#since she's still pretty proud of her elven ancestry

[orionali]

WIP. Decided to tackle my fey'ri's Red Wizard tattoos, and I do like how they’re coming together.

[arofili]

HCs about Elemmírë?

Oh man, for a character we have next to no information about other than “Vanya” and “sang a really sad song about the Trees,” I have a lot of headcanons for Elemmírë!

First of all, Elemmírë is named after a heavenly body (possibly Arda’s version of Mercury?) and the name is not given in either a masculine or feminine form, so we don’t know Elemmírë’s canon gender. This of course means that Elemmírë is trans, you can’t change my mind! I’ve seen depictions of them as nonbinary, which I love, but personally my Elemmírë is a trans woman!

All the rest of my headcanons are pretty much made up whole cloth :)

I intended to make like, a bullet point list of headcanons, but I ended up referencing my recently created personal timeline of the Years of the Trees and the First Age, and...it kind of expanded into an essay on Elemmírë’s role in the larger story of that verse of mine. So, under the cut is a roughly 2,000 word essay on my take on this blank slate of a character!

~

Elemmírë is one of the Unbegotten elves who awoke at Cuiviénen. When she awoke, everyone assumed she was a male elf, which didn’t really sit right with her but she didn’t know how to express herself at the time. For the first part of her life she lived as a nér.

Elemmírë has a sister*, Calima (one of my OCs). Calima marries an Avar, who she manages to drag with her on the Great Journey despite his reluctance to go West. Right before Ulmo takes the Vanyar and the Noldor to Aman, Calima’s husband leaves her and disappears into Taur-im-Duinath...but not before Calima becomes pregnant. Elemmírë comforts her and supports her through the birth of her child, Elenwë - the first child to be born in Aman.

*(My headcanon around Unbegotten siblings is that some elves woke with soul bonds that connected them to other elves, which while they aren’t genetically related, they consider to be siblings of their fëa. This is the case for Elwë, Olwë, and Elmo; I also gave Nowë (Círdan) and Ingwë OC siblings. Finwë is a loner, which is part of why he’s so concerned about creating and keeping a marriage bond...)

While Ingwë is busy building Tirion with Finwë, his sister-in-law Alcariniel (the mother of Indis; her spouse died on the Great Journey and has yet to be reborn) leads some of the Vanyar to the foot of Taniquetil and founds what will become Valmar. Calima, Elenwë, and Elemmírë go with Alcariniel.

At this time, Elemmírë enters into the service of Varda. She develops a close relationship with her Vala, and feels more comfortable in the beautiful starry robes and among the company of mostly priestesses than she ever did in the more gendered Vanyarin society. She sings and composes hymns to Varda and the heavens.

About a century later, Elemmírë is an established and well-renowned musician in Valmar. It is then that she meets Findis, daughter of Indis, when Findis is visiting Taniquetil with her grandmother Alcariniel. Findis greatly admires Elemmírë’s songs and engages her in a discussion about poetry; the two quickly become friends.

After another hundred years or so, Findis’ half-brother Fëanáro has his fourth child. Finwë invites his whole family to the celebration; Findis now lives in Valmar and does not always attend these begetting day parties, but she happens to be in Tirion for the occasion - with Elemmírë, who tags along to the party.

At the celebration, Makalaurë (a young teen in Elf Years) sings a piece he wrote for his new baby brother, and Elemmírë is greatly impressed by his talent and offers to teach him personally. He’s had music tutors before, but none so renowned, and he is absolutely star-struck. Fëanáro has an inherent distrust of the Vanyar, but he cannot deny his son anything, especially when it comes to furthering his craft, so he agrees to let Elemmírë teach Makalaurë, on the condition that she move to Tirion. Findis offers to move back as well, so her friend won’t be alone; they move in together.

