Tsarmina Greeneyes is the main antagonist of the book Mossflower, the second book in the Redwall novel series. She is the cruel and wrathful daughter of Verdauga Greeneyes and brother of Gingivere who becomes the tyrannical ruler of Mossflower after poisoning her father and framing her brother for it who seeks to maintain her tyrannical ruler over the lands. The woodlanders would start a rebellion against her rule, a rebellion she would actively try to crush by any means necessary, even if said means are extreme with the intent of enslaving those who survive her attacks.
What Makes Her Pure Evil?[]
- She had assisted her father, Verdauga, back then in putting down a poorly organized rebellion against his tyrannical rule and threw whoever was not massacred into prison and left them to rot, the aftermath involving some being partly enslaved after a kind of peace Verdauga made with them and being very much disorganized.
- After her father grew ill, Tsarmina would be placed in charge and would take advantage of this to drive woodlanders too hard out onto the fields and disallow them from living on. Things eventually became so bad that a lot of them escaped from the settlement and as the numbers grew less, Tsarmina demanded more and more from the few.
- When Martin the Warrior gets brought to Verdauga by guards for carrying arms and trespassing and calls Verdauga out, Tsarmina attempts to sentence him to be executed only for Gingivere to vouch against it and Verdauga to have him be locked up in a cell before being set free eventually much to Tsarmina's fury as she ends up breaking the sword by throwing her weight against it after setting it between the jamb of the door and the stone doorway before having the guards tie the broken weapon around his neck as they take him away.
- She has her assistant fox Fortunata, who is a healer, mix her father a stronger potion, which is in reality a poison that Tsarmina had her insert, and give it to Gingivere to give it to him, resulting in Verdauga, her own father, being poisoned to death and Gingivere, her own brother, to be framed for it. Due to this, Tsarmina takes over as queen and sentences her own brother to be imprisoned in a cell to be starved and tormented, showing overall she has no love even for her own family and is willing to kill them for her own benefits.
- While Fortunata was preparing the "potion", Tsarmina threatens to poison her if it does not work on Verdauga.
- She then has her soldiers shoot at Argulor the eagle as he soars around the sky over Kotir, having done this before, before grabbing a bow and arrow to shoot at the eagle herself, causing it to retreat as Tsarmina prepares to vent her anger on Ashleg only for him to vanish inside.
- She then watches as Fortunata arrives at Kotir, complimenting her shot and unintentionally invoking her wrath by remarking what a shame it was that Argulor caught it as Tsarmina begins firing arrows at her before telling her to get inside and then continuing shooting arrows while giggling wickedly.
- As Tsarmina converses in the hall with Fortunata and Ashleg, when Martin and Geonff, who were both escaping her, crash into them, Tsarmina chases after them with her forces and orders them to be killed as the chase leads to outside of Kotir with the friends of Geonff assisting him and Martin in their escape. As she chases them, she realizes what was happening: the squirrels were taking a stand while the otters slipped off into Mossflower with the fugitives before ordering her ferret Captain Raker to stop there with a platoon and face the squirrels while she takes the rest and circles around them with the plan of cutting them off before taking the plan into action.
- After engaging in battle against a group of otters lead by Skipper that she ends up losing, as Skipper and his otters back off into the bushes, Tsarmina picks up the javelin from a dead soldier and throws it at Lady Amber who had momentarily relaxed the jaw in her paw as Skipper orders his crew to cut and run before Tsarmina continues the chase against them and cuts them off down the distance on an angle after retreating then coming back on a tangent.
- As Skipper and the otters then sling stones at Tsarmina's troops who would then return fire with heavy spears that ends up killing some of the otters before Skipper has his otters jump into the pool with Martin and Gonff after telling them to take good breaths, Tsarmina is then left facing the squirrels with an arrow notched to a bow before spinning round and loosing the shaft, catching the last otter in the back before it hit the water, though the otter still managed to submerge and get away.
