#fic talk: aranor

[anghraine]

This is maximally self-indulgent so I didn't add it to the other reblog, but the Denethor--Aragorn connection is honestly one of the funnest things about writing my Aranor fics. The basic premise is that the Númenórean throwbacks in LOTR are genderbent (usually to women, though Ivriniel and Finduilas of Dol Amroth become Túrin and Gwindor!). The most narratively central figure is Aranor (Aragorn), though, so I mostly think of the interconnected fics as "the Aranorverse."

Anyway, the Denethor--Aragorn connection is particularly fun in that verse because the first woman to rule Gondor is not Aranor, but the Ruling Steward Andreth (Denethor). For Aranor, getting the people of Gondor to accept her as not only heir of Elendil but as ruling queen is still a steep task—but not as steep as it would have been if the foundation had not been laid by Andreth's rise to the Ruling Stewardship and popular, largely successful rule over the decades since.

Andreth would never in a million years have wanted her actions to smooth Aranor's path, incidentally. They knew each other as younger women and she was one of the only people to realize that Aranor was a woman, much less heir of Isildur, and Andreth resented the hell out of "Thorongil" back in the day. Andreth knows her way around a sword and in some ways, would have very much preferred to live a Thorongil sort of life, but as one of the Steward's daughters and mother to the (then very young) heir to the Stewardship, her circumstances were quite different from Aranor's.

In any case, Andreth wanted Boromir to succeed her as had always been planned, and was devastated by his death. Still, she remained set on her remaining heir, her daughter Míriel, inheriting the Stewardship upon her death. Fortunately in some ways, she died before Aranor's return and never saw the parallels between her struggle to rule in her own right and not only as regent for Boromir during his minority, and Aranor's fight for the chieftainship of the Northern Dúnedain given the N. Dúnedain's pride in the father-to-son line of male chieftains, or how both struggles would culminate in Aranor's ascension as first ruling queen of Gondor.

[anghraine]

I’ve been following you for years now and my dumb ass just put together Míriel and Faramir. Between that and the wave dream it’s making me a bit emo I won’t lie lol

Aww, that's totally fair! And I appreciate the long-time follow :)

Miriel/Faramir anon, I just had another thought that just clicked thinking abt your aging post and Miriel remaining youthful/ageless while Pharazon ages and decays also foils with youthful Faramir contrasted against prematurely aging Denethor. One ends with drowning while the other (almost) ends with immolation. Ok bye lol

YES the water/fire youth/age visual imagery is so interesting, I think!

I've often vaguely associated Tar-Míriel and Faramir through the combination of the jewel imagery and the Akallabêth, yes. I don't think I've ever written about Faramir's dream/vision/ancestral memory of it without assuming that Míriel figures in some way, even though Tolkien never said so. Partly that's because the final image of her drowning on the Meneltarma is so much the image of the Akallabêth for me, but also the echo of the jewel theme.

One of my first fics ever (for any fandom) was about Faramir dreaming of Míriel drowning, and then waking up beside a pregnant Éowyn and adjusting. And it is not only for the coincidence of name elements that Faramir becomes Míriel in my f/f Aragorn/Faramir verse. I think that in canon, Faramir already has some intriguing associations with water:

fára in Quenya means 'shore' (though in fairness, he may have been named for his distant cousin, Prince Faramir of the House of Anárion, rather than meaning)

Faramir's first remembered grief is a dim memory of his dying mother, who "withered in the guarded city, as a flower of the seaward vales set upon a barren rock ... she turned her eyes ever south to the sea that she missed." He was five when she died, but pretty blatantly resembles her as well as Denethor in character.

Faramir often dreams of Númenor being drowned for completely unknown reasons (I mean, it actually happened, and it's Tolkien's dream, but we don't know why he gets the dreams about it in-story—though he's also particularly receptive to the prophecy-dream-riddle). Everyone knows his description of the Akallabêth dream, but the description is still pretty harrowing: "the great dark wave climbing over the green lands and above the hills, and coming on, darkness unescapable."

Faramir is standing by the water when he has the vision/not vision of Boromir's body floating down to the sea.

