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Luken bel'Tarda Clan Korval

Active Plot Appearances[]

Luken bel'Tarda rug merchant

excerpt, Daughter of Dragons

Novels: Luken appears in Local Custom and Mouse and Dragon, and Ghost Ship. He plays a major if secondary character in Dragon in Exile


Short stories: Key character in Heirloom and Certain Symmetry, and Lord of the Dance

Descriptions[]

Born SY 1315, [1] Luken is nonetheless young in spirit. He moves to Surebleak in 1393, at age 78, but is still active enough to protect the children during Plan B’s retreat to Runig’s Rock, pursue Ms. Audrey, and set up Tantara Floor Coverings [2][3] [4]

  • Beloved of Clan Korval, a gentle man, gracious and wise
  • “a pilot. Granted, a mere third class” [5]
  • Sandy haired, buff - good humored face
“The gentleman’s eyes were kinder, and grey; his chin decided; his mouth firm and sweet.”[6]
  • Known for his gentle ways, his sense of Balance and impeccable Melant'i
  • wins friends in both the Port and City
“a man of quick insight, resilience, and a way with children."[7]

Line, Father, Grandfather[]

Line bel’Tarda is the subordinate —but valued and trusted —line in Clan Korval, and relatively new to the clan. See Heirloom for the story of how the last surviving bel’Tarda joined the clan. See Korval Kin for complete clan list and ancestry charts

  • Danise bel'Tarda (F) -- Luken’s daughter [6]
  • Danise has a younger sister who is maybe not Luken's daughter, given that Luken only refers to her as Danise’s sister (Dragon in Exile, ch 2)[6]

Audrey wasn’t clear on the precise nature of the delicate business that Luken’s daughter Danise was engaged on, with the support of her younger sister, but she did know that the circumstance of Clan Korval getting kicked off Liad wasn’t making her work any easier. . . “In any case, it is a matter in which she and her sister are much more invested than I. Whatever the outcome, I will remain on Surebleak.” His smile this time was whimsical. “It’s so very interesting here.”[6]

Luken volunteered to contract-wed Syntebra el'Kemin in place of Er Thom, telling Korval that another child would be no hardship as "the eldest is away at school more often than she's home nowadays"[8]


At the request of Daav yos'Phelium, Korval Himself, he fosters Kareen yos'Phelium’s six-year-old son Pat Rin, in 1360, according to Timeline. [9] He develops a lasting relationship with Pat Rin. [10]

Runig’s Rock[]

Luken and Lady Kareen yos'Phelium worked together at Runig’s Rock to protect the children when enemy ship drew near [11] (see Hidden Resources). Luken harbors some anger at Lady Kareen for her treatment of young Pat Rin, and Kareen didn’t previously esteem Luken, thinking him a buffoon. However, they each saw worth in the other when Plan B went into effect.

". ..discovering in the man the Delm had appointed her son's protector in her stead — the amiable, babbling rug merchant — someone of quick insight, resilience, and a way with children."[12] Daughter of Dragons

Luken’s Honest Advantage[]

Luken’s Honest Advantage Plan B excerpt

excerpt, Plan B

  • Among his clan, Luken is known for his “honest advantage”
  • Shan reflects on this in the warzone on Lytaxin:

Abruptly, a memory flashed of Cousin Luken bel’Tarda, as un-war-like a man as one could wish. “All I ask,” the gentle mannered merchant would say, as the child Shan tagged after him through acres of warehoused carpets, “is an honest advantage. When I have that, the other party is nearly always positive that my position is weak.”[13]

  • Luken advises a younger Pat Rin, creating his melant’i as a high roller:

“I say, if you need to press an honest advantage across a table, it might be best if you do it first among the lesser members of the Houses until Lord Pat Rin is more fully known as himself.” [4]Heirloom

A diversion was clearly required. If he could but entice the guards a few steps away from their posts, he would have Luken’s oft-desired honest advantage that made a dash for the nearest craft possible.[14]

Family Heirloom[]

Luken’s family heirloom:

"An old carpet, a treasure—a Quidian Tantara, the pattern as old as weaving itself....it was an older Tantara, a geometric in the ivory-and-deep-green combination which had been retired for a dozen dozen Standards, and in an absolutely enviable state of preservation"[4]

Luken named his Surebleak shop TANTARA FLOOR COVERINGS. The story Heirloom portrays how bel’Tarda came under the Dragon’s wing, and how Del Ben yos’Phelium died. Heirloom offers a heartwarming picture of Luken and Pat Rin, set around 1374, when Pat Rin returns from university

His Rug Business[]

The rugs . . . He sighed. Not all of the pilots of Korval — put together! — knew what Luken did of rugs, and some had, alas, displayed an amazing lack of both color sense and fashion awareness.[4]

