#ost in edhil

[tanoraqui]

we do NOT spend enough time discussing the implication that Ost-in-Edhil, and by extension all of Eregion, was for several centuries ruled by a meritocracy based specifically on skill at crafting. What an absurd political system. #onlynoldorwould

[saintstars]

Gentle times in Ost-In-Edhil

[kai-janik-art]

Ost-in-Edhil (2024)

Limited edition lino print

21x21 cm

My version of Celebrimbor's city before its fall.

[ayaosguqin]

“Who is He?”

First meeting of the members of Ost In Edhil and their leader Celebrimbor with a mysterious figure called Annatar

[tathrin]

So obviously there are a lot of things I would have done differently if I had been in charge of Amazon's Rings of Power show. I could go on at length about any of them, but...

One little, little thing I would do?

I would have a cat there, in Eregion. Just in the background of various scenes, nbd, hanging out in the smithy and stuff, meandering around, curling up in Celebrimbor's lap... Not something to focus on: just a little bit of background flavor, you know, show that Celebrimbor is a softy who likes animals, or maybe it's good for the smiths' morale to have an animal around; whatever...

But. I would make sure that the cat is never ever ever seen on screen in any scene that Annatar is in. (Or perhaps sometimes is seen at the start of a scene where Annatar enters later, but disappears from the camera's sight before he arrives.)

You pan in on the smithy, and there's a cat lounging on a cushion on Celebrimbor's desk, as cats do.

Maybe it even bats or sniffs at some of the prototypes/paperwork, you know, normal cat stuff. It's certainly not interested in what Celebrimbor is working on haha. It's certainly not reading the bluprints, don't be silly, stop anthropomorphizing the cat, it's just a bit of set dressing, okay? Obviously.

Scene starts, Celebrimbor does some work, maybe gives the cat some chin-scritches or maybe is too preoccupied to notice it's even there; no big deal. Doesn't really matter. We're focusing on his work designing the Rings, okay?

So, as he works we pan across, the cat isn't there anymore...and Annatar walks over, not having made any grand entrance coming in through the door or anything; just like he's been there all along and now he's coming by for a closer look, how odd that we didn't notice him before! Oh, it's probably just an editing thing, they probably just cut-out his entrance for pacing reasons nbd.

And hey that's funny, you don't see the cat again until he leaves...

No one in the show would ever reference this. No one would, in fact, ever mention or name the cat or draw any specific direct attention to its presence, save perhaps the occasional scritch of its little head in passing. It's not a character, it's just a little cat who hangs out in the smithy. Doesn't seem to belong to anyone in particular. Probably a stray.

(Weird how you don't see it again during any of the final fighting when Annatar/Sauron's busy doing his Endgame Shit, but hey: it's a cat, it's probably just too smart to stick around during all that chaos. No doubt it bolted for safety days ago. It's not like it has anything important that it'd be doing during all that. It's just a cat, for Eru's sake!)

Now, the question is, do we list the cat(s) who played the role in the credits as just "smithy cat," or do we go full wink-and-nudge and give the cat its name?

Either way of course: we'd all know.

[aotearoa20]

Highlights of the Lindon delegation visiting ost-in-edhil

Elrond: I'm living out my worst nightmare of being the voice of reason

●○●○●○●○●○●○●○

Annatar: Do you mind if I come in?

Elrond: Not at all. Do you mind if I leave?

●○●○●○●○●○●○●○

Sauron: From now on, you’ll have to refer to me as “Annatar, lord of the flame”

Elrond: Hey, lord of the flame, your robes are on fire.

●○●○●○●○●○●○●○

Elrond: Mind if I squeeze in there with you?

Sauron: Isn't there someone else you can annoy? Friends, family.... kinslayers

●○●○●○●○●○●○●○

Annatar: ready to use the little half elf’s mixed heritage and upbringing against him for his own means

Annatar : I know what you are

Elrond: Definitely dealing with a number of issues but actually pretty at peace with who he is and where he came from

Elrond: Yeah, I know what I am too

Annatar:

Elrond: and what?

