Taliro

(also known as Dragon Lord, Grendel, Sam Sunstruck, Dray, or Zan)

Taliro is a main character in Legend of the Ultimate Sword, a native of Valore, and the father of the Zet. He stands six feet tall, has long, spiky black hair that stands straight up, and is fair in skin tone. His natural eye color is blue, but after his accident, his right eye is a cybernetic prosthetic which glows red. His other cybernetic augments include an armored torso and synthetic organs, as well as a biomechanical arm and leg. He typically keeps those parts bare due to their intimidating appearance, and wears black sleeves over his natural limbs.

He is born with abilities far above average for his race, which propel him to great social standing. While training in the mountains, he is injured in a landslide. The biotech genius Anima, in love with him and influenced by Zan, invents the Z.A.N.H.O.S.H.I. to control custom-built cybernetic augments for him. Due to Valore superstitions about the potential for augmentees with AI systems to have their will subsumed by the computer, Taliro loses his high status. The supersitions prove true, as the presence of Zan within the Z.A.N.H.O.S.H.I. causes Taliro to become an Avatar of Zan from that point on. Driven by Zan's visions, Taliro builds the first Valore spacecraft, and launches himself out into the stars...

## Aliases

#### Dragon Lord

On planet Trida, Taliro uses his Valore powers and cybernetic augments to dominate the local populace, setting himself up as their Dragon Lord. During his initial battle against Thane of Trida, he is pushed to his limits, and discovers his ability to transform into a massive dragon. He takes a liking to this form, and remains in it for the rest of his time on Trida.

#### Grendel

Taliro's spacecraft malfunctions while landing on Trintia, forcing him to change back into his dragon form to survive. Even after healing, he finds himself unable to transform back to normal. During his time hiding in the woods of Trintia waiting for his next lead, Taliro gains a reputation with the locals for being a legendary demon of the deep woods, which they call Grendel. With the help of Thanatos, he is able to change back to his humanoid form.

#### Sam Sunstruck

Due to the presence of Fountrena on Jedia, Taliro is unable to maintain humanoid form, but as Fountrena is a form of Zanhoshi, he also gains magical powers. He hides himself in a remote location, and uses those powers to project his will across vast distances and inhabit illusory puppets. His last puppet, and his best known, plays the role of a grandfatherly old man named Sam Sunstruck, Ringmaster of Sunstruck Circus.

#### Dray

When the Kyugen Fission occurs on Draygo Prime, Taliro uses the resulting chaos and mass memory loss to assume leadership of the Draygon race. He takes a suitable draygon form, going by the alias "Dray", in order to study the Kyugen Fission and its similarities to Jedia's Fountrena phenomenon.

#### Zan

When Taliro accidentally grasps a Zanhoshi for the first time, his connection with Zan becomes complete, and he achieves Omega State. His body transforms into that of a Zet - his apparent age regresses to teenhood, his hair turns white, and his base power increases greatly. In this state, the only weapons known to be effective against him are magical ones designed by Sarah Williams. Even those can only stun him long enough to take the Zanhoshi from his hands, which cancels his Omega State and reduces his combat power to a level comparable with the Zet.

## Trivia

* Taliro and Alroit are mutual anagrams. Pretty obvious though, right?
* The name Taliro was inspired by a mis-hearing of the name of "Telero Boxer", a video game published for Nintendo's Virtual Boy console.
* Taliro's official System title is Cybernetic Samurai Dragonlord Taliro. This is odd, since he doesn't wield any weapons whatsoever until becoming Zan.