Board Thread:Warhammer 40k General Discussion/@comment-3416287-20140306195559/@comment-6134883-20140306213827

II Talyesan ‘Lord of Wisdom’ was the third of the Primarchs to be discovered in 838.M30. His gestation capsule came down on the single trefoil shaped continent of the planet Gwythno in a system not far from Fenris. It landed in an orchard adjoining a reclusium where he was found by a sisterhood of the Order of Mystic-Adepts who shared power with the warrior elite. The mistress of the college, the Lady Ganeida, took him as a son and reared him in in the ways of the Wise but as she was also born to a princely house of the Warrior caste she sent him to her brother, Prince Gwion, to be trained in arms as well. The infant grew into a man in less than a year and advanced almost as rapidly through the levels of Initiation achieving the rank of Magister – which normally took a human lifetime - barely ten years after his arrival. Sated with learning the young Primarch set out explore his new world. He found it a patchwork of green and pleasant terra-formed land surrounded by wastes in which the poisonous flora and dangerous fauna native to the planet continued to flourish. He observed the continual struggle for power and territory between the clan chiefs and the princes of the little kingdoms and noted too the ineffective efforts of his Order to establish some kind of peace and unity among them. Slowly the realization came to him that Human life was losing ground on Gwythno as war-ravaged and abandoned lands reverted to the native life reducing the potential agricultural base which in turn fed the land greed and battle fury of the warring princelings. Clearly something had to be done.

Talyesan spent the better part of his first century wandering from princedom to clan territory meddling in successions and marriage alliances, persuading and where necessary overawing the restive warrior caste into more constructive behavior with his mystic powers or supreme combat skills. He also sought out and studied the remains left by the ancient First Settlers which quest eventually culminated in the discovery of a lost STC.

With this technical information Talyesan builded himself a mighty fortress on the Isle of Apples to which he gave the ancient name of ‘Avalon’ and gathered around himself a select war-band to enforce Talyesan’s Peace and destroy the dangerous native lifeforms. He also brought together collegia of scholars and artisans whose work transformed Gwythno from a feudal to a civilized planet over the course of his second century until they had achieved a near Imperial level of technological development.

It is possible that all this was what brought the Eldar down upon Gwythno. But the warrior aristocracy had not forgotten their traditions and fought back with skill and considerable enthusiasm led by Talyesan as Dux Bellorum – over all CinC - for the Council of Princes. The Warriors of Gwythno pursued their enemy into space and rumors of their battles reached the ears of the Emperor and brought him to the warring system with an expeditionary fleet that included the two Primarch sons he’d already found; Horus and Leman Russ.Thanks to his precognitive sight Talyesan was not at all surprised by the appearance of his father and brothers, in fact he laid his battle plans in expectation of their emergence at exactly the point necessary to cut off the Eldar Craftworld’s escape and utterly destroy the enemy.

At the time of his discovery Talyesan was something over two standard centuries old, a graceful giant magnificently thewed with marble white skin, black hair worn at shoulder length, deep set gray eyes with a quicksilver gleam and a fugitive smile ever lurking about his mouth. He was thus significantly older than the Emperor’s other sons and a fully matured and well-rounded personality (also unlike all too many of his siblings). The mystic Order in which he had been trained embraced reason and science as unmatchable tools for comprehending the Materium, but they were also well aware of the Immaterium and of the danger posed by the (false) Chaos gods both avoiding and condemning warpcraft. They cultivated and made full use of latent human abilities that seemed magical to the uninitiated as well as some psyker powers. Their theosophy postulated a creative power immanent in the universe perceived by some as a universal consciousness and others as a numinous elemental energy. In the beginning neither the Emperor nor Talyesan saw any conflict between the beliefs of the Wise of Gwythno and the Imperial Creed promoted by the former. Nor did the son question the need for the unification of mankind in the face of the threat from Chaos.

Talyesan was not a seeker of forbidden knowledge like his brother Magnus but of understanding. He was a musician of heartbreaking skill and a true healer of minds as well as bodies. Talyesan’s counsel was a great support to his more troubled brethren. He accepted command of the Astarte II Legion integrating them with his personal warband. But unlike his brethren he never really took to power-armor often going into battle clad only in his black magister’s robe with a shining star upon his brow, wielding his gigantic two handed adamantine sword Caladbolg.

