Character Study of the Week: Talon Zahn
Who: Talon Zahn
What: MechWarrior, Stapelton’s Grenadiers
Unknown officer ranks, Capellan Reserve Cavalry
Senior Colonel, Capellan Confederation Armed Forces
Strategic Military Director, Capellan Confederation Armed Forces
Sang-jiang-jun, Capellan Confederation Armed Forces
When: 17 January 3024 - Unknown
Weapon of Choice: BattleMech, class(’s) unknown
The Capellan Confederation Armed Forces
In matters military the Capellan Confederation has often been derided due to the slow contraction of its borders over the centuries. Nonetheless the 31st Century saw the greatest defeats and also the greatest successes in the military arena, coinciding with the rise of one man: Talon Zahn.
As much as Sun-Tzu gets the publicity and credit for reversing Capellan fortunes he is a leader who knows how to pick and choose his subordinates, and how much freedom to permit them. The primary method we see of this is in Talon.
Interestingly enough he starts his career as a ‘common’ MechWarrior, earning a position in Officer Candidacy School on Sian, this marks him, without explicitly saying so, as a commoner who has worked his way up, waaaay up, the ranks.
Indeed, his final promotion comes from an act of insubordination, since I can’t think of any other way of classifying saying ‘I told you so’ to your senior commanding officer.
Talon, the unconventional man who will speak his mind openly and unafraid, something that would normally mark him as suicidal or a mutant in the Confederation instead gains his leader’s attention and is promoted for this behaviour.
These two features mark him as completely unpolitical in nature, clearing him of the Battletech short hand for villainy or corruption.
This promotion characterises Sun-Tzu as much as Talon, it speaks of a leader who wants the honest, unvarnished truth, as much pertinent information as possible, even when it comes in impertinent forms, the better to operate and succeed.
It works, the two form a solid partnership in the war against St Ives, it’s one of the recurring scenes in the duology where Sun-Tzu sets a goal and Talon lets him know how realistic it is with what resources. Sun-Tzu adjusts his plans accordingly.
Though there is technically no exact equivalent in other realms Talon Zahn is effectively a combination of Prince’s Champion and Marshal of the Armies in the opposing FedSuns, or, a little more closely, Gunji-no-Kanrei, particularly when Kiyomori Minomoto held the position during the Jihad.
Basically he was a combination of military leader, Sun-Tzu’s proxy to the military, and regent during the Jihad, though this was never formalized, like a lot of things during that period.
While the former and latter are not uncommon roles in Battletech fiction being a military proxy is, as a character role. This is largely a function of the setting, military sci-fi fiction, which requires leaders, particularly of factions and nations, to be warriors of some stripe.
And though Sun-Tzu makes stabs at being a MechWarrior he is far too political and not particularly military, so in choosing a leader of the CCAF he chooses a proxy, a warrior representative for his nation. This also requires that said proxy be more than just competent, a degree of brilliance is implied.
Note that I said implied. One thing about the position of supreme military leader of a nation is that you’re not supposed to be down in the trenches firing guns, or even on a world dictating where the units present go. Ideally you set a goal, allocate resources and order it to be done, degrees of subordinates taking care of the smaller details.
And stunningly this is exactly what we see Zahn do, as opposed to Victor, Hohiro, even Theodore, Morgan Hasek-Davion taking the field when they felt the need.
Smart? Yes. Realistic? Yes, but it robs Talon of the ability to show his personal abilities, he operates at too high a level.
To be sure we see great successes by the CCAF in the Chaos March, St Ives and the Jihad’s assorted battlefields, a four front war with only one ally, but none of it really speaks of Talon’s skills, instead we are given the feeling that the Capellans are pushing back all invaders more through fanaticism, desperation tactics, no holds barred tactics and a degree of xenophobic bloodlust that exceeds most Clans.
Again, this is because of the level he operates at during his time in the fiction.
Case in point: while we know he is trained as a MechWarrior we have no idea what he piloted, having never seen him in so much as a simulator. This is a significant lack in a military character.
Don’t get me wrong, Talon has received just enough backfill to his story to come across as a credible military commander, especially one who can outperform many foes, but the political structure of the Confederation means that while he is supreme military commander he is not actually the sole military authority under the nation’s leader as others are. The Warrior Houses exist as a check on the CCAF, the Maskirovka monitors both who will pounce upon the Mask with enough reason, it is a scenario explicitly maintained to limit the possibility of opposition to the Chancellor by internal forces.
This isn’t a foolish choice, the ISF, DCMS, LCAF and others have taken active roles in deciding who leads in the past, through conventional coups or less conventional means.
Thus Talon can be brilliant, but not too brilliant. Not simply as a character trait but in terms of opportunity, he must look over his shoulder while trying to succeed, anyone who has been heavily monitored at work understands that this is not a motivational scenario.
Unfortunately this leads to a character who feels somewhat lacking compared to contemporaries like Minamoto, Adam Steiner or even Jon Davion. Though in fairness the former two had far greater impact on the setting in part because they had the freedom to run around without looking over their shoulder, and Minamoto in particular was up to shenanigans that prove why the Capellan command structure isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Is it fair to the Capellans to have a military leader who is, relatively speaking, reduced so much?
Yes, no, and fair has nothing to do with it. On the one hand the setting has limited his powers and role within the faction he operates, on the other it continues to rob the Capellans of strict military credibility, especially as things are being won with unconventional actions, and then the third hand creeps up and points out that the scenario would be boring if every faction had a direct analogue for every position and role from nation leader down to lance commanders, all operating under the same conditions in each nation.
Talon is intended as a rough parallel because Sang-jiang-jun is a position that must logically exist as much as General of the Armies, but it makes things more interesting from a story perspective if he has different limits placed upon him
Finally, it should be noted that eventually there is a combat vehicle named after him. There’s a lot of that going around with the Morgan, Zibler and Sortek also extoling relatively recent heroes (yes, I know, all FedCom/FedSuns aligned, but it’s interesting to note that the best the Free Worlds League can do is go back to the common ancestor with the Juliano).
What would Talon Zahn make of his namesake? An incendiary people killer? Given his blunt nature and pragmatism he would probably note the military efficiency and necessity of the machine and be slightly uneasy that it is being used against prospective (or lost) Capellan citizens, but he is a Capellan military leader and not one to turn away any weapon that works, especially one that works well and will help keep Capellan troops safe.
You see, unlike a lot of characters, Talon is never really classed as a good guy or a bad guy, or even somewhat controversial and in between like his patron Sun-Tzu.
Much like the position he holds Talon is necessary. The position must be filled as a part of the CCAF command structure, and someone must stand for Sun-Tzu as military leader.
Sun-Tzu has the authority but not the ability, that’s what Talon supplies.
So he’s a support character, a tool used by another to pursue actions, with an odd minimum of ethical complication by virtue of having none, all actions he takes are at the behest of someone else, and we can debate those actions but they avoid Talon as a source, from a writing point of view, these matters would naturally be murkier inside the setting.
Does this sell him short? Not really, as I said Talon is a support character, a well fleshed one, but still only a support character, so there are limits as to how much he can shine in a situation, otherwise he would overshadow Sun-Tzu who is clearly the Capellan hero.
It’s a fine line to tread, but it is done very well, and while most Capellan characters have an aura of villainy about them, the legacy of the early fiction where they were the villains, Talon Zahn avoids that, even though he must have authorised more than a few nukings to get the job done during the Jihad.
He is a reasonable, well rounded, realistic character who fulfils his functions excellently, to be honest we need more like him.