Thalnok, Fanatic of Crota

"I create Thalnok to My Court / So that I may observe my son / by faithful, foolish proxy / Listen — The last true shape depends on, asks for, venerates nothing."

- Oryx, the Taken King

Thalnok, Fanatic of Crota is a Hive Knight that appears as a boss in the Court of Oryx. Like Crota, Thalnok can only be killed using a sword that appears in the middle of the arena.

Biography
When Crota was exiled for inadvertedly unleashing the Vex aboard his father's throne world, Thalnok attempted to impersonate Crota in order to gain favor with Oryx, the Taken King. Amused at Thalnok's attempts to mantle his son, Oryx played along and had raised him to his court; serving as a proxy to observe his absent son.

Thalnok would be one of serveral Ascendant Hive in Oryx's court that engaged the Guardians in battle aboard the Dreadnaught, ending him in a similar fashion to the God-Knight with the Hive's own Cleavers turned against him.

Gameplay
Thalnok is reminiscent of Crota in terms of both appearance and battle techniques. He wields a gigantic Cleaver that is able to kill any Guardians in one hit, so keep your distance. He will also summon both Hive and Taken throughout the fight and support them by pelting Darkness Blasts from afar. There will be a sword-bearing Knight named Hagrist, Blade's Edge, who must be killed in order to pick up the sword relic. In order to attack him with the sword, Thalnok's shield must be broken down, which will take quite a bit of firepower to do, but once it happens, he will fall to his knees, allowing the Guardian who picked up the sword to rush in and slash him until either his shield recharges or he is killed. Multiple sword runs may be required to defeat Thalnok.

Trivia

 * Thalnok is the only character in the Taken King expansion to have a title that refers to Crota.
 * Thalnok can be seen briefly in the mission, The Dreadnaught at the Court of Oryx after you disable the Dreadnaught Weapon. You don't get any chance to fight him as he immediately leaves after you spot him.
 * There was a near unavoidable bug when Thalnok was first released where no enemies would spawn after the sword was used for the first time, leaving Thalnok unbeatable until the timer ran out. This was later patched however the bug can still rarely occur if enough particle effects crowd the arena while the sword is being used.

List of appearances

 * Destiny
 * The Taken King