Tallylyn Alamandriel

“*I am bound no more to one murderer than another by the shape of their ears!*”
―Tallylyn refutes a doubter of his cause.
While the many injustices dealt their race have consumed nearly all young Aen Seidhe with righteous anger, **Tallylyn Alamandriel** has learned to second-guess himself and shun blind outrage in favor of reasoned justice. His belief in the absolute moral superiority of elves dispelled upon contact with a world of exceptions, desperation, and extenuating circumstances, Tallylyn had prepared to settle into a life grappling with his newfound humility when injustice found him from a source he'd never have expected. Taking up in conscience the same arms he might've once lifted impetuously, he has set out into the Northern Realms to hunt for the very Scoia'tael bands he would have once pledged himself for. Though he has forgiven no human crimes against his people, Tallylyn believes the elves must first hold themselves accountable before they can cry foul from other races.

## Biography

The capital city of Aedirn long ago ceased to be a place for elves, much less for an elven mother to raise her child. But without the means to safely travel through the treacherous wilds to one of the few safe havens left for non-humans, it was in Vengerberg the mother of Talyllyn Alamandriel raised her son. Growing up surrounded by humans who would have as soon spit as look upon him, Talyllyn came to think the way many of his kin did—that elves were kinder, nobler, and thus superior to the humans who would drunkenly harangue his people in the streets. His mother unintentionally furthered this belief by sharing stories passed down to her of the Aen Seidhe’s ancient glory; of their sophisticated architecture, their epic works in song, and their peerless skill in shaping steel for swords. Thus, when his mother passed away at the onset of the Second Northern War, Talyllyn left Vengerberg to seek out the enclave of his people in the valley of Dol Blathanna, where he would apprentice himself to a master swordsmith and forge blades to help the Scoia’tael resistance.

His journey was not without obstacles, however. By the time he’d reached the Dyfne River, he’d lost nearly all his belongings and coin, and had to barter for passage on a barge with the stolen possessions of a family of human refugees he’d shared a campfire with. Though he’d thought little of stealing from humans, the act shook him long afterward, and still troubled Talyllyn by the time he reached the Valley of Flowers. There, he found his people starving in the hollow shell of a community populated by the old and infirm, those left behind as the young and hot-tempered set out to avenge all the wrongs dealt to their people by fighting and dying for Nilfgaard in the Scoia’tael. Among them, Talyllyn learned of and sought out one of the greatest elven swordsmiths of all time: Beoc aén Aoibheann, famed for crafting the sword of Filavandrel aén Fidháil, who led Dol Blathanna’s enclave. Beoc had not taken on apprentices in many years, but humbled by the thefts he’d committed, Talyllyn came before him without the arrogance so common in their people, and Beoc agreed to teach him the secrets of steel.

Talyllyn spent the next nine years in Dol Blathanna learning from his master, during which the Second Northern War ended and the valley was granted to the elves as an independent state under the Peace of Cintra. Of all the elven men and women who’d left to fight, only a handful returned, the rest either dead or with renegade units who’d refused to lay down their arms, and those few filled with unresolved hate. Thus, when the Third Northern War began only a few years later, they came to Beoc for fresh blades to arm themselves again, but the old swordsmith turned them away. Despite Talyllyn’s protests, Beoc refused to sell to them and forbid Talyllyn from doing the same. Confident in the skills he’d aleady learned, Talyllyn slipped away shortly after their fight and met with the Scoia’tael band led by an elven woman named Lanakila, offering his services to repair the blades they had. Though he was invited to join her unit, Talyllyn declined, as he reasoned he was of more use to their people as a smith than a soldier.

Returning when his work was finished, however, Talyllyn found the forge they used cold, and sprawled upon the floor was Beoc aén Aoibheann’s body, run through with a blade Talyllyn himself had sharpened just days before. The aged elf had been tortured and killed by Lanakila’s band as a traitor for refusing to aid them, and left behind as a warning. Wracked with guilt and grief, Talyllyn remained in the hut they’d shared for weeks before smoke rose again from its chimney. Relit, the forge was used a last time as Talyllyn crafted its final sword: Skarloey, with which he swore he would hunt down and kill Lanakila’s band. While no master of the blade himself, the knowledge one must possess to know how a sword should be shaped meant he was more than competent, and with the gold he felt sure to make with the skills he learned from Beoc, Talyllyn reasoned he could pay for allies just as skilled in killing.

## Personality and Traits

“*Here I've spent months on your trail, thinking you incapable of anything but hating the world's complexity, and never myself considered there might be more to you than bloodshed.*”
―Tallylyn upon meeting his master's killer again.

## Notes

* Tallylyn is named after the Tallylyn Railway in Wales, which also inspired the fictional Skarloey Railway.