#only it's all about elves

[curls-cat]

updates in reading tolkien: im on the silmarillion now bc my hold for it came in before return of the king. this is not a book.

[ambrosiagourmet]

Not sure how widely recognized this is but it’s fucking wild to me that miss kui just quietly snuck in the fact that most (if not all) of the differences between races only exist because of wishes they made to the Winged Lion.

Dwarves being strong? Lion wish. Elves being good at magic? Lion wish. All lifespan differences???? Lion wish, babey!

Not that the elves superiority shtick isn’t already BS, but it’s even funnier with the context that the only difference between them and humans is that, thousands of years ago, their leaders made a greedier wish to the demon that wanted to eat them.

[silusvesuius]

baby👶 drawings. these are very dear to me rn.. 2nd pic is my Nelavis with @barvin0k's Varonur 🩵 last one is a baby bosmer and snow elf, hairiest of them all. although the bosmer was meant to be my girl Barletta too lols

[shift-shaping]

Do you think Solas could resist influencing a young Lavellan even if he tried?

Here is a young elf suddenly pushed into a position of influence and power and forced to reckon with the reality of becoming the mask. Someone who is part of a culture that means so much to them but that they have to abandon in at least some respect when they become the Herald, and then the Inquisitor.

Solas is a bastard about the Dalish, but he speaks elven and is interested in their history. Like, he's the only one at Haven or Skyhold who gives a shit about elven history until Morrigan shows up.* He's older, more experienced, and offers his opinions and advice on what actions to take. How could a young Lavellan, especially a romanced Lavellan, not be pushed one way or another by his influence? Even a Lavellan that hates him can still criticize him in a way that is unique to their relationship --"Ma banal las halamshir var vhen." They can express frustration with him for failing to give guidance, for failing to be the type of mentor they want him to be.

So when he looks at them, ten years later, how much of himself will he recognize? And how much of his influence will Lavellan still feel on their skin?

*Leliana and Josie are pretty cool about elves, but they aren't exactly interested in the culture or history like Solas and Morrigan are

[victorie552]

Ok, so Noldolantë, "The Fall of the Noldor" is a lament composed by Maglor about what happened before, during and after First Kinslaying at Alqualondë. It's such a good song that it's played regularly in Aman and Valar listen to it often (I swear, I swear it was in the Silmarillion I just can't find it now).

It's also a more or less common fanon that Maglor continues writing Noldolante through the whole First Age. Makes sense - it's about fall of the Noldor, and Noldor did a lot of falling back then.

Headcannon time: So my first thought was that Noldolante must a long, long, long epic of a song. So it probably has many parts, right? Iliad has 24 books/parts, somehow I think Noldolante would be at least just as long, and there are longer epics. And again, just like Iliad, unless you're a scholar, in the daily life you don't really listen to/read the whole thing, just reread and repeat the most dramatic fragments. What I'm trying to impress upon you all is that the story would have different segments, or chapters, if you will.

And if Maglor continues to write the story during the FA, there would absolutely be a moment in the lament where the OG Noldolante becomes Noldolante 2, and even Noldolante 3. There may be the same musical motif or something, I decided that Maglor IS that good of a bard to keep it all consistent enough so you know it's all the same story, but the style changes a lot - it's been 400 years in the making, let The Music Elf have fun!

So, Point 1: Many, Many Parts, basically Maglor's FA WIP

My second thought was that, while Feanor invented his alphabet, elves learned their history mostly through oral tradition aka songs and spoken stories. Noldolante is definitely a historical record, where a historical event was archived for future generations.

(It was a also a way to deal with grief, guilt and blame Maglor and all Noldor have faced regarding First Kinslaying - free therapy! But that's not what this post is about)

Archived.

My 2.5 thought was that Noldolante isn't just recallings of how pretty and horrified the beach looked during the murdering or how mad and sorrowful the sea was at everyone during the voyage or even how awesome and charismatic Feanor looked during his speeches that every single Noldo was ready to fight Morgoth barehanded in his name - no, this is a record of who killed who, who got killed by whom, and how.