●○●○●○●○●○●○●○

Celebrimbor: Okay, im gonna go check on my apprentices, if you two can manage not to kill each other while im gone

Elrond: oh please

Annatar: Some of us arent children

Celebrimbor: (leaving) uh huh

Annatar: Eat shit and die

Elrond: Yes, fuck you

[metatomatoes]

I'M NOT READY OK.

[elentarial]

In those days the smiths of Ost-in-Edhil surpassed all that they had contrived before; and they took thought, and they made Rings of Power. Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky

[tenth-sentence]

From Ost-in-Edhil, the city of the Elves, the highroad ran to the west gate of Khazad-dûm, for a friendship arose between Dwarves and Elves, such as has never elsewhere been, to the enrichment of both those peoples.

"The Silmarillion" - J.R.R. Tolkien

[aotearoa20]

That moment when the infuriating sister of that elf you once killed walks in on you trying to win over her stupidlovely nephew

An afternoon in Ost-in-edhil

[olessan]

[tanoraqui]

Silm question of the day, open to all suggestions: if Annatar had stayed, well, Annatar, stayed content in Eregion and maybe married Celebrimbor, what sort of Weird (Evil) Maia Shit would everyone in the country, or at least in Ost-in-Edhil, have slowly been frog-boiled into thinking was completely normal?

Top of the list has gotta be an arguably unhealthy comfort with the sensation of being watched. It just stops raising the hairs on the backs of anyone's necks. Feel like someone is staring hotly, somewhat judgmentally, over your shoulder while you work? Annatar must be in his tower again! Yeah, he likes to be tall. Like a cat, yeah.

I think also... It's not that punctuality becomes a big cultural value, nor keeping a deadline, because this city is still dominated by the sort of person who goes on impulsive 4-day creative work binges. But there is a Community Calendar. And if you put something on the Community Calendar and DON'T keep that appointment, to which you committed, with perfect punctuality, then Valar help you because nobody on this continent will (and everyone knows the Valar don't do shit on this continent).

[whumpybobbert]

What do we think they were thinking? I've also seen the theory that he never actually made it out the door

[katrina37973]

Celebrimbor thinking in Ost-in-Edhil

[conundrumoftime]

frosts are slain and flowers begotten

A story for @arafinwean-week: Galadriel in the Second Age. (1200 words, G; also on AO3)

----

On the first day of snow that winter Celebrían rises before the sun does. She refuses to be still, refuses to sit for breakfast, dances through the halls like a whirling silver blizzard herself, so entranced by the dazzling white landscape outside that she cares for nothing else. The past few winters in Ost-in-Edhil have been mild; this will be the first year she is old enough to play at sledges and snowball-fights with the other children and she is delighted beyond words.

Galadriel finds it harder to wake that morning. Dreams seem to weigh more heavily on her lately and prove themselves more reluctant to depart come the dawn. Waking to the sound of her daughter’s chatter proves a greatly-needed reassurance after the visions the night brought, but her thoughts remain sluggish and dulled, her mind as muffled as the snow-quiet city outside. 

When she gathers together enough of herself to rise from the soft unfocused warmth of her bed, she finds Celebrían kneeling on the window-seat of the solar with her palms pressed to the glass, watching the snow outside while Celeborn combs through her hair. Below, the streets and squares of Ost-in-Edhil are blanketed in white. A few trails of faint cart-wheels mark the passage of those who have already begun the day. 

“Gloves,” Galadriel says. “And keep them on.”

Her daughter nods with enough force that even her tiny shoulders are caught up in it. Celeborn stills the comb until she is settled again and then resumes where he left off, lifting sections from the front to pull into the start of a simple braid. His lips do not move but his voice sounds clear in Galadriel’s mind: is all well?

Nothing. Dreams.

Not a convincing answer but he does not say so. Instead he nods, small enough to be imperceptible to Celebrían even if she were paying attention, and continues the fast work he is making of her hair.

