#this is actually the area sauron lives in

[morganbritton132]

Eddie starts a live stream by sticking his head into the living room where Steve is looking for something to watch on Netflix like, “Do you want to go on an adventure with me?”

Steve is reluctant to go because Eddie won’t give him any details about it but ultimately gives in because well, it’s Eddie. His reservations return when he gets in the car and Robin is sitting in the backseat, and when he asks about it Eddie just says that she’s there for ‘damage control.’

Like, “What the hell does that mean? She’s not calming and have you seen her walk? She is the damage.”

“Hey!”

“Rob, I love you but that’s true. She’s here for emotional support.”

“What does that mean?!”

Eddie tells Steve to trust him and Steve gives in because well, again. It’s Eddie.

Steve would accompany Eddie to Mount Sauron, or whatever, any day of the week. So he puts his seatbelt on and gears up the playlist they made for when it’s the three of them in the car, and they drive.

Eddie explains to Steve and to his live-stream that he’s doing an impromptu meet-and-greet at a mystery location. He’ll drop some hints over to the course of the drive and if it’s your area and you can figure it out, come out and meet him.

Steve thinks that’s actually a pretty cool idea and thinks it’s great that Eddie is interacting with his fans again after all the death-threat drama. He pokes Eddie in the arm and tells him, “That’s really cool, babe.”

Eddie flashes him a grin that doesn’t quite gel with the nervous tapping of his fingers, but that thought slips from Steve’s mind when Robin punches him in the arm and points, “Look, cows.”

Steve smiles, “I’m naming that one Kirby.”

“It looks more like a Janine.”

Other highlights of the road trip live stream include the three of them absentmindedly singing along to Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls, the three of them singing passionately to Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, rest-stop stopping so Ozzy can get out and run around for a bit, and Steve outlawing Punch Buggy after Robin and Eddie punched him in the arm three times in a row.

The whole time Eddie keeps dropping vague little hints like ‘taking it back to where it all begins’ and ‘we’re treading old territory’ and Steve initially thinks that they’re heading to the bar in Indianapolis where Corroded Coffin was discovered. So maybe he didn’t really pay attention to the rest of Eddie’s clues or maybe he’s really bad at connecting the dots because he feels winded when they come upon the Welcome to Hawkins sign.

He feels increasingly more winded when they turn down streets that have changed a lot but feel the same. He doesn’t notice how the car went quite or how Eddie keeps sneaking glances at him, just the streets they’re taking. Every turn they take that he’d taken a hundred times before.

“Eddie,” Steve breaths out like he’s just taped the pieces to a treasure map together and discovered ‘X’ was home all along. He inhales in time with the click of the blinker as they turn onto Loch Nora, “What’s going on?”

Eddie doesn’t actually answer that question until after they’re parked outside of Steve’s childhood home. He doesn’t answer until after he gets out of the car and circles the other side, and he holds Steve in his arms.

He says, “You told me that you will never work through this thing with your mom until you understand why she’s like this. If she won’t come to you, babe, then you gotta go to her. You gotta do this to get peace.”

Steve is always shaking his head no because he can’t. He can’t just walk up to her door after twenty years and asks her for an explanation. He doesn’t even know how he’d – he doesn’t –

Eddie tilts Steve’s head up until they’re eye to eye and he tells him like he can hear all those half-formed questions in his head, “You are Steve fucking Harrington, baby. You fight monsters and you save the world, and you are brave beyond words. There are worst things out there than this, so you got this. You can do this.”

“It’s not going to be easy,” Eddie continues. “But it has never been easy, and… This is it, babe. This is the last battle you got to fight and then we leave it all behind. I’m sorry I tricked you, but you wouldn’t have come if I told you.”

Steve takes a deep breath and then another, and maybe a third. He shakes the nerves out of his fingers and he hugs Eddie as tight as he can without hurting him, and he says because he knows he’ll mean it later, “Thank you.”

“Take Oz with you,” Eddie tells him and kisses him in broad daylight like he was never able to do on this street. He tells Steve that his meet-and-greet is at high school, and that Robin’s going to stay here with the car, that they’re going to Hopper and Joyce’s after, “If you need anything, call me immediately.”

Eddie stays with Robin to watch Steve walk up to the door and knock. He doesn’t move an inch until the door is answered, and then he smiles at Robin, “That went better than expected, right?”

Robin asks, “Did you end your live stream?”

“Shit.” 

[lesbiansforboromir]

I am sorry, but LOTRO is...like a LOTR game? The plot is good? It has which characters?

HAH you know that's such a good question, didn't even think to explain it properly.

LOTRO is an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game), think World of Warcraft-esque. It's about 15 years old so it's a little on the dated side graphics wise and it's gameplay is essentially landscape exploration and combat, with group content that goes from three-person dungeons to full 12-person raids.

BEING a 15 year old game the plot is... enormous. Like its hard to even talk about a 'plot' at this point, since there are about 30 different individual storylines for each zone strewn throughout a multitude of quests that see you talking to every character imaginable. Like 'which characters does it have'? all of them, LOTRO has all characters from lotr in it. LOTRO has characters you don't even remember in it. In LOTRO you get major questlines from Denethor's two unnamed elder sisters. In LOTRO they make you care about the men named amongst the dead in the song of lament after the pelennor fields, people you never speak too in the books.

You create a character and choose your race and begin to journey from the furthest west (Ered Luin, the Shire, Bree or Cardolan depending on choices) to the furthest east and act as a side character to the main plot of lotr. You cross paths with the fellowship at various points and develop relationships with all of them, up to and past the death of sauron (currently the game has expanded into Umbar, months after Sauron's defeat in game canon.) All of the game's story is told through quest dialogue, which you have to read, it's a hell of a lot of reading, whether thats reading what people are saying to you when you accept a quest or reading what NPC's are saying to you within quest instances and 'cutscenes'.

So there is an overarching plot, called 'epic book quests', which will take you on this journey, but it is dwarfed by the sheer number of surrounding tales going within each area you visit. Dunland is an excellent example, you have to travel through it to get to Rohan but what you're doing whilst you're there is investing yourself in the struggles, politics, dangers and cultures of the people who live in Dunland. And that is true for every area you visit, which inevitably makes LOTRO a massive worldbuilding and expanding project for middle earth. Like it's really hard to put into words quite how much 'plot' there is in this game. Some of it is good, some of it is not so good, some of it is so good it makes me want to bite the game, some of it is so bad it makes me want to bite the game, you will find 30 favourite plots and 30 hated plots and 100+ more in the middle.

Of course, this means LOTRO also creates it's own characters to fit into the world and get attached too, many of whom I now love and care for just as much as original canon characters. Like fucking Ayorzen. Oh my god. I love Ayorzen. You only meet him at level 110 in mordor and it takes you real life months of questing to reach that point. Not anything repetetive either, you do not grind exp in this game unless you actually want too, there are just that many quests and storylines between you and mordor that it takes you months to finish them all. Are some of the epic book quests kinda superfluous and make you run around way too much? Yes. I don't care about them, the point of lotro is in the smaller stories you find along the way. The game is about being able to walk, by yourself, no loading screens, from the Shire to Mordor and beyond and experience the minutae of middle-earth living whilst you do it. Hope that somehow answers your questions!

Oh it's also a dress up game, forgot to mention that, the lotro devs will disagree but this is a dress up game except you're dressing up TO journey through middle earth and you can unlock multiple outfit slots to customise that you can change your character into whenever you like, no restrictions on what you can put on your outfits regardless of levels or classes so long as you have wardrobe space. Unfortunately the game's armours are ugly as sin until level 50, though happily that's a shorter trip than it sounds, early game goes by much faster than the post-50 stuff.

