Nodonn
Names: NodonnNodonn BattlemasterBattlemaster of the Hostthe BattlemasterLord and Battlemastermy daemon loverLord of SwordsCrown PrinceSun-FaceBrother BattlemasterApolloLord NodonnNodonn Lord of Goriahthe sun-godthe Godthe God from the Seamy God from the SeaheNordonnGod of JoyLord GodLord BattlemasterNodonn of the Sliver HandOne-Handed Warriordaemon lovermy lovethe heroTonn
First appears in Book 1: THE MANY-COLORED LAND, chapter 39 (1)
Appearances
What you know
Book 1: THE MANY-COLORED LAND
- Ch 46Tanu Battlemaster and Lord of Goriah in Brittany; can levitate fifty riders by psychokinesis.
Book 2: The golden torc
- Ch 1Lord Nodonn Battlemaster leads the PK Guild and is currently at his home city of Goriah.
- Ch 4Nodonn, in Goriah, is the obvious heir to the Thagdal despite a flaw, and agrees Elizabeth threatens the dynasty.
- Ch 7Mayvar had settled on Nodonn as Thagdal's heir for lack of better, but considers his metapsychic flame meager.
- Ch 8Nodonn is the Tanu Battlemaster and Lord of Goriah; he strikes the plesiosaur with a thunderbolt and leads the Hunt.
- Ch 8Nodonn has a new bride, Rosmar, whom he loves and with whom he shares mental communion.
- Ch 8Nodonn received a farspoken message from his mother and must go to Muriah with a captured armored reptile and a small escort.
- Ch 8Nodonn intends to deal with Delbaeth before someone else does, to avoid shaming his House.
- Ch 8Nodonn fears newly arrived humans who refuse Tanu mastery and would seize or destroy the land; he curses the time-gate.
- Ch 10Nodonn is Lord of Goriah and will join Aiken in the Delbaeth Quest; he arrives with a present for Aiken's testing from the marshes of Laar.
- Ch 10Nodonn set the contest: Aiken could use no overt mental force, only strength, bravery and cunning, against Phobosuchus.
- Ch 10After the ceremony Nodonn and the King mount to the royal box looking grim.
- Ch 11Nodonn is Mercy's Tanu lover, who left on a Quest and entrusted her to Bryan; he will challenge the Thagdal for kingship.
- Ch 12Has taken the human woman Rosmar as wife and long warned against human mixing; is on the Delbaeth Quest and shares it with Aiken Drum.
- Ch 13Nodonn is the Battlemaster, who mocks Aiken's plan and promises not to spy on them with flares.
- Ch 16Nodonn Battlemaster wants Finiah rebuilt only as a fortified mining settlement and blames the time-gate and human dependence for the disaster.
- Ch 16Nodonn prophesies the death of the Many-Colored Land unless humans are shut out by closing the time-portal.
- Ch 22Battlemaster Lord of Goriah and Mercy's husband; Ogmol suspects he is behind the challenge as part of the Host's push to take over the Guilds.
- Ch 22Nodonn admits he cannot control the entire Host, many of whom believe all humankind to be harmful.
- Ch 22Nodonn orders Culluket to keep Bryan safe, happy and unaware until the Combat ends, since Bryan is a vital witness for the prosecution.
- Ch 23Nodonn fears humanity as a racial menace to the Tanu and advocates draconian measures; the survey could justify his warnings.
- Ch 25Plans to force the anthropologist to reveal the truth at the Grand Combat, then unleash the Tanu on Gomnol, Aiken Drum and human sympathizers.
- Ch 25Wants to return the Tanu to the old customs and sees humans as the danger, and he intends to become king.
- Ch 25Plans to let Felice fight as a gray gladiator, send other conspirators to the Great Retort, and has a special plan for Guderian.
- Ch 25Tortured Culluket mentally with illusory pain for doubting the loyalty of Mercy-Rosmar, then removed it, showing his great mental power.