- After the other troops withdrawed, Tsarmina orders Brogg and Scratt to go back to Kotir, see Fortunata, and bring the Gloomer (a monster rat who had been captured by Verdauga and robbed of normal sight after years of swimming in the dark murky waters of the lake being driven mad to the point of becoming feral and homicidal in the aftermath) to her and threatens them if they don't do as she's told before settling down to sleep.
- Once the Gloomer is brought over, Tsarmina sends it after the woodlanders with the intent to kill them only for Stormfin the pike, who was unleashed by Skipper, to fight and kill it. What makes this worse is the comments of the soldiers suggest that the way the Gloomer would have killed them being gruesome, revolving around ripping them to bits.
- As Skipper laughs along the river, Tsarmina declares that before she is finished with Mossflower, every creature who defies her will wish its mover had never given birth to it and that the crying and the dying will be loud and long.
- After the troops shout out her aliases back at Kotir, when one of them who had "Daughter of Lord Greeneyes" be amongst her list of titles Tsarmina berates them before telling Cludd to keep Ashleg in front of the army and that she is no longer to be called Daughter of Lord Greeneyes and instead Tsarmina the Magnificent and then having her troops throw spears at Ashleg on the hot field as sadistic punishment while he desperately tries to avoid them while Tsarmina laughs mockingly, though she eventually calls a halt to it due to being reminded of his usefulness by Fortunata.
- She then continues berating her troops before declaring that Mossflower will be drencehd in the blood of any creature who will not obey her, be it a woodlander or a soldier of Kotir and has Cludd, Ashleg, and Fortunata split the army four ways, take a group each, go into the forest, hunt out every last woodlander, take them prisoners, and kill any that resist so that Kotir will grow strong again with prisoners to serve it, intending on enslaving them, having the flatlands to the west cultivated and farmed, depriving them of settlements giving them separate cells instead, toil them from dawn to dusk, and starve any families to set an example.
- As Tsarmina watches from her barred window in full view of Argulor's perch, she baits him into attacking her only for him to smash against the barred window as she mocks him.
- She digs her claws into a rug as she revels in the pretense of pinioning helpless woodlanders in her needlelike grip, imagining hides before whirling over and tossing the rug high in the air, leaping upon it and renting it fiercely with her savage strength before pacing restlessly, the idea of woodlanders being marched in roaming her mind as she thinks about how she would drown some of them, throw spears at the others, and enslave the others. She then runs down to her cells, talking to herself about how there will be males in one cell, females in another, and young ones in a special prison all of their own where they can be heard but not seen by their parents.
- Upon noticing Gingivere, whom she starved to the point of him fading into a gaunt skeleton, mocking him before he yells at her for murdering their father to which she runs away as he slumps to the floor crying.
- As Ferdy and Coggs, two young hedgehogs from the woodlanders captured by Tsarmina's troops, lay on the floor of Tsarmina's room, she intimidates them and laughs as she puts on a benevolent facade, eating food on a tray in front of them and offering to share it and a nice bed to lie down on and tries to goad them into giving her information about the woodlanders in exchange for it while clearly dishonestly vowing not to harm them and that they'll be free. When they refuse, she commands Cludd to lock them up in cells with the intent of starving them to see if they will be hungry enough to talk business the next day. When they still refuse then, she has her guards lock them up again with the intent of starving them for another week, unaware that her brother, Gingivere, was able to interact with them and give them food to eat throughout their time there and was also making a plan with the robin, Chibb, (an ally of the woodlanders) to help them escape.
- She then proceeds to lead an attack on the woodlanders through arrows and spears being launched at them though the woodlanders fight back through launching their own arrows and stones at Tsarmina's troops. As Tsarmina is forced back into her own ranks, she snarls out orders to her troops and continues ruthlessly pushing her troops forward only for them to be defeated by the squirrels ambushing them with a volley of arrows.
- While discussing ideas back at Kotir, when Cludd brings up Ferdy and Coggs, Tsarmina concocts a plan involving them being exposed to real suffering or danger to force them to accept their terms, unaware that Chibb was paying attention to the conversation from a window ledge and would inform Gingivere, who would come up with a plan to hide them in his own cell after sealing the wallholes up.
