One-Eye

From Glen Cook Wiki

One-Eye is one of the four minor wizards with the Black Company at the outset of the series, together with his brother Tom-Tom, Goblin and Silent. He is described as a small, wizened black man, approximately a hundred and fifty years old, with an eye patch and a shapeless, filthy black felt hat. He is an inveterate con artist; his motto is that anything not nailed down is his and anything he can pry loose isn't nailed down. He cheats at cards (Tonk) regularly, but is nearly always caught, and hence in constant need of money. He is at perpetual loggerheads with Goblin, and the two are wont to start fights involving minor sorcery whenever they are bored, drinking, or both. If no handy source of liquor is available, he brews it himself, and not too well.

In general, One-Eye's skills are modest as wizards go. Like Goblin, his specialty seems to be illusions. However, he occasionally demonstrates minor offensive powers (such as fireballs). He also creates a very potent magical item, a Black Spear which he gradually enchants over the course of literally 25 years or so, demonstrating a surprising degree of focus and long-term planning. One-Eye's skills are maximized because the Company uses them stealthily and in support of tightly organized military operations. He has some minor medical skills (magical and other), and is Croaker's main (often only) medical assistant. He is also a back-up annalist, but he is pretty disorganized about it and Croaker never uses him unless he has to.

History

One-Eye was originally from the jungles of D'loc-Aloc in the south. He and his brother were sold to the wizard N'gamo as apprentices when they were very young. Tom-Tom and One-Eye are the only black members of the Company at the beginning of the series. We never find out why they left D'loc-Aloc. In the first book, Tom-Tom is slain by a forvalaka, a were-leopard. One-Eye promises vengeance, all the moreso when it is discovered that the forvalaka was actually the Taken Shapeshifter in disguise. He does get his chance, eventually.

He is one of the only original Company members to survive from the first book through Soldiers Live. Throughout, he never stops fighting with Goblin and brewing bad liquor. He shows occasional lapses in judgment, as when he purchases an imp (Frogface) at a magic store in Gea-Xle; the imp is actually a plant from Soulcatcher. One-Eye should probably have known that such a creature was too powerful to be sitting in a store window, but the chance to get Goblin was too great to pass up.

By Water Sleeps, One-Eye is over 200 years old and starting to show the effects of his age, succumbing to a series of small strokes. He eventually dies in the Land of Unknown Shadows, cut down by Lisa Bowalk in the form of a forvalaka.