- Ch 27Nodonn leads the Host and might try to take credit for exposing the plot; Aiken and Gomnol want to catch saboteurs first.
- Ch 29Nodonn appeared to Claude and Angélique as the face of Apollo, telling them he had chosen them to close the time-gate.
- Ch 29Nodonn could not close the time-gate himself because the torced guardians would detect his intervention; the pair had to act freely and visibly.
- Ch 29Nodonn wants his people to believe Claude and Angélique alone closed the gate, removing the insurgent leader and Finiah's bomber.
- Ch 32As Battlemaster, Nodonn is offered the photon Sword by Thagdal's deputation and uses it to pierce the clouds, opening the sky for the Combat.
- Ch 32Nodonn, if he defeats Aiken, intends to become king and restore the old ways, according to Mercy.
- Ch 33Nodonn is Thagdal's designated heir, but is considered eugenically weaker than Aiken Drum by provincial lords.
- Ch 35Nodonn, President of the Psychokinetics Guild, delegated his brother Kuhal Earthshaker as Second because he himself became Tanu Battlemaster.
- Ch 36Nodonn rose blazing into the air on an armored charger and gave the Tanu war cry 'Na bardito!' to start the battle.
- Ch 37Nodonn is Battlemaster of the Tanu. He admits he erred in making Velteyn a commander and orders the Skin opened to fighting grays.
- Ch 37Nodonn denounces Tanu dependence on humanity and says a human now aspires to High Kingship.
- Ch 38Apollo, the Battlemaster, twisted statistics to justify closing the time-gate while sparing Mercy and loyal hybrids.
- Ch 39Nodonn is the Tanu Battlemaster and heir apparent, now challenged by Aiken Drum for field leadership of the Tanu.
- Ch 39Nodonn forbids Aiken to use the Spear on Pallol, saying it may be used only against Nodonn.
- Ch 40Nodonn is the heroic Tanu champion, carrying the Sword of Sharn, who is opposed to Lugonn in the last Combat.
Book 3: The nonborn king
- Ch 1Battlemaster of the Tanu, with a rosy-gold aura; he decreed the alien operants must be destroyed because they do not wear the golden tore.
- Ch 1Nodonn wields the Sword of Sharn, lost his favorite chaliko and his Flying Hunt was decimated in the ambush near the Donaar River.
- Ch 4Nodonn, the Battlemaster, drowned. Aiken says he was nearly sterile and was made crown prince only because the Host of Nontusvel forced him on the Thagdal.
- Ch 8Huldah found him in a reef-filled cove and nursed him for months; he remains in an endless sleep, his eyes never opened, one hand lost.
- Ch 11Nodonn, who previously held Aiken's lands and Goriah, is drowned.
- Ch 18Nodonn, Mercy's daemon lover, is dead; his bones rest in the mud of the New Sea.
- Ch 19The man wakes paralyzed, his farsight blind and without any metapsychic faculty, able to move only his eyes.
- Ch 19His right arm ends in a stump below the elbow; the hand was lost to injury, a hyena's poisonous bite and amputation.
- Ch 19Grandpa insults him as a high-and-mighty Tanu, implying he is a Tanu.
- Ch 19Huldah found him at the edge of a lagoon below her cliffs, wearing glass gloves, one of which was missing.
- Ch 27Nodonn was Mercy's daemon lover and is dead; she calls to him on his intimate mode but gets no answer.
- Ch 28Paralyzed except for face and neck, he has lain helpless for six months in a Kersican cave, cared for by Huldah and Isak Henning.
- Ch 28Huldah's worship in his glowing glass armor restored his mobility and his psychic power, letting him rise and act.
- Ch 28Nodonn kills Isak Henning by wrenching his head off, but spares Huldah because she carries his unborn son.
- Ch 28After eight hundred years he has fathered only weak daughters; he suspects Firvulag genes in Huldah allowed the strong son.
