Tarcomir
Tarcomir is the Loruthi ambassador and Bashonin-Emissary of the Loruthi Palatine Council-posted at the Usmiat court in Alkhalend, where he serves as the diplomatic representative of Lor and the institutional counterweight to Palleseen influence near the royal household. Introduced during the divorce rite of The Blessed Kaleithi, he presents himself to Palleseen Resident Angilly as her "opposite number," the two of them standing as rival foreign emissaries in a city where both empires compete for the allegiance of the Alkhand's family. He is handsome, bearded, an entertaining raconteur and dancer who speaks Pel in a smooth but accented form, and over six years he builds a rapport with Prince Gorbudan that the Palleseen Resident cannot match. His personal significance to the series lies in the way his friendship with Angilly-a genuine bond forged between two foreigners sharing drinks and setting a corner of the world to rights-becomes the emotional axis around which the Palleseen-Lor war turns from abstraction into blood.
When war breaks between Lor and Pallesand, the diplomatic rapport Tarcomir cultivated is exposed and destroyed: Gorbudan is banished for allying with the Loruthi, Tarcomir's influence at the Alkhand's court collapses, and his friendship with Angilly is wedged apart by the conflict of their nations. In the aftermath of a Palleseen victory that breaks Lor's global reach, Tarcomir is recalled by the Loruthi Palatine Council and faces public humiliation at home. He challenges Angilly to an illegal duel to the death in the palace gardens, framing the killing as "the punctuation" to a war that ruined his career. She accepts, gives him the chance to kill her, and runs him through while on her back. His death is the opening event of the following book and reverberates through every subsequent confrontation: it brands Angilly as a killer in the eyes of her own service, creates a diplomatic crisis the Alkhand must manage, supplies Gorbudan with magical intelligence against Palleseen flying islands, and marks the specific ground in the Constellar Gardens where, years later, Angilly and Dekamran meet for their own final duel.
Character
Appearance
Tarcomir is handsome and bearded, a figure who moves through Alkhalend's courts as an entertainer as much as a diplomat-raconteur, dancer, the kind of presence that fills a room and makes allies of those who expected a rival. - Lives of Bitter Rain, ch 9. In combat he wields a Loruthi falchion, "not quite an Usmiat clavar," in the clavamachy style, his early exchanges characterized by a blinding flurry and measured poetry of cuts that defeat Angilly's Palleseen training. - Days of Shattered Faith, ch 2. He speaks Pel in a smooth but accented form, the language adopted by trained Loruthi diplomats; Angilly later addresses him in Loruthi itself to regain the initiative in their duel. - ch 2.
Personality
Tarcomir carries himself with an easy, almost roguish charm that makes rivalry feel like camaraderie. His first words to Angilly-opening with self-aware honesty rather than flattery-set the register of a man who will not pretend. - Lives of Bitter Rain, ch 7. He is genuinely good company, a peer with whom Angilly can share sharp ramaht and speak frankly about the Alkhand's grief and the prospects of Gorbudan's accession. - ch 9. Yet the friendship is always conducted within the architecture of state interest: he edges out Palleseen influence near Gorbudan not through malice but through patient, six-year accumulation of rapport. - ch 8.
The recall and the prospect of being "burned in effigy" at home strip away the charm and reveal a man desperate for one last act of self-possession. He rejects Angilly's attempt at formal parley and frames the duel as necessity rather than passion: the war was "a long sentence" and the killing is "the punctuation to it." - Days of Shattered Faith, ch 2. There is no personal vendetta in his challenge-only the need to make his return to Lor a story of a man who killed a Palleseen Resident rather than a man who failed.
Beliefs & Motivations
Tarcomir operates within the logic of diplomatic service: he reports to the Palatine Minister of Foreign Affairs, frames Usmiat politics in terms of Outreach advantage, and offers Angilly a favour designed to advance her standing back home rather than merely to be kind. - Lives of Bitter Rain, ch 9. He believes in the usefulness of a known quantity across the table, in the possibility that two foreigners in a foreign land can set that corner of the world to rights together, and in the mutual recognition that national interest and personal regard are not the same thing. - ch 9.
His final motivation is not hatred of Angilly but terror of irrelevance. Recalled in disgrace after a war his nation lost, he sees a Palleseen Resident's death as the only currency that can buy back his reputation at home. - Days of Shattered Faith, ch 2. He will fight to the death rather than return a failure, and he expects to die trying-which is why he does not stop even after being stabbed through the calf, pressing the attack until Angilly finishes him. - ch 2.
