Deira ni Ghaline t'Bashere

Author: Ilissa al'Nari

General

Her full name is Deira ni Ghaline t'Bashere. She is Saldaean but is almost as tall as the Aiel. Her otherwise black hair has wings of white, and she has dark tilted eyes. She is brave enough to challenge/criticize Rand in front of a group of Maidens (LoC, Ch. 26). She is pretty in spite of a bold nose that combined with her eyes make her look like an eagle, and has both stubbornness and meekness within her (LoC, Ch. 46).

Timeline

• She follows her husband, Davram Bashere, when he joins Rand after Queen Tenobia sent him to hunt down Mazrim Taim (LoC, Ch. 27). When Perrin Aybara and Faile visit Rand in Caemlyn, they also seize the chance to meet Deira and her husband. Faile and Deira talk and end up slapping each other, and when Davram Bashere and Perrin enters the room Deira asks Perrin whether he is man enough to handle her daughter. After a while she surprises Perrin by allowing her husband to make the decision that Perrin and Faile's marriage is in order (LoC, Ch. 46).

• When Rand receives a call by the embassy sent out by the sisters in Salidar, Deira and her husband are at one of the training camps Bashere has set up to make the men who cannot wield saidin ordinary soldiers. Faile writes letters to her parents before Rand takes her and Perrin to Cairhien with him (LoC, Ch. 49). After Rand has returned from captivity with the sisters Elaida sent, Deira questions his wisdom in treating the captured sisters as harshly as he does, especially the fact that he has made them swear oaths of fealty to him. However, when she learns what the sisters did to him she seems to be stunned that he is going to hold back. She also defends Dyelin, who has taken charge in Andor in Rand's absence, saying that she will listen to Aes Sedai advice but not necessarily follow it, and that she is working hard to secure the throne for Elayne (ACoS, Ch. 7).

• She, like the other wives of Saldaean nobles following Rand, agrees to remain in the camp when her husband Davram follows Rand to Illian in his hunt for the Forsaken Sammael, but only after getting Davram to promise that they will speak of it at length when he returns. She also hands over her small knife, which is the only weapon she has, when Davram puts out his hand for it (ACoS, Ch. 41).

• As their army waits outside besieged Caemlyn, Deira is attacked by two men inside her tent. She manages to hurt both of them, but not before one of them has cut her deep enough with a knife that she would have died had her retainers obeyed her orders to pursue her assailants. The two men are found dead soon after, and it is not known who was behind the attack (CoT, Prologue).

• When Rand sees her in the distance in Arad Doman, he feels she gives him a measuring look and wonders what she would do if Davram were to die (TGS, Ch. 22).

• She rides with Davram during the Last Battle and is killed shortly after him (AMoL, Ch. 37).

Relationships

Married to Davram Bashere (LoC, Ch. 27).

Mother to Faile, mother-in-law to Perrin (LoC, Ch. 46).

She acts like advisor to Rand together with, among others, her husband (ACoS, Ch. 7).

Faile is greatful for the lessons Deira gave her on running a household (ToM, Ch. 16).

Quotes

"If a woman is stronger than her husband, she comes to despise him. She has the choice of either tyrannizing him or else making herself less in order to not make him less. If the husband is strong enough, though, she can be as strong as she is, as strong as she can grow to be. You will have to prove to Faile that you are strong." (Lord of Chaos, Chapter 46)

"Those... lickspittles... you allowed to make free of the palace have all fled the city, it seems. Fled Andor, some of them, according to rumor. You should know, they were all behind either Elenia or Naean." (A Crown of Swords, Chapter 7)

"I returned from my ride to find two strange men ransacking our tent. They drew daggers, so naturally, I hit one of them with a chair and stabbed the other. Not well enough, since he managed to touch me. Then Zavion and some of the others came in, and the pair fled through a slit they had made in the rear of the tent." (Crossroads of Twilight, Prologue)