[minubell]

Where do the Nazgul live?

The tower is big enough that every Nazgul gets their own floor.

Sauron has several floors at the very top of the tower, mostly occupied by his study and various libraries. These floors notably lack bedrooms, as Sauron has no reason to sleep. Aside from the fact Sauron is literally the top dog and thus should live at the top, he also inhabits this space because the heat he tends to produce would make any floor above his inhospitable.

Angmar occupies the floor directly beneath his master so he can be as physically close to him as possible. This floor actually used to belong to Khamul, but when Angmar moved in he moved Khamul's stuff to the floor beneath his. (He did not ask) Khamul occupies the floor beneath Angmar's, because it was easier to just inhabit that floor instead of fighting with Angmar for control of the highest room. This was still back when he was trying to get Angmar to like him, you see, so by the time they settled properly into their hatred for each other, it was too late to try to lay claim to his previous space. Oh well, it is not THAT far from his lord's studies. Only an extra few stairs to climb if he wants to assist with paperwork.

Adunaphel occupies the floor beneath Khamul's, and the floor above Akhorahil's. This makes her space a lovely area for the three to get together and have fun playing games.

Akhorahil occupies the floor beneath Adunaphel's. This gives her good access to Adunaphel and Khamul, as well as good access to Uvatha's floor. Since Uvatha has all but vacated his floor in favor of the stables, Akhorahil's stuff has begun to encroach upon his space. He hasn't said anything about it yet, so either he doesn't mind or he has not noticed.

Uvatha has a unique floor, in that despite being close to the middle of the tower, he has his own little exit his boss made specifically for him. Isn't that nice? It lets him walk freely to the horse stables on the backside of the tower, which is where he spends most of his time. Maybe this is why he hasn't noticed Akhorahil's stuff has invaded his space?

Dwar has the largest section of the tower aside from Sauron, having several floors with few windows because he needs plenty of space for all of his dogs. No they can't sleep outside, that's mean.

Hoarmurath occupies the floor beneath Dwar, since she doesn't mind the noise. She picked this floor because Mordor is a nightmare of heat, so somewhere in the middle of the tower is actually where the air is the coldest (The volcanic fissures make the ground floors hot, Sauron keeps the top floors hot). This floor would later be shared with Isildur in the Third Age, and would become Isildur's alone in the Fourth Age.

Indur owns the 2nd to lowest form on a technical level. Yes, this floor is his. No, he doesn't tend to sleep here or really do anything here. Indur spends most of his time on Angmar's floor, following Angmar around.

Ren occupies the lowest floor, because making an old man climb up all those stairs is downright torture. Ren's floor also houses several common areas, including the kitchens and the armory. He enjoys the company these common areas attract.

[cycas]

Thank your for taking your time to shed light on Oropher's fateful military decision. I came to do some research about it because this is what stuck when there are discussions about Thranduil. I often read "Oropher did defy Gil-Galads order" or "Oropher did not respect Gil-Galads command". I know too little to be sure if he actually WAS under Gil-Galads command, in terms of military hierarchy.

Another theory people come up with his Sindarin descent and therefore, Oropher is blamed to disdain anyone of Noldorin descent, or at least to hold a grudge against the Noldor, and to not accept his authority. In short, it is the High King of the Noldor against a Sindarin King of Thingol's line.

As for Amdír, as a fellow Sindar from Doriath, familiar with the ways of living of the Silvan Elves, I assume he might have had a greater understanding of Oropher's tactics. I wonder if he knew, in advance, of Oropher's plan. If that early charge had been a plan at all. I wonder if his army that had been cut off the main host initally had been assigned a role in Oropher's early charge.

Then there is Thranduil. Where had he been? He survived, and with him, one third of his father's army, in a battle where complete annihilation was the higher probability than surviving, in a good enough health to travel home. I often wondered how this had been possible. Did those Elves survive because they were under his command, perhaps as another puzzle piece in Oropher's strategy that did not play out the way he intended it?

I have so many questions.

I'm going to link this to my previous reply,  and also take it as licence to ramble further :-D 

Gil-galad was High King of the Noldor, and his realm lay 'between the Mountains and the Sea'.    

And yet.  I think the hard lines between Noldor and Sindar become looser during the long peaceful early Second Age. 

Elrond chooses to be Gil-galad's herald rather than setting up a New Doriath of his own: Galadriel, Celeborn and Celebrimbor found Eregion, but none of them are referred to as queen or king.  

Cirdan, despite his age and the fact that he's been leading his own people since long before the rising of the Sun, seems to be quite content to become Gil-galad's master of ships and merge his people with the remnant of the Noldor. 

Elrond says of the king's death: "beside Gil-galad, only Cirdan stood, and I." 

The last High King of the Noldor in Middle-earth falls, and beside him is not some Noldo veteran of Gondolin or Nargothrond, but one of Thingol's lords (if not of Doriath) and Elrond, who is many things, but only marginally Noldor, at least by descent.  

So: I think that by the end of the Second Age, Gil-galad’s people are Eldar, not really Sindar and Noldor any more. 

There's a suggestion that Gil-galad might hold kingship over the exiled early Numenoreans too:  Elendil sets up his capital Annúminas close to Mithlond, in an area previously occupied by Elves (in fact, by Galadriel).

When Isildur's new city in Gondor is attacked, Gil-galad rides to war to defend him. The elves between the Mountains and the Sea follow him, apparently without argument. 

But Oropher and Amdir are different. They live East of the Mountains, outside any area possibly claimed by Gil-galad, and both are kings in their own right.  

I think Oropher and Amdir are independent allies of Gil-galad, not his subjects. I'm not sure that Gil-galad would give them orders, in the same way that he probably wouldn't give direct orders to the Dwarves of the House of Durin who also joined the Last Alliance.  

The fact that the House of Durin joined the Last Alliance is barely mentioned: 

"Of the Dwarves few fought upon either side; but the kindred of Durin of Moria fought against Sauron."

This is interesting in the context of Lorien.  Amdir has previously gone to war in close alliance with Khazad-dûm, during the War of the Elves and Sauron, when Amroth led a force through Moria to attack Sauron's forces together with the Dwarves.  

So Amdir might be closely allied with the force from Khazad-dûm, who after all do live right next door to him. Amdir might also have Noldor with him, refugees from Eregion:

"[Silvan Elves] had however been much mingled with Noldor (of Sindarin speech), who passed through Moria after the destruction of Eregion by Sauron in the year 1697 of the Second Age."  (Unfinished Tales: History of Galadriel and Celeborn) 

I feel both of those factors might be awkward for Oropher, and lead to a certain distance between him and Amdir.  

Though, we do get that tantalising mention from Gimli, in LOTR, that "Dwarves helped in building them [Thranduil's halls] long ago". 

Could it be that perhaps Thranduil's survival was linked to that small near-forgotten force from Khazad-dûm, and that's how he ended up commissioning Dwarves to help build his palace, a thousand year later?  They wouldn't be the Dwarves that fought in the Last Alliance, but there might still be a family connection. 

But you can certainly see that if Oropher was still holding a grudge over the fall of Doriath against the Noldor, it might leave him feeling a bit isolated.  His force is the only one that is entirely outside the cultural sphere of the Noldor, so far as we know. 