A few years later, Elemmírë takes her star student Makalaurë to Valmar so he can perform at her niece’s 200th begetting day party. This is, of course, Elenwë; Makalaurë is immediately besotted with her, and does his best to impress her. Of course, Elenwë is well into adulthood and Makalaurë is still an awkward adolescent, so nothing ever comes of this, but they do eventually become friends.

All this time, everyone has assumed that Elemmírë is a nér, but with every passing year she becomes more and more certain that is not actually the case. At last she confesses to her dear friend Findis that she thinks she might be a nís, and while Findis isn’t quite sure what that means at first, she’s very supportive and encourages Elemmírë to go to Varda with this revelation.

I do operate in a verse where some homophobia and transphobia exist in Aman, kind of accidently put into place by a well-meaning but ultimately harmful decision by Manwë, but Varda is significantly more chill than her husband. She doesn’t really get what Elemmírë is saying, but she supports her servant’s change in expression. Elven gender roles are pretty loose, so it’s not really that much of a difference, and with Varda’s support Elemmírë feels more confident in herself and comes out to the public.

Most elves, especially the Vanyar, likewise don’t really get it, and privately they still see her as a nér, but there is a firm taboo against rudeness which means they will refer to Elemmírë with the correct pronouns and honorifics and such because it would be incredibly rude not to. The discomfort with someone else’s non-normative expression is easier to deal with than the social impropriety of deliberately refusing to respect someone’s wishes about their personal identity.

This, along with Varda’s kind-of-confused-but-she’s-still-got-the-spirit support of  Elemmírë means it’s a pretty smooth transition process for her. Since her name isn’t gendered, she decides to keep it, and she is much happier now that she can express her true self. She also has a staunch ally in Findis, who she has recently begun courting.

Again, there is some homophobia in my verse, and two níssi in a relationship is generally frowned upon, but the half-acceptance of Elemmírë’s gender allows them to exploit a loophole in that particular Law/Custom. Manwë, at least, still sees Elemmírë as a nér, and so doesn’t see anything wrong with her dating Findis. It’s not the ideal situation, but Elemmírë and Findis aren’t really the “fight the system” type, so they’re content to live with the happiness they’ve been allowed.

Eventually, Makalaurë reaches his first coming of age** and Elemmírë takes her student on a tour of all Eldamar to show off how exceptional a musician he has become. He is declared a master singer, and leaves Elemmírë’s side to pursue mastery in instruments, beginning with the harp. His teacher couldn’t be more proud.

**(In my headcanon, elves have two coming-of-age ceremonies: one when they reach age 50, and are considered physically mature and old enough to be given more freedoms in their decisions, including now being of a socially acceptable age to start dating; and the other at age 100, where they are considered a Full Adult and able to marry. Sometimes elves marry younger than that, but it isn’t super common. Age pretty much stops mattering, especially when it comes to age gaps in relationships, when an elf is about 150.)

Not long after this, Elemmírë and Findis get married! Makalaurë performs his then-masterpiece at their wedding. Also at the wedding, Findekáno is caught up in all the glorious romance, and the possibilities of same-gender marriage now that two níssi (one a princess!) can be wed, and confesses the depth of his love for Maitimo. Maitimo...immediately panics and brings up all the reasons why their love is doomed, how their aunts are the exception and not the rule and besides there’s that loophole they’re taking advantage of that doesn’t really work for néri like us - but notably does not deny that he feels the same way. Findekáno is heartbroken by the rejection; Maitimo is terrified of his feelings and distances himself from his beloved cousin for a time.

But of course that doesn’t last long - and it’s at the celebration of the birth of Laurefindil, Findis and Elemmírë’s son, that Maitimo brings himself to reconcile with Findekáno...platonically. Of course. Until a few months later where he just can’t take it anymore and breaks down and confesses he can’t deny his feelings any longer, and they get together at long last.

Findis, Elemmírë, and Laurefindil return to Valmar and settle down there. Laurefindil is buds with both his Vanyarin cousin Elenwë and his oodles of Noldorin cousins. At his first coming of age celebration, he introduces his cousin Elenwë (on Elemmírë’s side) to his cousin Turukáno (on Findis’ side), and Turukáno immediately falls madly in love and begins some intense pining that will rival even his older brother’s romantic dramatics.

