Notes on Taiyama Surana, Talin Surana, and the Surana Family Taiyama Surana: *Taiyama, Leliana, and Zevran (yes, Zev fans, our favorite assassin is going to figure in quite a bit in later stories!) travel all across Thedas and into lands not yet discovered by civilization. By the time of his death, he's not just "The Hero of Ferelden" but is widely known all across Thedas.
*They travel for a decade until, unexpectedly, Leliana is impregnated with Taiyama's child. They all decide to settle down in Denerim (I'm unsure whether or not Zevran lives with them or gets his own place, but he's certainly close to Talin, who calls him "Uncle Zev").
*Taiyama supports his family by becoming a proto-capitalist and investor using the massive amount of gold he had gathered during his travels. Indeed, Taiyama is often known for funding rather risky merchant adventures that either pay off magnificently or go horribly wrong and cost a lot of money. Leliana is quite content to let him do this, though, because A. He's normally a very shrewd investor with good instincts and doesn't lose much money very often, B. They have money to spare both from travels and Taiyama's good investments, C. The vigor and tumult of the marketplace satisfies Taiyama's restlessness, keeping him at home more rather than traipsing around Thedas with Zevran, and D. Well, he makes more than enough money to satisfy Leliana's fashion tastes (especially shoes)!
*Taiyama actually isn't as absent a father as I had originally planned him to be because of this. Indeed, a big reason why Talin hero-worships his father is because Taiyama was almost always there, teaching him and watching over him. That said, he's a frequenter of taverns, not because he drinks (the man's an A-class teetotaler) but because he comes in every day to ask the tavern keeper about news or any troubles he has heard of. If Taiyama so much as gets a whiff of something bad happening, he and Zevran (or sometimes Leiana, and someone is left to babysit Talin) are usually off to investigate and help. He's sometimes gone for months at a time, but these instances are rare.
*Taiyama's a rather lenient father, more apt to trying to reason with Talin about why rules exist rather than punishing him. He also always makes sure to nurture Talin's curiosity, which is part of the reason Talin becomes a traveling Sinbad-like naval captain when he grows up.
*Taiyama isn't an anarcho-capitalist like me (after all, the modern theory of anarcho-capitalism/voluntarism/natural order wasn't around until the 1960s-1970s, so it'd be silly of me to make a medieval person one). He's a constitutional monarchist with a strong belief in
noblesse oblige.
*Taiyama is a good example of the concept of
nobilis naturalis (natural nobility). He's often a mediator in disputes that people seek out when they don't want to bother with court cases and prefer a simple, cheap way of resolving disputes. He's well-known for being merciful and often having the one ruled against do something for the plaintiff or the community at large in penance rather than meteing out a harsh penalty. The ruling is almost always respected by both parties but those who try to dodge the ruling are either taken to a formal court or simply ostracized by the community at large, though such things are rare due to the amount of respect Taiyama commands. There is often a noticeable shift upwards in the number of court cases whenever Taiyama isn't in Denerim and a shift back downwards whenever he returns.
*Taiyama's time traveling has made him a fiercely independent man (quite a change from the cowed good little mage he was before becoming a Grey Warden, but once he got a taste of true freedom he could never turn back). While he serves Alistair and the nation of Ferelden, he does so only because he wants to and acknowledges no master or ruler over himself but himself alone. Indeed, Taiyama rarely bows before Alistair (usually only when matters of state are being attended to and Taiyama knows people might get offended if he didn't bow), prefering to treat him like the old friend he is--with all the sarcasm, joking, and informality that entails. Frankly, Alistair more than welcomes the reprieve from formality when Taiyama's around.
*Taiyama has an almost super-elven willpower, which gives him a huge reserve of mana. He's able to summon new reserves of mana out of nowhere even after running out before at some points due to sheer willpower (to do something like this, though, he usually has to be protecting someone or trying to keep a promise). This means that in some situations his mana is effectively limitless. This isn't without its consequences, though. Drawing mana out of nowhere simply by will wreaks havoc on Taiyama's body and mental state and whenever he does this, he usually ends up collapsing at the end of the fight. At one point he goes so far that he falls into a coma for a few weeks after a particularly tough fight.
*I love the Surana Grey Wardens a lot precisely because they serve as an example for both of the downtrodden groups in Ferelden society: mages and elves. Taiyama's example has a huge effect on history, particularly doing a great deal to stop the spread of racial ideology in thedosian society. Someone who's debating a person who believes that non-humans are inherently inferior needs only point out that "The Hero of Thedas was an elf, was he not?" and usually can silence his opponent with that. While his example alone doesn't wipe racism from Thedas, it does a lot to hinder and limit it.
*After his death, while many statues are built of him, the largest is built in Denerim on the site that his ashes are burned. In front of the statue (which is Taiyama looking upwards and pointing to the sky above) Taiyama's staff is planted into the ground and the cloak that Nathaniel Howe gave him (which is one of Taiyama's main symbols) is tied around it.