So it's even more interesting that Faramir's "case" of the Black Breath is different from everyone else's—the others grow cold/icy while he burns. Of course, that's potentially linked to his near immolation by Denethor, but the contrast with Míriel's death and the (metaphorical)(ish) shadow of the sea over him is really intriguing. When I was trying to figure out how f!Faramir-Míriel would get the Boromir vision, I was like "well she wouldn't literally be keeping watch by the river, but maybe it could reach her through some other water association, like ... oh! like the Akallabêth dream! and then I could have her relationship with Tar-Míriel's legacy and everything in it too..."

[anghraine]

I know most of you aren't here for my m->f genderbent faves fics, but I also know at least some of you do read at least some of the fics. And I feel like working on one, but am having trouble deciding which to pick! So I leave it in your hands:

Love, Pride & Delicacy is a period-set, slow-burn f/f Elizabeth/Darcy fic.

Daughters of Númenor is an episodic AU where the Númenórean throwbacks in LOTR are genderbent; Aranor/Míriel.

One More Tomorrow is an Amon-centric Legend of Korra AU with f!Tarrlok.

The Lucy Skywalker series is a sprawling AU that is approaching the ROTJ storyline.

The queer Rogue One AU is a series/fic where every member of the core Rogue One team is queer, including a firmly lesbian Cassia Andor.

The fic for The Borgias has mostly unposted scraps about Cesarina's life as a marriageable young woman.

The unnamed modern P&P AU is this AU with lesbian!Darcy/Narcissa as a rich Seattleite.

The Lady of Gondor only genderbends Faramir and is Aragorn/Fíriel/Éowyn.

[anghraine]

fic meme: first and last lines

Rules: go through your last 5 fics and share the first and last line. provide no context.

I was tagged by @ladytharen in this meme awhile ago! I was going to cheat and wait until I'd finished one of my shorter current projects, but realistically it's going to be awhile. Also, the meme seems geared towards complete works, so I'm going with those, with some guesstimations based on final revisions.

whatever we deny or embrace

first line: When Bail and Breha talked of adopting a girl, they always thought of a baby girl. last line: “It’s a very good idea,” she said.

the voices of the sea

first line: The dream always began the same way. last line: Now, she must tell their mother.

The Jedi and the Sith Lord

first line: If Darth Vader did not avoid the sight of his daughter in carbonite, he certainly did not seek it out. last line: “I think not.”

the last day

first line: My dear Edith, I hope you and your brother are well. last line: I’m sorry, I can’t say anything else.

the gift of men

first line: Eldarion had no queen. last line: She had lived over seventy years, and Eldarion had lifetimes ahead of him.

Tagging: @elwing, @kareenvorbarra, @ncfan-1, @irresistible-revolution, @kazaera, if you want to do it!

[anghraine]

It's not really surprising, considering that I'm a lesbian, but it's still kind of incredible to me how much many characters I dislike or feel meh about become far more appealing when I mentally cast them with women or imagine their stories as women.

I'm also into this for my faves (this is obvious if you're familiar with my AO3 account, lol), but a beloved blorbo becoming an even more beloved blorbo isn't nearly as much of a change as ... idk, my profound frustration with canon Maedhros vs "whoa, that'd be awesome" when I think of Maedhros As Played By Katharine Hepburn. Or there's my ambivalence about canon Aragorn vs my affection for female Aragorn, who breaks the father to son chain of heirs of Isildur, but manages to hang onto the heirship anyway, and who is, additionally, 6'6" with shaggy, greying hair and an appearance that ranges from foul to beautiful depending on how regal she feels at that moment.

(I once wrote a fic about female Aragorn having a nightmare about taking the Ring and morphing into the dreadful Tar-Elessarnë. And Tar-Elessarnë would be dreadful. But 100x hotter than canon, also.)

[anghraine]

Naturally, given my anon asks, last night's genderbending lullaby had to be the voices of the sea, the fic from my (very slowly developing) femslash Aragorn/Faramir AU. In this fic, Míriel (f!Faramir) dreams of Númenor:

Even as Míriel gazed upon it, the storming water splashed up into foamy waves that roared beneath them. This did not, however, prepare her for what happened next. To the west, all the waves seemed to join together into one, towering and impossibly enormous. But it grew still larger, cascading up and up and up and up, above Míriel and the woman, above the mountain itself, above everything. The hills and valleys, forests and cities, all fell under its heavy shadow. Míriel’s very blood felt cold, her breath coming in small, frightened pants as the wave’s inescapable darkness deepened. The woman, clinging to rocks, screamed something that Míriel half-understood. Then the wave began to crash down on them.

