A Fictional Biography

Future histories include fictional biographies. In Poul Anderson's Technic History:

David Falkayn;

Dominic Flandry;

Tachwyr the Dark. (Scroll down.)

Tachwyr's first appearance is undistinguished. Dominic Flandry is drinking with young males on Merseia. Yqan (Chief Petty Officer) Lannawar Belgis:

"...sat relaxed with the Terran and Tachwyr the Dark, whose rank of mei answered somewhat to lieutenant j.g."

-Poul Anderson, Ensign Flandry IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-192 AT CHAPTER ELEVEN, p. 105.

(Although Anderson seems to make Merseian ranks almost exactly parallel to familiar human naval ranks, he then imagines different relationships between the ranks: for Terrans, mutual aloofness; for Merseians, an interplay between formality and ease.)

 

Tachwyr begins his career as Flandry's opponent when he reins in Belgis's garrulousness. Flandry thinks that he has heard something important but does not know what. We have no way of knowing how important Tachwyr is destined to become.

 

We see two more meetings between Flandry and Tachwyr but the latter's most impressive appearance comes at the end of the series. The members of the Roidhun's Grand Council admire their Protector because:

"He, Tachwyr the Dark, himself a commander of space squadrons until he succeeded to the Handship of the Dathyrs and ultimately got the lordship of Merseia - he, this gaunt and aging male in a plain black robe, had brought them to triumph."

-The Game Of Empire, CHAPTER SIX, p. 265.

He had not but they thought he had. When they have, after all, been defeated, Tachwyr must draw the moral for the Merseians of the Roidunate:

"'By adversity, the God tempers the steel of the Race. Let us get on with our quest.'"

-CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO, p. 447.

What we chiefly appreciate here is the progression from the young mei to the gaunt and aging male.