As strife grows among the Noldor, Findis and Elemmírë distance themselves from Tirion as much as they can; Makalaurë is pretty much the only Finwëan who is allowed to visit them. However, Laurefindil misses his Noldorin cousins and, after his second coming of age, chooses to move to Tirion and join his grandfather Finwë’s court. He becomes even closer to Turukáno (who has by now married Elenwë) and is very loyal to his older cousin.

At the Darkening, Elemmírë is deeply grieved at the destruction of the Two Trees, and it is then that she composes her most famous song, the Aldudénië, “Lament for the Trees.” Her grief is compounded when her son chooses to go into exile with his Noldorin kin - and, almost worse, when her niece Elenwë chooses to leave as well.

Elenwë is the only Vanya who leaves (well, the only Vanya who is fully culturally Vanyarin without any Noldorin ancestry), mostly because she cannot bear to be separated from her husband and young daughter, but also because she knows the story of her Avarin father who stayed behind in Endórë and hopes that she will meet him on the hither shore. (Unfortunately, she perishes crossing the Ice. Idril will eventually meet her maternal grandfather, but not until just before she and Tuor sail West. Elenwë is reborn in Aman shortly after the founding of Gondolin; she reunites with her Vanyarin family and with her good friend Amárië.)

I don’t have a whole lot of headcanons for Elemmírë and Findis during the events of the First Age; they live mostly a quiet life. I think Elemmírë rededicates herself to the service of Varda, and pleads with her Vala to show mercy for the Noldor in their need. (Perhaps that helped to convince Varda’s husband to send an eagle to Thangorodrim?)

When they hear of Laurefindil’s death in the Fall of Gondolin (because of course Glorfindel followed his favorite cousin Turgon to his hidden city, and got a noble house out of it!), Elemmírë and Findis grieve his loss all over again. They don’t know how long it will be before his rebirth, and they soon decide to have another child together. This is their daughter, Faniel, who grows up on stories about her brother’s bravery.

Eventually Glorfindel is reborn, and he has a few good centuries in Aman with his family (and his husband Ecthelion, who he finally gets to marry; they had gotten betrothed the day before Gondolin fell, RIP) before the Valar send him back to Middle-earth to play the hero again. Elemmírë and Findis are once again heartbroken to lose him, but they are at the same time incredibly proud of their son for his bravery and dedication to all things good in the world. This time, he leaves with the blessing of Varda, his mother’s patron Vala, and a promise that he will return when his task is complete. He does, but not until the Fourth Age, when he sails back to Valinor with Elladan and Elrohir!

[bogariel-frogariel]

Taking A Breather

Adaine ducks out of a party to get a breather. She’s not the only one that needed a break from everyone.

Introducing my OC.

Find it here on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25262344

Tell me if you want more.

----

Adaine was getting bored.

 She hadn't even wanted to go to this party.

 However, when your sister helps cause a revolution and a complete restructure of a government's systems, inadvertently landing herself as one of the four newly elected Queens of Fallinel, you kind of need to attend a few formal social events.

 That, combined with the fact that ever since she'd turned seventeen, she had been receiving many more inquiries and requests from various governments and magical institutions throughout Spyre, asking for her to act in her role as the Oracle meant that Adaine's calendar was much more full than she'd ever anticipated it being two years ago before she started high school.

 Her face was starting to hurt from the polite smile she'd needed to wear for what was dawning on two hours now as she talked to politicians and important religious and magical figures from High Court, Solace and Fallinel at the banquette  formally celebrating the renewed alliance between the three nations.

 She knew she couldn't retreat to the library, even though she had been itching to explore it all day. The old elven castle the party was in was thousands of years old, perhaps millennia. However, Aelwyn had asked her to (told her to, really) not go into the library during the party. Adaine knew this was important to her sister, and they had both been trying really hard to be better sisters over the past year, so she'd agreed.