Noldor and Teleri knew each other (were friends, even!) before the First Kinslaying, so I'm confident that after a lot of interviews, detective work, and cross-referencing, Maglor could and would create a very good... name list. Practically every Noldo and Teler present during First Kinslaying would get a stanza in a song, more if he killed someone, most if he killed many people. Killers and killed would show up twice, first in a fragment listing the killers and their victims, then in a part listing the victims and their murderers. Basically it's the same thing twice, but from different POVs. With when, where and how included.

(It was seen to be in bad taste to compare kills during Maglor's Regency, when most of his interview-part work happened. People did it anyway. There were a Saddest Kill, Funniest Kill, and Weirdest Kill discusions. There was a Tier List. These were weird times to be a Feanorian Noldo.)

(It WAS in Bad Taste, but at least people talked about it. I cannot stress enough how much free therapy this lament provided)

(Little did they know, when Teleri started getting reembodied in Aman, they had very similar discussions, but more in a "I can't believe he killed me like THAT" way. Long, long, long after the First Age. Noldolante is a gift that keeps giving)

So, Maglor had all the historical grith and no common shame to create a "We Killed All These People And We Feel Bad About It" banger of a song, and every Noldo had a very personal reason to at least remember the fragments they are in. It's a hit on a scale never seen before.

(I'm not sure how to tackle the issue of Nolofinweans and Arafinweans learning about Noldolante after crossing the Ice. But there were discussions. There was anger, there was "????", there was controversy. Basically, the song got bigger and bigger rep no matter what your opinion on it was. By the time of Mereth Aderthad it was an important cultural and political piece and at least Fingon's forces were included in the main song. It had parodies.)

Point 2: Archive Function/Kill count storage. Cultural phenomen, every Noldo included

This is where my personal nonsense begins: Main Noldolante was done, there was nothing more to say about First Kinslaying, all killings and deaths were well documented.

But the Siege started. And the Noldor kept dying.

It was less dramatic than it sounded - between the big battles the siege was maintained, but orc raids also happened and sometimes one to few Noldor died in skirmishes. The legal procedure was to document the death of a fellow elf and send a word to king Fingolfin. The cultural procedure, technically started by Feranorians but adapted by many more, was to send the name, common characteristics and cause of death to Maglor's Gap. After few months, King Fingolfin would send reinforcements, short condolences and financial compensation if they had family. After few months, family of an elf would also receive a personal lament for them and a place for them in a Noldolante.

Yes, every lament Maglor created in that time was technically part of the Noldolante. Noldolante 1.5, if you will. Laments make in that time were very customized, and simpler than Noldolante Main, but were still considered a part of the same song. Of course, nobody was expected to know and remember laments for every single Noldo, younger Noldor born in Beleriand could even only know fragments about their family members. Only Maglor would ever know Noldolante in full, but it was understood that everyone had their place in The Song.

The results of Great Battles were harder to document, but Maglor did that. Of course, Dagor Bragollach was hard on him personally, but he worked his way through.

(High King Fingon forbade creating laments for his father. There were no songs for Fingolfin. Apart from in Noldolante, of course. Of course. Maglor did not share the lament with anyone, but he sat long hours and many nights with a blank paper before him, looking at the candle flame and thinking of the past and the future. The song unsung, but there)

Nirnaeth was... Maglor was never more hated and more approached at the same time than then. Still, Noldolante grew and grew, as if people knew the end was near.

It was Second Kinslaying that destroyed the myth of Maglor's song. Feanorians didn't know the Sindar they killed, but surely, they couldn't just left their names unmentioned like they did with orcs? So, Noldor talked, but the battle happened in caves - it wasn't uncommon to find dead bodies in empty rooms, with no witnesses to what happened. Surviving Sindar didn't want to share any names, even when Maglor strong-armed some into talking with him, and good for them. Maglor made a big lament anyway. Maglor, wild, with no shame and dead brothers, with legacy crumbling around him. Noldolante, with holes.

After Third Kinslaying, Noldor didn't want to talk. Lament for Sirion didn't have any names. Clearly, songs weren't a way to go anymore, it was always about live witnesses. And so Maglor raised the twins.

