#someone is probably gonna call me a kinslayer on this one

[nerdanelschildren]

Feel like I’m shouting into a void, but seriously, the Valar really went and took a bunch of Elves out of their native habitat and moved them to this “protected” island, and then proceeded to just fling the door open and let the enemy of those Elves waltz right on in, despite the fact that his aggression was the reason they were moving the Elves there in the first place.

No wonder some of those Elves are fucking upset when their king was murdered, you broke your promise, MANWË

[sunflowersupremes]

Heyy, first of all, I love your destroying-the-ring-releases-Melkor-au-idea. The concept is great and hilarious!

I was just wondering if Gil-Galad being Maglor's son was based on any personal headcanons or just ideas of yours?

I must admit that I was kind of surprised (not negatively) by this choice since you majorly write Maglor/Eönwë (at least atm).

Yessssss. Hello, I am always glad to get questions. Particularly about Maglor.

‘Gil-Galad as Maglor’s son but Fingon raised him because Maglor wanted to protect him from the Doom’ is mostly because of @nikol-nikiforova.

We have this running idea that Maglor gets mistaken for Fingolfin’s son a lot, because he hangs out with Fingolfin and looks the most like him (of Fëanor’s sons). So when Maglor knocked a girl up he took the kid to Fingolfin for help (he didn’t want the Oath to hurt his child, and at that point his brothers were still 100% into thinking the Oath was a great idea, so he couldn’t go to them). Fingolfin considered claiming the kid was his own, but he couldn’t bring himself to claim that he hadn’t been faithful to Amarië.

So while Fingolfin and Maglor are stressing out over what they’re gonna do with this kid, Fingon waltzes in and Fingolfin has an idea. You see, Fingon had been away for a while, exploring Beleriand, and he got back late at night, so there wasn’t a huge party to greet him. So they just tell everyone that Fingon knocked someone up while he was exploring and brought Gil-Galad back with him.

And it sort of works. For a few years it goes great. Maglor comes by often to visit, or Fingon takes Gil-Galad to the Gap, and everyone is happy. Maedhros eventually figures out that the kid is definitely not Fingon’s, and then he sees Maglor playing with him and goes ‘ohhhhhh’ but other than that the Feanorians don’t know.

The plan was to tell Gil-Galad who his real dad was eventually, but then Fingolfin and Fingon died and Maglor went east with the sons of Fëanor, so Gil-Galad is raised thinking Fingon is his dad.

The next time Maglor sees his son is when he’s taking Elrond and Elros to Balar, and by that time Gil-Galad hates him. He blames the Feanorians for Fingon’s death (The Union of Maedhros) and he saw Sirion after the Kinslaying and saw the destruction there.

Elrond and Elros were never told of Maglor’s connection to Gil-Galad, but they figured it out (or, Elrond figured it out and told his brother). They saw how Maglor would react whenever someone mentioned Gil-Galad (and they saw his face when Gil-Galad spat at him and called him a Kinslayer and a monster).

And then Maglor leaves at the end of the First Age, and poor Elrond doesn’t know how to go about telling Gil-Galad his suspicions. He has no proof, after all, and everyone agrees that Gil-Galad looks like Fingon, so no one questions that he is Fingon’s son.

Also, for bonus angst: Gil-Galad would have inherited Maglor’s voice, but they couldn’t explain where that came from if he was Fingon’s son, so he was never taught to wield Songs of Power. After his death, Maglor is left wondering if his son would have lived if he had been brave enough to face him and teach him to Sing.

Maglor and Eönwë

Maglor & Eönwë is definitely my favorite ship at the moment, but I typically write Maglor as being something of a ladies’ man, particularly during the First Age (its how he deals with his trauma).

So Gil-Galad is probably just the son of Maglor’s girlfriend of the week (because I ignore LACE and NOME, clearly, because thats fun).

Maglor’s Wife

Canonically he has an unnamed wife. I believe Tolkien’s phrasing was something along the lines of ‘he is most likely married’ which, to me, says even Tolkien was like ‘this man can GET IT’

But I don’t (usually) use her as a character.

