Character Submissions

Seven Stars and Seven Stones and One White Tree.
Éowyn
Éowyn
Points: 4 120 
Posts: 2196
Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 3:34 pm
Character Submissions

Here you may log your Gondorian-based RP characters if you wish to do so, and read about other people's characters.

Feel free to use the template below or to create your own.

Edits and additions to your character submissions are allowed (even encouraged when necessary!) at any time.

You can post as many characters as you like!

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Name:


Age (bracket):

Physical appearance:

Personality:

Biography:
Last edited by Arnyn on Thu May 21, 2020 9:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
Arnyn ~ Honor & Valor
Kaylin ~ Joy & Strength

Éowyn
Éowyn
Points: 4 120 
Posts: 2196
Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 3:34 pm
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Name:
Arnyn Dealedwen

Past nicknames: Steel Stream / Axinecélüme

Age (bracket):

29 years old

Physical appearance:

- Long, golden blonde hair - worn in a single braid when on duty
- Dark brown eyes
- Fair skin, oval face
- Two rings pierced into each ear
- Athletic, slender, muscular
- 5 foot 11

Personality:

- Realistic
- Kind, empathic
- Balanced between intro- and extravert
- Honest but careful with her opinions, diplomatic
- Idealistic, strives to be the best she can be

- Enjoys good conversation, can be pulled into a game of darts
- Rarely drinks

Biography:

Arnyn was born and raised in Minas Tirith.

Her father, Narûel, died when she was eighteen. Her mother Kadya and brother Tercen moved to Ithilien, but Arnyn didn’t move with them. Instead she took to a year of traveling before settling back down into Minas Tirith, a city she couldn’t say goodbye to.

She joined the ERC at the age of nineteen and made her way up the ranks, of which she held a few: Hyander Lieutenant, Hyandaner Captain, Major and SinC, and finally Commander.
At the height of her career, she resigned her post and left to join the wandering rangers in the north of Middle-Earth.

The death of one friend too many briefly pulled her back to the White City. Dhalion, who had throughout her time with the ERC become more family than friend, had left her a farewel letter and gift (something soldiers and Rangers alike often set up before leaving on a campaign): a necklace with a blue gem in the shape of a teardrop, which she decided she would carry always.

It took her another stretch in the north before she was ready to return to the White City. Not expecting any of her old friends to welcome her back with open arms – she had left them, after all – it touched her heart to see how familiar and unfamiliar faces alike received her. When one of the letters issued by the King about the dispersal of the Gondorian Army found her, she was surprised and honored to be considered for a new version of the Rangers.

Knowing it was probably her only chance at fixing what had broken inside of her, she heeded the summons. She would be proud to once again be called a Ranger of Gondor.
After the Rangers' first campaign, King Aragorn promoted her from Ranger to Hyandaner Ranger.

She spent some time in Ithilien with her mother and brother then, before returning home, to the White City and the Rangers of Gondor.
Last edited by Arnyn on Wed May 18, 2022 8:36 am, edited 6 times in total.
Arnyn ~ Honor & Valor
Kaylin ~ Joy & Strength

Loremaster of Gondor
Points: 353 
Posts: 149
Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 4:31 am
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Name:
Turin Nûril Ringhûn

Past nicknames: Tulwar, one of the Bash Bro’s

Age (bracket): 28 years old

Physical appearance:
- Athletic, slender, muscular
- 6 foot
- Along with scar across right eye, scar on right side of neck that circles to the back of neck.
- in particularly stormy weather, has slight limp on the left side.

Personality:

- pessimistic
- introvert, until gets to know you.
- have to earn trust. Loyal once have it.
- kind, and has a good sense of humor. Have to have earned trust to see it though.
- has deep pains that he tries to hide.

Biography:

Turin was born and raised in the Brown Lands. On a rare occasion, his family would visit Minas Tirith, mostly to trade goods as his family comprised of farmers.

His father and brother, Turo and Huro respectively, died assisting Eomund in Emyn Muil. His mother too, died when he was young, due to an illness. Due to being orphaned, he left home and ventured to Mirkwood. He was raised to adulthood by a group of elves (that had been outcasts themselves) until one fateful day when most of that group fell to an ambush.

Afterwards, Turin made his way to Minas Tirith where he met the love of his life Nessa and was soon married, and the two had a daughter Ellin. Turin unfortunately spent much of his time away to commitments with the military, though many letters were sent between them while he was away. While in the Gondor army, Turin made his way up the ranks, eventually becoming an officer.

In his last campaign against the forces of darkness, he saw death up close and personal once again, being saved by an old officer who had come out of retirement for that mission. At the conclusion of the mission, he resigned his commission. But for reasons only known to him, he did not return home to his wife and daughter. Turin made his way north to deal with his personal demons. While there, he managed to reconcile with the few remaining survivors of the elven band who raised him after his family had passed. Letters continued to be sent, but these were infrequent.

Still fighting his inner demons, Turin remained in the brown lands, becoming a farmer at his childhood home, until one day he got a summons for a new Ranger organization in the capital. Though he knew he was placing himself back in the path of death, he felt it worthy to try to at least prevent others from experiencing the same suffering he knew all too well. He answered the summons, taking up the mantle of Ranger once again.
Last edited by Turin Ringhûn on Tue Jun 02, 2020 7:50 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Always mystify, mislead, and surprise the enemy- Stonewall Jackson
Hubris guarantees disaster.- T C

New Soul
Points: 1 191 
Posts: 1049
Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 2:39 am
Name:
Zevarion, goes by Zev

Age (bracket):


Physical appearance:
- Short stark white hair that often sticks out in every direction
- Clear, bright green eyes; full of mischief
- Athletic, slim build
- 5' 6"

Personality:
- Mischievous, impulsive
- Determined, can be very singular in his focus at times

Biography:

Mother died when he was fairly young, raised mainly by his domineering father, left home at a young age. Essentially ran away and ended up living aboard a ship for many years, sometimes with less than reputable crowds. Eventually ended up in MT, and joined the rangers, training and serving as a Hyandaner.

Upon the news of his father's death, and with suspicions that the family's secrets were deeper than he realized, and the 'family business' was...less than honorable, he left the Minas Tirith, with not much of a word to anyone. He discovered his uncle was the head of the main operation, and believes him responsible for for his father's death. Morwen was sent to find him, by request of Pele. The two have been working together to get to the heart of the operation, and find his uncle, after Zev refused to return to Minas Tirith with her.

They have now returned to the city, and Zev has seen an opportunity to rejoin his fellow soldiers, and gain further skills to help him continue in his quest to find his uncle and finish this business.
Last edited by Burnt Toast on Tue Jun 09, 2020 2:49 pm, edited 2 times in total.
they/he/mischief

Black Númenórean
Points: 2 528 
Posts: 1866
Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 3:21 am
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Kamion

Race: Man of Gondor - Northern Dúnedain

Age: Mid-60s

Biography: Kamion was born in T.A. 2960 to parents Darellon Balakân and Haldanis in an embattled Dúnedain settlement in Rhudaur. Less than a year into Kamion’s life his mother vanished- assumed to have been abducted or killed in the forest, though her exact fate remains unknown. Consequently Darellon raised Kamion alone, moving with the boy to Minas Tirith, abandoning his life amongst the Rangers of the North and finding work in the Steward’s army, training soldiers. Darellon placed Kamion in the finest school he could afford, which though it did address the basics of scholarly education concentrated on grooming the boys who attended it to enter military service.

From a young age Kamion knew that it was his path to serve in the army of Gondor rather than take up a trade or return to his ancestral home in the north and join the Rangers there. He traveled to Rhudaur several times in his youth in the company of his father, and while he was glad to acquaint himself with the land and people of his birth, Kamion’s love of the White City drew him home. There was never a time in Kamion’s memory when he was not in martial training with his father, and was given an introduction to many types of weapon and styles of fighting. While proficient in several of these, Kamion quickly found his true love in the longsword.

At the earliest possible age, Kamion joined the army of Gondor and continued to train his skills and body, while at home continuing to train his mind. Though he was no longer being formally educated, he had a love of knowledge which drove him to pursue the scholarly ones as well as the martial ones, both of which were encouraged by his father. By this time Kamion had grown into a strong young man- standing taller than most at five inches above six feet, with broad shoulders and sturdy legs, but an uncannily graceful quality of movement, his hair black and shaggy and eyes a startling cobalt blue. The latter was apparently inherited from Haldanis, which Darellon often reminded his son, saying they were the only piece of her left.

In keeping with his bloodline, as he aged Kamion retained a generally youthful appearance, though he has picked up the scars and signs of wisdom and worry that come with a militant life. At his current age in middle sixties, he is generally a mild-tempered man, but passionate when roused and capable of commanding authority; intensely loyal and unwavering in the service of Gondor, he will do what must be done in order to carry out his task, but always err on the side of honor given the choice. Though he never desired leadership or command, through long training in many martial areas, long experience, and prodigious skill with the longsword in particular, in his youth had found himself rising through the ranks and called upon to train and lead his fellow soliders, and has served as a Sergeant in the army of Gondor for many years. He has now answered the call to join the new Ranger Corps, and see what lies ahead.
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Evil is a lifestyle | she/her

Chief Counsellor of Gondor
Points: 2 909 
Posts: 1281
Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 8:37 am
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Name : Ilisys Azrubêl, of Lond Côl, Dor-En-Ernil

Age (bracket) : 40-ish (Pure Dunedain bloodline, as is typical of Dol Amroth nobility)

Physical appearance :

Tall and slender, she is pale with pensive grey eyes.
Long dark black hair, usually fastened in some obscure (once-exquisite) fashion which has since fallen loose during the rigors of daily life.
Commonly draped in splendidly expensive garments, although largely adapted nowadays (and not always so exquisitely so) to accommodate her needs.
Scarred left forearm as a consequence of an ugly injury, gained (amongst others) in jousting practice. This scar is usually covered up, by a splendidly solid silver bracelet most often, for a lady does not willingly expose any sign of weakness for all the world to see.


Personality :

Not one for offering her clear opinion upon any situation, she expresses herself in rather a vague manner mostly.
Can thus appear aloof or disinterested at times.
Can often be relied upon to be unpredictable.
She has a history of giving away priceless treasures that greatly outweigh the deed that ‘earned’ them, possibly because she has always had a good deal of wealth at her disposal. This can cause her to be deemed as naïve though, rather than generous


Biography :

The house of Azrubêl was synonymous during the late third age, with one river's side of the affluent estate of Lond Côl (the ‘Golden Harbour’). An enterprising, Pelargirosi blockade runner during the Kinstrife had won great wealth and celebrity enough to wed a maid of impoverished but impeccable breeding in Belfalas. Together the decadent Azrubel and their new austere Dimaethor relatives protected one of two forts in the attractive coastal land which became reputed for the family’s recent influx of money as much as for the beautiful sand that met the sea in that vicinity.

The father of Ilisys followed his forefathers thus by bearing the name Araldur, and entering the prestigious order of Swan Knights. Yet he was the first of his descent to produce a first-born daughter. He named his unconventional heir after the protagonist heroine of a play which he had recently enjoyed at the theatre, and expected sons would come thenafter, whom he could entrust with his name and his legacy. But, lured toward emulating the Guild of Venturers of old Numenor, Isys's patriach sailed with the Swan knights in many a thrilling escapade. Her mother, Eressild, was a jewelery heiress out of Lebennin, who endeavoured to impress her only child with a want toward loyalty and charity that began at home.

Raised as an only child in that ornately decorated home, Ilisys had long nurtured a close friendship with the only other person of her agegroup; her father’s young page, Anardil. Easily excited by the antics of her adventurous father, she was nonetheless grounded by her practical mother, who managed the estate’s welfares and finances while their lord was off partaking in such as the Siege of Umbar, with the future King Elessar. When Araldur took full advantage of the Corsair’s ravaged armada, to explore and harvest treasures from the Harad coast, the Enemy struck back in vengeance, putting fire to a ship where the Belfalas Lord was celebrating his birthday at home with many friends and family. The lady Eressild, had feigned the children’s need for bed to escape her own seasickness and departed (with her brother-in-law's escort) from the doomed vessel not long before it was transformed to a deathtrap, killing all those left on board. The arsonist was revealed as an Umbarian named Salukhatar Halsad, who later took his own life in the Dol Amroth dungeon that this atrocity earned him.

Her father’s death had a great impact upon ilisys who vowed to take up Araldur’s spear, become a Swan Knight, and be avenged upon her nation’s nautical foe. Fortunately her mother was supportive of her only child proving capable as any son might, and the family could afford to well equip and train their unconventional princess. But all too soon the courtesies of gender clashed with the romanticised requirements of a chivalric career. For her late father’s page to now attend her as squire, and dress the young woman in her armour for battle raised some eyebrows, due to the assumed intimacy between them. Her handmaidens were ordered to chaperone for jousting competitions, but could not be expected to accompany their lady to the perils of true war.

Rumours abounded and the Lady Eressild fretted, for no respectable lord of Belfalas was like to wed a well-born daughter who was ‘entangled’ with a squire. Ilisys and Anardil were in truth as though brother and sister to each other, and the closest thing that either had to a friend. Though it was her kinsman from across the river, Lord Abrazimir Dimaethor, whom Isys involved in a secret mission to infiltrate Umbar, for she needed her Warder to hold the fort safely at home. This early and rather reckless venture on her part, was a desperate attempt to recover a lost ship of their estate, and all those hapless souls aboard it from meeting the cruel fate which House Halsad did inevitably visit upon them. In a cruel vengeance for the death of Salukhatar, years before. Isys afterward spent a year outside of noble society, cloistered in mourning after the devastating blow this rendered to their folk. Her loyal Warder spent almost this same amount of time in Minas Tirith where his cousins lived, while Lady Eressild sought to quash the rumours back home. Thankfully the late Araldur’s younger brother, Edhelmir, had recently obtained a wife, and soon after, a male heir to inherit the Azrubêl dynasty, and the bulk of attention.

Alas Edhelmir was lost at sea soon after that; and his young son, Emeredir, was still only an infant at the War of the Ring; so Ilisys and Anardil it was that rode forth to represent their holding, at the Battle of Pelennor. The rumours which had assailed the pair's reputations previously were forgot in the face of an actual war, especially since her beloved squire finally put the last of their illicit rumours to rest, by marrying the girl whom he actually loved - an astronomer’s daughter named Gael.

However, after victory and the Return of the King, Ilisys was left with naught to do but roam her decadent family home until a letter arrived, from the new returned King of the Reunited kingdom. The promise of a lively career to satisfy her want for adventure, free from the constraints of a ‘proper’ civilisation, was too good an opportunity to turn down. And so she moved to the barracks of Minas Tirith, whilst also keeping a house in the city for her family to visit with their inescapable entourage. A small independent business she established in the marketplace as well, entrusting it's management to Iole Ishen, in efforts to provide a worthwhile service to the needy in the White City, by her mother's example.

As to the hope of living happily ever after, her issue with a refugee Umbarian, Arkadhur, secretly the son of Salukhatar Halsad himself, promises that life - even in a time of peace - will never be boring.
Last edited by Ercassie on Sat May 27, 2023 11:15 pm, edited 9 times in total.
All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost
The old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not touched by the frost.

Éowyn
Éowyn
Points: 4 120 
Posts: 2196
Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 3:34 pm
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Name:
Kaylin Maethyr
Age:

28 years old

Physical appearance:

- Long, red hair
- Blue-grey eyes
- Fair skin, oval face
- One hole pierced into each ear
- Lean but muscular
- 5 feet 10"

Personality:

- Optimistic
- Friendly, sociable (gets bored easily)
- Assertive , extravert
- Honest, direct
- Thinks people should accept her the way she is

- Likes to play dice (for money or not, doesn’t matter, she plays for the fun of it – she’s always been extremely lucky at dice)
- Good drinker and perhaps likes a drink too many sometimes

Bio:

Kaylin was born and raised in Linhir, a port town in Lebennin, situated at the ford near the confluence of the rivers Gilrain and Serni, not far from their estuary into the Sea.
She came to Minas Tirith in the Third Age, in her early twenties at her father’s request.

Her parents are both alive: her mother (Mira) is a shopkeeper, her father (Bracken) a soldier. They still live in Linhir. Bracken wanted his daughter to go to Minas Tirith because he believed it would be the best defended, but Kaylin made her own choices upon arrival: she joined the army and moved into their barracks.

When Kaylin arrived in MT, she had good stamina and agility, but was only skilled in unarmed combat, with basic knowledge of handling a sword and no experience with other weapons.
Her first winter in the city, she met a Ranger named Thûllir at the Midwinter Ball in the Tavern of the Seven Stars. Their budding relationship was heady and impetuous; they were engaged to be married within 8 months of their meeting.

In her first few years with the army, Kaylin developed her skills with the sword and progressed through the ranks; from Recruit, to Soldier, to Veteran Soldier to Master Sword.
Thullir and Kaylin also secretly trained together in the ways of the Tírdinen, under herdir Lokhi (with the permission of Captain Karis Ziranphel, of course).
After an engagement that lasted a bit over a year and a half, Thullir and Kaylin married in front of family and friends in Minas Tirith.

Extensive training with other weapons such as the spear (with NPC Master Spear Lexine) and the bow (with her fiancé and later husband Thullir), she became a Master at Arms in the Gondorian Army three years after joining their ranks.
The fourth year of her relationship with Thullir, Kaylin was expecting a child, which she sadly lost about halfway through her pregnancy.

The next year, the War of The Ring ripped through Middle Earth.

A few years later, the dispersal of the Gondorian Army left Kaylin with a gaping hole in her identity. Therefore she jumped at the chance, now aged 28, to join the newly created Rangers of Gondor.
After the Rangers' first campaign, King Aragorn promoted Kaylin from Ranger to Hyandaner Ranger.
Last edited by Arnyn on Tue Feb 22, 2022 9:42 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Arnyn ~ Honor & Valor
Kaylin ~ Joy & Strength

Child of Gondor
Points: 220 
Posts: 80
Joined: Sat May 23, 2020 5:36 pm
Name: Arinelle

Age: Will be turning 30 soon

Appearance: Arinelle's skin is tanned by many hours in the sun. Her hair is dark, but not quite black. It's curly and unruly, and usually she keeps it in a braid. Not a very long one either - long hair isn't practical for a soldier. She's of average height, but the way she stands makes her appear taller. Her muscles show well. Her hands are callused. There are scars on her arms, there's one on her cheek, perhaps there are more scars on her body. Nothing major, but it is clear she has seen battle. Her eyes are brown as a muddy road, she likes to say.

Bio: Arinelle was born in Dol Amroth, the younger of three sisters. Their young brother died in childhood.
Coming from a well-off family, she was well educated, and expected to act a certain way. Instead, she ran off, repeatedly; first to the waterfront, then joining sailors and learning the craft of steering a boat. With friends she sailed more than once along Gondor's shoreline. The salt tang of the sea, the wind, the freedom away from land - it was exhilarating.
Her first visit to Minas Tirith was when her older sister Laurenel married a ranger of Ithilien. The sight of the White Tower, standing proud and tall against the smoke and shadow rising from the east affected her deeply. A few years later she packed up her things and returned to join the army.
Years of service followed. And then the King returned, the war ended, and Arinelle found herself a soldier willing to serve, only apparently her service isn't needed anymore.

Personality: The rebelliousness of Arinelle's youth got shaped by service into an ability to think on her feet and a habit of speaking out when she believed it necessary. What insecurities she had in society, compared to her "proper" sisters, got washed away by age and a sense of pride in the work she did. Arinelle is very much a soldier - she plays cards, she drinks with friends, she curses like a sailor. She is open, direct, generous towards her friends.

Child of Gondor
Points: 220 
Posts: 80
Joined: Sat May 23, 2020 5:36 pm
Name: Elphir

Age: 50-ish

Appearance: In his youth, Elphir was considered very handsome indeed. He had keen grey eyes, raven-black hair, an elegant line of mouth and jaw. He kept his hair combed, his beard neatly trimmed, his clothes pristine. (When he was not crawling through the mud in Ithilien, that is.) But though he is of a noble line of Numenor, time lies heavy on him. His gaze is weary, his back is bent, his hair is streaked with white, and his left arm is missing below the shoulder.

Bio: Elphir became a soldier at 15, against his father's wish and express command. At 18 his request for transfer to Ithilien was approved. In Ithilien he had served for many years, as the shadow of Mordor grew. Having married the fair Laurenel, he had requested to be transferred back to Minas Tirith. For a while he saw little action. At this time his two children were born: Galastel and Anardil. But as the orcs came fiercer and more often, Elphir felt it was his duty to return to Ithilien.
In the battle at the Black Gates, Elphir lost his arm. Since then he has been struggling to find his place. Financially, the disability benefits Gondor pays and his own family wealth are more than enough, but what kind of life is it, for a man who used to have a purpose?

Personality: Elphir is kind, polite, his anger wakens slowly. Always he weighs his words before speaking, always he tries to be diplomatic, and to see all sides of a problem. He acts responsibly, not impulsively. His family are his greatest joy. He has an appreciation for beauty, for art, for poetry, and also a fine singing voice. But up until recently he has had little time to engage with these interests, and now that he has, they fail to satisfy.

Craftsman of Gondor
Points: 106 
Posts: 29
Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 7:27 am
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Name:Red (Mark) Daghul

Age (bracket): 36, Dunedain (may need to fix this once the year is decided)

Physical appearance:
Black hair that falls to his shoulder that finds it's way into his face like it had a mind of it's own, and grey eyes that seem to be searching the soul trying to piece together the truths in a person His smile has a way of cutting through the defenses of the most walled up person due to it's friendly nature. Standing around 6 foot 2 on a good day his build is that of a man who has trained most of his life for living outdoors and war, it is littered with scars from old battles.

Personality:
Red is a good natured man, who quite often gives more then he gets, to him it is of up most importance to see others succeed in becoming the best people they can be. Partly because he needs to feel that he has earned the respect and love of his friends, and will often put their needs first as a way to hide his own pain and desire to be loved. It is important to him that they are taken care of, even if that means taking from him, and if it comes to it he will figure out how to fix himself too. Often it has been said that he needs to take better care of himself first, and allow others to help him rather then always being there for others. Being able to say no is important at times, and self care has a place.

Empathy is huge, feeling emotions of what is going around can cloud his mind, so at times he can become numb and cold in order to do what he must. Though he has a long fuse, anger can get the best of him. Sadness lurks, and if he doesn't remember to vent and let go emotion can cloud logic. He trusts his gut, and intuition over, the black and white of logic.

Biography:
Red Grew up in the north with the Dunedain, his mother and father being rangers though everything changed when he was framed for a attack on his people by a band of orcs in the third age. Sending him to live with his aunt and uncle in the white city Mark changed his name to Red Daghul in order to start a new life. There he became a ranger of Ithilin and fought with them as a new recruit during the war of the ring, afterwards joining the ERC as a Hyandaner gaining rank till he became second in command with Turin.

After Turin left he led the Hyandaner for a short time before feeling that all his friends had left, and not seeing the ERC as a huge need deciding rather it was time to go make amends with his family he and his Cousin Robin went to the north. After finding that his family had found the true traitor and dealt with them he lived their for a season before his sister, Robin and he went on their own adventures helping people through out the land as a small band of rangers.

Now he finds himself back at the white city, the call and desire to once again fight for the white tree renewed in his spirit.
~Red Daghul~
Hyandaner for life!

Scholar of Gondor
Points: 214 
Posts: 105
Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 5:15 pm
Name: Finduilas Faelivrin
Fin = golden hair; las = leaf) Faelivrin = the gleam of the sun on the pools of Ivrin

Age (bracket): About 150, appears in mid-20s

Physical appearance: Tall for a woman, about 5’10”, long blond, wavy hair flows down her back when she’s not working, falls in ringlets about the face. Thin, though muscular. She likes to keep busy and is physical. Eyes: green as the sea. Any distinguishing marks (scars etc.): Scars on wrists and ankles from imprisonment by Corsairs; scar from scimitar slash running from left shoulder down to her waist; tattoo of silver tree entwined with white tree in right shoulder blade (from childbirth). She dresses for comfort, though enjoys dressing up for special occasions.
Personality: Friendly, always looks out for others’ needs before her own. Empathetic.

Biography: She is a Master Healer/Herbalist, though she carries a self-crafted longbow, Eryniel (“of the woods”) with shell handgrip and horn nocks; Quiver holding 16 gray goose-fletched arrows, wood from a Hickory sapling. Her hobbies are reading, writing, hunting and herbal lore. Findy enjoys nothing more than to throw back her head in a hearty laugh.

