Damug will seek revenge for his father, and his refusal to do so is a point of serious contention within his army.
  • Bad Boss: His method of executing deserters is to wrap them in heavy stones and throw them into a lake, making the rest of his horde watch as they die pleading for mercy while drowning.
  • Berserk Button: Mentioning Lady Cregga Rose-Eyes will instantly set him off, as will even a suggestion that you might be questioning his newfound authority.
  • Big Bad: Of The Long Patrol
  • Combat Pragmatist: Damug can fight, but he'd rather cheat, rigging the duel with his brother beforehand. When his back is to the wall, however, he's actually one of the toughest villains in the series.
  • Cool Helmet: A massive spiked helmet with a skull atop it.
  • Cool Sword: It actually determines how the Rapscallions raid. Each new leader tosses the sword into the air, and the edge facing up determines whether they'll raid the coasts or plunder the land.
  • Crazy-Prepared: Damug is a cunning leader who has plans for all sorts of situations.
    • He appoints an advisor, Lugworm, but has another, secret, advisor who he trusts more, because as Damug says, it's important to have "watchers watching watchers."
    • Damug knows about Borumm and Vendace, the treacherous advisors who are plotting against him, well before they actually try anything. He even knows that Lugworm knows about them, so he asks Lugworm if everyone approves of Damug as a leader to see if Lugworm will mention them (as a test of Lugworm's loyalty.)
    • Damug figures out the night that Borumm and Vendace will try to kill him. On that night, he wraps a bunch of rocks in his cloak to make it look like he's sleeping, and has ten heavily armed guards hide nearby. Borumm and Vendace are fooled by Damug's trap and captured by the guards.
    • Damug is constantly sending out scouts to investigate new areas before his army reaches them.
  • Cruel Mercy: He spares Borumm, Vendace, Lugworm, and their lackeys, with the intention of sending them into battle at the front of the horde, armed only with their chains. In the meantime he forces them to stand in freezing water up to their necks.
  • Expy: He's essentially a younger Cluny the Scourge, just starting out on his villainous career with an army he's inherited from his father, and looking to make a name for himself.
  • Foil: To Tammo. Both are young beasts trying to step into the shoes of a famous father.
  • Four-Star Badass: While he's not the eager fighter that Cluny was, he's still a strategist that knows how to direct his massive army to devastating effect, and though he's absolutely no match for Lady Cregga in single combat, he's still able to permanently blind her before she kills him.
  • Fratricide: Killed his brother in a duel in order to become Firstblade.
  • Genuine Human Hide: Wears a snakeskin belt and lizard skin sandals and gauntlets. Since snakes and lizards are intelligent beings in the Redwall universe, this is the equivalent of a person wearing human skin.
  • Inadequate Inheritor: His father was widely regarded as the greatest of the Greatrats and the Rapscallion Firstblades. Damug spends most of the book trying to prove that he's worthy to inherit his father's mantle and putting down revolts from former supporters of his brother Byral, who see him as half the beast his father was.
  • Know When to Fold 'Em: From the very start of the novel, Damug knows that as mighty as his horde is, it's no match for Lady Cregga and the Long Patrol, and his main motivation for moving the Rapscallions inland is to get as far away from Salamandastron as possible.
  • Large and in Charge: Greatrats are all of immense size and only they can lead the Rapscallions.
  • Mood-Swinger: Damug swings from pleasant to violently enraged very quickly, especially if his authority is questioned or Lady Cregga is mentioned.
  • Neck Lift: Does it to Midge Manycoats when the latter, in disguise as a Seer, takes too long to relay information that Damug wants.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: He seems to be the sort who cheats in personal duels and leads large-scale battles from the rear instead of fighting on the front lines, but when Cregga Rose-Eyes attacks him, he ends up inflicting vicious wounds that nearly result in a Mutual Kill.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: His battle with Lady Cregga takes place almost entirely offscreen, after she grabs him and then leaps from the ridge.
  • Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: He's the Younger Villain to Lady Cregga's Older Hero. Cregga's the Lady of Salamandastron and a contemporary of Damug's father, Gormad Tunn. While Damug's age isn't stated, he's quite a bit younger than Cregga, and may not be all that much older than protagonist Tammo.
  • Pet the Dog: While Damug is a Bad Boss overall, he does one thing that is surprisingly decent for a vermin leader. After Vendace and Borumm convince Damug's scouts (who were forced to stand in a cold river) to join them, Lousewort is the only one who is left behind. When Lousewort recovers from being knocked out by Borumm, he immediately reports what happened to Damug. While most vermin leaders would fly into a rage and kill Lousewort for being incompetent or letting them get away, Damug actually notices that Lousewort is seemingly loyal (in actuality, he would have deserted to if he hadn’t been knocked out for protesting the murder of an untrustworthy ally), despite his incompetence. Damug demotes Lousewort back to his original job (which lets him reconnect with his old friend Sneezewort, although Damug may not have known this) and appoints a new scout team with a more competent leader.
  • Rodents of Unusual Size: As a Greatrat, he towers over most other rats.
  • Skeletons in the Coat Closet: Has a skull on the spike of his helmet.
  • Uriah Gambit: When Lugworm, Borumm, and Vendace attempt to overthrow Damug, instead of killing them like most Redwall villains would, Damug has the three chained together, planning to force them onto the frontlines, unarmed. Subverted in that the three escape before they are ever forced onto the frontlines.
  • Villainous Underdog: In his battle with Lady Cregga, who as a badger is many times Damug's size. Having seen her mortally wound his father, who was larger and stronger than him, Damug has no interest in fighting her head on, though in the end, Cregga gives him little choice.
  • We Have Reserves: In a series where armies normally number in the hundreds, Damug's numbers one thousand. More than any other warlord in the series (aside from maybe Ferahgo and Ungatt Trunn), he can afford to take casualties and he uses this to his advantage.
  • You Dirty Rat!: A "Greatrat", and thoroughly evil.
  • You Have Failed Me: Discussed and subverted. Sneezewort and Lousewort desert the camp and run for their lives after the prisoners they were guarding escape. Sneezewort and Lousewort know that Damug will kill them for their failure. When Damug hears about this, he plans to track down the two rats and kill them after he takes over Redwall. However, Damug is killed, and his army scattered, before he ever makes it to Redwall.

