Nickname(s): Tali
Title(s): Snowkissed, Silvermane, Warg
Gender: Female
Age: 27
Personality: Wary and impartial, headstrong and passionate, Tali is a force to be reckoned with. Growing up isolated on the snowy peaks of Mount Telasova, Tallulah is a lonely person who's more comfortable with animals and her elders than people her own age or younger. As such, her social skills aren't top notch and neither are her communication skills. Tali is a competitive person however, and this shows best in her need to prove herself. Tali is a bit of a paradox when it comes to her confidence; she's confident in her abilities yet, self-conscious in herself. She rides a fine line between being honest and harsh, having been taught that lies are the bane of
S'novus, the Winter Goddess of her people. Clever, creative, courageous and consistent, Tallulah strives to be at the pinnacle of perfection, despite knowing that such a thing is impossible.
History: In the foothills of Mount Telasova, Tali was born almost two months too early and despite surviving the odds, was pale and sickly for the first few years of her life. Her health didn't improve until her fifth year when her parents journeyed up the mountain, as is custom*, with the rest of her clan. A freak accident shortly turned into a miracle. Early one morning, four year old Tali wandered off into the woodlands surrounding camp. When her parents woke, they found the first snow of the season blanketing the camp and their sickly child missing. Beside themselves with fear, they roused the camp and men and women went about searching for the lost child, though many thought it was a lost cause. They searched well into the evening but no one found the small, dark haired child. Most gave up the search, yet a few carried on through the night. The later it got, the harder the snow fell and with each passing minute, the Woren's lost hope.
Tallulah was found as day broke and the snow turned to ice. She was found by a family friend, a woods-witch who says he was sent a vision by
S'novus, the Winter Goddess of their people. He found her in a frozen meadow, surrounded by wildlife. Tali doesn't remember any of this, but the man swore she was being protected and comforted by the animals. Snow birds and spotted wild cats, soft furred bunnies and wild mountain dogs laid around the small child, as if they were domesticated and wanted nothing more than to lie down and keep her warm. The woods-witch noticed something different about Tali; he who helped birth her. Tali's swarthy hair had turned silver-grey and she had more color in her cheeks than ever before. After some persuasion, the woods-witch was able to coax her away from the animals and back to camp where her parents believed her dead. Many didn't believe his claim, yet they couldn't deny the change in Tallulah Woren.
As the migration neared it's peak the clans reached their destination: the Valley of T'seria. It's a sacred place, where the Savants of Telasova bless children, families, and souls.* The woods-witch insisted upon a meeting of the Savants, to prove his claim of his vision and what he saw in that meadow. The Savants took one look at Tallulah and granted him a
Veitchan, essentially a Holy Trial where chieftains, woods-witches, and elders of every tribe are gathered to bare witness of his truths or his falsehoods. Long story short, the Savants proved his truths and spoke to Tali's parents. They asked to help raise the child as their own, so they could help her see her full potential. It was such an honor that the Woren's agreed, and a year later, six year old Tali made the long trek back to T'seria with her da and maman. Only this time she didn't travel back down - she climbed farther up to the peak, where she spent the next decade and a half calling the Monastery of the Savants her home.
During her stay at the monastery, the Savants taught her many things and revealed many more. They began with cultural, historical, and worldly studies, then numbers, and then finally with weapons and survival techniques. When she was eight years old,
Sveay Sarrat started her bow lessons and she caught on quickly. When she was thirteen Ranger Yakoda furthered her training.
Vetta Annona* concluded that her tongues were as good as they were going to get when she turned two-and-twenty, saying her three new tongues were 'tolerable, if accented by your southern hill gargle'. After her three years alone in the mountains, she returned to the monastery, where she was asked to travel through the mountains and aid different clans in many different ways. She brought food for those who hungered, water for those thirsty, clothes for the clothe-less, prayers for those in need of them, and helped defend land against raiders. Tali supposes this is why the Emperor has summoned her, though she's entirely unsure how she could be of help to His Magnificence.
Likes:
Animals. They have a certain freedom she admires and craves.
Being around people who make her comfortable enough to be herself.
Having her hair brushed;
Sveay Issa used to brush her silver-grey hair and braid it.
Dislikes:
Loud and boisterous noises
and people.
Liars and people unable to handle the truth.
Humid weather. The heated pools of the Savant Temples inside Mount Telasova.
Weapons / Powers / Abilities:
A pair of antler-handled daggers she forged herself when she was thirteen. The forge of Mount Telasova is humble but by all means functional.