I once joked that Maglor’s wife doesn’t exist, that he just made her up because he wanted to tell some mortals about Elrond and Elros, but he didn’t want to explain how he acquired them, so he just said ‘no they’re mine and my… my wife’s? Yeah, I have a wife. Definitely’ and then whenever he told stories he would just swap Maedhros out for an unnamed wife.

It started as a joke but now it’s my personal headcanon.

Gil-Galad as Eönwë’s Son?

It is likely? No. Does it make sense? No.

Would it be amazing? YES.

Even funnier if it’s Fingon trying to pass off a half-Maia child as his own.

Although then I would have no idea how they GOT Gil-Galad since Eönwë was in Valinor during the First Age.

Actually, no, I do know, Fingon ran into Eönwë and got ahold of baby Gil-Galad shortly after Aqualonde, promising to take him across the sea to Maglor. Except then the boats burned and Fingon had to take the fucking Eldritch horror half-Maia kid across the Ice, while trying to convince people it was actually his own kid.

Fingon: No this is mine

Argon: it… it has feathers

Fingon: Can you prove I don’t have feathers?

So they get across the Ice with this horror child and Maglor is the depressed and borderline suicidal Prince Regent, and Gil-Galad is pretty happy with Fingon, so Maglor and Fingon end up splitting custody.

[feanorianethicsdepartment]

i ain’t done anything for @tolkienocweek yet, mostly because my covid-induced neet-dom has decoupled me from any association with sidereal time and thus there���s no way i could guarantee getting something out on its specific day. still, i do have one character that could potentially qualify for day 3 (background characters) or day 4 (self-inserts), sorta. i’d like to introduce you all to the proprietor of the fëanorian ethics department, the as-yet-nameless fed elf

fed elf is a... moderately idealised self-insert of mine, though she’s taking on a life of her own

she’s also a noldo. of course she is

her Noldorin Craft™ is, as i’ve said before, arguing. she has very strong opinions about almost everything and will debate them at length

she’s moderately infamous for it in tirion

she’s especially fond of philosophy, in the ancient-greek asking-a-million-rhetorical questions style. what should we do? why do we do the things we do? why do the valar get to tell us what to do?

... you can probably tell which side of the fëanor/fingolfin debate she landed on, if it wasn’t already obvious

she’s not particularly close to any of the future capital-H House, but she is in their rough orbit. one of the miscellaneous guild trolls that form the rank-and-file of their initial expeditionary force

idk if she’s ~devoted to the cause enough to go to formenos, but when the trees get eaten and fëanor rolls up into tirion with the solution to all their spider problems, she is all for it

she’s a passing acquaintance of maedhros from those times when he’d show up in her guild hall for debate night, so she probably ends up with his crew, at least initially

... there’s a very good chance her first attempts at crafting a new noldorin ethical system happen on that horrible night aboard the blood-stained swanships of alqualondë

in any case, she gets good enough at murder to not die before the brothers hellspawn are divvying up east beleriand, and the formerly reasonably undelineated fëanorian host is splitting up into its various garrisons

most people stay with whoever they’re already riding with, but there are exceptions. she is one of them, as soon as she hears about caranthir’s Plans she immediately switches allegiance to the future lord of thargelion

he’s deliberately trying to set up on the trade routes! they’re gonna make contact with the dwarves! there are apparently trails leading over the blue mountains, links to communities of elves unlike she’s ever seen!

so many new people to argue with!!!!!!

so she heads up to lake helevorn, and helps with setting up the city. she winds up filling some middling role in east beleriand’s military bureaucracy, when she’s not on orc-killing duty

but her true passion is *~ethics~*

there is actually a practical component to this. due to Certain Events the noldor (especially the fëanorians) aren’t as-well suited to their pre-darkening moral codes as they might have once been

they need a new one, with contingencies for, like, murder, and all the other new situations they’ll encounter in this new world! the questions of what’s right and wrong have been blown right open, and fed elf is possibly the happiest she’s been in her life. they’re building everything else from first principles, why not this?

