How to Become Talion

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Name: Talion

Game(s): Shadow of Mordor, Shadow of War

Archetype: Fighter

Class: Weapons Master

Skills/Attributes:

• Skilled melee fighter.
• Talented archer.
• Ranger training.
• Tracker.
• Capable freerunner/traceur.
• Wraith abilities.
• Motivated by vengeance and a desire to oppose evil.

Overview:

With the Shadow of War on the horizon (ha ha ha) I thought it would be a good time to highlight Talion, the protagonist of the series!    He’s been a pretty popular request, and I really wanted to head back into video-game-character world (we’ve been doing a fair number of superheroes and TV characters lately…)  Shadow of Mordor was a lot of fun, and Shadow of War looks awesome, so I’m psyched for it!

Talion’s a badass, undeniably, even without his “partnership” with Celebrimbor.  His skills in combat, medium build, and balanced combination of agility and strength put him in the Fighter archetype.  With his proficiency in sword, bows, daggers, and all things generally pointy I’d say he’s definitely an accomplished Weapons Master.  Now, it’s worth noting here, that while I’m not covering Celebrimbor in this series, we are going to be evaluating some of the Wraith skills Talion is gifted with through his possession.  Sorry, elf-lord, maybe we’ll get to you in the future.

For The Talion Workout, we’re going to build the body of a ranger.  Talion’s not super bulky, but he’s definitely not slim, either.  I’d liken his build to something like Conor or Geralt, and his workout is going to have similarities to both.  We want to be strong and powerful, but also fast and flexible.  Additionally, we’re going to assume Gondor doesn’t have power racks sitting around to train their rangers with, so we’re going to be going with some unconventional tools to develop strength.

The Skills of a Dark Ranger will take a look at the many facets of Talion’s talents and abilities.  Fighting with blade and bow will, of course, be at the forefront, but we’re going to dip into some creative approaches to wraith abilities and other skills.  You’re probably not going to be telepathically dominating Uruks any time soon, but there are certainly ways to bend others to your will that we can take a look at.

Finally, in The Partnership of Talion, we’re going to examine his relationship with Celebrimbor.  We’re going to discuss how shared goals can make strange bedfellows, and how you can use shared goals to accomplish some of your own objectives in life.  We’re going to talk about the idea of compromise, and mutual benefit.  We’ll also touch on the idea of support through loss, and how important it can be.

This should be a fun series!  I’m super glad to be back again, that week off was unfortunate, but it was also necessary.  Charging full speed ahead, now!  I’ll see you again on Thursday with The Talion Workout (unless you’re a Patron, in which case you can go and see it right now!

Live boldly, change the world, and continue to be awesome!

Dan “DaRatmastah” Wallace