The three of them walk down to the south fountain square together. Celebrían does not take long to find her footing in the snow, balancing on the tops of walls and leaping frozen puddles, flopping down belly-first into low snowdrifts with the other children. She is fascinated, and she is young enough that her way to be fascinated with things is to let them swallow her up whole. 

It is a fine morning. The sky is a sharp clear blue now, the sunlight dancing in the captured light of icicles and frost-rimmed leaves. Galadriel settles herself on a stone bench beside the frozen fountain and watches as Celebrían and the other children race around in whirling chaos.

There is safety here and happiness and her daughter’s hands are warm inside fine leather gloves cuffed with fur, and still Galadriel cannot shake the previous night’s dream. It had been a cloud of images and sensations rather than anything clear: hunger, sorrow. Little Idril’s golden hair matted with ice. Polished aquamarines spilled in the snow. 

Celeborn comes to join her after a while spent talking with some of the others, gathering now in groups of four or five to watch the children play. These are friends – and her friends – but she is too much in the past this morning to wish for their company.

“Guards caught a wolf out near the bridge pastures,” he says, kicking the heel of his boot against the stone to shake off the packed snow.

“So far south?”

“It’s a bad winter, they’re hungry.”

He may not seem troubled but she feels this news to be an ill omen all the same. She has dreamed of wolves here before, wolves circling the fortressed walls of the city in great packs. There is no threat; they are at peace; in Eregion she has what she wanted, what she came to Middle-earth to find; but something in her remains unsettled. 

“We used wolf fur for our clothes on the ice,” she says. “We lined the edges of our hoods with it to keep off the wind.” She remembers fastening little Idril’s with a cloak-pin, the child no older than Celebrían is now tipping up her chin and refusing to cry. 

“You were dreaming of it again,” he says. 

She finds a smile for this. “So obvious?”

“Only when you talk of ice-floes in your sleep.”

She has woken him before - sometimes unintentionally, sometimes in a desperate need to tell him of an unformed fear for the future that has seized her. Others call it foresight but she never has; it is not clear enough, never clear enough. Sorrows of the past and fears of the future and she cannot tell one from the other.

“I dreamed of a necklace I broke,” she says. “It was the first year, I think – maybe the second. I needed the chain to mend a quiver and I let the beads fall into the snow. We were desperate then and so poorly prepared for what we faced that it seemed near impossible to go on. But I looked down at those beads and found that I did not wish to leave them after all, and so I picked them up and cleared the snow from them and carried them with me. The next year I made a new quiver that would not grow brittle and break in the cold and I sewed the beads onto that. It lasted me many years. I don’t know what it means that I should dream of this now.”

He weighs the thought of this as though she has given him a riddle to solve, which she supposes she has. It is a comfort that he never finds her dreams and visions unsettling but it has always troubled her too that he should find them so easy to accept as a part of her. “Perhaps good things. Perhaps that you found hope and beauty still.”

They are interrupted by Celebrían springing up onto the stone between them, her eyes wild and fierce. “We are making a great serpent out of snow,” she announces. “I am looking for eyes.” And then she steps out onto the frozen surface of the fountain’s pool.

There cannot be more than a couple of inches of water beneath the snow and likely it is frozen solid by now anyway, and yet Galadriel feels absolute terror seize her at the thought of it: the ice will break, the sea beneath will never return what it takes. “No,” she barks, lifting Celebrían down in the curve of her arm, “never walk on ice, what were you thinking?”

Celebrían, entirely unused to harsh words, gazes up in shock. 

“Here,” Celeborn says, taking off one of the rings he wears. “An eye for your snow-serpent.” 

It’s a new ring that the mírdain made for him, a round opal with reds and yellows meant to capture the colours of beech-woods in autumn. In Celebrían’s gloved hand its gold rim of it catches the sun’s light and seems to burn like fire. She is delighted and all thoughts of the scolding are fast forgotten; she tugs at her father’s arm demanding he come with her to set it in place.