[anghraine]

3:30 AM and suddenly it struck me ... okay. The thing about my Aranor (f!Aragorn/f!Faramir) fics is that the 'verse genderbends all Númenórean throwback types in LOTR (e.g. Aragorn, Denethor, Faramir, Imrahil), or characters I consider likely to be that type (Ivriniel, Halbarad).

But:

As I've pointed out before (a few times >_>), Elrond's sons in particular are not classed with Elves in the text—they look like Elves, but they're excluded from generalizations about Elves despite being present (they can't see as far as Legolas does, they fear the Dead, and even the celebratory address includes them as "sons of Elrond" rather than as Elves). They're often associated with the Northern Dúnedain. Their names reference both their Elvish and Mannish heritage according to Tolkien, both names basically meaning Elf+Man, but with rohir more specifically translated as "horse-lord" or "knight" in Númenórean Sindarin, and the adan in Elladan translated as "Númenórean" (rather than simply human or one of the Edain).

Their Númenóreanness can only come through Elrond, of course. And Elrond himself is described as both Elf and Man, and more specifically, the eldest of Aragorn's people.

So while the fic premise was only considering mortal Númenórean types, hmmmm.

Arguably Elrond is not a throwback, he's just the real deal, and I think I do prefer male Elrond for this fic—but Elladan and Elrohir, born after the Downfall ...? Arguably Arwen could be changed as well, but textually she's very associated with Elves in a way her brothers aren't, and I definitely envisioned Aranor as firmly lesbian. And I kind of like the idea that it's just the twins who change and all three are daughters, and the sharp distinction between the twins and Arwen in roles and motivations is much less gendered.

That whole thing about few mortals ever seeing Arwen vs the twins riding with the Dúnedain, say, could be really interesting if the twins are also daughters but still warriors. And there's also Elrond's insistence on acknowledging/raising tiny Aranor as the future chieftain of the northern Dúnedain despite her existence breaking the father-to-son line of the heirs of Isildur for the first time in thousands of years, which has always been a particularly heartwarming part of the Aranor backstory to me (maybe only me, but whatever). Like, the Elrond who rolled with his firstborn daughters becoming vengeful warriors could work pretty neatly with the Elrond who backs Aranor and helps raise her with the tools she's going to need.

Yeah, I think I'm going to go with it. Now for counterpart names that sound natural in Sindarin...

[anghraine]

While I'm being self-indulgent (is Self-Indulgent Sunday a thing?) wrt the Aranor (f!Aragorn/f!Faramir) fics/verse, some of my favorite details that have yet to appear in the fics:

—Andreth (f!Denethor) had a much more complicated path to the Stewardship than in canon and was the first woman to ever rule Gondor in her own right. In a case of extreme dramatic irony, Andreth's successful fight for the Stewardship helped pave the way for Aranor to become the first Ruling Queen.

—Andreth married relatively late in life for a first marriage. Although her marriage to the much-younger Gwindor of Dol Amroth was forwarded by both their families, they were passionately devoted to each other. But Gwindor longed for the sea of his home and wasted away in Minas Tirith, under the shadow of Mordor. (I particularly enjoy the reversal here, ngl.)

—Andreth refuses to leave Minas Tirith when she sensibly evacuates most of the other women and children, including her daughter and last surviving heir, Míriel (f!Faramir). Before Míriel's departure, Andreth places her in charge of the evacuees and instructs her to take up the Stewardship and lead their people to Gondor's refuges should Minas Tirith fall.

—The Northern Dúnedain have long prided themselves on the unbroken father-to-son line of the heirs of Isildur. But Arathorn dies leaving only a daughter, Aranor, far too young to forward her claim as heir of Isildur. The N. Dúnedain are inclined to pass the heirship to the nearest patrilineal male relation, ideally one already grown—until Elrond intercedes on toddler Aranor's behalf and takes on her care.