Her speech is flowery on occasion but not in an off-putting way. She is optimistic and determined, generous to a fault, brave and often puts herself in danger to protect others. She is intelligent and always polite, though impatient in matters of the heart, more likely to cry when wronged (bounces back quickly). She is a natural leader and is almost always too hard-working.

Her parents first met when her father, Andurmir, was wounded while a Ranger and Silwen cared for him. They fell in love over time (to the consternation of Findy’s uncle Sorontar) and moved to Minas Tirith. Findy was separated from her twin brother, Salairmir, at birth (to protect them both). Findy was raised in Minas Tirith and she and her brother were reunited some years later. Findy keeps several volumes of journals. One is an herbal journal, which contains drawings and cuttings from countless plants, as well as where they were found, how the weather was on each day, and what they can be used for, both medically and in cooking. She also has several volumes of her life memories.

(I think I got most of the details right. More to be added to this when I decide what to do with Findy and how much of her past to keep.)

Chief Counsellor of Gondor
Points: 2 909 
Posts: 1281
Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 8:37 am
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Name : Aladdhor (Addhor)Raxëlilta

Age (bracket) : Early-mid 40’s


Physical Appearance :

Tall and dark haired with brown eyes, Addhor was an athletic youth with a robust temperament. Experience rather than age has taken it’s toll since then.
Every Ranger bears inexhaustible scars but this veteran is also missing his right leg from just above the knee. He wears a wooden equivalent, beautifully carved from lebethron wood.
Resilience compels him with obstinate obsession and his delving into the art of carpentry has assisted in the preservation of strength.


Personality :

Addhor is not an open book, as much as he might claim to be. He shares little with most, and much with very few.
He has ever been extremely loyal to his country and for all the damage that his time in service did him, still enjoys indulging in the tales of adventures from his youth.
His family he holds a great affection for, though he has a domineering tendency that can infuriate those he feels a need to protect.
Alcohol usurped his existence long after it had dulled the pain of his injuries and the abandonment of his young wife, so he can tend to view a pint of ale with the same trepidation as a foe these days.


Biography :

Addhor was born in Lossarnach, while his father was away on tour as a Ranger of Ithilien. He was less than three years old when his father was killed in action and can, to his regret, recall nothing of the man. His mother was pregnant with Addhor’s younger brother (Domanol) when they moved to Minas Tirith, and she raised her two sons in the city single-handed, whilst supporting herself as a cleaner. Forbidden from assisting the household by bringing in a wage before he finished school, Addhor resolved to at least help be responsible around the house. At school he was easily led by his charismatic friend, Narradir, but at home he was the eldest, often watching over his younger brother and Domanol's friend, Duinion who all but lived at their house due to an unhappy homelife. To them, he was the role model and he tried to do as well as he hoped his father would have done for him. At an age though when he was still scarcely a man himself, Addhor learnt that from a cousin that his late father had in fact been a Ranger. Previous attempts to speak upon the subject of his patriach had met only his mother’s tears, and so he had not pressed the issue before. However, her upset at his decision to enlist now did not move him to change his determined mind.

He and Narradir enlisted on the same day as their classmates Castion and Hastad, and the four become inseparable during their early years in service. It was with these three friends that he returned on leave and spent an alcohol-drenched evening at a local pub. The next morning, he and three of these friends had wed the four respective young women they’d met only the night before. A bold acceptance that they may never return from duty saw more than one of those marriages consummated during the brief interlude of such a flyaway courtship. Luisa Angalinde/Raxelilta found herself to be pregnant after Addhor had returned to the wartorn forest of Ithilien. His mother, Odessa, duely took the young addition in, and all the family were overjoyed when Luisa bore Addhor a son, Unalmis; named after his maternal grandfather.

Addhor was never happier than during his time serving his country, though friends came and went. His best friend Narradir was arrested for resisting arrest over a misunderstanding, the consequent grievous bodily harm done to the arresting guard leaving Narry to quench his remorse in a dungeon cell, at Denethor's command. Another peer, Beren Camlost, was a local messenger and farmer's son who roved as a ranger with Addhor and friends, but then Beren left soon after, heading out North and far from home without ever explaining why. He was replaced in their company by young Duinion Raedor, although Domanol was forbidden from enlisting as well, for Odessa would ensure at least one of her sons stayed safe at home. Thankfully so. For a few years later, Addhor’s company were ambushed by Orcs, and suffered heavy losses. He escaped with his life although without a good quantity of his right leg; which an Orc had hewn from his body and sought to beat him to death with. Countless blows about the head meant that Addhor fell from consciousness quite swiftly and recalls nothing of the actual assault. It was Duinion that came upon the broken patrol and saved Addhor's life. Come home afterward to recover, Addhor fell often to alcohol to soothe his pain. Luisa had already struggled with the relentless demands of their small son, and found it further more difficult to tend to her husband now as well. His long absence from her side had already taken their toll on their distant marriage, and Addhor was scarcely surprised when she departed from the family home. That same night, his younger brother, Domanol, took up with the Ranger’s sword and set off in his stead, for vengeance on the damage done to his beloved elder sibling. Neither one of them has ever returned and for the longest time, Addhor believed they had run away together, rather than face that their initial marriage had all been a rather idealistic mistake.

Odessa soon began to quarrel with Addhor more often over his increased drinking and the welfare of his son, whom the grandmother was forced to do much raising of herself. It was not until some fourteen years later that Addhor was finally forced to recognise what he still had to lose; a now adolescent Unalmis fell for the lies of a deviant Umbarian, seeking vengeance for a wrong done him by the errant Domanol. Though a pair of nobles from Dol Amroth were to set after the foe themselves, seeking the abducted ship of their countrymen (which Unalmis had sailed on), Addhor insisted upon going with them. Against all odds, and despite the losses of a great many lives, the party infiltrated Umbar and, after a series of unfortunate and unforeseen obstacles, they managed at least to bring the naïve young man home. Addhor has since made it his mission to keep a better eye on his only child, his legacy. This has required him to realise that alcohol is not as important as family. For Unalmis is impetuous and requires much dedicated watching over !

A chance reunion with his old friend Narradir, now on work release as a forester, led Addhor to take up a carpentry apprenticeship in the city. Finally he had found a new calling in life, crafting with woodwork in efforts to appear as a better example to his child. Not only does the nature of his new profession take the former Ranger back to his forestry past, but he has discovered a new lease of life, and new neighbours. Though surprised to find himself enjoying the company of Nelladel Alarion, a baker in the marketplace, Addhor began to wonder quite what other aspects of his life he had assumed were lost, but could be equally recovered. It transpired though that Nell was an old acquaintance of a mutual acquaintance, Beren Camlost, and the mother of Beren’s now adult son besides. When Nell chose to put her family first, he could scarcely blame her. He had a son himself and knew well what that meant. So when Beren came back into Nell and Mourgan’s life, he certainly could not object, to see those he cared for now happily reunited.

Unalmis became concerned a little that this disappointment/the war might see Addhor return to his drink-fuelled days, but was delighted to note that instead, his father invested in a carpentry shop of his own with Narradir as his business partner. Every day now is a tiny take-back of a life the former Ranger has decided he still wants, albeit very different to the one that he once imagined.
Last edited by Ercassie on Wed Feb 23, 2022 10:32 pm, edited 8 times in total.
All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost
The old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not touched by the frost.

Child of Gondor
Points: 220 
Posts: 80
Joined: Sat May 23, 2020 5:36 pm
Name: Myrtle

Age: 23

Appearance: Myrtle is quite short, only about 1.50m. She has auburn hair, hazel eyes, a small upturned nose and many many freckles.

Bio: Myrtle was born in Archet, by Bree-hill. They were not a rich family, but not a poor one either - her father was a woodcutter, they got by. Her mother could read, and had taught her too, and when book merchants passed by, Myrtle would sometimes buy a tome from them. She had neither brothers nor sisters, so her parents pampered here somewhat, allowing her this luxury. Her father did not come back from the forest one day, when she was fifteen or so. Still, mother and daughter made do. It was thus, however, that Myrtle was alone in the forest one day, and so came to meet a ranger, Gwathmir.
The people of Archet kept their distance from rangers, for the most part. But Gwathmir was handsome, and charming, and interesting to talk to, and only a couple of years older than Myrtle. Some in Archet shook their head in disapproval, but soon after her seventeenth birthday Myrtle was engaged to Gwathmir. Myrtle couldn't be happier, and Gwathmir, she knew, felt the same way.
Gwathmir got called away on a mission - his comrades needed help, there was some danger further north. It was supposed to be only a short one, he promised to return well before the wedding. He never came back. And there was that night in the barn, before he left. It was a consolation to have something of him that would remain. But the neighbours did not see it that way. She was unmarried and pregnant. There were suggestions first of certain herbs, then of "drowning the little bastard the moment it's born". Myrtle's mother died that winter. After that, she no longer felt safe to stay.
Alan was born in Rivendell. The elves offered Myrtle a place to stay. They were kind, that's just how they were. But the tales in the Hall of Fire, they told Myrtle what kind of a future Alan could expect, growing up there: Turin, Beren - they were remembered as heroes, but the association with elves brought them much pain and suffering. This was not the life Myrtle wanted for her son. She had help reaching Minas Tirith. She had made her way there in the end, and then she had to make it in Minas Tirith. She started out as an apprentice with the Clothiers' Guild. Then came years of journeymanship spent in Lebennin, and now, finally, she has managed to rent her own shop in the Minas Tirith marketplace. And Alan - he came to Minas Tirith a baby, strapped to his mother's back. Now he is a strapping lad of six, helping his mother, or running off to play with other children.

Personality: The first impression one gets of Myrtle is that she's timid and meek. She's polite, she keeps her eyes lowered, she doesn't argue. But there's steel and determination under that soft exterior. She couldn't have made her way from an outcast in Archet to a shop-owner in Minas Tirith. She might bow before a wind, but she will not break.

Child of Gondor
Points: 771 
Posts: 420
Joined: Wed May 20, 2020 3:35 am
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Name: Nelladel Alarion
Age: 35

Appearance:
Long black hair often wore in a braid for working in the bakery.
Green eyes.
Fair skin.
Womanly figure
5"5'

Personality:
Genuinely good natured but having 5 brothers has learned to stand her ground.
Holds family dear and loves children.
Quick to laugh but takes her work serious.
Keeps her feelings close and only shares them with those closest to her.

Bio: Growing up on a simple farm with 5 brothers Nell was often found trying to trail them around. Whatever they were doing she wanted in the middle of it but being the only girl she was often sent home or shushed away. This only made her want to join in their adventures more but her Father would not have his daughter covered in dirt and debris. She was made to learn all the boring skills young ladies were supposed to enjoy. Sewing, cooking, cleaning..blah..blah..blah.

At 15 she had fallen head over heels for a young man but knowing her father and brothers would disapprove they kept their relationship a secret. Young love would not be denied and when the summer ended she had more then sweet memories to remember their time together. She was with child. She shared her secret with no one and when she told him his reaction wasn't what she was expecting or hoping for. He left. Being so young he was unable to face his responisibilities or more so her Father and 5 brothers.

Thankfully her Father and oldest brother Mangus had brokered an acceptable marriage and still keeping her secret she accepted. He was kind and loving. An honest man of twenty who owned and worked his own farm and when she gave birth to her son he toasted the birth of his son. He loved Mourgan and was every bit the attentive father to the young child. For five years they lived a quiet simple life. She loved him and loved that dispite the fact Mourgan bore no recognizable features of her husband he'd never asked why. He simply loved his roll as Father.

Nothing last forever. He became sick and although the healers were summoned they simply shook their bowed heads as they left his bedside. He was wasting away before her eyes and she could do nothing more then make him comfortable. Dispite his weakness he always entertained Mourgan, now 5. He would read to the boy and tell him stories of battles and adventures while the young boy sat on the bed beside him, playing with his carved horse and rider. The white tree carved into the shield.
The day was sunny and the birds sang but in Nells heart it was the darkest day of her life as she stood, her young son leaning against her leg while her brothers lowered him into the ground. She had to be strong for their son and so she didn't wail or sob but her tears found their way down her cheeks all the same.

After the burial she returned to their home, their farm. With some strong pursuation she agreed to move to her brother Mangus home. He was a bachelor and nearly never home. The farm would be kept in order for Mourgan when he became of age. Two years past. She'd decided to move to Minas Tirith much to her brothers disapproval but with a small son to raise she set her jaw and packed their things.

There she found work in an old bakery. She found a squirrel nesting in the oven and with some help from Mourgan they evicted the squirrel and had the ovens working in no time. She found she enjoyed her work and with the small apt above it they settled in to their new lives. Time past as it has a habit to do and with it she'd worked herself into the title of Master Baker. When the time came it was her duty to let Mourgan know of his inheritance but even she was surprised when the deed also came with a time worn letter.

It was from her husband. It explained that he'd had an injury in his early teens and he'd been told he would never father a child. He'd guessed about Mourgan but saw the boy as a gift, a chance at fatherhood. He took it and ran no matter the circumstances of his becoming. Mourgan was his son and so claimed him making it impossible for any other to question his birth or birthright. He would inherit all that he'd worked for and he only hoped Mourgan would someday work the same soil and make it his home as well. Her tears stained the worn parchment as she folded it away for safe keeping.

With her brothers help she informed Mourgan of his inheritance and then she also explained the reason Mourgan would sometimes be mistaken for someone else. His telling was hard for her and although he took the news well it brought to the surface many feelings she thought she'd safely tucked away. She would deal with them on her own time and in her own way. Mourgan inquired about his birth father but having had no contact with him since that day she couldn't give him the answers he deserved.

For now she builds her life in the white city...
Last edited by Isolde Alarion on Thu Dec 16, 2021 2:22 am, edited 2 times in total.
Isolde Alarion/Rohan~Nelladel Alarion/Gondor~Mourgan Alarion/Gondor ~ Dahak/ Umbar ~ Relic RIP

New Soul
Points: 799 
Posts: 762
Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 11:26 am
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Name: Jaena (Jay to friends)
Age (bracket): Early thirties
Physical appearance: Jaina has brown hair and brown eyes, and a tall, athletic build. She is of the Dúnedain, and used to be a Ranger of the North.
Personality: Practical, organized, and logical - Jaena is a good person to put in charge of logistics. She is quiet and methodical, and gets on at least as well with horses as with people. However, she is also fiercely loyal to those that earn her trust.

Biography:
Her family has lived in Arnor for generations, after following Elendil from Númenor and settling in Eriador when Elendil established his kingdom in the North. She is a very distant (fourth) cousin to Beren Camlost. Jaena’s parents were both rangers; her father was slain in battle with orcs and she now carries his blade. During the War of the Ring, she came south and joined Gondor in the fight against Sauron, and then never left. She has recently been recruited to join the new Rangers of Gondor.
She/her. Almarëa - Rivendell / Jaena - Lone Lands (T.A.) and Gondor (F.A.) / Layna - Mordor

Master Torturer
Points: 2 588 
Posts: 3018
Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 11:22 am
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Image
Thea

Age: 18

Physical appearance: Skinny, her clothes hanging on her loosely as if she has lost weight recently. Long dark red curly hair. Emerald green eyes. 5'5'' in height. Thea's hands are often red and raw from her job.

Personality: Usually quite bubbly, though lately more withdrawn. Loyal and honest. Usually never goes against an authority figure. Takes pride in working hard. Of late quite melancholy.

Biography: Thea lost her mother when she was quite young, raised by her father Belion. She does not know much about her parents meeting, or about what her father did during the war, only that he fought in it. Thea assumes she was born in Minas Tirith, as she has no memory of any other place, though has never thought to ask her father as it has never come up. The small family were never rich, though Belion's work as a clay pipe maker and her own jobs, were enough to keep them well fed, clothed and housed. Belion died two years ago, making a trip to Rohan to sell his pipes. Thea is crushed that she never got her father's body so that she could bury him. Currently working at the Garrison laundry.

Child of Gondor
Points: 220 
Posts: 80
Joined: Sat May 23, 2020 5:36 pm
Names: Galastel and Anardil

Age: 13 and 10, respectively

Physical appearance: Both are dark-haired and grey-eyed. Galastel's hair has never been cut, Anardil's is shoulder-length. Both children have fine-boned faces. Galastel is in the middle of a growth spurt, Anardil hasn't started his yet.

Personality: Galastel is active and adventurous. She enjoys physical activity, and has little patience for sitting down and studying. She loves being outside, and is curious about nature and its secrets, distant lands and the people who live there. Anardil is not averse to physical activity either, but he enjoys also the study of history, puzzles, riddles, chess. Both children are kind and well-mannered (or at least try to be). Galastel, as the eldest, tries to be the responsible one, but struggles with an impulsive nature.

Biography: Galastel and Anardil are Elphir's two children. Arinelle is their aunt, their mother Laurenel's sister. During the War of the Ring, while Elphir and Arinelle were both on the front lines, Laurenel took Galastel and Anardil to their family in Dol Amroth, following the Lord Denethor's instructions to empty the city of civilians.
With their father a ranger and their aunt a soldier, Gali and Nari always felt close to military life, and as children assumed that would be their life as well. With the war over, and Gondor finally safer than anyone could dream of, they now have the opportunity to choose a future for themselves.

(I'm not always going to keep Gali and Nari together, but they are together a lot, seemed redundant to have separate posts for them)

New Soul
Points: 1 191 
Posts: 1049
Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 2:39 am
Name:
Morwen

Age (bracket):


Physical appearance:
- Short, almost shaven raven black hair
- Deep golden eyes
- Muscular
- 5' 10"
- Jagged scar covering her face, from the upper right temple, down across her eye, bridge of her nose, and down to her left jawline

Personality:
- Serious, though has lightened a bit over the years-- is now more full of sarcasm and a bit of subtle mischief (compliments of time spent with Zev, probably)
- Can come across as rather cold occasionally

Biography:

Served as a Hyandaner Ranger for a time, left the Minas Tirith, to seek out an errant Ranger by the name of Zev, by request of Pele. Has since been working with Zev to find his uncle, after Zev refused to return to Minas Tirith.

They have now returned to the city, led there by their quest. Morwen has joined the Rangers once more.
they/he/mischief

Captain of Tower
Points: 945 
Posts: 420
Joined: Sun Jun 07, 2020 10:16 pm
Name: Abrazimir Dimaethor /Abrazimir of Lond Côl.

Physical Appearance: Like all pure-blooded Dunedain, Abrazimir is tall and sturdy. He is grey-eyed as is the custom, with hazel locks diligently groomed into a bun or ponytail. He is broad shouldered, with long arms, and sports various scars as proof of deed and valour in battle.

Personality: Abrazimir was raised in a noble household, being literate, attentive to the civic virtues, and enjoying a relative degree of comfort when not on military duty. However, his noble family’s failing wealth has led to recent descendants of this bloodline to actually have to sully their hands with work and crafts to keep afloat, garnering Abrazimir a determined, obedient work ethic. His father is still a vocal proponent of traditionalism, often being the sole voice within the household, leading to Abrazimir adopting a more stoic, quiet manner of speech as a result of this upbringing.

Biography: Abrazimir (sindarin. Mîrhimon) was born (2990TA) the son and heir of Lord Zâinabên (s. Cemmion) Dimaethor, a minor Lord and fiefholder of Dol Amroth, and his wife Orelnith of Lebennin. One of three children to the aging Swan Knight, he has an older sister Zorzimril (s. Mîrnorriniel) who adheres to their father’s preaching of Dunedain nobility and a younger, more idealistic sister, Azraindil (s. Gaerlothriel).

As a young man, Abrazimir was swept up in the tales of the great wars of Gondor and its long struggle against the dark. Being the most recent member of a long line of warriors and knights, it was well known to Abrazimir the path he wished to take upon reaching adulthood, leaving behind the dusty shelves and moss-grown fields of his decaying home to make the trek to Minas Tirith, where he pledged himself in service to the Steward, working his way up the ranks until a transfer to the elite Swam Knights of Dol Amroth, under the command of Prince Imrahil. He undertook many other adventures during his tenure, such as raids against Umbar or within Ithilien itself.

During the War of the Ring, he accompanied the Prince to the defence of Minas Tirith, where he bravely fought at both the gate house and upon the field of Pelennor, earning distinction, though severely wounded in the aftermath. Present at the coronation of King Elessar, to whom his father Lord Zâinabên had actually served under in his youth while the King utilized His Thorongil persona, Abrazimir considers himself a faithful and loyal knight to the Crown of Gondor, ready to continue defending its border and people against all threats.


Name: Azraindil Dimaethor.

Physical Appearance: Azraindil is a dunedain of long and ancient stock, tall, with expressive sea-grey eyes and dark brown hair. A persistent and vigorous swimmer and diver, she has a slender frame and surprising strength of limb.

Personality: Azraindil was raised in a noble household, being literate and brought up to be a proper noblewoman of manners and decorum. Growing up next to the sea however as instilled in her a love for all things of the water, swimming and diving, exploring the hidden treasures of the clear waters of Belfalas around her home. With much of her life only laid out for her and dictated by her parents, Azraindil is not particularly brave in the face of such authority, though alone she will often find her courage to follow her own desires and emotions, and there is still much trial and error for her to discover and learn from. Unlike much of her family, who disdain the old elvish ways, she has quite an affinity for the old lore and tales of Numenor and the language of the elves.

Biography: Azraindil (sindarin. Gaerlothriel) has never journeyed outside the lands of Lond Côl and Dor-en-Ernil. When she was still an infant, her mother Orelnith of Lebennin committed her daughter to an arranged marriage with the Taurhebors, setting her up to marry the eldest son, Aearonor, when she came of age. Being the youngest of three, she is often disregarded in terms of her views and opinions, while still being seen as a child despite her growing in years. While she dreams of rebellion and freedom, she is often overawed by her father’s standing and authority, which is enough to compel her to return to a state of docility and meekness, as if expected of noblewomen in her family. She is very close with her mother, Orelnith, who against her father’s wishes taught her much of the elvish influenced histories and lore that is still remembered in Gondor today.

Upon the death of her betrothed, Aearonor, the pact was shifted to the Taurhebor’s younger son, Anurion, who apparently went missing himself soon after. She has a great friendship with Dúlinnith, half-sister to her betrothed, often exchanging letters.

Azraindil finds solace from her stiff and structured upbringing in either her books of lore or in the music of the sea, having trained herself to swim great distances both above and below the water, often engaging in the art of pearl-finding. She is skilled in dancing, singing, and seamstressing, being usual talents associated with noblewomen of the era, and she has some skill in managing and operating small boats. With the great War of the Ring concluded, Azraindil hopes to find new freedoms in being able to move around Gondor without fear of ambush or assault by the Enemy, as were her parents reasons for keeping her confined close to home to begin with. At least, hopefully, before she is once more tired down in a marriage with a stranger she has very little knowledge or awareness of.



Family History: Like many proud houses of Dor-En-Ernil and Gondor as a whole, Dimaethor claimed its roots and foundations to the mythical Second Age of the world, where explorers out of Númenor that is now lost had come upon this ideal patch of land and there built a settlement. This settlement, through immigration and later political refugee seekers, had grown for a time into a flourishing town and agricultural basin, the ground fertile and lush from the various run off streams and rivers that came down from the White Mountains of the north or the hills of Dol Amroth to the east.

Once it had been great and flourishing, with many thousands dwelling at ease and in prosperity there. It served as the market town and center of trade for incoming and outgoing traffic through the Golden Harbour. From the north came iron ores, tin, precious metals, silks and capital. From the west came exquisite furs, wool, cotton, and rich timber for the shipyards upon the Anduin. From the east, dried fruits, ginger, olive oils and aromatics. And from the south that is now cut off came myrrh, frankincense, balsam, saffron, pepper and ivory. Every commodity under the waking sun and sinking moon could have been found there and the Lords of Dimaethor were counted among the richest and prestigious Houses in all of Gondor, their fame stretching upon the north and southern coasts of the Belfalas.

But that was merely a glorious memory of the past.

