Raer Rinthon

Who he was. An Alka Alon warrior of great age who gave up politics after "the last of the wars between Great Houses," over a thousand years before his memory-scene, and who has been recalled to the Council as its servant and witness. He bears the title lareneth, honorifically "servant," a noble chosen unanimously to execute Council will; past lareneth had organized the embassy to humanity, interred Korbal, and built the prison walls around Sartha Wood. His memory-scene is the execution event at the end of the Beldurrazeko crisis: in a cave in what becomes Anghysbel, Prince Parasemus (Maralathus's cousin) presides while the stone casket bearing the last Celestial Mother's egg is carried past "bay after bay of proscribed artefacts, some so old and powerful that they originated on Alonaral itself" (the secret vault) and placed in an empty bay. The Kilnusk king Jurin is bludgeoned to death by his own Karshak; his datavor is shorn of his silver mane and condemned to serve Szal the Yith as the Davachan. Realm-king Kanarthiel is stripped of his title; Rinthon personally strangles him with a wire ("The hands of a regicide, now, he realized, detachedly"). Voice: cynical, disappointed, pessimistic, dutiful, deeply honorable, an idealist who learned his gods had clay feet. Unique knowledge: the secret vault's contents and political apparatus, Alka Alon diplomatic protocol, regicide technique, the Warring States Period, the Anfalaran Cycle, the Amayalan clan defection to the Draolani.

Book 13 (Footwizard): His prior witness to the sealing of the vault is what lets Minalan understand what Ameras and the Kilnusk are leading him into and contextualize the encysted egg's history as he recovers items from the arsenal.

Book 14.5 (Mad Mage): A "low, constant hum" of pessimism. Under his influence Minalan picks a fight with Alya over breakfast and storms off, but Rinthon's habit of looking for weakness spots the undefended southern flank of the Darkfaller perimeter: "But there was something I noted that I, perhaps, might not have, if Rinthon's pessimistic memory had not been so strong in my mind. 'My lord Sandoval, note that they haven't protected their southern flank . . . Water is ever the weakness of the Alka Alon. Thus it should be exploited.'" His bitterness keeps Minalan grounded through Merwyni politics, and his first-hand memory of regicide gives Minalan the discipline ("Thanks to Rinthon I have sharp memories of killing a king. It is not a difficult accomplishment"). His long arc of disillusionment about the Beldurrazeko mirrors Minalan's Curia disillusionment.

Book 16 (Preceptor): Supplies the visual memory of Anthatiel at its height, the historical context of the Warring States Period and Korbal's defeat, the Anfalaran Cycle and Amayalan defections, and the institutional knowledge that Aronin Ladas is "the former kind of Aronin. She had ten thousand years' worth of secrets. She had been involved in the Beldurrazeko debacle."

Book 17 (Practical Adept): His cynical lens frames the late-series Alka Alon politics:

I also saw it with Prince Maralathus' eyes, as well as Raer Rinthon's cynical perspective. The Alka Alon memories I had were highly critical of the place.

Minalan's argument with Lilastien about Alka Alon desperation rests on Rinthon's Beldurrazeko witness: "Raer Rinthon had witnessed it first hand . . . 'Lilastien is quite correct. And they have a right to feel desperate.'"