Like the other children, Teylan was kidnapped from the Sarentu clan by John Mercer and Angela Harding when he was a young child and forced to participate in the TAP program. Being the youngest of the survivors, his memories start at TAP.
He is said to be the best student of the Sarentu children by far,[1] and answered the teachers' questions correctly, and began to develop an affinity for human science and technology. At night, he often had nightmares about his kidnapping, and according to Nor, he screamed in his sleep in the Na'vi language. Teylan also once wet his bed and was beaten by Mercer, and the bruises took weeks to heal.
At the same time, Teylan was the only child who believed John Mercer's propaganda, convinced that the man had saved them. This exposed him to the displeasure of his peers. Being Mercer's star pupil, Teylan began to view him as a father figure. Mercer groomed him into feeling special and he would withdraw affection whenever Teylan showed interest in Na'vi culture.
In 2146, at Aha'ri's instigation, he and his friends attempted to escape the RDA base, but were stopped by Mercer.
In 2154, after a forced evacuation due to Jake Sully's rebellion, Mercer ordered the children killed. They were saved by their teacher Alma Cortez, who personally killed the soldiers sent by Mercer and then put the children into hibernation.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora[]
Teylan resting with his three friends after escaping TAP.
In 2169, Teylan and the rest of the group awakened and were taken under the wing of the Resistance. Having arrived at the Resistance HQ some time before the protagonist, he accompanied him in a conversation with Alma, who confessed that they had been in hibernation for almost 16 years, this information surprised Teylan.
Teylan quickly became friends with Alexander Tremayne, who, like him, is very interested in technology. Teylan introduced him to the protagonist and merchant Rajinder Singh Grewal. He enjoys spending time at the headquarters, instead of the wild outdoors of Pandora, and seeing all the machinery to tinker with. While spending time outside on Pandora, Teylan finds life difficult and is disappointed that the animals like hexapedes keep running from him. He planned to create a device known as the Remote Xeno-Emotion Analyzer (R'XEA) which could detect the emotions of animals.
However, his radio picks up a message from Mercer, and he begins to become manipulated by him to turn against the Resistance. Eventually, he lives with Mercer for a while at his base. Upon being told that the RDA attempted to kill everyone at the Resistance HQ, Teylan is horrified. While he thinks about leaving, he remembers what happened to Aha'ri and refrains, and believes the Resistance and his former friends would never forgive him.
After defeating Mercer, Teylan manages to escape from Drill Base Omega by jumping aboard a Samson, in which Anqa Salaam, along with Alma and Ri'nela, came to his rescue. A moment later, the entire team gathers on a hill overlooking the base. Teylan is happy to see his friend. However, Teylan is clearly reluctant to Alma's proposal that they live as a family from now on. Ri'nela explains that they must find their own place in the world and Teylan expresses his willingness to fully integrate with the Na'vi.
As a child, Teylan was naïve and conflict-free, and was noted to be eager to please people. He believed Mercer's propaganda, but at the same time trusted his TAP colleagues, who encouraged him to rebel.
While exploring the Western Frontier, he is shown to have a knack for tinkering with technology. He does exhibit some difficulty fitting in with the Resistance and is rather introverted. As revealed in an audio log, he misses the simplicity of life in TAP, mainly due to not having to make difficult moral decisions, as well as being with all his friends including Aha'ri.
As time goes on, he becomes incredibly conflicted about whether to side with the RDA or to join the Resistance, as Mercer tells Teylan that the Resistance will be on the losing side. Teylan nearly condones the protagonist being killed under Mercer's orders, but when the protagonist sings their clan's song, Teylan probably realizes he could never live with himself if he was complicit in the deaths of his childhood friends, and decides to turn against Mercer.
