TalonViskbio

 

Talon Visk

 

Role:

 

Talon Visk is an infamous slave of the Hegemonic court. She monitors Shepard to make sure (s)he is not endangering the batarian people, with orders to subdue, or even execute him/her if Visk feels that her mission is threatened. Her knowledge of the Leviathan of Dis allows Shepard and the Council to get access to the ancient Reaper. Talon can also provide Shepard with information needed to further help him threaten or convince the Hegemony to work with the other council races, and can be an extremely strong advocate for Shepard during his trial near the end of the game.

 

Appearance:

 

Talon is strongly built (taller/more muscular than femShep or Ashley) with a single yellow stripe running down the center of her face, from forehead to chin. She has red braided tentacle-hair (hair is apparently unique to batarian females), high-curved ears, and red armor. She wears a neck collar to signify her enslavement to the Hegemony. Even though batarian women are extremely rare to find outside of their space, batarian men often harass her for working with Shepard – some even going so far as to insult Talon and spit at her. She is considered attractive by batarian standards, and is sometimes sexually harassed by batarians, though her reputation and emblem of ownership on her collar prevent these advances from going too far. Talon has  a control chip implanted into the base of her skull to inflict pain, should Talon disobey the Hegemony's orders.

 

Personality:

 

Talon is confrontational, suspicious, and resourceful. Like Jack in ME2 she is highly antisocial, and prefers to monitor the crew from a distance. Despite her intelligence, she was never taught to read or write thoroughly, and, like most batarians, has a highly biased view of the galaxy, and particularly Shepard. As a result, Talon is easily amazed by the sights the galaxy has to offer.

 

Talon hates Shepard for the majority of the game, unless she sees good deeds the commander has done for the batarians. She is unable to forgive Shepard for the destruction of the Alpha Relay, but can be made to understand why the commander did this. Talon is most favorable towards paragade Shepard. If Shepard has the “Butcher of Torfan” reputation, Visk's hatred of him is heightened. She often interrogates Shepard and other crew members in a harsh tone, anticipating a verbal retaliation. Much of Talon's anger stems from her reputation of having to work with the human who destroyed the Alpha Relay. Visk doubts, even if Shepard succeeds in defeating the Reapers, that her low reputation as a slave will ever improve.

 

Her parents sold her into slavery when she was young, and as a result she has a pessimistic view towards friendship. The Hegemony bought her and trained her to be a pirate, bounty hunter, and interrogator. She is known in the Alliance as being a criminal with a high bounty on her head, who tortured and killed several dozen extremely valuable officers, leading several raids on Alliance ships, and shipping slaves and weapons through Alliance space.

 

Talon has been taught from a young age not to think about her role as a slave by the use of her control chip. The chip employs electrical shocks to different parts of her brain, causing her extreme pain, whenever she seriously contemplates freedom. The control chip is powered by her slave neck-collar, which has the Hegemony's insignia embroidered on it. Shepard must deactivate (temporarily) the collar in order to successfully get Talon to give up information on the location of the Leviathan of Dis. Once the collar is deactivated, Talon is afraid that her masters will find out, and attempts to reconnect the collar. Shepard can persuade her to keep the collar off, or to reattach it.

 

[Note: Like James Vega, Talon is supposed double as an exposition and exploration character for newcomers to the ME universe. Once her collar is potentially removed, she begins to see Shepard, and the larger universe with more innocently inquisitive lenses. Even if the collar is reattached, Talon will feel that her role in the universe could be much larger than that of a slave]

 

Recruitment:

 

Visk is appointed to Shepard's ship as an overseer protecting Hegemonic interests, in the same way  Miranda protected Cerberus interests in ME2. Shepard does not have to let her aboard the ship, but the Council demands that, in order to maintain good public and private relations with the Batarians, whose pirate, military, and mercenary fleets are highly valuable towards the war effort, Talon be assigned to the Normandy. The Council anchors the Normandy to the Citadel until Visk is allowed on board.

 

Leviathan of Dis:

 

Having been previously assigned to the research facility where the Leviathan was housed, Talon Visk will provide Shepard with the location of the Leviathan of Dis. To gain her cooperation however, Shepard must; talk with her a number of times to hear her story, and sympathize with her (even when Talon claims sympathy is a sign of weakness); she must see how Shepard actually treated Batarians the commander ran into in the field (throughout the series); and Shepard must deactivate her slave collar.

 

Visk's role during the Trial:

 

Depending on Shepard's relationship with Visk by the time the Hegemony brings him to court, Visk will either support the commander, or will accuse him along with the other batarians. Visk's reports of Shepard's activities through the game will be presented to the court, detailing her opinion of the commander depending on his renegade-paragon levels. During the trial, if supportive of Shepard, Visk will attempt to confront the Hegemony, in order to win the crowd's perspectives.

 

If Talon is wearing her collar, her owner (one of the batarians accusing Shepard) will become enraged with his slave's support of Shepard, and will electrify her remotely. This causes a public out roar, and works immeasurably well for discrediting the Hegemony. Later, Talon will admit that she played up the pain she was in, in order to win Shepard support.

 

If Talon is not wearing her collar by this point, her owner will become enraged with his slave's support of Shepard, and hurl insults at her. This will mildly discredit the Hegemony, and Talon's owner will be kicked out of the court room.

 

 

Potential freedom:

 

In the epilogue of ME3, Shepard can choose to free Talon from her enslavement permanently.

 

 

If Shepard is a Spectre, the commander will invoke Spectre status – to the outrage of the Hegemony (and potentially a batarian councilor in particular).

If Shepard is not a Spectre, the commander will maintain that there is little the Hegemony can do to catch Talon aboard the fastest ship in the galaxy. Furthermore, Shepard will assure Visk that the Normandy has harbored infamous crew mates in the past.