Lore:Talin Warhaft

General Talin Warhaft
General Talin Warhaft after the Imperial Simulacrum
Race	Man	Gender	Male
Born		3E 355
Resided in		Cyrodiil
Appears in		Arena

This article is about the General of the Imperial Guard. For other characters with the same name, see Talin.

Talin Warhaft (b. 3E 355) served as General of the Imperial Guard during the reign of Emperor Uriel Septim VII.

Talin had a wife, along with a daughter named Laretha Warhaft, who would go on to become a Commander within the Imperial Legion in adulthood. Additionally, he took on a ward, who would become known as the Eternal Champion to later history.

Biography

Early Life

When Talin Warhaft was just beginning his career as a spellsword and had just celebrated his 16th spring, he met another young spellsword, a human who called himself Marten the Blade. They became friends very quickly. Despite their youth, the two dreamed of fame and fortune. During an ambush by bandits, Warhaft became wounded, Marten utilized a spell that changed his outward appearance into that of the bandit leader, then, he took advantage of the immediate confusion the bandits were facing to lure them away from Talin's wounded body. Marten and Talin traveled together for many years, but some time in Marten had a son. Not wanting his boy to grow up without seeing his father, Marten abandoned his travels and took the mother as a wife.

In one memorable tale from an unknown period of Talin's youth, Warhaft visited a primitive island where a young child was sacrificed once a year to appease Arius, the God of Fire. Whenever the natives neglected the sacrifice, the island volcano would erupt, killing hundreds of villagers.

Imperial Guard

The Battlespire

Later in life, Talin Warhaft won a position within the Imperial Guard, an elite unit of the Imperial Legion, known as the greatest warrior-mages of Tamriel, the Guard is charged with the sole task of ensuring the safety and defense of the Emperor and various of his direct representatives in the provinces. The Testing Ground of Battlespire was utilized to examine those who wish to join the Imperial Guard. Recruits of this Imperial Battle College were known as Potentials and were usually identified as preteens. These Potentials learn about magic, the art of magical and martial warfare, as well as contemporary studies. Every year there is a Potentials Battle Tourney, where the first and second place winners are allowed to enter the Testing Ground. Only those who could prove themselves by successfully mastering the challenges of Battlespire were chosen for the Emperor's Imperial Guard.

Eventually, Talin Warhaft would be appointed leader of the entire Imperial Guard under the title of General. Warhaft formed a close-knit team, supposedly capable of annihilating any threat to the Emperor.

Warhaft once fought at the Battle of Borim Valley, where his men had routed the enemy. They would have captured all their opponents if not for the brave sacrifice of a young sergeant on the opposing side, who held a pass long enough for his men to retreat to safety.

In 3E 389, General Warhaft attended Mid Year's festival in the Emperor's banquet hall (two and half months before the Imperial Simulacrum would begin). The ghost of Elder Ria Silmane would retroactively declare that this event was where evil took form in her master: Imperial Battlemage of Tamriel, Jagar Tharn; which holds at least some truth, it was here where General Warhaft would regale an anecdote to the Crown Princess Ariella Septim, Talin recounted the tale from his youth of when his friend, Marten the Blade, used a transmorph spell to change his own appearance into that of another, so that Marten may trick a group of bandits into thinking he was their leader. It was this anecdote that inspired a disgruntled Jagar Tharn to steal the appearance of his Emperor, and nab Septim's place on the Dragon Throne.

Imperial Simulacrum

Talin Warhaft

Then came the 1st of Hearthfire 3E 389. It was in the Imperial Training Hall, the place where Talin and the Guards worked on their combat tactics, that an ornate seal appeared on the floor, cast by Tharn. Tharn then summoned the Emperor and his Guard, declaring he had found something strange and heard rumors of treachery. When the Emperor arrived, Tharn cast the spell. The seal flashed once, then surrounded the Emperor and his Guard with a wall of flames. They tried in vain to break the magic barrier. Imprisoned by the seal, they could only watch helplessly as Tharn transformed into the Emperor's appearance. Tharn then summoned demonic beings, who also transformed themselves to take the form of Talin and the other guards. An astonished Emperor and his Guard stared out, as their look-alikes stood there before them like a reflection in a mirror. Tharn explained to the Emperor that time passed more slowly in the dimension where he would dispatch them. By the time they would eventually die several generations would have grown up on Tamriel, and for them the glorious reign of Uriel Septim would be centuries old. Even if the magic of the Amulet of Kings alerted the Elder Council, they could not know for whom the bell tolled. Nevertheless, Tharn assured the Emperor that he would take care of everything. In a few moments, the Emperor and his Imperial Guards would be sucked out of this world and propelled into another dimension, chosen by the Imperial Battlemage.