Affiliations
- Lor - emissary - Loruthi Palatine Council - emissary
History
Lives of Bitter Rain
The Cleansing at Alkhalend
Tarcomir first appears at the stepped pools of Alkhalend during the divorce rite in which The Blessed Kaleithi dissolves her thirty-year marriage to Oparan and takes the mantle of the Alborandi. He addresses the assembled onlookers to announce the rite's meaning: "And so it is, that the Blessed Kaleithi severs herself from the side of His Tranquillity, the Alkhand Oparan, dissolving their bonds of thirty years and taking on the mantle of the Alborandi." - ch 7. He then introduces himself to Angilly as Bashonin, official emissary of Lor, and names himself her "opposite number" as the rival diplomatic representatives of their respective nations in the same city - ch 7. He speaks Pel in a smooth but accented form - ch 7. His opening remark to Angilly sets the register of their relationship: "I'd say 'at your service' but we both know that would be a scurrilous piece of mendacity." - ch 7. Angilly's aide hurries her away before she can make a diplomatic blunder in front of the Lor envoy - ch 7.
In the vaulted, pearl-ceilinged duelling hall, Tarcomir fights Gorbudan in clavamachy - the male sword form of Usmai - in a bout watched with respect by the full court - ch 8. He concedes a hit to end the duel, and Gorbudan leaves laughing in his company; Angilly notes that Tarcomir has spent six years in post building the rapport she herself had hoped to forge - ch 8. Angilly and Storry applaud politely as the bout concludes - ch 8.
The Alkhand's Vigil at the Pools
Three years into Angilly's posting, Tarcomir has edged out Palleseen influence near Gorbudan, spending the heir's time in the capital while Angilly's own missives home have become confessions of failure - ch 9. He is handsome, bearded, an entertaining raconteur and dancer - ch 9. He reports to the Palatine Minister of Foreign Affairs, whose dispatches grow increasingly hysterical about Palleseen encroachment - ch 9. Angilly's ambivalence toward him is explicit: he is her rival who has displaced Palleseen influence, yet genuinely good company and her peer when national interests do not clash - ch 9.
At the Alkhand's annual vigil at the pools outside the frog god's cave, Tarcomir stands among the foreign observers as Oparan, in full regalia with the White Petal Crown and his brother's skull, waits for the Alborandi to return - ch 9. When the masked monks unmask and none is Kaleithi, and Oparan's grief shatters public decorum, Tarcomir is present among the watching court - ch 9. Afterwards, he and Angilly meet at a hostelery overlooking the waterfalls, drinking sharp ramaht; they agree the Alkhand's breakdown is terrible timing, that war between Pallesand and Lor would not come to Usmai, and that Gorbudan crowned will be calmer: "Gorbudan crowned will be a calmer man than Gorbudan prince. The robes of state will weigh him down. There will be concessions." - ch 9. He offers Angilly a diplomatic favour to advance her Outreach standing: "Between you and me, this city could do with fewer monks and priests and the like. You want to pick an order to persecute, I'll make sure the word gets to the right ear. That will play well to Outreach, I think?" - ch 9. Four days later, word arrives on the swiftest courier skiff from Peor that war has been declared between Lor and Pallesand - ch 9.
The Waygrove
During the war, Tarcomir's bond with Gorbudan is exposed in open court when the Alkhand denounces his eldest son for breaking the neutrality decree and allying with the Loruthi: "You have taken your followers into Peor. You have set upon the Kepishi of Pallesand, at the behest of the envoy of their enemy." - ch 10. When Dekamran is named heir and Gorbudan banished to Mantekor, Tarcomir's influence at the Alkhand's court collapses - ch 10.
His personal relationship with Angilly is characterized as "Her friend and her enemy" - two foreigners sharing easy camaraderie, now wedged apart by the war between their nations - ch 10. The conflict between them resolves a year later, in the very shadow of the war's end, when Tarcomir is killed by Angilly's blade: "A year later, in the very shadow of the war's end, their own personal war ends too, Tarcomir's blood on her blade. He's dead, she's alive, Pallesand in the ascendant and Dekamran set to inherit, and it doesn't feel like winning." - ch 10.
- implied, ch 10: The raised question of how the friendship between Angilly and Tarcomir resolves is answered in its broadest strokes - the war between their nations drives them to opposite sides, and she kills him - though the specific scene and circumstances of the killing are not depicted.
