Talandar

Talandar was a protoss purifier and Templar warrior, created from a brain scan of the Templar hero Fenix that carried all of Fenix's memories and a closely matching personality. Awakened long after the original Fenix's death, the construct at first believed he truly was Fenix, but in time accepted that he was a separate being and chose a new name for himself: Talandar, Khalani for "one who bears a strong heart." He became one of the foremost warriors and leaders of the Daelaam's purifiers, fighting through the End War and serving as a counsel to Hierarch Artanis in the years that followed.

Creation#

According to Talandar's own memories, some time before the original Fenix's defeat during the zerg invasion of Aiur, the Judicator Aldaris sent Fenix to a secret Khalai Caste research facility on the world of Glacius, where the Conclave was studying the ancient purifiers. There Fenix's brain was scanned into a prototype purifier unit, though he was led to believe the procedure was part of the dragoon program. The Conclave intended to study and observe the unit to decide whether the old purifier program could be revived. When Aiur fell to the zerg and the Conclave collapsed, the research was abandoned and the construct was left on Glacius in stasis.

Awakening during the End War#

In 2506, during the End War, Hierarch Artanis came to Glacius seeking the purifier research as a weapon against Amon, and phase-smith Karax found and activated the Fenix purifier. As the construct remembered it, he had been sent to Glacius to be made into a dragoon and then placed in stasis. Convinced he truly was Fenix, he treated Artanis as a dear friend, and Artanis, though he questioned how much like the original Fenix the construct really was, could not bring himself to reveal the truth. When the construct spoke of Tassadar, Artanis told him that Tassadar had fallen and that Aiur had been lost to the zerg; confused and unsettled by how long he had been in stasis, the construct was directed to the archives to learn more.

Early battles aboard the Spear of Adun#

As the Spear of Adun helped the Terran Dominion defend Korhal against the Moebius Corps, Artanis was reunited with Jim Raynor, a friend of the original Fenix. The construct, however, had no memory of the terran, since his mind had been copied before Fenix ever met Raynor; by the battle's end he had come to regard Raynor as a valiant individual. At Shakuras, Artanis recounted the events of the Brood War, how the Khalai and Nerazim had stood together against the zerg on that world, and the construct wished he could have been there. When Shakuras was destroyed to take out as many of Amon's forces as possible, he praised the Nerazim for sacrificing their world for the greater good.

By the time the Spear of Adun reached Ulnar, the construct had begun to suspect his existence was not what he had assumed; the records said his predecessor had fallen at Antioch and been revived as a dragoon, yet he was no dragoon. While Artanis was within the structure, First Ascendant Alarak of the Tal'darim boarded the ship, proposing an alliance against Amon. The construct distrusted him, finding the Tal'darim lacking in honor, and when Alarak claimed Amon had betrayed his people, the construct called it a lie; Alarak retorted that the construct was a lie incarnate. Afterward the construct confided in Artanis that he knew the truth at last: he was not Fenix but a replication, and the true Fenix had been slain on Korhal by the Queen of Blades. Artanis assured him that he was a warrior nonetheless.

Releasing the purifiers#

When Artanis convened his commanders to decide their next course, the construct argued for seeking out the purifiers, though the preserver Rohana warned they might turn on their creators. At Slayn, where Alarak sought to claim the Tal'darim through the rite of Rak'Shir, the construct found the customs strange and could neither hope for Alarak's victory nor wish for his defeat; Alarak prevailed, but the construct did not abandon his distrust of the new highlord. With the destruction of the Revanscar facility the threat of the Moebius Corps was ended, and the construct commended Artanis on the victory.

At Endion the Spear of Adun moved to release the purifiers held in stasis within Cybros. The construct felt exhilarated, confident he could persuade the purifiers to join the Daelaam, and he insisted they be given a real choice rather than coerced. He advised Artanis on protecting the Megalith during the surface battle and warned that Cybros could not long withstand the zerg. When the world was won, the purifiers agreed to join Artanis's cause but asked that the construct speak for them. In the aftermath he told Artanis he felt uneasy bearing his predecessor's name; Artanis insisted he had proven himself the equal of his source, but the construct believed he had to find his own path and his own name.