 Besides, she could join Ayda (and by extension Fig) in the library tomorrow.

 But she just really needed to escape right now.

 Riz wasn't here, off at work, Gorgug and Zelda had (surprisingly) snuck off somewhere an hour ago, Fig and Ayda were (as previously stated) in the library, Rag was flirting with an elf (Adaine recognised as Queen Amara's twin brother), Fabian was sticking close to her sister, who was surrounded by a crowd of admirers, and Kristen had (unsurprisingly) slipped away from the party with Tracker an hour ago. They had barely left each other alone since they'd reunited four weeks ago after months apart, since the werewolf had also been instrumental in the revolution, and was now toting the title of High Priestess of Galicaea.

 She just needed a few minutes to recharge, away from people.

 So, Adaine ducked into the first narrow, shadowy corridor that she found.

 For a moment, she allowed herself to sag in relief at finally, finally being alone. However, she turned a little more and froze, suddenly glimpsing someone sitting on the floor, poking their out from a blanket, which they'd thrown over their head.

 The person stood up and both of them stood, staring at each other for a few seconds.

 The first thing that Adaine registered was the fact that the girl (or so Adaine thought, but living with Kristen had meant that she'd learnt to make sure she got confirmation anyway) had not, in fact, been wearing a blanket, but had curled her wings in front of her. Her brilliantly black wings. As Adaine stared at her, she saw little white dotes flicker to life across the wings, quickly joined by some dark purple swirls, making them look like a picture from space. 

 "Umm…" she girl said and Adaine tore her eyes away from her wings and looked at her face properly.

 The girl had dark skin, fine pointed ears that spoke of elven ancestry, and wavy, brilliantly white-silver hair that contrasted against her dark purple eyes that were rimmed with a sparkling gold. Adaine's heart hammered against her chest.

 She was snapped out of her reverie when the girl tucked a book into the folds of her midnight blue gown.

 She stuck her hand out to the girl.

 "Hello, my name is Adaine Abernant, my pronouns are she/her."

 Kristen would be so proud. A month ago, she'd spent a week making them practice the greetings whenever they entered a room she was in.

 The girl blinked at Adaine for a second, her eyes widening. Adaine cringed internally. She didn't know how she would take more gushing or ass kissing.

 However, after a second, the girl took her hand.

 "I'm Rhaezella Starkterian, my pronouns are also she/her. Pleasure to meet you."

 Adaine immediately recognised the name. "You're Queen Amara's sister."

 She winced when Rhaezella pursed her lips. "Sorry."

 The girl waved her off. "That's fine. You'll forgive me for acknowledging that you're the Oracle then, Princess."

 Adaine couldn't stop her scowl at the second title and Rhaezella smirked.

 "Yes. It's kind of ridiculous that we get those titles just because of our sister."

 Adaine rolled her eyes. "And we have to keep them for the rest of our lives, even after they get voted out in fifty years."

 Rhaezella snorted. "I think they were trying to prank us."

 Adaine shared a grin with the girl. "So, you're looking for a refuge as well?"

 Rhaezella sighed. "Sick of people trying to earn my favour."

 Adaine nodded, her brain finally starting to work properly as she realised she remembered the name from more than just the queen.

 "You're about to be tested for Archmage, right?"

 Similar to the Oracle title, the Archmage was a life-long title given to a prominent and powerful magic user, who would work as a sort of anchor for magic to redistribute throughout Spyre. Whilst the Oracle looked to the future, the Archmage took care of the present, helping stabilise the magic in the planet's core, which was liable to become unstable without a living being to ground it. However, instead of automatically passing on automatically, the title was passed on when a suitable candidate came into contact with a jewel at the base of the Mountains of Chaos.

 Fig had been asked to try for the position a few months ago, but the giant amethyst hadn't reacted to her touch.

