Taliesin Evander - Bard, Wanderer, Haunted by the Ghost of Himself

Taliesin is an Alternate Universe character. He's the answer to my question, "What would happen if Hythlodaeus was sundered?" He's not the Warrior of Light. There is a version of Meteor that serves as WoL in this universe. However, he does have the Echo, is a member of the Scions, and part of Meteor's inner circle.


Taliesin is also secretly the long-term on-again-off-again Favorite of Garlean emperor, Solus Zos Galvus. They have known one another since before Solus took the throne. (And they possibly have several children? I haven't decided.) Taliesin does not reveal this secret to Meteor or the Scions until shortly after Solus's death.


Taliesin's lore is still very much in flux, but please ask any questions! You may actually help me figure things out!

Taliesin is very pretty and handsome! \ o w o /

What was life like within Garlemald? Any grievances? Anything that you find lots of joy in remembering? What about things that are nostalgic?

PaintedScales wrote:

Taliesin is very pretty and handsome! \ o w o /

What was life like within Garlemald? Any grievances? Anything that you find lots of joy in remembering? What about things that are nostalgic?

Thank you! I tried to make him live up to the original character (as if anyone truly can).

Life in Garlemald was... complicated. The people don't look kindly on outsiders to begin with. And to have an outsider take so much of the Emperor's attention? Let's just say I didn't have many allies at court.

However, being with Solus made it worth it. To the rest of the world, he was a prickly, exacting, and mercurial ruler who was difficult to please and even more difficult to trust. To me, he was always kind, thoughtful, and patient. Of course, he could be acerbic, but that acid was never directed at me. Maybe it was because I had known him and loved him long before he was Emperor. After several decades, I was the only one close to him who knew the man before the crown. I was the only person he completely relaxed around.

Despite our private happiness, I eventually did leave, only to return for short, intermittent visits. The expansion of the Garlean Empire sickened me. Solus tried to insulate me from the worst of the crimes the Imperial army committed in in his name, but I have always been the inquisitive sort. Once I knew the full breadth of their actions in places like Bozja and Werlyt, I couldn't in good conscience stay at Solus's side. So I left.

Still, there are parts of Garlemald itself that I remember fondly. The smell of fresh snow on the spruce trees. The unending daylight of high summer. Gods, the food! They put popotoes in everything! It's amazing! And I'll admit a weakness to some of the luxuries like fine clothes and a wine cellar larger than most libraries. I do miss that.

With a backstory like that the first question that pops to my mind is: "How did you and Solus meet?"

Star wrote:

With a backstory like that the first question that pops to my mind is: "How did you and Solus meet?"

Oh, he would hate that I'm telling you this, so I must! It was many years ago, back when he was still a Centurion. His first posting was at the most remote castrum in the Northern frontier. Several weeks into his assignment, he personally led a patrol through a narrow mountain pass.

Having left my own homeland only recently, I was traveling through the very same pass, trying to move further south to more temperate climes. I don't know if it was the noise of so many soldiers traipsing through, or if it was just a cruel twist of fate; but as the first rows of soldiers exited the pass, a great rumbling came from above. 

Knowing from experience what that sound meant, I revealed my position by shouting, "Avalanche!" and darting out from my tree cover and towards the marching column. At the back of the column, Solus also shouted for them to break formation, drop all equipment, and run for the relative safety of a nearby ridge.

I caught up to him as the wall of snow closed in on us. Still, he remained at the back of the line, ensuring all his people made it to shelter first. Unable to reach the ridge, he turned to grab me and push me ahead of him. Instead, I dug in my heels and cast a dome of protection around the both of us.

It took them about an hour or so to dig us out, and by then we had become quite well acquainted. 

With all their charts ruined in the avalanche, I offered to help lead them back to the castrum. Once there, I just... stayed. Solus was always finding some reason or another for me to stick around as an advisor on the local environment. After several months in the wilderness alone, I was more than happy to have a roof over my head and his prickly charms for company. 

Many years later, Solus confessed to me that as soon as he saw my violet eyes, he knew he would move heaven and earth to keep me at his side, and he did. Because I too was smitten. It felt like I was reuniting with someone I had already known and loved forever. Nothing but his own actions could ever tear me away from his side.

Given Taliesin is close to Meteor, how is he navigating the multi angled issue of "being in direct opposition of someone he loves dearly"? Scions v Ascians, Alliance v Garlemald, etc. Is it pulling his hair out sort of external conflict or a secret boiling inner turmoil?

It was more secret inner turmoil in the beginning. When Meteor and I first met through Jehantel, I had mostly washed my hands of Garlemald. My last visit had cemented in my mind that though I would always have feelings for Solus and tender memories of our time together, I felt no such affection or loyalty to the empire he built.

I didn't exactly hide my past from Meteor and the Scions, but I wasn't entirely upfront with them about the full breadth of my involvement either. After Solus's unexpected death, I felt I owed at least Meteor an explanation. 

He responded with his typical quiet practicality, offering neither judgment nor absolution. All he said was, "I'm not sorry he's dead, but I am sorry for your loss." And that was all he said on the matter until we were unexpectedly transported to the First and found ourselves face-to-face with Emet Selch, but that's a story for another day.

How did your Echo first manifested?

Skaar wrote:

How did your Echo first manifested?

As far as I can tell, I've had it for my entire life. In me, the Echo manifested as the ability to visually see the flow of aether around me. It looks like threads and pulses of colored light running through the air and pooling in people and objects. 

Without my glasses, it causes quite a problem. The light blends into the blurry shapes I can make out and everything becomes fuzzy and washed out like an expressionist painting. But corrective lenses sharpen my mundane sight and help my aethersight to fade into the background.

Though it was a bother in my early childhood, the Echo made me quite adept at visual or geographic forms of magic such as summoning and Nymian scholarship. I don't have solid evidence, but I suspect many Nymian scholars of eld may have possessed the same Echo as myself.