Be at peace, Galadriel, Celeborn’s voice sounds in her mind as he allows their daughter to drag him to his feet. It is winter; but it is only winter. Spring will come. 

Spring and what else, she thinks. 

That night she dreams of Idril again standing at the shores of a sea. This time Celebrían is with her too, pale as a spirit as she leans into Idril’s shoulder. “I will hold you up,” Idril is telling her. “Spring will come again.” And whether to call this foresight or fear or hope, Galadriel cannot say.

[tathrin]

I'm working on some Background Timeline Nonsense for my Celebrimbor In The Fellowship AU fic and trying to put together stuff in a way that both makes sense and is fun (and reconciles some of the Unfinished Tales mess). I've already blathered at poor @babybat98 about this, but I figure I might as well subject the rest of you all to it share it here too, in case anyone has Thoughts or Suggestions:

A Timeline of the Lords of the Woodland Elves.

506 F.A. Doriath is sacked (about 30 years before the Third Kinslaying at Sirion).

By 511 F.A., refugees from Gondolin and a few Drúadain joined them there, and by 525 Earendil and Elwing were wed and ruling the Havens of Sirion.

539 F.A., the last of the Fëanorians show-up in Sirion and do their usual silmaril-slaughter, and Elwing jumps off the cliff. The Havens are left in ruins, and Morgoth has control of all Beleriand, blah blah blah.

545 F.A. the Host of the Valar land in Beleriad. The War of Wrath begins.

590 F.A. Morgoth defeated, War of Wrath ends, First Age ends. *Galadriel probably doesn't actually marry Celeborn until now, possibly because of the whole "don't marry during war" thing the Calaquendi tend to do? unclear, because everything involving them is unclear lmao

1 S.A. the Grey Havens are built in Lindon, the only place in Beleriand that really survived the War of Wrath.

By 20 S.A. Galadriel and Celeborn leave Lindon, where Gil-galad is now king (probably crowned because of Galadriel's influence somehow? Unclear, again!). Galadriel and Celeborn go to Eriador and dwell near Lake Nenuial, where they are accounted "the Lord and Lady of the Eldar in Eriador" according to one version of the Unfinished Tales. They have a lot of Noldor, Grey-elves, and Green-elves with them at this time. Now for the fun backstory stuff...what if we say that Celeborn, Oropher, and Amdír were all basically BFFs from their youth in Doriath, and will remain thus for many years before the eventual splintering around 750 S.A.?

So, as of S.A. 10-20 when Galadriel and Celeborn leave Lindon, what if we say that Amdír and Oropher are with them also at this point, and with them their sons? They can be part of the company of mingled Noldor and Iathrim who are mentioned there at Lake Nenuial, with Celeborn (relative of Thingol) and Galadriel (sister of Finrod) as the "highest ranking" of their little quartet, and also the ones (especially Galadriel) who care the most about rank/leadership, and thus fall naturally into that role both in behavior and in the eyes of everyone around them, while Amdír and Oropher are more advisors/etc (maybe they end up in charge of guarding everybody, as the Warriors of the group). Amroth could be as young as 110 right now if he was just a wee little lad when Doriath was destroyed, barely an adult, or at any rate easily less than 200 yet. Perhaps Amdir never made it to Sirion at all, and only rejoined his son after the War of Wrath? (Perhaps Amdir's mom died in the Kinslaying, like Nellglind?) Regardless, Galadriel and/or Celeborn could have been doing most of the looking-after of him during the War either way, and thus we get Amroth as sort of "their kid" like he was in that draft, while not actually being their son which wouldn't make sense. Maybe Celeborn looked after both Amroth and Thranduil while the other adults were involved more in the fighting, given that picturing either Amdir or Oropher NOT fighting if they were still in Beleriand at this point is difficult (albeit not impossible: they could always have gone "fuck this shit, this is a Calaquendi Problem, you deal with it") and Galadriel is The Mighty One while Celeborn is more chill (and because I like not having The Woman be the one doing the child-minding lol). Alternatively, they could have all fought to varying degrees, with young Thranduil the one charged with looking after younger Amroth? idk most of the War of Wrath is pretty hand-wavy even in Tolkien's stuff so this can stay vague lol

