** Shen an Calhar - The Band of the Red Hand **

Shen an Calhar, or in the Old Tongue, The Band of the Red Hand, comes about almost accidentally as Matrim Cauthon tries to flee the impending battle with Couladin's Aiel at Cairhien.

Unable to let a chaotic chaotic jumble of Tairen and Cairhienin fall into an ambush unwarned, he ends up commanding the entire group, fusing them into an effective whole, wielding them as gracefully and as lethally as his ashandarei. By the end of the day, a series of bloody triumphs culminates in Mat's defeat of Couladin himself.

Sometime in the middle of that first day, some 3000 men remain ; the numbers would have been less by its end. Yet Mat's losses are small, though always outnumbered. After that first day, the Tairen Lord Nalesean Aldiaya and Cairhienin Lord Talmanes Delovinde, both stiff-necked noblemen, pledge themselves to Mat without hesitation: "You are our battle leader ... our general." 

And somewhere, the Band acquires its name; Mat does not know how. "Some fool got the name from somewhere, and they all started using it." It is uncannily appropriate.

The men of the first Band "were the last to fall to the Trollocs, guarding Aemon himself, when Manetheren died. Legend says a spring rose where they fell, to mark their passing ..."  That is, they died at Emond's Field - Aemon's Field - and the spring is the Winespring, where two thousand years later, Trollocs strike again, and are defeated. Twice.

Where Mat was born.

Mat who, before he has other men's memories interjected with his own, recalls leading Manetheren's Heart Guard into the heart of the advancing Trollocs hordes: "They must win here or die. He was known as a gambler; it was time to toss the dice." 

The Band's banner first appears in Maerone: "a red-fringed white square with a large, open red hand in the center, and beneath it, embroidered in red, the words Dovie'andi se tovya sagain. It's time to toss the dice." 

The Band of the Red Hand even acquires its unofficial anthem on that first, bloody day. Mat teaches them the words to "Dance with Jak o' the Shadows," to divert himself from being stitched; it spreads as wildfire. "Tairen and Cairhienin, horse and foot, had all been singing it when they returned at dawn." One new verse seals them to him:

We'll toss the dice however they fall,
and snuggle the girls be they short or tall,
then follow young Mat whenever he calls,
to dance with Jak o' the Shadows.

• Be active

• Use common sense

• Don't ask for handouts, give more than you take

• No excessive profanity (especially in audible chat)

• Do not degrade other members/players (zero tolerance)

• Settle all disputes with tells (do not use kin chat and excite drama)