#but i am writing this to recover from groip project meeting so not at my best

[captainadwen]

Whatever happened to Mae reverted his temporal-state to that of a kid. it’s irreversible, as far as any of the house of Finwe’s members and healers can tell (once they manage to re-establish contact). surviving the bragollach is probably overall harder, without Mae’s deeds of great valor (rip, Azaghal). Popular wisdom is that Maedhros alone of Feanor’s sons fell in the Bragollach, trying to hold the front. It is bad for morale and makes Fingolfin unhappier, and so it is High King Fingon that gets hush-hush told about what actually happened to Maedhros

- Fingon has to deal with trying to hold the Noldor together without his best friend and close, powerful ally. Maglor is a good commander, but he can’t make up for the hole Mae leaves. On the other hand, a tiny little version of Maedhros of the likes he had never seen before (on account of either being a baby or not yet born when Mae was last this age) is a pretty okay distraction

- The world’s pissiest custody battles ensue. No one can deny that Mae is a Feanorian, but also calling him ‘Maedhros’ was out of the question now, as was Maitimo, and definitely not Nelyafinwe, and the closest they get to anything is Artanaro/Rodnor, and oops, his eyes shine like stars not the trees don’t be ridiculous. Also, isn’t Barad Etheid a much better place for a child to be in compared to Himring?

- Most of the soldiers of Himring know what’s up. They would rather die than explain why they are loyal to a tiny child. There are rumors he is Maedhros’ child, but no one can produce a mother to prove them.

- Mae ends up at Barad Etheid, when the travel ways are made a bit safe again. The Ereinion Gil-Galad persona is born here. Maedhros’ sindarin gains a distinctly Nolofinwian tint.

- Finrod is called on account of being good at magic. He also cannot figure things out. It is pointed out that Barad Etheid is also like, basically the frontlines now. An argument ensues. Fingon argues that if they send Mae-Galad to Nargothrond they might as well just send him all the way to Cirdan, where he will be safest. Belatedly, they all realize this is actually a good idea, because a lot of the Noldor are starting to ask pointed questions about whether Fingon had a red-headed wife

- Honestly, there are probably more kingdoms the Noldor lost than the ones they hold. The Feanorians probably can’t make any arguments whatsover to keep mae around, which makes them bitter on principle. Maglor is head of the house again, but no one is really happy with this (definitely not Maglor, who would 1. like his big brother back 2. if that is not possible, at least have the tiny big brother in his care).

- without mae around, there is no union of anyone, and therefore no nirnaeth. this probably doesn’t improve the situation, since the flipside is a less united noldor and also the loss of a good warlord.

- fingon and barad etheid survive longer than in canon, but doubtfully long enough to see the war of the wrath

- that said, the beren and luthien story probably happens exactly the same. maybe there is some question of whether the silmaril can help restore maedhros as he once was - but between celegorm and curufin’s actions and the first kinslaying still around

... or not, because other fun changes might happen but:

- as Mae grows, he slowly starts regaining memories. However, as dear pearl calculated, he could arguably be 2700+ years old by the Bragollach, so his full regaining memories takes thousands of years. by the time annatar appears he has started to remember the initial unrest of the noldor, and is suspicious of this guy that acts a lot like Nice Personal Melkor

- he still dies of fire

was reading sweetteaanddragons’ bad timing au and in line with the recent thoughts about funny gil-galad origins it got me thinking…

Mae-Galad