At any rate, we pick-up the thread with our next Known(ish) event:

300 S.A. is when Celebrían is probably born. At this point, her parents are presumably still in Eriador. So, we could have them all living together as a little found family unit of survivors at Lake Nenuial, with Amroth and Thranduil acting as sort of older brothers/cousins to Celebrian. Perhaps she has more of a brotherly relationship with Amroth, who is younger, and a little more distance between her and Thranduil, because he's so much older (and lived through the trauma of everything more directly)? He sees himself as the Sensible And Mature One who has to look out for the younger/more naive kids, perhaps? At some point, of course, there must be some kind of a falling-out of some sort between Oropher and Galadriel/Celeborn, because we need to have some reason as the driving factor (combined with the increasing numbers of Dwarves in Moria, which we know Oropher wasn't pleased by; hello Doriath Trauma Round One!) for him to do the whole "moved his people north three times" from the original location of Amon Lanc in order to avoid being near Galadriel and Celeborn in Lórien. Perhaps the falling-out can be traced back to Ost-in-Edhil somehow?

750 S.A. is approximately when Eregion is founded, and construction is begun on Ost-in-Edhil. 750 S.A. is also around when we're told that Oropher and Amdir took up lordship of their respective Silvan lands (although I'm already deviating from those details a bit because fuck colonialism lol; but that's easy enough to do and still claim canon-compliance due to the vagueness of all of this in "canon" anyway, so we'll still use that as the rough date of when the Sindar refugees came to Laurelindórenan/Greenwood, and just say the whole "king" thing in Greenwood happened later and the Noldorian historians never caught the nuances, shhh) So if we extrapolate from all that... What if the falling-out happens because of Eregion? What if Amdir and Oropher are not about to accept an open and friendly relationship with the local Dwarves, after what happened to Thingol and Doriath; and Galadriel, with her foresight and her stubbornness and her Noldorin love of craft (and the fact that her first main trauma was Alqualondë long before the Sindar were scarred by the Battle of a Thousand Caves), refuses to let her Goals™️ be held hostage to their grudges and trauma, and insists that the only way forward for this land is hand-in-hand with the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm. Celeborn reluctantly sides with his wife (even though he loathes dwarves as much as any of them) over his friends, and Amdir and Oropher go off in a huff with those others of the Elves of Eriador who aren't interested in More Noldorin Bullshit, crossing the mountains and joining with the Silvan Elves in the east. So:

750 S.A. Amdir and Oropher leave with a group of followers, while Galadriel and Celeborn found Ost-in-Edhil with Celebrimbor, the two of them being taken as Lord and Lady of Eregion while he's (presumably) just in charge of the smiths for now.

1000 S.A. Sauron, not wanting to start shit with the western elves or Numenorians right not because they're too strong (and presumably just not giving a shit about the little Wood-elves in their forests), beings building Barad-dûr.

1200 S.A. Sauron tries to beguile the Elves of Lindon, and Gil-galad tells him to fuck-off. He tries again in Eregion, and despite Galadriel going "big nope!" the Gwaith-i-Mírdain there welcome him.

1350 S.A. Sauron manages to get Galadriel ousted from Ost-in-Edhil, and Celebrimbor becomes lord of the place. Galadriel and Celebrían leave via Moria, and spend a while in Khazad-dûm with their dwarven friends before making their way eventually to their old friend Amdir and foster-son/brother Amroth in Lórien, where they are welcomed, and Galadriel and Amdir reconcile (possibly enthusiastically, possibly awkwardly) but Celeborn, refusing to step foot in a dwarven kingdom, stays in Eregion, where he is "disregarded" by Celebrimbor. So I like to picture him skulking about as That Grumpy Old Man muttering and scowling at everybody as they pat him on the head and go "there, there grandpa" and whisper apologies to whatever dwarf he's offended today.

