Benetton is a winged, magic-emanating warrior of Antiterra who, in Terra, is Mr. Norton, head of a seminary for gifted children in a town in the southern United States. One person with one manifestation per world, he founded the Benetton Schools and wrote the pieces collected among the Poet Paladins.
| Type | Character |
| Other name | Mr. Norton (in Terra) |
| Weapons | Half-curved sword; long-bladed bardiche (pole-axe) |
| Mount | Caro Cuore, a chestnut mare |
| Weakness | Cannot see in the dark |
| Spanish entry | Benetton |
Description
A blond man with flying hair, bronze skin and an adorned face. He wears white, almost nacreous armor with iridescent sheens; another account records it simply as “rainbow armor”. Silver wings can unfold a little from his back.
One of his two arms is of mithril, all animated metal. He did not lose it: he gave it. He carries a half-curved sword at his side and, in his hands, a sort of lance, bardiche or axe-spear with a very long blade. He emanates magic.
His weakness is fixed and serious: he cannot see in the dark, which burdens any night or underground operation involving him.
The schools
Benetton heads and names a network of schools, the Benetton Schools and the Benetton College, teaching good living and good conduct (civic education). By rule he set, no discrimination is allowed there. Its pupils repair the town for free, and debts are paid as a lesson. People of his from Treviso, near Venice, operate strongly there.
As Mr. Norton, only his post, the southern town and the gifted children are recorded.
Writings
Three pieces of his were copied into Events of Antiterra by a compiler who dated them “twelve years before” the year of the end, that is 1889, the year of the Labrador and of the crossing with the three hundred Atlanteans:
- Letters to Caro Cuore, prose letters to his mare, holding that hell persists while someone deems it necessary and accusing his own of being “slaves of their beliefs, lacking all faith”;
- The Reflection of the Soul, short poems that reject the clench-fisted hero before the dark pit in favor of “the day to day, with clear conscience set on the action of good”, closing with the aphorism “the greatest problem of a warrior of faith is wanting to be a hero”;
- a rowing chant for desperate sailors, in which the head that is lost goes to the bottom.
They are gathered in the Poet Paladins anthology with the couplet of Maristo and the prayer of Lirio.
In Caldero, an armless paladin bearing his name with the letters changed, Teo, quotes the aphorism before charging, mounted on a black horse called Caro Cuore.
Conflicting accounts
- His armor is described as white and nacreous with iridescent sheens in one account and as “rainbow armor” in another; whether these are one object or two is unresolved.
Open questions
- The southern town, Treviso’s role beyond its nearness to Venice, and his seat in Antiterra are not fixed.
- How many Benetton schools exist, and where, is unknown.
- To whom the arm was given, and for what, is not recorded.
- Whether his night blindness is absolute or compensated is unknown.
- Whether Mr. Norton keeps the wings, metal arm and magic is not established.
- Under what form (school, troop, order) the Treviso contingent operates is not recorded.