Taranis

Taranis is the King of Light and Illusion, ruler of the Seelie Court.

A Caress of Twilight
Meredith learned from Maeve Reed that she had been banished from faerie by Taranis when she refused his offer of marriage. She told him she thought him incapable of fathering children, and such a fault in the king doomed the entire court to infertility and eventual demise.

Taranis then seemed most eager for Meredith to appear at the Yule Ball held by the Seelie court. He first tried to get her agreement to appear through his secretary Hedwick. He then tried to use her mother to influence her, finally he called her upon the mirror himself. He appeared on a golden throne, clothed in light. His hair fell in golden waves, his eyes three shades of blue, his voice a beautiful song. He seemed a collage of light that moved and flashed and Meredith found it made her dizzy. In a very diplomatic way, she asked him to tone it down, and he dropped some of the intensity of the glamour.

Meredith complimented him on the appearance she remembered from childhood, and he dropped more of the glamour, his eyes returning to their natural green: ''"..as if the iris of his eye was a flower with many, many petals...different shades of green, some edged with white, some with black." ''His hair became less golden, showing the natural sunset hues; crimson, red-orange, and yellow. Taranis' personal glamour was so strong, that he habitually used it against other sidhe, and no one pointed out that it was illegal, because most feared him.

He used all his persuasive magics to force Meredith to agree to come to the Seelie court for their Yule Ball. With the help of Doyle and her men, she managed, with difficulty, to resist him.

In a confrontation with the diminished sidhe, Bucca-Dhu, it was learned that Taranis was responsible for the release of the Nameless, which he had set to kill Maeve Reed, and that he had aided in raising the hungry ghosts which had also been a weapon he had hoped to use against Maeve, but they had gotten free of control, and been responsible for several mass killings. Meredith realized that Taranis would do anything to remain in power, that he was crazier than her aunt, and he was too dangerous to leave in power.

Despite being witness to Taranis' illegal acts, it was not enough to overthrow his 1,000 year reign. More was needed to remove him from power.

Seduced by Moonlight
Taranis invited Meredith to court for a ball in her honor. Maeve pointed out Taranis did nothing without a reason that was advantageous to him, and that attending might get Meredith killed. Doyle responded that should he kill Merry, Andais would kill him either by personal challenge or discreet assination.

A Lick of Frost
Taranis leveled accusations of rape against three of Meredith's guards, and had gone so far as to ask the human authorities to prosecute. Taranis’ charges were baseless, the victim had been assaulted, but by Taranis' own minions under cover of the King's glamour.

After the creation of new lands of faerie within Maeve's estate, Frost seemed lost forever, and a mourning Meredith retreated to the new lands alone. While there, Taranis, used the formerly lost power to travel on sunlight to ambush her. Using his powers of illusion to appear as one of her guards, beat her unconscious and kidnapped her. Meredith awoke naked in his bed with a severe concussion. She accused him of rape, and called for a healer. When informed Merry was pregnant, Taranis immediately claimed paternity despite the fact that she was all ready two months gone into her first trimester.

The healer, the king's major domo, Hugh, and Doyle, who had been smuggled into the Seelie mound in his dog form, bundled her out of the bedroom and into a press conference where she told the press that she was pregnant by her guards, and that Taranis had kidnapped and raped her. She was then taken to the hospital to treat the concussion and to complete a rape kit.

A Shiver of Light
Disguised as Essus, Taranis invaded Meredith's dreams to inspect her newborn triplets. When he saw that Bryluen had horn buds, he was so startled he nearly dropped her. He was also appalled that Alastair had black markings on his skin. He declared that Gwenwyfar looked sidhe, however. Meredith realized that the man in her dream was not Essus and tried to wake herself, but could not. He tried to convince her to take his hand and step out of the dream, but she refused. When he dropped the glamour, he insisted she embrace him as one of the father's of her children, and grabbed her.

She accused him of rape, he insisted such charges were Unseelie lies. She called her hand of flesh and his arm began to roll up on itself. He said it could not be real since it was only a dream. He was horrified, and she promised to destroy him if he ever tried to force himself on her again. She demanded release from the dream or she swore she would do everything in her power to kill him. She advanced on him, with Aben-dul appearing in her hand, and he fled the dream.

Doyle and Frost informed her that at the height of his powers centuries ago, Taranis was the Lord of Dreams. He could invade dreams seduce and impregnate women in their dreams and have it become reality in the waking world.

The second time he invaded her dreams, she was in the hospital under sedation, her protective magics unavailable. He tried to overpower her with his personal glamours, trying to make her believe he would love and protect her from the 'Unseelie monsters.' The spell was designed to make her an unthinking drone, the influence increasing when he said her name or touched her, but she had to bestow a willing kiss for it to be complete. She heard the word 'willing' and latched on to it like a life preserver. "You have hurt me too much and too often...your spell will not work because I keep remembering how much I hate you...."

He pinned her to the floor and revealed the planned assassinations of Doyle and Mistral, and admitted to ordering Sholto's, telling her that there was no one to protect her, and he intended to rape her again, either fighting or bespelled was up to her. Meredith retorted that she would see him convicted as a rapist, a liar, and prove his sterility; "You are evil, uncle, did you know that?"

As he magically stripped them both, she again called on her hand of flesh and prayed that it work in reality as it did in dream. His arm again folded up on itself. He released her in horror, his left arm a curling, deformed thing. He begged for her help fruitlessly and then vanished from the dream.

Meredith later informed Taranis' assassin, Trancer, that he was no longer king of the Seelie court. Two things could be invoked to remove a Seelie king from his throne - one was infertility, and that was unproved, but physical perfection was tied irrevocably to the leadership of the Seelie court. Taranis' deformation remained with him in reality as well as dream, and the Seelie would not tolerate a less than perfect ruler. He was deposed.