Talfryn :: Witch Doctor

Character Name: Talfryn

Name Meaning: high hill

Age: 62 (3011)

Date of Birth: 2949 Third Age

Race: Man of Dunland

Residence: Formerly resided in the small settlement of Echad Naeglanc, near the Bonevales of Dunland. Now travels throughout the plains of Rohan for a living and further afield.

Profession: Traditional healer of the mind, body, and spirit. Part witch doctor, providing a number of remedies to the superstitious, and particularly skilled in herbology, incantations, and parasitic healing. Maggots and leeches are one of the best cures for illness and bad blood, and he carries a number of jars of these in his wagon. He also have a collection of various amulets and talismans for sale. Whatever sells.

Appearance: An elderly man with tanned skin and long white hair and beard. He stands about 6 feet tall, and when he was young had a muscular build, though it is now fading in his age. He carries a walking staff and dresses in long robes, and is often wearing about his neck various amulets and charms to keep himself active, healthy, and well protected.

Personality: Talfryn is cunning. He sees to it that he is always in control, for if he is in control, he can manipulate things to his desired results. He has always seen to surrounding himself with those who are less dominant, either in wit or size or demeanor, to make sure he keeps himself on the top of the rung. He prefers to ask forgiveness from those about him, instead of asking permission, which he has never done. He is self-confidant, and competitive, and the leader of his family.

Talfryn has always had a bit of a weakness for children. He enjoys their demeanor and whimsy and liveliness, and the level of control he has over their day to day functions. All in all, he was glad to be a parent in his younger days, and glad to have little ones about causing an enjoyable stir wherever he went. It can be said that he has often adored young and meek women to be his companions for the same reasons. Talfryn does not exactly care if he is liked and adored by others; though he does care if he is in control.



Parents: Caradoc and Aoife, long since deceased.

Sibling(s): Too many siblings and half-siblings to list, mostly deceased though some still live around the Bonevales.

Spouse: First wife: Maeve (His wife of 38 years, deceased 3 years ago); Second wife: Freahilda (Took her as a 'wife' 2 years ago).

Children: Talfryn has multitudes of children from various women scattered throughout the hilltowns of Dunland and Rohan. His own wife had a favored child, Morna, and when she died as a young mother they took in her infant son, Einion (21), and adopted an orphan boy, Aelwyn (21), in the same year. 

History: Born in the hallows of the Bonevales of Dunland, Talfryn has always been exposed to the arts of healing and the sacred properties of the various elements. He learned much in herb lore, wisdom, and magical properties from the elders of his clan growing.

When he was a young man, twenty three years old, he married Maeve, a young girl from the village some years his junior. She was 14, to be exact, and 15 when she bore him his first and only child by her. She was a very small woman, and had much difficulty in the labor. Talfryn almost lost Maeve in a pool of blood the day she delivered, yet by some miracle, and by Talyfryn's reasoning, the protection given by amethyst amulet she wore, she pulled through from her weakness and both Maeve and their daughter, Morna, survived.

Talfryn loved his wife with abandon, and after the birth of Morna it became apparent that her body was somewhat destroyed in a way, and she was not able to bear another child, as much as they both wished it. Maeve suffered miscarriage after miscarriage, and each loss broke her down a bit further. After some time, they decided to no longer try for the strain on her mind and body was too much; and though their love was still strong, they chose to live celibate with each other.

That was not to say Talfryn did not still have the urges that any man has, and Maeve was the first to suggest that he seek the physical affections she could not provide elsewhere. Though his lifelong commitment did remain to his wife, he began to seek women elsewhere for the other satisfactions he could be provided. He has always had many women about the towns and villages they passed through on their travels, particularly, young women even as he himself aged, and his children by them live fatherless. Sometimes he saw them again and knew they were his which caused him some sadness, and other times he moved on never knowing of their existence.

