#The people of Sirion

[erendur]

Elwing, "the people of Sirion" , drug money and bad decision-making

My two cents that nobody asked for on the Sirion situation (with (almost) no discussion of property rights ! because I think that's beside the point !), for which I will draw a lazy parallel with No Country for Old Men.

So : 1. The Silmaril as dirty drug money

In No Country for Old Men (book or film, makes no difference here because I am going to simplify the shit out of these themes), the protagonist stumbles one day on a drug deal gone bad at the US-Mexican border. There's been a shoot-out, and everybody is dead (I said I was going to simplify). Amid the massacre, the protagonist finds a suitcase full of what is clearly dirty drug money (several millions of dollars worth of it). He decides to take the money, and run away with it to a better life. He thinks his odds are pretty good : he is a skilled hunter, and a Vietnam veteran, so he can move around in the desert pretty much undetected, and can shoot well. He has good survival skills, and is poor. Obviously (spoilers), things do not end well for him. The gangs whose dirty money he has taken are very determined to get their money back (is it really "their" money is beside the point there), are obviously very violent, well-armed, and not squeamish. The protagonist ends up dead.

Now of course the bad guys in the story are the violent drug cartels. But also pretty obviously from my point of view, taking something from violent, determined and ruthless people; that they consider to be theirs, whether they are right or not, is very poor decision-making. It's not about what is morally wrong or right (the DRUG LORDS are in the wrong, obviously), it's about what is a sane decision and what is not.

I don't know about you, but if I were to find a stash of very obviously dirty money somewhere, I wouldn't bring it back home. I would leave its vicinity so fast that I would probably beat a world-record for velocity.

And the worst you think the Fëanorians are, the least sense it makes to keep the Silmaril away from them, especially after they have very clearly proven their determination to kill for it in Doriath.

Pre-Doriath, you could argue that few people knew about the oath. Even people who hate the Fëanorians would frankly be at pains to find anything bad that they did between Alqualondë and the massacre at Doriath (and Alqualondë was not about the Silmarils, or not directly). So the decision made by Thingol or Dior not to return the Silmaril at that point could have been born, in part, of a bad reading of the situation : they did not expect the Fëanorians to attack, or if they did, the expected to win (and thought they were in the right, but I won't go into this now).

Post-Doriath, though ?

Which leads me to : 2. Who took the bad decision to keep the drug money away from the violent drug-lords (and who are "the people of Sirion ?")

So now, lets' get to Elwing - and "the people of Sirion" (I'm using quotations marks on this one, because I have thought about this).

The Silm says that "(...) Elwing and the people of Sirion would not yield the jewel which Beren had worn and Lúthien had worn, and for which Dior the fair was slain ; and least of all while Eärendil their lord was on the sea, for it seemed to them that in the Silmaril lay the healing and the blessing that had come upon their houses and their ships".

It's presented here as though the decision to keep the Silmaril - or, in my analogy, the drug money that the violent drug cartel had firmly asked to be returned - was a collective one. It's Elwing AND "the people of Sirion".

I have several thoughts on that. The first one is that it seems that even though Maedhros writes to Elwing, she doesn't seem to be too much in charge of the situation. We are also told, earlier on in the same chapter, that :,"Bright Eärendil was then lord of the people that dwelt nigh to Sirion's mouths ; and he took to wife Elwing the fair (...)", so it seems that it seems that Eärendil is in charge, and Elwing is...his wife. It's obviously my interpretation, but in spite of the whole "gender equality" among Elves, women seem to have very little power, especially at a political level, so I fully believe that she did not make that decision alone.

Who, then, are "the people of Sirion" ? For me, given the context and the time period Jirt is drawing from when creating his world, it is pretty clear that "the people of Sirion" are Eärendil's, or maybe Elwing's, advisors, or at least the most important people in Sirion (lords and the like), that were left in charge along Elwing when Eärendil left. I don't believe that it means that the decision to keep the drug-money was a democratic one, because we just have zero instance of democratic process/decision making in Tolkien's world. It's all monarchy-this and lord-that.