- Ch 28His creative and psychokinetic powers are greatly diminished; he can barely cut a staff or aid his legs, and weakens quickly.
- Ch 28A precognitive warning tells him not to broadcast his survival to the Host or mainland cities, and he calls only Mercy.
- Ch 28He has a carved wooden right hand, which he can use with PK; his right gauntlet is missing.
- Ch 31Nodonn is alive and hidden, and is Mercy's secret true lover, according to her dreams.
- Ch 32Nodonn, the Battlemaster, returns from over six months cast away on Kersic, missing a hand (now a wooden prosthesis) and with powers returning.
- Ch 32Only Mercy-Rosmar and Moreyn know Nodonn is alive; he plans to reclaim his own and defeat Aiken Drum.
- Ch 32Nodonn carries the holy Sword and armor Moreyn made three hundred years ago, though he lost one gauntlet.
- Ch 32Nodonn recalls Claude's words 'We came from here' and is shaken by the idea that humans descend from the Old Ones.
- Ch 35Nodonn survived in a coma on Kersic, tended by a Lowlife woman, and is now hidden in Var-Mesk under Lord Moreyn's care.
- Ch 37As he recovered, Nodonn grew bored, helped the ramas load trona cars, and drilled the citadel's mice like an army.
- Ch 37Nodonn is missing a hand and forearm; a wooden prosthesis carved by Isak Henning replaced it, which he moves by psychokinesis.
- Ch 37Nodonn cannot farsense Aiken Drum, a strong mind-guarder, and can only spy on him through Mercy.
- Ch 37Nodonn refuses to wait nine months in Skin to regrow his hand and plans to move against Aiken soon, while Aiken's mind is weakened.
- Ch 37Nodonn confesses that he was forced to sleep with Huldah, who now carries his son, though he admits he took dark joy in the shaming.
- Ch 39Kuhal's brother; the only Tanu who perceived the hazard in the developing Tanu-human relationship and warned of it.
- Ch 40Aiken says Nodonn is gathering reactionary, human-hating knights in Afaliah and may challenge him at the Tourney with the Sword.
- Ch 41A Tanu prince regarded by the Firvulag as honorable and chivalrous, who would keep a promise.
- Ch 42Nodonn plans to attack Aiken Drum in Goriah quickly, before Aiken recovers further, and to meet him in the ritual contest of Sword against Spear.
- Ch 42Nodonn is weakened and unable to carry a full Flying Hunt north, so he proposes a small team of powerful knights striking with mindpower instead.
- Ch 43Mercy expects Nodonn to come against Aiken and says the Milieu weapons must be saved for him.
- Ch 44Nodonn leads the invasion of Goriah with two rho-field aircraft and about 200 knights, intending to find and personally fight Aiken Drum.
- Ch 44Nodonn loved Mercy and mourned her. He believes Aiken killed her to heal his own broken mind.
- Ch 44In the duel, Nodonn spends his full power against Aiken and is left helpless; Aiken's PK strips away his Sword and harness.
Book 4: The adversary
- Ch 2Died on the day of the King's victory.
- Ch 4Nodonn is dead; he led the failed attack on the Castle of Glass and blasted away its great spire.
- Ch 6Nodonn was reportedly defeated, and the Firvulag mission to demand return of their sacred Sword was aborted.