and the fëanorian host in aggregate does actually care about morality, even though outsiders never believe that. it’s what separates them from the orcs (in their minds at least); they’re doing everything for a Cause, not for destruction’s sake alone. say what you want about the fëanorians, their problem was never a lack of ideals

she gets people coming in sometimes, wanting to know what the right thing to do in a situation is. either that, or they think she’s wrong about something and want to explain why in depth, which is almost as fun

soon enough, there’s a small shop just off the main streets of lake helevorn called the fëanorian ethics department

(she’s the only one with a shop, but she’s not the only member of the host with Opinions. the guy on the other side of the market district whose system is fairly similar in the broad strokes but completely different in the details is her personal archnemesis)

for most of the first age, fed elf has it pretty good. by her standards, at least, and she’ll happily exposit at length as to why they’re the only ones that matter

the work on the system of ethics never quite stops, but it does slow down. she’s less prescriptivist than most noldor, so she does a lot of observation and interviewing and stuff, and also new things keep happening for her to cover, but she does manage to nail down the basics!

she does consultation, in varying levels of official capacity, but she’ll also just. answer anyone who comes in with a question. or asks one within earshot

it’s mostly noldorin fëanorians she has debates with, the sindar and atani generally prefer to ask her whatever they want to know with minimum fuss, but whenever she gets a real fight going they all join the crowd. watching fed elf argue with people is one of lake helevorn’s municipal spectator sports

she also has conversations with travellers! these usually start when some newcomer is staring in befuddlement at the sign outside her shop and she takes the opportunity to pounce

she asks them detailed questions about their own ethical systems, which she files away for potential future incorporation/argument ammunition. they fairly frequently ask questions of their own, most often variations on ‘you guys seriously have morals?’

sometimes this even turns into a proper ethical debate! these aren’t usually as well-argued or intense as the ones she has with other fëanorians, particularly if she’s not talking to a noldo, but when she meets someone who’s a proper match for her it is the highlight of her year

running the shop does generate a fair bit of paperwork she tends to be too emotionally invested in to deal with properly, so she hires help now and then. one recurring underling is a clumsy perpetually-ill atan who is nevertheless really good with the filing and holds fierce opinions of their own, even if they hide under the table whenever anyone so much as raises their voice

(that atan is me. much less idealised self insert)

like every other elf in the host, fed elf is still under arms. she has a unit, she’s part of the orc patrol rotas, when caranthir needs to do a battle she pulls her broadsword out from under her desk and reports for the muster. east beleriand is just a pretty violent place in general, and her most impassioned arguments frequently shade into all-out duels. east beleriand, where even especially the philosophers will knife you

but just like fëanor promised on tirion upon túna so long ago, she’s built a place where she can be the best version of herself, and she couldn’t be happier (marketplace douche notwithstanding)

like so much of the host, she has big plans for when they topple angband and reclaim the silmarils. it’s just, well

i am not entirely sure what fed elf’s fate is after the fall of thargelion. most likely she died at some point, because so do most of her peers and also because she has an aversion to cutting her losses that’s definitely gonna backfire sooner or later

it’s either that, or she abandons everything she ever worked out to flee over the blue mountains, or she sticks with the host long enough to see all their ideals and dreams burn to ash. out of all of them death is probably her kindest fate

if she does die - she’s definitely a kinslayer at least one time over, she is staying in the halls for a While. the local maiar completely stonewall her every time she tries to argue her way out, she has plenty of time to sit around and think

because yeah, the host’s century-long self-immolation has given her a lot to think about. she was wrong, it turns out, in several important ways, and from the outside she can see how much the ethical system she put her heart and soul into was bent towards destruction

if she ever gets out, it’ll be after a lot of self-reflection, a massive dose of humility, and her accepting her own small-but-not-insignificant role in the nightmare they created

the fëanorians as get let out of the halls of mandos are without fail less violent, more self-aware, and just generally more conscious of their actions than they were when they went in. fed elf is no exception to this

she’s also no exception to the rule that their time in elf afterlife therapy generally fails to lower their volume at all. soon after her rebirth, after some time spent rethinking her personal moral code, fed elf puts out a thesis as to why elwing’s refusal to give up the silmaril was perfectly justifiable under fëanorian ethical mores

this pisses off a measurable proportion of aman’s sapient population. soon the furious letters of rebuke are pouring in nightly

exactly. as. planned

[hildorien]

Mercy and Pity are important themes to tolkien but I think it’s important to think about aboyt what groups tolkien writes are deserving of pity and mercy and who are not.