In any case, these people clearly feel that they cannot give the Silmaril back without Eärendil's approval. What right, as an aside, does Eärendil have to the Silmaril, you might ask (that's the "almost" part of the "almost no discussion of property rights") ? To me, it seems again that given the time-period Jirt is drawing from and all that, he has a "right" to it because he is the lord of these people, and Elwing is his wife. Married women in Medieval England did not have property rights, all of their possessions automatically became their husband's.

But back to "the people of Sirion". Even if you disagree with my analysis that it basically means "Sirion's important people who were left in charge along with Elwing because she can't be trusted to make all the decisions on her own because she is a woman", this would be a mix of refugees from both Gondolin and Doriath.

Now, the people from Gondolin have lived for centuries walled off in their magical city, and have escaped it amid hellish destruction and Balrogs. They would sound like the kind of people that would think that they could take on a few Fëanorians (wrongly, but they only find out about that later). So the decision to keep the drug money would make some sense. They think they can defend it.

The picture the quotation above gives of "The people of Sirion", however, make them look like they are mostly concerned with the Silmaril in relation with the people of Doriath. " (...)the jewel which Beren had worn and Lúthien had worn, and for which Dior the fair was slain."

Could be sympathy, could be the people of Doriath speaking there. And that's where I feel like screaming "give the drug money back to the merciless drug lords, you fool !!!!" Because, if the people of Gondolin get the benefit of the doubt as to how much they know about the evilness and the determination of the Fëanorians, the people of Doriath do not ! They were there ! They fled from the massacre ! How on Earth do they think that keeping the Simaril is a good idea ???

And then, we have the final lines : "for it seemed to them that in the Silmaril lay the healing and the blessing that had come upon their houses and their ships."

They don't want to give the Simaril back, because they think it does them good. The Silmaril as a holy object seems wholly addictive, and no one seems to be able to give it up voluntarily. And to go back to my drug money analogy, would a bunch of refugees be able to benefit from a few millions dollars, and do good things with them ? Sure, they would. Would they put the money to better use than the drug-lords ? Sure again. Does it make keeping it a good decision ? Nope, certainly not.

So, to sum up that long portion, "the people of Doriath", along with Elwing, seem to take the decision to keep the Silmaril because

some of them, the Gondolin ones, might underestimate the Fëanorians' determination / overestimate their strength ;

they think they can't make the decision to get rid of the Silmaril without Eärendil, their true lord ;

they are making decisions based on the sunk cost fallacy effect (the Doriath people have already suffered so much at the hands of the drug lords, we can't give them what they want to make them go away, even though we know first hand how determined and ruthless they are - not rational decision-making - it's the same logic that makes you watch 4 seasons of a bad series because you've spend so much time watching the first 4 that you don't want it all to have been for nothing - or throw good money after bad - yes, that car has been a defective piece of crap from day 1, but I've already spent so much money on it that I have to keep going in the hope it eventually finishes by getting better)

the Silmaril is addictive

And all of this just makes for poor decision-making.

And my conclusion would be :

don't take the drug lords' money

don't think you could do good things with it and that that's reason enough to keep it

don't think that having had your relatives murdered over it should mean that you have to keep it all cost

and just bloody return it if you are asked for it, even if you think that the tone of the letter is a little bit stiff and haughty. It's not about who has a right to the dirty money, it's about saving your own skin.

[sesamenom]

@general-illyrin @tar-thelien @who-needs-words I think you all mentioned being interested in the reverse gondolin au - is anyone interested in helping with wrangling the timelines, especially the second age stuff? Here's the current outline:

(Edit: anyone feel free to help out if you're interested!)

