Thert the Butler

Thert the Butler was a Northern Detinan, a handsome man with jug-handled ears. He was staying in the city of Marthasville, Peachtree Province when Hesmucet's forces took the city from the Army of Franklin. A female acquaintance of his frantically declared that she had to return to her family's estate of Traa, which had been captured by the Southrons weeks earlier. Thert attempted to discourage her from undertaking a hazardous trip, albeit rudely, and was rewarded with having her kick him in the shin. He became so enmeshed in a quarrel with the woman that he hardly even noticed that the Detinan soldier who ordered him to clear the roadway in which he and his companion were fighting was a blond, Rollant.

Thert is almost certainly based on Rhett Butler, a character in Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind. Based on this, we might assume that his loyalties were to himself rather than Geoffrey and that he would be willing to collaborate with Detinan authorities later on. We may also assume that he labored under a well-hidden unrequited love for his female companion, despite his having called her a "stupid bitch." The picture to the right is of Rhett Butler as played by Clark Gable in the 1939 screen adaptation of Mitchell's novel.