storiesofventure

[storiesofventure]

My gift to @thrillofhope for the Haladriel: Gifts of the Valar Exchange 2024.

I hope you’ll like what I painted. I was a labor of love.

Thanks to @thehaladrielfancollective for hosting this event.

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Sauron + 🔥

The Rings of Power (2022-)

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I love this. So elegantly written.

You know what, it's probably true that "Sauron's not in love with Galadriel". Being "in love" is when you can't think of the other without giggling and kicking your feet. Being in love is having butterflies in the stomach every time you think of your crush, and waiting by the telephone for them to call you. Being in love is counting the days before your next meeting, and being anxious at the idea that your crush doesn't love you as much as you love them. Being in love may pass, someday. Then you meet someone else, and it happens again.

But Sauron doesn't feel this way about Galadriel. "Being in love" is a too earthly denomination to describe how he feels about her.

What he feels is way more intense than that. Sauron sees Galadriel as the only person who can bring light into the darkness of his soul. He doesn't just want to spend time with her ; what he wants is their souls to merge so she can be always with him, now and forever. His love is tainted by darkness, it's highly possessive, and obsessive. He wants her for himself and him alone, so much he'd rather snuff out the light that's in her and that drew him to her in the first place, than risking losing her forever and spending another day without her. He wants to her to be irrevocably bound to him, even if it's in darkness.

From the moment he laid his eyes on her, he knew he wanted her to be his, and him hers. He wants her to understand him, see him, and the simple idea of her rejection causes him to almost ruin the plans he took so much time to build. He almost kills a man and ends up in jail, because this man reflected his own fear to be rejected by Galadriel. He doesn't bear being far away from her and seeks her reflection in a strand of hair belonging to a woman he doesn't care for. Instead of taking the ring he wants so much, he ends up losing it because even while force bonding Galadriel to him, he still seeks her approval. He still wants her to see him, to believe in him and his purpose. When he loses her again, he's still looking for her, looking after her through the bond he created between them.

What Sauron feels for Galadriel is not a mere crush, it will never pass, not even in thousands of years. He never felt like this before, and he never will again, with anyone else. And because he will never be able to satisfy this greed, what he feels for her will keep consuming him as much as his hunger for power, maybe even more.

Sauron's not "in love" with Galadriel, no. There's probably no human word or expression to put on what he feels for her. It's tragic, it's dark, but it's also beautiful. And it's undying.

Hope that helps.

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thinking of haladriel like! their bond is not a crack allowing light to trickle through, but a jagged wound. a splinter lodged deep, festering with an ache that neither can soothe. to elrond, it is a thorn to be plucked; yet galadriel, for all her goodness, cannot bring herself to sever her connection with sauron, for in the pain she finds the last vestige of something true since her brother’s passing. meanwhile, halbrand feels she has shattered and reshaped him in ways no other soul could. he would cleanse his hands in hallowed waters if only to be deemed worthy of her touch, yet she has spurned him. now both are burdened by the humiliation of how swiftly their rawest vulnerabilities were laid bare before the other’s unyielding gaze. how effortlessly they were seen and undone. the world does not understand the gravity of what lies between them—this silent, aching war. and people don't like this show!! crazy!!!

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The Dark Lord and the Lady of Light

“I will meet you where the shadow ends”

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The Dark Lord on his dark throne.

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Where the shadow lies.

I been wanting to illustrate this scene so much. I hope you’ll enjoy this.

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Between us there's a battlefield. i'll meet you there.

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- I don’t want to kill you. You’re not a bad person.

- I could kill you. You are a bad person.

Prompted on Twitter and based on The Great photoshoot.

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Galadriel and Halbrand admiring the light version of Mordor: Galador. I painted this for @elliecarina fic the “Trials of Mairon” and captured her vision.

Here’s the fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/42374703?view_full_work=true

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I’m brewing some new concept for Haladriel. Here you can see a bit of my process.