1500 S.A. by this time, the Seven and the Nine are made, and Sauron leaves to go make the One Ring in secret in Mordor.

1600 S.A. Sauron makes the One Ring and proclaims himself as Sauron, and ready for war. Celebrimbor goes OH FUCKSHIT and runs through Moria to consult with Galadriel in Lórien. He gives her Nenya, and she convinces him to send the other two to Gil-galad in Lindon, and get them the fuck out of Ost-in-Edhil.

1605 S.A. Sauron's immediate attempt to start said war is potentially delayed by the first two of the Istari, the Blue Wizards, who in a much later draft of Tolkien's actually came to Middle-earth during the Second Age, long before the rest of them, rather than all coming over together. Instead, he had them come over with Glorfindel, and while Glorfindel hung around to help Gil-galad et al they made their way East, to try and save the tribes of Men who had fallen under Morgoth's worship, and to discover where Sauron was hiding, and work against him. I think I want to go with that version, simply because I like the idea of Glorfindel coming back with some of the Istari? But I ALSO like the idea of him having fought in the Last Alliance, which means I need him to come over before Gandalf, Saruman, and Radagast do in the Third Age. So this splits the difference nicely! So, as of 1600: the valar have gone "oh fuck!" and thrown two maia and one reborn elf on a boat and thrown them back to Middle-earth to clean-up the leftovers of the mess left by the War of Wrath when they failed to drag Morgoth's most powerful lieutenant back to face judgement in Valinor OOPSIES, presumably because they figured out that Shit Was Hitting The Fan thanks to the whole One Ring Thing being big enough to be Noticed By The Powers lol Anyway, thanks to Morinehtar and Rómestámo being fucking badass, Sauron's plans for war are delayed several years, and Celebrimbor has time to hide the Three and presumably to warn the Dwarves about the Seven. Ooh, what if we say that he's been spending a lot of this time trying to devise some way of un-linking the Rings from the One Ring? He apparently has the Nine with him when Eregion falls, and Sauron just takes those, but the Seven and the Three aren't there; maybe he was working on the Nine, and knew the Seven were safe in Khazad-dûm where his dwarven smith-friends were doing the same there? And that's why he never tried to destroy them: he was still holding out hope they could be saved, be fixed. That he wouldn't have to destroy the greatest things he ever made, and all the hopes he put into them. He just needed a little more time...

1693 S.A. the War of the Elves and Sauron (finally) begins.

1695 S.A. Sauron slinks through the Gap of Rohan, thus avoiding the Elves in the Greenwood and Lórien, and invades Eriador. Thanks to the Númenóreans having cut down many of the Trees of Minhiriath and Enedwaith, the people in these lands welcomed Sauron's conquest and let him pass without trouble. (Well done, Númenor! Didn't anyone ever teach you deforestation is bad?) Celeborn leads the forces from Eregion (presumably having said "I told you so" to Celebrimbor a few times) and they manage to defeat the first wave of Sauron's army, but are then overwhelmed and forced back to Ost-in-Edhil. Gil-galad hears about this and sends Elrond leading a force from Lindon to help, and also sends messages to Númenor pleading for help. Nobody answers (men, pah!). Elrond's force is too small, and can't break-through to get to Eregion to help.