Connections
- member ofTanu
- leadsPK Guild
- family ofQueen Nontusvelson/brother of the siblings
- partner ofMercedes Lamballenewly married
- leadsThe Hunt
- leadsGoriah
- enemy ofFirvulag
- family ofFian Skybreakertwin brother
- family ofKuhaltwin brother
- related toPhobosuchussubdued and transported it for the contest
- enemy ofThagdalplans to challenge him for kingship
- related toKuhaldeputy
- ally ofThagdalBattlemaster serving the High King
- family ofLord Velteynbrothers
- member ofHost of Nontusvel
- family ofMercedes Lamballewife
- family ofCulluketyounger brother
- enemy ofClaude Majewski
- related toThagdaldeputy of the King
- family ofThagdalson and designated heir
- family ofLord Imidolbrothers
- leadsBryan Grenfellcompels him through the torc
- enemy ofAiken Drumrivals for Tanu field leadership
- ally ofLord Imidol
- family ofAgrayneldaughter
- related toHuldahdevoted worshipper and nurse; hopes he will awaken and love her
- enemy ofIsak HenningIsak wishes to hurt him
- has memberKuhalserved as his Second Lord Psychokinetic
- ally ofMercedes Lamballe
- ally ofMoreyn Glasscraftercares for him in hiding
- created byIsak Henningcarved his wooden hand
- ally ofCloud
- ally ofCeladeyr
- enemy ofBasil's Bastardswere betrayed into his hands
- related toflyerstook them to Afaliah
Key moments
- Book 2 · Ch 4Plan to compel Elizabeth's self-destruction
Imidol and Culluket will design a compulsion to self-destruction, powered by the Host members in Muriah, while waiting for Nodonn and Grand Combat. They resolve to act after Brede's initiation and to hide it from the Thagdal and Gomnol.
- Book 2 · Ch 7Mayvar prepares Aiken for the Delbaeth Quest
After repairing her clock and another testing, Mayvar gives Aiken the golden torc, explains the politics behind his boast to slay Delbaeth, and promises training and a secret weapon from her cellar.
- Book 2 · Ch 8The Hunt kills a plesiosaur
Nodonn stuns a plesiosaur in the Gulf of Aquitaine with lightning; Vrenol wounds and beheads it, taking the trophy head.
- Book 2 · Ch 8Nodonn reveals his troubles
Nodonn tells Rosmar they must go to Muriah on his mother's summons, voices worries about Delbaeth and hostile new humans, and Rosmar pledges to fight with him.
- Book 2 · Ch 10Nodonn arrives
Nodonn and Rosmar arrive; Rosmar reunites with Bryan. Nodonn goes to the arena, and Raimo desperately seeks Aiken.
- Book 2 · Ch 10Aiken kills Phobosuchus
Thrown by his terrified chaliko, Aiken evades and rides Phobosuchus to the crowd's delight, then kills it with his lance through the skull.
- Book 2 · Ch 10Aiken's accolade
King Thagdal knights Aiken; Mayvar forbids him a Tanu name for now, and he is sent on the Delbaeth Quest.
- Book 2 · Ch 11Mercy reveals her powers and plans
Mercy conjures cherries, explains her creator powers, ambitions with Nodonn and the Thagdal's child, then seduces Bryan and secures his promise to help her.
- Book 2 · Ch 13Aiken and Stein enter Delbaeth's cave
After the Hunt loses Delbaeth underground, Aiken and Stein defy the King's ridicule, shed armor and vanish into the cave as bats while several Tanu agree to wait three days.
- Book 2 · Ch 16Arrival of new time-travelers
At dawn, Pitkin receives several batches of costumed time-travelers and cargo at the time-portal under the watch of the Tanu leaders; guardians frisk them for iron and sort them.
- Book 2 · Ch 16Dispute over the fate of Finiah
The leaders debate rebuilding Finiah. Nodonn wants a fortified mining outpost and blames the time-gate; Thagdal and Gomnol offer a new city; Velteyn accepts and vows revenge at the Grand Combat.
- Book 2 · Ch 22Bryan handed over to Culluket
At Redact House Nodonn and Culluket receive the sleeping Bryan. Nodonn orders him protected and kept unaware until the Combat ends, then leaves with Mercy for Creation House to deal with the computer.
- Book 2 · Ch 25Sukey's treason exposed
The Queen and Culluket reveal Sukey's plot knowledge and marriage to Stein; she is condemned as an outlaw human, and Stein is imprisoned.
- Book 2 · Ch 25Nodonn reveals his strategy
Nodonn outlines his plan to exploit the planned raid and expose the survey at the Grand Combat, summoning the top fighters to a reunion luncheon, and reveals Mercy's genes.