Lament for Maedhros was sung repeatedly. There was no one to hear it.

Point 3: Only Maglor knows Noldolante in full. But that doesn't matter, because everyone knows the important part: the Noldolante is finished. The Star of Hope rises in the West and the story goes on. The Fall has ended.

[myokk]

Being this close to her mother, Eloise was struck by their physical similarities. As a young girl, it had been impossible to see, but now that she was a young woman they were striking. She felt as if she were looking in a mirror, but a twisted mirror: everything that was warm about her appearance was turned cold in her mother: hazel eyes to a frigid silver, unruly brown hair to straight black; her mother’s skin was somehow even more pale than Eloise’s, as if she were cut from marble. Everything soft about Eloise was made sharp in her mother, and Eloise wondered what had made her this way. She was terrified that in twenty years’ time, the two of them would be indistinguishable.

Had Elladora Black always been like this? Eloise couldn’t imagine any time when her mother might have smiled, or even huffed in quiet laughter. No moments where she had been caught staring at her husband with love and warmth in her eyes. Eloise had only ever known her as an ambitious, cold woman who was always striving towards some goal, even if it was known only to her.

Someone couldn’t spend their whole life like that, could they? Even growing up at the manor, Eloise had always had Leo to confide in and love unconditionally. Had her mother ever had something - or someone - like that?

“Soon, we will be the family we were always meant to be,” Eloise’s mother said, causing Eloise to startle out of her thoughts and stare her mother in the eyes. They were filled with longing. They were mesmerizing. Eloise shivered under the intensity, but couldn’t tear her eyes away. “Soon, we will be back on our way to being the most prominent pureblood family in Britain, with the help of you and your brother. You can’t fail us. You can’t.”

From chapter 23 of my fic, Before It Felt Like A Sin

this post is dedicated to @elliecutte the only other person who is as crazy about Elladora Black as I am😌🙏

[moonlight-stalker]

# 60 Dc x Dp

No one over the age of 19 lives in Amity Park

Everyone the age of 19 and below is liminal the government made all the adults leave and if they refuse to leave they were killed. The kids of Amity Park fought back against the government when they tried to take them in for experiments they won in the end but none of the adults that had left cared to come back for the kids and the ones that did care for their kids have been killed.

The kids of Amity Park become very wary of adults that get near their city, they have lived for 20 years without any adults, and all the adults that had come into Amity Park have hurt them and tried to take control of them. Especially when they learn that they all have some unique power. They had to learn to protect themselves and each other they don't try to contact the outside world anymore believing that they've been left for dead.

So when something happens to get the Justice League's attention and find out about a City full of kids that have been left alone for who knows how long, they decided to let sent some of them to go and speak with them and see if the kids are okay not realizing how scared the kids of Amity Park are about outsiders especially of adult.

When the kids of Amity Park heard that a couple of adults are coming into the city that worked with the government they immediately think that the government has sent people to collect them and immediately stop to prepare for a fight for when they get there

[quixoticanarchy]

Maglor saying "the oath says not that we may not bide our time" is very interesting (not, unfortunately, conducive to conciseness). bear with me.

a) if they can bide their time, that kind of undermines the idea that they are driven by the oath into atrocity; rather, they can choose the moment to obey it (to some degree). the truth of this statement is unclear because it does seem that they spend a lot of the First Age biding their time, but also when they try to bide their time before the third kinslaying, it was said that they were tormented by the oath. was that false? what is it that pushes them into action, if not the pressure of the oath? or, is it the knowledge and shame of the unfulfilled oath combined with events that enable them to strike out for the jewels, but not actually any metaphysical pressure forcing their hand?

b) Maglor is also saying here, let's go back to Valinor and just see what happens. maybe eventually we can get the silmarils peacefully and be forgiven (I have to agree with Maedhros that that seems.. unlikely). probably correctly, Maedhros envisions the difficulty of trying to get the silmarils in Valinor while unforgiven, and what it would entail and cost to do violence there again. Maglor imagines peace; Maedhros definitely anticipates violence

c) I think Maglor also just wants to go home. he wants to stop. he would probably like to fulfill the oath (or be freed from it), but also would be fine with kicking the can down the road, presuming the oath will allow that. but once Maedhros talks him out of the likelihood of success if they wait til Valinor, he's also willing to break it entirely. his contention that Manwë and Varda making the oath impossible to fulfill would also make it void could be interpreted as a hope that both these things would happen