YT 14365 - Birth of Lomion

YT 14373/FA 1 - Death of Argon

FA

2 - Aredhel adopts Lomion

300 - Birth of Idril

316 - Turgon & Idril kidnapped by Eol

400 - Turgon & Idril rescued. Death of Eol

465 - Finrod more-peacefully passes throne to orodreth while on Quest. Everyone except beren still dies

472 - Nirnaeth. Turgon named High King of the Noldor.

476 - Turgon abdicates official title. Aredhel named High King of the Noldor.

496 - Tuor comes to Gondolin

502 - Wedding of Idril and Tuor

503 - Births of Earendil and Elwing. Idril begins to have foresight dreams about the Fall.

506 - Second Kinslaying. C^3 dead, celebrimbor stays in gondolin. Aredhel denounces the oath/kinslaying and disowns C^3

Elwing survives & is found by Oropher & Thranduil // Galadriel & Celeborn. oropher, thranduil, oropher's wife, and thranduil's then-gf // galadriel & celeborn take Elwing to Gondolin as refugees. The Silmaril is left hidden in the woods of melian's domain.

507 - Elwing comes to Gondolin.

509 - Idril captured by Morgoth. Idril reveals the location of Gondolin in exchange for an Oath to not harm her family (Turgon, Tuor, and Earendil). Idril rescued.

510 - Gondolin prepares for war with Morgoth.

513-522 - Siege of Gondolin. Deaths of Duilin and Rog. Gothmog slain by Aredhel the Huntress. First use of the Three Rings by Lomion and Celebrimbor in defense of Gondolin. House of the Hammer of Wrath destroyed.

523 - Maedhros believes a Silmaril is with Elwing at Gondolin.

525 - Earendil weds Elwing. Lomion weds ???. Adoption of Gil-Galad

532 - Births of Elrond and Elros.

538 - Third Kinslaying at Gondolin. Death of Amras. Elrond and Elros kidnapped by Maglor. Deaths of Elwing and Turgon. Second use of the Three Rings by Lomion and Celebrimbor. Deaths of Maedhros and Aredhel. Lomion named King of Gondolin and High King of the Noldor. Deaths of Salgant, Penlod, and Tuor. Earendil named Lord of the House of the Wing.

540-549 - War declared between Gondolin and the Feanorians of Himring over the Third Kinslaying and kidnapping of Princes Elrond and Elros.

549 - Elrond and Elros recovered. Feanorians and Gondolin severely weakened. Celebrimbor // Gil-Galad declared heir to the High Kingship.

552-554 - Second Siege & Fall of Gondolin. Third use of the Three Rings by Lomion and Celebrimbor. Deaths of Ecthelion, Glorfindel, Egalmoth, and Turgon. Idril and Celebrimbor lead survivors through the Secret Way.

555 - Gondolithlim refugees arrive at Sirion.

556 - Idril departs for Valinor.

558 - Earendil searches for Valinor.

560 - Havens of Sirion destroyed by Morgoth. Gondolithlim/Doriathrim survivors scattered. Elrond and Elros rescued (as adults) by Maglor.

572 - Morgoth controls Beleriand. Earendil and reembodied Elwing come to Valinor and rally the Host.

575-617 - War of Wrath

618 - Maglor claims the Silmaril from Eonwe's camp and casts himself into the Sea. Death of Maglor.

620 - End of the First Age.

SA

1 - Founding of the Grey Havens and Lindon under High King Lomion

2 - Elros becomes the first King of Numenor

c. 500 - Sauron returns to Middle-Earth in the East.

650 - Eregion is founded

1000 - Galadriel is given Vilya; Lomion wields Nenya

1170 - Annatar comes to Lindon and Lomion turns him away. Lomion warns Celebrimbor of Eregion of his suspicions.

1200 - Annatar comes to Eregion. Celebrimbor takes him in to monitor.

1250 - Celebrimbor creates the Seven; Lomion creates the Nine.

1410 - Annatar is kicked out of Eregion.

1600 - The One Ring is forged. Sauron remains in hiding.

1610 - Sauron begins to gather and prepare armies in the East.

