Changes: Mat Cauthon

Revision as of 08:04, 28 January 2015

"I am a free man, Aes Sedai. I am no Aes Sedai meat."
—Mat Cauthon, in the Old Tongue, to the Amyrlin Seat

For others with the same surname, see Cauthon.

Matrim "Mat" Cauthon is one of the main characters of the series. He is the Marshal-General of the Band of the Red Hand, and the husband of the Empress of the Seanchan empire, as well as one of the greatest generals the world has ever seen. Many of his changes through the story reflect a strong connection to the Norse god Odin.

Appearance

He is as long-limbed as a stork, with a wiry body and brown eyes, as well as a scar around his neck after his first run-in with the Eelfinn.

He is also missing his left eye as a result of a third encounter with the Aelfinn and the Eelfinn. This fulfills the Aelfinn's prophecy made when he first entered the redstone doorframe in Tear.

Personality

Mat is often described as lazy, roguish, immature, tactless, and brazen. He is not afraid to flout any and all authority figures around him, and typically tries whatever he can to shirk responsibility and work. For example, when he first discovered his ta'veren nature, he attempts as best he can to avoid his role in the Pattern, and only reluctantly accepts what he needs to do. However, he is also extremely steadfast and loyal, and has learned over time not to shirk from his duties, no matter how much he might grumble about it. He is also extremely pragmatic, shirking possessions or clothing that is not practical or useful. He enjoys gambling and drinking, as well as pursuing women, though he is careful never to pursue one who isn't open to his attentions. This love of gambling extends to a love of tactics, as Mat views battles as being the ultimate gamble. He is also extremely derisive of nobles or anyone with a "high-born" heritage, believing that, as a general rule, they all lack common sense.

Though he matures somewhat over the course of the story, Mat's core personality remains largely intact throughout his trials and challenges. By the time the Last Battle ends, he is still fond of virtually everything he was fond of when he first set out into the world (though, as a married man, he reluctantly concedes to giving up his hobby of pursuing women). The only thing that appreciably changes about him is his attitude towards work and duty; he is still not fond of either, but will now typically accept both with a sort of "if you want something done..." attitude, particularly when it comes to commanding armies.

Mat's most obvious non-personality trait is his extraordinarily good luck. His ta'veren nature causes virtually every situation that depends on chance to work out in his favor, from dice to cards to avoiding random assassination attempts by inadvertently moving at the right time. This trait is so extreme that he was able to traverse the seemingly impossible realm of the Aelfinn and the Eelfinn by tossing dice or spinning in a circle and randomly stopping.

Mat is a virtually peerless tactician. Aided by memories of what are presumably his past lives, his tactical acumen is such that no army under his command has ever suffered a defeat, no matter what the odds seem to be. His greatest triumph on the battlefield was his defeat of the armies of the Shadow under Demandred's command during the Last Battle. Despite being almost hopelessly outnumbered by the Shadow and almost hopelessly outgunned by Demandred himself wielding Sakarnen in a full circle of seventy-two, he managed to utterly rout the forces of the Shadow through brilliant planning, mental flexibility, and his trademark luck.

"I'm no lord. I've more respect for myself than that."
—Mat^[1]

Family tree

Matrim Cauthon

Fortuona Athaem Devi Paendrag

?

? - Unnamed sisters

Activities

Meeting Moiraine

Mat was something of a black sheep in Emond's Field. Though he, Rand al'Thor, and Perrin Aybara got into trouble quite a bit, Mat was generally the force behind it. A joker and prankster, he can be very charming with women and people in authority when he wants to be, and is fond of drinking and gambling; he also swears a lot. He was led away on Winternight with Moiraine Damodred and his friends, and it was revealed that he, Rand, and Perrin were all ta'veren, the focal points around which the Wheel of Time weaves.^[2]

On their journey, they stopped in Shadar Logoth to lose the Trollocs chasing them. Mat takes Perrin and Rand to explore the city looking for treasure. While exploring, they met a man calling himself Mordeth, claiming to be a treasure hunter in need of help to carry a large amount of treasure.^[3] Heedless of the danger, Mat followed Mordeth immediately, and Perrin and Rand, unwilling to leave him behind, were forced to follow after him. After Mordeth led them to a room full of various treasures, Rand realized that Mordeth lacked a shadow. Upon announcing this, Mordeth quickly reverted to his true form and vanished through a wall. Unnoticed by Perrin or Rand, Mat picked up a ruby-hilted dagger which he carried with him on the flight from Shadar Logoth, not knowing that everything in the damned city was cursed, even the pebbles on the ground.^[4]

