The Talis Coin [[RP Story Post]]
A long time ago, there were two kingdoms at war. One kingdom treasured the spoken story, and believed that a story had no life unless it had a chance to evolve and flourish on the tongues of man. That the same story, told the same way for eons and eons, could never hope to survive.
But what about the stories no one likes? The stories no one tells? Those get forgotten! And in the kingdoms, it was a very sad thing for a story to die. It was like the extinction of flower, or the death of a noble beast. This is why the Northern kingdom treasured the written word. So, the kingdoms fought over who could be the keeper of stories.
It had occurred to them that both could protect the stories, but each side disregarded the argument. ‘Why would I let a story starve in the hands of a northerner?’ the South would say. ‘I bet they don’t even know how many stories they have, those dirty southerners!’ The North would spit. So they could not come together. Luckily there were special people who came between the kingdoms, who encouraged the flow of stories. These were the Tali.
The Tali were a very special people, who were raised to be storytellers from a very young age. It was the highest honor to have a Tali in your home. You shared a meal with them, gave them a place to sleep, and in turn, they would tell you any story you could imagine, and ten thousand others beside. You could tell a southern Tali by the bronze scroll that hung around his neck, and you could tell a Northern Tali by the bone mask he carried. These were given to them when they became true Tali.
This was why true Tali were so rare and talented - they had to pass the tests it took to join the revered nomadic group. But that is a different story, just as long as this one. So the Tali protected stories. One day, years and years into the war, a young Tali came to the head of the Northern kingdom and asked for their story. This was unheard of! A Tali, asking for a story? Nonsense!
But the Tali was smart. “I’ll trade you. A story for a thousand.’ So the Northern royals agreed. They told him the history of why they wrote their stories down, and even showed her the great library, where all the records of stories were held, which was a kingdom in its own. And for this precious story, she stayed the next month, telling his one thousand stories. She did not stop to eat or to sleep. Afterword she slept a day before going on her way.
Her quest led her to the Southern kingdom next, the clever thing. She asked the Southern Royals for the same, but she did not offer them a thousand stories. She knew the Southern royals would not care as much for that. No, she offered them one thousand incarnations of the same story. So the Southern royals told her their story, and why the life of a story was so important. Afterword she stayed for a month, telling her story one thousand times, same as before. She left, making her way to the border between the two lands, a kind of no mans land where no one quite new which kingdom was which.
She told the story of the two kingdoms from the point of view of the story, something that was also unheard of. She told them of how the story was raised in the hands of the north and the south, and how they loved the little story. The tale of the little story spread like wildfire. It became a household story. People began to wonder, why are we fighting? If the story of my side was true, whose to say the other sides wasn’t? Didn’t we all want to protect the stories?
“So the kingdoms tracked down the origin of the story, the little Tali, and asked her why she had asked for their stories. ‘To bring a young story’s family back together.’ she replied. The next day the kingdoms came together at a little border town and drew up a treaty, reuniting the two kingdoms into one realm. Singlehandedly, the Tali had ended the war. How had the Tali come up with this story? Why did she bother, when it didn’t matter to her if the kingdoms fought? A nomad had no home and thus no country.
Because it did matter. The story she told mirrored her own. She was the child of a northern scribe and a southern Tali. Though they loved each other, they could not be together, because each family saw the other as story murderers. So the Tali was sent off, carrying the child of a scribe unbeknownst to her kin. And this Tali told her daughter her story, and made sure she lived a rounded, full life, filled with a love for the written and spoken word. When the Tali’s mother died she carried her story to the kingdom, in hopes of reuniting the two and ending the story war.
To honor her, and to thank her for reuniting the kingdom, they tried to name the new currency after her, but she would not have it. She wanted the new currency to honor those who came before her, and taught her their ways. That is why the currency is called a Talis [Tah-les], and it bears the symbols of the Tali nomads. On the other side of the coin is an image of a bird in a bush, representing the tale of the Nightingale and the Rose. Why? Because the little story, the child of the kingdoms, was of that tale. This story was the beginning and the end of the Young Tali's journey, and for this it was immortalized. In this way, the Tali was honored for her bravery and knowledge.


















