The hearth is built up from the floor in two or three courses of drystone walling and is sometimes faced with bison or bear skulls. There is a circular, central hearth, but the temples are otherwise empty there are no statues, altars, seats, or other furnishings. The oldest temples, which are found in the north of The Empire, have timber-framed roofs, covered with thatch or turf. Temples to Taal are generally circular, built of rough, unmortared stone, with conical roofs. Each temple is more or less self-reliant and they do not generally have much contact with each other. The bulk of Taal's temples are in or on the fringes of wild and untamed places and there is no acknowledged centre of worship. He is also worshipped as Karnos, Lord of Beasts, by Wood Elves and by Humans in some areas of the Middenland and Talabecland, where his worship is popular amongst hunters and trappers. Taal is also known as Torothal, the Goddess of Rain and Rivers, by the Elves and as Karog, God of Rivers, by some fishermen.
Some Elementalists also follow Taal, although their beliefs stress the importance of living in harmony with nature, rather than trying to control it magically. Most of Taal's followers are Rangers and others who depend on the natural world, such as farmers, hunters, and trappers. Taal is worshipped mainly in the north and east of the Old World, especially in The Empire. His clerics generally wear robes of grey, dark brown, and drab green - the colours of nature - decorated with one or more of his symbols. In his aspect as a weather god, his symbol is a stone axe, with which he is said to cause thunder, lightning, and avalanches by striking the mountaintops. Taal's symbol in his aspect as Lord of the Beasts is a stag skull or a stylised human head with antlers. Taal is normally portrayed as a powerfully-built man with long, wild hair, dressed in animal skins and wearing the skull of a great stag as a helmet, but it is said that he can also take the form of a great bison or bear. All the wild areas of the Old World come under his control and he expects those who venture into his domain to show him proper respect. He is lord of the beasts and master of the forests and mountains. He is the power behind the wind and rain and the force which drives waterfalls and rapids, avalanches and landslides. Taal is the god of nature, governing the natural forces beyond Human control. Aragorn II was Isildur's Heir through thirty-nine generations, and it was he who reunited the Kingdoms of the Dúnedain after three thousand years of separation.Taal, God of Nature and Wild Places Description Nonetheless, the line of Isildur was maintained through the Chieftain of the Rangers of the North. The last of the Dúnedain of Arnor had become a dwindled and wandering people known as the Rangers of the North. One by one, these kingdoms fell to war, plague, and assaults by the evil-realm of Angmar and finally ended in TA 1975 with the death of its last King Arvedui. Afterwards the Dúnedain who lived there became divided into three realms: Arthedain, Cardolan and Rhudaur. Before the end of the one-thousand years of the Third Age, the land of Arnor fell into dispute between the sons of King Eärendur. The Dúnedain of this land were ruled for centuries by the descendants of Elendil's eldest son Isildur.Īfter Isildur's death in TA 2, Arnor was ruled by his direct descendants, beginning with his youngest surviving son, Valandil. The North-kingdom of Arnor was founded by the High King of the Dúnedain, Elendil and its chief city Dúnedain was originally meant to be the capital of the Númenórean Realms in Exile.
Elendil and his people were aided by High King of the Noldor Gil-galad and his people, and his ships sailed up the Lune river. The region was home to Middle Men of Edain stock, and the early colonists soon interbred with the indigenous population. The Dúnedain of Arnor were one of the two great divisions of the descendants of the Númenóreans living in Middle-earth (the other being the Men of Gondor in the South-kingdom).Īragorn II, Chieftain of the Dúnedain of Arnor, and Isildur's Heirīefore the foundation of Arnor, there was already a sizable Númenórean population living in Eriador, a result of the slow emigration of Númenóreans which had started under Tar-Meneldur and Tar-Aldarion.