#elf thoughts

[hellofeanor]

*slaps Annatar across the face* This baby can fit so many manipulation tactics

[elven-musings]

As of recent, I am... What is the recent "slang" for it, as the children call it? I am... Rotating it in my mind. Myself. I am rotating myself in my mind. I love myself.

[elven-musings]

This is what elves see on the occasion that we make conversation with a dwarf, in case anyone was wondering.

whoever made the decision to make umpires wear cameras... you are a legend

this is genuinely the funniest thing i've ever seen

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Dog Meshi.

[lemongrace]

by the shore

[elven-musings]

I mean, yes? Why would one waste time and ruin their hair by lying down unconsciously for eight hours each night? We use that time for important things, such as organizing leaves, measuring the growth of our favorite trees, and peering into houses through the windows... all of which are far easier to do when the pesky humans are occupied with their nightly hobby of pretending to be corpses. And our hair remains flawless the entire time.

Dungeons & Dragons style elves are great because you'll have a character who insists he's a brooding loner who doesn't need anyone for anything walking around with a hairstyle which cannot possibly be maintained unassisted.

[faramirsonofgondor]

AU where Boromir survives but literally nothing changes because they all think he’s dead and he’s still recovering and by the time he’s actually okay again everything important is already over. Like lowkey imagine how fucking funny it would be if during the one scene where Frodo wakes up after destroying the ring and everyone is coming in, Boromir just walks in nervously and Frodo, who is trying to distract from the fact that he very clearly does not know Legolas’ name, pretends to pass out. Everyone is just like “oh dear!”, Sam goes into overprotective mode (“I told you it was a bad idea Mr. Gandalf!”) Aragorn is trying to reassure Boromir that it’s not his fault and that everything will be fine, Merry and Pippin are trying to comfort each other, Gimli and Legolas are just standing awkwardly in the corner because they know nothing about hobbit biology and what normal reactions are for this sort of thing. Gandalf is the only one who knows Frodo is faking it but he says nothing because Gandalf loves drama and being a bitch. Eventually they’re all ushered out to give Frodo more rest, except for Gandalf, who insists on staying to watch over him. After everyone is gone Gandalf tells him he can open eyes, and the first question out of Frodo’s mouth is very much not about Boromir’s miraculous return, or the state of the world, or about what happens to him now, but rather “Gandalf, what the fuck is the elf’s name?”

[hellofeanor]

Hi there! I really enjoyed your fic ‘Brittle Stars’ and was wondering if you could tells me more about what Oren’s parents and sister have been up to Valinor. It must be so horrifying to find out that your young teenage son who you thought must be dead was in fact kept alive tortured, abused, forced to have children and mind wiped into thinking he was chased from his home instead of stolen from it. At what point do you think they found out what Oren was taken for? What will it be like for Lirje (whose name i may be spelling wrong) and her descendants in Valinor to find this out?

Aw, thank you so much! This is a great question, and a topic I really need to explore in more detail, because to be honest I've only thought this through on a surface level so far.

I do think his family would have thought him dead at first, since he was taken early on in Morgoth's attempts at corrupting elves and would have been among the very first to survive the transformation. They would have known he was taken by whatever evil power lurked in the north, but assumed he had been killed. So at that point... they would have mourned the loss of their son and the others who were taken with him. But after a while, their understanding of what happened to those who disappeared would have shifted. Going by what we have in the show, Galadriel mentions stories of elves that were taken by Morgoth and twisted into orcs. And she mentions hearing these stories as a child, which means the stories existed in Valinor, which means they must have been brought over by those who undertook the great journey from Cuiviénen rather than rumours acquired later in Middle-earth.

In the story I have Óren going back to Cuiviénen a few times to capture elves, and I think that during some of these journeys, he and others like him would have been seen. One of the other moriondor could have been killed by elves, and then recognized as someone who had gone missing years earlier. And Óren recalls one of them trying to run back to the elves and then being rejected as a monster. Which may or may not have actually happened, and could be at least a partial false memory, but in this general timeframe there would have been some type of contact between the moriondor and the elves: enough contact for the elves to gain a fairly decent understanding of what actually happened to those who disappeared.

At this point, Óren's family would have started to think that it might have been better if he had died, as they originally assumed. The wounds of their grief would have opened up all over again.

I think at first, Lirjë (you did spell her name correctly!) and Óren's parents would have tried to shield her from this revelation. I imagine she would have still been fairly young when this new knowledge started to circulate, maybe close to the age Óren had been when he was taken. Her parents wouldn't want to subject her to the horror of knowing what really happened to the older brother she never knew, but of course, other people talk. She would have found out. Her family would have been well known in the village, and not in a good way, for their connection to somebody who disappeared. I don't think Óren was ever specifically seen and recognized, and Lirjë never knew with 100% certainty that her brother was one of those dark riders that came down from the north, but still she would have wondered.

I think this would have led her to not being so keen on having children of her own, if there was an ongoing danger of them being taken as Óren had been. She only married much later, and her children were born not long before setting out on the migration to Valinor.