And yet... Oropher *could* have sat the war out. Greenwood the Great was a big place, he'd already moved well away from Amon Lanc.  He could have left the Last Alliance to get on with it.  But he didn't: he marched to war, and brought his people in force.

So, my feeling is that he'd probably not get into a deliberate confrontation with Gil-galad.  They have a shared objective, they both chose to go to war rather than retreating into the North and hoping Sauron would stay in the South.   

Oropher might not be under Gil-galad's command, but it's Gil-galad's war and Oropher chose to show up for it.  

And although Oropher is a lord of Doriath, Elrond is Thingol's heir, and Elrond is part of Gil-galad's command, as his herald.  

Of course, there could be tactical disagreements, communications breakdowns (do Oropher's people all speak Sindarin of the same dialect that Gil-galad's do, enough that there are no language issues?)

Even if we assume that Oropher is a seasoned campaigner from the First Age wars (which might explain why the Silvan elves decided he'd be a good choice to co-opt as king)  his forces aren't.  They are, presumably, mostly youngish elves born during the time of peace, when in Elrond's words "the elves believed that evil was ended forever." 

You can see that Oropher, looking at his young, untested soldiers, might feel it's urgent to end the war as fast as possible, and take them home.  Perhaps that might lead him to an unwise hastiness?

And you can perhaps also see Gil-galad, Círdan, Elrond and Elendil, old friends going out together against their enemy, might not bring Oropher fully into their councils.  They’ve probably met Oropher, at some point over the last 3500 years of the Second Age, but I'd guess they don’t know him well.  

They might know Amdir better than Oropher, since Amdir and Amroth are connected with Eregion and with Galadriel.

Which raises the question: where are Galadriel and Celeborn during the War of the Last Alliance, anyway?  

Their last noted location, according to Unfinished Tales, was Dol Amroth.  They went there after Galadriel was struck with sea longing after being given her Ring.  Not far from Mordor.

It seems likely that Celeborn, at least, and maybe Galadriel too, if her sea-longing allowed, would join Gil-galad’s war. Celeborn has fought beside Elrond before, in the War of the Elves and Sauron. 

“In the Second Age their king, Oropher, had withdrawn northward beyond the Gladden Fields. This he did to be free from the power and encroachments of the Dwarves of Moria... and also he resented the intrusions of Celeborn and Galadriel into Lórien.” (Unfinished Tales) 

Galadriel and Celeborn might be the only people on Gil-galad’s war-council that Oropher knows well: all three of them lived in Doriath, after all.  But of course, knowing one another well doesn’t always mean getting along well. 

This could be another reason for Oropher to hold his own councils and make his own strategy at Dagorlad.  If he can’t stand Galadriel and Celeborn sufficiently that he moved house to get away from them, even when they weren’t even living full-time in Lórien, you can imagine that joining in a council of war with them present might be an Absolute No. 

So many questions!  And really very few canon answers, so you just have to make up your own mind about them. 

[17mujipens]

the dragon prince season 5 live thoughts:

the way Rayla constantly has the weight of the world and her parents and her personal relationship and then the world again on her shoulders is insane

Terry is bf goals, he really saw his girl having a meltdown and was like here are some nice textures. autism wins again

Callum really was like ‘my girl can commit any crime she wants :)’

that little bug elf person is so scary for no reason

loooove the dragon designs. like every time we see a dragon i’m fascinated

im so glad that in-universe people understand that Ezran is just a kid. like its heartbreaking but i’m glad it is discussed

side note but Corvus and Soren are def fucking and Corvus is not proud of it

i love how everyone is experiencing trauma and Rayla and Callum are in some second chance romance fluffy story

THEYRE SO CUTEEEE

VIREN mindscape

that scene between King Harrow and Viren genuinely has me hyperventilating

oh Harrow is that bird for sure for sure

oh to have a partner as dedicated to your success as Terry….

baby Soren is such a sweetie!!!!! im gonna cry

oh even more beautiful dragons

i totally forgot that Aarovos whispered something to the previous queen and now that intrigue is back

i feel like i gotta stop saying something every time Terry does/says something incredibly sweet because we’ll be here for so long

they keep reiterating how important family is to Viren and i mean it’s not a necessarily new characteristic but it’s more intense now. like the way morality doesn’t exist when it concerns them. before it was all for power and now its all for them and it doesn’t matter that Soren is on the ‘enemy’ side so it has me thinking that something is going to happen to one of his children that will. result in either Viren’s self sacrifice or his betrayal of Aarovos

Amaya and Janai are so so real

OMG baby Claudia!

Callum and Rayla’s frustration over being forbidden from going to Lux Area is hilarious, especially how Callum gave a freaking illustration shdjjdbdb

Aunt Amaya is a real one

oh i just knooow Karim’s storyline is going to be so so messy

also this made me think. like what the fuck do you even do after you get banished. like where do you go

Claudia and Viren sinking and saving each other is mirrored is just muah delicious

Soren running away terrified Viren but Claudia turning out just like him is scaring him even more

Claudia is my wet cat pathetic but also op character

some eye of sauron shit in Lux Aurea

the nerd elf is so cute and way too innocent for all this bullshit

Aunt Amaya is a real one pt. 2

omg. didn’t i say Karim’s story is going to be insane

i feel like Amaya’s monologue about love is going to be so heartbreaking in a few episodes

i’m usually a throwback montage hater but this one is so cute and sweet and it really highlights just how much they’ve grown and how far these two have come

Stella is a little kleptomaniac. sweetie.

Karim is constantly misunderstanding things because of his own biases. like how he thought the Janai wouldn’t fight because he came to the conclusion that the throne doesn’t matter to her because she didn’t lead like he wanted her to. and now he thinks that what Sol Regem needs is sight when what he actually needs is hope

the ‘i would do anything for you’ is sounding scary in the context of we just heard that that’s what started Viren’s descend into darkness

the library fight sequence is great, always fun to see their different fighting styles and how the cooperate

but it also gave me so much anxiety because Amaya is exactly the character that’s important and beloved enough that the writers might decide to make her infected so we all suffer

Dragon Queen to the rescue!!! oh how powerful dragons are…

why are u always leaving Bait behind :( he’s just a baby :(

NO I SPOKE TOO SOON!!! AMAYAAA

AND CORVUS TOO??????? agony and pain in Xadia

oh and i totally forgot about the Queen herself!!!!

oh Viren’s brain is doing a full reset

EZRAN YOU SWEETHEART <33333

i’m obsessed with Tina already. her design and her grumpy old woman attitude

oh Terry and Claudia you will always be famous to me

Akiyu and Lujanne would be besties

‘ when your mind is telling you to speak, instead you must listen’ LMAO

i know this Bloodhuntress is evil, they even say this out loud but… she’s kinda hot, yeah?

im really hoping that they find some way to cure the dragon queen. we don’t need to preteen kings

that boat set up is terrifying. and way too similar to Charon to be comfortable

bright hope cove…or scumport

this made me realise how much i just need at least a short story or something on Rayla years alone

this is such a fun setting. i have a soft spot for these types of towns in stories

i NEED the reaction pic someone already should have made of Ezran and Bait after Finnegran announced the ship’s price

omg pirate return!!