- Upon noticing what she believes to be Ferdy and Coggs (who were really different animals the woodlanders disguised to trick her) from her high window amongst the woodlanders, she has Fortunata disguise herself as a different fox and a healer to trick the woodlanders into trusting her before taking Ferdy and Coggs back to Tsarmina. Unbeknownst to them, however, the woodlanders have already recognized Fortunata upon spying on her in the woods and have one of Skipper's friends, Mask, disguise himself as a random fox to gain Fortunata's trust and pretend to be a fox looking for the woodlanders' home and then go to Tsarmina's fortress to gain her trust and join her troops with the intent of outwitting and betraying them eventually.
- Upon being informed of Fortunata's death by one of her troops, she apathetically brushes this aside and shows no remorse nor sympathy over her assistant's death, ordering her corpse to be thrown out for the eagle to dispose of by eating.
- When Mask, who was promoted by Tsarmina as captain while he was in disguise, gets his disguise revealed and expose by Cludd accidentally tearing off his fake tail while trying to cause pain to him by stomping it out of spite as he is pretending to escort Gingivere along with Ferdy and Coggs to Tsarmina, she has her troops chase after them, the whole chase eventually taking outside where Tsarmina tries to kill Gingivere by shooting at him only for Mask, who unintentionally got in front of the arrows shot while dashing from behind to see if he could help Gingivere who had dropped Coggs and bent to pick him up, to be striked instead, resulting in him dying later on.
- Back at the main hallway, Tsarmina joined Cludd with a band of reinforcements at her back and shouts at them to get out there as the forces of Kotir flood out across the open ground with Tsarmina madly racing ahead of them spurred on by her own fury. She then approaches the gate and discovers the woodlanders' tracks, namely her brothers, which she follows before Cludd points out blood spots on the leaves of a lilac bush, deduces it to be otter blood from Mask and that he took the arrow meant for Gingivere. Cludd then expresses hatred for him and wanting him to himself to which Tsarmina grants him permission to take who he pleases but to leave Gingivere to her before the soldiers continue marching forward continually. When they notice an otter wearing Cludd's coat, thinking that it is Mask, Tsarmina orders him to kill him if he wants to wear that cloak as captain again, though it quickly gets revealed to be Skipper who provokes Cludd into attacking him in order to fight him.
- While she berates her troops later on for doing nothing to help him, it is only because he was their captain, was useful to her, and was part of her army, and she expresses no sorrow over his death, not even having done anything to help him herself.
- She has her archers scatter volleys into the trees and brush in case of concealed woodlanders before they broke off to watch the battle between Skipper and Cludd at the water's edge. When Skipper ends up winning the fight, Tsarmina hurls her troops forward at Skipper only for a band of otters to break cover, stop them with javelins and slingstones, and rattle a last furious salvo at the soldiers of Kotir, several of whom end up falling into the water, including Tsarmina who instantly orders herself to be taken out of the water before they lose the pike. Bella then appears, telling Tsarmina to stay away from Mossflower to which Tsarmina instead gives them another threat to fight them all to the death and orders her archers to fire though Bella had gone before an arrow could be strung.
- With Cludd gone, Tsarmina promotes Brogg as the new captain of the guard and orders him to find Gingivere under the belief that he had kidnapped Ashleg and have Ratflank be another captain to search the entire army one by one, believing that one of them is Gingivere in disguise. In the woods, as Tsarmina searches for Gingivere through the foliage while armed with her bow and arrow, unaware that Brogg had ordered Squint to follow her, Tsarmina hears twigs and branches being cracked and shoots in the direction, and when looking at the body of Squint, she believes it's him in disguise and shows no remorse.
- After accepting a mercenary fox named Bane, leader of a group of mercenaries, who offered his services to her, they carry out a plan he explained, killing several woodlanders and scoring a victory against them in battle before heading back.
- They prepare to lead another attack the next day only for an attack to be launched onto them by the woodlanders who began shooting at Kotir with arrows, killing some of their troops as they try to look for ways to escape to no avail before they close the doors and wait until the woodlanders leave.