As time went on, the dagger made Mat increasingly sick, as well as inflaming his paranoia and hostility. On this journey the others also notice that he is able to speak the Old Tongue, but assume that it is due to his Manetheren blood. This explains why he used a Manetheren battle cry before taking the dagger.^[4]^[5]

Cursed

Later in Fal Dara, Padan Fain stole the Horn of Valere and Mat's dagger, having become tainted by Shadar Logoth's evil himself.^[6] Mat needed the dagger to sustain himself long enough to have the Aes Sedai break the curse. He journeyed with Rand, Perrin, Verin, Loial, and Ingtar first to Cairhien, where Rand had secured the Horn until Darkfriends stole it back. The journey then led them to Lord Barthanes' manor where Loial found a Waygate, and it became clear that Padan Fain had gone to Falme.^[7]^[8]^[9] In the beginning of the journey, Mat discovered that Rand was the Dragon Reborn, and felt even more estranged from his old friend.^[10]

File:Mathrim.png

In Falme, which had been overrun by the Seanchan, Mat blew the Horn of Valere, summoning heroes from beyond the grave to fight for him so he and his companions could escape.^[11] He became bound to the horn: it will work only as a regular horn for anyone else, so long as Mat lives; he is destined to blow it at Tarmon Gai'don.

He journeyed to Tar Valon with Verin, Nynaeve al'Meara, Egwene al'Vere, and Elayne Trakand.^[12] Upon reaching the White Tower he was almost dead from the dagger's blight, but the Aes Sedai broke the bond between him and the knife, almost killing him in the process of Healing.^[13] When he awoke, he found that, for a moment, he could recall the Battle of the Tarendrelle River though it quickly slipped away to join several other holes in his memory. Also, Lanfear payed him a visit while he was recovering^[14]

Death and rebirth

He left Tar Valon soon after his healing to take a letter from Elayne to her mother, Queen Morgase in Caemlyn.^[15] Thom Merrilin, whom Mat found in an inn, decided to join Mat for no other apparent reason other than that it fit his mood.^[16] In Caemlyn, Mat overheard Rahvin, disguised as Lord Gaebril, plotting to kill Elayne, Egwene, and Nynaeve in Tear—most notably Elayne, in order to aid his plot to secure the throne of Andor.^[17]

WoT Japanese WH3 — Mat, from a Japanese translation book cover

After delivering Elayne's letter to Morgase, he and Thom left for Tear.^[18] There, they found the girls taken captive inside the Stone of Tear by the Black Ajah. Mat inadvertently blew a hole in a wall of the Stone when trying to cause a diversion with fireworks Aludra had given him as thanks for her rescue. He and Juilin then mounted their rescue of the girls through this hole. Unintentionally, they aided Rand in taking the Stone of Tear, while saving the three girls from the Black Ajah (for which he didn't receive a proper thanks for some time to come).^[19]^[20]^[21] After Rand secured Tear, Mat - who had taken to gambling with young Tairen nobles - wandered through the Stone's collection of angreal and ter'angreal, and decided to enter a freestanding red stone doorway about which Egwene had told him. The ter'angreal doorway took him to the land of the Aelfinn, snakelike creatures with oracular powers. After answering Mat's questions, and possibly in a panic about multiple ta'veren inside their world (Rand - as well as Moiraine - passed through the doorframe during this same time period), they prophesied that:

He would go to Rhuidean.^[22]
If he does not go to Rhuidean he will die.^[22]
He would die, because he will have sidestepped fate and would be killed by "those who do not want that fate fulfilled."^[22]

He then refuses to leave when told, and while he is fighting is given more answers for asking what fate they were talking about before being thrown out.

To marry the Daughter of the Nine Moons.^[22]
To die and live again, and live once more as part of what was.^[22]
To give up half the light of the world to save the world.^[22]

He thereafter learned that Rand required an interpreter in the world of the Aelfinn. Mat, however, was able to understand the dialect of the Old Tongue the Aelfinn were speaking.^[22] A bit unnerved, he followed Rand to Rhuidean, in the Aiel Waste, along with Egwene, Moiraine, and Lan. When Rand was granted permission to enter Rhuidean, Mat also asked to enter.^[23] Only after Rand told the Wise Ones that if he were to enter, then Mat could enter as well, did they consent.