—When Aranor, a lean, greying, middle-aged woman, arrives in Gondor at the head of the army of the Dead and leads the defeat of the Corsairs, the southern Gondorians are grateful but also a bit "bzuh?" That was definitely not on their fantasy bingo cards.

—Even without an Aragorn/Arwen situation (Aranor's love is real but unrequited), Elrond comes to Gondor to see Aranor—as beloved as his natural daughters—become Queen Elessarnë. He ends up having a very kind talk with Míriel, who faces an uncertain future even as she still dreams of Númenor.

—Speaking of the unrequited Aranor/Arwen, Aranor is so used to loving Arwen in a very fairy-tale kind of way that she herself doesn't realize her feelings have shifted until well after the fact, and later, when she realizes she's in love with Míriel, it seems natural to assume this will also be unrequited. (Pining. This is a verse for pining.)

[anghraine]

My f!Aragorn/f!Faramir AU is fun (for me) because it's actually an "every Númenórean throwback in LOTR, determined according to me, is genderbent."

So there's f!Aragorn, Aranor, whose existence breaks the father-to-son chain of heirs of Isildur carried on for thousands of years, but who manages to hang onto the heirship by fiat of Elrond and her own resolute will and immense abilities. She proceeds to fight canon Aragorn's uphill battle, but it's harder at virtually every turn. She passes herself off as a man as "Thorongil" but her gender and identity are recognized by—

—Andreth, the Steward's daughter/f!Denethor. Her only brother died young, while her older sisters are both childless and unwilling to return to Minas Tirith. Andreth, trained in both lore and, unusually, war, has recently waged a bitter if victorious political fight to be acknowledged as Ecthelion's heir, rather than at best a potential regent for her son Boromir. She knows all about fighting uphill battles. Despite her intense dislike of Aranor, Andreth's fight for the Stewardship plays a major part in paving the way for Aranor's eventual ascension as Gondor's first ruling queen.

In all of this, Andreth was backed by her ailing husband, Gwindor of Dol Amroth (m!Finduilas), and his powerful family. This included his gay older brother Túrin (m!Ivriniel) and his younger sister Imraphel (f!Imrahil). Imraphel in particular respected Andreth without feeling the need to like her, all the more after her own fight to get taken seriously as a (hulking) lady knight in Dol Amroth. Imprahel has unhesitatingly presented herself as another Haleth, replicating popular Gondorian imagery of Haleth and proving herself a fierce and dauntless warrior and captain.

Speaking of Haleth, Aranor doesn't have a picked bodyguard of women as Haleth herself did—I don't assume all the northern Dúnedain are throwbacks in the Aragorn-Denethor-Imrahil sense—but she does have a beloved cousin named Haleth (f!Halbarad), whom she trusts implicitly. This Haleth has been attached to Aranor from early in Aranor's active chieftainship, and faithfully joins her with some 30 other Dúnedain, but dies heroically on the Pelennor :(

One major figure is completely absent on the Pelennor, though, both in the lead-up to the major battle, and the battle itself. Míriel (f!Faramir), daughter of Andreth, and now her only surviving child, has never had the slightest inclination towards war, though she understands its necessity. She has the iron will of her mother and aunt, along with a distinct strain of her father's gentleness, and like all of them, she can convince men and beasts alike to follow her commands. But she follows Andreth's lead as loremaster rather than warrior, making for a stern, commanding, yet personable Númenórean lady when called upon to convey her mother's will.

Andreth evacuates Míriel with the other women of Minas Tirith, placing her in charge of all the evacuees and warning her of the terrible duty that will fall to her should the battle go ill. They've often been at odds, but not this time; Míriel promises to protect their people as far as her abilities extend if the Stewardship should fall to her.

As it happens, Míriel does receive the news after the battle that her mother, after many years away from warfare, rode out to hold the city's troops together against the Nazgûl long enough for them to retreat into the city. The maneuver succeeded in inflicting heavy casualties, but Andreth died of her wounds not long thereafter. Míriel is now the ruling Lady of Gondor—but not for long. The heir of Isildur has come to claim the throne.

