Character Analysis
Want to know who the number one bad guy is in The Ropemaker? Moonfist, that's who. He's a mysterious magician who first appears when he fights Silena and Dorn for Axtrig's magic on the walls of Talagh (8.107). He comes from outside the walls of the city and sticks out a moonlight-colored hand to grab more magic, causing Tilja to dub him Moonfist. (Tilja has many talents, but creative naming does not seem to be one of them.)
Moonfist represents an evil force that tries to fight Faheel to get the power of the ring. He appears as a dark cloud, and is so powerful that he even scares the great Faheel. Faheel says:
"[…] He came for the ring, and now that he has woken he will try to come again. If he did so, not even the roc could hold him back. Nor could I, as I am now. You yourself might withstand him—I do not know." (13.23)
Tilja worries that Moonfist will kill the Ropemaker before he gets to her, but thankfully they show up around the same time. Moonfist is around her dad's age, and arrives wearing a soft cap, cloak, jerkin, leggings, and a silver belt, along with a staff with a leather bag on it. Though his outfit is kind of silly sounding, he gets right down to business and turns Alnor, Tahl, and Meena into mini-versions of themselves and burns them up while fighting Tilja for the ring. In doing so, he shows how greedy he is by trying to steal everything Tilja has, even the essence of who she is:
It was happening to her. Everything that was in her, everything that made her Tilja, thoughts, memories, loves, hopes, dreams, terrors, was draining away through the hand that held Moonfist's finger, into him, becoming part of him. (17.103)
Luckily he's defeated by the great magic of the Ropemaker and his ring. Phew.