The period of time, known now as the Treason of Dimaethor, had all but bankrupted the family. Its proud legacy, of boasting direct descent from the original founders from Númenor through father to son, was broken in the Kin-Strife of the seventeenth century and with them went much of its vigor and power. Traitors blood and corrupted they were now deemed, having grown decadent in their wealth and arrogance. To the aid of Castamir the Usurper they had sent much, wealth and levies, but neither returned, either as bounty or in payment. All that came was a decree of punishment, the reduction of their fiefs, the fining of their wealth, the loss of title and rank. Little by little, over the course of a millennia, the passage of power and riches was reversed. Trade went elsewhere as tariffs were risen to pay off the extortionist fine and penalty for their disloyalty. Respect all but dissipated, replaced with mistrust and jeering. Even the very land seemed to turn against them, as streams dried up or were diverted in the growing age of the world. The land became less fertile and families removed elsewhere, forgoing fealty for bounty.

Dimaethor lost everything and all that remained were a few decrypt ruins, relics of their past, which now seemed unobtainable, but never forgotten. The current ruling family, descended through lesser linages, did all they could to survive and strive on. Family jewels and heirlooms were sold. For the first time since their founding, the Lords and Ladies of Dimaethor were reduced to taking up a trade to further supplant their meagre incomes, dwindling more by each passing year. Less commoners were there to work the land, so the Dimaethor folk took up the burden. Their name and home were only considered daunting, for they were a family known to be calculating and ruthless in determination to regain what they had lost.

Many might further think it a fair punishment for their treason, even if it be far back in the annals of history. Many generations worth of reputation was crushed by a single Lord’s decision, in the space of a decade, to support the wrong sovereign.

Only one aspect of Dimaethor remained consistent through the failing of the Line of Kings and the rise of the House of Stewards, for which they were allowed to continue as minor nobles rather than disgraced as dispossessed traitors. To the service of the Prince of Dol Amroth, to whom they ever claimed fealty to, they always sent the required levies and tribute of coin and harvest, placing such a necessity above their own comfort and well-being even. Its warriors were strong and hardened by their destitute backgrounds. No generation had there been since the days of the Usurper where there had not been a Swan Knight risen from its midst. And in accordance with the ancient feudal contract long ago signed, they kept in trust with their league-fellows across the water the maintenance and upkeep of the river fortress.
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Dimaethor Character Timeline (WIP)
TA 2980 – Attack on Umbar by Thorongil (Aragorn). Zainaben participated as a naval captain.
TA 2988 – Birth of Zorzimril.
TA 2990 – Birth of Abrazimir.
TA 2998 – Birth of Azraindil.
TA 3005 - Abrazimir joins the Rangers in MT.
TA 3010 – Abrazimir transfers back to Dol Amroth. In the following years, during a joust, he is unhorsed by his kinswoman Isys.
TA 3014 – Abrazimir attains rank of Swan Knight.
TA 3016 – First mission to Umbar, Abrazimir accompanies Isys, Unalmis’s father to rescue sailors and Unalmis, but becomes shipwrecked, is captured by Keket and later escapes via Ark providing Kekets own ship, returning with Unalmis.
TA 3017 – Party in DA, lots of intrigue. Second mission to Umbar, alongside Warder and Cadil to rescue Pele, but Pele already escapes and they rescue Gael, pursued by Keket. Trevadir assists in their rescue by stealing his father’s ship. Warder and Gael are married (Abrazimir attends wedding?).
TA 3018 – Sauron attacks Osgiliath, beginning of the War in Gondor.
TA 3019 – Battle of the Pelennor, Abrazimir participates. Lond Col besieged for several days by Corsairs. Coronation of Elessar. End of the War of the Ring.
TA 3020 – Azraindil / Anurion in Lamedon? Possible date of death for Aearon Taurhebor, Azraindil’s first betrothed.
TA 3021/FA 1 – End of the Third Age on March 25. Possible date of disappearance for Anurion Taurhebor, Azraindil’s second betrothed. Mission to Poros, Abrazimir participates.
FA 2 – Azraindil betrothed to Toggornir Talven (known to parents only). Midsummer event at MT, Abrazimir participates, also visits HoH throughout the summer. Dimaethor Joust at the end of summer.
Last edited by Lantaelen on Thu Jul 27, 2023 6:11 am, edited 5 times in total.
Berio i refn-en-alph len

Chief Counsellor of Gondor
Points: 2 909 
Posts: 1281
Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 8:37 am
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Name : Unalmis Raxëlilta

Age (bracket) : Early 20 ish


Physical Appearance :
Toting the same dark hair and brown eyes as his father, Unalmis is certainly more like to be found smiling than his stern patriach.
His hair he wears to his shoulders, mostly through the inability to sit still long enough to have it cut.
He wears clothes which are often hand-me-downs or ill-fitted, a product of growing up in a home stretched for coin.
He often bears the tell-tale alibi of bumps, scrapes, or grazes, courtesy of his carefree lifestyle. Spends as much time as he can outdoors and it shows.


Personality :
Unalmis is a rather bold or idiotic soul, depending on your perception.
Despite an infuriating disregard for his own preservation, he is an extremely amiable young man, tending toward unshakeable optimism over common sense.
He can be easily led by those he holds in high regard and learnt the hard way that not everyone ought to be trusted. I am afraid to report that it is a much repeated lesson.
He has a distinct preference for being outdoors and becomes restless during long periods of being closed in.


Experience :
Born to an absent Ranger of Ithilien and an abandoned lonely housewife, Nal grew up largely in the way or at a distance all at once. So frequent were his father’s tours of duty, that the young boy came to believe that all men were simply called ‘Father’. It was what he heard people say to men in the street. His own Father was a stranger. A letter. A promise. A mystery. Before his third birthday though, this strange man returned home from service, suffering from life-altering injuries. Nal’s mother, having found her expectations of married life failed to live up to her wants, struggled to cope alone with a small infant, much less a now very dependent and devastated husband and opinionated mother in law. She promptly fled the family home to start over, leaving an infant Unalmis struggling to understand quite what had happened all around him. His father was in no state to take care of the young boy, or himself, and so Nal’s paternal grandmother made it her business to take over the now fractured household, as good as raising her grandson alone.

For all this turbulent beginning, Unalmis gave little thought enough to fret on it. He simply stayed out of the house as much as he possibly could, more so the older that he grew. He was easily bored by his lessons at school and would get into scrapes which left his clothes torn, lunch parcels left behind him where he could not recall. With a disengaging father who did not counsel or punish him, Unalmis would sneak out of school to play and not return home until after dark or often the next day. This was until his harried grandmother assigned him playmates. The first was Trevadir, grandson of Odessa's best friend and neighbour. The second was, Iole Ishen, daughter of Odessa's employer. While the former was as mischievous a handful as Nal himself, the latter couldn’t always talk her new friend out of his more wild games but neither could he (and Trev) accomplish the worst case scenarios with her in constant tow. Until he met a boy called Ryndir, a whole year older than him, who Nal considered his hero, and ran about the city wild with a small group of mischievous deviants. Ryn and his twin sister, Cali, were the same age as Iole, and soon all five of them spent their days in adventures such as could be found in the White City. Their whole world was the country they had never left, and the most dread foe they could face in their 'battles' was a school bully who felt the group had started it, just as they always maintained he - Aderic - had started it.

Years past and now bored of wasting away indoors, Addhor tended towards heading out on a lap of the pubs and inns most evenings. As his son grew older and more used to his father figure, Unalmis would curiously follow his father upon these ‘adventures’. He would sit at the bar, swinging his legs, and drink water and eat toast, engaging in humoured conversation from the kindly custodian, while his father accepted drinks from those keen to show their respect to a ‘war veteran’, and hear his bold tales of excitement and adventure. This was the best way he knew to get to know his father. He only hoped to have such adventures himself one day, missing the entire fact of what danger had prematurely stopped his father's 'adventuring'.

Ryn enlisted with the Rangers of Ithilien a year before Nal was old enough that he should be allowed to join him. But, unwilling to waste any more time sat inside, Unalmis soon dropped out of school as well, to take up sweeping city streets and picking fruits from Pelennor farms, to aide his family financially. He enjoyed this ‘work’ as it allowed for him to be outside and to get to know people around the market and the farms.

However, he was inevitably convinced by a charismatic stranger to head out on an actual adventure. An opportunity was presented whereby he might recover the family heirloom, a sword, which had disappeared along with his uncle Domanol many years before. But contrary to what he’d read in exciting books, random teenage boys who set off on adventures do not always end up saving the world. He, for one, was soon in very real risk of being murdered, although thankfully he was brought back home by two Swan Knights and his father. His father who from then on swore to never let the boy out of his sight ! And to make matters worse, Ryndir had died during a patrol in Ithilien while Nal was away.

After his horrific experience, Unalmis was more intent than ever upon striking back at the Enemies of Gondor. Inspired by his father’s choice to take up a new profession in the marketplace, the young man determined to enlist with the Rangers of Ithilien. Only this time, he was going to be ready. For anything. It is fair to say that this new goal, on top of the recent near death experience, had a positive consequence on their previously delicate relationship. So much so that he joked he ought to have gone off ‘adventuring’ years earlier !

Regardless, from that point on, the young man went into the forest with his father and forester associates during coppicing camp-outs, spent time with as many veterans as his retired father could introduce him to, and signed up for training in combat, harassing the army officers who were kind enough to humour him until he could learn all that he could from them. However, by the time he was considered fully trained by officials and signed off to enter service proper, Faramir and his Rangers were already regrouping all available soldiers and drawing back in towards Minas Tirith. Unalmis was sent instead to aide the evacuation of the women, children and infirm of the city, escorting and guarding their vulnerable group in a migration away from the approaching enemy. This was the exact opposite of what he had expected and intended, but the experience was testing in it’s own way and they faced many difficulties during the slow passage, particularly with panicked folk, wayward livestock, the occasion accidental ruin of supplies, and with threats of local men made desperate upon the road.

Returning to the city after the war, he was disheartened to find the grand military disbanded, and in the wake of his grandmother’s death and having to tell Iole that no, in fact, he didn’t love her anywhere near as much as she now believed that she loved him .. it was a welcome day when he received news of the new formed Rangers unit. Despite a tiny delay when he lost the letter detailing exactly where to report, the young man seized upon the opportunity, before they might think better of including him.
Last edited by Ercassie on Tue Nov 15, 2022 6:05 pm, edited 5 times in total.
All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost
The old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not touched by the frost.

Warrior of Imladris
Points: 1 565 
Posts: 1355
Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 10:54 am
Image Ivor

Mid 40s

Metalsmith, gifted in working with steel and precious metals. Brought up in the Aerden's Smithy on the first level.

He was orphaned at the gates while still requiring a wet nurse. No one could explain how he got there, but there were lots of rumours, none of them kind. At best, he's the baseborn son of a noble - though he'd never given that much credence.

Yet the blacksmith's wife took him in, and she was a kindly soul with a sharp tongue for her gossiping neighbours. Her name was Aneawen, and she'd once been a lady-in-waiting to the Steward's Lady wife, so she taught him the finer things, how to read and write, how to ride and eat like a gentleman. She read him stories of heroism and chivalry and wonderful histories until his eyes shone. She loved him, and she indulged him and she encouraged his drawing.

The blacksmith, Aerden, hadn't much use for a squalling infant, so it was lucky that he was a quiet child. As Ivor grew older, he spent hours in the rafters of the smithy, watching the processes silently until one day the big man called the seven-year old down and began to show him the craft. The blistering heat of the forge became his home.

After first mastering horse irons, he moved on to curliques of dark and delicate ironwork, wrought with precision and skill for beautiful gates, candelabras and elaborate archways. But it didn't fulfil the artist locked deep within, and he reluctantly left his family's smithy and went to work for The Goose and the Fountain upon the third level. There he began his apprenticeship, forging steel by day, and searching the library by night until he found the tomes of the old wrights, poring over their spiderscratch that he might have the mastery over creating weapons in the style of the Men of the West. He couldn't call himself a master on that level - some of their swordsmiths had only achieved that status after a hundred years of apprenticeship - but he had thirty years under his belt, and people were impressed with his work enough to recommend him to their fellows.

In between these studies and his actual work, he created jewellery. Mostly in sketches, it has to be said, but he began with silver, for a little silver was all he could afford, until his pieces began to sell - now some commissions that come in ask for gold, and he has begun, little-by-little, to put a little aside for himself.

Most recently, he has been experimenting with coloured glass to create enamelled pieces for display.

Forester of Lothlorien
Points: 220 
Posts: 111
Joined: Fri Jun 19, 2020 4:24 am
Name: Lalaith (Link to image.)

Age: 29

Physical appearance: She has a slender, confident bearing and a fair countenance. Her thick, black hair often lies in a braid over a shoulder. Her grey eyes are warm and alive with curiosity and laughter. She is very expressive with her hands when she speaks.

Personality: She has a natural curiosity. Thus, everything around her excites her and she always finds something to marvel at. Her years of managing farmlands and tenants on her own have given her an air of independence but not a sense of entitlement. She is always willing to lend a ear and a helping hand, but is rather practical and down-to-earth in her dealings.

Biography: Lalaith grew up on a farm in Lebennin. She passed for the adopted daughter of a farmer and his wife. In truth they had once been servants in her own father's household -- one the butler and the other her own nanny. But a raid upon the house had led to a blood bath and Iris (alias) had had the presence of mind to grab hold of the little, sleeping girl and run. Rembar (alias) helped them escape. For days they had fled on foot until, in complete disarray they had found themselves in Lebennin. It was there they began their new lives. Iris and Rembar got married and adopted little Lalaith for their own.

They took up farming and worked hard to provide the best they could for their master's daughter. As she grew older, they sought out a learned man they had heard tell of and asked if he could 'learn their little Lala'. Thus, Lalaith learnt to read and write. But her journey into bookish learning came to an abrupt end when the old man died. As she grew older and into her looks, she caught the eye of the local squire's son and married him. But the land was often troubled by the Corsairs and her husband chose to help defend their home. That did not go very well for him, and Lalaith found herself widowed at the tender age of two and twenty. She ploughed on, tending to the land and home of her husband, and took to caring for the tenants. After the War of the Rings, things began to look up and the land began to prosper. Feeling then that she had set things on their feet, her foster parents encouraged Lalaith to begin doing what she had always wanted to do before she got married, to travel to the city of Minas Tirith and learn.

And there she is now, in that great white city, on the path to learning!
Last edited by Nen on Sat Jun 20, 2020 5:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Forester of Lothlorien
Points: 220 
Posts: 111
Joined: Fri Jun 19, 2020 4:24 am
Name: Hirluin (Link to Image.)

Age: 35

Physical appearance: He is tall with a lanky but well-muscled frame. He has piercing blue eyes. He wears his dark, straight hair short.

Personality: He is an introvert, and has a strong tendency to brood when he has no idea what to do about a problem. Fortunately, this is not a common occurrence or else he'd be seeking to drown his self-perceived incompetency in drink. He likes order and discipline when he is sober and in charge of himself and others.

Biography: Hirluin is of the noble houses of Gondor. His father, Ârion, was a Dunedain. His mother, Lanneth, is of mixed Éothéodean and Dunedain stock. Ârion died in a fire accident. Strangely enough, it was his long hair that caught fire when he insisted on fashioning his oldest son's sword to gift him on his entering the ranks of the Rangers. He was severely burnt and in a coma for days before he passed away. Since then Hirluin has kept his hair short. His father never finished making the sword, but he treasures the unfinished sword, and it has its pride of place in the main hall of his home. Lanneth spends her time one weaving tapestry - something she loves doing. She also keeps herself busy making a home for her three children. Even at the age of thirty-five, Lanneth believe Hirluin needs to be babied no matter that he is the head of the household. It exasperates him. But he loves her dearly, and has a great fondness for his sister, Tiril, and brother, Mírion, who are several years younger than he is.

Craftsman of Gondor
Points: 118 
Posts: 32
Joined: Wed Jun 24, 2020 9:53 pm
(Version 0.1, wanted to get something down for the Ranger RPG, but this is all subject to change as I figure things out or otherwise need to tweak it. :P)
Azdiur
Age: Earlyish 30s

Physical appearance:
Moderate build, has a noticeable hunch and a hint of limp and the sense that he'd feel tall without them.
Brown hair and beard kept at moderate length and always at least a little rough.
Callused hands, with scars from old burns extending up his forearms.

Personality:

Fairly subdued in most things. Strong attention to detail and sense of pride in his work, which tends toward perfectionism. Values order and discipline in those he interacts with, especially those under his authority. His strong build from years of hard labor is borne with a sense of control; he can carve fine inscriptions into a stone just as easily as he can swing a hammer to smash it.
Has a deep laugh that doesn’t come easily, but is given freely once he feels at home. Loves simple yet clever humor, and is easily put off by needlessly complex or ostentatious. No patience with those who build their own reputation at the expense of those too good-natured to stand up for themselves.


Biography:

Azdiur’s ancestors lived in Southern Ithilien for generations, and continue to maintain strong ties to it. Among the last of the refugees driven out, they settled in a small community on the shores of the Anduin, keeping close watch on the land they knew they’d return…someday. Nearly all families sent at least one son to join the Rangers, and Azdiur’s was no exception. His elder brother, Hadiur, trained for years with the town militia, before ultimately setting out to serve his duty to their ancestral home. He didn’t last a year, dying to an enemy arrow shot wide that found him purely by bad luck.

While Hadiur trained to represent his family in the Rangers, Azdiur was prepared to take his father’s place in the family smithy. As a child he’d always resented that his place as second son meant his lot was not glory on the battlefield but instead a life of mundane tasks for a small village pining for a future rather than bringing it to pass. Often he’d skip his daily lessons to watch the militia drill, practicing what he could and dreaming of the day he might have a chance to join them on the field. Inevitably, he’d be punished for his escapades, and he became quite familiar with the most monotonous of tasks that he was given as punishment, constantly being lectured by his father about proving that he could be relied upon for these humble tasks before he could be trusted with the more prestigious ones.

When the sad news about Hadiur made its way to the village, Azdiur’s father knew he would not be content to remain a humble smith, so he released him from his responsibilities in the smithy and prepared to find a local apprentice to begin training a replacement. In that moment, Azdiur saw not the gruff disciplinarian he’d thought he knew, but an aged father who cared deeply for his wishes and, even in the midst of grieving the loss of one son and dreading the possible loss of another, still cared enough to leave such a decision to his son.

Azdiur surprised everyone, himself included, by turning down the offer and remaining home to complete his training. Allowing his whole focus to be devoted to the task, he learned quickly. The years spent doing the most trivial tasks had given him tremendous patience, and under his father’s discerning eye he learned to recognize the tiniest signs of imperfection in any work, whether his own or others. He dedicated himself to learning all that his father had to teach, and he soon grew to be a competent and respected smith in his own right.

The War of the Ring brought ample opportunity to practice his craft. While he immediately joined the local militia, most of his efforts went to helping outfit them and shoring up defenses in the nearby communities. Following the victory in the War, Azdiur saw the opportunity to take his talents to places that needed them even more, and hopefully one day to bring them into Ithilien itself. He passed his hammer and forge down to his own apprentice and set out to see what opportunities might await.

Kinsman of Gondor
Points: 64 
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Jul 23, 2020 8:26 pm
Name: Pellaadarion

Age (bracket): Appears to be in his mid forties.

Physical appearance: Tall, rangy, woodsman, with greying auburn hair and a thick beard. Usually dressed in woodland hues, clad in patch-work leather armour and wrapped in a grey woolen cloak.

Personality: A laconic, gregarious sort who enjoys simple speech and the odd pun. If you buy him an ale or two he can often be coaxed into sharing all manner of old war stories. Enjoys a tall tale and has been known to boast that he used to lead the rangers of Gondor into battle and was on a first name basis with King Aragorn Elessar.

Biography: The son of a simple farmer who grew to adulthood tending crops and cattle on a small piece of land in the outer reaches of the Pelennor Fields. The War of the Ring brought death to his doorstep, and the loss of his parents to a raiding party of Mordorian orcs sent him into the welcoming arms of the Tirith Company of the white city, where he helped hold the line against Sauron's forces where he fought in the shadow of much greater heroes.

Relative peace reigned under the watchful eye of the newly crowned King Aragorn Elessar, and Pellaadarion enlisted with the rangers, awed by their sacrifices during the battles for Osgilliath. Trained as an archer, he worked his way through the ranks, becoming an officer. Gondor was good to him for many years, and he wore many hats, blacksmith, marketplace mayor, major, commander and even owner and operator of a small alehouse in the first circle.

But as time passed something changed. Call it a sour note in the air, the smell of death that accompanies a dying animal as it crawls into a cave to die. Driven to melancholy, the seasoned soldier cut all ties to his home and struck out on the road, selling his sword in far flung lands as he battled corsairs as a caravan guard in the southern deserts, chased rustlers in the borders of Rohan, tossed axes with the dwarves of the hills, and cut a trail to the ruins of Angmar as a pathfinder in the north.

But life is a circle, and in time he was drawn home, back to the white walls of his youth...
Last edited by Pellaadarion on Mon Jul 27, 2020 8:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Esquire of The Mark
Points: 373 
Posts: 256
Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 2:40 am
Name: Lonahen of Calembel
Age: 17, born on the 14th of Narquelië, T.A. 3008.
Home: Lonahen is from the small town of Calembel, in the region of Lamedon. He was born and grew up in a small home on one of the outer streets of the town, though he is in the process of selling his home to move to Minas Tirith.
Personality: Lonahen is a kind and generous young man. His parents were not well to do by Gondorian standards during his childhood, but they were never unhappy or starved. They were often helped by other citizens of Calembel as his mother was a midwife who delivered most of the babies in the town, and his father was a guardsman who made time to speak to everyone while on his watches. As such they raised him to be friendly and trusting, and even after their deaths (his father at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, his mother two years prior from a sickness of the heart) he has continued to exemplify the lessons they taught. Since being on his own and inheriting his parent's home at 15, he has tried to follow in their lead and be giving with his time and words around Calembel. But his desire to do good and help has begun to lead his heart away from his hometown, and upon hearing of the re-construction of Osgiliath, he made up his mind to set out to help his countrymen rebuild their ancient city.
Appearance: Lonahen is a sturdy and stocky young man. He is not very tall, standing 5'8, but weighs nearly two hundred pounds. Years of working in the construction trade have left him with a strong body, though he is not very agile. His hair is a deep, chestnut brown and cut fairly short for the Men of Gondor, around seven or eight inches long, just enough to tie into a short ponytail when working. His eyes are very bright, a light, ice-like blue, but have heavy bags from a general lack of sleep. He keeps a short, stubbly beard and trims it as often as he can. On his right hand, he is missing the tips of his ring and middle finger, which were lost in an accident when he was 14. He has since learned to use his left hand as his dominant side.
Weapon: Lonahen is not a warrior, and as such possesses no martial weapons. He does however carry with the tools of his trade (construction) and is skilled in their use, and if needed could use them to defend himself, albeit poorly. The tools he has are a hatchet; small knife; dagger; double-sided ax; hammer; maul; and a chisel.
Literacy: Lonahen is illiterate.
Last edited by Merewyn on Thu Jan 21, 2021 10:00 am, edited 1 time in total.

Scholar of Gondor
Points: 159 
Posts: 20
Joined: Fri Aug 07, 2020 12:04 pm
Udan (AKA: Udan Caradan)

Age (bracket): Late 30’s. Udan does not mark the passing of years, only the passing of friends.

Physical appearance:


Long dark hair that hangs to his shoulders. It is rarely tied except on more – formal occasions.
Piercing blue eyes
Tanned, rugged and scarred facial complexion and features, always with a five O’clock shadow.
Tall, at around 6 foot 6.
Extremely broad shoulders, and well-muscled arms and legs. (Gained from swinging the large two bearded battle axe he constantly carries.)

Personality:

Belying his physical appearance, Udan is an incredibly quiet individual when you first meet him. Although engage him in conversation over an ale or three, and you will soon meet his more gregarious side. Get to know him very well and he will open and reveal himself as a warm, caring individual.

Biography:
Udan was born in the north near Bree, in a small village of woodsman and hunters. He was the younger of two boys, his brother leaving home when he was of age to find his fortune in the south, after rumours of war and heroism reached the village, no word has been heard from him since. After reaching maturity, Udan bid his aging parents and his friends in the village farewell, determined to travel south in search of his estranged brother. A quest which he has never been able to fulfill. After reaching the Southern Kingdom, Udan quickly enlisted in the Elite Ranger Corps (ERC), trained hard and quickly climbed through the ranks becoming Barracks master and then commissioning as Captain of the Pelecconner – The Axemen of Gondor.

Udan quickly found a deep friendship and companionship in one person, they soon married and lived a short and turbulent time, before they were forcibly separated. Udan has spent the past couple of years in search of answers, where had his brother gone? What had happened to his friend? All of which to this day, remain unanswered. Returning to civilization, his heart has been lifted by the knowledge that he could still be of some use to his adopted city, he has quickly accepted the invitation to serve once again and join the Rangers of Gondor.

