Donokan Torlan

## The Warmonger, The Iron Ambassador

Art by Exiled

**Donokan Torlan** is the current Citadel Ambassador of the Vol-Protectorate and a former GUARDIAN-operative.

## Biography

Donokan was born on Irune to the Clan Duran. Due to an accident on an element zero transport in the lower orbit, the place where his egg was hatched, had been contaminated with element zero. The exposure caused his brother and him to be born as biotics.

Donokan and his brother were raised in a place which was aiming at grooming volus biotics into valuable members of society as a joint venture of several clans. To achieve this, they were subjected to a strict training regime, beginning with imparting techniques to calm and concentrate on them and later including physical training. It also included a stable and rather warm environment in order to allow them to develop a healthy mental constitution. They were given formal education most volus of their age would get as well, including additional courses about mass effect fields.

Even though simplified for children, many topics showed to be extremely complicated for the students to understand. What made things worse for Donokan was the fact, that his brother made far better progress than himself, who severely lacked control over his power. The asari who trained the pair was at a loss since Donokan did not improve for years. She even contacted volus biotics to inquire possible unique quirks of volus biotic behaviour but this did not lead to a solution.

Donokan had the chance to meet volus children from several clans as the number of biotics was not high enough to make a separate training for every clan an economical option. During his early years, Donokan spent most of his time with either his brother or a pair of another clan’s volus. The friends spend most of their time playing or talking about the lessons they received from both teachers and biotic instructors.

The exchange helped Donokan not get depressed over his lack of progress during most of his time within the facility. Only at the age of twelve, he managed to achieve a breakthrough in his control as the instructor decided to test teaching him another way of controlling his power. The reason for it was simple: He seemed to have no talent for basic biotic control at all since he could not grasp the basic formulas. Seeing his average to above average grades in some scientific subjects, she concluded, that it was not likely that he was too dumb to control his power but more unable to grasp the simplified techniques.

As an experiment, she gave Donokan a full-fledged biotic technique to create a barrier and spend several weeks of intense training with him. If he failed to grasp the technique, it would not matter much at this point but if he succeeded, he would have a chance to catch up with his classmates.

The feeling he had, as the barrier finally formed itself around him, was something Donokan would never forget. To be able to control such vast powers made him feel both delighted and frightened.

During the following years, Donokan caught up to his class in terms of biotic abilities. He still had below average control over his power in most ways. The only exception was on the field of barriers, where he showed a more refined approach than his peers.

Upon their graduation at the age of twelve in 2147, Donokan and his Brother met their parents for the first time in person. They had some contact via communication media before to tell the children that their clan was eagerly awaiting them to join.

Their father was an administrator who was attached to the turian Hierarchy as a member of their ministry for finance while their mother was a researcher and engineer at Elkoss Combine. Both had respected positions within the volus society and their clan quickly decided to groom the children into successors for their parents. As a result, Donokan followed his father to his assigned post on Palaven, while his brother entered Elkoss Combine as a trainee.

On Palaven, Donokan’s father only had little spare time for his son and most of it was spent with talking about his responsibility to learn about turian culture and how to fit into their society in order to be a valuable asset to the protectorate in providing their protectors with the financial and economic aid the turians added them into their society in the first place. By elongation, this would increase his clan’s influence due to providing personnel for the hegemony or giving Donokan lessons about administration and galactical economy and politics.

As a part of his education, Donokan was sent to a turian school, where he would learn more about turian culture and begin to establish connections of his own to potential future higher echelons of the hierarchy. Due to his inability to keep up with his turian classmates, he was excluded from physical lessons and spend that time with additional lessons about history, warfare and politics. There he learned about the powers in the galaxy from a different standpoint than he did on Irune. The volus normally analyzed other races mostly based on their financial and industrial power while the turians preferred to look at military power first. Combined with the more warlike tone in the turian society, this shocked Donokan to a degree, that he had to reevaluate his opinions about warfare and combat.

Even though he did make some friends during his first years he struggled a bit with the lessons as he found the difference in classes from Irune to Palaven as very confusing. He was able to solve many of the economy related problems with ease as their complexity was well below that of the volus, while the physics and geography classes were setting a different focus. Also, there were no classes about warfare theory on Irune and Donokan found himself close to the bottom of the class until he managed to catch up.