*I mention in the first post that his theme song is "Spirit Never Dies". Well, his purely musical (without lyrics) theme would have to be
Hope Never Dies. Talin Surana: *Talin has daddy issues. Boy, howdy, he does. Not because Taiyama was a bad father but because he doesn't like being known as simply "The Hero of Ferelden's boy" rather than in his own right. That's the reason he starts traveling and trying to make a name for himself: he wants to surpass his father and have his own name known throughout Thedas.
*Taiyama is occasionally bombastic and prone to speech-making because he's playing mental games. He wants to both strike terror into his enemies and rally his allies with his words. If he acts incredibly confident to the point of arrogance it's because he knows that a leader has to be someone his followers can rally around no matter what. Talin takes this tendency and ramps it up to 11. He's so much in his father's shadow that he compensates by being incredibly hammy and prone to shouting his own praises. Taiyama does it because it's strategy, Talin does it even more because that's just who he is.
*Because he's like this, I can't
not imagine him with Kyle Hebert's incredibly hammy Kamina/The Great Saiyaman! voice.
I do not apologize for this. (skip to 3:20 on that last video)
*I originally planned on him being a warrior in heavy armor (which is actually shown in the one chapter already written that has Talin in it) but I dropped that idea when I remembered that he's a ship captain. Heavy armor + ocean nearby = high risk of death. I've decided he's a dual sword-wielding rogue in light armor. Like his mother, he's not one for outright stealth in the shadows and more than one person remarks on how strange it is that a man as bombastic and loud as Talin is a
rogue of all things. Most people simply peg him as a warrior in light armor.
*The jury's still out on what he looks like exactly, so I'll probably edit this when I decide. I know for sure that he has his mother's blue eyes, though.
*He trains in the art of seamanship with Isabella (among other things, wink wink, nudge nudge) shortly after his father's death at the age of 21. He comes onto the crew outright telling Isabella that he wanted to become a captain, which impresses her, so she lets him on the crew partly because she's impressed with him and partly because she remembers the card game and duelist training she had with his parents years ago (in particular, she deeply respects Leliana, who she only after the fact realized actually won the game, not Taiyama). In five years he works his butt off and saves up relentlessly (often denying himself the most basic pleasures) until he has enough money to commission a ship to be built for him just to his specifications. He names the Ship "Hope's Flame", hires a crew, and sets off with Uncle Zev tagging along too.
*Talin's actually bisexual and his second romantic relationship is with another man. Taiyama and Leliana aren't bothered by it at all, really. He does end up marrying a woman, however.
*Like his father, he eventually settles down and raises a family. He has two children: one a daughter who becomes a mage and eventually a Grey Warden and the other a son who keeps out of adventure entirely.
The Surana Noble Family: *When the Teryn of Gwaren dies childless, King Duncan (Alistair's son) names Talin the new Teyrn of Gwaren as a respectful gesture to both Talin's heroism and Taiyama's, forever putting an elven-descended human family on the second most powerful position in Ferelden. While Talin himself simply leaves things to his advisors, not caring enough to manage to terynir, his son spends most of his time as a "professional noble" as it were and truly starts up the Noble House of Surana. As a callback to their famous ancestor, the Surana family crest is a double-headed griphon (the same as which is on the back of Taiyama's cloak) but also with a background of red flame to keep it from being confused with the crest of the Commander of the Grey.
*The Suranas being on par with the Couslands in terms of political power is another reason racial ideology is hindered, especially in Ferelden. The Suranas try to combat it less from noble intentions (though many of the Suranas do have those) but more to safeguard their own power. After all, the contention that elves are inferior brings with it that any humans descended from elves are lower than their pure human brethren, which jeopardizes the power and prestige of the family.
*Suranas are ambitious, first and foremost. Whether good or bad, they are almost always ambitious for glory and prestige. In the Surana mansion there is a single room, kept under lock and key, that the children know about from almost day one but are not allowed in to (thus igniting their curiosity furiously). When those children are sixteen, they are let into the room. Inside is a large room filled with paintings, sculpture, artifacts, etc. all depicting the heroism of their ancestors from Taiyama downward in history. I get this basic idea from the rooms that patrician families in ancient Rome had that had death masks of all of their ancestors hung on the wall. The ancient texts we have describe this room as lighting a fire in the eyes of the Roman boys who look upon it. The same thing happens when a Surana sees the "trophy room" as it's euphemistically called. Suranas are bred to be ambitious from the start.
*Because of this ambition, Suranas are often in positions of prestige and honor either as generals (especially generals), explorers, politicians, etc. More than once a foolish or incompetent Theirin king is simply a puppet on a string for a Surana power behind the throne. This also serves an unintentionally useful function as the Suranas, like their heroic ancestor, are fiercely independent and act as a constant check on royal power.
*Yes, the pointing to the heavens and "Who the hell do you think I am?"s survive for quite a while in the Surana line. Some of them feel too important to act like that, but many (especially the generals) use the mannerisms with pride.
Modifié par Taiyama, 01 juillet 2010 - 01:39 .
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