Mat Cauthon - Son of Battles

Son of Battles

Despite a substantial aversion to fighting, Mat's re-filled memories make him a consummate strategist and tactician; he remembers battles and strategies that have been lost for centuries. Mat is an incarnation of luck: in games where chance is involved, like dice or cards, he wins almost all the time; and once when on a quest for information, a randomly-chosen tavern yielded exactly what he was looking for. While Rand and Perrin also display the ta'veren's ability to bend chance, they usually create as many unlikely misfortunes as they do miracles; Mat spreads and experiences nothing but good luck. As of The Fires of Heaven, Mat hears dice rattling in his head when he is about to make a critical choice; when he has made it, the dice stop. More often than not, Mat (and, by extension, the reader) never knows what the important choice is, at least until the dice stop, and sometimes not even then: one instance of rattling ceased when a building fell on him. (He did survive. His resulting injuries also led to him being trapped in the city of Ebou Dar, where he would meet the woman he is fated to marry. Again, which topic the dice were addressing has not been specified.)

Just before the Battle of Cairhien against the Shaido, Mat attempted to leave Rand's company permanently, but upon seeing a band of soldiers about to drift into an ambush, he stopped to assist them. From there, luck, chance, his encyclopedic knowledge of warcraft, and (to his disgust) a growing sense of responsibility brought him from the fringes of the battle to its center, where he personally slew Couladin, the Shaido leader, and helped bring victory to the Dragon Reborn. He also gained the allegiance of a multinational coalition of soldiers who would follow him into the Pit of Doom if he led them. This new army, Shen an Calhar, the Band of the Red Hand, is personally loyal to Mat, believing that, under his leadership, they cannot be beaten. In Mat's absence (see below), Shen an Calhar has been doubled in size by his trusted general Talmanes, currently numbering around 30,000 men.