#oc ciara morivanessie

[arofili]

men of middle-earth ✦ middle men ✦ headcanon disclaimer

          The Dunlendings were descended from the first Men who wandered to the West in the First Age, and were most akin to the Haladin. Unlike the Three Houses of the Edain, they never crossed the Blue Mountains into Beleriand, instead settling in the White Mountains. Over the centuries, they divided into several distinct groups, including the Bree-men, the Men of the Mountains, and the Dunlendings themselves.           When the Númenóreans returned to Middle-earth, they treated the these peoples ruthlessly and devastated their forests. Those who fled to the foothills of the Misty Mountains settled into the land that would become Dunland, and they forever held resentment for the Dúnedain, refusing to allow them to populate permanent settlements in the Enedhwaith except in the heavily fortified town of Tharbad.           A few unfortunate Dunlendish women were abducted by the Númenóreans back to their island kingdom, including the maiden Ciara who was stolen away by Tar-Círyatan himself, and Moirenna, a member of a coastal people related to the folk of Dunland, who embarked on a journey west and never returned. These stories only further embittered the Dunlendings against the Dúnedain, and while while some of their kin, most notably the Bree-folk, were absorbed into the Númenórean kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor, the Dunlendings remained unaffected, independent, and hostile to the new kings, retaining their own customs and languages. But even though they were unfriendly to the Dúnedain, they also remained hostile to those with orc-blood, and were friendly to the Stoor hobbits during their Wandering days.           After the Great Plague and the failure of the Line of Kings, the Dunlendings migrated to settle the region of Calenardhon, where the garrisons of Gondor now lay empty. Some of them mingled with the Gondorian chieftains at Isengard, and came to view the land as their own. Thus their anger was great when Steward Círion granted the land of Calenardhon not to them but to the Éothéod, viewing them as competitors and usurpers. The focus of their hostilities shifted from the Dúnedainic Gondorians to the Rohirrim, and the Dunlendings did all they could to harry them in times of trouble.           Kings Brego and Aldor of Rohan drove the Dunlendings out of their new kingdom and beyond the river Isen, back into the Enedhwaith. But upon Aldor’s death, they slowly began to return to Calenardhon, settling the northern Westfold and around the tower of Orthanc, where the men of Isengard remained friendlier to them than the “wild Northmen.” Eventually the Dunlendings took control of the fortress, which they retained until their raids upon the Rohirrim became too bold and King Déor led a force against them. Though neither Déor nor his son Gram could oust the Dunlendings from Isengard, their attempts only further increased the bitter feud between the two peoples.           The most notable of these incidents was when Freca, a Lord of Rohan with Dunlendish blood who claimed also be descended from King Fréawine’s younger son Grimwine, threatened rebellion with King Helm should he not concede the hand of his daughter Saulwyn to Freca’s son Wulf. Helm dismissed his demands, insulting him in front of all his lords and pushing the matter to the end of the council. When at last he agreed to discuss Wulf’s suit, Helm led Freca out of Meduseld alone, but before he could speak Helm struck him with his fist with such force that he was slain.           Helm declared that Wulf and all of Freca’s kin were enemies of the king, and all those who had come with him to Edoras fled across the borders of Rohan into Dunland. Wulf was distraught and furious at the death of his father, and spent four years in exile stirring his Dunlendish kin to anger against Rohan. Wulf’s mother, Runwise, was a Dunlendish woman, and he leaned upon his heritage through her to ally himself with the kin his father had never bothered to reconnect with. When he deemed his strength great enough, he invaded Rohan from the west, devastating Helm’s armies at the Fords of Isen and moving swiftly to conquer Edoras.           There Wulf blazed a path of blood all the way to the Golden Hall, where he slew Prince Haleth, the last defender of Meduseld, and claimed the Kingship of Rohan. Yet he still did not have all he desired, for the rest of Helm’s family had fled to Súthburg and were locked in a bitter siege. A smaller force of Rohirrim held Dunharrow, likewise besieged, led by Helm’s sister Hild and her son Ethelward.           Their victory lasted only through the winter. Unused to the trials of kingship, Wulf struggled to feed his people and to quell rumblings of discontent among his soldiers, attempting to distract them with near-constant assaults on Súthburg and Dunharrow. But even with the deaths of Helm, his wife, and his remaining son, the Rohirrim held out against their enemies, and when winter broke, Wulf’s power broke with it. Hild and Ethelward led a small party into Edoras, avenging Helm and his kin by killing “King” Wulf and ousting the Dunlendings from Rohan.           With their strength much diminished, the Dunlendings went into hiding for many years, though they remained in secret in the Westfold until King Folcwine reconquered the land with the aid of Steward Túrin of Gondor. Yet the Dunlendish strain survived among the people who dwelt between the rivers Isen and Adorn, and a resentment toward the Kings in Edoras lingered.           This was exploited by the wizard Saruman, who during the War of the Ring employed the Dunlendings to attack and raid the settlements of Rohan, an easy task since the treacherous Gríma Wormtongue had corrupted the mind of King Théoden. The Dunlendings hated and feared the orcs Saruman bred, especially the half-orcs of their own blood, torn from the wombs of their womenfolk, but they hated the Rohirrim more and fought alongside Saruman’s monsters in the Battle of the Hornburg. Yet many surviving Dunlendish warriors were relieved when the tide of the battle turned and Gandalf appeared with reinforcements for the Rohirrim, and they were quick to surrender to their enemies, freed at last from Saruman’s control.           Yet for some, the hatred of the Rohirrim outweighed their hatred of Saruman, and they fled with him from Isengard to the Shire. The wizard already had some Dunlendish agents in the area, including Duncan, a part-orc man who had first traveled to Bree under the guise of obtaining pipe-weed for his master. Duncan betrayed his master when he was caught and interrogated by the Nazgûl, and thenceforth allied himself with Bill Ferny. By the time Saruman showed up in the Shire himself, Duncan’s loyalties shifted yet again, and he joined the group of ruffians led by “Sharkey,” falling back amongst his Dunlendish kin. Yet Duncan’s experience in the westlands was not enough to save him, and he was killed in the skirmish of Bree by Jack Rushlight, a man he had many times wronged and cheated.           Still, the majority of the Dunlendings remained in the land of Calenardhon after the War, a small number of them even joining the Riders of Rohan in the Battle of Pelennor Fields. This gesture engendered goodwill between them and Théoden’s heir, though not until the rule of King Elfwine would lasting peace be found between their peoples.