Rebellion: Talyesan’s restless and inquiring mind was to prove his downfall, at least in the eyes of his Father, as he came at length to question the teachings and ends of the Emperor. Reared among a fierce, freedom loving (not to say anarchic) people he was finally repulsed by the uniformity the Emperor sought to impose. And as a mystic he could only reject the Emperor’s brutal atheism. After a long struggle with himself Talyesan realized that despite his love for his Father and brethren he could not continue to lend himself to the Great Crusade. He openly requested permission to withdraw from the Crusade from the Emperor and in the presence of several of his brothers. The Eleventh Primarch Rama created further shock by stepping forward to join in the petition. The Emperor did not take their request at all well and the brothers soon realized their father intended to detain them on Earth until he could dissuade them. They managed to escape thanks to Rama's Queen Devera and the Emperor set the Space Wolf Legion upon his errant sons.

Rama took command of both legions and managed to hold the Rout and the Custodes at bay until Talyesan and his adepts had finished constructing a massive trans-dimensional gate that took the systems of Gwythno and Onuris out of the Materium into a pocket universe of their own. This occurred in 963.M30. The Emperor battled his son Talyesan in the Immaterium trying to prevent the closing of the gate and causing, he believed, the latter’s death. In great grief he ordered his two rebel sons’ images erased from Imperial iconography and all record of their deeds and those of their Legions wiped. This damnatio memoriae frightened his remaining sons into hiding their own troubles and doubts lest they bring down a similar fate upon themselves. The Emperor also became less tolerant of dissent from his sons resulting in his extreme rebuke of Logar and his Word Bearers on Monarchia. The mental stability of Angron, Konrad Curze, Mortarion and Perturabo similarly suffered without Talyesan’s kindly guidance.

But the Imperium may not have seen the last of Talyesan and his Knights. There are those among the Inquisition who have knowledge of the Lost Primarchs who suspect the occasional individual identified as a ‘scion of the Emperor’ or Sensei is not a blood descendants of the Emperor via children begotten in his early years as the Illuminati contend but are in fact Talyesan’s Astartes sent back into the Imperium on missions of unknown import for their Primarch.

The IInd Legion: Originally known as the Steel Knights Talyesan renamed them his Knights Ovate and he continued to recruit from Earth as well as Gwythno respecting the original traditions of the Legion even while incorporating his own.

Aspirants were subjected to a gauntlet of physical and even more demanding spiritual tests before being accepted as Neophytes. Ovates were trained as adepts in the disciplines of the Wise passing through the three ordinary levels of initiation above which was the extraordinary level of Magister. The survivors of that ultimate test were known as the ‘Second Born’ steeled against wounds and hazards and bound to Life until they chose to relinquish it.Talyesan kept much of the original Legion organization intact altering only a few titles; Chapter Masters became ‘Comites’ or Counts. Battalions became ‘Battles’ and their commanders ‘Duces’ (Leaders) or Dukes. He was counseled by his Magisterium and guarded by his Knights Comitatus every one of whom was a Twice Born. The Knights Ovate were thoughtful warriors given to analysis and careful calculation, noted for their brilliant strategies and superb intelligence work no less than their mystical powers. As members of the Wise the Ovates wore the white robes of Neophytes, were promoted to the royal blue of Initiates and then to the crimson of full Adepts where most remained. Only a few went on to earn the black of a Magister. In battle they wore cloaks and/or tabards in these colors over their power armor which was bright silver decorated with intricate knot-work designs inlaid in gold and enamels in patterns of their personal heraldry. Animal blazons distinguished Chapters and Companies; golden harps Bards (the Librarian equivalent), green hands Apothecaries and a black hammer Tech-Marines. The Legion emblem was the circled cross in gold.

Talyesan was the only other Primarch to avail himself of the techniques for creating female geneseed discovered by Iset ('mother' of Rama). But he segregated his gene-daughters into single sex Chapters in accordance with the ancient Gwythno custom concerning collegia of female adepts and all woman warrior bands.