- "A coward dies a thousand times, but a warrior dies only once."
- — Luke's final words to Vilu Daskar
Luke the Warrior was the father of Martin the Warrior and husband of Sayna. His father was also named Martin, and his best friend was Vurg. Having originally resided in Saint Ninian's Church with his tribe, they relocated to caves along the western shore to the far north, after being driven out by Verdauga Greeneyes.
After his wife was murdered by Vilu Daskar, Luke swore revenge against the evil stoat. He left his sword to his young son whom he had raised as best as he could given his background and the fact that he was unused to child-rearing, then he sailed off on the Sayna, a ship named in memory of his wife. He had captured it from corsair vermin led by Captain Reynard Chopsnout, who had attempted to raid his tribe.
Luke sailed the sea for a long time, searching for Vilu, without success. One night, when the Sayna was drifting near Twin Islands, Vilu's ship Goreleech rammed into the Sayna, utterly destroying it. The vermin took Luke and two others prisoner as oar slaves. The rest of the crew were assumed dead.
Luke tricked Vilu and convinced him that there was a treasure hidden at the shores of his home. Vilu chained Luke to the steering wheel of the Goreleech, and ordered the mouse warrior to lead them to the treasure. By then, two others from the crew of the Sayna, whom Luke had initially assumed were dead, had sneaked aboard the corsair ship and had prepared the prisoners for battle.
Luke steered back to the caves and attempted to alert Martin to their arrival, hoping for help from his tribe in fighting Vilu's crew. Upon seeing that the caves were deserted, he assumed Martin and the rest of the tribe had been killed by vermin. Vilu, who had suspected what Luke was up to, mocked him. Luke pretended to be beaten, and to meekly sail towards where the treasure was. Vilu fell for it again, but in fact the grief-stricken warrior now planned to destroy Vilu and his vermin at all costs. At Luke's signal, the slaves fought the vermin crew. The berserk squirrel Ranguvar Foeseeker led the fight and slaughtered many, telling Luke that she and the others would make a last stand if need be.
In his final despair and rage, Luke the Warrior deliberately smashed the Goreleech into a cluster of giant offshore stone pillars. Vilu begged for mercy shortly before the impact, realizing what Luke was about to do, but Luke refused, intent on his revenge. The ship was torn in half, one section wedging between the rocks and the other carrying Luke, Vilu, Ranguvar, and most of the vermin to the bottom of the sea, thus avenging Sayna and the others Vilu had slain. As an adult, Martin later visited the remains of the Goreleech, and dropped a special pebble into the ocean in his father's honor.
Nelvana Redwall TV Series[]
In the Nelvana Redwall TV Series, Luke took off in pursuit of Badrang the Tyrant instead of Vilu Daskar.
Trivia[]
- Luke the Warrior's final words to Vilu Daskar are inspired by a quote from the William Shakespeare play Julius Caesar: "Cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant never taste of death but once."
- Luke, Urthstripe the Strong, and Lord Stonepaw are the only named Redwall characters who deliberately took their own lives. In these cases, the action might be considered a kamikaze move, as they killed other enemies in the process.