Taldin Trueweight

Exemplar of Honest Measure, Equitable Trade, and the Sanctity of the Scale

Taldin was born in the bustling river-port of Delmirest, the son of a humble cooper and a market-scribe. He worked the docks weighing cargo for guild factors and learned early the subtle art of honest negotiation. When offered a bribe to “mis-weigh” a noble’s shipment of grain, Taldin refused and was beaten so badly that his right hand never healed straight. He taught himself to write left-handed and rededicated himself to Minos, vowing “my name shall weigh more than any purse.” Over the years, Taldin became famed for his unwavering fairness. He arbitrated disputes among caravaners, resolved inter-guild tensions, and once traveled a thousand leagues to return a miscounted shipment of pearls. His refusal to compromise truth in trade earned him both renown and danger; rivals plotted often against him, but their schemes fell apart, undone by their own frauds. Taldin is said to have died standing, hands resting on the great iron scale he had used for 40 years, “its pans at perfect rest.”

Taldin is typically depicted as a sturdy man in travel-worn robes with a twisted right hand and a set of perfectly balanced scales hung from his belt. The Trueweight Scale, a relic said to have been his own, is held in the Temple of Minos at Cambron and used only in the most sacred judgments. He is the patron of honest merchants, scale-keepers, grain-measurers, toll-masters, and all those who must weigh fairly for a living. His likeness adorns market entrances in dozens of cities, often with the inscription: “Let none tilt the scales.”