Biography:
Eden Blues: Aran emanates when Tara restarts the Aion to incorporate Goliath. Unfortunately, she does this in front of Manasseh, so when Aran materializes, he sees Tara before he sees his own reflection. Aran is devastated to realize that he has an identity separate from his Chosen, who is the ideal of perfect being to him. Tara tries to soothe him, but as it becomes apparent that Aran is unable to contact Atlas, she becomes more and more upset. Desiring only to please her, he suggests immolating Goliath so that Ashtara will be forced to return to Atlas. Of course, the suggestion only makes her more distraught; the presence of Clive Rivers and his sarcastic comments do not improve the situation. When Tara is summoned by General Lemkht, she stalks away in anger.
Aran wishes only for his own destruction, but it has been forbidden by Tara. He hides himself in a closet and begins cutting himself with utility knives – it is the only way he can resolve the cognitive dissonance between self-hatred and self-preservation. He remains missing overnight. By this point, Tara has cooled down, and dimly realizes she has hurt Ash’s feelings. Used to bickering with emanations like Ailann and Cillian, she has no real idea of Aran’s emotional fragility, especially considering the circumstances of his emanation. Once she finds him, it becomes clear that he expected her to abandon him on Eden. She notices that he has been self-harming and forbids it. It is only then she realizes just how confused and inexperienced Aran is, despite all his power. She reassures him that they will fix the problem with Atlas and Goliath and that she wants him to live.
Tara realizes that he is calmer when holding her hand – a normal Cu’enashti response. She tells him to brush her hair, a routine task that she would usually leave to a servant. It relaxes him – from then on, whenever Aran emanates, he deals with Tara’s personal grooming.
Once the ship gets closer to Dolparessa than Eden, Aran transforms into the mothman. The transformation seems painful, which is odd since it never seemed to hurt the Atlas emanations. Shortly thereafter, Ailann manifests.
When Valentin first emanates, he has a conversation with the other Goliath branches. Ari wants Goliath to have complete control, even if it means that none of the Atlas branches will ever emanate again. Aran and Manasseh disagree – Aran believes, from his own performance, that Goliath won’t do any better than Atlas. Despite his lack of confidence, Aran has monitored the communication grid during the few days of his emanation and has absorbed a wealth of information about the Domha’vei which is useful to the Goliath emanations.
During Ailann’s battle with General Panic, he lures her ships into the Domha’vei. When the ships get close enough to Eden, Aran emanates. As Archon, he is able to draw enough power from Goliath to put over 200 ships out of commission.
Ailann arranges a press conference with the new emanations. Aran is annoyed that Ailann and Manasseh have been taken advantage of by the journalists, but he is furious that Tara has been insulted. In recompense, he turns journalist Mosha Raval’li into a Sumatran lar gibbon. He explains that the gibbon’s brain is sufficient to preserve the journalist’s memories and intellect until he is reverted. Aran tells Bobert Crandon that he intends to be an active god in Archonism, bringing a bit of hellfire and brimstone into the religion, and warns the population to obey the Matriarch or face his wrath. Before Valentin emanates, Aran restores Raval’li, but the man remains traumatized by the experience. The incident solidifies the faith of Crandon, who will become the media arm of Archonism, but turns Sara Howe-Dumfaller into the Archon’s greatest media critic.
During the interrogation by the SongLuminant, Lorcan confronts Aran. He believes that Aran should be able to understand his torment and asks why Aran didn’t immolate himself. Aran replies that it is because Tara has beautiful hair. “How can that possibly be enough?” Lorcan asks. Aran replies that it isn’t, “But it’s something.”
The Poison Garden: Tarlach develops Tara-therapy to help Aran with his psychological issues. The therapy proves to be beneficial to Aran and many of the other emanations, but it provokes a conflict between Owen and Lugh.
Seth wants to explore the concept of “evil.” Despite the fact that Aran has styled himself as “the evil demiurge of Archonism,” Seth realizes Aran is not worth asking – he is only play-acting as an expediency to facilitate the greater good. When Seth becomes Archbishop, Ailann explains that the religion is now dualistic, with Aran representing the polarity of good and evil, whereas he represents an enlightenment paradigm.
When Lucius collapses in exhaustion, Ash returns to Goliath. After he recoups his strength, he emanates Aran who tells the K’ntasari that Davy put fish into the ocean. He returns to Dalgherdia to meet with Tara. She is overjoyed to see him – she’d been very worried about Ash after the incident with Seth and Lucius’ clear distress. She wants to return to Dolparessa, and Aran supports her despite Mickey’s protest that they should stay and capture Lilith. Aran argues that Tara’s psychological health is more important than her destiny. Ailann suggests revising the first priority to state “Tara’s well-being” rather than “Tara’s safety,” and the emanations agree unanimously. Tara is grateful for Aran’s understanding and support, and he remains with her for over a week after they return to Dolparessa. The mood is romantic, and Tara falls in love with him.