Especially in regards to humanity, especially non-dunedain humanity. Orcs are more pitable than the Haradrim and Easterlings. Half the time the dunedain are the ones brutalizing them when they aren’t directly fighting under Sauron’s orders, through imperialism and colonialism. Numenor took them as slaves, the faithful settle comfortably into colonies numenoreans made to set up their new empire in midddle earth, and the Gondorians repeated would expand into their lands and take them (a habit that DOES NOT STOP WITH ARAGORN, he does it too. He goes pass the sea of rhun and sets up shop with Eomer). So many humans don’t get second chances like other characters do, kinslayers in the first age get a chance for forgiveness but the bulk of humanity is just left out to dry, no Valar come and “help them” (though help in terms of the dunedain is the Valar changing their entire philology and going “I can’t understand it so I’m gonna make it more like me” with dissterous results), Morgoth and Sauron are the ONLY ones who ever reach out to them from the ainur (we know nothing about what the blue wizards did). Their “crimes” are basically “some Easterlings in the first age betrayed the elves so all humans expect the edain are bad now” and how is that even fair? How can you even blamed for that? It feels like an in universe excuse to brutalize the Easterlings and Haradrim and all other men (really sus how Rohan goes from treasured friend to SPAWNS OF SATAN when they are suspected to not be on Gondor’s side anymore Huh?) by the dunedain at the council of elrond, they aren’t deserving of pity and mercy because that would mean viewing them as a fellow and equal human, on the same level of you (a good noble dunedian, a king among other men), which cannot be when you need to find an excuse to take their things but don’t wanna seem like the bad guy and it feels really explicit to me that is the case.

The dunedian are just a small group of elites in one small part of middle earth, what they call the middle-men and men of darkness make up 80-97 percent of MOST of middle earth’s population. It would make almost all of humanity evil expect this elfy group and the special cases of men they happen to like, it’s a pretty selective and small club to be in and everyone else is not worthy to be in. Hell there are probably places in middle earth full of humans who don’t know what a morgoth, sauron, or elf is, middle earth is a big place even bigger once eru reshaped the world (some drafts say he made new land masses and oceans to fill the new rounded earth) are they guilty too? How is that fair?

It feels reductive and infuriating to have it this way sometimes, to act as if these easterling and Haradrim soldiers don’t have families, people’s, kin, langues beliefs, and value and are worthy of slaughter just because they didn’t get what the edain got so many years ago. There is a very sad and real narrative of sauron galavanizing and using the Haradrim and Easterlings righteous anger aganist Gondor at what they did to them to his evil schemes. All we get is ONE line from Sam of all people, pondering the humanity of Haradrim man who dies. That’s all the nuance we get. Homer in the iliad managed to humanize the Trojans better despite being the enemies in Ancient Greece than tolkien managed to do. I always felt it was intresting that in all his talks about Gondor has become to currupted, Faramair never once brings up Gondor own very xenophobic history (the biggest civil war in gondorian history was because a gondorian king had a non dunedian mother and people were so mad about they went and tried to depose him murdering that king’s son in cold blood and it dissolved into a bloody civil war!) and their shared humanity with the people they fighting never comes up.

