#tarasks

Tarask info is variable and almost all of it is suspect in one way or another, coming from a mix of OCS records (which were falsified in part to conceal the truth about Adriel at least), Adriel (who may be lying or inaccurate in various ways), and Ava's interpretation of what she learned through the Crown (which is ultimately coming from Reya). I've tried not to reject any of it out of hand, but some of this material is contradictory and those contradictions need to be reconciled. Anything we see directly that a tarask does or can do is gospel, of course.

Beatrice in S1E2, prior to doing targeted research, makes the claim that a tarask (technically a "higher order demon" is what she says) hasn't been seen for 100 years, but she's clearly operating on, at best, a fraction of the information at the disposal of the OCS and zero personal experience (I'll note that this scene has numerous false statements about tarasks and the Halo that the Sisters believe to be true based upon OCS records and doctrine). The last two Halobearers were Shannon and Suzanne, one lost the Halo due to being "unworthy," and the other was killed by a divinium bomb. Given Beatrice's comments about Suzanne ("Cruella de Jesus") in season 1, as well as her absence in the flashback scene when Suzanne lost the Halo, I think it's fair to infer that Beatrice did not know Suzanne as the Warrior Nun, and therefore also did not know any Warrior Nun prior to Shannon (i.e., no first-hand knowledge of how any prior Warrior Nun died). Following more extensive research, Beatrice states later in the episode that "the Tarask inevitably tracks down the Halobearer despite" the fact that it can only sustain itself on Earth for a limited time; "inevitably" suggests to me that this is a common occurrence based upon what she has read. Adriel in season 2 tells Lilith that the tarasks exist to bring him and the Halo back to Reya, that it's their "sole purpose."

Additionally, the only known ways of killing a Halobearer are divinium, tarasks, and Adriel. We'll ignore Adriel since the only Warrior Nun he killed was Areala (though worth noting that OCS records other than Yasmine's secret sect attribute this to a tarask). Divinium has been mostly hoarded by the Church, and no one that we know of until recently would have had a reason to target and kill a Halobearer. Even Jillian, with all her resources and knowledge about divinium and the Church, doesn't actually have that information (she responds with surprise in S1E7 when Ava says she can heal), which makes sense: what human institution would have sufficient conflict against Halobearers to figure out how to kill them, and then use that fact repeatedly through the years? And if Halobearers aren't dying from divinium weapons over the years, and they are known for dying young, what is killing them, and why?

I think it's also worth noting the quality and frequency of tarask tracking (one can draw more than one conclusion from this information about the frequency of tarask appearances in the past). In season 1, the tarask detects the Halo's energy signature at the church where Shannon died and kills the priest there within roughly a day of the Halo being out of a body longer than expected. It then appears at the Arq-tech party within roughly 24 hours? Then again when Ava is on the run from Lilith. Then no more tarasks in the months between Lilith's departure and when Ava unleashes a Halo blast in the church fight in season 2 (which coincides with Lilith joining forces with Adriel, by the way, the show cuts back and forth between those scenes).

1) What is a tarask?

2) What are wraiths?

3) Why can tarasks touch wraiths, and vice versa (as seen in the church fight in season 2)?

4) What is Adriel?

5) Who was Adriel before he fled to Earth?

6) Are there more beings like him (and if so, where do they come from)?

7) What is his relationship with the wraiths?

8) Who is Reya (background, role in her society, where does she come from)?

9) What is Reya (scope of her power, nature of her body)?

10) What does Reya want?

11) What are the practical limitations on Reya's power?

12) How did Halobearers die before divinium bullets and explosives (i.e., was it always tarasks)?

13) How come no tarask ever brought the Halo back to Reya?

14) Why is Reya happy to let an artifact as powerful as the Halo, one which she sent tarasks after when it was in Adriel's hands, languish on some backwater planet?

15) What was Adriel's plan to kill Reya?

16) Where does the Halo come from?

17) Where does the Crown of Thorns come from?

18) What is the point of similarity between Halobearers and Adriel that lets the Crown of Thorns work on both of them?

19) Where does divinium come from?

20) What determines whether Adriel can communicate through divinium (could someone else use it to communicate, is there something special about the specific divinium he uses to communicate)?

21) Is there more than one Halo?

22) Can Reya turn prayer into power (and miracles) too?

23) How did Reya get to Earth with the Crown of Thorns? Did she come to Earth herself?

24) Why did Reya have Adriel buried instead of killed?

25) How did the tarask skeleton get in the stone under the Vatican?

26) How do wraiths get to Earth?

27) Is there more than one Halo?

28) Is Reya's time dilation static, or something that can be manipulated?

29) Is there more than one Crown of Thorns?

30) Who made the Crown of Thorns?

31) Where do tarasks come from, and can their numbers increase?

32) How did Adriel arrange Reya's abduction?

33) How did Lilith get like that?

34) Why did Adriel flee with the Halo?

35) Who had the Halo before Adriel, and what happened to them?

36) Who is fighting in the Holy War if Adriel is dead?

37) If Camila's implant lets her do two-way psychic projection with Adriel, what else could it do?

38) What are Reya's "win conditions" for a Holy War?

39) What would Jillian Salvius want, now that Michael is dead and the two sides in a Holy War are presumably the people who turned him into a suicide bomber vs. the people who killed him?