Days of Shattered Faith
The Duel with Tarcomir (ch 1-5)
Tarcomir is a Bashonin and Emissary of the Loruthi Palatine Council posted in Alkhalend, serving as the diplomatic representative of Lor within Usmai - ch 2. His staff are being recalled as part of the peace treaty that ended the war between Pallesand and Lor, a conflict that broke Lor's global reach - ch 2. Faced with recall and the prospect of being "burned in effigy" at home, he challenges the Palleseen Resident Angilly to an illegal duel to the death in the palace gardens, intending to salvage what remains of his reputation by killing a Pal Resident before his return - ch 2. He speaks to Angilly in "his good Pel," the language adopted by trained Loruthi diplomats - ch 2.
Tarcomir and Angilly had been friends for years, sharing drinks as the two foreigners in Alkhalend and setting the corner of the world to rights - ch 2. Their friendship survived even while their nations were at war, but Angilly's role in winning that war ruined his career - ch 2. He rejects her attempt at formal parley: the war was a long sentence. This, here, is the punctuation to it. - ch 2. Angilly reflects that "she wanted to go to him. She wanted to raise the spectre of all those times they'd just been the two foreigners in a foreign land, sharing a drink and setting this tiny corner of the world to rights because they could." - ch 2.
The duel takes place in a sand circle in the palace gardens, with lanterns lit in red glass; Tarcomir is accompanied by two unnamed Loruthi embassy staff who serve as his seconds - ch 2. He fights with a Loruthi falchion, "not quite an Usmiat clavar," in the clavamachy style, while Angilly wields a Palleseen rapier in skiamachy - a "mismatched pair" that Usmiat law would normally forbid but that stands because both combatants are foreigners - ch 2. Tarcomir dominates the early exchange with a blinding flurry and measured poetry of cuts; his inside and outside turns defeat Angilly's training, and she cannot bind his blade - ch 2. Angilly shouts back at him in Loruthi, regains the initiative, and stabs him through the calf; he does not stop - ch 2. He attacks again, knocks her sprawled, and she runs him through while on her back - ch 2. The kill is clean - ch 2.
Tarcomir's seconds wait until Angilly leaves the circle before retrieving his body - ch 2. Angilly collapses beside the corpse, wanting to go to him; "And so, because they had been friends; because of all those shared drinks; because he had been a friend even when their nations had been enemies, she was going to give him the chance to kill her." - ch 2. Angilly leaves her rapier in the sand - ch 2. Palace guards, functionaries, and three Louse Monks arrive; a Louse Monk considers killing Angilly as "the simplest" solution but is overruled by a functionary, and armed guards take her into custody - ch 2.
That night, Coregan brings a message to Gorbudan in Mantekor reporting Tarcomir's murder - ch 5. Gorbudan had cultivated Loruthi friendship as a counterweight to the Palleseen, and Tarcomir had been his ally; the news becomes one datum among many as Gorbudan weighs mutilation, fratricide, and ghost-binding as options for dealing with his siblings - ch 5.
The Attack on the House of Hard Angles (ch 6-8)
The following day, the Alkhand Oparan formally rules that the killing of the Loruthi emissary belongs to the Palleseen-Lor war rather than Usmai's jurisdiction, and stays his hand from punishment - ch 6. Dekamran warns Angilly that the next courier ship from Lor will carry "sharp letters" regarding the ambassador's death - ch 6.
The Day of Milk and Flowers (ch 9-10)
On the night of the festival, Angilly works alone at the Palleseen Residence and recalls Tarcomir as "her enemy, her friend"; Dekamran came to the Residence the evening she was to fight and kill him - ch 10. The memory of that night sits alongside the boundary she is about to cross with Dekamran himself - ch 10.
The Treaty Renewal at the Tesemer Compound (ch 11-12)
During the howdah procession toward Peor, Angilly recalls that she once accompanied Tarcomir on a punitive force against a rebel Emorandi clan - ch 11. She tells Loret directly: "You watched me kill the Loruthi ambassador," framing it as evidence that no one in Outreach has clean hands - ch 11.
Gorbudan's Coup at the Waygrove (ch 13-16)
At the snail-monks' monastery, Angilly is attacked by a Tesemer Louse Monk with a falx; her fear in that moment is measured against the fear she felt facing Tarcomir in the duel - ch 16.
Gorbudan on the Mirror Throne (ch 17-19)
During his first days of rule, Gorbudan recalls that Tarcomir had told him, before his death, magically challenging ways to counter Palleseen flying islands - ch 18. The knowledge informs Gorbudan's planning for a future invasion of Peor and his sea-wall defence spending - ch 18.
The Fever Lodge Takes In Loret (ch 32-34)
Hosting a dinner at Slate House, Angilly recalls the specific physical sensation of her sword going into Tarcomir - ch 34. The old side door of the Residence, used for the night's combat with Tarcomir, is the same concealed entrance through which Dekamran arrives unobserved - ch 34.
