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 a kick 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.