Maedhros makes the points that they can't be released bc they swore also to Ilúvatar, and therefore they're still facing the Everlasting Darkness if they fail. to which Maglor makes the fair point that if they can't be released, then either they hold themselves bound by the oath and keep trying for the silmarils (and if they fail, face Everlasting Darkness), or try to give up the oath, find they are still bound by it and, having auto-failed their task by breaking the oath, face Everlasting Darkness anyway. therefore yes, they would do less evil in the breaking, but the result is the same to them - as long as in neither case do they actually anticipate fulfilling the oath. Maglor therefore is maybe ready to give it up as impossible; possibly, Maedhros is arguing that it remains achievable for now, but "its fulfilment be byeond all hope" only once back in Aman, lending urgency to the final attempt to get the silmarils now.

a follow-up question: do they at this point believe that success is still possible? what is success? if they have to get all 3 silmarils to satisfy the oath, they're up against Earendil, but they never mention that. what does fulfilling the oath mean - that they evade the consequence of failure? is the force that 'drives' them to stick to the oath not so much (or not only) a metaphysical pain or burden that torments them, but the fear of the failure condition itself - the Everlasting Darkness?

this would explain Maglor's interest in wanting to stop pursuing the oath, but also wanting it somehow neutralized - whether by biding time or having the oath declared void. and Maedhros is arguing that a) they can't be released, b) they can only keep the darkness at bay by continuing to actually try for fulfilment, and c) they should take this one last shot while arguably they still have a chance (or at least it's easier than it would be in Aman). it may not matter whether success is ultimately possible (i.e. if Earendil does come into the picture, or the crosshairs), but it matters that they are trying.

but then, what to make of them reportedly realizing Eönwë was right and they've lost their right to the silmarils? what does that matter to the oath? the oath declares they'll do anything to get them back, and they do. as much as it sucks to get burned, getting them back (ignore the 3rd silmaril) should mean their deed has not failed so they should not face Everlasting Darkness.

I see a couple of possibilities here: a) they ceased being bound by the oath when they lost their right to the silmarils, which would make it vain and mean none of the atrocities had to happen. but is that how the oath operates? did they stop being bound by it long ago and just not realize? or, alternately, b) does their losing their right to the silmarils mean they auto-fail the oath bc they’ll never truly “reclaim” them? and therefore, rather than their never being at risk of Everlasting Darkness, are they consigned to it now no matter what? (but Maglor at least seems to evade that, unless it’s very metaphorical…) or, c) were they indeed bound by the oath all along and indeed fulfilled it, it just doesn't really matter bc the victory is hollow, and they themselves can’t hold the very things they killed others for holding? could be harsh enough on its own, whether or not the oath responds to the status of their “right” to the silmarils.

there is also the matter of we don’t know what the Everlasting Darkness is. lol. but I’m not touching that now beyond I think it’s a thing the SoF are genuinely afraid of

[silvantransthranduiltrash]

Ok, look:

We all find it cute/funny if Aragorn knew Borimir as a baby. But consider this: Aragorn babysitting Theoden as a child and through the entirety that we see them interact in lotr, Theoden’s inherent fear of disappointing a teacher is going off in the back of his mind.

Aragorn, coming into rohan for the first time in decades, accompanied by a wizard, elf, and dwarf: was there any trouble (while i stepped out of the (classroom) kingdom)?