Another challenge was concerning his condition as a biotic. The general aversion against biotics in the turian society made it a serious topic both for his father and the turian officials. Donokan’s father wanted him to make friends and learn about the hierarchy`s society as natural as possible. He asked if his son's condition could be kept from the public and his request was granted, under the condition, that Donokan was to be supervised by a trained biotic and to be added to the Hierarchy`s database. His father agreed and hired a volus biotic as supervisor and trainer. The former soldier put his efforts into imparting the techniques, Donokan possessed a larger amplitude for, namely barrier and warp. He also taught him how to use the more specialized biotic orbs.

In his third year, the school curriculum was supplemented by basic military training. He took part in the theory lessons and, due to the sadistic tendency of an instructor, Donokan even had to join the drills, resulting in several pitiful displays on his part. The turian classmates were divided in their opinion about the volus who desperately tried to keep up with the class, one group seeing him as little more than a nuisance, another viewed it as a chance to train operating with a handicap, for example, while evacuating civilians.

After the year was over, the turian officials decided to remove Donokan from the class, since they would now begin more in-depth military training, where non-turians had no place to be. Donokan used this chance to talk to his father about the place of the volus within the galaxy, what dangers were around them and how they could deal with them. His father did not share his son's doubts towards the more peaceful approach of the volus society but he could not find a convincing argument to ease Donokan’s fears either. In the end, the young volus left the path his clan had planned for him to join the volus military as a volunteer at the age of sixteen in 2151, in order to be able to protect his people should the need arise.

Within the military, he was evaluated based on his abilities. His biotic training led to him being selected out for additional training from the very start. Since it would be a waste to deploy biotics in backline duty but also a great risk to send them to the frontlines, Donokan was given the choice of his career within the military. In an attempt to apply the theories he learned in his turian school, he decided to enlist as a heavy infantryman. The following two years were filled with training in operating volus power armour, assault rifles and explosives. It was supplemented by additional biotic training, where he focused on his ability to built above average barriers around his squadmates, greatly increasing their odds of survival. The other part of his biotic training was centred around the warp power to increase his offensive potential, which turned out to be extraordinarily dangerous even though hard to control. His gun firing ability was slowly raised to an average level. Part of his training was to nurture his awareness of his squadmates relative position in order to provide them with on-time assistance.

Due to the possible manpower shortage in the volus military in case of losses, Donokan was required to take piloting courses for the most commonly used transport shuttles and gunboats. If the need arises, he should be capable to allow his unit to leave a planet but it is painfully obvious, that he was an emergency pilot with only the most basic of skills.

After the training, Donokan was sent to a protectorate auxiliary formation in 2153, which were to be attached to turian forces. These were dispatched on a campaign against organized pirates in a remote region of the citadel space as a part of the peacekeeping duty of the Citadel forces. The operation was barely noted by the public, as it was neither a critical or large scale conflict. Military actions against pirates were not too rare after all. Upon their arrival in the barracks of their turian parent unit, the first problem with Donokan’s condition arose: The turian commanders were hesitant to include a biotic into their unit and to make things worse, they were not even sure who had the authority to command him. Turian files about Donokan included the fact, that he was a biotic but no specifics as to what was his rank was were included. The commanding officer, therefore, requested additional information from the cabal. Upon receiving the assurance, that the volus was not a member of the cabals forces and therefore to be integrated into the normal chain of command, one of the unit leaders eventually agreed to include the biotic into his force.

Despite the rather unremarkable nature of the conflict, it was a hard-fought victory for the troops deployed. The pirates were better armed and organized than the turians had anticipated and even after their fleet was defeated, the pirates organized a defence of an underground complex on Maji. Donokan’s unit was deployed as part of the force that should attack and secure the base since command had reason to assume, that hostages and valuable information were stored inside.

During the bitter fighting in the tunnels, Donokan revealed himself as remarkably stable. He was even more surprised than his comrades that he could keep that calm even under fire. Even though he was never a centre point of a plan, his squad’s leader valued his ability to protect other soldiers while the common troopers honoured the volus’ humourous nature.

The squad lost several members to enemy fire leaving Donokan with a feeling of failure as he had made keeping his comrades alive his very priority. His unit allowed him to take part of their funeral rites to show him, that death was simply part of their work, something that Donokan had forcibly ignored so far. He was filled with doubts as to whether or not he had chosen the right path until they discovered a group of civilians the pirates had held prisoner. Upon seeing the display of the almost dying people, Donokans faith in his path was restored and he used his biotic attacks for the first time.