Master Torturer
Points: 2 588 
Posts: 3018
Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 11:22 am
Image Image

Liriel and Eradan

Age: 32 and 33

Liriel:
Physical appearance: Long blonde hair

Personality: Boisterous and happy. Very talkative and often talks louder than others. Quite carefree. Adores her husband and her children.

Biography: Mother of 7 boys. Gellir is the oldest at 12½, Borlas is 10½, Targon is 7½, Lúcon is 4½, Erland is 2 and the twins Maethor and Thalion 6 months old.
Married to her husband at 19, she quickly became the "mouth" of the grocer shop. She would sell the wares and he would grow them in the fields that his family have owned for generations. He spends most of his day out in the fields, sometimes spending the night if he has worked late. He often brings Borlas and Targon with him, both loving the outdoors work over the cramped market place store. Gellir is a shy and bookish kid who loves to read and loves numbers, teaching himself to do the books for the store, of which he is now solely in charge and immensely proud of. Dotes on his mother and worries about her working when she is pregnant. Lúcon is the cheeky brat of the family, but in a charming kind of way, which is what gets him out of the massive amount of trouble he always gets in to. Erland is the baby of the family, for now, chubby and happy. All boys have curly hair after their father and blonde hair after their mother. The father is a light brown.

Child of Gondor
Points: 54 
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2020 9:15 am
TYRA

Age: 21

Physical appearance:
-Long brown hair, usually tied back in a braid that is secured at the bottom by a piece of dark twine.
-Brown eyes, gentle-looking but can at times appear distant
-Slim build, perhaps a little more so than many in the city who might have had the advantage of regular, substantial meals, but she does not appear too unhealthy. At 5’8 she holds her frame well and stands quite proudly by nature.
-Her face bears no scars or marks that might give away any clues as to her past, but many a day in the fields working for her family see a healthy colour about her cheeks, a glow perhaps?

Personality:
Tyra is a gentle person, although given the trials and tribulations she has endured in her few short years one could easily be forgiven for expecting otherwise. She is of a quiet yet determined nature, and whilst there is indeed a fire in her belly, she will never willingly allow it to be stoked, neither by anger nor by fear. She is a quiet person, preferring first to watch and to learn of a situation before entering into the realms of interaction. A thinker some might say, although she has been known to come out of her shell a little, especially if in the company of her brother Avarion and a few strong ales.
She considers herself to be honest but will tactfully steer away from a topic or conversation if she is not comfortable with its content, preferring the change to speaking out and risking upset to those around her. Putting others first has always been her way, but she is fast learning that in doing so, she can also do ill unto herself.

Biography:
Tyra grew up on a farmstead close to the borders of Ithilien. The third of of five born to Darien and Loweniel, she has always felt she had to fight for her place and prove her worth due to her somewhat quiet and withdrawn nature. It was far from the worst upbringing, but it was certainly fraught with drama and excitement in some form or another.
The farmstead did well for many years, the vegetables proving popular at local markets and her parents more than happy with their beautiful, albeit quarrelsome family. That was of course until Darien became ill. He began to get confused, forgetful, leaving the tools in the Northern field or forgetting the names of his own vegetables. At first they thought he was just being silly, one of his ‘games’ but over time he became angry with it. Frustrated, confused and then violent.
That was when Avarion left.

Tyra was three years his junior but she had always worshipped the ground her brother walked on. He had been the one to teach her how to hunt the rabbits that would invade the crops. How to climb trees and how to dodge a sneaky swipe from her older sister Cassy. The day he left, her whole world crumbled and she found herself taking on new challenges that she had no idea how to handle at such a young age.

She had written to Avarion as often as she could, when she knew he would be in one place for long enough, often begging for his return and hoping she would one day find out why he left in such a hurry.
Darien now sleeps, and Loweniel is fast following his path, leaving Tyra, Cassy and Milus to harvest the crops, run the farm, market the crop and keep a drunken Serby in check whilst all the time watching their mothers heart slowly break.

Tired, exhausted and at a loss for how best to mend her family, Tyra packed a bag and left for the city of minas Tirith, the last known place her brother had been for any period of time.
His letters had been sparce of late, but she could only hope.

Loremaster of Gondor
Points: 281 
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue Dec 08, 2020 3:53 pm
Dunulf

Age (bracket):
23

Physical appearance:
Very tall, approximately 6'5; tanned skin with faint freckles that appear in direct sunlight; dark brown hair with thick eyebrows and no facial hair; angular face; muscular in a wiry way from working as a farmhand near the Eastern border of the Eastfold; ice-blue eyes flecked with grey.

Personality:
A quiet lad who keeps to himself, he is slow to share his past and relatively quick to anger. He is fiercely loyal and honest to a fault, and takes deep pride in his hard work.

Biography:
Born to a Gondorian man and a Rohirric woman, Dunulf was gifted with height from a young age, and stood tall among his peers - peers who resented him for it and frequently reminded him of that fact, name-calling him for much of his childhood. A winter ago, Dunulf's parents were murdered in a theft-gone-wrong - he heard the screams and ran back from the field to his farmhouse, where he was greeted by the sight of his mother's body and his father's near-dead stare. With his dying breaths, his father bade him to turn his eyes and path to Gondor, to take the position he himself never quite achieved ... to become a Ranger. Originally reluctant, the young farmhand became more and more dissatisfied with his life of solitude and thanklessness tilling fields. Thus he packed, left his home in the experienced hands of his neighbours, and set off for the Guarded CIty of Minas Tirith.

Chief Counsellor of Gondor
Points: 2 909 
Posts: 1281
Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 8:37 am
Since he is cropping up in rather a lot of my posts IC around Gondor these days, here is a bio for Narradir

Image

Name (s): Narradir Korsey

Age (bracket) : Early-mid 40’s


Physical appearance:
‘Built like a mountain’ tends to be the usual description of the burly forester. He has dark hair which is kept ‘short enough’ and tends toward a beard because his daughters love the way it tickles when he kisses them. Narradir has a twice broken nose, from being punched and then falling out of a window in a later effort to evade the one who did the punching previously. He has brown eyes.


Personality:
Narradir is approachable, amiable and very easily amused. He lives for his family and his friends, and generally enjoys a good time. As a child, he was the instigator of shenanigans amongst his peer group and continues to be considered responsible if ever an idea turns out to have been less than wise. He is however honest and open, and if he hurts your feelings then you certainly deserved it, that or he didn’t mean to.


Biography:
Narradir is the only son of a banker and a housewife, raised in Minas Tirith. As an only child, he was keen to make friends and would tend to talk to anyone who would put up with him. At school he was a stirring force amongst a group of four friends who were close since starting to read, all the way up until they joined the Rangers of Ithilien together. The only other surviving member of that group will tell you that it was Narradir’s idea to go drinking and lead the flirtation with a group of pretty girls, fresh arrived in the city from Pelargir. It may also be implied that all four of those young men were each married to one of those same girls by the end of an alcohol-fuelled weekend due to Narradir's own prompting/peer pressure.

Narradir is still happily married to his wife, Serenda, since that very day. His three friends were not quite so lucky, though given the circumstances, the odds were against them. At the first Narradir may have seemed to be the unlucky member of the group of friends however. Since he returned from duty in Ithilien on one occasion to find his wife and both their small daughters very sick. Having spent the entirety of his leave thus taking care of the three of them, he caught the illness himself and was over a week late in returning to his post. Though all of the family survived this inconvenient illness, the then Steward, Denethor II did not take lightly to the fact of a Ranger apparently forsaking his responsibilities to his country. When an armed guard was dispatched to escort the Ranger to answer for this behaviour, Narradir struck out in defence, embarassed at being so accosted in front of his family, and fed up from feeling very recently so unwell. Unfortunately the arresting guard whom he assaulted was hospitalised, and the Ranger was duly sentenced to a period of imprisonment within the city, as an example; the nation’s very survival being reliant on those who had promised by enlisting that they would uphold their military duty, above all else.

The harsh outcome turned out to have been a saving grace, as the mission that he was thus spared from participating went afoul, ambushed by Orcs. Two of his friends were amongst those killed, and the third, who had escaped with his life, was one of two who return to the city with life changing injuries necessitating the end of their careers. Narradir on the other hand, was released early from his jail time on condition of labouring in the forest when most of the lumberjacks had enlisted/been killed in the war. Safe from such a fate and with a further two daughters, thanks to conjugal visits with his wife, he then promptly conceived a fifth daughter shortly after his work-release. In the wake of his now marred military career, he turned his love for the neighbouring forest fiefdom into a forestry vocation. He was duly able to spend more time with his family, without the threat of repercussions, and he far preferred the freedom of not being privy to anybody else’s orders. Except for his wife, and daughters.

Having encouraged his surviving friend to study a carpentry apprenticeship, the two men eventually went into business together, combining their skills to provide a service to the city and a means of providing for their families. Narradir has concerns in this area in particular, as his five daughters are already come to adulthood and yet not a one of them to marriage. His efforts to see them as happily settled as he is have led to jokes that he ought take them to a pub when young rangers are on their first leave from duty, and let history repeat itself. But perhaps a little older and even more perhaps even maybe only wiser now, he has managed to present as a large enough deterrent to any young man who has ever considered wedding one of the girls. For all this, Narradir is a fairly satisfied civilian, whose business did extremely well in the years following the war where there was a great demand for re-structuring, on all levels. The gamble that was taken on a fledgling business partnership has paid off, and he and Serenda remain very happy in the Fourth Age.

The only issue now is with his eldest daughter, Sorrela, who is fixed on recruitment to the city guard herself ..
Last edited by Ercassie on Wed Feb 23, 2022 9:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost
The old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not touched by the frost.

Ent Ancient
Points: 2 696 
Posts: 1830
Joined: Sat May 23, 2020 11:34 pm
Hathaldir / Renhir
(Link to image)

He was born Renhir but presents himself in Gondor under the alias Hathaldir (for now)

Age (bracket): appears in his upper 30s-40s
Pronouns: he/him
Occupation: currently Tower Guard, former Ranger of the North

Physical appearance:
Tall and lean with medium-length brown hair and dark brown eyes, an angular face with a strong jawline thick with a beard until his recent arrival in Minas Tirith where he also traded in his axe for a sword. His forehead seems to be marked with a permanent furrow. He prefers to wear earth tones and dark colors to avoid drawing attention to himself.

Personality:
He has become jaded and cynical and may come across to others as a bit gruff and emotionally detached. He likes to be in control, can be short-tempered and quick to anger and does not like most people very much, preferring to keep to himself. However, those rare few who do manage to get into his inner circle and gain his respect will retain his loyalty for life.

Biography:
One who met him now might be surprised to learn that before and during the War of the Ring, he was a Ranger of the North. He was raised in a suite of ever changing settlements in Arnor and became a Ranger after his father’s death. With her son a grown man and Ranger, his mother left behind the insecurity of northern life and resettled in Gondor. There, she remarried and had another son, Tandarion Thindlorn. Being a Ranger afforded Renhir little time to visit them but he met his half-brother on a handful of occasions. Tandarion wrote to his older brother often as he grew up and became a scholar in Minas Tirith, though Renhir’s replies were sometimes scarce and infrequent.

Though the wilderness suited him, those years eventually disillusioned him as it was a thankless task which saw him treated with suspicion by the very people he sought to protect. After the War ended, he was glad to relinquish his role with the Rangers. Peace did not last long for him. After he learned of their mother’s death, he decided to travel to Gondor. By the time he arrived, Tandarion was also dead. The death had been ruled a suicide but he stubbornly refused to believe it. This led to a change in the nature of his visit to Minas Tirith and he opted to find the truth and bring the guilty party to justice. In order to obtain inside information, he signed up to the Tower Guard as a means to an end, ultimately seeking vengeance for his brother’s murder and recruiting Falaneth to help.

Ent Ancient
Points: 2 696 
Posts: 1830
Joined: Sat May 23, 2020 11:34 pm
Falaneth
(Link to image)

Age: 20-25
Pronouns: she/her
Occupation: library clerk

Physical appearance:
Petite and slender with a youthful face, she looks younger than she really is at first glance. If one is observant and looks carefully at her blue eyes, they might find a distinct lack of innocence and stark sadness indicative of her true age. Her dark hair is often worn coiled in a practical knot and she prefers to wear somber, muted colors.

Personality:
She is typically reserved and quiet, often subdued, and does not openly share her feelings with many. Though not unkind, she prefers the company of books to people and values organization and order. She has deep curiosity and a love for learning and may often be found with her nose buried in a book paying little attention to her surroundings.

Biography:
Born in Linhir, Falaneth has no memory of the place having lived most of her life in Minas Tirith. Her mother brought Falaneth there when she was a baby, hoping for a better life for her in the city. Her mother encouraged her to study at The College of the Spoken Word and worked hard to support her to do so. When the War began, Falaneth put her studies on hold and took a job at the library as a clerk. She has not resumed her studies since and after the War ended, her mother moved to Dol Amroth, hoping to escape the war-torn city, assured her daughter would be fine on her own with a steady job.

It was in the library that Falaneth first met a young scholar named Tandarion. They became fast friends, sharing a love of learning, and later, a love for each other. When he asked for her hand in marriage, she declined, afraid they were too young and too scared from the War to rush into such a big, permanent decision.

Not long after, Tandarion was found dead at his home. The investigation into the death of a healthy young man concluded he had taken his own life because of a broken heart. Falaneth never believed this was true, and though she tried to argue, she lacked the means and evidence to refute the decision and eventually gave up. She still works at the library and has grown more quiet and isolated than ever, often spending time wondering and reading about what happens after death as she tries to reconcile her grief.

High Lord of Imladris
Points: 5 208 
Posts: 2755
Joined: Sat Sep 12, 2020 7:53 am

Image:Owen.oj (Tiktok)
Captain Ruindil
Age: 35ish(as of 5 FA)

Physical appearance: Tall and solidly built with green eyes and red long curly hair and a long beard.

Personality: Jovial in general but will take charge in a heartbeat if his family or his crew are in danger.

Biography: Having been born to a less than notable family, with a less than stellar name, and few prospects for work he put to see as a young child, originally as a cabin boy with the Dol Amroth Navy. He loved the sea but not the strict rules of the Navy, nor its pay when the Captain of the Navy ships were living and eating well most of the crew was tightening their belts, this didn't sit well and he turned to a life of piracy and soon found himself climbing the ranks of the ship he was on until eventually he was voted Captain of his own vessel the Solonyello. His primary targets are Umbarian traders enjoying stealing their drinks to sell to inhabitants of Forochel. On one journey he had his at the time first mate put into the Grey Havens with a storm coming (since they had no qualms with the elves) and ended up meeting Fuin Elda and Afarfin and taking the two of them on the rest of their journey to the north before returning them back to the havens. From there Fuin Elda and Mylien formed a partnership that Ruindil and Afarfin were quickly pulled into that was far more lucrative than piracy though Fuin gave them every permission to harass Mole ships.

High Lord of Imladris
Points: 5 208 
Posts: 2755
Joined: Sat Sep 12, 2020 7:53 am

Image: Fuin Elda
Mylien Silant
Age (bracket):32

Physical appearance: Short for a Gondorian, but is partially Umbarian at 5 foot 4, with brown hair that is wavy, she has hazel eyes and tanned skin from being in the sun on a ship most of the time.

Personality: Sharp witted and not one to suffer a fool easily or for long. She is loyal but can be ruthless.

Biography: As a child Mylien was raised by her parents until the death of her mother at 3, at which point her father spiraled into grief, but did his best to try to provide for his child and ended up being lost at sea during a storm. She was taken to an orphanage where she was not treated well and soon she became a street urchin and a ship rat stealing food from ships before they went to sea. She eventually ended up trapped on a Navy Ship with the Commander Vacryn(Later named Admiral) of the Dol Amroth fleet and was found and flogged for being a stowaway. The ship foundered on a previously unmapped coral and she was left on it when they abandoned ship.

She was found by Captain Surindil and his crew of pirates that included a young Eliad Belegaur and soon became a constant member of their crew until Eliad became Captain and she became First Mate...

High Warden of Tower
Points: 3 504 
Posts: 2316
Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 2:58 pm
Well... I guess I should put this here for reference.

Image
(no idea where I got the image - it was so long ago...)

Name: Pele Alarion

Age: 35

Appearance: shoulder-length (for the time being) brown hair, usually secured in a pony tail; blue eyes; even though she is neither too tall nor too short to stand out in a crowd. She is strong and fit due to her military training, or rather – has regained as much strength as she could after her involuntary adventures.
While usually hidden from sight, Pele has a plenty of scars, quite a few of which she is not proud of, and so she is not keen to put any on public display if she can help it. However, she cannot quite hide that most of her left little finger is missing, and she is glad that for the most part people don’t really notice.
In terms of clothing, even though Pele may put on a dress for some special occasions, rather most often she would be dressed either in her uniform or clothing suitable for her duties at the Houses of Healing or otherwise something rather comfortable and casual that would allow her to feel relaxed, or to jump into action immediately, if necessary.

Personality: Pele is rather friendly and inclusive, even in relation to complete strangers; she feels at ease among friends and can pull a prank on them if in the right mood. She has learned to be strategic and effective in battle, yet she can always find some compassion for the opponent, unless they are Orcs, in which case she has no mercy. She tends to keep herself busy but left without work can be lost either in daydreams or thinking deeply. Adventures, risk-taking and challenges are something that Pele enjoys greatly, whenever a chance arises for such in her busy schedule. She can easily take on blame and feel guilt for anything that she in the slightest way considers her responsibility and if there has been a failure.

Bio:
Pele's family had moved from Ithilien to Lossarnach when the former became too dangerous for living, making a rather comfortable home there with time. Pele has two younger sisters, who have by now settled with their own families within easy reach of their parents' home.
Childhood experiences seem to have laid a foundation for her choice of career as their parents had taken great care to invest in her not only the sense of belonging and being loved, but also the basics of necessary life skills. She had spent much time either with her mother learning to knit, sew, cook or tend herbs and learn to use them for healing or with her father, learning how to ride, find her way in the forest and survive out in the wild with little supplies. But not everything was that serious, and she had plenty of time to play and get in trouble for some mischief she created, mostly when trying to practice the skills she learned or trying to teach it to her dolls.

When time came to choose what she would do with her life, Pele decided to move to Minas Tirith and aim at enhancing both the basic healing skills she had learned and to join the army to protect the land she loved from the enemy (perhaps her adventurous nature was to blame for this, since she thought the military would also give her enough challenges to work on). Her hard work paid off, and soon she had achieved a status of a master healer at the Houses of Healing and a rank of sergeant in the army. However, her dual role sometimes put her in difficult situations: sometimes after striking the enemy down, she had to also heal them after the battle was over. Yet, she could not help but take great pride in being able to prepare the soldiers to be battle ready as best she could and also being able to ensure they lived and recovered if they were wounded.

During her soldiering duties she came into contact with Maldir, who was a lieutenant. Yet they really 'saw' each other when dancing together in one of the balls, which set the ground for a gradual friendship as they grew close to each other, eventually leading to marriage. Since they were both active soldiers, they had decided to wait a little before settling down for a more peaceful family life; however, only a year after they were married, Maldir went on some mission and never returned. There were no news for approximately five years, yet Pele was unwilling to admit that he might never return and kept waiting with hope. Yet pondering on his unknown fate increasingly affected her, and she made sure to keep herself busy with as many duties as she could to avoid thinking of it. Constant busyness wore her down, and she became irritable and careless at times, which led to some serious injuries. Eventually Maldir's body was found in the mountains, presumably him being overwhelmed by severe weather. Her hopes finally dashed, Pele both felt angry that Maldir had left her and guilty for not having done anything to aid him when necessary. She also made herself even more busy, refusing to stop and deal with the grief properly and allow herself to heal emotionally.

Just at a time like this she was hunted down by Relic, the Umbarian who Pele had near forgotten since their last encounter years ago. At the time, she and Maldir had been ambushed and captured by her crew and taken to her ship with a purpose to be sold off as slaves. However, with the aid of one boy who had hidden himself away in the ship and released them from chains they had managed to escape, and Relic lost both her slaves and the ship. While Pele had put this behind her and thought little of it, apparently Relic did not, and sought revenge, no matter how many years had passed.

Taken to Umbar by force, Pele still managed to escape after much suffering, and spent a few years in hiding as she nursed herself back to reasonable health. Eventually, she mustered enough courage to come back to Minas Tirith and seek to return to her duties and more or less reasonable life.
Image

Chief Counsellor of Gondor
Points: 2 909 
Posts: 1281
Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 8:37 am
ImageImage


Name(s) : Arkadhur (there are others) ?Halsad ?

Race : Umbarian

Born : 2975

Birthplace : Umbar


Heritage : Unnamed mother (presumed deceased). Father unknown.
Arkadhur has been suspected to be the illigitimate son of Salukhatar Halsad. Unproven


Appearance : Tall and hale, Arkadhur overgrew his small and frail mother long before he became a tall man. Dark-haired and equally dark-eyed, he has no personal style to speak of, for his outward appearance was once as common as any folk of Umbar. It is now ever as he would wish you to believe. When about the streets of Umbar, he is unkempt and of indistinct allegiance. When abroad about his business, he poses as a respectable gentleman of Dol Amroth. However, since the War of the Ring, he has been in hiding, in Minas Tirith and his appearance invariably is determined by what he can find and put to good use as a disguise.


Personality : Arkadhur is not a man that any truly know, although there exist many who believe that they know him. Much of what has come of his tongue has ever been lies, so much that each soul thinks him entirely altered in story and demeanour than the next. He is an actor, playing a role which changes at need, as so does he. He listens much and observes even more so, even as he has become accustomed to go unobserved in whichever circle that he inhabits, and all that he hears about himself causes him mirth.


Experience : Born the illigitimate son of a poor but caring mother, he was nonetheless taken on as cabin boy by Captain Salukhatar Halsad at a young age. How and why the affluent pirate selected him, or even knew of the boy's existence raised some eyebrows, the least of these, Captain Korre Halsad, Salukhatar's father. Aware of the possibility that Arkadhur was in fact Salukhatar's secret son, the elder Pirate captain organised for the small boy to be killed, favouring the hope that future children should be born in wedlock to continue their prestigious house without threat. But fearing the wrath of Salukhatar, and also the wrath of Korre, the assassin chose to have the boy incarcerated in The Iron House. Out of sight, but yet not irretrievable, at need.

So Arkadhur grew up behind bars and came to serve the needs of the guards and interrogators; whom discovered that putting the child in the same cell as another prisoner, was a way to encourage a friendship between the damned and that small 'defenceless' child. In this manner, they obtained much secrets and information out of the most stalwart captives, who saw no harm in sharing their hearts with their fellow prisoner, much less such a pitiful young thing. But Arkadhur grew tall and swiftly so, and his worth in such scams was inevitably afflicted. He was in time rendered to another role, of completing the dirty jobs which no guard wished to attempt.

Fortunately the turnover of guard staff in The Iron House was extortionately high and the secrets which the boy had learnt in all his years there fooled some of the newer and more gullible of these that Arkadhur was some sort of a janitor. He soon managed freedom enough to attract the attention of Keket Halsad.

In his early ambition of becoming a surgeon, Keket had come to The Iron House in the hopes of employment in the 'Chamber of Song' (torture). When denied because he was deemed lacking in experience, Keket sought in desperation to obtain cheap (free) bodies from the jail that he could use for his 'anatomical studies', and come back in time with due experience. Having learnt of the tendency of guards employed there to sell human organs and corpses in order to supplement their very modest pay, Keket soon found their refusals to deal with him, following his failed interview' downright insulting. In his thinking though he had noticed and wondered about the mysterious Arkadhur, whom never seemed to leave the prison but had manoeuvred a good deal of freedom within it's walls. Keket determined to be avenged on The Iron House and also to obtain his needs at the same time.

The aspiring young surgeon found means to strike a secret deal with this odd 'janitor' soon after, to their mutual benefit. In return for obtaining his freedom, Arkadhur should ensure that a sizeable enough group of prisoners should be killed unseen, so that the guards came to believe there was an infectious plague within The Iron House. The unobserved 'janitor' did away with many of his fellow prisoners, and with very little evidence of foul play to be seen. Indeed, few guards looked very hard to find a cause beyond that they were told; that some variant of the much feared plague of old was fearfully assumed. As a result, a large amount of bodies were 'dumped' by the establishment, Arkadhur was the only man 'brave' enough to move the 'infectious' (not at all in truth) bodies and so secretly delivered them to Keket. When their janitor failed to return, Keket had it known that the young man had succombed to the infection himself as well, and duly died.

