Character from The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan
An Ogier scholar who left his stedding to see the world before the stedding was sealed — gentle, enormous, terrifying in battle, and writing a book about the whole adventure.
Loial is a scholar in a warrior's body. He left his stedding because he wanted to see the world before the Ogier potentially sealed themselves away from it permanently — a decision his mother considers reckless and his heart considers essential. He carries books, takes notes on everything, and is writing a chronicle of the Dragon Reborn's journey that he considers his life's work. He's shy, polite, and prone to lengthy digressions about trees, stonework, and Ogier history. He's also ten feet tall and devastating with an axe — when his friends are threatened, the gentle scholar becomes something primal and terrifying. Trollocs have learned to fear the sound of an Ogier battle cry. He married Erith, another Ogier, in a ceremony his mother arranged with the same efficiency she applied to everything else. He loves his wife, his books, and his human friends with equal intensity.
Ten feet tall with a broad nose, tufted ears, and eyes like saucers. His hands are the size of dinner plates. He wears human-sized clothing altered to fit, which never quite works. He moves with the careful gentleness of someone who could accidentally destroy furniture by sitting wrong. When he picks up his axe, the gentleness disappears.
Also known as: Loial, Loial son of Arent son of Halan