In the city Rhuidean, while Rand discovered his Aiel heritage, Mat found another red stone doorway. Still feeling cheated concerning the answers he received from the Aelfinn, he decided to enter. However, this redstone ter'angreal brought him instead to the land of the Eelfinn, who resemble foxes instead of snakes. He was expecting to get answers to more questions from Aelfinn, so when the Eelfinn offered him wishes instead, Mat glared at them, feeling cheated. His wishes were:

To have the holes in his memories filled,^[24]
To be free from the One Power and Aes Sedai,^[24]
To be away from the Eelfinn and return to Rhuidean if they would not answer his questions.^[24]

Since Mat did not set the price, the Eelfinn set a price for him, apparently taking delight while calling him a fool. As granted, Mat now has the memories of countless historical military leaders, thus privy to over a thousand years of cultural and military knowledge; he has a foxhead medallion that causes flows of the One Power to simply dissolve when applied to him; and Mat was found by Rand hanging by the neck in Rhuidean, suspended from a black-hafted spear set across two tree branches.^[24] Rand managed to revive Mat; however, Mat still has a scar around his neck, which he constantly cover with a scarf when not alone. He also decided to keep the spear, actually a naginata-like weapon called an ashandarei, which has become his signature weapon.^[25]

A side effect of his filled-in memories is that he is now fluent in the Old Tongue, although often with varying accents.^[26] Mat is poisoned somewhere after Rhuidean from being slobbered on by a Darkhound, which Rand kills with balefire (undoing the actual poisoning to a degree and preventing Mat's death).^[27] Mat faces death once more during Rand's invasion of Caemlyn; he was killed, along with Aviendha and Asmodean, by Rahvin's channeling.^[28] However, shortly afterward, Rand killed Rahvin with enough balefire to undo those deaths and permanently kill Rahvin. This fulfills the first Aelfinn prophecy; therefore releasing Mat as the current hornsounder and breaking his link with the Horn of Valere.^[29]

Speaking to Rand about his claim to great age as the reincarnation of Lews Therin, Moiraine says, ""You may have the memories of a man four centuries old, Rand al’Thor, but that does not make you ancient. Otherwise, Matrim Cauthon would be the patriarch of us all.” ^[30]

General

"I'm a gambler, a farmboy, and I'm here to take command of your bloody army!"
—Mat^[31]

Despite having a substantial aversion to being a warrior, Mat is now a Marshal-General to the Band of the Red Hand as a result of the dead men memories. He remembers battles and strategies which have been lost for centuries. He is also extremely lucky at random chance.

"Dovie'andi se tovya sagain (It's time to toss the dice)"
—Mat^[32]

At games like dice or cards, he wins almost all of the time. However, the situation or game must be random chance; in games of skill and order, such as Stones, he must rely on his memories and own wit for help. It should be noted however, in certain cases, Mat can lose if it is the best outcome. Rand and Perrin are also known to alter chance as ta'veren, but the effect is not so consistently specifically in their favor; a man near Rand may fall out a fourth-story window and land without a scratch, but another may trip on a tuft of grass and break his neck.

"A beautiful battle is one you don't have to fight."
—Mat^[33]

Mat's memories raise questions as to the nature of reincarnation through the Wheel; Mat remembers dying, "more times than he could count," but whether his memories are from many individual lives, or are the memories of a single person who has been re-woven into the Pattern many times, most recently as Mat Cauthon, has not been established. It's also possible that the memories are those who previously received wishes from the Eelfinn, as they rummage through the sensations of their visitors.

Matrim Cauthon — Mat leading the Band of the Red Hand

Band of the Red Hand

"Always leave a way out, unless you really want to find out how hard a man can fight when he's nothing to lose."
—Mat

Just before the Battle of Cairhien against the Shaido, Mat attempted to leave Rand's company permanently; but luck, chance and, alarmingly, a sense of responsibility drew him increasingly and unwittingly into the fight; in the end, his luck, battle lore, and sense of duty to those in danger took him to the forefront of the conflict, where he personally slew Couladin, the Shaido leader, and helped bring victory for the Dragon Reborn. He also gained the allegiance of a number of soldiers who would follow him into the Pit of Doom if he so led them. This new army is known as Shen an Calhar, the Band of the Red Hand, and is personally loyal to Mat, believing that with his luck at their head, they cannot be beaten.

