Caladin



Caladin was a leading knight of Monitor during the last days of that city's history.

A strong and fearless warrior, Caladin was the leader of the Bear Command and in charge of all the Pikemen of Monitor. Like most of the Bears, Caladin favored a strategy of defense, fortifying Monitor and the towers commanded by its pikemen. He harbored an intense hatred of the Goblins, whom the city was perpetually at war with, as he had lost many loved ones to their raids. Caladin spent nearly every morning from 9:00 to Noon at the List Field, offering to train anyone in the ways of strength and combat. One of his numerous duties was also to help prepare the young candidates prior to their taking the Test of Knighthood.

Caladin was close with the city's Knight Champion, Astrid, a member of his own command, and proud that a fellow Bear had held that title for three years. Like the rest of Monitor, Caladin was shocked and saddened when Astrid was killed in a carefully planned attack that seized Fawn Tower. He joined Lord Marsten and many others in grieving for her in the catacombs of the city. At this time, he paused to pay his respects to one of his ancestors (and a former Champion Knight), Caladin "The Golden Tongued Warrior," only to discover to his shock that the funeral urn containing his ancestor's ashes was missing. Caladin was angered, thinking they had been stolen, but discovered soon thereafter that the urn had been replaced during one of the strange storms that had recently begun wracking the Isle. The Avatar, recently arrived from Britannia, recovered the urn and restored it to a grateful Caladin.

Caladin was convinced the attack on Fawn Tower was the result of betrayal. Being a man of not only great courage but also great honor, Caladin could accept that only a knight could have betrayed the tower but would not accuse anyone without proof: not even Shmed or Lydia, even though both of them tried to murder the Avatar. Caladin was shocked to learn there was not one traitor but three: including Lord Marsten himself. When the Avatar supplied him with proof of this treachery, Caladin ordered Marsten arrested.

Though he succeeded Marsten as acting Lord of Monitor, his term would last only about a week. When the mage Batlin released the Banes of Chaos, the Wantonness Bane possessed Dupre (one of the Avatar's companions) and led a huge army of Goblins and other creatures in an attack on Monitor. Aided by the magic of the Bane, the city was overrun and most of its inhabitants killed.

Caladin died in the fighting, a warrior to the end.