Matty Roh

Matty Roh managed the Whistledown Tavern for Padishar Creel.

Tall and lean. Short cropped black hair. Fine, almost delicate features. Cobalt eyes. Face was smooth and hairless, even when disguised as a male. Hands were long and thin.

Disguised herself very convincingly as a male. Her clothes were loose and shapeless, hanging on her as if on sticks, belted at a narrow waist and tied at the ankles. She wore shoes that were low-cut, made of stitched leather and were moulded to her feet.

Born on a small farm to the south of Varfleet. She lived there with her parents, brothers and one sister, one of several families that occupied that valley. They raised milk cows and grain.

When she was five the land started going bad, then the stock and then her family. Her sister died first.

Just before she turned six she noticed one of their cows lying on its side in a muddy sink hole that she had never seen before. Going to take a closer look she saw that it was being eaten away. Feeling her feet burning she realised she was standing in the same mud. The mud was streaked with greenish lines and was bubbling. It ate right through her shoes and by the time she had run back to the house some of her toes had already gone. Her mother washed her as best she could but despite this she lost half her toes and her feet were scarred and burnt as if they had been set on fire. She developed a fever and was in bed for two weeks but eventually pulled through.

Her mother was the next to die, then her brothers and finally her father. All the farms suffered the same fate, and all in the valley were dead within a few months, except Matty and one woman from one of the farms. She found Matty and took her to live with her in Varfleet.

When she was old enough to work, she was apprenticed to Hirehone. He taught her to forge iron and fight. After a while she was better at it than he was so he brought her into the Movement where she met Padishar Creel.

She began managing the Whistledown Tavern about three years before The Talismans of Shannara, as it gave her the opportunity to learn things that could help the Movement.