Shmed

Shmed is a Knight of Monitor, a city on the Serpent Isle, during Ultima VII Part Two.

Description
Shmed was a Knight of the Wolf Command who was tasked with overseeing and administrating the Knight's Test. While few Monitorians had much to say about him, Caladin claimed that he had been given his assignment to save him from the disgrace of exile, as he was a coward who proved to fearful to engage in the effort against the Goblins. Cantra, who was preparing to undergo the Knight's Test as the time the Avatar arrived in the city, additionally indicated that he made her uncomfortable with his leering glances.

In the course of the Avatar's adventures, it became necessary that the hero attain the mantle of Monitorian knighthood, and after attaining the permission of Lord Marsten, Shmed admitted the Avatar to the Knight's Test. Unbeknownst to the hero, however, Shmed had been seduced by the tattooist Lydia, who had conspired with him to populate the testing grounds with magical creatures and an invisible assassin, such that the ordeal would prove a lethal one. Despite these measures, the Avatar nevertheless emerged from the Test triumphant. Panicked, Shmed attempted to best the hero in direct combat, blaming his mistress for his actions but not betraying her name. He ultimately failed in his attack and almost certainly perished in attempting it.

Later, as talk of a traitor among the Monitorian Knights spread in the wake of an altercation at the Avatar's initiatory banquet, Lord Marsten would potentially insist that it had been Shmed and Lydia who were colluding with the Goblins, attempting to deflect attention from his own misdeeds. Such claims, however, were met with skepticism by both Caladin and Harnna, who felt that Shmed had been too craven a man for such an undertaking.

Trivia

 * Shmed's likeness is that of Ultima VII Part Two's lead composer, Dana Glover.
 * Unused dialogue in Serpent Isle's code reveals that there was some iteration of the game in which Shmed was to have been transformed into a wolf. A snippet exists in which he exclaims "It was horrible! I was a wolf! I know I was! I saw myself in a reflection on a puddle of water!" (see Cut Material in Serpent Isle)