Sneezewort and Lousewort

A pair of incompetent rats in the Rapscallion army who keep getting into trouble.

  • Bumbling Henchmen Duo: They are a pair of incompetent villains who are always together.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Calling Lousewort "evil" is kind of a stretch due to his incompetence, but he's still appalled when Borumm decides to kill Lugworm during the breakout.
  • Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: They're both just Mooks with names, and they're not too good at it. Lousewort got promoted and sucked royally at it.
  • Mauve Shirt: They're not anyone of importance or competence; just two low-ranking foot soldiers that none of the protagonists would waste more than a sentence's worth of action dispatching. Despite this, they stick around long enough to get some proper characterization.
  • Plucky Comic Relief: They are the only comic relief among the serious and cruel villains in this book.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After repeated misfortunes in the service of the Rapscallion horde, they both decide to desert before they end up being killed. Like Ashleg in Mossflower, they succeed in doing so, and it probably saved their lives.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Sneezewort constantly berates Lousewort for his stupidity, and the two have a falling out when the latter gets promoted. However, they end up reconciling before long, and stick together for the rest of the book.

Lugworm

A stoat who temporarily became Damug's main advisor after Damug became the Rapscallion.
  • Butt-Monkey: Lugworm is constantly abused, and his life threatened, by Damug, Borumm, and Vendace.
  • The Dragon: Subverted. Lugworm thinks he's Damug's top advisor, and provides a lot of assistance to him. But as it turns out, Damug doesn't fully trust Lugworm, so he has a secret advisor, Gribble, watching Lugworm.
  • Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Lugworm betrays Damug by siding with Borumm and Vendace after Damug strangles Lugworm, almost to death.
  • Nervous Wreck: Lugworm is in constant fear due to multiple characters threatening his life. When he conspires with Borumm and Vendace, Lugworm is terrified that the scheme won't work. He turns out to be right.
  • Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Borumm certainly thinks Lugworm deserves this "reward," as he kills Lugworm for being a traitor.
  • Wicked Weasel: A sneaky, cunning stoat.

Borumm and Vendace

A weasel and a fox, respectively, who work as advisors in the Rapscallion army. They are not fond of Damug and attempt to overthrow him. It doesn't work out.

