Talim

In the Village of the Wind Deity located in Southeast Asia (Philippines), there lived a small tribe of people who could control the winds.

Talim was the granddaughter of the village's elder, Kalana, and daughter of its shaman, Sanput.

Due to turmoil caused by the influences of the Spanish and Portuguese culture, she was reared to be its last priestess (Babaylan).

The dark day that the Evil Seed pervaded through the sky, Talim felt the winds, and an evil aura that devoured everything in its path surged into her body, causing her to lose consciousness for days.

Years later, when Talim was fifteen years old, a man from the west brought a strange metal fragment to her homeland, claiming it to be a "vitality charm".

Talim, however, recognized the evil energy as the same force that had caused her to blackout years before, and resolved to return the metallic shard to where it belonged; wherever that was.

Despite the elders' misgivings, Talim departed on a journey; concluding that when she delivered the demonic power to its rightful place, that peace would eventually be restored to the Earth.

Sensing the calamitous presence of the shard in other places of the world as well, Talim traveled to wherever the wind took her.

She undoubtedly knew that the world would soon be consumed by illness and death if the evil force continued to spread.

With that, Talim vowed to find all the fragments and return them to their proper forms, and even though she was young and far away from home, Talim bared no fear.

She was aware of the wind surrounding her, guiding her, and blessing her — knowing that as long as the precious wind stayed with her, that she would be protected.

Having collected several of the fragments, Talim soon learned that the source of the negative energy came from the legendary evil sword, Soul Edge.

With the wind's guidance, Talim tracked the core of the corrupted life-force to a water mill, where a tiny group of children lived.

It was here that Talim met a young boy.

This boy radiated a familiar corruption from his own body, which had caused him to become very ill.

Without much thought, Talim decided to treat the child and witness him to full health.

After growing accustomed to life in the watermill, a young man who went by the name of Yun-Seong paid the place a visit — proudly announcing that he was searching for clues regarding Soul Edge.

Upon hearing this, Talim became apprehensive of his further plans and warned the gentleman about the dangers of the cursed blade.

Yun-Seong was foolishly undaunted and chose to remain at the watermill with the hopes of retrieving information about the sword.

Over time, Talim eventually grew to accept Yun-Seong and his upbeat attitude, deeming him to possess no evil.

As days passed, Talim became concerned of the boy's worsening conditions.

Determined to cure him, she came up with the idea of passing the child's sustained, evil energy through her own body and out into the currents of the wind.

Through days of treatment, the unhealthy power was released little by little, but the impurities that stayed behind in Talim's body slowly piled up, causing her ability to read the wind to gradually fade away.

This was the utmost heartbreaking to Talim — she was losing something that had always been with her, something more important than words could express.

Seeing her sink in sorrow, Yun-seong said to her, "There are some things you can't do anything about. When that happens, you just have to do what you can!"

His words were largely meaningless, but hearing him say them somehow gave her courage.

Despite her best efforts to treat him, the boy's symptoms became even worse, and he was running out of time.

Talim pondered the risky idea of releasing the evil from within his body all at once, but the boy refused.

He did not wish to harm anyone else with his hopeless infection.

However, Yun-Seong stepped in and used a comforting wit to eventually convince the child to agree and follow through with the cure.

And when the long ritual ended, not a single remnant of demonic energy was left in either of their bodies.

In the instant that Talim had opened up the boundaries of her heart, something had exorcised the cursed power.

After watching over the boy to make sure he had recovered, Talim set out on a new quest.

Something awaited her in the west...

During the treatment Talim had ensued to cure the small child, she had a vision.

In this vision, Talim saw amongst the high flying winds an image of a beautiful, blue sword in a distant western land.

Talim had only glimpsed this sword for a mere moment upon saving the youth who was being ravaged by Soul Edge, but this image had returned to her time and again during her sleep; she knew it had to be important.

As Talim journeyed on, she once again met up with Yun-seong.

She had no doubt that he was still yearning for the sword of damnation in order to protect his homeland, and she was almost positive that he did not know the repercussions if he were to come in contact with the evil blade.

Talim preached to him day in and day out about the dangers of Soul Edge, but she was uncertain if he had taken even one word seriously.

Soon after, the two encountered Yun-seong's kinswoman, Seong-Mi-na.

Mi-na shared the same views as Talim for she tried to convince Yun-seong to return home as well.

But, no matter how hard the women tried, Yun-seong would not change his mind.

And the following morning, they would wake only to find that the young man had fled.

"He's headstrong," Talim explained to Mi-na "but he's a good person. In the end, I'm sure he'll make the right decision."

Talim believed her words, but kept the thought of him making the proper decision on his own to herself.

Talim and Mi-na soon parted ways, and the young priestess carried on alone.

One night, as she gazed upon the sky, Talim beheld countless lights shooting toward the west.

It was an immaculate sight, but she could feel the evil behind it.

She concluded that Soul Edge had grown in power, and that she did not have much time.

From that night, the same, familiar vision visited her more frequently.

The sword whose power at first seemed so pure grew more formidable before her, until finally it seemed capable of wiping all that existed around it.

Talim grew anxious; power that great could only warp the balance of nature.

As the winds circled the world, she could hear them screaming.

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