After the campaign, Donokan was promoted in the volus military to a lower officer rank and placed in charge of a logistics unit. In the following years, Donokan entered the tactical command of volus forces within the auxiliary and distinguished himself as a reliable and dedicated officer. Since the volus military preferred those capabilities over martial prowess, he was able to work himself up in the military. The entire time, Donokans focus was on the relative power of the volus in the galaxy and he put his effort into increasing it in order to provide his people with security. He also tried to pass on the pacifistic views of his race to officers of other races, albeit with limited effect.

During his active time, Donokan was part of several military operations of citadel peacekeeping forces as well as military research projects. He was renowned in small groups of experts as a rather moderate officer in galactic comparison, while his constant work on increasing the defensive capabilities of the volus military earned him not too many friends within the volus government. Even though he had some influence in the volus military, he still had only minuscule authority in the protectorate, as the military was not held in high regards in volus society. Another problem posed the rather aversive stance of the Protectorate towards warfare in general which resulted in a preference to rely on turian protection instead of raising their own army. Donokan’s call for an increase in forces was seen as an act of warmongery, which stuck to him, much to the amusement of non-volus militaries. The dissonance between him and the government finally led his retirement at the age of 47 in 2182.

Even though never were on frontline duty again, Donokan had made defending his people his lives meaning and therefore maintained a strict training regime to keep himself in a fighting shape. Another of his oddities was to keep both his power armour and pressure suit on date in terms of combat efficiency. He also used his connections to his brother to receive the last generation of assault rifles and pistols with internal heat sinks from Elkoss Combine, along with a wide variety of modifications for them.

After his retirement, Donokan travelled the corners of the Citadel space, visiting old friends and places he always wanted to see. He even travelled to Earth and was impressed that the human race, which was even capable of shaking the galactic politics, did not even have a mutual government on their homeworld. He spent almost a year living on Earth, growing fond of their rather fresh and maybe a bit naive view of the galaxy. The other place he stayed for a longer time before returning to Irune was Thessia, where he visited the asari who was his instructor back in his childhood.

Back on Irune, he led a rather quiet life, still staying in contact with some friends from the military but no longer actively trying to change anything. Donokan could only feel sorrow if he recalled his goals and that he achieved nothing remarkable in order to protect his people.

Four years after he retired, attackers from outer space arrived in the galaxy and the Protectorate desperately tried to assemble a defence for their home planet of Irune.

Upon the beginning of the current war, Donokan was merely alert at first but after both krogans and batarians entered, he was panicking. He could plainly see the danger these events might pose to the volus if they were allowed to progress unhindered. Unwilling to watch helplessly, Donokan applied to the volus military to be reactivated but was denied due to political resistance and did not have the clan backing required to overcome these.

This result threw Donokan into depression as he could not stop to think about possible results of the war, his people annihilated, slaved or extinct. After some time, his optimistic view changed and he began to think again: There were now three factions fighting each other, two of which, the Council and G.U.A.R.D.I.A.N. would not likely destroy his kin while the Confederacy might do. Be it out of hate for the turians which are the volus overlords or simply to attain slave labour, they were the real threat. Donokan made up his mind, if his people would not allow him to fight for them, he would have to do so under a different banner. Even if he were to end up fighting against them, at least they would survive.

Donokan left Irune after cutting off most of his ties, only to his brother he could not lie and they parted in tears, Donokan crying for what he had decided to do, his brother for it might be the last time they saw each other.

Upon his arrival in Haven, Donokan had already calmed down enough to regain some of his optimism. Since he had chosen his path doubts would lead him nowhere so he could as well try to enjoy this new part of his life, remembering how he joined the volus military as a recruit. On Haven he applied at the next recruitment office as a regular recruit, stating that he could provide weapons and armour but that it was likely necessary to send him to boot camp as his tactical training was pretty outdated and his last real combat experience more than a decade ago.

He got accepted and was sent to Asgard station for his training. As a part of the last batch of recruits to train there, Donokan witnessed the destruction of Asgard with his own eyes. The event reinforced his conviction to carry on fighting - not only to protect his comrades and kin but now also to take revenge on that “Outsider” responsible for the attack.

Several combat assignments during the war meant that Donokan had the chance to both make new friends and lose some of them at the same time. More surprising than being deployed on the frontlines was his appointment as GUARDIAN’s ambassador - a political assignment that embodies all that Donokan loathed about politics. After grudgingly accepting the order, he discovered that it included some secondary functions on the organization as well. Due to the severe shortage of personnel after the outsider’s attack even technically non-military officers had to take over duties of commanders, disciplinary officers and frontline operatives.