One thing I DID think about while writing the story was whether or not all of his family would have gone to Valinor, or if some would have stayed behind out of hope that they might find him or he'd one day return. I knew for plot purposes I wanted Lirjë to have gone, but I wavered back and forth over the parents. Would they become Noldor, or Tatyarin Avari? Ultimately I decided they would want to stick close by their one remaining child. Cuiviénen no longer felt safe for any of them, and when they had the opportunity to move on to a protected land, urged on by Finwë, they would have been among the first to decide to go. Their Cuiviénen life held too many painful memories to want to stay there.

So they went to Valinor, and given that Lirjë's descendant down the line is a laundress and not a powerful noblewoman, they would have settled into quiet, unremarkable lives there. I see them living as farmers in a small settlement of elves who preferred to continue on in a lifestyle similar to what they knew in Cuiviénen.

Now... in the event that Óren decides to try to find them, what would he find? I think his family would be still living their simple life. They'd have long since given up all hope of ever seeing him again, and wouldn't even think that could ever be a possibility. Not after moving so far away, and absolutely not after the stories of Morgoth's evil in Middle-earth that would have come back with those who returned following the War of Wrath. Ayánë, being related to the royal family of Alqualondë, would have her existence and condition kept largely under wraps. Óren's family of unassuming commoners living somewhere near Tirion wouldn't be aware that any moriondor survived and had been allowed passage to Valinor. His sudden reappearance in their lives would be... a shock.

But at this point, I don't think Óren is quite ready to try to find his family. He still has centuries of negative interactions with elves to work through, and absolutely still believes that most elves would not be accepting of him and would not want to welcome him back among them. Even as recently as his interaction with Galadriel in the Southlands, those beliefs would have been reinforced. He knows elves hate the moriondor as much as he was taught to hate elves. Irrenneth's familial acceptance of him is, in his mind, a complete anomaly. He doesn't believe his parents or sister would want to see him again, knowing what he's become. And he's not really sure he would want them to see him, either.

If/when I get around to writing a sequel, this will for sure be a significant plot arc: Óren working through his trauma over interactions with elves, and deciding whether or not he's in a good enough mental place to want to seek out his family. But it's going to take a lot of work on his part. Definitely something Irenneth can help with and influence, and Pengolodh to a smaller extent, but ultimately, he'll need to make the choice on his own.

Thank you for the ask!

[elven-musings]

I fail to understand the hype around Delicious in Dungeon. Why risk your life going into an underground abyss full of monsters to feed off of them when you can quite literally stumble upon perfectly edible plants every time you venture into the depths of a forest?

I completely understand if you are jealous. I would be, as well, had I not been the one privileged to enjoy this fulfilling meal.

[elven-musings]

I showed this post to my cousin Dreyeual (pronounced "drywall," coincidentally) and he had to go to the elf hospital following an elf heart attack. I hope you lot are happy with yourselves, because I am not...

im glad elves arent real because if i was in a bad enough mood and i had to talk to an elf i would definitely have punched a hole in drywall by now

[m3ntally-unw3ll]

If you cut, you're valid.

If you burn, you're valid.

If you get excessive piercings, you're valid.

If you get excessive tattoos, you're valid.

If you pull your hair, you're valid.

If you scratch yourself, you're valid.

If you bite yourself, you're valid.

If you pinch yourself, you're valid.

If you bruise yourself, you're valid.

If you hit yourself, you're valid.

If you over-exercise, you're valid.

If you pick your skin, you're valid.

If you use drugs (recreationally), you're valid.

If you restrict necessities (medicine, water, food...), you're valid.

If you fuck till you bleed, you're valid.

Self-harm is self-harm, not matter how you do it. And everyone deserves help.

[3m0g1rlyyy]

Sometimes i look at my $elfharm scars and think “Damn it wasn’t even that deep”

[meo-eiru]

He did a fantasy photoshoot

(With some fake elf ears)

[elven-musings]

Good riddance!

elves and their pointy ass ears. LOL

[reagan-the-saunders]

can we talk for a moment about how rook can greet the inquisitor if both are elves?

rook will say this;

"andaran atish'an" is considered a formal elven greeting

and lavellan will respond with

and "aneth ara" is not only considered an INFORMAL greeting but is also almost strictly used by the dalish amongst themselves

while lavellan is of course dalish - and rook can be too (? or at least you could headcanon? idk it feels odd to have a vallaslin and not be dalish lol) - my rook is a city elf (while that's not a set character option like in, say, origins, she bears no vallaslin and is kinda implied to be a city elf, not dalish, in the rest of the game)

of course it does make total sense for someone, even rook, to greet the inquisitor formally, them being you know the world's saviour and a person of prestige either way, even if the inquisition was disbanded (which was the case in my run here)

but something about lavellan responding "casually" is quite funny to me lol

[elven-musings]

... I beg your pardon, a spell that what???

Spell that puts elves on the endangered species list