I think personally a intresting way to view the fourth age is less of a “golden age” sorta speak and more of a very long complex series of gondorians kings following Aragorn trying to fix and make relationships with other mannish kingdoms that fucking HATE Gondor, for actually pretty valid reasons. If this is gonna be the age of men, like go for it, commit, they are gonna finally have to forge some kind relationship with other men. Also to think about it a lot of these Haradrim and Easterlings have probably been probably built up, sorta speak, by sauron, and probably much richer and more militarized than Gondor since Gondor has been in a state of constant war and decline for the better half of century and probably realistically gonna have to do a lot of politicking to stay alive? Frankly. Since I can’t imagine many of their non vassal neighbors like them much. I think the fourth age is a really good opprunity to go death to the author and just create your own mannish kingdoms or empires, go nuts, the world is your sandbox, tolkien can’t stop you. The age of men is upon us, so many OCs could be created. Speaking of that, mannish history is such a blank slate we should be thinking more about the wacky hildorien acentures early men got up too. I think it’s a little boring to imagine the only kingdoms of men belonged to Gondor and Rohan, like Dale is an example of a (to my knowledge) non edian mannish kingdoms who is just vibing? Who is to say there is not more? If I know anything about history humans will see a river valley and go free real estate and set up shop for centuries.

I wanna conclude with a qoute by someone much more eluquent and smarter than me @warrioreowynofrohan “The Kinslayers recieved mercy. The Easterlings recieved annihilation,” and that really is one sentence that explains the sadness of it all. The non-edain and non-dunedian deserve so much better (and Im the biggest edain fan) than what tolkien gave them.

(Seriously, read their meta on Easterlings in the silm, it’s really good.)

[byrantfrost]

The best of me, Honey, belongs to you.

So idk how to give this content/trigger warning so I’m just gonna put this right here, family murder? Kin Slaying is the word they would use for what happens here. It’s not happy, its cold blooded murder. Patricide, matricide, fratricide, just nepocide all around. Children are murdered in this story.

very out of character for Byrant but I’ve been listening to NFWMB all night soooo here’s just one version of what happens after the red wedding.

Byrant stalked through the halls of a castle he thought he’d never see again. He could have found the rooms he was looking for with his eyes closed, but that, of course, would have put him in danger of running into someone. There were more people about, even late at night, than had been when Byrant had lived here. Lakehold was not meant to be the hold of a rich man, well not as rich as Byrant’s father was now.  

Byrant crouched in the darkness before turning the last corner. He closed his eyes wondering how he’d gotten here. The journey was easy enough, he might have been the son of a Lord, but he spent more time with the common soldiers than was probably propper. He’d learned to march hard and sleep wherever he could long ago. He and Robb had all but trained for this, sneaking around Winterfell at night as boys. Over walls and through woods in the dead of night. No the physical journey from the twins north to Lakehold was not the hard part. 

What gave Byrant pause was how could he be here, feet from his father’s door, dressed in black, a dagger at his belt. He’d spent time in front of every wirewood tree he’d seen on the journey north. He could not find an answer, would the gods cast him down for being a kinslayer? His father hardly thought of him as kin, his father had sent assassins after him more than once. His father had conspired to kill the king, and it had worked. He had not stopped at Winterfell, he had not yet dealt with the Boltons. Roose Bolton might be evil, but Byrant figured he was smarter than Byrant’s father.  The gods had never answered him, and Byrant took that as answer enough. 

Byrant pulled a dried Wirewood leaf from his purse and stood tracing his steps back to the nearest torch and lit the tip of the leaf. He watched it burn down the ashes settling on the floor. A foot soldier’s superstition perhaps, but Byrant wanted any help from the gods he could get. Quietly he walked back to his corner and checked for guards. 

Seeing None Byrant stole forward, he knew the door would creak as it opened, or it had years ago, the hinges didn’t look any newer. When he pulled the door open he held his breath, but no- the hinges must have been replaced, all the better he walked into the room and took a breath, but it caught. 

Byrant had come prepared to kill his father, his father had killed his king, his love. But there laying next to his father was his mother. Byrant took a deep breath, he harbored no ill will for his mother, none at all, but- Byrant thought about what had been done to Robb, more than just the killing after guest rights had been invoked. The mutilation of his dead body. Many had died that night, more than just Robb, Lady Stark, the young Queen, and so many men, men who had more honor in their sword hand than Lord Frost had in his whole body. 

Byrant walked to the bed and took his father’s hair in his left hand, his father woke up but Byrant didn’t give him a chance to even recognize him, he slit his father’s throat and smiled. His smile fell though when he heard a choked shout from the otherside of the bed. 