Becoming Talandar#

During the second reclamation of Aiur, the construct was sent with Karax to destroy one of the three psi-matrices powering the planet's psionic matrix, and the two succeeded together. Before the final battle, having fully accepted the truth of his identity, the purifier at last rejected the name Fenix; it belonged to another, and he chose his own name, Talandar, "one who bears a strong heart." Artanis judged it a fitting name and agreed to use it from then on.

In the defense of the Keystone, Talandar and his purifier brethren destroyed Amon's hybrid host form, leaving the fallen xel'naga with only the Khala to inhabit. Talandar took part in the final defense of the Keystone, helping hold it against Amon's zerg and the corrupted Golden Armada as the relic drew Amon out of the Khala.

Building a new Aiur#

Though the purifiers largely kept apart from the rest of the Daelaam on Aiur, Talandar continued to leave the network to visit his friends among the biotic protoss and to serve as a counsel to Hierarch Artanis. While visiting Karax's lab in Aldera, High Executor Selendis arrived with the body of a protoss named Eranis, dead of self-inflicted wounds, with a strange device clamped to the stubs of his nerve cords. A second body soon turned up in similar condition, and Artanis ordered Talandar to retrieve it and investigate.

Talandar delivered the corpse of a former Templar named Therun to Karax and searched her dwelling, finding Templar armor and artifacts. Consulting the purifier network yielded little, as the purifiers Clolarion and Mojo kept to themselves and paid scant attention to the wider Daelaam. Therun's father, who resented the purifiers, refused to speak with him. Pursuing the matter further, Talandar found a former Templar named Maitana, who told him of Therun's loss of purpose after the war and of a "new temple" Therun had visited with a female phase-smith. Following the lead, Talandar and Karax traced the phase-smith to one named Lantharis and found the "new temple" to be a hidden lab, abandoned in haste. Inside were writings condemning Artanis for the destruction of the Khala, and evidence that the devices killing the protoss were an attempt to remake it.

The findings were relayed to Selendis, who insisted on hunting Lantharis herself. With the Nerazim Nerath, whose family had designed the base technology, Selendis tracked Lantharis to another lab and called on Karax and Talandar. Talandar warped in and brought down the lab's security forcefield, and when Lantharis unleashed a torrent of incapacitating void energy on Selendis and Nerath, Talandar, able to resist it, knocked her unconscious and placed her in a stasis chamber while Karax shut down the energy. Afterward, consulting with Artanis, Selendis, Karax, and Nerath, Talandar acknowledged that the loss of the Khala had left a deep wound in protoss society, one that could destroy it, and that each protoss had to find a new path. He considered opening the purifiers to ease the loneliness many Khalai felt, though Karax noted the lingering bias against them. It was concluded that there were many possible solutions but a long road ahead before the Khalai found a new purpose in a world without the Khala.

Character#

Karax estimated that Talandar's scanned personality matched the original Fenix to within the ninety-ninth percentile. Like Fenix, he styled himself a proud Templar warrior who reveled in the glory of battle and fought with valor and honor, eager to defend his people and willing to sacrifice anything to protect them; few among the Daelaam could match his commanding presence. He regarded Artanis and Tassadar as old friends but did not at first recognize Jim Raynor, having been scanned before Fenix met him, though after watching archives of their battles he understood why Fenix had befriended such a terran. Over time he accepted that he was a clone of Fenix while recognizing he was his own entity, not bound to follow the original's choices, which was why he took his own name. Even the preserver Rohana, who considered the purifiers forbidden and disloyal, admitted that Talandar defied her expectations and was more than she had assumed. He held a low opinion of Alarak and the Tal'darim, a feeling that was mutual, but deeply respected the Nerazim as an honorable people. He found the zerg loathsome and the nuclear weapons of terrans craven, and he possessed the ability to transfer his consciousness from his praetor suit into other shells, among them a dragoon and an arbiter.