Talon / Hloldr
Talon (whose true identity is the rylak Hloldr) is a major supporting character and antagonist-turned-ally in The Metalwood Saga. Operating on the planet Valaralda under the guise of an elegant elven gentleman, Talon secretly runs the vast, illegal subterranean facility known as Memory beneath Ilyrion.
In reality, Talon is a hulking, ancient rylak from the jungle planet Eryn. Having enslaved the powerful mage Cariel nearly a hundred thousand years ago, he was subsequently conquered and soulbound by her, serving as her unwilling pawn for millennia. After Cariel's death severs his mental chains, Talon reclaims his freedom and forges a surprising alliance with Quynn and Trey to save the surviving worlds.
Appearance and Personality
Talon's existence is defined by a jarring contrast between his cultured illusion and his primal, monstrous reality.
- The "Talon" Persona: Through advanced mistweaving magic, Hloldr disguises himself as Talon—a tall, elegant, and muscular man with pointed elven ears, short-cropped brown hair, and striking golden eyes. He is impeccably dressed in a slick black, three-piece human-style suit, often accompanied by a top hat and silver cane. His teeth are exceptionally straight and white, flashing in a feral smile. He speaks with the posh, urbane polish of an English aristocrat, projecting the easy dominance of a predator at the top of the food chain. However, his urbane words are often laced with a low growl or throaty snarl, betraying the beast beneath the silk.
- The True Form (Hloldr): When he drops the illusion, Hloldr reveals his true nature as an upright, sentient rylak. He is a hulking, towering wolf-like monster with a long muzzle, sharp fangs, and a body covered in matted brown fur. He possesses long, razor-sharp claws on his fingers and toes that make a distinctive rasping sound as he moves. In this form, he gives off a potent, peculiar stench of sweat mixed with garlic and blood.
Personality-wise, Talon is a cunning, brutal survivor. As a rylak, he believes life is simple: hunt, kill, eat, and survive without worrying about the "meaning" of the cosmos. Despite his savage nature, he develops a mutual respect for those who show true strength in combat.
Biography
Master and Slave
Nearly a hundred thousand years ago on the jungle planet of Eryn, Hloldr lived in the rylak village of Skallgr. He was a cruel master who owned the elven kitchen slave Cariel, frequently beating her and threatening her. However, when Cariel's trauma unlocked her devastating soulbinding magic, the tables turned completely. Cariel violently subjugated the rylak packs, binding their souls to her Will and enslaving Hloldr for the next hundred millennia.
The Master of Memory
In the modern era on Valaralda, Hloldr—now operating under the alias Talon—acted as Cariel's chief lieutenant. He was placed in charge of Memory, a massive, illegal underground facility beneath Ilyrion that catered to politicians and criminals alike, offering memory reclamation, black market deliveries, and darkprime magic. Unbeknownst to his clients, Talon used the facility to construct a massive machine powered by fourteen Books of Amplification to further Cariel's apocalyptic plan.
When Lorelei and Allain arrived at Memory, Talon utilized his advanced gate-therapy machines to restore Lorelei's ancient memories. He also intercepted the Cothellon mindmaster Quynn, imprisoning him and sending him through a gate to Eryn on Cariel's strict orders. Later, Talon even briefly served as the interim Director of the Anthropological Society, infiltrating the organization to keep tabs on Trey.
The Desert Confrontation
Talon's true allegiance was revealed in the Thesserin Desert when Trey, Arra, and Allain confronted him. Dropping his urbane elven illusion, Talon transformed back into the hulking rylak, Hloldr, and attacked Trey.
Though Talon easily overpowered him at first, the trauma of the fight caused Trey's ancient kenjutsu sword memories to return. Using his shocksword, Trey outmaneuvered the beast and stabbed Talon in the foot. Moments later, Arra swept into the fight, using a combination of strengthshaping, bladedancing, and fallfoiling to brutally blast Talon backward into a wall of high-tech wreckage, rendering him unconscious.
Freedom and the Final Alliance
Talon survived the encounter and remained bound to Cariel's army until the moment she was finally killed. The instant her soulbind broke, Talon and the other rylak were freed from their millennia of slavery. Rejoicing in his freedom, Talon surprisingly allied with his former prisoner, Quynn, when an army of billions of sundered souls from Ambarhal swarmed the desert.
Fighting back-to-back, Talon proved himself to be a devastating Prime Mage, unleashing the power of twenty rylak at once to carve through the ghostly hordes. Escaping the souls, Talon accompanied Quynn through a planetary gate back to Earth, pledging his claws to help Trey and Quynn defeat the newly awakened god, Orym. During the final battle against Orym, Talon used soulsoothing magic to heal Quynn's grievous wounds.
Following the salvation of the worlds, Talon attended the wedding of Tarathiel and Alleria on the cliffs just north of Ilyrion, standing proudly alongside a contingent of his fellow rylak in specially tailored suits.
Powers and Abilities
- Prime Mage: Because he died and returned from Ambarhal, Talon is a fully realized Prime Mage capable of utilizing all fourteen aspects of magic.
- Mistweaving (Illusion): He possesses an incredibly refined mastery of mistweaving, allowing him to seamlessly maintain the visual and auditory illusion of the posh elven gentleman, Talon, for years at a time.
- Strengthshaping: In combat, Talon utilizes light oak to grant himself the brute physical power of "twenty rylak at once", making his devastating claws nearly unstoppable.
- Rylak Physiology: Even without magic, Talon is a hulking wolf-monster with immense natural strength, razor-sharp finger and toe claws, and lethal fangs.
- Multi-Disciplinary Combat: Talon is a "fighting machine." In the battle against the souls, he seamlessly switches between shockstriking (lightning), leafrunning (propulsion), and strengthshaping while physically tearing enemies apart.
- Soulsoothing: He demonstrates the ability to use soulsoothing to rapidly mend Quynn's broken body during their fight with Orym.
Key Relationships
- Cariel (Magona): His former slave who became his cruel master. He spent a hundred thousand years enslaved to her mind and desired nothing more than to see her corpse strewn across the ground.
- Quynn: Initially his prisoner, Quynn and Talon later form a powerful, respectful alliance. Talon saves Quynn's life during the battle with the souls, and Quynn saves Talon from falling into a pit of sand. They fight side-by-side to the very end.
- Lorelei: He oversaw the memory reclamation therapy that restored her ancient mind. He harbored a dark, lustful desire for her, having struck a disturbing bargain with Cariel to claim Lorelei as a reward once their plan succeeded.
- Trey (Tarathiel): Talon infiltrated Trey's workplace and later fought him in the desert, underestimating Trey's latent kenjutsu skills. After breaking free from Cariel, Talon travels across the galaxy to fight on Trey's side.