Ascendant: blood-ranked lords of the Tal'darim

An ascendant was a high-ranking member of the Tal'darim, the protoss faction that ordered its whole society around a brutal hierarchy known as the Chain of Ascension. Ascendants stood second only to the highlord himself, far above low-ranking Tal'darim such as the votaries, and they held their places through murder, manipulation, and ritual combat. Fed for years on absorbed terrazine and on the life essence of their supplicants, they ranked among the most dangerous psionic warriors the protoss ever produced. The most famous of their number, Alarak, climbed through the ascendant ranks all the way to rulership of the Tal'darim during the war against Amon.

Place in the Chain of Ascension#

The Tal'darim recognized no authority but strength, and the Chain of Ascension gave that principle a formal shape. Every Tal'darim occupied a link in the chain and was compelled to obey those who stood above. Ascendants occupied the links just below the highlord, which made them the ruling stratum of Tal'darim society in all but name. Below them stretched the great mass of lesser Tal'darim, from votaries down to the supplicants, the lowest-ranking warriors of the faction.

Rank among the ascendants was expressed through numbered titles, and the numbering ran opposite to intuition. The lower an ascendant's number, the higher that ascendant stood, so the First Ascendant was the most senior of all and answered only to the highlord. Recorded holders of these titles included First Ascendants Alarak, Ji'nara, and Nuroka, Second Ascendant Guraj, Third Ascendant Zenish, and Fourth Ascendant Malain.

Movement up the chain was never granted, only taken. An ascendant climbed by killing his or her superiors, whether by open challenge or by quiet arrangement, and the sanctioned instrument of that climb was the Rak'Shir, the ritual duel by which a Tal'darim claimed the rank of the one defeated. The custom kept the upper ranks of the faction in a state of permanent, carefully managed war with itself.

Powers of terrazine and sacrifice#

What set ascendants apart from ordinary Tal'darim warriors was the depth of their psionic strength and the sources from which they drew it. Ascendants spent years absorbing terrazine, the potent gas the Tal'darim prized, and its long use magnified their powers far beyond those of common templar. Among the abilities recorded of them was the agonizing blast, a signature expression of their offensive psionics.

They also enjoyed an advantage no other protoss caste claimed: the essence of their followers. Supplicants, the lowest warriors in the chain, existed in part to provide life force for the ascendants they served. An ascendant could drain a supplicant to restore his own strength, treating the devotion of the faithful as a reservoir to be spent. Between the terrazine and the harvested essence of their servants, veteran ascendants became very powerful indeed, and the longer one survived at the top of the chain, the more fearsome that power grew.

A culture of rivalry and cunning#

Life among the ascendants was a continuous contest, and its customs reflected the Tal'darim's cold arithmetic. Ascendants often dared one another to disable and commandeer an active colossus. If the challenger succeeded, the Tal'darim gained a powerful war machine for their arsenal. If the attempt failed, a rival ascendant had been eliminated, and either outcome served the faction. The most cunning ascendants also turned the tools of war inward, using observers to spy on one another as readily as on the Tal'darim's enemies.

The god the Tal'darim served took his own pleasure in this slaughter. According to Nuroka, Amon was pleased when the Tal'darim killed each other, which could happen by the hundreds in Rak'Shir duels, and Amon privately mocked those who fought in them. The hierarchy the ascendants bled to climb was, to the being at its summit, an amusement.

Alarak's climb#

No career shows the ascendant's path more clearly than Alarak's. He rose through the ranks by convincing ascendants above him in the chain to enter Rak'Shir, each realizing too late that he had arranged their downfall, and he saw to it that rivals who shared his own gift for manipulation met unfortunate ends. In one Rak'Shir he manipulated a battle in which eight hundred Tal'darim died, keeping his involvement hidden while the resulting chaos delayed the faction's plans for months. The slaughter carried him upward, and within four years of becoming an ascendant he held the position of Fourth Ascendant.

His final climb came through betrayal. As Amon's designs neared completion, Fifth Ascendant Ji'nara brought word that First Ascendant Nuroka wished to speak with him, for Nuroka had challenged Highlord Ma'lash to Rak'Shir. Nuroka had learned the truth of Amon's plan, that the dark god intended to destroy all creations of the xel'naga, the Tal'darim included, and he sought Alarak's support to kill Ma'lash and reveal the secret to their people. When the duel came, Third Ascendant Zenish fell early and left Nuroka without an ally, and Alarak stunned the spectators by diving into the fray, igniting his psi-blades against Second Ascendant Guraj. He had broken no rule, for declaring allegiance before a Rak'Shir was customary but not compulsory. Yet Alarak had chosen Ma'lash's side. Nuroka died at the highlord's hands, and Alarak took his place as First Ascendant, now carrying the secret of Amon's betrayal and a hidden resolve to turn it against the god his people worshipped.

First Ascendants in the End War#

As First Ascendant, Alarak commanded Tal'darim forces at the height of the war against the Daelaam. He led the fleet sent to destroy a Daelaam research facility on Glacius, turning his mothership's displacement beam against the site before Artanis and his forces drove the attack off. Soon afterward Alarak put the logic of the chain to its ultimate use. On Slayn, with the Daelaam as his declared partisans, he challenged Ma'lash to Rak'Shir for the right to rule, killed him, and became highlord. He then ordered the Tal'darim to break from Amon and join in the dark god's destruction.

The rank he vacated passed to Ji'nara, and she soon faced her own trial by combat. A faction of Tal'darim insurgents remained loyal to Amon, and their leader, empowered by the dark god himself, became known as Amon's Champion. The insurgents came to Slayn to challenge First Ascendant Ji'nara to Rak'Shir, the champion intending to kill her, take her rank, and through it wrest control of the Tal'darim from Alarak, with several of Amon's hybrid aiding the attempt. With the support of allied forces, Ji'nara defeated the challenger and cast him into the Pit of Sacrifice, quelling the insurgence. The Chain of Ascension had been turned against the god who once sat atop it, and the ascendants who survived the war remained what they had always been, the sharpened edge of Tal'darim ambition.