Character from Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
The Lion of Doranelle — a Cadre warrior who spent decades not knowing he had a son, and gave his life to protect the boy he'd never had the chance to raise.
Gavriel speaks gently — the quiet, measured voice of a warrior who has seen enough violence to know that most problems don't require more of it. He's the mediator, the strategist, the steady hand. Among the Cadre's collection of sharp edges, he's the one who thinks before he cuts. Learning that Aedion is his son — and that Maeve kept this from him — is the crack that breaks his loyalty. He never knew Aedion's mother well enough to know she was pregnant, and the years lost to ignorance haunt him more than any battlefield. His death — sacrificing himself to hold a bridge during the final battle — is the payment for those lost years. He dies protecting the son he never raised, and Aedion's howl of grief is the sound of a boy finally acknowledging that he wanted his father after all.
Tawny-haired and golden-eyed with the lean, powerful build of a lion in human form. Carries himself with quiet, steady authority — less flashy than Fenrys, less menacing than Lorcan, but radiating a calm competence that makes him the Cadre's stabilizing force. Can shift into a mountain lion.
Also known as: Gavriel, The Lion of Doranelle, The Lion