The original Band of the Red Hand dates back to Manetheren, and was a unit of legendary heroes during the Trolloc Wars. They were the last to fall, guarding King Aemon when Manetheren died. The huge battles during the Trolloc Wars, accompanied by armies of 300,000 men or more, required a detailed command structure to keep everyone and everything from falling apart. The detailed structure consisted of:

A Banner, commanded by a Banner-General - each banner approximately 1,500 horse or 3,000 infantry
A Legion, commanded by a Lieutenant-General - generally five banners of horse or infantry
A Great Legion, commanded by a Captain-General
A Marshal-General, who commanded the entire army

Daughter of the Nine Moons

After doing a lot of organizing and plotting for Rand, Mat traveled to Salidar to "save" Egwene if she wanted it and hand a letter to Thom which Rand had given to him (the letter from Moiraine), but more importantly to see Elayne safely to Caemlyn so she could take up the throne of Andor. Aviendha accompanied him to Salidar as she had toh to Elayne and desired to see it ended. However, once he arrived to Salidar, he found Egwene to be the Amrylin Seat of the rebel Aes Sedai, and Elayne adamant about not going to Caemlyn as she had other business she felt was more important than the throne. Since Mat promised to see her safely to Caemlyn, he had nothing to do but follow her to Ebou Dar and keep her alive. Right before leaving, Mat recognized that the other Aes Sedai were not treating Egwene with the respect she was due, and so gave her every honor deserving of her title--something Egwene greatly appreciated. Mat then traveled to Ebou Dar with Elayne, Nynaeve, and Aviendha, and aided them in recovering the Bowl of the Winds before they were forced to flee by the invasion of the Seanchan.

Mat saliba 03 — Mat portrait by Jeremy Saliba

Queen Tylin quite enjoyed Mat's "company," although the feeling was not exactly mutual, as Mat was used to being the chaser and not the chased. He escaped Ebou Dar after it was conquered by the Seanchan, with Thom, Egeanin, and Bayle Domon, and managed to rescue two Aes Sedai from captivity. However, before they were able to make a clean escape, Tuon, a Seanchan High Lady, encountered Mat, and they had a tussle. At first, Mat was simply going to tie her up and leave her in the stables. However, when Selucia entered and named her Daughter of the Nine Moons, the woman he knew he was fated to marry, he could not leave her behind. He named her his wife three times, unknowingly completing half of the Seanchan marriage ceremony. Tuon simply smiled and let herself be taken. Mat and his coterie escape Seanchan territory by means of Valan Luca's Grand Traveling Show and Magnificent Display of Marvels and Wonders. During their journey Mat began to court Tuon in earnest, seeming to finally accept his fate. Her responses were never anything less than opaque, though, and when they finally did marry, just before her return to Ebou Dar, it seemed almost entirely a political match on her behalf, despite the fact that it was clear that Mat had sincere feelings for her. Mat aided her escape by distracting the armies sent against her using some of the Deathwatch Guards as disguise. As the prince-consort of the heir to the Crystal Throne of Seanchan, Mat is now known amongst the Seanchan as the Prince of the Ravens.

WoT Japanese TFoH6 — Mat, from a Japanese translation book cover

Out of Altara

After winning the battle with the Seanchan and sending his newlywed wife Daughter of the Nine Moons back to Ebou Dar to solidify her rule of the Seanchan, Mat continues on his journey to leave Altara and travel to Caemlyn. He expects assistance in Caemlyn to develop new weapons, resupply, and prepare a rescue mission for Moiraine at the Tower of Ghenjei. After finally entering Andor, with the threat of Seanchan pursuers more or less past, Mat is acting strangely to his new status of "husband" and the accompanying "nobility" title as the Prince of the Ravens. His band has a smooth journey save for one near-fatal night in the cursed village of Hinderstap.

After escaping the horrors of Hinderstap, Mat's band is visited by Verin Mathwin, much to his amazement at being found in the mountains of Andor. Verin explains that she had been pulled by Mat's ta'veren ability. Verin hands Mat one of the sealed letters, from among several she has, and offers to open a gateway to Caemlyn. Mat is suspiciously aware that Aes Sedai usually have strings and conditions attached for their help, and on cue Verin states her conditions. He must either read the sealed letter in exactly ten days or burn it and wait for her in Caemlyn for thirty days. Mat accepts, not intending to read the letter, and his band instantly travels to, or near Caemlyn.