Claudia my girl who is worse <3

baby glow toads are 80% eye and 20% body lol

oh another return appearance!! i hope Nyx’ll bring some interpersonal drama

yeah, and she’s already pushing Callum’s buttons lol

damn, Soren is strong as hell, swimming in armour

oof i think she shouldn’t trust Miyana, wasn’t she Karim’s lover?

now that i see the Bloodhuntress in daylight, i have to say im not a fan of her colour scheme BUT powers are so cool visually, this whole fight sequence is amazing

Callum is just so powerful… i feel like we forget it sometimes but he is the first human mage to use any primal magic and the scale of the spells he’s using here is just insane

ITS A FUCKING HERMIT CRAB?????

oh god seeing Anaya in pain and despair is somehow worse than anyone else. and seeing her grief turn into anger muah chefs kiss

why is this y-7 show giving me anxiety. i literally started watching this to relax and think about interesting fantasy concepts what’s all this!!

oh shit this intro has Callum in it. shits about to hit the fan

i feel like that sea shanty has to have some deeper meaning. i hope it’s not that they’re going to drown our heroes

WHY IS THERE TORTURE IN HERE!!!!

don’t get me wrong i’m a tragedy enjoyer, i should know that by now but holy shit i just wasn’t emotionally prepared for all this

Soren, himbo of all time

Finnergrin is a great character to contrast our heroes actually and push them over

HES FREEZING HER BLOOD

oh Callum :( i love those moments where his anger boils over but i also love how they show how that scares him

Finnegrin is putting Rayla in mortal danger…i HOPE Callum goes feral

oh yeah this is some serious levelling up!!! Go Callum!!!

Soren, sweetheart :( he really saw this wood man get treated like trash, recognised it and at great personal cost helped him free himself :) using his daddy issues for the greater good

oh wow that greater good is apparently killing! slay

i feel like i gotta say something about Callum using dark magic to free himself but god that’s just plain heavy

oh Zubeia is still grieving and she’s just going on for her kid :(((

it’s day 30, damon what a way to up the already high stakes

Ezran was so sure that the prison being underwater would stump them but they figured it out so quick

my one thing is, this is open sea, if they’re even approximately at the same place, shouldn’t they have seen each other?

Aaravos really says every single sentence like it’s some dirty talk. like bro is saying something about borrowing consciousness or whatever with the same voice u usually hear say some shit like ‘oh you like that?’

finally Claudia and Callum and Ezran meeting! the way she truly believes that the ends justify the means and that all that dark magic hasn’t had its affect on her… wow

OUR CHILD? this whole monologue has me in hysterics

also because like…if he didn’t say anything, and was just like ‘kill this homunculus and your life will be restored’ Viren probably would have done it

i fear that ultimately, Viren will be too little too late for Claudia. because while he turned into who he is while an adult, Claudia was raised to be like this. so if he tries to change her, it’d be a betrayal to her

yeah, see Claudia is even more extreme than her father. because she has nothing else besides him, there is not status or prestige, or brother, or anyone else. it’s just her and him

fucking hell, i KNEW Miyana wasn’t to be trusted!

i think Karim will have a devastating win in s6, but it’ll be short lived, because like i said before he lacks critical thinking

what the hell is this mushroom mage and how soon can he help us retake Lux Aurea

what the fuck did he mean by ‘swallow’

Claudia is literally destroying herself in her quest. like we know that dark magic is detrimental to not only your physical but also your mental health, like we saw with Viren, and Claudia’s hair, but now literally her leg is gone. how far will she go?

side note: i think that because Viren reset, that’s why all his mentality and soul came back and that’s why his morals are so much stronger than we ever saw them?

OH THATS JUST A CRAZY INSANE CRUEL PLACE TO FINISH THE SEASON WOW

[canon-notcanon-warriorcats]

"We need more female villains in warrior cats! Ya'll coulnd't handle mapleshade and she was a rather decent villain. Most of the time people just pick two sides: everyone but maple was wrong or everyone was right and maple was wrong. When, in fact, it's a much more deep and complex situation. More like everyone was an asshole expect for like, the kits, Myler and nettlepaw (there are more but like, i don't really remember). The thing with the book is that it is not black and white, most of the characters are morally grey with light or dark tendencies, but still in a grey area. Like, I can understand where Ravenwing is coming from, he's interpreting a sign from starclan and telling his clanmates about it. Oakstar and Frecklewish are deeply wounded due to being lied to about the kit's being Birchface's. However, does that justify the treatment towards Petalkit, Larchkit and Patchkit? Of fucking course not! It's not their fault who their father is. To Mapleshade? Understanble, to literal kids? Never. So much so, that I believe that if the kits got to stay in thunderclan, with Maple being the only one exiled, she would've not turned into revenge. After all, we all know that the thing she loved the most was her kits, and them being taken away from her forcefully, with her having little to no time to properly mourn their deaths, was what led her into the path of murdering those who wronged her *and* her kits. I feel it usually falls flat on the fandom that they were what mattered the most to her, and Appledusk's open denial about the kits was another trigger for her revenge. That and, let's be honest, Appledusk was one of the biggest assholes in the entire book, not only he was cheating on Reedshine with maple (who neither of the two were aware existed), he didn't give two shits about his kit's deaths. And one more thing, people used to shit so much on Reed, when she was right?? I know we are seeing Maple's pov and she sounds like an asshole but, she's not wrong, in the end Appledusk would always stay with her whilst maple was a fling. It sucks and it's bad but she isn't wrong. That sucks for maple but yeaah. As for Maple herself, a liar, a murderer, and a blame shifter. But also a mother, one that due to grief, rage and feeling betrayal over the death of her children, went down a path she would never be forgiven for. She definetly deserved her end, don't get me wrong, She is a very unreliable narrator too, but every narration of her has some truth to it. She's also stubborn and will get what she wants under all costs. But that's what makes her a good villain. I love her slow descent into quite literal madness over the grief and pain, how she feels that each of her kits live's should be paid back with more death and grief. I fucking adore this character ya'll don't understand. But yeah she's not a 100% Sauron evil character nor an "UWU baby girl wronged by the masses". She's a villain, she fucked things up, and she was a mother who loved her kids and her kids only. We will never get a villain like her again and we should be praising this book for how good it actually is. There won't be any other tragic villain stories like this. And if we do get another female villain, let's hope it's at least a decent character and not just a more worse attempt like sleekwhisker 2.0 Please correct me if my assesments are wrong but I'm having Mapleshade feelings and how everyone does her dirty with interpretations.

nah, mapleshade's story is really good and 3-dimensional (or as 3-dimensional as warrior cats has really gotten)

almost everyone in the story does something wrong, the situation is multiple people's faults, every single character (except those you listed) made mistakes, very tragic mistakes, but also very REALISTIC mistakes

mapleshade became a villain because of her society's rules, because of a merciless leader who decided to also punish toddlers for their parents' crimes (whether oakstar was like that throughout his life or if it was out of grief for his son) and because of her own bad choices

mapleshade is (or could have been) one of the most complicated and 3-dimensional villains the series has had because most other villains are "they were just born like that" or "they were bullied" or "daddy issues" i do wanna correct one thing though, i think the implication is that appledusk cheated on mapleshade with reedshine, not cheated on reedshine with mapleshade, since reedshine had been pregnant when mapleshade and her kits were exiled (unless appledusk and reedshine had been mates before he started seeing mapleshade and they just had kits later, i dunno), but that doesn't really matter in the end, appledusk cheated and was an asshole

i think the problem is that sometimes people just don't really... think critically about what they read, or don't have reading comprehension skills, as well as possibly they haven't read the book since they were a kid who did not have reading comprehension skills and they just still go off of what they remember thinking as a kid (part of why i wanna re-read through the series now as an adult to freshen my memory as well as to see how i feel about everything that happens in the series as an adult as opposed to how i felt and what i thought reading through the books as a kid) i also think it would've benefited to have seen mapleshade before she had gotten pregnant or before she had even become mates with appledusk, because we don't really get to see who she was BEFORE all of that tragedy, before she started lying to all her clanmates, we don't get a baseline of who she was before shit hit the fan

also i wanna mention that i do love sleekwhisker and raven as female villains because i DO like them literally just being evil for fun, like they just don't care they're just assholes

but i do want more complicated villains, i want complicated villains with 3-dimensional characters and backstories, and also i would love if we had a villain like that that was female and also the backstory didn't have anything to do with them being a mother

[clockworkreapers]

I was reading Aleph Null yesterday and stumbled across ur page shortly after, and I have a question,

In the current situation in the comic, are Crysuk and Sauron officially matesprits or just crushing? Because they don’t kiss or call each other matesprits in the comic but when I see them on your page they are described as matesprits

That’s because they aren’t yet! The comic happens in their past maybe a sweep or so in the past. This is essentially how they met each other and how all my characters got to know each other. I can’t say much on specifics but all of my main 6 know each other in the future.