1697 S.A. Ost-in-Edhil falls. Celebrimbor is tortured into giving up the location of the Seven, but dies without revealing the Three. Sauron, not being an entire idiot, guesses that they're most likely with Galadriel and Gil-galad anyway, but is pissy about being resisted, and turns Celebrimbor into a banner that he carries into battle. Elrond's tiny army is about to be overrun when the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm attack Sauron from the rear, along with the force of elves that Amroth has led through Moria from Lórien, (because whatever Issues™️ his father might have with Dwarves, he's not about to let his foster-father die). This allows Elrond to gather the survivors of Ost-in-Edhil, including presumably Celeborn, and flee. The Dwarves are driven back as well, but they shut the Doors of Moria and Sauron can't get in. Haha, thwarted by Celebrimbor and his previous sweetheart, sucks to be you Sauron! The Doors of Durin are apparently not opened again until the Fellowship of the Ring comes to them (although that doesn't make sense, because Gandalf and Aragorn both passed through Moria at least once before LotR, so they must have been opened at some point; but perhaps the text only means they were not left open again after this point, and is not referring to when/if they were ever opened from inside by someone walking through and out?). The retreating elves found the stronghold of Rivendell, to which many of the survivors of Eregion flee. (Celeborn, presumably, says "I told you so" a lot at this point too, but not often enough for them to murder him.) The rest scatter, some fleeing Middle-earth altogether and some disappearing into the Wild with others fleeing through Khazad-dûm (before the Doors are shut, presumably) thanks to their dwarven friends, and make their way eventually to Lórien, where they join their fellows who left Ost-in-Edhil earlier and merge with the Silvans and Sindar there.

by 1700 S.A. Sauron has overrun all of Eriador except for Rivendell, which is besieged, and Lindon, where Gil-galad is also barely holding him off at the River Lhûn and Mithlond. Finally the Nûmenorian fleet arrives, and kicks Sauron's ass all the way back to Tharbad, although he burns the forests of Minhiriath and Enedwaith as he goes. He gets caught in a pincer between the main force and a smaller one that Ciryatur landed at Gwathló behind him, and barely escaped "with his bodyguard" to Dagorlad. It is unclear at this point if Sauron actually HAS any or all of the Seven, or just knows where they are; sources say that Durin at least was given his Ring by Celebrimbor himself, so perhaps Sauron never actually manages to collect all the Seven at this point? but still has his original influence over them. He does have the Nine, we know, because he gathered them up when he came to Ost-in-Edhil and defeated Celebrimbor on the steps of the House of the Mírdain.

1701 S.A. the first Council is held in Imladris, when Galadriel and Celebrían come looking for Celeborn and meet-up with all the other leaders of the various forces of Elves and Men. They decide to make Rivendell the new elvish stronghold in Eriador, as Eregion is in ruins and remains thus. Gil-galad at this point gives Vilya to Elrond (it's unclear when Cirdan gets Narya, because of course is it; he might already have it, or he might not get it until Gil-galad marches to War in Mordor, although wtf was he thinking leaving Narya behind when he went to war just when he would need its power most? Gil-galad wtf mate???) and declares him his vice-regent. This is also when Elrond and Celebrían meet for the first time. (Presumably at this point her foster-brother Amroth teases her mercilessly about her very obvious crush on Gil-galad's pet peredhel, and she probably smacks the crap out of him for being a jerk.) At some point after this, Galadriel and Celeborn (and Celebrían presumably) leave Rivendell to live near the sea, probably because Galadriel was apparently "striken with sea-longing" the moment she put Nenya on. They go to Belfalas, which will be later called Dol Amroth, and apparently visit Lórien at least twice more before the end of the Second Age, but we don't know anything else about them here.

At this point, there isn't much relevant canon information until the Last Alliance happens, since most of what's going on of import now is happening in Numenor, but let's hit the highlights in case we want to expand on any of this later.

2251 S.A. the Nazgûl appear.

3262 S.A. Sauron taken to Numenor as a prisoner.

3319 S.A. Numenor sunk, Sauron flees back to Middle-earth, and the world is reshaped.

3429 S.A. Sauron seizes Minas Ithil.

3430 S.A. formation of the Last Alliance.

3431 S.A. the Last Alliance marches to Rivendell.

3434 S.A. the march to Mordor, and the Battle of Daglorlad, where Oropher and Amdir both die. Siege of Barad-dûr begins.

3441 S.A. Sauron defeated (for now), war is over. Thranduil and Amdir go home with their scant surviving forces.