[anghraine]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 💖

Aww, thanks! It's hard to pick a favorite when I've written so much, but here are five that I currently have good feelings about.

1- tolerably well acquainted (an elaboration of Elizabeth's feelings during the book canon scenes at Pemberley and after; WIP but all Pemberley scenes are posted)

For, maybe, once in her life, she had yet to reach judgment. He was at all times Mr Darcy of Pemberley, but Mr Darcy at Pemberley seemed so entirely distinct from Mr Darcy everywhere else that she scarcely knew what to think. Instead, the same thoughts coursed through her mind without resolution, returning over and over again with no answers.

She dwelt on them nevertheless, her habits of courtesy carrying her through the Bromleys’ conversation as it shifted to other subjects. All the while, she wondered how a single person could contain so many contradictions, and seem so wholly unaware of it himself. His manners had been so altered, though; the man who spoke to her mother’s brother and the one who had (rarely) spoken to her mother herself might have been different creatures altogether. Perhaps he had realized—perhaps he had listened—

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

2- the voices of the sea (in which f!Faramir dreams of water; part of the Aranorverse, but a completed one-shot)

Míriel dreamed again of Armenelos and the Meneltarma and the shadow of death rising inexorably above all. But there was no waking. The wave slowly began to collapse over them, foam and droplets spattering her face before it reached her. Míriel stood tall and straight, refusing to cower, allowing herself no further weakness than blinking the water out of her face. She opened her eyes to more water, feeling it slosh about her bare ankles.

But it was now deep into night beneath a pale moon, just bright enough for her to see that the water in which she stood flowed smoothly past the familiar shores of the Anduin. The terror of the Downfall had shifted to an overwhelming sense of peace.

As she watched, she saw a small boat come floating up the river.

3- per ardua ad astra (in which Jyn, Cassian, and Bodhi escape Scarif only to be caught in the Death Star's tractor beam; WIP, if mostly resolved)

He tightened his grasp on the crystal; through his gloves, it warmed his cool hands. Maybe the lingering warmth of Jyn’s body—even on this march to possible death, he shepherded his thoughts away from that—or maybe something else. He didn’t know. At that, Cassian didn’t know what he believed about the Force at all, beyond the reality of its existence. He reserved his faith for the cause. The dream of liberation, given shape by the Rebellion. And by Jyn. A Jedi could appear before him, and it would matter less than this chunk of rock.

He believed in Jyn. In a way, that mattered more than loving her.

4- One More Tomorrow (in which Noatak becomes Amon, ft. f!Tarrlok)

He didn’t mean waiting for the council to see reason. They never would, any of them. Even Taraka.

Particularly Taraka. He’d have liked to imagine that she had simply fallen under the malign sway of her peers, as she had lived under his sway in their childhood. But it was Taraka who spoke out most aggressively against the Equalists, Taraka who advocated for harsher penalties for attacks on benders, Taraka whose reputation rose until the council elected her chairwoman, Taraka who seemed the worst of them all. A monster.

And yet, his sister still.

5- [untitled and unposted. ANYWAY] (GW2 OFC/ OFC fic)

Gwen hadn’t cried, and some part of her desperately wished she could. But there was enough of the bandit Gwen left in her to keep her eyes dry. Don’t show weakness. Not here, not ever. Don’t stop until Zhaitan and his kind are gone, and the world is safe for everyone I love. Even—especially people like Tybalt.

Preceptor Doern had summoned her with a new assignment. And worse, with a new partner. But after one glance at the haughty, silk-clad human at his side, Gwen nearly recoiled.

"Lightbringer Althea," she said.

[anghraine]

venndaai said:

@anghraine aw… I gotta try my hand at it now I guess

I support you in this!! I just dug up my tags on the main fic snippets and it was just this monologue like:

#i'm sorry but like ... canon aragorn is interesting in both his virtues and flaws but also frustrating in some ways #f!aragorn is interesting in both her virtues and flaws and also ... super hot #even as tar-elessarnë! #idk i'm gay and weak