- Book 2 · Ch 29Nodonn's compact
Nodonn confronts Claude and Angélique in a mental vision, revealing he wants them to close the time-gate visibly so the Tanu will blame them; they accept, defiant.
- Book 2 · Ch 30Culluket breaks Felice's body but not her will
Culluket tortures and violates Felice, extracting secrets for Nodonn, but cannot make her cry out; he fits her with a gray torc and sends her to a deep cell.
- Book 2 · Ch 32Opening of the Grand Combat
Tanu and Firvulag armies assemble on the Plain; Eadone declares the First Day, and Nodonn pierces the clouds with the photon Sword so the sky opens and the Combat begins.
- Book 2 · Ch 33Thagdal confides in Nontusvel
After the chariot races, Thagdal tells the Queen of defections, escapes and Aiken Drum's rising support. They console each other.
- Book 2 · Ch 36The Grand Combat begins
At sunrise the Firvulag charge and Nodonn leads the Tanu cry; the two armies clash on the White Silver Plain in the first day of the three-day battle.
- Book 2 · Ch 37Brothers' council before dawn
Nodonn and his brothers survey the battlefield, assess losses including Velteyn, and plan to move wounded golds to Redact House and admit fighting grays to the Skin.
- Book 2 · Ch 37Nodonn presents Bryan's survey
At the banquet, Nodonn brings the torc-compelled Bryan before the Tanu to expose the consequences of human assimilation, while Celadeyr defiantly backs Aiken Drum.
- Book 2 · Ch 39Banners are planted for the Heroic Encounters
Firvulag and Tanu champions rally behind Pallol, Nodonn and Aiken Drum, revealing a split among the Tanu. A cloaked woman with the chain of silence calms the crowd and the Marshal opens the Encounters.
- Book 2 · Ch 39Aiken gains permission to fight Pallol his own way
After Imidol's loss, Aiken offers to kill Pallol the human way, showing the champions his plan. Nodonn confers with the High Table and permits it.
- Book 2 · Ch 40Aiken named Lugonn and defies Thagdal
Mayvar names Aiken the Shining One, Young Lugonn. He plants the Sword of Sharn before Thagdal instead of giving fealty; Brede ordains a final Combat of Sword and Spear.
- Book 2 · Ch 40The great flood
The Spain-Africa dike collapses and a 230-meter wave sweeps over the White Silver Plain as the champions clash, drowning Thagdal and the gathered multitude.
- Book 2 · Ch 41Aiken Drum rescues Mercy
Adrift and despairing, Mercy is found by Aiken Drum aboard the floating Kral, who lifts her aboard and restores her.
- Book 3 · Ch 1Council at the force-field
Tanu leaders learn from Gomnol's mindspeech that the invaders are defeated rebels seeking only to leave for North America. Nodonn rejects Gomnol's alliance plea and orders them destroyed.
- Book 3 · Ch 1Ambush on the Donaar and invaders' escape
Three days later, the Tanu ambush failed: 419 knights died, including Hual and Mitheyn, and Leyr was maimed. The invaders reached the Atlantic and sailed away; the king hid the affair.
- Book 3 · Ch 4Aiken's love exposed
Mercy probes Aiken's mind and discovers his love. They quarrel over Nodonn and the baby. She says she will marry him in May, and he admits he already loves her and that the meteors were not his doing.
- Book 3 · Ch 8Isak sends Huldah to keep watch
Isak nags Huldah into climbing to the promontory to watch for the Flying Hunt and light a signal fire. She first overpowers him to make him swear not to harm the God, then goes.
- Book 3 · Ch 8Huldah resolves to kill Grandpa
At the promontory, Huldah recalls finding the God in the cove and decides that when he awakens and loves her, they will kill Isak.