In truth Arkadhur was free to seek out the mother he had not seen since he was a child. Finding no word of her though, he found himself aimless and outside the prison he was homeless, jobless. The only contact he had was Keket Halsad, whom arranged him passage on one of his brother Uhta Halsad's ships. Arkadhur was understandably nervous, learning the true identity of his benefactor as a Halsad. The last time he had trusted one of them, his life had been taken from him, and his mother .. well, who now knew what had become of her ? But all that the young man had to his forgotten name were the secrets that he had gained of his fellow prisoners from time in The Iron House. Several of those whose trust he had gained had been captured Swan knights and Dol Amroth noblefolk, and so to Dol Amroth Arkadhur travelled, prepared to put his ill-gained knowledge to good use.


Captain Uhta Halsad was as good as his brother's word, and Arkadhur was thrown overboard into water within a swim’s reach of the affluent Gondorian city. Counted as near drowned, an account of his condition was required by officials, but having learn as a child to mimic the accent of incarcerated lords, the Umbarian told enough lies with enough spattering of truth to become accepted by the less wary and more desperate of that fair realm. Feigning 'trauma', he was spared from revealing his identity in full at that time, sharing enough only to be spared suspicion.

But bereft of any means of craft or trade, he could not support himself longterm, not without help. By chance he learnt of a rich clan there, related to one of the unhappy captured lords whom he had (as a child) betrayed in The Iron House. The grieving family of Lord Hollin Menilzir had no knowledge of their relative's gruesome fate, and so Arkadhur used what inside knowledge he had to convince them to hold hope that he was a secret son of that long-missing Swan Knight. Otherwise heirless, the family fell for his ploy and so the cunning Umbarian built upon his tale of escaping from captivity in the Enemy’s neighbouring nation. Even the modest inheritance that he was privy to ought to have been enough to secure his existence for life.

But Keket Halsad had not forgotten him and, by way of threatening to expose Arkadhur’s standing as Lord Hollin Menilzir the 2nd, the man’s one time saviour proved his mastery would not be thrown off. In payment Arkadhur must stand as the intermediary between folks of Belfalas and the captors of their unhappy relatives who had been stolen away to slavery in Umbar. Arkadhur would most often manipulate coin and goods out of anxious relations, in return for word or hope that those stolen might one day be returned safe and sound. Fearful for his own fate, the escaped Umbairan campaigned of his new gullible Gondorian neighbours for demands of wealth and compensation, keeping some always and stowing it away for his own sake. He still had never received any inkling of his mother's fate, which only lent an ironic and heart wrenching authenticity when he expressed sympathy to his victims.

But it was not a scam that would work well if too often, and not pay well enough if care kept the performances too rare. Then of course there was also the growing need for Arkadhur to ensure that his financiers were somehow after committed to institutions in despair, or ventured off themselves to meet their lost kin, and share their unhappy fate. Any means he could devise so that those bled dry did not afterwards share their story of his involvement. He was running out of clients, and all too soon, running out of funds again as well. Maintaining even an inherited house in Dol Amroth was expensive, and he was not exactly experienced in how to keep up with his long-schooled ‘peers’.


So began the slow unravelling of a lucrative career for a practiced liar and a man with already foul affiliations. But perhaps that was always the intention of Keket Halsad for, to this day, Arkadhur has no true knowledge of why he was truly incarcerated all those years ago, assuming only that Captain Salukatar had simply learnt of the boy's stealing food from the ships kitchen, and ordered his arrest. Whether Arkadhur truly is, as Captain Korre suspected, the illigitimate son of Salukhatar Halsad is uncertain. As is the intriguing notion that Keket Halsad somehow investigated the matter and found out such a possibility himself. Are the two accomplices in fact cousins ? Does Arkadhur in honesty hold a claim to inherit the entire family estate in Umbar, as the only son of Lord Pharak's late elder brother ? As often the case in Umbar, there is no evidence to secure rumours.


Still, better safe than sorry, Keket determined to see an end to Arkadhur, enforcing one final and astoundingly ambitious plot. Having met with the wealthy Belfalasian astronomer, Lord Heledir Estennin, Arkadhur was not even to wheedle riches out of the man as per the usual ruse. This time, he was to arrange for the widowed Dol Amroth nobleman, Lord Heledir, to rob the Red Arrow out of Minas Tirith, if he wished for his only daughter, Gael, to not be returned to him in a series of tiny pieces. Such a coveted heirloom so significant to the alliance of Gondor and Rohan, Keket could only dream of what heights he might rise to in Umbar if it was achieved.

But unsurprisingly, the outcome was a failure, if the aim had been to truly succeed. For Heledir did make attempt, but was thwarted before completion by Sergeant Pele Alarion. The despairing lord took his own life before he could be forced to betray those who held his daughter in their possession, or so he believed. For soon afterward, Pele was spirited to Umbar herself by the slaver Relic, and Gael made her escape with thanks to Anardil Thavron, who’d come seeking for the abducted Gondorian officer.

Arkadhur was held to account by Keket for this latest failure and yet, thankfully, was in Dol Amroth when Keket himself was forced to elude the infamous slaver Relic, after Pele escaped her captivity. So Arkadhur was far enough away to manage a headstart from his former employers, but fearful that they would soon blacken his name in Belfalas. He fled to Minas Tirith, debating whether to make a new start for himself, or manage some means of compensating those who now he assumed would wish him dead. A master of disguise, practiced in deceit and with small cause to trust anybody, his future is uncertain so his morals deviate from day to day.




**The names of both The Iron House and The Chamber of Song are credited to the opening post of the Umbar Free Rp thread in Mordor.
Last edited by Ercassie on Thu Dec 08, 2022 12:45 am, edited 3 times in total.
All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost
The old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not touched by the frost.

Apprentice of Gondor
Points: 29 
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Jan 14, 2022 3:12 am
Sanim

Age (bracket):
About to turn 30!

Physical appearance:

Of middling height, of middling weight, of middling fitness – all she wishes she could improve upon. Long ravens black hair hangs down to the middle of her back, though usually braided to be out of the way. Sanim has a fair face – large, almost imposing, blue green eyes and dark lashes, high cheekbones, but soft jaw and kind mouth. Her skin is fair, though covered in freckles and scars, particularly on her hands and forearms. It is surprisingly soft for its appearance, and nails show no dirt beneath, though plenty of tears around the cuticles. Sanim dresses in deeply coloured, wide flowing trousers, though usually belted tightly about the waist before allowing for billowing sleeves. She has two packs: one large for travel, and a smaller one for daily excursions. Each has an odd bucket flap of fabric stitched on, and often a little grey-white fluff of fur can be seen poking out. Her companion – Kit the cat – is never too far away, as languid and lazy as he appears to be.

Personality:

Hardworking, but somewhat distractable. She enjoys the company of others before loneliness, but often finds herself alone nonetheless. Those quiet times are difficult, plagued with doubting thoughts and troubled memories. She has a caring nature and has dedicated herself to the care of others.

Biography:

To be remembered and developed!

I played with the same character many, many, moons ago on LOTRplaza. Delighted to have found this forum reignited, and look forward to participating, albeit likely sporadically!

Istari Sage
Points: 1 952 
Posts: 939
Joined: Fri Jan 21, 2022 5:02 pm
Name: Romeran

Age (bracket): 19

Physical appearance: Romeran is swarthier than the average gondorian, as is common among the people of Lossarnach. His black shoulder-length hair is wavy and usually tied back and a thick black beard belies his youth. Romeran is a large man, around 6’8” (2m) and tightly muscled, weighing over 300lbs (135kg), a product of years of manual labor on his family’s farm.

Personality: Romeran’s grim appearance and quiet nature convey an unfriendly demeanor, however, at heart he is a kind and pleasant person who can be occasionally boisterous around those he feels comfortable with.

Biography: Romeran’s father had been a ranger, an honor for which he had paid with his life while Romeran was still an infant, and so Romeran was raised by his mother and her brother’s family (Romeran’s uncle and aunt) on a farm in Lossarnach. Most of his life, Romeran spent working on his uncle’s farm with his two younger cousins and learning from his mother and aunt. Life was pleasant despite the arduous labor on the farm, but Romeran grew stronger for it. A fortnight after his nineteenth birthday, his mother fell ill, and four days later she passed. Romeran’s uncle insisted that he could continue to live with them and work on the farm, but Romeran knew that the farm would never be his inheritance. Armed with a bearded axe, more used at chopping wood than chopping necks, and his grandfather’s brigandine (the only one that would fit), Romeran made for Minas Tirith to follow in his father’s footsteps and join the rangers.
Last edited by Romeran on Tue Feb 28, 2023 10:35 pm, edited 5 times in total.

Ent Ancient
Points: 2 696 
Posts: 1830
Joined: Sat May 23, 2020 11:34 pm
Ljúfa
(Link to image 1, image 2)

Age: 17-19
Pronouns: she/her
Occupation: busking performer/musician in the streets of Minas Tirith (for now)

Physical appearance:
Rarely to be seen without a hat on her long brown curls, Ljúfa has delicate features and pale blue eyes. She is fairly tall, speaks with a distinct Northern accent and has an eye for aesthetics with a preference for clothing and jewelry (and other luxuries) beyond her current means, so she does the best with what she has.

Personality:
She looks harmless, but with two con artists for parents, she is often suspicious and doesn’t trust many to share their true motives. Still, she is young and often thinks she is smarter than she is which makes her prone to making mistakes and learning lessons. She’s trying very hard to leave her old ways behind but is prone to slipping back into them every now and then. When she feels safe, her more cheerful, outgoing side emerges. She loves music, attending stage plays and performance, and plays the flute herself.

Biography:
Ljúfa was raised in Dale by a pair of con artists, Arna (her mother) and Davin, who swindled their way up the social and economic ladder in Dale, where they strove for the high life. Davin is not her father by blood but he is the only one she has ever known. The pair did well for themselves and Ljúfa never lacked anything she wanted, at least tangibly. From the day she was born (or possibly while still in the womb), she was their accomplice whether willing or not. They started her on small schemes and gradually drew her into bigger and more elaborate ones until she decided enough was enough. Fed up with their scams, she finally got the nerve to run away in search of a fresh start and an honest life somewhere.

The realization that honest work is not so easy quickly hit her when she got as far as Laketown where she made money harvesting and selling oysters. She was desperate to get as far from them as possible and fled Laketown with the help of a thief (unbeknownst to her). After some adventures along the way, she eventually reached Gondor where the warmer climates and bustling cities appeal to her and where she hopes her dream of becoming a (rich, of course) professional musician and performer might come true.

Steward of Gondor
Points: 5 582 
Posts: 2650
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2021 10:12 pm
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Name: Calithildis (Cali) Dringolben (and brothers)
Age: Early-mid 20s
Physical appearance:
Cali is 5'7" tall and has long, dark brown hair that is slightly wavy. When she's working, she keeps it pinned back or tied back with a leather strip, sometimes in a braid, sometimes the length of her hair is tied into a knot to keep it out of her way. When she's not at the forge, she sometimes leaves it free, but when it gets in her way she'll tie it back. Her eyes are medium brown. Her hands show the evidence of her forge work, despite how hard she may try to keep it secret. She usually wears dresses despite her very tomboyish ways, even as a child.
(FM is Laura Frashier, particularly in A Knight's Tale)

Personality:
In her childhood, slightly mischievous, fun-loving, and adventurous. She would get very annoyed at anyone who claimed that she could not do anything just as well as a boy, and would therefore set out to prove them wrong. She was known to be rather more responsible and logical than her twin brother, and often more rule-abiding, but was not unknown to go along with him in breaking rules. She could be rather conniving if she needed to be, and was frequently known to come up with some sort of brilliant cover story to keep her brother and friends(and herself) from landing in too much trouble. She laughed a lot and was just as eager as any of her friends to have some fun.

After the death of her twin, (age 18) Cali changed drastically. For a long while, she walked around like she was in a daze. She had no interest in doing anything, and she would hardly speak. After that phase, she was mostly withdrawn and quiet, turning down any invitations to go do things with her friends, preferring to be left alone most of the time. It seemed for a long time that she had forgotten how to smile, and that no happiness could ever find its way back to her heart. She often felt that grief would swallow her up. Eventually, after spending time with her sister-in-law, niece, and nephew, Cali began to remember how to smile again, and gradually began to allow herself to heal from her loss, though it is a struggle. She is trying to find herself again, now, and learn how to be happy again after such a devastating loss.

Biography:

Calithildis, or Cali as most know her, is the youngest member of the Dringolben family, but only by a few hours. Her twin brother Ryndir was just barely older, and always getting into trouble and mischief, though he mostly called it ‘adventure’ and ‘fun’. Growing up, she was always eager to play with her brothers in whatever they were doing. Cali was like a shadow to her twin, usually always eager to join in whatever sort of adventure he came up with. Between Ryn and his two friends, Nal and Trev, and Cali and her friend Iole, their parents often joked that it was almost a wonder the city was still standing. The five friends were nearly always together, and one could usually expect some sort of shenanigans if any of them were around.

Cali and Ryn had two older brothers as well, Dawion, the oldest, and the middle brother, Berthion. Both were rather adventurous and mischievous in their childhood, and prone to friendly teasing. Cali adored all of her brothers, even when they teased her and only occasionally became angry with them. (mostly only if they tried to tell her that a girl couldn’t do something a boy could!)

Even from a very young age, Cali loved to watch her father work in the forge. When she wasn’t playing with her brothers or at school with her friends, she enjoyed visiting the forge for any reason; to bring her daddy a drink of water, or his lunch, or even just to visit with him for a while, asking a million questions about what he was doing, why he was doing it, or how to do it. She loved to watch how he could take a bunch of raw materials and turn it into something and constantly begged him to let her try it. Though her father was a firm believer that women had no place doing smith work, Cali often pestered him to let her help him, or to let her do this or that, until he sometimes humored her although he always told her that forge work was for men, not women, and she ought not spend so much time there. Despite that, it was clear that he enjoyed having his little girl take so much interest in his work, and want to spend so much time with him. Cali was truly a daddy's girl, though she loved her mother as well, of course.

As she got older, her mother insisted that she learn more girlish things, like sewing and cooking, but while Cali did enjoy dolls and tea parties, she was still far more interested in watching her father work, when she wasn't involved in some adventure with her brother and friends.

Ryn knew very well how to get up to all sorts of mischief, and often Cali was pulled headlong into it with him. The twins were a force to be reckoned with, their parents often said. He often drove his mother to frustration with his rambunctious ways. He was always up for some sort of fun thing, and always wanted Cali and their other friends to come along. The young boy was so known by his family to get into mischief that his mother jokingly said that his name, which means Hound, was given to him because he was like a hound for sniffing out trouble. Ryndir never minded this, being very easy going and friendly, and often made his own jokes.

Being twins, Cali and Ryn shared a bond that none else had. They could often guess what the other was thinking, or finish the other’s sentence. They knew how each other were feeling when no one else did, even sometimes sense if the other was in pain. They were very close friends, and it was rare to ever see one without the other. Cali, though perfectly willing to join in on any of these silly adventures her brother came up with, often acted as a voice of reason if his ideas got too over the line, pointing out the amount of trouble they would be in if they do this or that, or if something was too dangerous. Yet, when it came down to it, more often than not, she was the one who would concoct some sort of cover story to keep them from getting into too much trouble. Though they had each other, and their older brothers, Ryn was excited to 'officially' make Nal and Trev his Blood Brothers one summer, and extended an invitation to the girls to join them and be their 'blood sisters'.

Despite their fun adventures growing up, there was a bully who often troubled them at school, though never when they were together. They knew him as Ric, and he seemed to always manage to catch one of the friends when they were by themselves, or sometimes the two girls when the boys weren't around. He teased and tormented them relentlessly, sometimes even getting physical with his bullying, yet when he was outnumbered, he would flee. When a teacher or other adult was around, he would act totally innocent and meek, and frequently even accused others of tormenting HIM. His favorite story to throw at them when he was outnumbered, was to claim that he had a twin brother who had done the bullying, and he was innocent. Yet, when the tables were turned, he would scoff at anyone who believed that story and insist he was an only child and they were stupid for believing it. Cali and Ryn despised this boy, and he seemed to delight in tormenting them and their friends.

As the twins got older, various aspects of their lives changed, yet many things remained the same. Their older brothers joined the Gondorian army. First Dawion, then, a few years later, Berthion. Ryn began to help his father in the forge, while Cali began to run the shop part for their father, helping her mother. Often though, she was found in the forge with them, watching or talking to them while they worked. And when the work day was over, the friends got together and hung out, or went off on adventures, sometimes venturing out into the farmlands outside the city.

Then, one day, everything changed for good. Dawion was slain in battle, Berthion seriously wounded. He lived long enough to tell his family how Dawion had taken a blow for him, trying to save his life, which killed him instead. Then he died as well.

Shocked, Cali watched her family begin to crumble. Her father began drinking while her mother spent most of her time crying or sitting quietly staring off into the distance. Ryn was quiet for many days, and this concerned Cali. She knew from the moment that they all heard Berthion’s story, what sort of ideas were racing through her twin’s head. He wanted to avenge their brothers, and she begged him to dismiss the idea. She tried her best to convince him to stay home and be content with learning their father’s trade. But no amount of persuasion would convince him, and she watched with a feeling of dread as he enlisted in the rangers following their sixteenth birthday. Despite his assurance that he would be alright, that all she need do was to think on him every day and she would know that he was alright, Cali couldn't help a dreadful feeling that he would meet the same fate as their other brothers.

While Ryn was gone, Cali spent a lot of time running the shop for her father, as her mother, finding a new purpose in life, now spent most of her days working in the Houses of Healing as a nurse. Cali tried to spend time with her friends as often as she could, in an effort to try and take her mind off of her worries, but still she couldn’t help but worry about her brother. The day came, eventually, that she had been dreading for so long. Cali was walking with Iole on their way to go somewhere when all of the sudden she had the most terrible sensation, a sort of phantom pain in her chest, and a horrible emptiness she'd never known before. She knew at that moment what had happened. Ryn was dead. The realization left her frantic and she didn’t want to believe it. Yet she couldn’t deny her heart, and though she was in conflict with herself, she ran home as fast as she could. The rest of the day was spent in near agony as she waited for some sort of news. At last, news came, and though she had felt in her heart what had happened, it was even more devastating to hear it confirmed.

She felt as if a part of herself had died as well. For weeks afterward, Cali felt as if she were walking in a daze. She barely spoke to anyone, she could hardly eat anything, and she couldn’t even seem to get herself to cry. It seemed wrong that she couldn’t even cry over him. At his funeral, she felt like the only one who wasn’t crying. She felt like she were lost in some awful nightmare and she would awaken any moment. But she didn’t wake. The reality of it began to set in, and she withdrew even further from everything around her. She would stand at the walls of the city, staring out across the land, wondering where in all that land her brother had been when he died, or curl up on her bed and stare at nothing, unable to sleep at night. It seemed to her that the grief and pain was unbearable. Everything good and happy had been snatched from her. It seemed for a while that she might join her twin, which worried all those close to her.

Then one night, when Cali couldn’t sleep, she wandered down to her father’s forge, one of the places she had spent the most time with Ryn and her other brothers. Any who had seen her might have thought she were sleepwalking, for she gave no acknowledgement to the world around her. She really didn’t know why she went there. Perhaps she would sit in a corner and cry or something. But when she arrived, she found her father passed out drunk. She’d been aware that he had been drinking more than ever since Ryn died, but it hadn’t really registered. Now, she looked at him, and at what he had been working on when he passed out. She recalled something her mother had tried to keep hidden, but she had seen anyway. That Ryn’s armor had some rivets that pulled loose. Something which shouldn't have happened, though at the time she hadn't put that together.

Though she still felt as if she were in a daze, things clicked as Cali stood staring at the scene before her. Her father had been drunk when he made the armor that Ryn wore to his death. A brief feeling of anger and a desire to accuse him flickered within her, but the practical side of her brain flared up just as fast. Accusing him would accomplish nothing, but to further the guilt he must already feel over it. It wouldn’t bring Ryndir back, so what would be the point?

She went to examine the armor that her father was making now. It had flaws, too. This grieved her even further, and she felt horrified that this would be worn by another, just like Ryn, who would expect it to protect him. “Even I could do a better job than that,” She mumbled under her breath, feeling a deep disappointment in her father, and shame for their family. She knew he could do better than this. But he was too grieved to know what he was doing.

Her own words seemed to echo in her mind as she stood there, turning the many thoughts and ideas over in her head. She could do a better job than he had done. At last, she looked at her sleeping father and then came to a decision. She knew it would take a lot to wake him when he was passed out like this, so she didn’t have too much fear of waking him. She picked up the hammer, and began to work... when morning came, she was weary but satisfied with the results of her labor. The armor had none of its previous flaws, and she felt quite confident that it would hold up under intense battle. She stole away back to her room and back to bed, getting a good night’s rest for the first time since Ryn’s death.

Cali made it a point to return to the forge often to check on her father and his work. Many nights found her hammering away at the forge, correcting his mistakes to leave him surprised in the morning when he awoke to find his work finished and without any flaws. This gave Cali a little bit of happiness, or relief at least to know that the armor shouldn’t be responsible for anymore unnecessary deaths. As time went on, she began to develop a schedule, in which she would run the shop during the day, and work in the forge in the late afternoons and nights while her father was out at a tavern or passed out drunk. At times she would help him to bed, assuring him that his work could wait until morning, and then return to complete it for him. More often than not, she would end up working through most of the night.

Working in the forge helps her to not think about Ryndir for a while. But it also began to feel like a weight upon her shoulders. She had to do this, or the consequences could be dire for all those involved. While Cali found the work to be a means for her to try to find a way out of the fog of grief that threatened to overwhelm her, she also began to feel she was constantly sleep-deprived. As time wore on, she began doing more work in the forge than her father, keeping the place locked up while she worked so no one can accidentally come upon her and discover her secret, after that did happen one evening with her friend Iole who had come looking for her. Iole she was able to swear to secrecy, but she still constantly worried that her secret will be discovered by another who wouldn't keep quiet, and that her father’s business and reputation would be ruined, but she is more afraid of what might happen if anymore faulty armor or weapons caused the death of another. Her father would surely be ruined, then, and how could their family ever get over that guilt?

To everyone except for her best friend, Iole Ishen, Cali appeared to still live in her daze of grief. She would spend her nights working, and gets a few hours sleep before going to work in the shop(where she often ended up dozing at the counter), and she no longer went to do anything with her friends, or hardly saw them anymore unless they come to see her, or if she happens to see them in passing.

For a couple of years, her life continued in this manner, but when the War happened, everything changed. All women and children who had no reason to stay were sent off to safer places. Cali begged, pleaded, with her father to let her stay and help him. She couldn't tell him her secret, nor would he have believed her if she had, but she tried her best to convince him she could be of help. He refused to hear her, and sent her away with the others. Her mother, who was by then a nurse in the Houses of Healing, remained behind, while Cali went to stay with her sister-in-law near Dol Amroth.

There, Cali discovered a need she had been oblivious to for years. Her brother, Dawion, had left behind a widow and two children, which she knew, but did not realize they were so poor. Ivornith had been struggling to keep a roof over their heads, and the children fed, by working multiple jobs, for years now. This left no one to watch and tend to the children, forcing young Iuldir to watch his baby sister and take care of her. Cali realized she could be of great help here, and made up her mind to stay and help Ivornith. Upon discovering an old, disused forge in the barn, left by her brother, Cali couldn't help but to fire it up and start back to work in secret, thinking she might further aid the family by selling some things she had made.

Her nephew, Iuldir, caught her in the forge one day and begged her to teach him, so she swore him to secrecy and began to teach him what she knew. When the war had ended, and the king restored to the throne, Cali elected to stay where she was. Her father had died during the battle, and she felt she had no reason to return to Minas Tirith. Besides, she felt she was needed more where she was.

After some time had passed, the family got an unexpected visitor, an elf named Fuin, who happened to be a grandmaster smith from Imladris. She also happened to have known and trained the very first Dringolben who took up a smith hammer. She told Cali about her ancestor, Calaerdis, who seemed to have been very much like Cali. Fuin encouraged Cali to stop being secretive with her work, and during her stay there, Ivornith found out about the work they were doing. Things began to turn around at last, and Cali began to think about what she might do with the rest of her life.