One of the more diplomatic assignments was partaking in a publicity event alongside a group of other operatives and several civilians, including donokan’s brother Tolor Garn. The brother’s reunion was soon sullied by an indoctrinated turian murdering several members of the group, including Tolor.

There was no time to recover or work up properly what had happened for Donokan as the Reapers pushed their assault on the Milky Way and he had to partake in the task of organizing an united resistance. Endless days of discussions and showing evidence along with taking out bribes where needed finally resulted in an agreement and the summit of races. It followed a month of frantic preparation for the assault on the Omega 4 Relay. Determined, Donokan took part in the battle as a leader of the Vol-Protectorate’s forces, eventually returning to the Osiris when his battlegroup disengaged.

As one of the few remaining members of GUARDIAN’s command staff, Donokan was required to assist in managing the disbanding of the organization, a task he used as a chance to acquire a series of confidential information. Among the cache is the thing Donokan values most: The contact data of the surviving members as that of the ones who fell in the Battle.

With this new part of his life concluded, the Vol-clan returned to his estate on Irune to decide what to do with his remaining life. In Juni 2188, he was once again approached and asked to take up a diplomatic appointment - this time by his own people. The secession from the Hierarchy had brought the Protectorate into it’s most isolated position in centuries and they aimed to make use of the renown the Warmonger had earned in the Reaper War.

While negotiations are only proceeding at a slow pace, the formation of the Citadel Recovery Corp had drawn the old Vol-clans attention and he had managed to get himself a position as one of the new organization’s liaisons with the Citadel. Not only was it a place where some of his old comrades gathered, it also promised to be a relief from the boredom of his diplomatic job.

## Personality

Donokan’s personality is based on his rather unusual upbringing and grim experience. He applies parts of both turian and Vol-clan philosophy, combined with what he learned from studying the information that was collected about the Reapers. He retains the Vol-clans aversion to resolving conflicts by force and favours diplomatic and consensual solutions. He also kept their dutiful approach towards office working. What sets him apart from most volus is his rather open approval of having a strong military and the more turian like a positive view of soldiers. While he was convinced for most of his life that the Vol-clans position towards peace was something that could be exported to the rest of the galaxy, the war against the Reaper threat taught him a grim lection about reality: Even if the people of the Milky Way lived in peace, there were beings out there who would not hesitate to destroy them. Not because of innate cruelty but simply because lives were meaningless to them. If enemies like that approached, no sacrifice would be too great to stop them - failure would mean extinction.

As a result, he put himself into his work after GUARDIAN was dissolved and his people called him to be their ambassador to the Citadel. His main goal remains the same: Ensure the safety of his people. Only that he now considers not just the Vol-clan but many more to be deserving of his efforts. Too many friends had left behind families when they died at his side to stay focused on Irune alone. But it also meant that he had to pick up the arduous task of unifying the galaxy once again - during the war, GUARDIAN could rely on the common threat of the Reapers to bind the Clans to each other but now that it ended and the Confederacy fell apart, political squabbles and accusations flared up with old rivalries being reignited.

He used to be a cheerful person, never opposed to seeing a joke in any situation but with the death of his brother, the humour had gained a sad tone. Despite it, the Vol-clans nature remains that of a hearty and reassuring friend or father figure. It was his duty to stay as he was, for his little remaining close family and the many people who looked up at him. He prefers to talk things over instead of holding grudges and has developed his ability to mediate between others. He had a faible for gambling - in a group of friends and comrades, preferring the chance to spend time with them over the game itself, thus he does not like games with high stakes in this environment. Recently though, the very thought of seating himself even close to a casino as the events that led to his brother’s death still lingers in his memory. Donokan often talks about his life, both before and after his retirement and has no aversion to a good drink in decent company. Only the question about the brother he had lost will cause him to fall silent with a tendency to leave his opposite to themselves.

Donokan’s behaviour while on duty is not too different. He tends to joke and appears to be distracted easily, sometimes staring into space with his grieving eyes hidden under the plating of his suit. Still, he is a volus and carries out duties assigned to him with great care and efficiency.

The only real change in him is when things get serious. His playful nature gets replaced with a calm and stoic demeanour. This applies both to combat situations and hectic or stressful times in office, be it as a logistic or a tactical officer. However, he is aware that not all people are as composed when in danger and is keeping a good eye on his squadmates situation. His goal is to keep his entire unit alive and that is easiest if their fighting spirit is preserved.