As for the boys at this point in their lives in the comic they are hardly anything but coworkers. Cy is probably a bit more interested in Sauron as just bace level hey we get along I like your company and I can’t put up with anyone besides Majell at the moment. Sauron evidently is a bit of an oblivious idiot when it comes to relationships. It will be spoken about later as to why but both of them have some unresolved personal issues in that area. That will need some time to get to though, for now they have only known each other for around 2 weeks their time (Alternian weeks in AN are like 16 days) and they have quite a bit more time to get to know each other better and a lot more to go through to have room for an actual relationship.

[tanoraqui]

I know Maker's Marks is being put aside until you figure some stuff out (which! i'm very excited to see your eventual decisions!) but i MUST ask because i've been burning with curiosity: is legolas involved in the fellowship and how does That go in terms of this, essentially, redneck baby elf and celebrimbor interacting???

Legolas is ABSOLUTELY still involved in the Fellowship! I need to include some short conversation that's like,

Legolas: I'm sorry for playing the 'the Noldor can't be in charge of everything again, it's not fair and we'll probably all die' card. I don't actually bear any grudges, and nor does my father. I just really wanted to be involved in this quest to determine the fate of the world.

Celebrimbor: Aren't your woods infested with spiders and wraiths? Surely you know that quests are terrible and fate is worse.

Legolas: That may be. But for my people and myself, I still want to be involved.

Celebrimbor: You're innocent and ignorant but okay, fair enough.

...basically, I think they're both quite competent in very different areas - woodcraft, archery, hearing and speaking the slow and quiet Songs of nature, vs. creative craft for art and war, Songs put to use - and can recognize that and just kinda...be co-workers? With the mutual recognition/understanding of unrelated royal princes who would rather pursue their own work than do diplomacy, and have mostly been able to do that.

My vague headcanon is that Legolas's non-reaction to the Star of Fëanor on the Doors of Durin means he's heard of the guy, sure, and what horrors the Oath wrought, including against Legolas's, like, grandparents...but Thranduil generally took a "the past is in the past, let's focus on our beautiful woodland realm rather than dwell on it" approach to his son's education, so Legolas doesn't really think of it as relevant to himself. Which, after all, at this point in time, it's not! Some older elves still hold grudges, but damn, Legolas has spiders to fight!

Celebrimbor, meanwhile - well, he does look down a little on anyone who doesn't pursue creative arts, but not in a mean way? "We can't all be classically educated jewelsmiths with a natural affinity for the most interesting and important things in the world :/", like.

Legolas is actually older if you don't count time spent dead, which you arguably shouldn't, because (I headcanon) he was born in the early Third Age when Sauron's defeat had left everyone in what seemed like ultimate peace. He has spent literally about 2000 years guarding his realm against Dol Goldur. But Celebrimbor lived through All The Shit going down; there is Light in his eyes and Darkness in his memory, as well as fire, Wrath, creation and torment. So overall Legolas is like, "hey, this guy is pretty neat!" and Celebrimbor is like, "this guy hasn't seen the level of shit we're going to deal with, but he's seen some shit, so I'm glad he's on watch each night", and if left alone together they'd either do their own things in companionable silence or swap stories of weird, shadow-warped shit they've each fought.

[outofangband]

Isle of Werewolves Worldbuilding post Part One

Angband World Building and Aftermath of Captivity Masterlist

Please feel free to ask more!! General posts are hard because I didn’t have specific categories to cover so feel free to send categories or more questions!

The Isle of Wolves or Tol-in-Gaurhoth was the name Sauron gave Tol Sirion after he took it over after the Dagor Bragollach. It was an island located in the Northern reaches of the river Sirion, only a distance Southward from the source of the river at Eithel Sirion.

The fortress of Minas Tirith stood on the island. It was a watchtower with a moat, parapets and secret entrances and rooms. It had no dungeon during the time of Finrod’s rule but several of the foundation rooms were converted into dungeons and pits. Many of these were accessible by the wolves but inescapable to elves or humans

The fortress was seized by Sauron with ease. The guards were slain with the exception of one who was kept for the information needed to maintain the fortress (keys and doors, supplies, defenses, etc) until Sauron gathered and changed what he needed.

The paths throughout the island were known by Finrod and his people. Once Sauron learned them, he obscured them in black thorns with toxic properties and other dangerous flora. Wolves and other hostile creatures also roamed the island

The hierarchy of the isle is far smaller and more precise than that of Angband.

There is Sauron of course. There is Thuringwethil his herald and messenger. There are two other Maiar in his service. They are former Maiar of Irmo and Aulë who oversee various projects for Sauron and delegate tasks among the other servants

Note: I am going to make a separate post about Tevildo and his versions

There are a number of orcs who followed him. The orcish population is about one hundred with another fifty rotating.Around three fourths (of the non rotating) are fodder and guards and about twenty five were specifically chosen for their skill in various areas. Five of these are specifically trained to work with the wolves and are among the only ones who can. These are some of the oldest, originally three Avari and two Silvan elves who were captured and turned well before the years of the sun. They are also trained with some of Sauron’s literal pet projects which I will get into in another post:)

Out of the other twenty, five are able to make weapons and other devices, four are scouts, one is a translator, two are far more capable at overseeing construction and expansion, three are captains and five have other areas.

The rest are guards, watchmen, and perform other labor needed to sustain the fortress. This actual labor is similar to that of Angband though on a smaller scale of course.

Much of his larger projects and creations are put on hold or transferred to other Maiar of Angband while he is away from the fortress. He does not have the same resources or facilities here though there is a small bloomery and forge where weapons and other devices are made and mended.

There is not obsidian on the island, one of Sauron’s preferred resources during his time in the service of Morgoth. He still uses small quantities of it to construct his throne upon the isle. It is a formidable, shiny black creation, precise and sharp. He spends less time upon it than Morgoth does upon his own, frequently growing restless. He does sit upon it when he greets Beren’s group.

There is of course a large population of wolves upon the island. I talk a bit about wolves on this post here but essentially I believe there are a number of species including gray and timber wolves which live outside of Angband.

I headcanon that the wolves of Sauron that were the main lupine inhabitants of the island were large descendants and kin of Carcharoth and Draugluin. These are large, silver wolves with a black variant. Their pack dynamics are somewhat different than that of common wolves though of course this is largely due to their raising rather than the species. They are sleek and quiet and highly intelligent.

There is a smaller species, only somewhat bigger than common wolves. They are far more aggressive than the primary wolves of Sauron and it was them who killed and ate most of Beren’s men and that Finrod killed.