#adfjlk i'm just thinking of aranor arriving in southern gondor #from their perspective it's like ... this greying middle-aged woman just shows up to help?? with a small force following her?? #and then holy shit she's got an army of dead people wtf #and looks ... different #and then she's freeing the slaves from the ships and asking the southern gondorians to follow her into battle #and like ... one hand following a woman to battle?! and otoh a woman who just saved them all with an undead army... #also just thinking about aranor in the helmet-crown—i mean. a LOOK

I had a really good time today thinking about Arwen/Aragorn/Eowyn/Faramir lesbian love quadrangle drama

Yessss, the good stuff :D

And I'm glad you enjoyed :D :D :D

[anghraine]

Back to my drafts folder: the second oldest draft was from July 9th, 2013, when I was working on an early version of the Aranorverse (AU with f!Aragorn/Aranor, f!Denethor/Andreth, f!Imrahil/Imraphel, f!Faramir/Míriel). I never wrote the full scene, but this concept for the 'verse has persisted:

"War is coming to Minas Tirith," said the Steward. "Tomorrow the beacons will be lit, and most of the women and children must be evacuated to Lossarnach."

Míriel bowed her head. She knew this much already. Why should Lady Andreth have summoned her, alone, to inform her of what was already known? She was not one to waste words.

"You shall lead them, of course."

[anghraine]

#Ok you have me obsessed with both of these op#seriously this is amazing#just so many lesbians what more could a girl want#oh that’s right POLITCAL TENSION STUFF ON TOP OF THAT! (via @annoyinglandmagazine)

Thank you very much, seriously! These are some of my more niche ideas/projects, especially the Aranor/Míriel iteration of Aragorn/Faramir, and it's always a real delight when someone likes either of them.

And yes, there's definitely political tension in every scenario! It's one of my favorite things to consider, especially with regard to Gondor :D

I was thinking about it, and … Fírielverse Faramir/Aragorn and Aranorverse Faramir/Aragorn have pretty different dynamics for reasons external to themselves, but also, m/f vs f/f just strike different chords with me although I like both.

Keep reading

[anghraine]

Míriel!!!

This doc goes with the 'verse where the Númenórean throwbacks in LOTR are genderbent. The "Míriel" in question is f!Faramir (not Tar-Míriel, sadly, though she shows up in Faramir!Míriel's dreams of Númenor here).

I've only written a little more than that, which stopped at Míriel having a dream-vision of Boromir floating down the Anduin and realized he was dead. But when I get back to it, I want to write the scene where Andreth (f!Denethor) sends Míriel away from Minas Tirith to lead the other evacuees, and we see the complicated relationship between them.

(It's more complicated than Fíriel's and Denethor's in my other f!Faramir fic, partly because I wanted to contrast the two verses, and partly because I genuinely think that a f!Denethor who fought for the Stewardship and actually got it and forged a stable reign would have very different expectations of a daughter than canon Denethor.)

I also wanted to write the scene where news reaches Míriel of the events of the Pelennor—Andreth's death, the victory, then the march to the Black Gate, then Sauron's defeat, so that when she returns to Minas Tirith from the evacuation, she's living in an entirely different world than the one she knew and unsure what the future holds for her under Aranor/f!Aragorn's rule.

[anghraine]

One of the reasons that I’m really fond of my f!Aragorn/f!Faramir verse is that ... okay, it’s not news that I think Arvedui’s attempt to claim the throne of Gondor combined a dubious claim and active misrepresentation of previous laws, plus a side of hypocrisy.

But I will concede that the position of the Council of Gondor, led by Pelendur, was ... also not great. They argued that women like Fíriel couldn’t inherit because of war and men couldn’t inherit through women because of Reasons.

In canon, this is resolved by Faramir/Gondor reversing the decision because Aragorn is so kingly and heroic, and also because Aragorn focuses on the male-line heir of Isildur stuff and just lets the claim through Fíriel slide. This makes pragmatic sense, but also ... justice for Fíriel!!!

Anyway, it’s nice to have my own little verse where Arvedui and Fíriel’s heir does become Ruling Queen (in her own right, tyvm Arvedui). And her path is smoothed by Pelendur’s heiress, no less.

[anghraine]

I wrote a three-page one shot starring f!Faramir with background (ie, not actually appearing) f!Denethor + Númenor and Boromir feelings, which I’m sure is the content that everyone follows me for.

>_>