All We Know About The Taguel

[Hawkwing]

Out of a combination of curiosity and boredom, I read all of Panne's supports (and a couple of Yarne's) to see what random facts I could gather about the taguel.

Note that I am separating facts into two categories: Things that could apply to the taguel as a whole, and abilities that Panne has but probably aren't universal.

EDIT: I'll be editing in any facts I overlooked, as well as adding things Panne mentions in barrack events and DLC.

Universal:

• "Taguel" is lowercase.
• They have strong hearing. Panne can hear heartbeats (Robin and Fredrick), and Yarne was able to tell that an ambush was arriving and even said he didn't recognize the footfalls (Female Robin).
  • However, this seems to come at the cost of having highly sensitive ears (Ricken, Gaius, Yarne's father), which means that they hear a lot of background noise when listening to something. Loud noises also hurt their ears.
• There was also a shapeshifting tribe of cats and birds present in Archenea, but they may have died out by the time the game starts (Robin and Ricken).
  • The art book for Awakening vaguely implies that the taguel may be descended from the laguz from Tellius (Thank you @Otts486 for providing this information).
• Taguels believe that the souls of the deceased return to the moon (Virion). Panne also mentions her ancestors when panicking over an eclipse (Gregor).
• They can drink (blackberry) wine without problem (Virion).
• They can't eat potatoes (potatoes are actually harmful to rabbits) (Stahl).
• They can eat firefruit safely, while it causes blisters to humans (Stahl).
• Taguel can track people by scent (Kellam).
• Apparently, taguel secure their right to wed through mortal combat (Kellam).
  • With that said, Panne does understand the tradition of what presenting a ring to a female means. In the S-Support with Gaius, she even mentions that there is taguel ornamentation over such things.
  • Also, Panne gives her spouse a taguel talisman as a gift in event tiles.
• They can climb cliff sides and trees very easily (Gaius).
• There is some kind of sweet-tasting fruit that grows on trees on cliffs that taguel eat in emergencies (Gaius).
• They can talk to animals (Cordelia).
• The Exalt freed the taguels from slavery thousands of years before Awakening, and treated them like equals. It is passed down among taguel that they will come to the exalts aid and repay their debt to them (Libra).
  • This is why Panne joins in the fight against the assassins sent against Emmeryn.
• I used to think that warren referred to a place, but after reading her supports, out of the five times the word is mention (Frederick, Virion, Libra, and Henry), only once did it refer to a location, and all five referred to a group of people. EDIT: A warren is a interconnecting network of rabbit burrows. Looking again at how the word is mentioned, it could refer to both a place and a group of people.
• They can mate with humans, and produce taguel offspring. Yarne does mention that he is half-human, but what affects this have isn't explored (thank you @Dandy Druid for reminding me of this fact).
• Panne and Yarne are the only confirmed surviving taguel. Panne's solo ending (as well as the one with Kellam) is ambiguous about whether or not other survivors exist. Yarne's endings have him searching for a safe haven, but no mention is made of if he found other taguel on the journey (thank you @NinjaMonkey for bringing up something I overlooked).

Panne:

• Both Panne and Yarne's fur is mentioned to be soft and fluffy (Frederick and Female Robin, respectively).
• Additionally, their fur keeps them warm, as they both mention that they are extremely hot during the Summer Scramble DLC, to the point that Panne almost passes out.
• Panne mentions that in beast form, once she cannot hold back, and thus is a reason why the only person she "trained" with is Kellam.
  • However, seeing as she could chase Frederick down, help Gaius climb off a cliffside, transform in front of Ricken, and fight alongside Vaike without any hint of violence while in beast form, it seems that this bloodlust only applies in combat and against her enemies.
• Panne knows how to use a healing salve that works on animals (Cordelia) and humans (Kellam). Yarne also gives Brady a similar salve to heal his wounds.
• Panne can also make a potion out of herbs that prevents nightmares, but only temporarily (Lon'qu).
• Panne mentions that humans are different because they are fundamentally irrational creatures in the sense that they attempt the impossible while ignoring the possible. She does mention that this is not a bad thing, using Chrom's goal of ending a war and achieving peace as a noble example (Olivia).
• Both Panne and Yarne mention that the taguel do not use gold.
• About Panne's mother:
  • She told Panne about the story of certain tribal leader back when the taguel ruled the world and lived in a paradise, but Ricken interrupts before Panne could go on.
  • There was also the story passed down about the Exalt freeing them from slavery and how they were in his debt, as mentioned above (Libra).
  • Her last words to Panne were that She mustn't hate all humans. That "there were good men as well as wicked, and I was never to forget it." (Lon'qu)
  • In her support with Yarne, Panne states that her friends and kin were taken from her when she was still an infant, and she doesn't know how taguel mothers and children interact. Whether this is a plot hole or her mother simply died when Panne was extremely young is up to the reader.