As always please feel free to ask more! This is not my best world building post but I will want to do better

[novemberthecatadmirer]

Headcanon: Orc’s Songs, and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Artist Residences Sponsored by Your Local (Un)Friendly Dark Lords

Just recently I realized apparently there is this song “Where There's a Whip, There's a Way” from the 1980 animated movie “The Return of the King”.

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It was treated mostly like a joke, because we all know orcs are pathetic creatures created by Morgoth as cannon fodders to be used, exploited and disposed. How can they sing so well and so cheerfully? How can the orcs or their dark lords care about making songs? We know Morgoth and Sauron mostly just love to create mockeries of beautiful, wonderful, and kind things created by other people’s hard work.

Wait.

WAIT.

When I was listening to the song, there has been this uneasy feeling constantly growing in the back of my mind, until suddenly it made sense; it all made sense.

It actually makes sense for such songs to exist in Arda Marred.

What if, the song of orcs is a mockery of someone else’s work?

Such songs were not created by orcs; they were not created by Morgoth or Sauron or other dark creatures. (I do headcanon it was originally Sauron’s idea to develop them.)

They were created, with love, by Elves and Men and Dwarves and other sentient beings who were free, ONCE.

Then they got conquered, captured, tortured, enslaved, including their most brilliant musicians.

And Sauron took a look at these musicians who created beautiful music with love and devotion, and decided, “Well, I can make use of that.”

He took them from their people, and made them rewrite their songs.

You can insert whatever tortures Sauron could threaten or break them with, but when there is a whip, there is a way to break someone. There always is. (Like, just threaten them “If you do not rewrite this little song of yours, I am going to peel skin of this cute child of your friend slowly and artfully like peeling a little grape. Do you really feel your song is more important than the dying scream of such a beautiful, innocent child?”)

And in this way, such songs were made into mockeries of themselves by the hands of the artists who created them. Their power, that previously belong to the people, became one more tool (a poisonous candy, a dangling carrot stick) for the dark lords to enslave them, and other people, better and longer. The whips enslave their bodies and the songs enslave their minds.

--------------------

For this specific song... Well my headcanon is it was created by a musician in a group of mortal refugees escaping from their home destroyed by troops of Sauron. They were traveling, tired and exhausted, hopelessly looking for somewhere safe where they could live again. The musician wrote this song to encourage people to cheer up, stay hopeful, keep walking and move on despite everything was obviously awful, because where there is a will there is a way, and they will find their way.

Then they got captured by Sauron, all hope was lost, and Sauron demanded him to rewrite his songs, in exchange for slightly better treatment for his people. So he did. 

Sauron was especially fond of this particular song. As reward, he offered the musician an opportunity.

Sauron led him to a lava pit. It was an one time offer; the only chance for him to actually CHOOSE. 

And the musician jumped.

When much later, troops of Sauron sang this song marching to war, completely conquered the area, people would learn to fear and loath its melody. Nobody will ever remember the original song, that little one about keeping your hope to find your way to freedom.

--------------------

(Sauron did not care about the songs. Yes, they were useful. Even made by hands of mortals, they had powers. But he could achieve his goals without them. It is just so much more efficient and fun this way. Being a dark lord sometimes was boring and he did need some entertainment occasionally.)

--------------------

(The songs actually still worked in their original intentional ways, to some extent. Troops singing these songs on their way in general had lower death rate and more of them could reach the battlefield. Even the orcs felt their constant pain more tolerable, and was able to survive a little bit longer.)

(Was it a good thing? Was it a bad thing?)

--------------------

(Arda was marred. That is bad, for certain.)

[sentimental-darkness]

Fixed Amazon’s Rings of Power!

1. Numenor is a colonial kingdom that it was in the lore. They’re sailing East where they’ve established a lot of outposts and trading posts in Harad and beyond, which would be perfectly lore accurate. The fake “Southlands” in Gondor and Mordor don’t exist and they aren’t occupied by the elves, though Numenoreans and Eastern folk can refer to these shores as “Wildlands of Middle-earth” (or something like that) because they’re filled with lash forests - which is important, because towards the end of the story they’ll mercilessly cut them down for the construction of the great fleet of Ar-Pharazon!

2. Southern dwarven kingdom of all black (or mix of Arabic and darker-skinned) dwarves. That’s the focus of the story in our main Eastern theater of the story, not Khazad-dum. Can interact with Numenorean cast and Eastern people. Whether lore accurate or not - can be debatable. However, an adaptation allows for some maneuver and any canon mention about other dwarven clans and where some of them might have migrated is extremely sparse. We know Longbeards had more places they lived in over the course of history, other than just Khazad-dum, sometimes miles apart, so it’s not far-fetched to find other dwarven clans outside of their canon locations.

3. Umbar as the main coastline hub of diversity where all skin colors of the East collide, but Numenor mostly for Numenoreans, with the ruling caste predominantly white Numenoreans and only Numenorean ships are capable of deep sea voyage in order to reach the Island. The capitol of Numenor and the Island can be shown a few times but it becomes the main focus only in later seasons. They already have standing armies and fleets on the shores of Middle-earth, with Umbar as their main port.

4. If you want it simplified, ok, you can have Sauron in hiding rather than out in the open but he is hidden in Harad and starting to exert his influence through proxy figures (or figure) among the Eastern populace and this person might even experiment with necromancy. He may spark a local war here and there, make some trouble for the Numenoreans, increase tensions between Numenoreans and different local groups, eventually make deals with orcs. Oh, and don’t make it too obvious who Sauron is... and don’t try to force people into thinking that someone might be Sauron with cheap plot devices. Don’t tell but show! Once Sauron is fully revealed we can get some glimpses into Mordor, how orcs are out in full force and beginning the construction of Barad-dur. This all leads up to the divide of the East and factions being forced to choose a side and Ar-Pharazon VS Sauron army showdown. Then Sauron is taken to Numenor. But - see point 6 - he’s already got the rings distributed and we’ll see the proto-Nazgul kings (or Numenorean governors) effectively doing his work for him and covertly rebuilding, perhaps even supplying the remaining orcs of Mordor with slaves. So his great defeat is only temporary and the effective political power of these rings gets shown on-screen. 

5. Mordor as an empty, uninhabited volcanic desert land that not many people live in, except for the areas adjacent to Sea of Nurn. With orcs presumably gone from the world, just like in RoP, but there might be rumors to investigate and eventually they’ll emerge... and get involved in the boiling pot in the South. There is sun in Harad? First, somehow it doesn’t hinder them in RoP if they’re covered in their clothes. Second, mysterious necromancy and sky cover can be involved. Also, they can march under the cover of darkness and hide in caves from sunlight, and if they have some human allies that’s how they can know the terrain. 