- She puts on a grateful facade towards a suspicious Bane, to whom she initially acted unpleasantly towards, pretending to be thankful for his services when she is in reality suspecting of him wanting to overthrow her despite having little reason to believe so, tricks him into putting on Ashleg's cloak, and has him check on the wall's gates before shutting him out, getting him caught and killed in the talons of Argulor the eagle (who had been obsessed with hunting Ashleg and mistook Bane as him due to the cloak), whom Bane kills himself as he's carried away in his talons with his sword in his final moments, Tsarmina watching all of this while dancing up and down with sadistic glee.
- Hearing a quarrel that ensued between Brogg and Ratflank as the former dashes to get Bane's cloak, she recognizes Ratflank as the voice that had often insulted her from within the ranks and as such, while ordering Brogg to bury Bane and Argulor's bodies, she tells him to bury Ratflank with them too.
- While at her high window, Tsarmina begins concocting a plan to conquer Mossflower before ringing the bell to summon Brogg whom she converses with on account of keeping him as her one and only officer and telling him to set up traps all around the forest to capture, kill, and/or maim any creatures. When Brogg suggests some covered pits with sharpened stakes at the bottom, she commends and permits it before he goes. Tsarmina then clutches her woodpigeon and throws it towards the forest, telling the woodlanders internally to have something to eat since they may need it by the time autumn comes.
- Upon being alerted of the woodlanders' arrival, she tells Brogg to have the archers wait for her signal. As Martin, the one leading them, explains his terms, Tsarmina swears to slay them all where they stand and signals the archers to fire though Martin warns her that every woodlander armed is aiming right at her heart and dares her to tell her archers to fire to which she calls them down, telling him this isn't where it finishes before Martin warns her that until sunset, they will wait outside for her answer.
- Tsarmina then dashes inside, having the troops get onto the top of Kotir to fire their arrows, watching them vanish into the treetop foliage albeit with no screams/cries, ordering them to fire again with still nothing and then orders them to stop as someone points out bushes moving. She orders them to continue firing at the bushes unaware that this is a trick set up by her enemies. before having them get across the open ground, resulting in a battle engaged between the woodlanders and her forces, ending with the latter retreating.
- During the afternoon, Tsarmina ventured to her high window and sees Martin standing on top of the wall, asking him what he wants. He responds by reminding her of the ultimatum he gave her earlier and she shoots an arrow at him that strikes him in the side before he departs.
- Tsarmina proceeds to make plans to last out the summer and to have her archers prepare many fire arrows like the ones the woodlanders shot at them with the intent of burning the woodlanders and their forest together in autumn.
- When Kotir gets flooded due to the amount of water the woodlanders caused to enter, Tsarmina hurries to her chamber, grabs her bow from the wall, and shoots arrow after arrow at the empty face of the woodlands, shrieking at the woodlanders to show themselves and Martin to come out and fight.
- Upon arriving downstairs to see a weasel called Foulwhisker attempting to abandon the place, Tsarmina kills him right on the spot by dealing him a furious blow before throwing him over the battlements and then orders her troops to prepare to fight against the woodlanders only for the roof to begin shaking.
- After getting onto a floating table to escape the fort, she leaves her most loyal troop, Brogg, behind to die to a huge ballista boulder launched at him by the woodlanders despite him helping her get onto it.
- When confronted by Martin, she proceeds to furiously engage in battle against him to try to kill him once and for all, managing to come pretty close with the amount of wounds she inflicted on him with her scratches from her claws with Martin nearly succumbing to them later on, only for him to finish her off by causing her to fall into a pond of water where she would drown, putting an end to her tyrannical reign once and for all.
External Links[]
- Tsarmina Greeneyes on the Redwall Wiki
- Tsarmina Greeneyes on the Villains Wiki
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 Pure Evils
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Books Mossflower Mattimeo Mariel of Redwall Outcast of Redwall The Legend of Luke Lord Brocktree Rakkety Tam TV Series | ||