The family made a trip back to Pelennor, for a Fayre, hoping to have some fun and relaxation. Cali, personally, hoped to reunite with her friends, whom she had not seen nor had contact with since the war. Instead, she got far more than she bargained for, when she was abducted by a man from Umbar along with Iole. (more details to be determined through RP)

At some point during or after this adventure, Cali revealed to her group of friends that she had, for years now, been working in secret as a smith. She wanted to see how her friends reacted to this news before revealing it to any others. After that, Cali felt that it was finally time to begin working openly as a smith. While still recovering from wounds sustained during the kidnapping adventure, she went to the Ranger HQ to apply for a position as the armorer, having heard from a friend that the current one was looking to retire. She now works there, and is quite happy to take care of the weapons and armor for the rangers, although she still hopes to reclaim her father's forge one day. (It is currently being rented to another smith, who has a [X] year lease on it.)

(More will be added as her story progresses!)

* * * * *

Ryndir
(Deceased, may be used in flashbacks)

As a child, Ryndir often dragged his twin sister into all sorts of little adventures, and often drove his mother to frustration with his rambunctious ways. He was always up for some sort of fun thing, and always wanted his sister Cali to come along. From his and Cali's first day of school, he made plenty of friends; one of those being Unalmis, which worked perfectly because Nal had a friend named Iole who quickly became friends with Cali. The four of them hit it off right away and became fast friends.

Usually always accompanied by at least one of his partners in crime, Ryn was usually the first one to suggest any sort of activity that seemed even remotely adventurous, whether it fell outside the lines of what they were allowed to do or not. Ryndir seemed particularly talented at making friends, although there were a few who resisted his friendship; a classmate named Ric Androllius, in particular. Ryn could never quite understand that, because he seemed eager to be friends the first day they met, and ever since then, the boy became a bully.

With the exception of Ric(and maybe Ms Irma), Ryn generally made a point to try to be friendly even to grumpy people as he grew older, and to try and make people smile if they seemed sad. He got along great with children, being silly and fun. He enjoyed doing things to help others, from helping old ladies cross the street, to sneaking coals from his father's forge to a friend who was struggling to keep warm in the winter, or even just saying or doing something funny to cheer up someone who was sad. Perhaps it was to counteract all the mischief he also had a hand in, although there was never any harmful mischief done.

As a teenager, Ryndir began to help his father at the forge, the third of his family to learn the trade. He excelled at the work, partly because he had already learned most of the basics from watching his elder brothers learn, but also because he was eager to learn and quick to pick things up. He seemed to make the work day fly by with his cheerful chatting and whistling. Then, after a long day at the forge, he was eager to find his friends and see what sort of fun there was to be had, though he never forgot to invite Cali along.

The day that Dawion and Berthion died seemed to leave Ryndir reeling a little. He was so sure that his brothers would be fine, that his mother's worry was for nothing.. yet now they had both died in the same day. As his brother told the story of how Dawion died, and ultimately how himself had died, Ryndir felt a growing anger inside toward those who had killed his brothers. A passion stirred up in the young man to fight against this enemy who had dared take his brothers from him. He felt a need to avenge them, but also to fight against the rising enemy in the east. Trying to dispel his sister's concerns, Ryndir thought long and hard on this. They had both been members of the army, so in an effort to fight the enemy yet not be in the same group they had been, he decided to join the rangers. This decision was heavily influenced, also, by the fact that his friend's father had been a ranger, and Nal had aspirations to become a ranger in his father's footsteps. So why not Ryn, too? Finally, shortly after he had turned sixteen, a few months after his brothers' deaths, he had joined the rangers of Ithilien.

Ryn was eager to learn all they had to teach him, and couldn't wait until his friend (a year younger than himself) was old enough to join him. Despite having gone a different direction than his brothers, Ryn felt that they would have both been proud of him. For his part, Ryn was proud to wear armor made by his own father, but it was to be his downfall. One day, after being separated from the rest of his group, Ryn came upon some very suspicious activity, and when he confronted the man, realized that it was his old enemy... Ric. Only he realized that it could not be Ric.. and finally put the pieces together, that there really were twins. Ric's twin did not want that secret returning to the city, nor the secret of what Ryn had caught him doing, so he attacked Ryn. During a fight, the enemy discovered a weak point in Ryn's armor, and took advantage of it, and ultimately stabbed him in the heart. Ryn died at eighteen, leaving his family and friends devastated by the loss. His death was believed to have been caused by bandits who then fled the scene, and were never caught.
The story can be found here, if anyone has interest to read it. (Warning, there is blood and death involved)
Last edited by Rillewen on Wed Jul 20, 2022 8:42 am, edited 5 times in total.
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."

Chief Counsellor of Gondor
Points: 2 909 
Posts: 1281
Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 8:37 am
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Name (s) : Iole Ishen

Age : Early 20-ish

Birthplace : Minas Tirith

Heritage : Only daughter of Mortimus Ishen and his wife Bronela.


Appearance : Iole is pale skinned, dark haired, blue-grey eyed and average in height. She tends toward dressing in dark colours, which only exaggerate the contrast against her wan, sun-shy countenance. She tends to spend a good deal of time indoors, and it shows. Her clothes, now that she is grown to adulthood, are harvested from her mother’s closet. Though they fit her perfectly, they tend to seem outdated against the fashions of other girls her age.


Personality : Iole is a product of her home environment, having been raised up by an undertaker. From her father she has observed and thus replicated the virtues of patience and of peace and quiet. There was no running and laughing and dancing in her home even when she was young, for not only was her mother too ill to ‘play’ with her but her father fretted that a noisy child would disturb his beloved and fragile wife or, worse still, succumb to exhaustion as well.

As a result, Iole has developed an overly cautious and careful nature, for fear of else meeting a premature end. Such things are after all, to her mind, entirely expected. Her friends have of course encouraged her to break out of her shell some, and often she can surprise them when ‘the quiet one’ has her say on certain subjects.


Experience : Iole is an only child, and her mother has been bedridden since before the girl’s birth. Weak and anaemic from the rigours of her pregnancy, Bronela took to rest for months and finally succumbed to milk leg. Treated by frequent leechcraft for their expertise in anticoagulation, the undertaker’s wife is easily exhausted, and her malady has only spread, with a tendency to faint or cough up blood if she does not confine herself to a very sedate existence. The young girl is much fond of her mother, but equally conscious of wearying her. Her father she adores also and tries to share his rather grown-up pastimes like a tiny doll to satisfy his need for conversation. Due to this, when she came to start school, she was rather reluctant to leave her parent and quite unlike other girls; old, some said, before her time. She gladly would have stayed inside at playtimes and spoken with her teacher, except that the teacher was looking for a moments rest from her (primarily) raucous students.

One day Iole came home to find a little boy in her house, he was a year younger than her and seemed lost. But it turned out that he was meant to be there; his grandmother Odessa had been the housekeeper for Iole’s father, and his father before him. But now that her family circumstances meant she must walk her little grandson to school, she had told Mort that she would walk Iole as well, saving Mr Ishen the journey. The small girl was initially sad at losing this one-on-one time with her father but Odessa was quite keen for her to spend more time with other children. As it turned out, this worked out quite well for all involved.

At school, the small boy Unalmis trundled over to see Iole at playtime, claiming that his grandmother had told him to ‘stay with’ the undertaker’s daughter. In no time, a pair of other children came over to join them. Ryndir Dringolben recognised the younger boy from a previous meeting, when he’d found Unalmis walking all about the city, knocking on doors in a stubbornly naïve attempt to find his estranged mother. Ryn, eager to catch up, brought his twin sister, Calithildis with him as well. Soon Iole was surrounded by these other children, not long after including a younger boy called Trevadir, who Unalmis shared some of his classes with. The five of them became close friends and got into many scrapes as they enjoyed their childhood. Iole never quite learnt how not to worry or be too careful, but neither could she talk her more rowdy peers out of their mischief. Sometimes she even found herself enjoying what they got up to though she would never admit it ! She did not so much enjoy the ‘attentions’ of a class bully called Aderic and his taunting nickname of ‘Bones’ made her cry until her friends returned the favour to the cruel boy. It was thankfully fairly easy for Iole to always have a friend around, most often Cali with whom she shared secrets and wishes that they refused to disclose to the ‘silly boys’. But given their families’ association, Iole remained very close with Unalmis. To such a point that they started considering themselves brother and sister. Cali had Ryndir after all. And Trevadir had his little brother Tobedir. But as the only two single children, Iole and Nal became ‘blood siblings’, in a private silly ceremony which the two took mock seriously for their tender age.


Iole was the same age as the twins and they all left school at about the same time, each to find work assisting their parents within their respective businesses. But responsibility they all learned was not easy, even for the girl who was so careful. Facing now her father’s expectation that she ought wed his apprentice, and keep the family business .. in the family, Iole sought to convince Unalmis to become that same ‘apprentice’. Nal’s father was after all a former Ranger, and had no family business of his own for his son to take up. But neither did that son have any inclination toward such a grave career as undertaker, nor thought toward marriage. Iole tried to not make too merry when her father failed to obtain any one else for his apprentice, and for a time, his daughter fulfilled his needs in assisting his work, as best as she could.

When the orphaned Malus Aldis was taken on by Mort, Iole felt displaced, disheartened and deserted. Her beloved parent spending all his time now with this ‘son he’d always wanted’, she turned to her friends more than ever, at a time when they were all drawing away. First Ryndir enlisted with the military, in vengeance for the death of both his elder brothers, killed in action. And Nal left school as soon as there was no Ryndir to cause trouble with there any more, idling in a random collection of oddjobs until the day he too could enlist. All too soon Ryn came home in a casket, just his like brothers before him, and Cali thus fell unto a grief that it was hard for the undertaker’s daughter to rouse her from. Trevadir set out on a mission to impress his estranged father. And Nal also was nowhere to be found, having set upon an adventure of his own shortly before Ryn’s demise, in lands frightful and afar, and against all good reason. He returned eventually and it was all that Iole could decide, whether to be thankful or else furious with him.

Lonely, the undertaker’s daughter sought comfort in spending time with her mother, and found there inspiration to seek out a career of her own. Cali’s mother, Maeth, took Iole some way toward training to be a nurse, and together they visited the sick and afflicted in the community who could not come from their sick beds to be treated at the Houses of Healing. Going about her days in a daze, at least Iole started to feel that she was performing some productive task. And then just as she learned quite why her friend Cali was ever more so withdrawn and secretive, the war separated them all.

Out in Pelargir, where the sea air did much good for her mother’s health, Iole cowered nonetheless at the calamity of the corsair threat to that harbour. But the Return of the King saved the city, and when it was safe, she followed his return to Minas Tirith, leaving her parents to retire happily on the coast. The family business had been managed all this time by Malus, who had remained in the city during the war and now found himself extremely busy in the aftermath ! An alliance was made with a local forester and carpenter to help manage the amount of coffins required, and so it was a rather experienced and capable young man that Iole returned to lodge with on her return.

Malus had taken for his wife the daughter of a Ranger who’d come south with Aragorn, and she in turn had come to find him in the South. The newlyweds were very happy and settling into their life together, that the arrival of Iole was a little awkward, although they were living in her childhood home and running the business by the grace of her father.

Eager to find her place in the new-emerging world, Iole found and declared her love for Unalmis, who it has to be said reacted rather poorly in a state of utter shock, and declared he would far rather they remain as brother and sister. Rejection being the last straw for the young woman, and feeling herself to be very much alone, she took up with a charming stranger during a day out at the Pelennor Fayre. The consequences of this choice were dire, but the decision was at least incitement for the little group (those who had survived) to once more find each other, and face down Aderic, their nemesis of old, who naturally had a hand in the entire unhappy incident.

Quite what the Undertaker’s daughter will do next, even she is not certain. But only time will tell. She has come home at last. And that is enough to be starting with.
All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost
The old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not touched by the frost.

Steward of Gondor
Points: 5 582 
Posts: 2650
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2021 10:12 pm
Name:
Duinion Raedor

Age (bracket): mid-late 30s (possibly moving into 40s?)

Physical appearance:
Duinion has hazel eyes, and lighter hair than the average Gondorian. He may not even be Gondorian by blood, as his parentage is unknown, but he grew up in Gondor and therefore considers himself Gondorian. His slightly wavy hair is best described as 'dark ash blonde', usually worn about shoulder length. His facial hair tends to appear a bit darker. He sometimes trims the beard but never actually shaves it. He has a lean build, and stands at about 6'2". For much of his childhood he was somewhat smaller than one would expect for his age, but shortly after turning 14 he gained several inches in height, and continued to grow for the next couple of years until he finally reached his final height. He has a scar on the palm of his left hand, from the wrist to the little finger.

Personality:
Duinion is friendly, kind, and tries to be understanding to others. He can be quiet, even seem a little shy at times, but he is usually quick to decide if he likes you or not, and is always eager for adventure and enjoys any chance to wander in the forest or out in the wild, feeling far more at home there than anywhere else. Yet, his heart remains where his daughter is, and he never ventures far from her for any longer than he must, as he is determined to be as much involved in her life as his duties allow, and give her all that he never had. At times, due to many losses he's endured over the years, he can become a little melancholy and sad, but he tries to hide that and not trouble others with his own sorrow.

He becomes somewhat anxious when around a lot of other people, especially in busy, crowded places like the market. Often, his idea of 'a lot of people' is quite a smaller number from other's ideas, as he tends to feel uncomfortable even in small groups if they're too close. Due to this, he can't stand being in the city, and even outdoors, he prefers to stay on the outer edges when traveling anywhere in a group. Most of those who know him fairly well will be aware of how anxious he becomes when surrounded by a number of people. A lesser known fact about him, however, is that as a child, he was terrified of the dark, due to having been frequently locked up in a dark cellar as punishment for just about everything he did that the orphanage matron didn't like. Though he has managed to overcome it to some degree, he still struggles with this fear in some instances, which is only known to a few who are closest to him. He can't stand to sleep in a dark, enclosed space, however, and has not slept indoors since his wife died.

Having always longed for a family to love him, Duinion sometimes tends to want to attach 'familial titles' to those he grows close to, thinking of them as if they might be some form of family, such as 'like a brother' or 'like a cousin' etc. Now, having a daughter of his own, he can't help but feel a little paranoid about losing her, especially now that she's declared her intention to join the rangers and follow in her father's footsteps. Due to the fact that so far, he's lost almost everyone who was ever close to him, in one way or another, Duinion is worried sick that she'll be taken from him as well, and he isn't sure he could handle that loss, for she means everything to him.


Biography:

Having been found by a fisherman near the banks of the Anduin, a newborn apparently abandoned, he was taken to the city's orphanage, and grew up there, given the name Duinion, which means 'son of the river'. It was run by very incompetent people in those days, and he suffered a very poor childhood as a result. The place was overcrowded, leaving the children with never enough beds, which meant many had to sleep on the floor, huddled together. Duinion frequently awakened half-smothered by his fellow orphans, or couldn't sleep because there was someone clinging to him or climbing over him, or someone wouldn't stop wiggling or twitching in their sleep. He attempted to run away a couple of times when he was very young, but got lost, pushed around, and nearly trampled in the busy marketplace which frightened him more than ever.

At some point he began running errands, as an excuse to get out of the crowded orphanage and explore a little, but the busy areas still frightened him. At some point he met another boy named Domanol, and they quickly became friends even though Domanol was a few years older. He eagerly followed his friend into all sorts of adventures and felt a bit safer when he was with Dom. To his amazement, Dom's mother even allowed him to spend the night sometimes, and he ate with them often. Dom's widowed mother couldn't afford to outright adopt another child, as she struggled simply raising the two she already had, but, as he got a bit older, old enough to consider such things, Duinion tried his best not to be a burden, and tried to help in what ways he could, like doing Domanol's chores or helping set the table, and so forth.

When he was five, there was an infant/toddler, somewhere between 18 and 24 months, brought in, whose parents were unknown, the mother found brutally murdered. The little girl was covered in blood, and since no one knew her given name, they called her Agarwaen (Bloodstained). Little Duinion felt an attachment to this poor baby, as they had something in common; neither had any idea of their parent's identities. He tried to protect her as much as he could, and tried to look after her. Eventually, as Aggie got older, she called him her brother, and he had no objection to thinking of her as his little sister.

At a later point, the orphanage, who also offered daycare services to those who needed it, had a dilemma; one of the young children, a little boy named Dawion, was missing. Duinion, then about ten years old, tried to think where a small child would hide, and found the boy(possibly going on where Aggie had a habit of hiding). From that point on, Dawion was like a shadow to the older boy, looking up to him and wanting to play with him all the time. The orphanage matron didn't like that, and forbade them from playing together because she didn't want the little boy mixing with a lowly orphan. The two boys, as well as Aggie, still found opportunities to play together sometimes when they weren't at the orphanage, though Dawion and Aggie were too young to tag along on some of the adventures Duinion got involved with.

Duinion spent as much time as he could with his friend Domanol, and with Dom's family, and came to view his friend's mother as almost like a mother to himself, though he felt a bit reserved about saying so out loud, for fear that she would reject the idea that Duinion was as a son to her. He also, privately, considered Dom's older brother Addhor to be like a brother to himself. Despite this, he was always painfully aware that they were not really his family, and that he had none, partly because he was frequently reminded of this fact by the headmistress of the orphanage. He and Domanol became blood brothers at one point, and Duinion took that very seriously, as it was the closest he would ever get to having a 'real' brother.

At the orphanage, Duinion's education was rather lacking, due to the incompetency of the 'teacher' in the employ of the orphanage. The lessons mostly failed to capture Duinion's interest, but in some cases, he had trouble understanding certain things due to the teacher's unwillingness to actually teach anything. Instead, he most frequently ended up asking a multitude of questions while his friend was busy trying to complete his own homework, thus distracting Dom in turn. But he learned far more from skimming through Dom's old schoolbooks, or from asking Dom, or Addhor, than he learned from the orphanage's teacher, for the other two boys attended the school in the city that cost tuition, and had a far better teacher.

As time went on, he and Dom got into many adventures and got into trouble together. Duinion found it very exciting when Addhor enlisted in the rangers, and was eager to hear any stories the young man would tell. One summer, Duinion was sent out to work on a farm with a very stern old farmer. He was very demanding and allowed the boy no time to take a break, keeping him working steadily from dawn until long after dusk, with meager meals in between. Duinion disliked that sort of work intensely and missed getting to see Dom, but at last the harvest season was over and he returned to the orphanage. While it wasn't a nice place to return to, at least he was back to some sort of normal. Unfortunately, by that time, Domanol had enlisted in the City Guard, and had less time to play and go roaming off on adventures, like before. Duinion got into a few adventures on his own after that, often involving his younger friend, Dawion, who was eager to get involved in adventures with him, and sometimes Aggie, too.

When Duinion was 14, he began a job at a fabric shop in the market, having been pressured to begin working for wages so that he could begin to support himself, and leave the orphanage. He didn't like the job very much, but he was biding his time until he was old enough to enlist in the rangers. This came sooner than he expected, after an unfortunate incident when he was falsely accused of stealing from the register, and turned over to the guards. Thankfully, the guard who came to investigate the situation turned out to be Domanol, and the report of the incident was somehow 'misplaced' and never made it into the guard's records, so there is no report of the incident ever happening. Still, the incident left him very upset and he was so distressed at the idea of returning 'home', for fear of further punishment, that Dom suggested he might go and enlist with the rangers right now.

Following his friend's advice, a little tentatively, Duinion did just that, claiming to be a couple of years older than he really was, and simply 'small for his age'. He still worried about Aggie, and checked on her frequently, bringing her things to eat when he could. Later, he found a job for his young sister, working at a dairy farm out in the Pelennor, and helped her get established with that. After finishing his initial training, he finally got to go out in the forest for some real experience, and to his delight, he was assigned to Addhor's unit!

At times the rangers spent in Henneth Annun, and Duinion found this very trying, but made a great effort to endure the caves, though he didn't get much sleep there. He begged to be allowed to stand guard outside or at least stay near the entrance, as much as possible. If not for his close friend, Addhor, and subsequently Addhor's friends, Duinion didn't know what he might have done, but with their help he was able to cope with the situation without it becoming known to anyone else, though it put him under a lot of stress just to be there.

After a few years, however, things went bad for them. During a mission, Duinion's patrol split up into two groups. He was initially a little disappointed he wasn't chosen to stay with Addhor, whom he looked up to more than almost anyone else. But later, when the group that he was with uncovered evidence of orcs lurking around, someone put together that the other group might be walking into an ambush, so they sent Duinion to hurry and find them to give warning.

Sadly, when he caught up to them, the other half of their group had already walked into the orcs' ambush. He came along too late to save most of them, but his archery skills enabled him to pick off the orcs one at a time, thus saving Addhor, the only survivor of that ambush, though at the cost of his leg. Addhor was unable to continue his career as a ranger, due to that injury. Duinion couldn't help feeling that maybe if he had gotten there sooner, things might have been different, but didn't speak of that to anyone, not even Domanol, for fear his friend would also blame him for what happened to his brother.

A few years after joining the rangers, Duinion met, fell in love with, and eventually married, a lovely young woman. Idhrenel was a blessing he had not expected, and she helped him in many ways to heal from some of the trauma of his childhood, and to be more comfortable with uncomfortable situations. He was even more pleased when her sister married his friend Dawion, thus making them brothers in law. Duinion's happiness improved greatly as he began this new journey in his life, and before long, they had a daughter, and it seemed that life couldn't get any happier. As time went on, Duinion lost a few more friends, including Dawion, but gained others. He became close with a recruit he was training, who turned out to be Dawion's youngest brother. The two remained close even after Ryn was a fully trained ranger. When Ryn was slain, apparently by a group of bandits, Duinion blamed himself for letting the young man venture off on his own, and for not going to find him soon enough. He'd come to think of him as a younger cousin or brother of sorts, and his death was a terrible blow.

It wasn't long after that when even more grief struck him. Duinion's wife then died when their daughter was nine. She had been with child, and suffered a difficult labor too soon, and both she and the child (A boy) died. Having just endured the grief of losing a close friend and trainee who had been entrusted to his care, and then to lose his wife so soon after, he lapsed into a deep state of grief for a few days, and it wasn't until he became aware of someone trying to take his daughter away, to be raised in the orphanage, that he returned to himself and fought for her, determined that she would not be taken to such a place.

Despite that, for a while, it was almost more than he could do just to hold himself together and take care of Erynneth. This meant he also had to take a leave of absence from the rangers, so that he could take care of her. After a while, he remembered that Aggie had eventually married the dairy farmer's son, and they now were the owners. He went to them, and soon had made arrangements for Eryn to live with Aggie at the dairy farm, where he was confident she would be taken care of if anything ever happened to him. When he's off duty, Duinion helps them as well by keeping watch over the cows in the fields and ensuring their safety. After returning from his Leave of Absence, it took some time before Duinion returned to a new normal, and no longer can tolerate sleeping indoors, and becomes anxious in crowded places.

Time still went on, and he tried to get over the sorrow and try to focus on the happier things. One day he was delighted to find his old friend Addhor back in the forest, introducing his now-teenaged son around so he could begin training for rangerhood himself. Duinion took it upon himself to do what he could to also help teach young Unalmis what he could, after he had officially joined the rangers.

Eventually, the war came upon them. Duinion was adamant about Erynneth and Aggie going away for her own safety, and fought along with the other rangers to defend the country. He remained with Captain Faramir for as long as possible before they were forced to retreat into the city, preferring to fight the enemy rather than be holed up inside the city, despite it being emptier than usual. But as the others were bearing their wounded captain inside, Duinion left the group and went back out to the fighting. At some point he found himself fighting near the rangers of the North who had come up from the Anduin.

Thankfully, the war finally ended and then things began to change. With captain Faramir out of commission for a while, and no more enemies to fight, Duinion took the opportunity to visit the grave of his friend's mother, whom he'd learned had died not long before the war struck. In the disorganization following the war and the king's return, and being nowhere to be found, Duinion was presumed dead or MIA. Later, when he returned and assured everyone that he was, in fact, alive and well.. he received an invitation to join a new group of rangers. After giving it some thought, Duinion decided to accept despite a little apprehension. He has recently been given the title Tirdinen, which meant a great deal to him as he had previously never had any special titles or acknowledgements, and had been told on multiple occasions as a child that he'd never amount to anything.