However, he periodically falls into depression and hopelessness, where he can even be thrown into a mad and indiscriminate rage. This is due to the fact that he cannot get to accept how little he really achieved during his life. He tried to make his people’s situation safer but his efforts were in vain and the time where his enthusiastic optimism allowed him to ignore reality is long over. He tried his entire life to find a way to ensure the continuous existence of the rather peaceful volus society, always seeing that their way of abolishing warfare might be the only way to a true peace among the galaxy, where one would not have to worry about extinction, only to get his hopes crushed by an extragalactic foe. It might not have been apparent on the outside but below the surface military power and force of arms are the only true guarantees for stability, even the peace within the citadel space was never truly founded on a genuine search for coexistence by many of the member races but on the threatening might of the council races, which forced warlike races into compliance.

On the flip side, the need for maintaining power is leading to make a government more inclined to warfare and therefore leading them further astray from the path of true peace. Donokan is aware of the spiral, of the fact that he himself is a part of it but much of his being is paralyzed, unable to call it wrong anymore. If it was not for the rampant militarism of the Citadel-Confederacy War, the chances to defeat the Reapers would have been much worse. He firmly believes that the Reapers were not the last test the Milky Way would have to face and only condemning much of their society to a perpetual state of war preparation would give them any chance of survival.

The act of fighting still fills him with contradicting emotions. He believes it to be a terrible thing, killing and hurting others, but at the same time, it fills him with an animalistic joy to leave carnage in his wake. Oftentimes he had found himself disgusted of the actions he did or ordered for reasons he could justify. Only in the battle against the Reapers, he found peace and pride in his actions.

It is this kind of difference between his personal values, actions and emotions that truly defines his personality. Donokan is a cheerful person and a soldier who likes his job and sees it as a necessity, but only ever searched for peace and is fully aware of the fact that this goal can never be attained. War will always be a part of life in the Galaxy. All he could hope for was it to be against a true enemy.

## Physical Description

Despite still being clumsy due to his volus nature, Donokan moves a lot more precise than most volus within a pressure suit. This is both due to his training and experience in moving within them. His posture is a straight one, expressing self-assurance and calmness. His voice within his suit is deep and rough, almost in contrast to his nature.

His civilian pressure suit looks old-fashioned but is extremely high tech and well maintained.It is kept in an unremarkable, brown-black paint set. It possesses improved freedom of movement compared to a standard suit due to state of the art servos.

The suit is equipped with both a shield and a tactical cloaking device. Additionally, it is modified with a pistol holster. It also includes some basic systems for everyday work like a flashlight and additional recording equipment.

During his deployment in GUARDIAN, Donokan had come to the conclusion that even a reinforced pressure suit would fall short of his needs in battle and commissioned a replica of the armour he had used in the Protectorate. With time, the suit of Borvan-Power Armour got outfitted with a small arsenal of integrated weaponry - ways to put it’s high-yield reactor to use.

Considering that the last time he had used something else but an armour was the day his brother died, it should not surprise that Donokan is more often than not found in his armour. While the difference would only be apparent for those who know how to discern Vol-clan pressure suits, it serves as a reminder that Donokans reputation was forged in a war to those who do - and as a potentially lethal surprise to those who decided to pick a fight with him.

### Exceptional Skills

* Metal ball of surprises: Few would call a volus dangerous and even fewer one as old as Donokan but all are wrong. The Ambassador is commonly wearing a heavily armed and armoured suit, experience and training enable him to effectively engage most opponents who underestimate him, granting him an edge in battle.
* The Warmonger: Donokan received his nickname during his time in the Vol-Protectorate’s military as a mocking towards his push to modernize and expand the Vol-clans military forces. In galactic upper military circles however, he is known as a moderate and diligent commander who earned his place among them. While no genius of warfare, his capabilities in logistics and operating forces stand above those of less trained, experienced or dedicated officers.
* Vol-clan expertise: Trade rules all. Many a Vol-clan would agree to that notion and their culture reflects it. The upper class train their children from an early age to take over positions in diplomacy, economy and administration. Being an offspring of such a family, Donokan was entitled to extensive tutoring to groom him into an expert diplomat and economist. Despite his loathing for politics, the lections remained in his mind, enabling him to handle both his appointed rank and substantial property with the proverbial expertise of his people.

### Equipment

* **Borvan P-5 Power Armour, customized**
* **Avenger Assault Rifle and Edge Pistol with a collection of mods**
* **FFACE-OPH Sidearm**
* **CL-37 Integrated Grenade Launcher**
* **BR-2 Integrated Laser Rifle**

### Abilities

* Barrier
* Warp
* Biotic Orb
* Bastion