It’s a step further after doing moodboards. It is a synthesis on outfits ideas I have. I allows me to see clearly what I like.

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2013 Annatar art. I dunno why but it’s very funny to me.

Annatar, “Lord of Gift”. There’s something about that aspect of Sauron that always fascinated me. He would have been seductive and fair enough to charm the Elvish smiths and trick them to learn their craft. Hence why I choose to go with an androgynous/ambiguous look.

I’m still lost somewhere in Middle-Earth. It won’t be long until I finally do a Lord of the Rings marathon. I’ve seen The Hobbit two time and I’m reading The Lost Road and Other Writing which is a volume of The History of Middle-Earth about the Fall of Numenor.

Putting dramatic drapery is becoming a serious issue that must be cured.

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I’m looking at my old art… and I was this close to make Galadriel and Sauron AU à with Reylo!

- Hinder me? Thou fool. No living man may hinder me! - But no living man am I! You look upon a woman. Éowyn I am, Eomund’s daughter. You stand between me and my lord and kin. Be gone, if you be not deathless! For living or dark undead, I will smite you, if you touch him.

Ok. I did a tiny thing on my sketchbook. And I have to thank @ohtze​ and @winterofherdiscontent​ for whispering this wicked idea with this and this… You never cease to inspire me! 

Éowyn & King Angmar duel AU. Merging my fav universe to SW. The more I think about this one, the more it makes sense and the more I see parallels. Aww.. No idea if I’ll finish this though.

Witch King Kylo & Shieldmaiden Rey!! <3 

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One collab to rule them all.

the power of the dyad rings could not be undone

an artist (@storiesofventure)/author (@liminal-zone) haladriel collab

Close your eyes and imagine a whisper in a tavern, far away from the heart of Middle Earth. Imagine a honeyed voice with a strange accent. She is asking you over a tankard of ale: Have you heard of ‘em, lass? Have you heard of the lady of light and her dark lord? Would you chuckle then, dear reader? It would be near impossible to never have heard of her grace, the High Queen Galadriel and the lord, her husband, even in lands far from her dominion. You can smell the ash on the wind. 

--

For you see, when Melkor saw Mairon, he found him fair and he found him useful. And in him, he poured his malice, his cruelty, and his will to dominate all life. With his hand pressed against that soft, gentle neck, Melkor delighted in the reeducation of this skilled creature, who shattered into shards of glass and sand before he could reform him into something new: a terrible dread and a most devoted servant. 

For you see, when it was done, when it was over, Sauron believed this was possible for him to do to another with similar results.

For you see, when the Lady Galadriel of the Golden House said yes to an honest offer of partnership, said yes to his proposal of the dyad ring, and said yes to his appeal for intimacy, Sauron believed himself the new Melkor with the power to heal not destroy. He would bring new order and end all wars with the elven commander at his side. She, the beautiful light to balance him and bring him delight. 

And then something happened the dark lord did not intend.

For you see, Galadriel was never given the will to rule, never forced into the art of war and delicate design of order. No, it was already forged in her heart; her very being meant to wield a power beyond imagining. At the chance of great reward, he had taken great risk to partner with an ancient being whose mettle he had not fully tested against the very highest of pressures, the most severe of heat. For some elements can fracture, releasing a dangerous power that not even the dark lord could control. 

By giving her the dyad ring, by binding his very being to her, he had miscalculated. Her ambition and desire and protection and power shifted and oh so suddenly was there a great clenched fist around Mairon’s neck again, her fingernails digging into his scarred skin. Flooded in the agony of her inescapable light did he shatter once more.

And how she delighted in the reforging of something new, something cruel, someone hers. 

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Me and @liminal-zone are brewing something so good! Here’s a little tease!

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And may I say that she’s aiming for his heart 👀 👀

Halbrand & Galadriel

I have nothing to say. Except these two 🤯

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Here’s the colored version. I dunno which is best so have both!

Halbrand & Galadriel

I have nothing to say. Except these two 🤯