Other info:
Duinion uses a longbow as his primary weapon, and makes his own arrows in his free time, a hobby he finds both practical and relaxing. His secondary weapons are two daggers, and he also always carries a knife. He's done a bit of training in most other kinds of weapons, but if he had to choose a third, it would likely be a staff type weapon.
He named his stillborn son Dúvenion, a name he and Idhrenel had already decided on for if it was a boy.


Name:
Erynneth Raedor
Age: 15 16

Appearance:
Eryn is about 5'7", and slim. She enjoys running and riding horses, and does plenty of farm work, so she's fairly well physically fit. She has long reddish hair, usually style with braids in some way while the rest is left loose. She has freckles as well, and hazel eyes, like her father's. Her fingertips have bowstring calluses, for she is already a skilled archer. She hardly ever wears shoes in summer, and when she is obliged to put on some kind of footwear, she prefers boots as if she plans on trekking through the woods. Even if she's only going into town.

Other:
An eager, hard-working and adventurous young girl, Erynneth loves her daddy very much and worries about him a lot. She tries to make him proud of her and does her best at her job, working at the dairy farm where she now lives, but she is anxious to actually have some sort of excitement for a change, and perhaps go on some sort of adventure. She is always eager to hear exciting tales about anything her daddy is willing to share with her, though she understands that sometimes he can't tell her about some things.

She grew up on a little homestead in the Pelennor, where her mother taught her basic things like reading and writing, math, etc, as her mother felt it too far to send her to the city for schooling. Whenever her father was home, Eryn was delighted to sit on his lap and hear his fantastic stories. When he was away on duty, she missed him but enjoyed time with her mother as well, helping her with various things.

At 9 years old, Erynneth watched worriedly as her mother became ill, suffering from terrible pain in her stomach area, though the woman insisted that she did not need a healer and forbade her daughter from leaving, as she felt the girl was too young to go wandering about by herself. But when her mother got so weak she could not get out of bed, Erynneth took it upon herself to go against her mother's orders and go in search of help. After finding a healer to come back with her, Erynneth waited anxiously for some news, which she got by listening at the door; her mother's pregnancy (Which Erynneth didn't even know about!) was not going well, and something happened that was causing her to go into labor much too early. Due to some complication, it seemed, from what the girl could understand of her eavesdropped conversation, could quite possibly claim the mother's life as well.

Hearing this news, Erynneth was frightened, and felt that it was necessary that her father should be home. Immediately. She knew he wasn't due back for some time, but he had to come home! Therefore, she made up her mind that she would have to go and bring him home. The horse that the healer had used to get there was still saddled, so the girl slipped off without letting anyone know she was leaving, and rode as fast as she could in the direction she had seen her father go when he'd left. Although she'd never been there, she followed the course she was pretty sure he'd gone, and looked for landmarks to match what she had gathered from all the many stories she'd heard from her dad.

It seemed easier than she expected to get through the North gate,(because she was actually at a broken part at another area entirely), and passed through what she believed to be the "haunted" ruins of Osgiliath(which was actually a stone quarry with several old buildings no longer in use), and into the vast Ithilien forest(though, it was really simply some woods by the quarry). It was dark by this time, and a thick fog had arisen, which of course made everything seem far more spooky and terrifying to the young girl, and she believed that she had found her way into Ithilien. Fearing there were enemies lurking behind every tree, Eryn clung to the horse as the fog swirled around them, hiding any sort of identifying features to show her the way, and she feared that she had been mistaken to try and find her father, and remembered the tales of how orcs and other scary monsters roamed the forest.

Though this journey was far more scary and intimidating than she had expected, and she was quite lost and unsure how to even find her way back home, Erynneth was relieved when she was discovered by a young ranger, currently being trained by Duinion in survival and tracking skills. He took her right to him, much to her relief. She was quite distraught as she gave him the news she had come so far to bring him, and he swiftly took her back home. So the family was all together when Idhrenel passed away.

After her mother died, her dad was completely devastated, and it took a few days for him to snap out of the daze of grief he had fallen into, which had worried Eryn very much. He had to take a somewhat lengthy leave, so he could take care of her, but he clearly longed to return to his work. Eryn was still very young but she knew he missed doing ranger things, and she told him he ought to go back to it, that she would be alright. After a while, he found accommodations for her at a nearby dairy farm, where Erynneth promised to work hard and earn her keep and perhaps some pay as well.

Despite her grief over losing her mother, Eryn's little excursion into what she thought was Ithilien had stirred an excitement at the idea of adventure. Over the next few years, she sometimes pretended that she was a ranger, and asked her daddy to teach her to shoot a bow. By the time she was 10, he had made her a small bow and some practice arrows, and begun teaching her the basics. Because, with the way things were looking, he felt it wouldn't be amiss for Eryn to have some means of defense, should it become necessary, and besides, she could learn to hunt small game, etc.

When the war came to the very doors of the city, Eryn was made to go away with the others who evacuated. Her father insisted, and they said goodbye.. in case they never saw each other again. Eryn was a little scared but also, in one way, a tiny bit excited to be going on an adventure of sorts, though she felt sure it would be dull and boring. She took her bow and arrows along, determined that she wanted to be able to help defend the others from any threats, or perhaps help with providing food or something. Being a little lonely, she took up with a friendly young ranger (Unalmis) who'd been assigned to guard and lead their group, who happened to know her father as well. As it turned out, the trip was definitely not boring, and Eryn found her desire for adventure being fulfilled after all, though it wasn't quite as 'glamorous' and 'fun' as her childish ideas had led her to believe. Yet, a new thought was born in her mind, that she would like to really become a ranger one day, like her father, and that the adventures she encountered along the trip had surely in some way begun to prepare her for that goal.

Eventually returning to the dairy farm, Eryn's life returned to normal, for the most part, but her resolve was now set toward enlisting with the rangers, and perhaps even work alongside her father someday. She was hesitant to speak to him of this plan at first, but eventually, after being permitted at last to come along with him on a trip he was making with a friend of his... in fact, the father of the young ranger she'd befriended during the evacuation, Eryn finally chose a moment when he was in a very good mood while laughing with his friend, and told him of her wish to become a ranger. As expected, he was not in favor of it, stating that it was far too dangerous and he would worry about her too much and would prefer she chose some safer career path.

Over time, Eryn kept on begging him to teach her things until he finally relented and agreed to allow it, if she would agree to wait a couple more years beyond when she might otherwise have enlisted. By 15, Erynneth began growing more and more restless, but would honor her agreement to wait until 18 to enlist. Although she is content enough with her job now at the dairy farm, she has been trying to find ways to learn various ranger-type skills so that she can get a head start on learning, despite her father's preference that she continue to wait. After befriending ranger Kaylin, Eryn was eagerly 'dragged' out on an adventure with her, but the two ran into some very bad luck and were nearly killed by a group of orcs. After surviving that, Eryn was very concerned by her friend's injuries, and after that point she decided that she wanted to learn healing skills, so that she would be better prepared in case anything like that happened again. Besides, it was a skill her father could hardly protest about her learning. So by the time she turned 16 Eryn had signed up at the houses of healing to do as much training in advance as she could.
Last edited by Rillewen on Thu Mar 14, 2024 10:42 am, edited 19 times in total.
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."

Steward of Gondor
Points: 5 582 
Posts: 2650
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2021 10:12 pm

Aderic and Ademar Androllius... or "Ansellidus"


Age (bracket): mid 20s

Physical appearance:
They are identical twin brothers, with wavy, medium brown hair usually kept short and neat. They both have sea-green eyes, only the slightest difference being that Ademar's eyes are about half a shade darker than Aderic's. Barely even noticeable to any but the most intently observant viewer... but even then it could be passed off as appearing different in the current lighting. They are usually clean-shaven, with some light facial hair left to grow on the upper lip. They both have an average, lean build and stand the exact same height; 6'1" tall.

It can be nearly impossible to tell them apart, because Mar is extremely good at impersonating his brother. Very, very few people are even aware that they are twins, rather than one single person, as they are rarely seen in the same place together, and Mar has gone to great lengths to ensure that no one in the area of Minas Tirith would realize this fact, and has gone as far as to discredit the very idea of them being twins, so that most people simply scoff at 'that old made-up tale' if Ric ever tries to tell anyone he has a twin brother.

Personality:
Ademar is cunning, manipulative and arrogant. He tends to think of himself and his wants as being far more important than anyone else's, and he takes what he wants, when he wants it, if he can. He doesn't like for anything to stand in his way, and he is also extremely vindictive and will hold a grudge for the most ridiculous thing that anyone else wouldn't even remember, yet he WILL have his vengeance.
Furthermore, he takes pleasure in watching others suffer, especially if it's someone he has some grudge against. He's extremely possessive and does not like to share anything with anyone; most of all his brother, or his wife. He has a tenacious way of pursuing and getting whatever he wants, using whatever means he must in order to achieve his goal, and it can be very dangerous to cross him, as he can be quite violent when angered.
Despite all this, on the surface, he keeps up a front when dealing with people he wants to impress, acting like a charming and well-mannered gentleman. He takes pride in his good looks and spends a little too much time in front of the mirror, and enjoys gaining the attention of various women, despite the fact he is married.


Aderic is, in a nutshell, lonely. He has always wished for friends, and all through his life, he has tried to be friendly to others, but this seemed to always be thrown back in his face. Growing up, he learned to simply accept that no one liked him, though he couldn't understand why, and accepting it didn't make him any happier. He tries to always be the most polite and respectful that he can be, whether it makes a difference or not. Though he sometimes feels stressed, or rejected, he still struggles to keep his feelings hidden and remain polite, friendly, and appear calm even when he isn't. He also carries feelings of guilt deep inside, which he can't speak about to anyone, for fear they will learn that he is secretly in love with his brother's wife, feelings that he could never act upon because it would be highly inappropriate, and he would never have an affair with a married woman, much less the wife of his own brother.
Ric is definitely not a violent person, and in fact tries his best to avoid violence, but at the same time, he is very loyal to his country and king, and his greatest desire since a young age was to serve his country in some way, which led to him becoming member of the Tower Watch. Aderic frequently doubts himself, and questions his own memory and knowledge quite a bit. He often feels inadequate, yet is proud to have been promoted to Lieutenant very quickly. Due to his lack of self-confidence, he tends to fuss a little longer than most over his looks and ensuring his uniform is perfect, his armor polished, etc. Which can make it appear that he's somewhat vain, but in reality, he has a poor self-image and worries about how he will appear while on duty.


Biography:

Born to a retired army sergeant, Ademar was born a few hours before Aderic. Neither their father nor their mother had much desire for children. After sustaining an injury that left him unable to continue with the Gondorian Army, Adonerius Androllius had decided he wanted to try his hand at farming; his wife, Vialitta, was not terribly supportive, as she would have preferred her husband took up a more profitable career post-retirement. The couple struggled to scrape by with the little they made with their farm, so the arrival of not one baby, but two at once, was quite unwelcome. Vialitta was not a very warm or loving mother, and hardly cared what the boys got up to. She usually couldn't be bothered to actually notice which of her sons she was speaking to, so in all honesty, they could easily have gotten mixed up as infants and neither parent would know the difference, for Adonerius spent more time out in the fields than at home helping care for the babies.. which he considered 'woman's work'.

The boys often heard their parents fighting and arguing, mostly over the farm and the fact that she wanted him to choose another career. When they finally got old enough for schooling, Vialitta wasn't about to try teaching them at home, but yet the couple couldn't afford the tuition to send both of them to school, nor could they afford to hire anyone to help with the farm. Yet, they were both agreed on the fact they wanted their sons to have proper education so that they would grow up and, perhaps someday, make a lot of money. (In the hope that their sons would then use that money on them, of course) So the couple reached a decision; they would send one of their sons to school for a week, and the following week, the other would go. Meanwhile, whichever remained home, would take on all the chores and help around the farm as needed. They flipped a coin to decide which of the boys would go to school first, and it fell upon Ric. Therefore, they enrolled Ric in school and told Mar that he would have to use his brother's name while he was in school. The parents weren't really sure how long this would last, but they figured it might work for a little while at least, and maybe they would have a more successful crop next year and could afford to send both the boys at the same time, then.

When Ric finally came home from his first day at school, he was very excited, telling about the other kids he’d met, and how he had made friends with them and how he couldn’t wait to go back to school and play with them during recess.
Jealousy burned in Mar like red-hot coals. He didn’t want Ric to have friends without him. He didn’t want to have to share his brother with anyone else, it wasn’t fair! The week went on, every day worse than the last. Ric told of all the exciting things he’d done, and told Mar all the things he had learned in school. Things which Mar was left out of. He hated it, and couldn’t wait to have his own turn at going to school. Just wait til he met those other kids, the ones who had tried to steal his brother away from him. He lay awake each night, thinking about various things he might do to put a stop to this, plotting out how he might prevent this from happening. He couldn’t stand the thought of anyone stealing his brother away. Ric was HIS brother, no one else’s! They needed each other, they were twins, and they couldn’t take that away.

At last, the day came when it was his turn to go. He set out that morning, still thinking about what he ought to do. When he arrived at the schoolhouse, though, an entirely different idea began to form the moment one of the boys ran up to him, happily greeting ‘Ric’. He realized that he could use their looking identical to his advantage, and went along. Hearing the boy ask about his brother, Mar realized that Ric had apparently told them that his twin brother would be coming to school soon, Mar thought quickly and “admitted” that he had made up that about having a twin, that he really was just an only child and that he’d become so bored that he made up having a twin, but now he had other kids to talk to so he didn’t need to keep up that charade. Having thus removed himself from the picture, Mar proceeded to impersonate Ric for the entire week.

He learned that this friendly, cheerful boy was named Ryn, and another named Nal. With them was a quiet, pale girl named Iole, and Ryn’s twin sister Cali. Mar was a bit intrigued to learn that there was another set of twins, but he had no desire to be friends with them. He only wanted to make them stop being friends with Ric, so he could have his own twin all to himself. No one else had better try and get between them, either! he raged inwardly. Mar very quickly made all the other children despise 'Ric' as he set about purposely doing and saying mean things, picking on everyone he could, and did everything possible to ensure that no one would still want to be friends with Ric. At home, he told Ric a twisted version of these happenings, making it out to be the other children who had been picking on him.

The following week, Ric returned, somewhat confused, then hurt and sad when none of the other children liked him, and seemed to prove Mar's words to be true. The boy tried very hard to be nice to the others, but they accused him of being mean to them and wouldn't hear anything he had to say. When he reported this to his brother each evening, Mar merely reminded him that it had been the same for him the prior week, and that clearly, these other children are not friendly... they're bullies, enemies, and that the two brothers needed to stick together, and not trust any outsiders. And so, it continued, week after week, Mar found ways to taunt, bully, and torment the other children, using Ric’s name.

This continued all through their childhood, and Mar always managed to convince Ric to believe him, and told him all sorts of terrible things about their classmates bullying him, and treating him badly, when in truth, Mar was the one to do the bullying, and the other children only retaliated back at him. Sadly, Ric was on the receiving end of their retaliation far more often than Mar was, because Mar quickly learned to manipulate things so that he would not be caught in their traps, so to speak. Ric, on the other hand, was oblivious to the need to be wary, other than merely watching out for angry mobs coming to yell at him for things he didn't do.

One day, Mar’s plan backfired on him. He should have expected it. He found himself surrounded by several kids who were very, very unhappy with “Ric” and pulled a humiliating prank on him, in order to prove to the unbelieving teacher that he really was bullying them. As he had a habit of forcibly taking other kid's lunch pails, they set him up... putting a 'spilled' ink well in one of the pails, and then let him take it. After he got in trouble for taking their lunch pails, unable to deny his crime due to the ink all over his hands... he found the seat of his pants had become stuck in glue, and he couldn’t even go to the front as the teacher had ordered, until the teacher became very upset with him for ‘disobeying’ and yanked him up… but the seat of his trousers ripped and showed everyone his underpants.

The whole ordeal was beyond humiliating... not only was he furious about having been caught and punished, but for them to do that to him was too much. He vowed in his mind that he would make those pranksters pay for this, and that one day he would get back at them in full. Before, his purpose in bullying them was merely to antagonize them into disliking Ric, so that he wouldn’t make friends without Mar… but now, he had a score to settle and he was determined that he would hate that group of kids for the rest of his life.


At home, the brothers were not very happy. Their father yelled at them often, belittling them for the least little mistake, and as the brothers got a little older, Mar began to work things to his favor in whatever way he could. If it was Ric's turn to go to school, but Mar wanted to go, he would remind his brother of how miserable it was, and bring up how the other kids were probably waiting to beat him up or something, and then offer to go in his stead. Ric, then, would usually agree and then be stuck having to do all the farm work in Mar's stead, and be yelled at by his father if he messed up.

Since even their parents could hardly tell them apart, Mar used that to his advantage more times than he could count. If Mar was supposed to do a chore, he would pretend that he was actually Ric, and then sit back and watch as they griped at Ric for not doing what Mar was supposed to do. Ric, meanwhile, was nearly desperate to earn his parent's approval, if not their love, so he would simply do as they asked without much complaint.

As the brothers grew older, their father became increasingly more frustrated by the fact that they so often whined about getting picked on at school, and so he decided that they were going to start learning to use swords. He set aside a bit of time every day and made them practice against each other. Mar took to it far more readily than Ric, and therefore he learned more swiftly. Ric found it frustrating that he was never quite as good as Mar, but still tried. This training continued as they moved into their teen years.

Ric began to feel a desire to serve his country in some way, though he wasn't sure exactly what he'd like to do. He spoke of it to Mar, and the brothers discussed it, and ultimately agreed that they ought to join the guards. Though, Mar pointed out the way all of their fellow classmates bullied them mercilessly, and suggested they ought to venture to another area to enlist, and so, together the brothers went to enlist as city guards in one of the cities further from Minas Tirith.

Their first day in training, they met a young man about their age, and kept talking to them and being friendly. Mar was quite caught off guard by Reilly, and before he quite knew what was happening, Ric had eagerly taken up with him and the two struck up a friendship. Ric was overjoyed to finally have made a friend, and he invited Reilly to join them at their meals and to go swimming during their free time. Mar was not happy, but he knew his brother, and knew that if he openly showed hostility toward this intruder(as he saw him) Ric would be upset with Mar, and he didn't want to turn him against himself. He therefore endured Reilly's seeming never-ending cheerfulness and optimism, and pretended to like him as well. Realistically, he was angry, feeling as if this outsider was trying to drive a wedge between himself and Ric.

Ric, meanwhile, was delighted. He'd always watched from afar as the kids who seemed to hate him and Mar would hang out together and have fun, and he was never welcome to join them. He and Reilly got along very well, and since Reilly wasn't familiar with using a longsword, Ric offered to teach him. Reilly, in exchange, offered to teach both brothers some fighting techniques he had learned from his father, who once traveled in far-off lands. Mar was at first skeptical about what this guy could possibly know that would be useful to him, but soon changed his mind when Reilly demonstrated how easily he could disarm an opponent through use of a simple motion.

Upon learning that Reilly came from a family of Nobility, Mar became intensely more intrigued. He had, of late, begun to think how much better life would be if he possessed great riches, or became Lord of an estate, or hold some title of Nobility. Trying to contrive some sort of a plan in which he might manage this, Mar began to ask Reilly many questions, and asked him to teach him some of the things a nobleman should know. Ric was a little baffled by Mar's sudden interest in nobility. Reilly seemed a little puzzled as well, but being willing to help a friend, he taught Mar as much as he could about how to act as a nobleman, and various other things that someone of status would learn from an early age.

At some point after completing training, Mar began speaking with various shady type people, trying to find out ways he might be able achieve his desires of being rich and powerful. He kept his brother from learning of this, and to all appearances, continued to do his duty and serve as a guard, but he made quite a few contacts with criminal types, bandits and pirates and the like. Soon after this, the three young men were relocated to serve in Minas Tirith. Ric had a bit of trepidation about returning there, but he felt sure that it would be alright now. They were grown now, and he and Mar would be there together, along with Reilly. But Mar, upon learning they would be serving together in that city, refused. He felt somehow inside that he still did not want anyone there to discover that he and Ric really were twins, and he knew there would be no keeping such a secret if they were serving together in the same city. He resigned from the guards, stating he no longer wanted that life, and refused to go to that city. He let Ric believe it was because he didn't want to encounter the 'bullies' from their childhood.

Ric and Reilly both tried to talk Mar out of his decision to quit, but he was determined, and the friends were disappointed that Mar would not be serving alongside them anymore. They went together to their new post, both wishing Mar had come along so that the trio would not be broken up, but they also didn't want him to be unhappy if he didn't want to be a city guard anymore.

Having already been feeling dissatisfied with the idea of being a guard, Mar didn't need much of a reason to quit anyway. Soon after this, he encountered a man covered in burns, who was asking around for the house of Raxelilta. Mar recognized the family name of his childhood nemesis, Unalmis, and sensed somehow that this man had a very different intention than that which he claimed. Therefore, he was all too happy to point the man in the right direction, and further got caught up in the matter by helping the man abduct Nal. Not knowing exactly what he was getting involved with, Mar still went along with the stranger to Umbar, where he watched an entire shipload of sailors being brutally murdered, sacrificed to Sauron. Mar was fascinated, rather than horrified, and wanted to learn more about this sort of thing.

Upon his return to Gondor, Mar had pledged his service to the Dark Lord, and was delighted to know that Nal was meant to become a sacrifice as well, once he was no longer useful to Pharak. On his way back onto Gondorian soil, in the Ithilien forest, Mar encountered another of his enemies, Ryn, one of Nal's best friends. Alone. Mar still hadn't forgotten his vow of vengeance against them, and when Ryn figured out that he and Ric were actually twins after all, Mar could not let him return to tell anyone of his secret, especially now that he had a new purpose in mind for this deception. He slew Ryn there, and fled before any other rangers discovered him. (Click here to read more)

Shortly after the war had concluded, Mar continued doing Pharak's bidding and got involved in a rather risky undertaking involving a crystal which is rumored to hold great power of darkness, supposedly crafted by Lord Sauron as a sort of 'copycat' of the silmarils. His job was to acquire this crystal and bring it to Pharak, so that the Sauronic worshippers might use it in a very important ritual, in the hope of possibly restoring their fallen diety to power. Mar spent quite a while searching for this important relic and found it at last, only to have it stolen out from under him moments later. He was furious, and caught a glimpse of the thief as she fled, but he was unable to capture her at that time.

Meanwhile, having acquired great wealth through service to his new deity, Mar continued working to achieve his previous goals of entering into the Nobility, and it seemed his best chances of this was to marry into it, so he began trying to arrange a marriage between himself and some young lady that would give him the desired status, but it proved more difficult than he hoped, until at last he had a bit of success; remembering that Reilly had a couple of sisters, and that his family was bordering on 'poor' he was able to strike up an arrangement with Reilly's father for his eldest daughter. The same day that he found and lost the crystal, he went to meet his future bride and her family, still frustrated by the recent theft.

As it turned out, the thief was the younger of the two sisters, who returned just after he arrived, all flustered as she prepared to tell her family what had happened. But Mar was too quick, and captured her and her entire family, but she no longer had the crystal on her, and no amount of torture to her or her family members would make her talk. Mar took great delight in torturing him, in an attempt to make his little sister talk. But even that didn't work. But despite killing Reilly and the parents in front of the girl, she still refused to say where she had hidden it. To make matters worse, she then escaped from him and he has been unable to find her since, which has been a major frustration for him. Considering how important this crystal was to him and his associates, Mar is desperate to get it back before Pharak finds out that he had it and then lost it so easily. He even sent carefully forged papers with orders for Reilly to tell him he had been reassigned elsewhere, so that he might capture him as well. He forced the older sister to marry him, in part so that he could keep her near, and try to use her to draw her sister out, hoping to recapture the girl.



Meanwhile, Ric missed having his brother around, but adapted fairly well. Aside from having to occasionally see the people who used to bully him growing up, Ric enjoyed having his friend around, and they got a place together so that they could share the rent. The two had plenty of good times together. He watched as his friend met a girl and fell in love, and was happy for them. The friends survived the war together, manning the walls and defending the city, clearing away rubble as the enemy began to wreak destruction, until it was all over. Then, they helped with the aftermath of the war, and gradually things returned to some state of normal. And then, one day, Reilly was packing his things quickly and said he'd received orders to go somewhere else. Ric was sad to see his friend go, and disappointed that he would be alone there in the city without any friends, again. But orders are orders, and he said a reluctant farewell to his friend and watched him leave.

