User:TheRockWithAMedicineCupOnHisHead/SandboxWarhaft

General TheRockWithAMedicineCupOnHisHead/SandboxWarhaft
General TheRockWithAMedicineCupOnHisHead/SandboxWarhaft after the Imperial Simulacrum
Race	Man	Gender	Male
Resided in		Cyrodiil
Appears in		Arena

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

He had a wife. And later a daughter, named Laretha Warhaft who would go on to become a Commander within the Imperial Legion in adulthood. Additionally, he took on a youth ward, who would become known as the Eternal Champion to later history. His family lived in a country village within their own estate.

Biography

When Talin Warhaft was just beginning his career as a Warrior 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...

In one memorable tale 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.

The two 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.

Later in life, Talin Warhaft won a position within the shadow legion: 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 virtual Testing Ground of Battlespire was utilized to examine those who wish to join the Imperial Guard, since the participant is not physically there, they are unable to tire or die in any attempts. Only those who could prove themselves by successfully mastering the challenges of Battlespire were chosen for the Emperor's Imperial Guard. Additionally, the Emperor had used spells on himself and his Imperial Guards; if one of them were to die, the Elder Council would be immediately alerted.

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.

Circa 3E 389, General Warhaft attended a festival in the Emperor's banquet hall some months before the Imperial Simulacrum. The ghost of Ria Silmane would retroactively declare that the event was where evil took form in her master, the 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 old tale of when his friend, Marten the Blade, used a spell of illusion to change his own appearance into that of another, so as to trick a group of bandits into thinking Marten was their leader. It was this anecdote that inspired Tharn to do something similar... To remove his Emperor, whom he was terribly jealous of, and take his place.

Then came Hearthfire 1 3E 389, Emperor Uriel Septim VII's forty-third birthday. In the Imperial Training Hall, where Talin and the Guards work on their combat tactics, 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. When they eventually died, 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 alerted the Elder Council, they could not know for whom the bell tolled. Nevertheless, he 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.

We know nothing of Talin's personal experiences within the dimensional prison. But we can extrapolate based on Uriel's public account and assume something of similar note happened to Warhaft. The Emperor said he remembered nothing of the dimensions but an endless sequence of waking and sleeping nightmares, during that time he believed himself to be dreaming, and had no notion of passage of time. On the whole, Uriel seemed not so much unwilling, as incapable of describing the experience. But it is clear that it changed him. The Emperor also became conservative and pessimistic, where the policies of his early life were markedly bold, even rash. Uriel accounts for this change as a reaction to and revulsion for the early teachings and counsel of Jagar Tharn. However, Uriel's exile in Oblivion also clearly drained and wasted him in body and spirit, though his mind retained the shrewd cunning and flexibility of his youth.

The Emperor and his Guard were eventually rescued in 3E 399 by the Eternal Champion. And Talin told his ward they had earned his deepest respect.

Talin Warhaft and the Eternal Champion continued to investigate "Tharn's aborted master plan", which was given the title of: "Tharnatos". General Warhaft eventually came to Morrowind to investigate Tharnatos further, suspecting the factions within had some role to play...

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

Circa 3E 433, General Warhaft commissioned the writing and publication of the Manuals of Arms and Armor to serve as standard guides to all officers of the Imperial Legion regarding their standard equipment. Which could indicate that General Warhaft had been appointed beyond the Imperial Guard to a position within the Imperial Legion high command.

After the fall of the Septim Dynasty, Talin Warhaft's status is unknown. Though it is said that certain generals in the Legions had one eye on Uriel Septim and one eye on the throne, which may have possibly implicated Warhaft.

Notes

• The Imperial Guard are not to be confused with the separate: "Blades Guard", who serve an honorary role as the Personal Bodyguards of Dragonborn Emperor's.
• The Talin Warhaft NPC exists as a bit of an artifact from an older iteration of Arena. 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 papa, 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 main PC offers more character personification than a collective group the player commands and controls.
• A cut slide from Arena's opening sequence would have spelled out the player's relationship to Warhaft as listed above, with the General being your parental guardian.
• Some aspects of Warhaft's old iteration remain with 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. He was cut from the ending of the CD-ROM release of Arena, seemingly for 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 confuses things.
• Warhaft was originally going to play a large role in a questline that was ultimately cut from Oblivion.

Gallery

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  Talin Warhaft in the Imperial Labyrinths

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  Talin Warhaft depicted alongside Uriel Septim

• 

  The cut slide mentioned above

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.