Warhaft's experience within the dimensional prison after his banishment to Oblivion alongside Uriel VII is entirely unknown. But information of this may be extrapolated from Uriel's public account.

Little is known of Uriel's experience while trapped in Oblivion. He says he remembers nothing but an endless sequence of waking and sleeping nightmares. He says he believed himself to be dreaming, and had no notion of passage of time. Publically [sic], he long claimed to have no memory of the dreams and nightmares of his imprisonment, but from time to time, during the interviews with the Emperor that form the basis of this biography, he would relate details of nightmares he had, and would describe them as similar to the nightmares he had when he was imprisoned in Oblivion. He seemed not so much unwilling as incapable of describing the experience.

The Emperor and his Guard were eventually rescued in 3E 399 by Talin's ward, and Talin told his child that they had earned his deepest respect, and stepped aside to allow the Emperor to bequeath them: Eternal Champion of the Empire.

Later Life

Talin Warhaft and the Eternal Champion both continued to investigate "Tharn's aborted master plan," though little of great relevance regarding the master plan was ever uncovered circa 3E 405.

Sometime after the Imperial Simulacrum, Lady Allena Benoch was appointed head of the Emperor's Imperial Guard.

Circa 3E 433, Manuals of Arms and Armor had been circulated throughout Cyrodiil Province, which General Warhaft commissioned the writing and publication of, to serve as standard guides to all officers of the Imperial Legion regarding their standard equipment.

Legacy

Talin Warhaft's status succeeding these events (and the fall of the Septim Dynasty) remains unknown.

Notes

• ^1	Warhaft's age is alluded to in the French version of Arena's Manual Intro Story, wherein he goes over an anecdote from when he had just turned sixteen, it later said that it's been eighteen seasons since this anecdote. Which means Warhaft was 35 during 3E 389, indicating he was born circa 3E 355.

• ^2	The Talin Warhaft NPC exists as a bit of an artifact from an older iteration of Arena. The asterisks below detail why this is the case:

  

  Arena's cut party system
  • The game was initially designed with a party system in mind, where the player controls a group of four different PC characters, each one being the offspring of one of four Imperial Guards (Warhaft being your paternal guardian, and leader of the Guard), all four of these Guards, including Talin Warhaft, would be banished with Uriel, and so it was up to you four to rescue your kinsmen and restore the rightful Emperor. This system was eventually cut, with the lead programmer Julian Lefay describing it as "a mess in so many ways." In particular, how to tell each member what to do was not working well. It was also thought that streamlining down to one PC helped immersion, in that a singular PC offers better characterization in terms of roleplaying than a collective group the player controls and commands.
  • A cut slide from Arena's opening sequence would have spelled out the player's relationship to Warhaft as listed above, with Warhaft being player's parental guardian.
  • Some leftovers of Warhaft's old iteration remain within the game. Such as:
    • Talin being referred to as the player's father in the character creation scenarios. This one in particular is interesting, because it canonizes the fact that Talin Warhaft is or once was the parental guardian of the player. The things the father is listed as having done, such as commanding at the Battle of Borim Valley for certain indicates this.
    • Talin Warhaft's appearance in the game whatsoever, as his "usefulness" to the game without the party system (mentioned in the above note) is very little. He was later cut from the ending of the CD-ROM release of Arena, seemingly because his "artifact nature". However, he still appears and gets mentioned in the game's opening and character creator scenarios, so his disappearance from the plot during the endgame confuses the narrative.

• ^3

  Sources conflict on what this festival was, and thereby, when it took place. The French Version of the Arena Manual refers to Harvest's End festival, while the English Version refers to Mid Year's festival. Since the English Version is considered a more definitive source, this event should be referenced as Mid Year's festival.

• ^4	Circa 3E 427, It is said that some generals in the Legions had one eye on Emperor Uriel Septim (who was supposed to be dying of age and illness) and one eye on the throne.

• ^5	The Imperial Guard bodyguards are not to be confused with the members of the Blades, however it is true that a select few of the Blades (called the Blades Guard) served within the Imperial Guard branch as the honor guards and protectors of the Dragonborn Emperors.

• Warhaft was originally going to play a large role in a questline that was ultimately cut from Oblivion.
• The Eternal Champion, may have been named after Talin Warhaft, as in some narratives, they share the same forename.

Gallery

• 

  ^6	The cut intro slide (Arena)

• 

  Emperor Uriel stands with Talin
  (Arena)

• 

  Sucked into Oblivion
  (Arena)

• 

  Doppelgangers arise
  (Arena)

• 

  Talin Warhaft in the Imperial Labyrinths
  (Arena Player's Guide)

• 

  Warhaft
  (Marketing Imagery)

References

Note: The following references are considered to be unofficial sources. They are included to round off this article and may not be authoritative or conclusive.