Taolle

Summary

An ancient Bosmer, Taolle raised Prince Goranthir in the absence of his rather distant parents, King Reman and Queen Morgiah. She recognized in him a natural and deep talent for communicating with animals, a skill she also possessed to an amazing degree. It was a necessary power for her, in fact, for she was blind, and spoke to the animals in order to have her surroundings described to her.

 

Taolle left the royal court when the King and Queen determined she was having a bad effect on their son, making him more peculiar than he already was, more inclined towards talking to animals than to people. She took up life in a crude lean-to in the woods outside Firsthold. It was there, many years later, that Goranthir brought his friends Allerleirauh and Tris before the Masquerade Ball where he intended to ask his mother about the deal she made with Mannimarco.

 

At the time, Tris suggested to Goranthir that he tell Taolle about why they were there, but the young Prince decided against it, not wanting to worry his old nurse who had few enough years ahead of her.

 

How Taolle learned the truth then is unknown. But learn it she did when Goranthir’s soul was claimed by the King of Worms and Geht was born. With the aid of her animal “seeing eyes,” the old Bosmer began the long journey by foot from Summerset to the Dragontail Mountains, never pausing, never sleeping, determined to save her prince. When faced with the unsurmountable barrier of the Death Aura, Taolle called up the goddess she worshipped, and mantled Nirn herself.

 

Stumbling blindly across the mountains, led only by her intuitions of where Goranthir was, Taolle was seen from afar by other worshippers of Nirn, the witches of Ald Raathim. They told the Duchess that if Taolle fell before seeing Goranthir, all would be lost. This was the spark that launched War Of The Wormgod.

 

The heroes did manage to find Taolle and protect her until they reached the cavern where Geht and the undead dragon Baelthon were guarding the first of the Blightstones. Goranthir, recognizing his old nurse, called her by her name, and in that instant, Geht ceased to be, and Taolle, as the power of Nirn left her and the Death Aura claimed her, died, having achieved her goal of saving her prince.

 

Goranthir and Anya had Taolle buried deep in the cavern in the mountain where she fell. It was accursed ground, but they knew that when their quest was completed, life would return, and the old Bosmer would be lying in the land she helped save.

 

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