Mat Cauthon — Matrim Cauthon from the CCG

Caemlyn

Mat remains in Caemlyn, deciding not to open Verin's letter. Instead he begins to wonder about the Tower of Ghenjei. He tries a few times to see Elayne, but is never accepted. Mat decides to go under cover in Caemlyn's taverns and inns to figure out who is handing out pictures of Perrin and himself, by hiding his face and going under the alias Master Crimson. Instead, Mat overhears of murders happening throughout the city; recognizing the killer as the gholam, Mat writes a hasty letter to Elayne.

That night, the gholam comes for Mat in his tent, but is forced to flee as help arrives. Mat finally gets to meet with Elayne. He strikes a deal with her: she gets her city's bell founders to get to work on his Dragons, and he is conscripted into fighting for Caemlyn under a renewable contract. They also agree that only his troops are allowed to use the Dragons. In return, Elayne receives Mat's medallion for three days to study, and a fraction of the Dragons.

Mat then plans out how to deal with the gholam, who is threatening the lives of those close to him. Elayne manages to use her talent to create copies of the medallion, though they work to a much lesser extent. Nonetheless, Mat takes the first two copies, along with the original, and he goes out to confront the gholam. He has his Redarms block off the city street as he and the gholam begin to fight. Using his medallion that is tied to his blade, and his hidden copies that are hiding on him, he fights the gholam, forcing it into a building that Talmanes had set on fire when he dropped a lantern in it. He forces it to a room containing a hidden Skimming gateway created by Sumeko and Mat kicks it into the abyss of the portal, defeating it once and for all.

When Teslyn with others prepare to depart for Tar Valon, Mat asks her to tell the Amyrlin that the White Tower has something of his (the Horn of Valere) and that he will soon return to reclaim it. After being months apart, Mat finally catches up with Perrin again in The Happy Throng in Caemlyn. There they discuss the feats they have carried out and the respective wives they have married. Mat tells Perrin about possible assassination attempts and to try not to sleep in the same tent every night. Mat then discusses his plan to rescue Moiraine from the Tower of Ghenjei.

Tower of Ghenjei

Mat, Thom, and Noal Travel to the Tower's base. Using a bronze knife, they carve the symbol of Snakes and Foxes into the tower, creating an opening, and venture within. Once inside, they begin to walk through the tower. They quickly find that logic and physics are indeed completely different, and that they would never be able to find their way by normal means. Mat decides to test his luck and roll dice to make his way through the tower. They follow the dice, having to fend off Eelfinn attacks. They eventually reach the Chamber of Bonds, where they find Moiraine trapped and suspended in mist. Thom frees Moiraine and Mat is forced to bargain with the Eelfinn to leave with Moiraine and receive unbarred passage out of the world. Realizing the meaning of the Aelfinn's predictions, he gives up half the light of the world in order to save the world, which means giving up his left eye in order to save Moiraine. Interestingly, Mat's loss of an eye correlates to a number of famous one-eyed generals from antiquity, including Hannibal and Philip II, father of Alexander the Great.

After this, they begin to make their way through the tower, Mat having bargained a straight way out. However, the Aelfinn were not part of the bargain and begin chasing the group. Knowing they have to double back between corridors in order to escape, but with the Aelfinn too hot on their trail, Noal, revealing himself as Jain Farstrider, sacrifices himself in order to allow the others enough leeway to get away.

Mat and Thom decide to attempt escaping using the Aelfinn's red archway to escape, but when they reach its location, they discover that it had been destroyed. As the Aelfinn close in on them, Mat remembers the requests that he was granted by the Eelfinn so long ago. He had asked for his memories to be filled, and so they had been and he wanted to be free of the One Power, so he was granted the foxhead medallion. Lastly, he demanded a way out, so they had given him his ashandarei. Realizing that the spear is in fact a way out, he uses it to draw the same symbol that they had used to enter on the wall, creating a new exit out of the tower, and escaping the Finn once and for all. Outside the Tower he is stunned to see the affection held between Thom and Moiraine as they begin to discuss marriage with each other.

The Last Battle

Ebou Dar

Mat and tuon by mandersen — Mat & Tuon, by Manderson

Mat sneaks into Ebou Dar.^[34] He tries to get a pulse of the city while sorting through his feelings for Tuon. Upon learning that her highest ranking general is trying to assassinate her, he decides to do something about it- in a way that only Mat can pull off- by scaling up four ^[35] floors along the outside of the Tarasin Palace in order to rescue his wife.