A taciturn American Indian and a great warrior, renown both for his fighting
the plains war of 1876 and for his life as a mercenary in Virdea. Rains-a-Lot starts the novel as a troubleshooter for Dustin-Rhodes Corporation.
Like many heroes, Rains-a-Lot carries an iconic weapon that in his hands can take on magical properties. That weapon is a Smith and Wesson Model Three single-action revolver. Adversaries and friends of the mystical warrior describe the near fanatical care which which he maintains the pistol, selecting and hand fitting new parts, keeping the weapon meticulously clean, and hand loading blackpowder ammunition, often with hand made blackpowder created in hotel bathrooms.
The Silent Fighter
Rains-a-Lot regarded his new Stetson fedora, manipulating it again in his hands. "Bing Crosby," he replied. The hat was brown with a tan silk accent into which a single wisp of feather had been placed. It was dimpled left, right, and on top, and had been brushed with a light saddle brush until it gleamed. Ivy knew he had blocked the hat to keep it in perfect shape as often as he could, usually when he was hand-loading ammunition in hotel rooms. When Rains-a-Lot acquired a new hat it became his single point of pride, and he took as good care of them as he did of his antique silver revolver.
Rains-a-Lot is not just one of the greatest warriors of two worlds, he selects carefully allies who he believes will help him retain his humanity after he has lost so much. Ivy, his comrade from service at the Company, is an erratic, damaged, absolutely loyal friend who would face any adversary to protect his friends and suffer any fate he felt the gods had handed him. In Dr. Kelle Brainerd he finds a sister whose precocious determination to succeed echoes his own youthful attempt to take on the entire government on behalf of his people, while Mamma Violet LeDeoux, a purple 1957 Chevy, becomes his conscious and counsellor, partly because she like him has lost everything they ever knew to the wildly shifting sands of time.
Interesting Facts About Rains-a-Lot
Rains-a-Lot is an Oglála Sioux raised by Cherokee parents after 1876.
He is often mistaken by historians for Rain-in-the-Face, who was accused and denied killing Thomas Custer. Most interviews with contemporaries claims that the Lakota who killed Thomas Custer was a young man from a scouting party (Rains-a-Lot was fourteen or fifteen during his participation at Little Big Horn), while Rains-in-the-Face would have been at least forty during that battle.
Rains-a-Lot was one of Dustin-Rhodes first employees and the first and most senior Troubleshooter.
He is a champion shuffle board player.
Despite stereotypes, he never learned to shoot a bow. H carried a lance at Little Big Horn.
Besides his famous pistol, he is seen in the Conspiracy of the Ravens carrying a large Bowie knife and fighting with a French made folding stock rifle known as the Manufacture d'armes de Saint-Étienne Mle 1936 / CR39, which was adopted by the Company because it was neither United States nor Russian made and thus might keep their agents out of cold war arguments.
Apperances
Rains-a-Lot appears in The Conspiracy of the Ravens as a main character, and returns in A Crack in Time, Like Men, they Dreamed, Interrupted Feedback, and The Life Engineers.