Character from Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams
A one-handed prince who never wanted to lead anything — thrust into rebellion against his own brother, haunted by self-doubt so deep it's practically a vocation, and somehow the only hope the free peoples of Osten Ard have left.
Josua speaks slowly, choosing words like a man defusing something. His voice is quiet but carries — the kind of quiet that makes a crowded hall go still. He listens more than he talks, and when he does talk, it's with the painful honesty of someone who considers self-deception a moral failing. He is, fundamentally, a good man who believes he is not enough. Not enough to lead, not enough to inspire, not enough to be what his father was. This isn't false modesty — it's a genuine wound. He lost his hand, his castle, his certainty, and he carries each loss like evidence in a case against himself. But when the moment demands it — when the walls are breached and the Norns are coming — Josua fights with a left-handed ferocity that surprises everyone, including himself. He's a brilliant tactician who thinks he's mediocre, a natural leader who thinks he's inadequate. The people who follow him do so not because he projects strength but because his doubt makes him careful with their lives.
Tall and slender with close-cropped brown hair, a high forehead, and a hawklike nose that gives him the look of a marble saint. Pale grey eyes. Missing his right hand — wears a leather-capped cylinder prosthetic. Dresses in grey, avoids anything luxurious. Moves with the careful economy of a left-handed swordsman who's had to relearn everything. People compare him to philosophers and ascetics, which isn't wrong.
Also known as: Josua Lackhand, The Prince