Kevin's Watch

One of my fav characters in MN is Darsint--but what's really frustrating is that we know so little about him. The Congery's champion-spaceman-Myste's beloved--actually for the story's purpose we know enough as we "Need" to--but that's not much...He is First Battle-Officer of the Unified Expeditionary Forces and leads his men into an almost unwinnable fight vs. alien foes on a reddish planet called Pythas. When he is translated (against his will) he destroys his own mirror, blows a hole through most of the ceiling, buries Terisa and Geraden, blows a hole in the wall and escapes. He is taller than almost everyone in Mordant's world. He is clad in a spacesuit he calls his battle armor, which is described as blank but is mostly black due tp a number of hits of plasma beams he has absorbed from the Pythagians. And it's unclear if he would have survived anyway--or that his men may have just fled to the Space Cruiser Scourge and left before there was any other hope of translating him back. Pythas was supposed to be set up by his people as a "staging area" and they had no idea they would meet with such resistance. Where is Darsint's world? Or is he just a child of space, or spacecraft, is it in the future of both our world and Mordant's? In another dimension or universe? He comes to Mordant with his suit, pistols, laser rifle severly depleted of energy--and my favorite line by him is "...no one around here has a portable cyclotron, by any chance?" When I first encoutered Darsint I just knew something like The Gap Series was forthcoming from SRD--I wish he would at least write a short story or a book about Darsint's world--what do you think of the mysterious champion?

Wow, you ask some good questions, danlo. Too bad I don't have any good answers!

I have to admit, I haven't thought as long and hard about Darsint as you have, but I do think he is a really cool character.

As far as where he's from, I always just took it to be another alternate world, like the others seen through the mirrors.

It's not clear whether he would have survived or not, had he not been translated. Since his troops were losing, maybe they would have gotten out while the gettin' was good.

Those are my initial thoughts anyway.

~MsMary~

He is quite interesting! Do you think SRD will ever write any short stories about him or his world?

I think Darsint was meant to be a generic invincible pulp sf hero of the kind that was popular in the fifties or so. That would emphasize the theme of what is real since pretty much no one nowadays thinks those kind of stories are realistic...

If one is looking for parallells to other characters in SRD's stories I think that Darsint comes across as the haruchai. He is gifted with great strength and a capacity for direct action and risk taking that is quite beyond most of the people in the story. In spite of this he actually becomes little more than a supporting character in the story

Darsint is different from the Haruchai, in that his physical strength is not his own, but rather, is enhanced by the suit that he wears.

I was not really referring to the exernal differences, only the character type that he is in himself and in the story.

I don't think Darsint was very like the Haruchai at all...not extravagant and extreme enough, way too...human.

Most people are more human than the haruchai.

Personally I find that although he might not be anywhere near the haruchai, Darsint is definitely both more extravagant and extreme than most of the people in MN.

I thoroughly enjoyed the storyline in MN involving the Darsint character. If I recall my plotlines correctly, Darsint basically saves the day by destroying most of the siege engines on the canyon ridge above the main battle scene. If not for his involvement, the tide of the battle may not have turned in the King's favor.
I think a short story involving Darsint and/or his home world is a FANTASTIC idea. SRD, if you're reading this, how about giving it a whirl...in about 10 years when you're finished with the Final Chronicles!

I personally love the phrase "God-rotting"

...and then he jumps into the maw of the mega-slug!

Methinks, that if ever a Mordant's Need movie is made, that our Danlo could play the part of Darsint.

I am SO there! WOOHOO!

perfect!! lol

can i be Arch-Imager Vagel?? i can be eeeeeeeeevvviilllllllllll

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

In addition to Danlo's opening post here: We also know that Darsint is chivalrous (he has Terisa move aside after his translation and tells her, "I don't shoot women"), has a sense of remorse when he makes a mistake (he is mortified when he realizes he has disfigured Myste), and that he has an intolerance for disloyalty (he recommends execution for the Armigite). I think that's about it.

MsMary wrote:Darsint is different from the Haruchai, in that his physical strength is not his own, but rather, is enhanced by the suit that he wears.

In actuality, the Haruchai were also enhanced by the Earthpower. In their normal state they were not very long lived, nor able to avoid sleep.

Perhaps they weren't so different from Darsint.

The champion's strong sense of chivalry is shown soon after Darsint is translated into Mordant by Master Gilbur. Even though he has been fighting for his life and has no idea where he is, Darsint always remembers WHO he is!

In [i]The Mirror of Her Dreams[/i] was wrote:For a period of time as quick and intense as a crisis of the heart, she [Terisa] watched the champion's metal-clad hand tighten on the firing mechanism.

Then he jerked up the barrel, and the blast hit the ceiling.

Broken stone began falling into the chamber.

The champion unclosed one hand from his rifle, gripped her neck, and forced her down on top of Geraden. "Stay there." His voice blared like a megaphone, but it was barely audible through the thunder of collapsing rock. "I don't shoot women."

The next instant, he started firing again.

In a rush, the entire ceiling came down.

We really don't see Darsint again until near the end of the story, when the forces of Mordant & Alend are besieged by the more-sizeable army of Cadwal. When Myste introduced him (to Joyse, Kragen, Barsonage, Norge, Terisa, and Geraden), I sure was surprised that he had a voice like birdsong!

In [i]A Man Rides Through[/i] was wrote:But the champion didn't make any threatening moves. Slowly, he reached one hand to his head, touched a stud in the side of his helmet. Without a sound, his visor slid up and away, exposing his face.

It was a man's face, ordinary in its details: pale eyes; a large nose, crooked as if it had been broken more than once; tight lips above an assertive jaw. Only the strange way he moved his mouth when he spoke betrayed his origins.

"My lord King," he said in an alien voice, a tone with an incongruous resemblance to birdsong, "I'm lost on this God-rotting planet. Myste says it's not your fault I'm here. Says the only people who might be able to help me are your Imagers. But you can't help me while you're stuck in this mess.

"I'm willing to do what I can. For her. On the off-chance your Imagers can help me."

The champion is a straight-shooter in more ways than one.