- Book 3 · Ch 19The helpless god awakens
A paralyzed, powerless man wakes in a cave, fed mouth to mouth by Huldah. Grandpa abuses him until Huldah beats the old man into promising to stop.
- Book 3 · Ch 19Wooden hand and forced union
Huldah shows the man his amputated arm and the wooden hand Grandpa made. She then oils his body and arouses him despite his resistance, and has sex with him while Grandpa is allowed to watch.
- Book 3 · Ch 28Huldah's worship awakens Nodonn
Huldah dresses the paralyzed Nodonn in his glass armor and mounts him. The armor blazes and he recovers movement and power.
- Book 3 · Ch 28Nodonn kills Isak Henning
Nodonn finds Isak spying and tears off his head. Isak's dying cry leads Nodonn to sense Huldah's male fetus, so he spares her.
- Book 3 · Ch 28Nodonn calls Mercy
Weak, Nodonn climbs a promontory, sees the drowned land, and heeds a warning not to reveal himself. He sends a call only to Mercy.
- Book 3 · Ch 31Aiken sees Nodonn in Mercy's dream
After the contact, Aiken probes Mercy's dream again and confirms her lover is Nodonn Battlemaster, alive and hidden.
- Book 3 · Ch 32Moreyn finds Nodonn
Moreyn meets the cast-away Nodonn on the beach, learns of his plans and the kingship law, hears the Tanu-human kinship rumors, and takes him toward Var-Mesk to hide him.
- Book 3 · Ch 35Mercy tells the Tanu lords Nodonn lives
Mercy and Culluket meet Celadeyr, Aluteyn and Kuhal inside a sigma-field. She reveals Nodonn lives and proposes flight; they refuse, learn Abaddon's identity, and resolve to cooperate with Aiken's raid.
- Book 3 · Ch 37Nodonn and Mercy reunite
The lovers reunite, confess their defilements, and discuss deposing Aiken, Mercy's foreseen death, Abaddon and Cloud Remillard. Nodonn asks she may have to return to Aiken, though she may stay a while.
- Book 3 · Ch 37The silver hand
Mercy transmutes silverware into a mirror-bright silver hand for Nodonn, who vows to wear it until he destroys Aiken Drum and becomes King.
- Book 3 · Ch 40Aiken confronts Mercy
Aiken accuses Mercy of serving Felice, taunts about Nodonn's plans, and warns she may engineer her own defeat; Mercy stays and gives herself to him.
- Book 3 · Ch 41Tony's confession and the royal plot
Tony tells of the Lowlife aircraft in the Vale of Hyenas. Afterward the Firvulag rulers plan to tip Nodonn off so the Tanu seize the aircraft and attack Aiken Drum, for the Sword.
- Book 3 · Ch 42Planning the aircraft seizure
Nodonn, Kuhal and Celadeyr plan to take the ancient aircraft from the Vale of Hyenas for an attack on Aiken Drum, but need a human to neutralize the human guards; Kuhal has an idea.
- Book 3 · Ch 42Capture of the Vale of Hyenas
Cloud enters the camp as a feigned intruder, redacts everyone, cuts Basil's golden tore, and summons Nodonn's knights; the prisoners are knocked unconscious and taken to Afaliah.
- Book 3 · Ch 44Kite trap destroys Nodonn's aircraft
Nodonn's two rhocraft fly into Aiken's conductive kite swarm and are grounded. Nodonn's flyer falls into the sea, and Aiken's Spear destroys Thufan's trapped flyer.
- Book 3 · Ch 44Battle in the Castle of Glass
Nodonn's knights fight loyalists in the courtyard. Congreve's elite guards stun Celadeyr's force after it surrenders. Kuhal finds Mercy's body in Aiken's bedroom, and Nodonn turns it to ash.
- Book 3 · Ch 44Duel of Nodonn and Aiken Drum
Above the Strait of Redon, Nodonn attacks furiously while Aiken stays passive. After Nodonn spends all his power, Aiken disarms him and absorbs his power, killing him, then returns home at dawn.