 Adaine supposed, with travel between nations becoming easier than it was a millennia ago, when Archmage candidates had to quest to find the previously unmapped location, the jewel could afford to be picky.

 Rhaezella grimaced. "Yes. Being one of the few still living demigods has its perks I guess."

 Adaine nodded awkwardly. She'd heard the story of the elfling who had one day sprouted wings and then been snatched into the Outer Planes by the gods moments later, only to then be imprisoned by the Elven government when she finally escaped her captivity by the gods years later.

 Demigods were usually either taken by the gods (who had all seemed to dislike other gods having progeny on the mortal plane) or taken advantage of by governments seeking their power.

 Being Archmage was really the safest position for her.

 Personally, Adaine found it ironic that devils were nicer to their children than the gods.

 "Umm… I like your dress… and your hair," the girl stuttered, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had fallen between them.

 Adaine felt her cheeks heat up and her heart stuttered. She tucked her hair behind her ear self-consciously. She had allowed it to grow out over the last year, not bothering to cut it anymore like her parents had always made her. She knew it was very stereotypical of her, to have almost waste length hair; and that having such long hair had fallen out of style centuries ago, but it felt like rebellion against her mother, and Aelwyn had encouraged her when she'd voiced the idea.

 She'd probably have to cut it soon though. It could be terribly annoying on adventures. Although, it did feel rather nice when she let others braid it.

 She bunched her other hand up in her silky dress that was rather tight to her to her thighs fanning out from there. Aelwyn and Fig had pulled it out of the store because they had never seen her wear something like that before. She'd agreed to it for its colour; which was a blue so pale it was almost silver.

 "Thank you," she muttered, before stammering, "Umm… I like your -" everything, everything looked pretty, "hair as well. The waves are really pretty."

 "And your snake," she added with some shock as a black serpent appeared over the girl's shoulder. Adaine hadn't noticed it coiled around her waist.

 Rhaezella pet the snake absentmindedly. "Her name is Cerridwen. They were a gift from my mother. My godly one. She's a shape shifter - nothing my mum makes is really… one thing. It comes with being the goddess of chaos and magic with no church. There are too many magic users and people so they are always… changing. But I love my familiar. She… helps when it gets too much."

 Adaine grinned, pulling Boggy out of the purse that was slunk over her shoulder.

 "I have a familiar as well. His name is Bogariel Frogariel. Or, Boggy the Froggy."

 Rhaezella laughed and Adaine hugged Boggy close.

 "I used a spell to summon him, so he can also change forms. He helps me with my anxiety."

 Adaine had a moment of panic after she said that. She'd gotten too personal too soon.

 However, Rhaezella just nodded in understanding. "I got Cerridwen before I was formally diagnosed, but my therapist says they help me."

 Rhaezella she grimaced, flicking her hair behind her shoulder. "My sister just messaged me."

 Adaine winced sympathetically.

 Rhaezella sighed, smoothing out her skirt. Suddenly, Adaine didn't really want to be alone anymore.

 "Why don't we go out there together?"

 The girl glanced up, furrowing her eyebrows. "You don’t want to escape the party? I won't tell on you."

 Adaine smiled. "Nah. It's alright. I'd rather have someone I like to talk to, even if I have to deal with everyone else."

 Rhaezella beamed at her. "I would like that too."

 The demigod gestured down the corridor. "Shall we then?"

 Adaine nodded and started walking.

 As they emerged into the light, she glanced to her side. It would be better if they were talking. It would discourage at least some of the vultures.

 "What book were you reading."

 Rhaezella blushed. "I'll only tell you if you promise not to tell any of the queens. I was meant to stay out of the library."

 "So I brought some of it with you," Adaine said with a grin. "And deal."

 She made a note to wear a dress with a large skirt and pockets at the next one of these functions.

 However, as she launched into an animated discussion with Rhaezella that lasted almost the whole night, resuming whenever they were left alone, she thought she might not need to.