6. Lindon and the Forging parts can be a little more tricky and out of focus with the rest of the story... at first glance. But if you have humility (and want actual POC representation and ethnic diversity) you choose the theatre that’s more relevant to Numenor’s storyline and stick to it, in order to give this storyline justice. But you know what? You can have these “elven paradise” scenes centered around Celebrimbor, Elrond and Galadriel at Eregion, with them practicing their craft and magic, with news from afar reaching their ears and worrying them about the long-term future of Middle-earth. If you wanna have some elven girl power in it, ok, eventually you can send Wife Galadriel (so we get a nice goodbye and “good luck my love” scene!) with a company of elves (on ships) in a delegacy to far-away lands to figure out what’s going on. Where she eventually meets a local elf Arondir (from some off-shoot branch living South), who is already investigating the evils at work. Bronwyn’s son can get involved with some covert dark cult spreading in the East, if they want to be edgy (but go with actual Tolkien vibes not cheap anime Soulcalibur sword hilt fanclub vibes). At the same time, we still don’t know who is Sauron but make it tricky and reduce his character involvement in the East but at the same time introduce a not-suspicious acquaintance or apprentice of Celebrimbor at Eregion, while Galadriel is not there (wink wink you know what that will lead towards, but maybe have a foil in another elf who appears to be a bit disappointed in Celebrimbor’s works and acting a bit shady to make us think he is Sauron). Or maybe it’s just that Sauron as a Maya can appear seemingly at all places at once? So you can have him active both South and in some Eregion scenes? Plus, have Celebrimbor involved with dwarven delegates (one of which is our character from all black Southern kingdom and this character may also visit/stay at Khazad-dum while they’re there) and have the dwarven expertise of ALL clans somehow involved in the making of the rings. Eventually, Galadriel finds out all about the real threats in the South, that orcs are back and Sauron had emerged from the shadows and decided to continue Morgoth’s legacy, after all... (see, because earlier in first episode we would have been told that Sauron cowered in fear before the defeat that met his master in First Age and disappeared from the world, fearing the wrath of gods). In addition Galadriel is worried about some of the Numenorean practices regarding other men and how some of their colonial governors grown too comfortable with themselves and their Island-backed power (the future Black Numenoreans of the South). She is too late, however, rings of power are already created, Sauron reveals himself and sends orc host hidden in Misty Mountains. Miriel, under her father’s approval (we’re shown how he is trying to return to the old ways and he sees the return of such evil as the final portent), comes with military aid to save the elves and prove the worth of Numenor. It saves Eriador but inevitably that’s what causes Numenorean civil war (helping elves who brought this upon themselves? not even consulting Numenor about anything? and now Numenor needs to deal with magical artifacts Sauron might use against them in wat? King’s Men not happy!). Ar-Pharazon marries Miriel and seizes the crown. Back to point 4 and effectively the Fall of Numenor followed by creation of Gondor and Arnor with a time skip and the Last Alliance.

Also, you noticed - no hobbits here! No need!

Also, change the title to something else, like Lord of the Rings: Return of the Shadow. Because rings of power are crucial part of it but not main focus, also two “rings” in title sounds dumb !

Bravo. One look at the map and the pieces fit together. You end up with decent show, more lore-accurate and full of representation. Why not? Why make such a travesty instead?

[lowcountry-gothic]

I got the impression both times that I watched The Rings of Power that the Southlands, the area where Bronwyn and Theo live, and where Arondir is stationed, was just a little north of Mordor, maybe the place Aragorn later calls the Brown Lands. But from listening to this reaction video from Dr. Corey Olsen, aka The Tolkien Professor, apparently that place actually is part of Mordor, or will be in the future. If so, I wonder if the surrounding mountain ranges even exist yet, since I believe Tolkien says somewhere that Sauron raised them up when he established himself there, which he certainly doesn’t seem to have done yet.

[perhaps-mr-collins-has-a-cousin]

It just...didn’t get light outside this morning, so have some eerie photos I took

[undercat-overdog]

I’ve not been working on Shall These Bones Live as I ought, but here’s a little sample from next chapter? In which the hero and the villain have found a geothermically active area and temporarily settled down: 

~

“Hmm. Annatar, what were you called before you were named by my people?”

Annatar flicked his finger against the back of Celebrimbor’s neck, the point where cervical spine met thoracic. “What, are you trying to appeal to what you would deem my better nature?”

“No, I was trying to elicit an answer, the most prototypical use of an interrogative pronoun. You’ve proven you remember me from Eregion; surely you remember how I like knowing things.”

Annatar laughed, and returned to massaging Celebrimbor’s back; Celebrimbor moaned involuntarily, Annatar’s hands and the heat rising from the water pulling all the tension away.

“Well then. The best translation in Quenya would be Mairon, though I was so named before my kind knew what language was, so it’s an approximation, the concept existing before the word and yet the word giving it shape, new meaning which it did not have before.”

“Mairon — whence Ar-Mêrôn, I presume.”

“Oh Tyelpe,” Annatar said, clearly amused, “you were dead when I called myself thus. Did you study all my deeds upon your rebirth?”

Celebrimbor rolled his eyes, but found himself more charmed than annoyed. “Hardly,” he lied. “What I was actually studying were the shifts from late Adûnaic to early Westron, and strangely enough, you did come up in the texts. But afterwards I tried to put you out of my mind, for what was the use of troubling my thoughts so?”

Sauron made a sharp little noise, but his hands were still gentle on Celebrimbor’s back.

“Names are changeable things,” his torturer said after a moment, rubbing his thumbs into the knots at the base of the neck; it hurt, in a pleasurable way. “I remember myself as Sauron, God-king of the earth; that was who I was in the last years, but you address me as Annatar at times. I am pleased to answer to that, if you would call me thus.”

“So I will,” Celebrimbor answered, setting aside as a later question that Annatar had thought of himself by that name and the title he had given himself, “if for no other reason than I find it a name pleasing to the ear, much to my sound-taste, though I can’t say I won’t call you Sauron either. You are abhorrent. You are... much to me, in ways good and ill both, and admirable, precious… I cannot say I never thought of you as such.”

“It was what my old master called me,” said Annatar, letting rest his hands on Celebrimbor’s shoulders, “though he didn’t use the Quenya. Both my old masters, as much as the concept that maira encompasses translates to language; language was not something we had when I was one of the people of Aule and thus that word was not exactly what Aule called me. The concept of it. And what I called myself, though I forsook it at the end. Yet for a while I was Annatar primarily, even in my own heart, for those were the syllables said to me in your voice, the sounds that your tongue made.”

He sighed. “But looking at you here, I am no less saura than maira.”

“Ah. Well. Yes,” said Celebrimbor, feeling light-hearted. He tipped his head back to look at Annatar upside-down, wet hair dripping on Annatar’s thighs. “Perhaps. But I no longer find it in myself to abhor you, for all that I ought.”

[evilphrog]

Lord Of the Rings: A summary by someone who has never read or watched the story, but has absorbed most of the plot through memes

So, back in the beginning of the world, there was this powerful sorcerer. His name was Sauramon. He made the whole world, but then became evil somehow (on accident?) and changed his name to Sauron. He lost all his humanity until he was just this disembodied floating eye that can see the whole world, but not all at once. He made this magic ring that can turn people invisible, but the ring also corrupts people’s minds to make them crave power. The ring got lost at the end of a really big battle between elves and orcs. Orcs are not like the orcs in DnD. They’re basically all bloodthirsty murderbeasts. The elves are kind of stuck up, but generally decent people.

Fast forward to the present. There are beings called hobbits who are presented as though they’re lazy and stupid, but actually seem to be the smartest people in the world. Their whole lives are just eating, partying, hanging with friends, growing plants, and lying in the sun. Really the best possible life. This wizard named Gandalf (possibly Sauramon’s secret twin brother?) kidnaps one of them and tells him he is a thief now, and also going to go kill a dragon with a group of dwarves. His name is Bilbo Baggins. He does not like this plan, and does not like Gandalf, but when he tries to escape he ends up finding aforementioned magic ring, and then realizes maybe he is pretty good at being a thief after all. So he decides to help the dwarves, and somehow they all defeat the dragon. Bilbo gets a ton of gold and retires back home to live as a super rich hobbit and party all the time. Gandalf realizes Bilbo has the ring and tells him to NEVER EVER wear it because he recognizes it as the Evil Ring that Sauramon made. Bilbo is like “K, sounds like a plan, I don’t give a crap about some ring when all I wanna do is eat potatoes and tell this wizard to fuck off forever” and then he proceeds to do just that. Eventually, he grows old and dies.