1673 - War of the Elves and Sauron begins.

1675 - Sauron invades Eriador.

1677 - Fall of Ost-in-Edhil. Celebrimbor and Lomion remain at the House of the Mirdain. Death of Celebrimbor in battle // Fourth use of the Three in battle. Sauron does not learn of the Seven. Founding of Imladris.

1678 - Sauron defeated by the Numenoreans and the Elves of Lindon.

1679 - Sauron flees to Mordor. First White Council held.

3147 - Civil war in Numenor.

3225 - Ar-Pharazon seizes the Sceptre.

3228 - Elrond claims the Sceptre. Ar-Pharazon disowned. Tar-Miriel named Ruling Queen.

3232 - Sauron taken to Numenor as a prisoner.

3274 - Elrond kicks Sauron out of Numenor and outlaws the morgoth cult.

3310 - Morgoth cult publicly reappears.

3319 - Downfall of Numenor. Tar-Miriel leads a greater force of the Faithful away.

(green // blue means two main options, red means i need to think about it more)

The main details I'm figuring out right now are

does Celebrimbor still die at Eregion - I don't think he's getting captured/tortured, but he could still die in the battle. On the other hand, he could probably survive by using Narya & Lomion using Nenya, but that would definitely have repercussions further down the line

how does Idril's deal work - I'm currently thinking of Idril exchanging the location of Gondolin for her family's guaranteed safety, because it seems in character for Reverse Idril? But on the other hand, even if I limit it to immediate family at the time of the oath (tuor, turgon, earendil) then idk where turgon dies? Maybe Maglor can kill him but that seems kind of random

where and how does Turgon die

how does Prince Elrond's character even work

how does Numenor still fall when factoring in Prince Elrond - I'm thinking that the morgoth death cult gained enough traction during the time sauron was there that even after Elrond kicks him out, the cult still sticks around and reemerges later? The Fall still happens, but they never go to attack valinor and there's a good deal more Faithful (maybe 40-60%?)

[eloquentsisyphianturmoil]

News of Dior’s Silmaril passed further than the sons of Feanor. Morgoth too heard, Morgoth too planned an attack. He prepared forces to storm Doriath. The kinslayers got there first. When orcs arrived at Menegroth, it was already deserted. Had it been otherwise there would have been no survivors.

[feanorianethicsdepartment]

you just know there’s some elven supremacist assholes out there who think the problem with the third kinslaying is that the fëanorians killed Elves, Specifically, and if they’d massacred a human refugee camp for the silmaril it wouldn’t even be worth remarking on

[eri-pl]

Hm. I'm starting to suspect that if I had a weird mathom for every character that is a) too conflict avoidant for their own good b) more or less falls into the sea at some point, I would have three weird mathoms, which is not much, but

[gwaedhannen]

I often wonder what all the other kids orphaned by the Third Kinslaying thought of Elros and Elrond when they returned.

[curiosity-killed]

lil sketch for the scene I've been noodling on

[ALT ID: A digital illustration of the interior of a horse stall. A grey horse is pushing itself up onto its feet from lying down, and someone is stepping in through the gate with a pair of shoes dangling from their hands. A man is sitting on the ground in the far corner, hunched in on himself and looking toward the person entering.]

[silvantransthranduiltrash]

I have a lack of sympathy for Thingol, Dior, and Elwing and here’s why:

Ngl, i’d feel more sympathy for dior, elwing, thingol, etc if they didn’t all collectively decide a shiny rock, that they had absolutely no claim over and kept from their rightfull owners, over their own people.

Sons of feanor: hey, can we have our father’s greatest creation, that morgoth killed out grandfather for, back?

Thingol, Dior, Elwing: yeah, about that... see, it’s very shiny and i like it very much so imma just... keep it.

Sons of feanor: but it literally does not belong to you??? Stealing it doesn’t make it yours? And it’s literally one of the only things we have left of our trees of light? And once more our father created it? And it was stolen from him? You should really just give it back?