“I’m sorry mother.” Byrant said, and he was, but the put a hand over her mouth as he slit her throat as well. He did not wait to watch his parents die, he only stayed long enough to burn another wirewood leaf. He was not done yet. 

Byrant found his eldest brother’s room as if by habit, he’d spent hours here with Derron, reading the history of their land, learning about wars. When they were younger it was always Derron who pointed out how merciful the Starks had been, not executing the youngest son after the war that nearly wiped their family from history. Byrant wondered now if the Starks should have. 

Byrant did not even pause, walking up to the bed. He’d not forgotten Derron’s wife, and soon the blood was pooling from both their necks. He wondered if Alisha had been conflicted when the Ironborn had come to take Winterfell. She herself was from the Iron Isles, a match suggested by Lord Eddard Stark to quell difficulties between the North and the Iron Isles. Neither house Frost nor Hose Orkwood seemed important enough to stop Theon. Byrant shook his head, he was going to Winterfell next and then he’d find Theon. The man Byrant had learned to think of as a friend would not die so peacefully. 

Byrant felt some regret as he slipped into his old room to see his nephews asleep. He’d been lucky so far, husband and wife sleeping near enough that Byrant did not have to worry about them calling out. That only meant he’d have to work quickly, three boys and then- he supposed Lyanna was in Garrat’s old room. They were all close enough to each other that this could pass for family chambers even if Derron and Alisha did not have a formal sitting room in with to entertain. 

The twins Robert and Brandon were closest to the door, young enough to still share a bed, it was almost too easy before Byrant padded over to his eldest nephew. The boy had always talked about wanting to be a swordsman, Derron had never said it, but Byrant knew it hurt that the boy looked up to him more than his father. 

“Uncle Byrant?” Byrant looked down at his nephew and almost put his dagger away. The boy did look something like him with his unruly blond hair. “Why are you all bloody?” 

Byrant couldn't find it in him to answer, could not even tell the boy sorry as he slit his throat. Like the other rooms he stayed only long enough to burn a wirewood leaf. He was not yet done, he wiped the dagger on his nephew’s bed linens as he walked out. It was a shame, the older one would have made a good honest Northman. 

His neice died quietly and Byrant found himself outside the room of his baby sister. She had been five years old the last time he saw her, before he had gone off to Dorne. Watching her Byrant could see she had grown into everything her older sister was not. Byrant felt regret, Ellya, Jorran, and Artor had not survived the massacre at the twins. Byrant could not help but wonder if Lord Bolton had meant for that to happen. No matter how much Lord Frost had put his support behind Lord Bolton, he was just a tool. 

Byrant closed his eyes and he slit his youngest sister’s neck. A single tear fell as he burnt the wirewood leaf. His father, his older brother, they deserved this but Alerie did not, she was only twelve years old, but there was nothing to be done. Byrant had one more stop to make. 

This time he did put his dagger away, he pulled a folded note from his purse and shook his head. Warrek  had been just two when Byrant had left for Dorne. This boy, a boy who Byrant could not even say he knew, was Lord Frost now. Byrant unfolded the letter and laid it on Warrek’s desk. It explained the whole thing. There were only three Frosts left in the world, Garrat, who had given up his name when he joined the citadel. Byrant who Lord Frost had disowned, struck from the family. And eight year old Warrek.

“The Frosts had been purged before” the note explained “and at the Starks were merciful to leave just one. Let this be a warning, to the Houses of the North.”

Byrant did not claim to work for the Starks, this- this was just vengeance, he had a considerable amount of work to do before he could claim to work for the Starks.

He did not go to the Lakehold godswood, instead, as he slipped out of the castle as quietly as he had slipped in, and headed south, he knew of a wirewood that grew near the shore of Long Lake, he needed to cleanse himself before he could continue south. 

Bathing in the lake, washing the blood from his hands, and changing into new clothes Byrant let his thoughts stray to Robb, for a moment he thought that Robb might disapprove of killing unarmed men, women, and children in their beds. But the sight of Greywind’s head on Robb’s body chased that thought out. He’d seen his father’s men in the crowd cheering. And what good had that been for Ellya, Jorran, and Artor, where they not his father’s children? Or had they gotten too close to Byrant, too far out of Derron’s reach? No, no matter what, Byrant knew he’d done right by Robb tonight.