Because Boss Conrad is busy, Luken manages The Carpet Emporium and Tantara Floor Coverings and Port Annex Rugs, with Quin helping as needed, along with his manager Kensi, who followed him from Solcintra[2]

Kensi al’Findosh ——you recall her, boy-dear; she had assisted in the old shop for the last few years— I had intended that she should manage the port annex. It still seems a good notion to me— she is entirely knowledgeable, personable, and shrewd. Sadly, she had been detained by the necessity to show her delm that this proposed move of hers to an outworld will profit the clan. I have had a letter from her recently which indicates that she has been successful in that project, and will be joining us here as quickly as might be. I suppose, therefore, that I shall tend the annex until she arrives.” Quin frowned slightly. “That would mean slowing the work at the primary location,” he said. “If I promise not to make an entire muddle of the business, I might stand in until Merchant al’Findosh arrives.” “Why, what a generous offer, Quin dear!” Luken smiled.[2]


Interior Design Expert[]

Pat Rin to Audrey:

“My father is more than simply a seller of rugs. He designs rooms. He has an understanding of space that is very nearly unparalleled. On Liad, his eye and his artistry were —— I do not embellish! —sought after by everyone who wished to bring a room to its full elegance or power. You have now released the staircase to its full range of possibility. [15]

Balance & Melant’i[]

Luken, Man of Melant’i

Man of Melant’i

Luken is known as a man of melant'i. Val Con and Pat Rin sing his praises:

“Luken, as you have surely discovered, has . . . high standards. His Balances are impeccable. On the old world, it was said that he was a master of melant’i, whereas we are the merest journeymen. Boys. We can only bow to the nicety of Luken’s understanding, and aspire, someday, to be his equal.” [15]

He’s known for achieving a nuanced Balance, such as to Balance the action of Delm Hedrede.[15]

"At the time that this individual cast his vote in Council to banish Korval from Liad, he had purchased two thirds of the carpet. . . . I would find it particularly satisfying if the carpet intended to grace the formal gathering room of one of Liad’s fifty High Houses should instead ornament a house involved in the business of joy.”[6]
“Oh,” crooned the man on the floor, rocking back and forth on his knees. “Oh, the precious honor, the priceless melant’i”.. . I salute you, Master bel’Tarda; it is a fine Balance! And a shipload of talebearers to carry it!” He wobbled where he knelt, got one foot flat, thrust upward, staggered— and improbably kept his feet. “You are known as a man of fine melant’i. I see that it is true!” [16]

Audrey Breckstone[]

Ms. Audrey is Luken’s intimate friend. He moved from Boss Conrad’s house to an apartment across from Audrey's House of Joy, on Blair Road. [17] He frequently visits Audrey for tea, breakfast...[6] and spends the night:

Luken set his cup aside. “I had come to tell you that I will be removing to my apartment this evening,” he said. “All is at last in order.”

Pat Rin took a breath against a sharp prick of loss, which was nonsensical; Luken had made no secret of his intentions to withdraw from his foster son’s household as soon as he had located a suitable establishment.

That the establishment found most suitable happened to be located across the street from Audrey’s House of Joy, where Luken already passed many nights, could surprise no one who was aware of the relationship that had leapt up, seemingly fully formed, between Luken and Audrey.

The relationship itself might give one pause, given the very great differences in their circumstances, but, again, a small amount of consideration revealed that they held more in common than might otherwise be supposed.[17]

Luken holds Audrey in high esteem:

“So I have melant’i now?”

Grandfather put his cup down so firmly it clicked against the table. He extended his hands and caught Ms. Audrey’s. He bent his head and kissed her fingers.

“My dear Audrey, you are a woman of the highest melant’i, whose every action is subtle and appropriate. Melant’i is not acquired; it is built. This . . .” He put his thumb over jo’Bern’s ring. “This . . . is a tribute, if you will allow it, to your melant’i...”[18]

Cats[]

  • Niki, white cat, frivolously befurred, long-haired with pink ears and toes, and brilliantly emerald eyes, resident in Luken's warehouse on Liad, two decades before Korval moved to Surebleak [4]

References[]

  1. The Updated But Partial Liaden Universe(r) Time Line
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Dragon in Exile, ch 5
  3. 3.0 3.1 Dragon in Exile chapter 12
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Heirloom
  5. Heirloom
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 Dragon in Exile, ch 2
  7. Daughter of Dragons
  8. Local Custom, ch 39
  9. Local Custom
  10. Heirloom
  11. Hidden Resources
  12. Daughter of Dragons
  13. Plan B: Lytaxin Warzone, Altitude 12 km
  14. Plan B: Lytaxin Warzone
  15. 15.0 15.1 15.2 Dragon in Exile, ch 26
  16. Dragon in Exile, ch 35
  17. 17.0 17.1 Dragon in Exile, chapter 27
  18. Dragon in Exile, chapter 35
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