[arofili]

the line of elros ♚ royalty of númenor ♚ headcanon disclaimer

          Tar-Minastir was the eleventh King of Númenor and the nephew of his predecessor, Tar-Telperiën. He was taught by his mother, the priestess Almárëa, to love the elves, though he also envied their immortality. He built a tower in the west of Elenna in order to look towards Aman, but his gaze was drawn east as Sauron’s threat grew. Tar-Minastir sent an armada to Vinyalondë to aid Gil-galad in the Battle of the Gwathló, resulting in a sound defeat of the Dark Lord. Once the land was made safe, some Númenóreans began to establish permanent settlements in Middle-earth.           The wife of Tar-Minastir was Tári-Róvandil, a palace guard who grew close to the prince in his youth. Early in their relationship they were deeply in love with one another, but as Tar-Minastir took the throne and his policies leaned toward friendship with the elves, his relationship with his wife grew cold. Róvandil’s envy for elvish immortality was greater than her husband’s and untempered with love, and she passed this dislike to her only son, Ciryatan.           Ciryatan inherited his mother’s pride, pressuring his father to surrender the scepter to him against his will, for though Minastir had no other heirs he feared his son’s inclination towards empire. And indeed he was right to worry, for as soon as Tar-Ciryatan was crowned he scorned any alliance with the elves and sent a great fleet of ships to the mainland and began to oppress the men of Middle-earth, looting the coastline and bringing treasures back to Númenor.           The greatest of these treasures was his wife, Ciara of Dunland, who he named Tári-Morivanessië for her “foreign beauty.” She hated and feared her husband, but was powerless against his great force of will, and bore him one son, Atanamir. Yet Morivanessië never loved the elves, and as her shorter life waned she cursed them and her Númenórean subjects for their lengthy lives, stirring up resentment against the Ban of the Valar in her husband’s people.