The daughter he did have: Morna, he loved dearly. When they resumed their travels after the child's birth, the little girl provided a sense of life and energy about the camp that he had never dreamed could lift his spirits so, and he taught her all the wisdom and knowledge he knew. She took after her mother, and kept their camp. She cooked, and hunted, and drew the water. She seemed to pick up all the songs and riddles of the towns they passed through, and she had a happy soul. He never regretted raising her amidst their wanderings for she too loved to see new places and meet new people.

Even so, Maeve was sad for as years went by, and her daughter grew older, she knew they would not have her forever. She would eventually leave their traveling ensemble and marry, and there were no more little ones to come after. Talfryn had tried on some occasions to convince some of the women who he had borne illegitimate children to, to let him take and raise them, though was always denied. Talfryn had even gone as far as to seek children for her… those who had seemed stray and unwanted. They once had taken an orphan babe from a Rohirric home that had been destroyed by a raid on the borderlands, yet the babe had been weak and injured, and not lasted the first week. He had more than once found a lost and lonely child in a city market and wondered after it's parents. Just once when he had given up his other hopes he made a desperate attempt for Maeve, to take a child who was obviously healthy and well cared for; but his attempt had been stilled, and he did not chance to visit that city again for some time.

Morna grew in years and came into womanhood. Her impulsive nature one night as they camped outside a small settlement led her to meet a young blacksmith who wooed her into keeping his bed for the night, and it was only a couple short months later before she realized the implications of her actions and found herself to be carrying a child. When Maeve learned the news, she was not altogether disappointed, for it meant another young life would join their family and such was the way of things. She had been even younger than Morna, and was not worried. Maeve, having been able to bear no more children, was as eager for her grandchild as Morna was for her babe.

The women had kept the news from him for several months. Morna had been distraught that her father would be upset and travel back to the village and take issue with the smith. She had managed to keep get herself through nearly two thirds of her pregnancy, until the warm summer months made her finally strip off her shawls and robes and reveal her burgeoning belly to her father. Talfryn was not disappointed, nor had he mind to It was, however, in Talfryn's mind far too late. All of the charms and protections he had offered to his own wife for her childbearing, Morna had been left without, and though he gave her amulets, elixirs, and incantations, it proved to not be enough. When the late summer harvest came, and Morna was in the fullness of labor, she was lost, and nothing Talfryn could do would save her.

The baby boy was named Einion by Maeve, and both Talfryn and Maeve loved him and took to him as well as they had their own daughter, raising him as their own. Of course most of the rearing was done by Maeve herself for Talfryn was busy about his workings, but the baby brought a joy to her that nothing else ever could have amidst the grief of the loss of Morna. The baby boy seemed healthy and strong, though he was small, and the thought unnerved Talfryn. If they were to lose this child, he was not certain that his wife would last long thereafter.

It was some months later when Autumn came that Talfryn once more put his plan into place to bring an additional child along. A strong child who would survive. He could not seek in the city, for all his earlier attempts had been dissuaded, so as they traveled his eyes were open to the world around them, and it was not long until he came to a Rohirric village and sold some of his herbs to a young mother, that he took in mind to follow her to her home on the plains. He was sly, and watched from the distance, and when the child had been tucked safely into his cradle near the window, he had managed to sneak in stealth and draw the curtain open, and fetch the babe sound asleep before anyone had noticed. In haste he went back to Maeve and told her he had found this orphan child abandoned.

He packed their camp frantically and took them on long travels far to the south of Rohan. Eventually time passed, and he revealed what he had done to his wife. She had been shocked, yet by then she was far too attached to the sandy haired baby to ever think of parting with him, and even so, how would they do it without being found out? Aelwyn, she had named him, and they decided that when he was grown, and to whomever they met who questioned them, they would tell the story of the first baby they had found in the ruins on the borderlands, and claim this was where Aelwyn had descended. Most would not question the matter. It made sense, even though that raid had been quite a few years before Aelwyn was born, nobody knew this but them and the inhabitants of that region. Still, Talfryn avoided that village, Grimslade, which he had claimed the child from for many years until he had grown old in years and his appearance changed.