Thingol, Dior, Elwing: but it’s mine now. I have it.

Sons of feanor: you are aware that we have sworn an oath, a soul binding oath, that forces us to kill and get rid of any one and anything in our way to get them back, right? Like, we don’t want to, but we will due to this oath.

Thingol, Dior, Elwing: so?

Sons of feanor: we will literally resort to kinslaying to get these jewels back due to the oath, never mind that it literally does not belong to you and is our father’s creation, holds the light of our trees, and caused the death of our grandfather. Listen, we are trying to resolve this peacefully, bc we also do not want to resort to kinslaying, so give us OUR thing back. You are not beholden to an oath. Not that that should matter. Literally GIVE US OUR SHIT BACK.

Thingol, Dior, Elwing: nah

Sons of feanor: oh my fucking god *kinslays* we fucking warned you you dumbass! *kinslays again* all you had to do was give us our thing back, it literally does not belong to you. *kinslays* we fucking told you about the oath, but did you listen? No! Do you even care about your own people? Like, what is this shit?

Thingol, Dior, Elwing: *dies* *cries about how it’s unfair*

(Look, do i acknowledge and understand that what the feanorians did with the kinslaying is wrong? Yeah. Do i also acknowledge and understand that Thingol, Dior, and Elwing could have avoided all of this if they had just given the jewels that they had not right to back? Absolutely. Even ignoring how they had no right to the silmarils in the first place, as leaders of their people, they did not do right by their people by putting a shiny rock over their people (especially considering they were not under oath) especially considering they were given the option to resolve it peacefully and were given warning)

(To be completely honest, Thingol, Dior, and Elwing continuously acting as if they had a right to the silmarils is very much like how the museums dig up ancient tombs, pilfers the treasures, take it all to their land and display it, all without a second thought to the people and descendants of the rightful owners, and disregard the cultural value for the original people, and thenget bitchy when the people of the country and culture want their history ancestors possessions back)

The only one i’ll give lenience to is elwing bc she was young, had not parental guidance, and withholding the jewel was probably also partly driven by spite, but Thingol and Dior have no leg to stand on what so ever.

Lastly, i’d like to state that this is what I think, this is my opinion and you are absolutely free and welcome to have your own. If you have a different opinion, feel free to post it on your own time and in your own post.

[imakemywings]

Since I’m still thinking about the twins, the last post got me thinking about why I’ve never been a huge fan of the crispy Amrod plot point. I don’t hate it, I just don’t vibe with it and I think it’s this: I think the narrative value of all seven of Feanor’s sons dying as a result of their own violence far outweighs the angst value of Feanor accidentally killing one of his own kids.

We already know how far gone Feanor is. We just watched him invent kinslaying and slaughter his way through a bunch of unarmed Elves to steal their ships, then burn those ships condemning his brothers and their people to the Helcaraxe (or more generously, simply excluding them from his quest) and in another half a page we watch him charge into a battle that gets him killed. Accidentally torching Amrod doesn’t tell us anything about Feanor’s mindset; we can already see how much Melkor and the Silmarils and revenge for Finwe’s murder dominate his thoughts to the exclusion of things he used to care about.

Amrod dying alongside his twin because they perpetrated “the cruelest of the slayings of Elf by Elf” is much more satisfying, imo. (I think this is especially compelling if you buy that Amrod and Amras were the driving force behind the Third Kinslaying, but even without that, I still think this is narratively tasty.) Five of Feanor’s seven sons die in battles they started, attacking other Elves to get back what they viewed as their property. Maedhros kills himself after realizing all the violence they committed was for nothing. Maglor arguably fades away after his actions help leave him entirely alone in the world.

I think a central element of the story of the Feanorians is that they all meet miserable ends stemming directly from their own behavior and Amrod dying at Sirion fits with that. Crispy Amrod takes Amrod’s death from the brutal (and inevitable?) outcome of his own violent choices and makes it into simply a tragic accident of Feanor’s making. Crispy Amrod dies as a result of Feanor’s choices; untoasted Amrod dies as a result of his own choices.

