Companion Analysis: Dak’kon

In many ways the Smouldering Corpse Bar, and the stationary figure of Dak’kon is an introduction to the Planescape: Torment ‘dialogue level’, to coin a phrase. A great deal of Torment’s gameplay and story experience is purely this literary medium. It is reading text both descriptive and laden with scope, above the ability of dated technology due to the timeless nature of speech and imagination. The art of conversation is to speak or listen in a single place and time, however language transports us in terms of perspective, in observing the past, creating alliances in the present and also discussing the future.

So, what often turns out to be the innocuous or mundane spins into eloquent backstories, bonds of allegiance, and a turning circle of steadily growing conviction in the face of something worse than death; loss of faith, or loss of identity.

Perhaps no other companion embodies this more than Dak’kon, engaged in an awful alien take on Sisyphus. As a cultured warrior, within a society that literally revolves upon using rationale, thought, and dedication to contain small pockets of habitable space within the Astral Sea, the hand of doubt crushes his station, leadership, and community.

There is a circuitous, truly engaging novella purely of Dak’kon’s philosophy, and a short story can be made purely of his backstory. It is easy to forget the game, forget the plight of The Nameless One, and maybe an intentional allegory for metaphysical wisdom literally augmenting the ability of an RPG character, or even the audience itself is something to contemplate.

“Endure. In Enduring, grow strong.”

Not only is this a beautiful quote and statement of intent; in context it reflects the double-edged capacity of suffering and to endure suffering as the pathway to power and self-knowledge. Endurance is to read, to learn, but most of all to uphold conviction. And this is where the contradictory and broken nature of Dak’kon comes into play.

Dak’kon is not an exemplary Githzerai. He is in fact, almost murdered on sight, a performer of the most horrid taboo of their entire race’s civilisational creed, despised even by both species of Gith.

Because Dak’kon is a slave, and from learning more of him, then another later-game notion is brought up of what one does after ‘innocently’ learning more of themselves, and coming to realise the butterfly effect of their acts and forgotten deeds. You cannot lose, not the classic hero, the protagonist, the player. The intention of a game is to win. But the writers and designers of this game attempt what Team Silent and other creatives pose within the unique nature of the gaming medium.

What if ‘you’ win, regardless of path? Do you choose to honour an oath, pursue good intentions? Or, even as a stupidly evil, or cruel individual, continue to provide the amoral factor of information, continue to interact through time, and the empathic blade Dak’kon wields grow sharper, barbed and keenly edged to carve you, ‘evil’ itself in certain circles being embodied most of all by betrayal, devastation of trust, a strong but sickly bond betwixt companions.

What does knowledge mean? In truth, any seemingly idle conversation is the opportunity to take, or to leave engaging with new places, experiencing the wisdom of a life from the perspective of another, and in the great, extensive saga of every single life, so many stories of grand complexity are found that merely connect to us through our sensations and our optional curiosity.

Reference:

Planescape: Torment. Black Isle Studios. 1999.