He wanted to stop to rest but knew he needed to put as much space between him and the castle as he could. He only knew of two living Starks, Jon would make a good Lord, Byrant knew it, he’d grown up with the boy but he would have to be a last resort. So he set out south, he’d need a horse but he’d steal one when he got further away. He didn’t want to get too close to any houses, even if they were just solitary farm houses, yet. 

Stealing the Princess, The Queen from the Red Keep would be difficult, but it had to be done. It was a shame, even with Queen Sansa, that the Stark name would die out. Robb had been sure that Theon had not killed the young boys but all Byrant had to go off of were Robb’s feelings. Byrant loved the man but his feelings were what got the North into this mess in the first place. No Sansa would have to do and if the boys showed up that would just be icing on top of the cake. 

[disastergaze]

thoughts on "stormborn" bc why not

[feanorianethicsdepartment]

more of tauriel’s hellfamily adventures! there’s still a couple of gaps in my conception of this au, which is why these are bullet points and not an actual fic, but i think i’ve got enough to progress the plot, such as it is. certainly got a bunch of anecdotes i think are funny

i’m not even going to bother explaining how tauriel ended up in one of the fëanorians’ boltholes being treated for mild injuries

nothing super serious, but enough that she’s out of action for the rest of the night. the palace is on fire

the bolthole opens, and celegorm (who’s doing first aid) turns his head. his preemptive scowl melts away instantly. ‘hi elrond!’

the former lord of imladris just sighs. ‘please tell me you idiots haven’t abducted tauriel’

legolas has concerns, apparently. he saw celegorm vanish into an alleyway with her slung over his shoulder and immediately started panicking

‘i've talked him into delaying his rescue mission until i had the chance to check that she was safe’ elrond finishes, sounding absolutely exhausted

tauriel confirms that she is doing fine, as much as she can through the concussion. celegorm’s like ‘if he’s so worried about her why doesn’t he just come up here’

elrond disappears, and a few minutes later legolas scrambles inside

he’s glaring at celegorm. celegorm tells him where the first aid kit is, punches him on the arm, compliments his tracking skills in a vaguely threatening manner, and jumps back out to assist with the chaos

legolas collapses by tauriel’s bedside, still clutching his bow. tauriel pats him on the thigh reassuringly

neither of them are surprised elrond knows the fëanorians - they stayed in his place in tol eressëa for a while, dude knows literally everyone - but they don’t really know why

closer to dawn, elrond’s voice drifts up into the hideout. he’s going on this long irritated rant that climaxes in an extremely exasperated ‘valardamnit dad!’

maglor cackles. tauriel’s like ‘huh didn’t know that.’ legolas makes a face like he accidentally swallowed a spider

by this point, tauriel’s known the brothers hellspawn for long enough legolas has been unnervingly close to a kinslayer way more times than he’d like

this is the longest he’s spent in proximity to them by far, but it’s not the only time he’s interacted with them. they seem to like tauriel, and he knows she can take care of herself

but like still

it keeps happening, though. as tauriel further ingratiates herself with these awful awful elves, her two separate social circles keep bleeding into each other

take the time legolas and co visited the aulendili

before they left middle-earth, gimli whipped round every dwarf they knew and assembled several volumes of complaints. they refuse to confirm or deny whether aulë is the maker, but they are determined someone’s gonna hear their grievances

and thus a small wagon train of wood elves head up into the mountains. including tauriel

tauriel offhandedly mentioned the upcoming trip to the twins, and amras was like ‘hey we’ve got family up there!’ a few messages went up and down the funicular, and now gimli and crew have a place to crash up there

they’re put up by some of the fëanorians’ less murderous (if equally loud) relatives. it’s a pretty interesting trip

half the town is redheads. several people still mistake tauriel for a fëanorian. it’s been happening a lot in the wider noldorin territory lately, it’s weird