Aran is emanated during “The Prophecy of Exile.” Behind the scenes, the Floatfish have been collaborating with the Order of the Starless Sequester, a secret faction on Earth. They provoke the Cantor into exiling Ash from the forest over the Lilith incident. She denies that the Cu’endhari evolved from nectarines and says that Ash is not a real Cu’enashti, but an atavistic throwback. Aran replies that he is indeed unique – he is the Living God of the Domha’vei – and walks out. The forest goes into chaos with the K’ntasari choosing to follow Aran, Claris lecturing the Cantor on her stupidity, and many of the Cu’enashti uncomfortable with criticizing the Archon. Then Elma makes a public statement revealing the events of The Poison Grove, which forces everyone’s hands.
In “The Prophecy of Ripening,” Patrick discovers that when he becomes pollen receptive, it has a collateral effect on Aran, his brother on Goliath.
During “The Prophecy of Fear,” Aran is emanated when Ash returns from an experimental trip to Tucana. Tara forces him to relate what happened: Ash was attacked by energy-sucking centipedes. They eventually release him as they are incapable of digesting nul-energy. Tara recognizes them from a vision – and later, Thoughtful 45 identifies them as the Great Dread.
The Perpetual Rose: Aran does not take part in the action.
The Portable Grove: During the thirteenth experiment, Aran is required to participate in the ceremony opening the new Cathedral of the Four Archons. He is displeased with his ceremonial robes – black velvet, magenta silk and snow emu feathers – he says that he looks like he is auditioning to play Cleopatra. The strongest archon will supposedly be determined by performing a miracle in the course of the ceremony. Aran creates a new star, which floors Tara, but fails to impress much of the ignorant audience. Only the opposition journo, Sara Howe-Dumfaller, seems to realize the enormity of what Aran has done. Tara pronounces Ailann the winner; but Cillian protests that Aran deserved the victory. Callum disagrees; losing makes Aran stronger, so Callum finds it fitting that Aran should lose.
Aran’s experiment is the fifteenth, but in actuality, he does little. He emanates when Tara is trying to come to terms with Sider’s message, and they fight over the realization of her destiny. Aran vanishes so that he will not have to make an official statement about the fall of CenGov – to Tara’s frustration, he is replaced with Solomon before they can reconcile. He takes part in the final stress test, but only to set up the masque. He asks Tara whether she approves of the masks they are wearing, part of the confirmation of Ash’s new form.
Correspondence Chart Entries from The Portable Grove
| Denotation | Aran del Eden’d (Hebrew: mountain of strength; all Goliath emanations have the surname del Eden’d, Skarsian: of Eden.) |
| Numeration | 28th emanation of Ashtara; 3rd branch of Goliath; 65 in the correspondence chart. |
| Age | 42 |
| Hotness | 9/10 |
| Vital Statistics | 1.819 meters tall, cock size 17.02 cm when erect. |
| Description | Blond hair, slicked back but generally disheveled, a short and naturalistic beard. Strong and intimidating: he has both Patrick’s handsomeness and Ailann’s dignity, but there’s a certain tired bitterness of experience. Prefers to wear dark colors, heavy and textured fabrics, luxe and impressive. |
| Skills | Goliath Archon. Exceedingly intelligent and capable of long-term strategy, but mostly keeps his ideas to himself. Has a deep understanding of stellar phenomena. |
| Sexual Prowess and Kinks | Kind of scary. |
| Average Duration of Play | 58 minutes, 12 seconds. |
| Totem Tree | Parrotia persica, Persian ironwood. |
| Fixed Star | Sirius, scorching (α CMa) also called KAK.SI.DI, the arrow of Ninurta, or Tiānláng, the celestial wolf. Also probably the watcher called Tascheter/Tishtar in the Zend Avesta, is probably derived from cloud or from fortunate, prosperous, happy. |
| Color |  |
| Esoteric Symbol | The Minchiate trump Imperatrice, the Empress or Eastern Emperor (often called the Eastern Archon in Skarsian decks.) |
| Function | Administrative gravity. |
| Official Title | His Most Sublime and Eminent Radiance, 4th Archon of Skarsia. |
| His Prophecy | Impassioned loyalty (literally n’aashet n’aaverti). |
| Dessert | Nau’gsh bombe glacée  |
Persistence of Weeds Addendum
| Branch Growth Characteristics | Goliath was synthesized fully grown. Aran’s branch was constructed by Davy and Dermot from pieces of his “brothers” on Atlas, Patrick and Ailann. |
| Nul-history | Fascinated by the roots of Atlas; his initial inclination was to become noticed by the tree. Encountered Manasseh’s spark, but was unable to synchronize with him until Atlas created a copy of Tommy’s spark for them to synchronize to. |
| Proto-conscious Root Concept | Impassioned loyalty (literally n’aashet n’aaverti). |
| Prime Number of Energy Resonance | 313 |
| From Self-Portraits Not-of-Me II: Baby Pictures by Driscoll Garrett |  |