At his funeral, his nephew Frodo is given the ring in his will. Gandalf decides now is a good time to carry on with his hobby of kidnapping hobbits and forcing them into adventures they do not want to have, so he sends Frodo and his boyfriend Sam off with a human named Aragon (he was raised by elves so he’s a bit Weird), a dwarf named Gimli, and an elf named Orlando Bloom. The three of them genuinely hate each other, and also genuinely hate Frodo and Sam. Nobody wants to be on this field trip, but Gandlaf rolled a nat 20 in diplomacy, so he convinces them to all do it anyways. They are on a quest to throw the ring in a volcano, which is dangerous because Sauron wants to find the ring and use it for ???? making his army more powerful? IDK really, he’s a disembodied eye at this point, and his armies are all giant monsters. I don’t really see how invisibility could help him in his goals. Gandalf warns Frodo not to ever wear the ring, but also says how amazing and powerful it is, which to me says he either wanted Frodo to put it on or he fundamentally does not understand curiosity.

Frodo carries on the family tradition of picking up Cursed Objects and finds a magic sword that glows blue when Orcs are around. The sword glows blue. Frodo gets scared and puts the ring on, and goes invisible. Thanks to his invisibility, he is able to save his friends from the orcs. But because he wore the ring, Sauron now knows someone has it and it is sort of like a homing beacon. Every time Frodo puts it on, it tells Sauron the area the ring is in, but he can’t actually find it because Frodo is invisible. So instead, he just keeps sending a bunch of monsters to their general location hoping to get lucky. Frodo keeps putting on the ring anyways, because it sort of low-key possesses him. Everyone else seems to think this is a perfectly reasonable life choice.

At one point the hobbits get taken to Isengard, and they get very close to being killed by Not Werewolves. Galdalf sacrifices himself to save them. But then he returns as Gandalf the White, who is the same Gandalf but with no memories. The group keeps fighting monsters and getting closer to the volcano, and meanwhile Frodo gets more and more possessed until he starts to go bonkers and refuses to ever give up the ring. At this point, his boyfriend Sam has to basically drag his ass up the side of the volcano kicking and screaming. Frodo, in a moment of clarity, asks Sam to throw him into the volcano because he refuses to give up the ring, Sam instead convinces Frodo that love is more important than jewelry, and Frodo gives him the ring. Sam throws it in the volcano, and Sauron is killed. Ohhhh that’s why he wanted the ring! It was a horcrux.

Gandalf shows up with giant eagles to bring everyone home. Frodo is like “Gee, these giant eagles capable of flying across continents sure would have come in handy at any point during this months-long walk through murderous hordes of monsters.” Gandalf tells him wizards are never early or late. They arrive precisely when they mean to. Sam is having none of that. Frodo and Sam peace off back to the hobbit village to ignore adventures forevermore.

[daughter-of-flame]

Introducing Mavwin

Hello Tolkien fandom!  I’d like to (finally) introduce my OC who’s been living rent-free in my head for nearly ten years now.

(Picture made with [WIP] Elvish Character Creator RE by Findekane on Meiker.io)

Overview:  

Born in Valinor in the Years of the Trees, Mavwin is the third child of Fëanor and Nerdanel and the couple’s only daughter.  She survives the rest of her family into the Third Age.  I’m currently writing her story, set primarily during the War of the Ring.  She actually started out as a Tenth Walker Legomance OC and that hasn’t changed.  She has, however, improved considerably as a character.  (To be fair I was like 15 when I first made her.)  Fun fact, I made her originally so I could make a LotR fic but still play with Silm lore, only to slowly realize just how much trauma would result from being so involved in all the events of the First Age on.  Sorry Mavwin, I didn’t actually mean to make your life suck so bad.

(Putting the rest in a read-more because this got really long)

Background: 

Mavwin spent her childhood and youth in the bliss of Valinor.  When Morgoth destroyed the Two Trees and brought about the Darkness, Mavwin swore the Oath of Fëanor along with her father and brothers and participated in all three Kinslayings.  In fact, she spent much of the First Age in the same fashion as her brothers.  The one difference is that unlike her brothers, and most of the rest of her family, Mavwin survived.  Much to the displeasure of greater Elven society, after the War of Wrath, Elrond and Elros, who Mavwin had fostered along with Maglor, found their foster mother and rehabilitated her with the help of her nephew Celebrimbor.  Over the course of the Second Age Mavwin lived Lindon, Eregion, and Rivendell; explored the eastern and southern reaches of Middle-earth, and fought in both wars against Sauron.  She spent most of the Third Age trying to help the descendants of Númenor until Celebrían’s capture.  From then on Mavwin stayed in Rivendell and Lothlórien until the War of the Ring.

Personality: 

Mavwin goes through some pretty drastic personality changes due to the many, many events she lives through and the great deal of trauma she accumulates.  Initially she is somewhat introverted, preferring to paint or to search the wild areas of Aman for more materials for her art.  She is perfectly capable of acting the royal when needed, however, and has a quick temper that is equally quick to cool.  She also occupies a unique place in the family as the only daughter, being somewhat coddled by her older brothers and equally relied upon by her younger brothers.  After coming to Beleriand, Mavwin gains more patience and better skill with diplomacy due to what is required of her as a leader of her people.  She learns some healing skills and is often called upon to heal her brothers during their years of wandering, but equally if not more often she fights alongside them.  During the Second Age, she initially becomes even more introverted and develops an avoidance of other Elves due to her ostracization, and her level of avoidance and introversion fluctuates throughout the rest of her life.  In the Third Age, however, she becomes increasingly subdued and somber in general due to depression, PTSD, and grief.

Fun Facts:

Mavwin’s father and mother names are Poldamíriel (Quenya, ”Strong-jewel”) and Mavoinë (Quenya, “Great Longing”).  Like most of her brothers, Mavwin used her mother-name as her cilmessë and Sindarinized it upon coming to Beleriand.  She also collected several other names over the millennia, such as Fund’ursul (Khuzdul, “Elf from the fires”) from the Dwarves of Belegost and Nogrod, Ukhthaz (Khuzdul, “Endurer”) from the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm, and Zôrzimril (Adûnaic, “Fire-jewel”) from the Men of Númenor.

Mavwin lived primarily as a painter in Valinor, learned as many different painting methods as she could over the years, and invented a couple of others.  She can do everything from sculpture painting to silk-painting to illuminating books to actual, wet-plaster-type frescoes.  She is, in fact, a massive nerd about painting, and has an encyclopedic knowledge of various materials and methods used for painting.

She speaks with a Fëanorian lisp to her Quenya.

Out of all her brothers, Mavwin was closest to Caranthir, and of her cousins Mavwin was closest to Galadriel.  The split between Fëanor and his brothers also split Mavwin and Galadriel, however, and the rift wasn’t healed until late in the Second Age.

Elrond calls her mother and his children call her grandmother.

Mavwin has a palantír.  She hasn’t used it since the Ithil stone was lost, however, out of caution that Sauron might have it.

Mavwin also has a memorial to her lost family members in Rivendell. She painted frescoes of all of them on its walls.

Mavwin suffers from PTSD and depression.