The Arrival of the Salient (ch 35-37)
Fellow-Archivist Drathel presents Sage-Broker Berkely with a dossier of Angilly's alleged misconduct, the first item of which is killing Tarcomir in an illegal personal duel - ch 37. Berkely is privately revolted, though his objection is not to the act itself but to whose interests Angilly served in committing it - ch 37.
The Surgery and the Duel in the Constellar Gardens (ch 46-47)
Loret leads Angilly through Alkhalend to the hidden spot in the Constellar Gardens where Angilly killed Tarcomir; a gathering waits there for the final confrontation - ch 47. Loret, who arrived as Angilly's aide on the very night of the duel, says "I'm sorry" - ch 47. The spot remains a fixed point in the city's geography: Angilly's killing of Tarcomir there is the event that "changed" Loret, and the same hidden ground now hosts the five-pace tableth duel between Angilly and Dekamran - ch 47.
- implied, ch 2: the question of Tarcomir's true motive for the duel is resolved - he is recalled by the Loruthi Palatine Council and needs a Pal Resident's death to avoid public humiliation at home, not any personal vendetta against Angilly. - implied, ch 6: the question of whether Usmai will prosecute Angilly for Tarcomir's death is resolved - the Alkhand assigns the killing to the inter-state war, placing it outside Usmai's jurisdiction.
Relationships
- Angilly - The central bond of Tarcomir's story. They meet as rival emissaries of Lor and Pallesand in Alkhalend, but the rivalry is always secondary to a genuine friendship: they drink together, talk frankly about the Alkhand's grief, and offer each other diplomatic favours. - Lives of Bitter Rain, ch 9. War wedges them apart-Angilly's role in Palleseen victory ruins his career-and the friendship becomes "her enemy, her friend," two people still sharing the ease of old company while the logic of states demands they be adversaries. - ch 10. He challenges her to a duel not from hatred but from despair at being recalled in disgrace; she accepts because she loves him enough to give him the chance to kill her. - Days of Shattered Faith, ch 2. She kills him, and the act marks her permanently: it is the first item in the dossier that accuses her of misconduct, the fixed point in the city where her own final duel takes place, and the memory she returns to on every night of crisis. - ch 37, ch 47.
- Gorbudan - Tarcomir spends six years building a personal rapport with the Usmiat heir, dining with him, duelling him in clavamachy, and spending time in the capital at his side. - Lives of Bitter Rain, ch 8, ch 9. This alliance is exposed in open court when the Alkhand denounces Gorbudan for taking Loruthi friendship and raiding Palleseen holdings at the Lor envoy's behest. - ch 10. After Tarcomir's death, Gorbudan recalls that his former ally had told him, magically challenging, ways to counter Palleseen flying islands-intelligence that shapes Gorbudan's sea-wall defence spending and invasion planning. - Days of Shattered Faith, ch 18.
- Oparan - Tarcomir's influence near the Alkhand's court collapses when Oparan exposes Gorbudan's Loruthi alliance and banishes him. - Lives of Bitter Rain, ch 10. After Tarcomir's death, Oparan formally rules that the killing belongs to the Palleseen-Lor war rather than Usmai's jurisdiction, staying his hand from punishment-a decision that treats Tarcomir's death as a state affair rather than a personal crime. - Days of Shattered Faith, ch 6.
- Loret - Loret arrives as Angilly's aide on the very night of the duel and watches Angilly kill the Loruthi ambassador. - Days of Shattered Faith, ch 11, ch 47. The event "changes" Loret, and the spot where it happened remains a fixed point in the city's geography, the place where Angilly's fear is always measured against the fear she felt facing Tarcomir. - ch 16, ch 47.
Notable Quotes
- "I'd say 'at your service' but we both know that would be a scurrilous piece of mendacity." - Tarcomir, Lives of Bitter Rain, ch 7
- "Gorbudan crowned will be a calmer man than Gorbudan prince. The robes of state will weigh him down. There will be concessions." - Tarcomir, Lives of Bitter Rain, ch 9
- "Between you and me, this city could do with fewer monks and priests and the like. You want to pick an order to persecute, I'll make sure the word gets to the right ear. That will play well to Outreach, I think?" - Tarcomir, Lives of Bitter Rain, ch 9
- "the war was a long sentence. This, here, is the punctuation to it." - Tarcomir, Days of Shattered Faith, ch 2
- "You watched me kill the Loruthi ambassador." - Angilly, Days of Shattered Faith, ch 11
Tags
- diplomat · #emissary · #loruthi · #bashonin · #duellist