*Obligatory disclaimer this is not an attack on anyone who prefers crispy Amrod nor a claim that the “correct” take is untoasted Amrod, just my own preference.

[that-angry-noldo]

do you think tolkien was "evil cackling" writer while working on the narn or do you think he was "staring at the wall rethinking everything" writer while working on the narn

[palamedesunderscore]

it not it's mine its "Fuck you!"

Character Thoughts - Elwing

I don’t think that Elwing throwing herself into the ocean had anything to do with possessiveness about the Silmaril. For me, it recalls two other scenes in Tolkien’s work.

One is Frodo’s defiance at the Ford of Bruinen: “By Elbereth and Lúthien the Fair, you shall have neither the Ring nor me!” A desperate defiance against evil when you’re at the end of your rope and the end of your strength (and retreat to water, and unexpected rescue).

And the other, even more strongly, is the Fall of Fingolfin. She’s just lost a desperate battle; she sees everything she knows and loves and has built falling into ruin and fire; she can’t stop any of it. But she can fight the people who did this to her, and she can hurt them, even if it kills her. She can’t outright duel Maedhros (he’s been probably the greatest swordsman in Beleriand for ten times longer than she’s been alive; that would quite possibly be a more unequal fight than the Duel of Fingolfin and Morgoth), but she still has a way to hurt him. You don’t get the Silmaril, and you don’t get to kill me. You don’t get to win.

The central thought underlying it is not ‘mine’; it is ‘fuck you’.

It is not about her keeping the Silmaril; it is about the Fëanorians not getting it.

I don’t think she knows just how well she’s succeeding at hurting them - everything in her life tells her the Fëanorians are monsters as bad as or worse than anything from Angband, not beings capable of remorse - but she knows she’s denying them the one thing they want. And Maedhros and Maglor are left knowing that the worst thing they’ve ever done was, as far as their goals are concerned, completely pointless.

She’s not ‘abandoning her children’. She’s already lost her children. She has no way to save them. She has no reason to believe they would be spared, whatever she did. The twins are of no use to the Fëanorians. The Fëanorians have already shown themselves willing to murder children, her brothers, that actually did have value as hostages. If Elwing handed over the Silmaril there’s no reason for her to believe they wouldn’t just kill her and her children for spite.

It can’t be emphasized enough that the Fëanorians are the monsters of Elwing’s life. Angband is a distant name and a threat. The murderers of Elwing’s father, her mother, her brothers, the twice-destroyers of her home, are the Fëanorians. They are her Morgoth.

[treeshrine]

every time i look at a silm centric blog that isn't one of my elwing mutuals posting opinions about elwing i get a little nervous. you don't know her like i do

[eloquentsisyphianturmoil]

The refugees in Sirion hearing the grind of metal and angry shouts and thinking it’s happening again.

[thesummerestsolstice]

Elvish art genre that definitely exists in Middle-Earth: the captivity of Elrond and Elros (mostly just Elrond, especially after Elros dies)

The paintings– done mostly, but not always, by Sindarin and anti-Feanorian Noldor artists– are usually studies in contrast– Elrond as the bright, innocent child dressed in white; often portrayed as a small, frightened elfling, frozen at the moment he was taken from Sirion. Sometimes he is shown bravely resisting the cruelty of the Feanorians, other times he mourns for Sirion, or bows and prays to the gods for deliverance. Sometimes, he's given wings, both to stress his connection with Luthien and Elwing and to make him look more angelic and pure in comparison to the fallen Feanorians.

Maedhros and Maglor are the dark monsters the oath made them, with teeth, and claws, and harsh armor. Some of the more daring artists just portray Maedhros as an actual orc. While few of the paintings actually show the Feanorians' crimes, they're often portrayed with blood on their hands or swords, or simply surrounded by fire and destruction. They often demand, or threaten in the pictures, towering over Elrond and casting long shadows on him.