If I missed anything, please let me know.

Edited December 30, 2018 by Hawkwing
Added in new facts and fixed grammatical errors.

[Light Strategist]

19 minutes ago, Hawkwing said:

• I used to think that warren referred to a place, but after reading her supports, out of the five times the word is mention (Frederick, Virion, Libra, and Henry), only once did it refer to a location, and all five referred to a group of people.

Just a friendly tidbit I recently learned is that a warren can refer to a group of rabbits in the same way that flock is to birds, school is to fish and hive is to bees. By taking this a step further and googling the definition of warren, it presents the following:

warren

/ˈwɒr(ə)n/

noun

noun: warren; plural noun: warrens; noun: rabbit warren; plural noun: rabbit warrens

1. a network of interconnecting rabbit burrows.

   • a densely populated or labyrinthine building or district.

     "a warren of narrow gas-lit streets"
   • historical•British

     an enclosed piece of land set aside for breeding game, especially rabbits.

In the context that Panne has often used the term, it seems to refer to the specific individuals forming the group but perhaps encompassing a specific location they habituated and considered a home.

I like this conversation. I don't often see Taguel as a topic of conversation and I think that's a little sad. Panne elaborates so much for the audience on their culture and everything and nobody really seems to discuss it.

[Azz]

Interesting to have all this compiled, thanks.

I think with the whole mother thing, it's very possible that Panne just lost her mother at a young age but would naturally remember her last words to her but just wasn't old enough to experience/remember any of the typical taguel traditions. At least that's how I imagine it personally. I really wish they went into more detail about the taguel or at least had more, like a secret tribe that managed to survive unknown to others like the wolf laguz.

[Dandy Druid]

The main issue I have with the Taguel race is that they seemed forced into Awakening. Not having Panne doesn't impact the story or the world at all. It's weird to put in a race that has supposedly lived on the continent for a long time but has no mention at all in Marth's games. This means they either migrated in between the two games or the writers completely disregarded Marth's canon. For a race like the taguels, it's hard to imagine that they would be able to escape war and stay neutral in the conflict.

If they did migrate, it also poses quite a problematic history of the taguel. She (rightfully) holds a grudge against mankind for the destruction of her race, but migration implies they encroached and set themselves up in some kingdom's territory and colonized there. It's hard to feel sorry for a group of people that forcefully placed themselves somewhere and tried to take land away from another group of people. Although sympathy can be restored if the taguel were forced to flee from whatever land they originally hailed from.

Again, the lack of history regarding the taguel race makes it hard to compile information about them. To me, it seems like the developers wanted to add beast units and just shoehorned them in.

Also, you can add to your info that if a taguel "mates" with a human, they are able to produce taguel offspring.

[NinjaMonkey]

2 hours ago, Hawkwing said:

If I missed anything, please let me know.

There's only two of them left in existence, which is kind of a big thing to overlook, I'd say.

Edited December 30, 2018 by NinjaMonkey

[Ottservia]

I mean in the awakening art book it is vaguely implied that the taguel are descendants of the laguz and considering the fact that priam is a thing that exists ehh. I dunno but that’s the closest thing to an origin story as we’re gonna get

[Arcphoenix]

Huh. I never realized that we knew this much about the Taguel taguel. Thanks for compiling this. It definitely made me appreciate them more.

Edited December 30, 2018 by Arcphoenix

[Hawkwing]

Just got done adding in the facts that I missed. Thank you for bringing those things up. I also looked at what Panne and Yarne say during barrack events and DLC to see if they revealed anything.

[redtutel]

I would be interesting to look for information in the Japanese version of Panne and Yarne's supports, since things do change in localization.

 

I do wonder if a group of Laguez migrated to Archanea somewhere between Marth's era and Chrom's era (whether though sea or the multiverse), and over time evolved into Taguel.