It turned out that Einion, though small, was as strong a baby as Aelwyn turned out to be. The boys did bring him much joy as he watched them grow before him. They were full of life and adventure, and though Talfryn did not think they were as full of intelligence the way Morna had been, as much as they are full of… other things, he's still seen to them all these years, offering them anything they lacked. They had always been full in devotion to Maeve, and made her happy; and the man had never regretted his decision to take either of them into his care. As he grew older, and Maeve grew weaker, he depended upon the boys for the protection and skills they offered their small family.

Three years past, when he was 58, and Maeve 49, his wife took grave illness, and it was everything Talfryn could do to keep her alive with him. He tried every healing remedy he knew. Every poultice, charm, talisman, and amulet. Even leeches. Thereafter he resorted to a dark incantation of blood magic to try and keep her living; in which he cut off his own finger in a sacrificial ritual. Yet, even so he was not able to bring her back to health and life. He was left with Maeve burned upon a pyre near a fair wood on the edges of Rohan, and missing the little finger of his left hand. He, Einion, and Aelwyn grieved deeply for her loss, but life went on and business went on, and they continued their rovings about the plains, one woman short of what their family had been.

When a year had passed, Talfryn had set camp one day at the old village of Grimslade once more. It had been many years since he had visited this place, though not much had changed upon the streets. He had set up his stand in the market, a slight fear in his heart that someone would recall him and how he had disappeared the same day that the baby did, though it seemed nobody took note, and he sold his elixers throughout the day, and even one jar of leeches. The boys went off about their usual business… taverns, and women, and snitching what things they might, and later when the camp had been set outside the village, Aelwyn had come joyously back with a young woman by his side, who he now claimed was to live as his wife.

As was often the case, Einion wished to share her; yet this time Aelwyn took offense, and Talfryn watched as the boys drew themselves into a fight that seemed not to end! Meanwhile, Talfryn drew the young and unnerved Freahilda back to the fire for food and drink; and a spark caught in his eyes as his thoughts turned to times past when he would seek the young women in the villages, making his nights pleasant, and bearing them many children that he could never claim as his own. He thought to himself that perhaps he still had the virility left in him to make those children, and now a young wife would do him well. Surely he would be warm through the nights, and if he could put a child in the girl, she would stay with him. That life that had once been part of their wanderings could be his again once more. Perhaps he could grow to love her in the same way he had loved Maeve, and she him. A few special herbs within her drink had made the young woman drowsy and compliant, and while the boys fought and argued on, Talfryn made quick work of laying his claim on the woman before either Einion or Aelwyn noticed. By the time they did notice, and their eyes continued to wander over her, he made it clear that they were now to call here their “Gran”, and that he held claim over her. In many ways hearing them call her by this amuses him, and it has been a joke for him since.

Freahilda had not been exactly keen on the idea of remaining with him, though he knew she would grow into it and found ways to keep her beside him those early months. Namely with his herbs and elixirs. Talfryn has kept Freahilda with him now the past two years, and claims her as his wife. In many ways, he loves her though it has never been the same as it was with Maeve. It is also quite apparent to Talfryn that the woman loves him in return, for she stays by his side willingly, and offers to him everything he asks of her.

So far she has not borne him a new child, which disappoints him, for he knows even in those past two years he has left at least one or two more illegitimate children amongst the hills and dales of the westernlands, yet he still has hope for more offspring to come his way and add to their ramshackle family. And even worse of worse, it seems the day has finally come that his senile nature and woman-stealing has gotten the better of Talfryn's grandsons, who've done run off on him. Who knows what manner of mischief they have gotten themselves into now, they may be dead for all he knows, but there hain't much he can do for them now, only go on about living his life as he always has.