Tamaran

"Tamarán" was the Guanche name for the island of Gran Canaria.

Tamaran is a fictional planet in DC Comics, inhabited by Tamaraneans, an extraterrestrial race. The first Tamaranean introduced was Koriand'r, better known as Starfire. The only other named Tamaraneans are Komand'r, Starfire's sister (also known as Blackfire), her younger brother Ryand'r and her parents, Myand'r and Luand'r. (In the Teen Titans animated series, Galfore, Starfire's "k'norfka", the equivalent of a nanny, appears as well, though her parents do not.) The planet was destroyed in a war, along with Starfire's parents and many of its people. However, enough evacuated that they were able to settle on a new planet, though that planet was also destroyed. The most recent Tamaranean home was the planet Karna.

Before its destruction, Tamaran had not one ruling family, but rather many ruling families. When the planet was led to war by the Citadel race, Starfire's parents became the planet's sole ruling family. However, Blackfire later seized control from her parents. Blackfire has since been the ruler of the Tamaranean people, even after the repeated destruction of their home world.

Fictional history

Tamaraneans are orange-skinned humanoid people who descended from a feline-like race. Tamaraneans traditionally worship the goddess X'Hal. Tamaraneans have the power to convert ultraviolet radiation into energy for flight with the females producing a distinctive contrail that seems to flow from their hair. They are ruled by their emotions and were renowned as excellent warriors. Both Starfire and Blackfire gained the ability to fire "starbolts", beams of energy, as a result of experiments performed by the Psions.

The Tamaraneans used scientific skills to make Tamaran a tropical paradise where man and nature stood side by side. The Tamareaneans fought a war with the Citadel for a century until Princess Komand'r gave up secrets which resulted in a major loss on the part of the Tamareans. After this, King Myand'r agreed to a treaty in which the Citadel would leave the planet alone, but Tamaran would give up their warrior culture in favor of a more agricultural living. As well, Princess Koriand'r was given up for slavery to the Citadel. The Citadel was defeated by the Omega Men and Tamaran was plunged into civil war. This was ultimately resolved with Komand'r being given command of the planet.

DC 2011 Relaunch

In the Relaunch, it is unknown how much of the universe has changed, but there have been significant changes in the history and culture of the Tamaranean people. Komand'r is said to have sold her sister for the safety of Tamaran from the Citadel. A major change is that Tamaraneans shown are said to only view other races^[1] as sensory experiences, to the point they forget what they look like if not around the person. Though it's shown that once identified by name, Starfire can remember them.^[2][3] It's also said they do not to believe emotions are a part of the sexual experience, recreational or reproduction wise.^[4]

Tamaran suddenly came under attack by the Blight, a parasitic alien race, causing the Tamaranean starship Starfire to seek out its commander, the Princess Koriand'r, also known as Starfire. Koriand'r is hesitant to save the planet due to the people and her sister allowing her to be enslaved. It's revealed that Komand'r is working alongside the blight, but to what end is unknown.^[1][5]

The Tamaranean People have visited the planet earth on multiple occasions as explained by Crux, as he lost his parents to a War Cruiser crashing into their car. Starfire's earth home is shown to be a huge crashed ship on a tropical island near the United States.^[3]

Possibly an alternate version of Tamaran is shown in Green Lantern New Guardians. The people still are orange skinned, and have the same abilities .They also have a number of small horns on their faces and shoulders. They present themselves as overtly friendly, believing that Arkillo and Saint Walker as heralds of The Archangel Invictus.^[6]

Appearances in other media

In the Teen Titans animated series, the only area of Tamaran shown appears as a barren, mountainous wasteland (a stark contrast to the lush, tropical climate of its comic book counterpart), although Starfire thinks it looks lovely. Additionally, Starfire's parents and younger brother Ryand'r are never seen, though her guardian, Galfore, does appear in the episode "Betrothed". In the same episode, Blackfire is seen as the ruler of Tamaran. Also in the animated series, Tamaraneans go through a second puberty known as the "Transformation" at around the time of the first, human-like adolescence. This process creates temporary random mutations in the Tamaranean's body, as told in "Transformation" that can range from turning purple for two days (Blackfire), or a series of gruesome changes that end in growing a chrysalis for a short period (Starfire). When her Transformation is complete, Starfire's body is returned to normal with the newfound ability to fire a starbolt out of her eyes. The animated Tamaraneans also have a prehensile tongue and nine stomachs. During Trigon's arc, Starfire mentioned that even her and her own people aware of Trigon's existence.

Ryand'r plays an integral part in issue #46 of the Teen Titans Go! comic series, in which his name is translated as "Wildfire". The same comic series reveals that Tamaran once had an ecosystem like the mainstream comics, but the subsequent Gordanian invasion reduced it to the barren wasteland seen in "Betrothed".

In the animated series, Starfire's abilities of flight, superhuman strength and starbolts are common to all Tamaraneans, being racial abilities rather than the result of Psion experiments (which is confirmed in issue #46 of Teen Titans Go!, the tie-in comic book series). All of their powers are tied into their emotional state; starbolts are fueled by fury, strength by confidence, and flight by joy.

References

• TitansTower.com's entry on Tamaran and Starfire's family