Taldeer, also called Taldeer the Dreamer, was a Farseer of Craftworld Ulthwé and the leader of the Asuryani strike force sent to Lorn V in anticipation of an impending Necron attack. She and her strike force saved General Sturnn's Astra Militarum troops present on Lorn V on two different occasions, without them knowing until much later.
When General Sturnn returned the favour by shielding the Asuryani from a huge Ork WAAAGH!, the two species formed a temporary (and uneasy) alliance to further their own goals.
Later, Taldeer led an Asuryani strike force to destroy the Necrons that had arisen on the Civilised World of Kronus, where the forces of the T'au Fire Caste were trying and failing to keep the undying xenos at bay.
Farseer Taldeer's presence on Kronus attracted the attention of the Imperial General Lukas Alexander, who was tasked with chasing down the farseer after her manipulation of the Astra Militarum on Lorn V.
Later, Taldeer and her forces were slain during a siege on Kronus by the Blood Ravens Space Marines. Though her body was lost, Taldeer's soul, like that of all Asuryani, survived within the confines of her Spirit Stone, which was recovered by her kin.
With her Spirit Stone in the hands of the Ulthwé, her consciousness was placed within the shell of a Wraithknight piloted by her twin brother Ronahn that would participate in the Asuryani campaign on the world of Acheron alongside Farseer Macha.
History
Lorn V
Taldeer was sent to Lorn V after the Asuryani recognised that it was a Necron Tomb World whose relatively small population of Necrons was close to awakening from the Great Sleep.
Taldeer and her forces allied themselves with a force of the Astra Militarum's 412th Cadian Shock Troops Regiment commanded by General Sturnn, after it became apparent to both the Imperials and the Asuryani that the forces of Chaos and of the Orks were also present on the world.
At first aiding the Humans only in secret by destroying strategic Chaos and Ork strongpoints on the world, Taldeer later moved into the open and promised to assist the Astra Militarum forces in recovering an ancient Imperator-class Titan, the Dominatus, dating back to the Horus Heresy, whose remains the Imperials had been sent to the world to retrieve.
However, never fully trusting the Imperials, the Asuryani force betrayed the Astra Militarum by trapping them behind a gate with the combined forces of the greenskins and the Chaos Space Marines. This provided the Asuryani with the time to reach the deactivated Titan first, for she had her own uses for the ancient Imperial god-engine.
Taldeer then used an Aeldari artefact called an Aspect Stone to destroy several Necron Monoliths that were coming online, the the stone was not capable of destroying them.
In desperation, she managed to convince General Sturnn and his troops to assist her once more, despite her betrayal, because if the Humans and Aeldari did not work together, the Necrons would destroy them all.
Using the downed Titan's weaponry to provide additional fire support, the Astra Militarum and Asuryani managed to defeat the forces of Chaos, the Orks and the Necrons all at once in a single, decisive battle. Unfortunately, the strain of using its weapons as well as powering Taldeer's Aspect Stone overloaded the damaged Titan's power core, which exploded.
The resulting blast killed many of the Astra Militarum troops, and then Taldeer ordered her Asuryani to kill most of the survivors before they slipped back through a Webway gate.
For this second and final betrayal of the Imperium, the Astra Militarum formed a special task force dedicated to hunting Taldeer down wherever and whenever she might reappear in the galaxy.
Kronus
At a later time, Taldeer was despatched by Ulthwé to the Civilised World of Kronus, which was also a slowly awakening Necron Tomb World.
Though her primary mission had been to eliminate the Necron threat before it could reach its full strength, her discovery that a conflict was underway for control of Kronus by many of the galaxy's most powerful factions led her to decide to claim the world for the Asuryani.
The Astra Militarum task force commanded by General Lukas Alexander learned of Taldeer's reemergence onto the galactic scene and arrived on Kronus to bring her the Emperor's justice.
The situation was further complicated by the arrival of a force of Blood Ravens Space Marines, who had come to Kronus to recover a cache of Chapter artefacts dating back to the Horus Heresy. Discovering the presence of so many other enemy forces on the world, the Blood Ravens Astartes decided to retake the planet for the Emperor.
Though Taldeer and her warriors made a valiant effort to claim Kronus for the Aeldari, the Ulthwé forces on the world were destroyed by the Blood Ravens during a siege, though Taldeer's soul was captured by her Spirit Stone at the moment of her death.
It was taken by Azariah Kyras, the chief librarian and Chapter Master of the Blood Ravens, as a trophy of the Kronus campaign. However, Kyras was hunted down by Taldeer's twin brother Ronahn and defeated. Ronahn took back his twin's Spirit Stone and returned her to Ulthwé.
Acheron Campaign
Taldeer's Spirit Stone ultimately came to rest within the sanctum of Autarch Kyre of Biel-Tan, who had learned of an Aeldari prophecy involving the legendary artefact called the Spear of Khaine that had been foreseen by Taldeer while she was still alive.
During the Asuryani's search for the Spear on the wandering planet of Acheron during the Acheron Campaign, it was discovered by the Aeldari forces that Taldeer's prophecy was incomplete, and thus could not be trusted to guide the Asuryani's actions.
To learn the complete details of the prophecy, Farseer Macha and Taldeer's brother Ronahn broke into Kyre's sanctum in order to steal back Taldeer's Spirit Stone.
After successfully recovering the stone, it was placed within an Asuryani Wraithknight piloted by Ronahn, since as the two were the rare Aeldari twins, this made it possible for them to control the massive combat walker.
In her new form, accompanied by Ronahn as the Wraithknight's pilot, Taldeer fought alongside Macha and other Asuryani warriors upon the wandering planet of Acheron, aiding the other farseer in her attempt to reach the Spear of Khaine and then in the battle against the Bloodthirster Greater Daemon who had been secretly imprisoned within the artefact.
Canon Conflict
In the Dawn of War series of PC games, Farseer Taldeer hailed from Craftworld Ulthwé. In the novelisation of the games, she called Craftworld Biel-Tan home.
Also in the Dawn of War novels, Taldeer is a young, inexperienced farseer from Biel-Tan who is almost killed when she pilots a Blood Ravens strike cruiser into the Warp to find a rift leading into the Webway.
In the PC games, Taldeer is an older and far more experienced individual.
On this page, we have taken the game storylines to be the more canonical of the two versions.
Sources
- Dawn of War - Winter Assault (PC Game)
- Dawn of War - Dark Crusade (PC Game)
- Dawn of War II - Retribution (PC Game)
- Dawn of War III (PC Game)
- Dawn of War (Novel)by C.S. Goto
- Dawn of War: Ascension (Novel)by C.S. Goto
- Dawn of War: Tempest (Novel) by C.S.Goto