Theoden, yeeting away any and everything that hints at his corruption and sitting up straight: No-

[ghost-bard]

I hope in the next dragon age game theres 3 dwarf companions 3 qunari companions 1 elf and a human that dies early on like that one girl from the dao awakening dlc

[d0d0-b0i]

it’s always such a shame when fantasy video games that allow you to customize your character to be any race almost never gives a shit about the player base that wants to play orcs.

bg3 half orc heads look like absolute dog shit and the bodies are so shriveled with no body fat. also. you can only play half orc :/ i understand that in dnd that’s the only choice you get but what about the players immersion? what if i want dialogue options about being an orc? what if i want?

elder scrolls online had its first dlc focus on orcs, but that was almost exactly ten years ago and they don’t seem keen on doing more with that any time soon, meanwhile they can’t stop caring about the damn elves all the time.

elf this, elf that. im tired of it. they’re everywhere and then orcs are the neglected cousins in game making spheres because hurr durr orcs are meant to be ugly and stupid! they don’t need much afterthought just make them brutes with no personality-! WHAT IF IM GAY ASSHOLE orz what if i’m tired of the skinny body types and small pointy ears what if i want to ogle at real meat i can imagine grappling instead of legolas copy nr795. what if i want to admire tusks. what if i want my characters body type to be big and beefy. what if i want.

who cares what my demographic wants. we’re too small a group to ever be catered to with even the slightest bit of respect it seems. anything given is mere leftovers that they could functionally code and fit into the game to fit the deadline.

there are certainly more examples i can talk about, and don’t even get me started on how the female counterparts almost never match the male ones 🙄 but that’s for another day when i get irrationally angry about this again

[janamensch]

There was so much talk of ‘spider Ophelia’ and ‘spider Gruff’ that I just couldn’t help myself

[himbohimhoe]

Holding out hope that the writing in veilguard will get more bearable but rook saying to lucanis that it's "not nice that Spite hurt him" and he "shouldn't accept that it’s fine bc it wouldn't be ok if a person did that" like. That is a demon. Built off a single emotion called SPITE. Rook I am finding it really hard to believe that u have lived in thedas for more than 30 seconds.

[nessacousland]

As much as I like the reveal that the ancient elves were spirits forging themselves bodies out of lyrium in-universe...

It's certainly a choice to bake pretty overt parallels between a species that for all intents and purposes should never have existed - whose existence is in fact the catalyst for almost every known misfortune plaguing Thedas - and certain real life peoples right into the worldbuilding.

But it’s an even more "interesting" choice to then retroactively whitewash all the horrific oppression their descendants have suffered for eons in order to justify the suggestion that modern elves may just deserve any "future" mistreatment and distrust coming their way.

[sky-scribbles]

Okay, I'm a couple of hours into Veilguard, so I thought I'd share all the things I've really loved so far:

The combat is so much more dynamic and fluid! There were things I liked about the previous games' combat, but I do remember Inquisition often feeling like 'select enemy, then mash buttons until they die.' I love that I can duck and weave around monsters! I love being encouraged to swap between weapons (however much I have to suspend my disbelief about Rook putting away two swords and grabbing a bow in a single second)! It's just really fun!

Maybe I'm imagining it, but I feel like the camera is a bit closer to Rook, and it makes so much difference. Sometimes in Inquisition, and often in Andromeda, I felt really far away from my character, and it creates this sense of distance. It's a tiny thing, but I do genuinely think being that bit closer has made my experience a load better.

I cannot describe how affirming it feels to have an NPC point to my character and casually say 'they.'

Holy shit I love the gang's casual looks. Harding's embroidered florals and Neve's colour scheme?? Also, both of them changing their hairstyles in the field? God I wish I could show this to my 16-year-old self as they stewed in frustration over the women in Mass Effect having to go into battle with their long hair down.

The aesthetics of Arlathan! I made such a delighted noise when I realised they ancient elves had power crystals and magitech-looking devices; sci-fi like elements being introduced into fantasy is my jam, and it works so well to make clear how advanced Elvhenan really was. It reminds me of how cool it was in Critical Role when the characters went to the ruins of Aeor and found a bunch of advanced magitech: that same feeling of 'holy shit, this world we've spent so much time in and treated like a normal fantasy world is post-apocalyptic.'

Being able to give my Rook so many freckles.

[halliserres]

listen i still love veilguard and i think i'll end up replaying the shit out of it just like inquisition but uhhhh some of this writing