Taln prelude (where he doesn't die)

[GoWibble he/him]

This is a short fanfic that I wrote to express a different view on the prelude to the SA. The main premise is that Taln is a Stoneward, (spoiler) he dies, and he never broke. I did assume some things, but only because we don’t know much about Taln or the Stoneward Surges. Comments appreciated!

 

Talenelat’Elin, Stonesinew, Herald of the Almighty, Patron of the Stonewards, the Herald of War was a soldier at heart. Taln took it upon himself to train the valiant souls who fought what they labeled the ‘Voidbringers’. This last time, the fighting went terrible, but anything was worth it to give the people of Roshar more time until the next Desolation.

This time would be no different.  

His men uttered soft curses of “Damnation” and “Storms” as they saw what they were up against. Taln chuckled, thinking Damnation is much worse than this, men. There were Thunderclasts, the Fused, and most of all, the Parshmen. They spanned the horizon, filling in the areas behind their commanders. 

Some of the figures in Plate shifted nervously, the amber glow emanating from where the chinks would be in regular armor. They had a few advantages with their Surges, and a few Sleepless had recently joined their number - somewhat frightening the men - but the enemy was a massive force, and Stormlight was limited. Most of them remembered the last time that they fought these creatures. Almost all of the soldiers had lost friends and family to the Last Desolation, and everyone’s faces were grim. Some of the other Orders were also there, as were some of the Stonewards, but the majority of the Order stuck around to fight where the toughest battles took place: around Taln. 

But they don’t have regular armor this time. Maybe it would be as bad as Damnation for some of his men. 

Taln trained both regular men and the Radiants whose Surges he shared as soldiers against the forces of Hatred. They weren’t the only ones fighting; the other Heralds made their own efforts, but Taln was the one who focused on the soldiers. The Orders of Radiants were a large help, but Taln felt like he needed to do more than just promote the Radiants to higher levels of radiance. He fought for the people that he came to this world with, for their children’s children, and for their sanity, their very existence. He fought for those he trained, and for the people to come. He fought so that others wouldn’t have to in the future. 

A Smokeform was the first of the enemy to advance, but the humans didn’t notice it until it was right up by them. It struck quickly, felling a few men before the Radiants stepped in, their Weapons forming in their hands. The Smokeform fell easily, without anything to heal itself with. 

Then the fighting began in earnest. 

* * *

Taln fought with more than his hands. His Honorblade, for one, was an advantage that no soldier would ever pass up. With the powers it granted, Taln stretched the stone the battlefield to be more to the humans’ advantage, with rough terrain that was pocketed with holes and sharp barbs that slowed the progression of the Parshmen. This did nothing with for slowing some of the Fused, who simply took to the skies, but the majority of them were fighting the groups of Windrunners and Skybreakers. Taln also had made the river turn into more of a tributary, making the ground in front of the Parshmen boggy and hard to march through. Taln was more concerned about the Thunderclasts than the Parshmen, though. 

He couldn’t directly affect them, but he could make the ground around their feet soft and slow them by trapping their feet or slowing them when they first rose up out of the ground. These beings were perverted creations of spren that were a ghastly mirror image of the beautiful symbiosis that the spren had with the Radiants and the fauna on Roshar. 

Taln approached the nearing Thunderclast, making sure to be wary of its dangerous appendages. A few other Heralds could heal from being crushed like that, but Taln was not one of them. Its hands were his first target. 

Taln fell into his system of fighting the Desolations, the dreaded systematic fighting, and returning to Damnation by choice or death. Taln preferred choice, just to remind himself that he joined the Heralds to protect his people, and millennia of torture didn’t change that. Sure, it damaged him, but it didn’t break him. 

He reached the Thunderclast, slashing with his Honorblade at the approaching hand, which then lost a finger. He narrowly avoided getting hit by the other hand, but still took some damage from where it struck his side. 

* * *

Taln survived the fighting this time, but it was brutal. The only problem was that, as the fighting was winding down, none of the other Heralds died or seemed close to dying. 

And they didn’t really want to return either. Some of the Heralds used the rationale that they chose to take the position of Herald, so they could drop it. Others had confided that they were broken and couldn’t go back.

Taln remembered something that Chanarach had told him right after the last Desolation, which had blindsided him. “Taln, I’m scared. Scared for the people if we don’t go back. But we can’t go back. We’ve all broken; Storms, we are all broken. We can’t keep this up. Will you protect the people if I can’t? Please, Taln, I know you will, but I can’t think. Just tell me?” He responded that, of course he would protect the people, but surely they weren’t all broken? Even Jezrien? Chanarach just gave a grim half-smile as she left for Damnation. 

 Ishar had talked about dissolving the Oathpact, but what would the humans do without them?

Taln had never broken in the Desolations or what followed. Sure, he had died, but he never broke. He had to stay strong for the people. That meant that he had to return. Even if the other’s didn’t. 

Death wasn’t the only way to return to Damnation, the Heralds that survived past Desolations could return without dying, so Taln didn’t doom the human race to destruction by surviving. 

Strength before Weakness: I will protect those weaker than me. I will fight to protect, so that the future won’t have to, Taln thought. Journey before Destination: I have to journey to suffering before peace can be a destination. 

He wasn’t trying to bond a spren, he was just strengthening his resolve. 

Strength before Weakness: I will, and can be strong where others cannot. 

I will be there when I’m needed, even if ‘there’ is in the deepest, darkest, most painful pits of Damnation. I will return.

And Talenelat’Elin, the Herald of War, Patron of the Almighty did something that would earn him the most painful of his titles: Bearer of Agonies. And he would deserve it, because he never gave up, not when the torturing burned his flesh away and was left to regrow around broken bones, or when hooks tore his flesh in strips. 

Because Taln fought uphill battles at a distinct disadvantage. And Won. 

Edited June 18, 2020 by GoWibble
The stoneward icons were too big. asterisks instead.

[Karger he/him]

What an Oooof.  We already knew that Taln was the greatest BA among the Heralds but this just reinforces that.

[Death spren]

You said it was short so I started reading but I shouldn’t stop it’s just to dam good (;

[Going_North_cal]

THAT WAS AWESOME

[GoWibble he/him]

9 hours ago, Esane said:

THAT WAS AWESOME

Thanks!

[Mage he/him]

Very well written. I enjoyed reading it.

This makes me wonder what effects this will have on the future of Roshar, because on the surface it seems the same. Taln is the only Herald in Damnation, but only this time he went willingly so the other Heralds don't feel as guilty. Thanks for writing this.

[GoWibble he/him]

Well. I read over it again and I got chills. I haven't had much time to write recently, but if I can keep that level of writing, I think I'll be fine.

 

Additionally, @Argent I think I heard that you were someone who liked Taln (somewhen on Shardcast), what are your thoughts?

 

[Argent he/him]

On 12/20/2020 at 5:53 PM, GoWibble said:

Well. I read over it again and I got chills. I haven't had much time to write recently, but if I can keep that level of writing, I think I'll be fine.

 

Additionally, @Argent I think I heard that you were someone who liked Taln (somewhen on Shardcast), what are your thoughts?

 

I don't really do fanfics, but my love for Taln is hardly unique

[voidlightx she/her]

This is really good!