  • Cement Shoes: They and their remaining followers are executed by having heavy stones tied to them and being thrown into a deep river.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Downplayed. They are scheming advisors who aspire to take over the army they serve. They work with Lugworm before betraying him too. However, they seem to be genuine in their attempt to help the scouts that Damug punished. It's unclear if Borumm and Vendace would have betrayed the scouts too. Also, they have something of a Villainous Friendship that seems to prevent them from plotting against each other.
  • Cunning Like a Fox: Vendace is a scheming fox.
  • Hypocrite: Borumm is plotting against Damug, yet he kills Lugworm just for being a traitor (to Damug)... which is exactly what Borumm and Vendace are too.
  • Pet the Dog: After Borumm and Vendace escape captivity, they realize that Damug has forced many of his trackers to stand in a freezing cold stream. Borumm and Vendace offer them a chance to leave the Rapscallions and join them. They even help the ones who comply out of the stream. But Borumm subverts this and turns it into Kick the Dog when Lugworm asks for help getting out. Borumm hypocritically accuses him of being a traitor and kills him.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Borumm is more violent and prone to lashing out at other beasts. Vendace is a little more cool and level-headed.
  • The Starscream: They attempt to kill Damug and take his place as leaders of the Rapscallions.
  • Treacherous Advisor: They are advisors to the Rapscallion army, but they don't like that Damug became the leader and want to overthrow him.
  • Villainous Friendship: While they are a pair of Treacherous Advisors, they're usually very friendly to each other.
  • Wicked Weasel: Borumm is a scheming weasel.

Hogspit

A big, mean weasel in the Rapscallion army. He often picks on Sneezewort and Lousewort for their stupidity, although Hogspit is hardly smarter himself.

  • Barbaric Bully: Hogspit is clearly the type who loves picking on those smaller than him. He's constantly yelling at or injuring Sneezewort and Lousewort.
  • The Brute: Hogspit is an enemy soldier described as "big" and "nasty-looking." He's all brawn and no brains.
  • Bullying a Dragon: Hogspit attempts to rob Log-a-Log, believing him to be a feeble old man. When Log-a-Log disrespects him, Hogspit goes into a rage and tries to kill him. However, Log-a-Log turns out to be a much better fighter than Hogspit, and he eventually kills Hogspit when Hogspit tries to strike while Log-a-Log's back is turned.
  • The Comically Serious: Hogspit is not funny on his own. The only funny moments he's involved in are when Sneezewort and Lousewort's bungling ends up hurting him, and he gets mad at them.
  • Dumb Muscle: Hogspit is a tough brute, but very lacking in intelligence.
  • Embarrassing Nickname: Vermin usually have sinister-sounding names, but "Hogspit" is just plain unflattering. This is fitting because he's a Hate Sink, even for a vermin.
  • Gonk: Hogspit is described as "ugly" among other things. It's not clear what makes him ugly, but this is fitting for a character who's meant to be despicable in every way.
  • Hate Sink: He's just a big, cruel bully who exists to be hated.
  • Spiteful Spit: He does this during his duel with Log a Log. This prompts the unamused shrew chieftain to demonstrate how outclassed Hogspit is in short order.
  • Too Dumb to Live: After demonstrating how easily he could have killed Hogspit at any point during their fight, Log a Log turns his back and gives the weasel a chance to leave. Hogspit decides to charge him. Considering how that sort of thing hadn't been working the whole fight, it's no surprise when Log a Log quickly turns and runs him through.
  • Wicked Weasel: An evil weasel. Unlike most examples of this trope, though, he's Dumb Muscle.

Rinkul

A scout from a portion of the Rapscallion Horde that got separated from the rest when they fled from Salamandastron. His discovery of Redwall's damaged wall is what leads Damug Warfang to begin marching his army towards it. Even leaving that aside, certain actions on his part earn him Tammo's personal enmity.

  • Arch-Enemy: A one-sided version, as Tammo personally hates him for his part in the death of Russa. Rinkul, however, never finds out about this enmity, not even when Tammo kills him.
  • Dirty Coward: When the rest of his fellow Rapscallions are drowning in a swamp, his sole focus is on self-preservation.
  • Hero Killer: Whether he struck the fatal blow himself is unclear, but he was part of the force that mortally wounded Russa, and he took her iconic walking staff. Later, he does personally deal a fatal wound to Rockjaw Grang.
  • Hypercompetent Sidekick: He's easily the most competent member of Damug Warfang's forces that we come to know by name. He's not a screw-up like Sneezewort or Lousewort, he doesn't underestimate his foes like Hogspit, and he actually manages to kill a couple of the heroes.
  • Knight of Cerebus: Of all the named members of the Rapscallion horde who aren't Damug Warfang himself, Rinkul ends up causing the most trouble.
  • Lack of Empathy: After watching the rest of his fellow surviving vermin get sucked under the thick mud of a swamp, his only reaction is to shrug to himself before going on his way.
  • Properly Paranoid: Rinkul doesn't trust the two strange vermin who show up at the Rapscallion camp and claim to be soothsayers. As they actually happen to be Midge and Tammo in disguise, he's more right than he ever finds out.

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