She was recently given an osage-wood bow by the Savants on Mount Telasova as a parting gift.
Tali also carries a kukri blade that she found after burying its owner in the foothills of Telasova.
Tali is a warg, by G.R.R.M's standards; she's able to enter the minds of animals and see what they see, feel what they feel and bend their will to do her bidding. But the similarity stops there - Tallulah cannot enter the mind of a human being. Every once in a while however, she'll bend their will
too far and accidentally imprint a part of herself into said animal.
Though not immune to it's bite, Tallulah has built up a tolerance to the cold. Whether it's as simple as that, or because she's
Snowkissed*, only
S'novus truly knows. The frigid winters barely chill her bones, but that doesn't stop her from wearing her favorite snowbear lined cloak.
Skills:
A survivalist to the first degree. At seventeen she left the monastery to spend three years alone in the mountains. It was as much a test as it was a cleansing.
Though she's been wielding her kukri for seven years now, she's a sure-shot with her bow, which she's been using religiously for over a decade.
Almost all of her senses are "enhanced" due to her warg abilities. She can wear the eyes of a crow over two hundred leagues away, listen through the ears of a doe standing midstream somewhere down river, shoulder the keen instincts of a feline, or feel the vibrations from the earth through the insects all around. Some of these are so "open" that she's almost unconsciously doing it.
Weaknesses:
Hand-to-hand combat. She can brawl her way out of a bar fight, but that's as far as she'd get. Having only been formally trained in defensive escape maneuvers and long to mid-range weaponry, Tali would be lost in hand-to-hand combat. Give her a blade and it'll boost her odds though.
There are consequences to her warging abilities.
She feels what they feel. Tallulah Woren has felt three deaths, none of them her own. Though imprinting creates an incredible bond, it also has an incredible pain hidden behind it: if that animal dies, Tali feels it. Feels as though she's dying too. If this were to happen in the middle of battle, it would severely weaken her and she probably wouldn't be able to cover her own ass, making her a liability. However, Tali has learned her lesson and rarely fights alongside her Imprinted. There are of course smaller injuries here and there during a fight or act of the gods, but over the years it's become second nature - a second pain if you will. Her tolerance grows as the years do.
There is a piece of every beast she's imprinted on inside her, a trait that she can't shake, a hunger she can't feed, a thirst she cannot quench.
Equipment:
An enchanted rucksack that was gifted to her on her eleventh birthday by
Sveay Issa. (Think Hermione's purse in Deathly Hallows.)
A small coin purse deep in her rucksack that contains her entire life's saving.
Basic survival essentials - flint, waterskins, salt, knives, fishing gear, bedroll, small black-iron pot and kettle, and extra small clothes.
Her royal summons.
Dried meats and jerky, salted mountain trout, hard goat's cheese, and three loaves of black bread. A few jars of herbs and spices that can double as healing salves, mint leaves, and Savant grown tea leaves.
Keeva, Morova, and Synn.*
Theme song:
Avatar the Last Airbender Soundtrack
* Every seven years the mountain and valley clans set aside their differences, and migrate to the Holy Valley of Tseria where they converse with the Savants and their gods.
* Snowkissed, in myths and legends of the mountain and valley clans, speak of one kissed by the snow. Kissed meaning killed. Legend states that sometimes
Lady S'novus takes pity on mortals kissed by snow and breathes life into them with a kiss. They awaken with frozen hearts and hair as white as snow or silver like the light of the moon.
*
Sveay is a gender-neutral title that essentially means priest/ess. There is a hierarchy within the Savants, and
Sveay's are among the top tier.
*
Vetta is a female title that closely translates to 'holy scholar.' The male equivalent is
Vettan.
* Keeva, is an adolescent crow and one of her Imprinted. In the picture above, he is perched on her shoulder, where more often than not you'll find him preening himself until Tali sends him off to do her bidding. He's a snarky little crow, fond of counting and collecting shiny objects.
*
Morova, is a three year old snowcat she accidently imprinted on while making her way back home to the monastery. She was just a cub and her mother was nowhere to be seen. Reluctantly Tali took her home with her and the pair have been inseparable since. Sometimes Tali has to make a sleeping-mixture for Morova because she insists upon shadowing her every step.
*
Synn, her only true
pet, was given to her by
Sveay Issa when she was nine years old. She imprinted on him accidentally and discovered her warging abilities. He's a mischievous little ferret from southern lands and enjoys curling around her neck and sleeping in her snowbear lined cloak.
