herself in the third person, and uses strange grammar reminiscent of Yoda; this is obviously by choice (likely as a way of amusement), since she has been shown to speak normally on other occasions. Edmund Talbot was a reenactor prior to The Fall, living his life mostly as if he were a swordsmith in the Middle Ages or the Renaissance. Edmund was known by nearly everyone in the reenactor community, to the extent that the town of Raven's Mill spontaneously sprang up around his (period) house. After The Fall, Edmund has both the skills and the equipment to survive in a pre-industrial world, and to help others to survive as well. He may well have been the only person left in the world who actually knew anything about leading troops on a sword-and-shield battlefield. Edmund is Herzer's mentor and is often the brains directing Herzer's brawn. Edmund is well known for keeping his plans to himself. John Ringo modeled Edmund Talbot after Charles Martel. Daneh Ghorbani was Edmund's wife, but she left him more than ten years before The Fall. Since the fall, she has become Edmund's common-law wife (the books contain no evidence of a formal ceremony). Daneh was a doctor before The Fall, specializing in (genetic) Change-related complications. Since The Fall, she has been studying historical medical texts and re-inventing medical techniques. She is probably the best-educated doctor in Norau, if not the world. Rachel Ghorbani is Edmund and Daneh's daughter. Rachel and Herzer attended the same school and have been friends since they were quite young; Herzer had a crush on her for all that time. However, Rachel could not deal with Herzer's illness emotionally and saw him less and less frequently before he was cured. Since The Fall, she has been training as a doctor and is now one of the most competent in Norau. Rachel is completely asexual. Miles Arthur Rutherford or, as he is better known, "Gunny" Rutherford is one of Edmund's oldest friends, a fellow reenactor specializing at first in as a Roman Centurion, then later as a Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant, deciding that the latter learned from the former and improved upon it. Born and raised in the lawless area known as Anarchia, and, after spending decades living as a Roman Centurion would have and at least hundred and fifty years as a Marine Gunny would live, he is tough as nails,