caranthir stumbles up into town about halfway through their visit. he gets into an extremely long philosophical argument with gimli that somehow ends with a mutual dwarven nod of respect

he also ends up fighting back-to-back with tauriel in one of those debatebrawls so common among the noldor. neither of them is quite sure how it happens

that’s the way it goes, isn’t it. there’s no big official moment when tauriel becomes part of the family

she just grows closer to them over her time in valinor, as they do to her

she merges into their social world. she develops a rapport with maglor’s wife - a first age mountain sinda and a third age forest avar don’t have that much in common, but they are both looking at noldorin culture from the outside. they have so many injokes about ridiculous bling

(it goes the other way too. this childhood friend oc of hers i’m developing - pretty sweet guy, the token sane man in the legolas-tauriel-him trinity - gets along really well with celebrimbor)

this one time tauriel punches a guy out for calling elrond a traitor. it doesn’t matter that he’s like three times her age, he is babey

she gets chewed out by maedhros and tests out new devices for curufin and drops in on nerdanel for tea. even though she doesn’t permanently live in the definitely-not-fëanorian quarter, she has her own personal space in its innermost warren

she’s one of them long before anyone consciously realises it

what causes that realisation is, admittedly, partially the conspiracy theories. if you say something often enough, you’ll start to believe it, and while the tauriel origin stories circulating through the noldorin rumour mill vary a lot in the details they all agree she is a fëanorian

but that’s a gradual long-term thing. it’s one more thread that leads to the moment

because there has to be an inflection point, i think. the fëanorians have plenty of family friends within the ranks of their definitely-not-minions. some are even as close to them as tauriel’s become

something has to happen to show she’s something more. fortunately, as demonstrated by the darkening and the númenorian invasion, no matter how peaceful it seems, history never stops

shit goes down. the exact details i’ll admit i don’t know yet, but at some point some sort of massive crisis rocks all of valinor. it’s during that crisis that tauriel does stuff that makes it blindingly obvious she’s not just on her side, but one of them

what stuff? again, i don’t know yet. i have this mental image of her leading a strike team that’s half definitely-not-minions and half legolas’ people through a burning city to do... something badass, but that’s as specific as i can get atm

what i am certain about, is that throughout the unfolding of the crisis, tauriel is permanently on the fëanorians’ side, just like they’re on hers

it’s one thing to be someone’s friend in bright happy days. it’s another thing to stick by them when everything’s falling to pieces and the whole world is against them. it’s in the depths of this crisis that both parties have the chance to fully prove their worth to each other

that probably wouldn’t be enough on its own, but combined with the friendship and the conspiracy theories and just the general way she is, once the dust settles it’s blazingly clear that tauriel is a daughter of the house of fëanor

there’s a little debate about where exactly she fits on the family tree, but not much. our sample size is admittedly small, but third generation fëanorians tend to have the slightest modicum of common sense? elrond and celebrimbor both have a fair degree of self-awareness and at least a few brain cells

tauriel does not. tauriel is mad, bad, and dangerous to know, just smart enough to understand that her sheer chaoticness is something she can channel but not nearly close to regularly thinking through the consequences of her actions. she’s loud and violent and does whatever she wants whenever she wants without a single thought towards what people will think of her

and more than that, she doesn’t relate to the second generation fëanorians the way the third generation does. she’s their friend and partner-in-crime, not one of their precious perfect must-protect children. she gets jerked around and bullied and does all that stuff right back, and while she doesn’t have a solid place in the second generation’s internal hierarchy yet she would easily slot in

no, tauriel’s a second generation fëanorian, one of fëanor and nerdanel’s horrible children. the fact that fëanor is currently indisposed and unable to provide an opinion on the matter doesn’t seem to bother anyone

she gets inducted into the family in a massive group hug, and from then on out the brothers hellspawn are the siblings hellspawn

her new family doesn’t replace her old one, of course, she has a long talk with elrond wherein she hashes this out. she’s still a silvan of the greenwood

she’s just also the little sister of the most bloodthirsty elves in history

(that sound in the background is legolas screaming)