There's a few different sub-genres of these paintings. The ones that explicitly compare Elrond's situation to Luthien's kidnapping by Celegorm. The ones that feature a grateful Elrond being saved from the horrible Feanorians by whoever the artist is looking to valorize– Gil-Galad, Galadriel, Oropher, Eonwe, etc. The ones that show Elrond, locked in a dark cell, staring longingly out at Gil-Estel rising in the night sky. Some of the strangest are the ones that draw connections between the Silmarils being kept in Morgoth's crown and the twins– often with Maedhros playing the role of Morgoth.

Elrond hates almost all of these paintings. He feels like they take away his ability to define his past the way he wants to– to tell his own story. Most of them are grossly inaccurate, but most people don't know that, and dredging up all those really painful memories to try and correct people's assumption is hard. Sometimes, even when he does, people won't listen. Some of the paintings also seem... weirdly gleeful about the idea that Elrond suffered because of the Feanorians? Like they're trying to martyr him even though he's alive, and doesn't want to be martyred. It all makes him really, really uncomfortable.

There is one exception. It's not a very traditional example of captivity paintings. Elrond is at the center of the frame, shown not as a small child but as a young adult. Maglor and Maedhros are mostly unseen in the background, each with a bloody hand on one of Elrond's shoulders. Unlike the other paintings, instead of looking off into the distance or staring demurely at the ground, Elrond is looking straight out at the viewer His expression is hard to place. Anger? Acceptance? Defiance? Pity? Accusation? It's a very odd picture that unsettles almost everyone that look at it.

Elrond insists on hanging it in Rivendell.

[lendmyboyfriendahand]

I love this! I would like to add another drinking games for post-resurrection Noldor: "You all killed me!"

For "You all killed me," come up with an explanation for how the other people at the table are causally entangled with your death. Everyone you can find an excuse for takes a shot.

Example: "I died at the Nirnaeth. The Nirnaeth wouldn't have happened if Fingon hadn't united everyone, and Steve saved Fingon's life once. I was wearing armor made by Bob's second cousin, who only came to Beleriand because Bob persuaded her mom that it was a good idea. Sally died five years earlier, but we always fought together and if she'd been alive she would have covered me with her shield. Therefore Bob, Steve and Sally killed me!"

I want drunk elves playing Never Have I Ever post-Sailing/resurrection in Valinor, but more than that I want drunk elves playing The Worst Thing I Ever Did post-Sailing/resurrection in Valinor, which is an inverse of Never Have I Ever wherein you say something like, “The worst thing I ever did was date three people at once” or, “The worst thing I ever did was participate in the Kinslaying at Sirion” and everyone who also did that thing takes a shot. An ideal game ricochets wildly between silly pranks and soul-marring regret and trauma.

[curiosity-killed]

i missed wipwed but i did scribble in my notebook till my hand cramped last night so:

Inhaling carefully, Callebero pushed down the unwonted pressure that rose in his throat. There had been no letter from Jisel in the two months since their return. Naturally, there were no letters. Jisel had made clear her own wishes in Meillarune, and there was no reason to think she might have changed her mind in any way. She wasn’t exactly given to backing down once she’d set her flag in the earth. It was only that—she had called them family, hadn’t she? Before everything crumbled, she had claimed them in front of her brother and his wife, and Callebero knew little, but he knew some of the significance of that in Capallan culture. Amidst everything else going on at the time, that had lanced through his heart and held fast—but he must have misunderstood her intent, again. Taken it to mean too much, seized hold of it too tightly. Sirion was the only one he could ask for insight, and Callebero didn’t dare. It would be too obvious what he was really asking, what answer he begged to hear

sometimes ur bestie makes grand dramatic gestures and then immediately ditches u and ur left with just feelings (and the feelings are Sad)