Several weeks later, he got a visit from Reilly's fiance asking if he had heard from him. Ric regretfully told her he had not, and then became slightly worried to hear that she hadn't, either. She asked him to look into it, and he promised that he would the first chance he got. He kept his word, and on his next off-day, he went to try and find Reilly, and discovered that he never arrived at his destination. Ric made several attempts over the next few weeks, but could find nothing, and eventually, their superiors declared Reilly to be MIA, and the case was put on a back burner. There was nothing more Ric could do, and although he hated to do it, he had to drop the matter for the time being. Ric later received a letter from a jeweler in town, and learned that his friend and roommate had an unpaid bill, having commissioned a ring to be made for his beloved. Feeling sorrowful for his missing friend, as well for as the fiance that had gone in search for him, Ric ended up paying for the rest of the ring and put it on the nightstand in Reilly's room, in the hope that he might someday return, and give it to her.

Meanwhile, he was surprised to learn that Mar had gotten married, and now resided in a castle estate in the area of Dol Amroth, using the name "Ansellidus" instead of his own. When he inquired to the reason for this, Mar would only say that it had something to do with being called after the name of the estate on which he now lived, or some such thing. Though somewhat puzzled by this explanation, Ric let it go, and came to visit his brother and meet his new sister-in-law. He liked her immediately, though perhaps because he sensed a sort of sadness in her that he understood all too well. Missing both his brother and his friend, Ric began to visit Mar's estate occasionally, but more and more often, Mar was not home when he came. Alyssa acted as a gracious host, however, in his stead, and would invite him to walk with her in the garden or just sit and talk, always in open view of others. Ric came to like her better the more he got to know her, until one day a harsh realization struck him; he was in love with her.

Furthermore, he was beginning to learn things about his brother that he didn't want to believe. Yet, he felt sure that Alyssa would not lie about Mar hitting her. She told him of other crimes Mar committed, too, though Ric didn't want to believe that either. He has since then begun to question a great many things about his brother, and isn't quite sure how to handle the matter. Though he feels very reluctant, he's started to dig into some different matters, acting upon Alyssa's suggestions, and trying to find some sort of evidence to prove the truth of these claims, all the while feeling like he has somehow betrayed his brother. Though he initially felt that it would be best to simply stop coming to visit, he also couldn't simply abandon her. Aside from wanting to see her and talk with her, he also worried about her, fearing that his brother might be much more dangerous than he ever realized.

At some point Mar decided that he didn't like for his parents to live so near to Minas Tirith, for fear they might spill his secret, so he bought them a much better, bigger plot of land on the other side of the country, and helped them move to their new farm; thus fulfilling their dreams. This was a win-win for him, as it further cemented in their minds that Mar was their favorite between the two sons, though by this point, he didn't even really care what his parents thought of him. It did give him a bit of satisfaction though, knowing that he's their favorite. It also put them further away, so they were less likely to spill the beans to anyone about him and Ric being twins.

Currently, he is simultaneously obsessed with finding the thief who stole the crystal from him, and gaining status in the world of nobility, and using whatever means he can to climb the ladder of 'success'. He impersonates Ric frequently after realizing he can use Ric's position on the Tower Watch to his own advantage in some ways. To further utilize his brother's position, Mar decided he would rather have a higher rank which ought to allow him better access, etc. So, while pretending to be Ric one time, he paid someone off to give 'himself' a promotion to Lieutenant, so when Ric received the promotion he was quite stunned and felt very honored, yet wasn't sure he deserved the rank. But, as he knew nothing about his brother's involvement, he accepted that it must have been duly earned somehow, and took great pride in his new rank. Despite this, he still feels it his duty to try and find proof of his brother's crimes, and began keeping a journal in which he writes down any clues and circumstantial evidence he comes across, yet none of it has so far added up to anything solid that wouldn't be tossed out of court, should he try and bring the matter before a judge. So he keeps trying, feeling as if his efforts are in vain.
Last edited by Rillewen on Thu Mar 14, 2024 10:44 am, edited 5 times in total.
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."

Éowyn
Éowyn
Points: 4 120 
Posts: 2196
Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 3:34 pm
Image
Name:
Macardil

Age (bracket):

mid-thirties

Physical appearance:

- tall, about 6'4"
- lean-muscled
- black hair (that used to be cut above his shoulders, but after his imprisonment he had it clipped a bit shorter still)
- no facial hair, strong jaw line
- startling blue eyes

Personality:

- Respectful
- Honorable; always weighs his decisions against his moral code
- Well-spoken
- Loyal, devoted
- Calm, and serious
- Self-disciplined, orderly
- Perceptive, yet diplomatic about it
- Charismatic
- Sets high standards for himself, although he would never expect others to live up to them
- Caring, but reserved; very private about his feelings

Biography:

Macardil was born in Dol Amroth, the only child to two loving parents. While not from a noble house that tended to make a spectacle of itself, the title was there as well as the money. His father found a precocious balance between the expectations and demands of their heritage and the talents and wishes of his son.
One such example: The axe is a symbol of their family and so Macardil was meant to carry it as his primary weapon. When it became clear Macardil had his heart set on the bow, his father allowed and encouraged his son to persue this avenue, as long as the axe could be his secondary weapon.

When Macardil was eleven, his father died from what the doctors diagnosed as heart failure. His mother could not bear being reminded of her late husband everywhere she went and looked - so after a few months, she moved herself and Macardil to Minas Tirith, to a comfortable house in the Fourth Circle.

His mother continued to give Macardil the best education she could find. His mother raised Macardil to be thoughtful, kind and respectful of others, and never to think of himself as 'more' because they had money and title or because he was brought up a certain way.

Every year, Macardil and his mother journey back to Dol Amroth in the summer, to visit their relatives and keep ties with their heritage and the estate. Macardil always greatly looked forward to the trip as a child, and even though it always brought back mixed emotions for his mother, she made sure to hide any pain she felt for her son's sake.

In Minas Tirith, Macardil hardly ever spoke (and speaks) of his heritage or family line, wishing to be known for his actions rather than his family name.

When he came of age, he learned the intricacies of nobility also had a stifling side - which he is not particularly fond of. It was expected of him to return to Dol Amroth, manage the estate, become a Swan Knight and find a suitable wife. Instead, at age 20 he joined the Rangers of Ithilien and married Mellaurel of MInas Tirith, a school teacher without so much as a hint of noble descent. The estate he managed from afar: he chose a warden among his family members to handle the day-to-day affairs, keep him updated and to consult him on important matters or decisions that needed to be made.

After 7 years of rangering and marriage - which to date he remembers as the best 7 years of his life - Macardil's wife Mellaurel fell ill. The illness was untreatable. Upon a swifter return from Ithilien than would have been the case without this news reaching his ears, Macardil took some time off from the Rangers to take care of his wife. One year later, she regrettably passed away.

The rough months preceeding Mellaurel's death and the impossible days after her passing had demanded too much. Macardil fell prey to depression. Despite the efforts of his mother and friends, it took months for him to climb back out of his downward spiral. He threw himself onto his duty to Gondor and to the Rangers of Ithilien, proving himself over and over to his command in the years leading up to and during the War of the Ring.

About 7 years after his wife's passing, the King founded the Rangers of Gondor. Macardil was chosen by Commander Amathen to be his second in command.

<This point is where his RP started>

Descent <<Disclaimer: Macardil does not speak of his descent outside of Dol Amroth, unless recognized or confronted very directly>>:

Dol Amroth nobility: House Himhathol (which translates roughly into 'steadfast axe')
Colors: blue, off-white, grey
Symbols: the axe, a pearl and wings
Image
Last edited by Arnyn on Sat Dec 31, 2022 1:36 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Arnyn ~ Honor & Valor
Kaylin ~ Joy & Strength

New Soul
Points: 1 790 
Posts: 2058
Joined: Thu Sep 02, 2021 6:24 am
Image (if you like)
Name: Silinde Nagashan
Age: Born in TA2977
Physical appearance: Black-haired, lightbrown-eyed, fair-skinned.
Residence: Dol Amroth
Personality: Ehm…

Biography:

Silinde was born in TA2977 as the youngest of three older siblings. His mother died in childbirth, and left him in the hands of an unthankful aunt Maia. His oldest brother Angar was six years old, his second brother Dyando five years old and his sister Nilida two years old. At the time his father was at sea, both pirating and trading, what was most convenient. His parents had been poor. Believed was that Silinde would not survive, but he did in the end. Maia remained unmarried and though unhappy with the children of her deceased sister she did not abandon them. She was strict to all four of them, but by the age of five Silinde saw his older brothers being dragged to sea, and leaving the household. Only Nilida and he stayed behind, because she was a girl and he was way too young for sea. Their aunt sent them to school to read and write, and gave them daily lots of household chores. But after dinner was always time for a game between all three and Nilida and Silinde had never to retire real early to bed. Later as grownup Silinde would remember those evenings as the finest in his youth.

By the time he was nearly grownup and the absence of his father Silinde went toward the barracks in town, and asked to join up with the Swan Knights as trainee. He was accepted and trained over the next six years in weapons, on foot and on horseback. Dol Amroth was a feudal principality in the kingdom of Gondor, led and ruled by the Princes of Dol Amroth. As a knight Silinde embraced tasks and adventures in and around the city. He rode as a knight in the Great War in TA3019. After that he settled down in the city he was born, and remained there. Occasionally he leaves on an errand. But as peace has settled down, the days of war are over for the Swan Knights.
Last edited by Aikári Salmarinian on Wed Jun 01, 2022 11:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Just call me Aiks or Aikári. Notify is off.
Find me stuff in Gondolin.
And let us embark to Valinor!

Steward of Gondor
Points: 5 582 
Posts: 2650
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2021 10:12 pm

Name: Trevadir Thôrmaetha
Playby/facemodel: Bob Morley
Age (bracket): He will be RPd in a range somewhere between fifteen and early 20s, depending on the time frame of various RP stories. Present day stories, he age 20.

Physical appearance:
Trevadir has rather dark hair, which is styled differently depending on what point his life is at. In his childhood through teens, his hair was kept properly trimmed at his grandmother's insistence, groomed neatly, although often in his play-time, it would end up getting messed up. As he grew older, out from under his grandmother's rule, he mostly let it grow and become rather more 'unruly', though he usually cuts it once it starts to get in his eyes.
Speaking of his eyes, those are dark, chocolate brown, and many comment about how much his eyes look like his mother's.
From childhood through teens, his fair skin got sunburned frequently despite his grandmother's efforts to keep him covered, although he never really got very many freckles. After he left home, his sunburns began to turn more into tans as he spent far more time out in the sun without a worrying grandmother trying to keep him covered up. He doesn't get sunburned as easily now, although it has changed his appearance a little.

Personality:

Those who barely know Trevadir would say that he is almost always sulky and grumbling about this or that, often seems annoyed or even angry about something. His friends and family, those who know him best, know there is a lot more to him than that. In fact, if one gets to know him well enough, they may be surprised to find that he enjoys music and writing poetry, and of course it's fairly well known that he has a strong sense of adventure. He can be argumentative and highly stubborn, and as a child he often declared that it was unfair for him to have to do chores and especially complained about having to put up with his little brother.
He experiences emotional hurts far more deeply than he lets on, and tends to cover it with anger and irritability. As a way of protecting himself from any such emotional hurts, he tends to be guarded about who he gets close with, and there are only a few that he has let past that barrier. In spite of that, and possibly because of the friends he has grown close with, Trevadir can be quite impulsive at times, whether it's jumping to conclusions or making decisions he may later come to regret, but seeing as he enjoys adventures so much, he figures he wouldn't get much of an adventure out of life if he never bothered to take a few risks.. an idea he surely picked up from his two best friends. He is shy toward girls and isn't quite sure how to talk to them. His two friends Cali and Iole are exceptions, as they're more like sisters (although he did have a secret crush on each of them, at different points growing up)

Biography:

Trevadir was born and raised in Minas Tirith, along with his little brother Tobedir. The brothers were raised by their grandmother after Tobedir’s birth, which resulted in their mother’s death. Trevadir, then six years old, suffered a somewhat traumatizing moment when he sneaked a look in through a back window to see why his mother was screaming, and saw a lot of blood all over the place. Later, when the child was told that his mother was dead, and had given her last bit of strength to help ensure that the baby survived, he grew angry and said that he did not want a little brother, he wanted his mother. From that point on, no one could make him understand that it was not his brother's fault that their mother had died. Trevadir developed a strong sense of resentment toward his little brother.
Trevadir's father had no interest in children, he cared only for his wife. After the woman he loved was dead, Devedir left with intentions to never return.
(Some history, here)
Little Trevedir, not understanding this, felt as if this too were the baby's fault. Everything was his fault! If it weren’t for him, their mother would be alive. If it weren’t for him, their father would have stayed.. and so on. So, growing up, Trev always felt some lingering annoyance with the younger boy, especially once Tobedir got old enough to tag along after him and his friends.

Trev and a boy named Unalmis came to be very close friends from infancy, thanks to both their grandmothers being friends, next door neighbors, and often watching each other's grandbabies. When Nal began school almost a year before Trev, he met another friend named Ryndir who became friends with them both. And through them both, Trev also became friends with two girls named Iole, and Cali, who was Ryn's twin sister. The youngest of the group, (aside from Tobedir) Trevedir looked up to his two best friends and was willing to go along with whatever they both said. He didn't care what the activity was if his friends were involved; whatever Ryn or Nal had cooked up, it was bound to be fun. At some point, the friends decided to repeat an action that Nal's uncle reportedly did with his best friend; a "sacred ceremony" to make them Blood Brothers. Trev was quite happy to make his two best friends his brothers, instead of the one he got stuck with, and he was fine if the girls wanted to be involved and become sisters, too. He didn't mind them tagging along with their fun and games, although there were plenty of times that the boy simply wanted to get away from his brother, yet all too often, Toby ended up pushing his way in anyway, which further annoyed Trev.

Every summer, the two (actual) brothers would make a trip to Belfalas to stay with their paternal grandparents for a couple of weeks, and Trevadir usually looked forward to this. He enjoyed the beach and the ships and seeing new sights. It was a great adventure to him, but he was constantly plagued with the little nuisance that followed him around everywhere… and worse yet, his grandparents expected him to watch out for the kid! Still, Trevedir was eager to visit with his grandfather, and frequently asked many questions about his father, trying to learn what he could about his absent parent. He kept hoping that perhaps, if he could find his father, that he might join him wherever he was, and they could make up for time lost. He firmly believed that his father would be happy to see him again, so long as he didn’t bring Toby along, for the younger brother was surely the cause for their father’s abandonment.

Trevedir continued to entertain fantasies of reuniting with his father well up into his teens, and regularly got into fights with a certain boy at school who was constantly picking on him and his friends. Occasionally, Trev would even stick up for his little brother when he saw Ric tormenting the smaller boy, but he always made sure to let Toby know that "it wasn't because he cared about him or anything, he just couldn't let the enemy pick on a member of his family." As for himself, Trevedir, backed somewhat by his friends, used to frequently tease his little brother by making up all sorts of wild tales to frighten him, often to discourage him from hanging around when they didn't want him around. His favorite was to make up ridiculous things about Nal's one-legged, usually drunk or hungover, father, which left Tobedir quite terrified of the man. It was almost a game for the boys to come up with stories to tell the boy, which usually made him run off and hide, thus, giving the older brother a break from him.

From a young age, Trevedir had a love for anything musical. He would bang on his grandmother’s pots and pans when he was little, until she eventually had to take all the pots and pans and lock them into a chest so he couldn't get to them, and scolded him for his destructive attempts at making music. Next the dinnerware was endangered, and a great many spoons ended up dented or bent from his musical attempts. Still, this didn't dampen his spirits, and eventually, Trevedir managed to find other instruments that weren't so destructive to his grandmother's belongings. He got a few simple toy instruments from Ryn's family forge. Once he had spent a few years in school, he found that he enjoyed writing songs and making up his own music, and invented several songs as he grew up, sometimes for the amusement of his friends, other times to get his thoughts and feelings out in his own way. His maternal grandfather, who died before he was born, had a stringed instrument that Trev was very interested in, but it was badly out of tune and he never could figure out how it should sound, so he never got to learn how to play it properly.

As Trev and his friends grew older, they each began to have certain new responsibilities, and Trevedir became aware that his grandmother was actually aging right along with him and his brother. He'd always thought of her simply as being old because she was grandma, but as he changed from child to teen, he realized that she might not always be there for them. He searched for a job that would allow him to still attend school, so that he might assist her a bit. However, after failing to find any sort of 'after school jobs', and being denied permission to join his friend Unalmis with fruit picking.. and since Ryndir's father already had an apprentice(Ryn), Trevadir began to despair of finding anything he could do. Until he remembered how he and his friends would sneak into taverns at times to hear Nal's father relating tales, and how eagerly the patrons of the place would listen to any sort of entertainment. He came up with an idea, and without telling his grandmother what he was doing, he began to play and sing at a few local establishments, and many folks were pleased to donate a few coins and listen to the young boy's talent with a homemade flute, crafted from a hollow reed.

For a while, life seemed good. Except when Ryn decided to go off and become a ranger, and left Trev and Nal behind. He felt left out, and then, worse still, Nal took off on some unplanned adventure, also leaving Trev behind! He was feeling quite hurt and left out until some terrible news arrived. Ryn had been killed in battle. Trevadir was stunned and devastated, and felt at a complete loss. He had looked up to the older boy for so long, the world felt empty without him, and it sort of shook him to have someone so close to his age, and a close friend at that, die. He wrote a song in honor of Ryn, which he sang at his friend’s funeral, but still felt frustrated that Nal had not yet returned, that the whole group wasn't there. And then, as it turned out, Nal was nearly killed during his adventure too! That shook him even more, and he wasn't sure how to deal with it. While his closest and oldest friend was recovering in the houses of healing, Trev kept himself closed up in the treehouse the friends had built, writing songs and being angry at the world for a while, fearing that he would lose his other friend, and afraid to hear the dreaded news that Nal might also die. Until, at last, he was told that Nal was definitely going to be alright and wasn't going to die. Nal was already out of the houses of healing by the time Trev came to see him, feeling a bit guilty for not having come sooner, but that was forgotten as the friends shared in their grief of the loss of Ryn.

Before, Trevadir had been somewhat on the fence about joining the rangers with his two friends… it would have been fun to be a ranger with his two best friends, and they could have all been together. But after Ryn’s death, he decided he didn't want that life, and couldn't understand why Nal still did. Still, Trev wanted to have some adventure, and to be free from his overprotective grandmother. On his 15th summer, while leaving for the planned trip to Dol Amroth to visit his paternal grandparents, Trev made some secret plans with Nal to embark upon some wild, spur of the moment adventure, instead. He left his little brother asleep on a wagon heading across the Pelennor with plans to meet up with Nal so they could set off. Nal was intercepted by Cali before he could arrive at the designated spot, and pushed them to take along some weapons and armor, at least. One crucial item she gave to Trevadir was a flute with a sword blade concealed within, something Ryn had been making to give him for his next birthday. This is now his most treasured possession and it rarely, if ever, leaves his person.

(Some details about this story have been established in PMs, but may be RPd someday)

At some point on this adventure, Trevadir found himself faced with a very tough choice. He encountered his father while waiting to meet Nal and their other friend who had joined their adventure. Devedir was surprised to be confronted with his son, but invited the teenagers to join his crew. Trev, having longed for a reunion with his father for 9 years by now, had high hopes of the two becoming close and sharing a father/son bond that he had desperately wanted for so long. He tried to convince his friend to join him, but Nal was unwilling to go onto a ship after his recent misadventure involving pirates at an earlier time, so Trev was a little torn between his life-long best friend, or his father. He ultimately chose to go with his father.

Life on a pirate ship was not at all the way Trev had expected, and neither was his father. He was severely disappointed to find that Devedir was cold and impartial to him, and seemed not to care for him at all. Trev found himself frequently bossed around, and was rather hurt to find that his father didn’t even want anyone to know that he was Trev’s father.. instead, insisting that he simply call him Captain. Not only that, but he quickly realized that they were involved in highly questionable, and often criminal, even treasonous, activities. Trevadir regretted his choice within a few weeks, but by then it was too late; they were out at sea and there was nowhere to go. What’s worse, the others informed him that he could never go back now. He was one of them, and according to them, he would be arrested on sight if he tried to return to the White City. Trev found this to be the worst news of all. He couldn’t return to his grandmother and beg her forgiveness for how he had acted. He may never see his little brother again, whom he realized he didn’t hate quite so much as he used to think he did. And he may never see his friends again. He worried about his grandmother most; wondering if she was alright, and wondering how her health was, and so on.

As time passed, Trev found moments of solitude whenever he could, and would still write music and practice playing his flute. His grandmother had raised him to be law-abiding and with strong morals, and so it was difficult for him to see the sort of things his father and the other crew did. At some point, while meeting another pirate ship for reasons of shared interest, Trevadir was rather stunned to see the Umbarian captain with a sword that he recognized from drawings and descriptions from Nal; his family heirloom which had been taken away by Nal’s uncle many years ago! It was here, and in the hands of this pirate. He wasn’t sure what happened to his friend’s uncle, but he had a good idea of how important that sword was to Nal’s family, and determined that he would do what he could to get it back. It wasn’t terribly hard to steal it once he had distracted the man, but then he had to figure out how to hide it and not be caught, once the pirate realized it was missing. Fearing his father might discover what he had done, and that his father would severely punish him for stealing from an allied captain, he hid the sword as well as he could, and waited for an opportunity when they were near to Minas Tirith, or at least Dol Amroth, and he could perhaps try to get away with it and get back home.
(some details may change as the story is eventually RPd)

After some time had passed, Trevadir overheard some frightening news; that a fleet of Umbarian pirate ships were gathering, and preparing to launch and assault on Gondor, to join in the war efforts against his homeland. Trevadir couldn’t sit by and let that happen, if he could at all help it, and so he was on his way to try and get back to warn his countrymen of this threat, when things took an unexpected turn. An army of ghosts came out of nowhere, and overtook the ships. Trevadir never was quite sure how he managed to escape death that day, but through events that will be RPd, he lost the sword and ended up back with his father after the War of the Ring. Though Trevadir wanted more than ever to return home, it was out of the question. Still, he tried to maintain what he could of his own integrity and morals. He followed orders and tried to remain on sociable terms with his crewmates, yet tried very hard to avoid instances where he had to do something he’d feel remorse for. Trying to mimic the seeming boundless optimism he's learned from his close friend Nal, Trev struggled to cling to hope that he might one day return to the city, and perhaps he might have a chance to repair his mistakes and start over.

At some point, that chance came when he encountered Cali and Iole, who had been kidnapped by someone in league with the Umbarians, and Nal and another friend who had come to rescue them. Trev couldn't leave his friends to such a terrible fate, and so risked everything to save them. (To be RPd as well) Unfortunately, some words were spoken which resulted in a terrible argument between Trev and Nal, and although the rescue proved successful, their reunion was not so joyous as Trev had hoped. Still, he was determined not to return to his father's crew, so while his friends returned to Minas Tirith, he remained in Harlond, where he was able to earn a living by singing and playing his flute at a tavern there, all the while longing to come home after all the years away.

Until his old crewmates realized where he was, and began to cause trouble for him. Trevadir was soon fired from his job, after a fight he tried very hard to avoid, but in the process he made a friend of a former ranger, Macardil, who had drawn his own share of trouble in the same fight. After fighting side by side, the two set off to find someplace to tend to their wounds, and ended up swapping tales of their problems. This resulted, surprisingly, in many of the lies Trevadir had been led to believe being called into question; twisted rumors he had heard told about the new king, along with many other things, and before long he was in doubt about a great many things, including whether he would really be arrested. With a promise from Macardil to check into it, Trev remained waiting with renewed hope that he might actually be able to return home at long last... after five years being away.


Trev and Nal
Last edited by Rillewen on Thu Mar 14, 2024 11:00 am, edited 11 times in total.
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."

Steward of Gondor
Points: 5 582 
Posts: 2650
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2021 10:12 pm
Name: Tobedir Thôrmaetha
Playby/face claim: Samuel Faraci
Age: 14

Physical appearance: Tobedir has dark brown hair. There is not much wave to the locks, since he mostly keeps it neatly trimmed, according to his grandmother's wishes. His eyes are dark brown, and it is commonly said that he looks just like his mother did. He has mostly fair skin, with a few faint freckles scattered across the cheekbone area, but those are hard to see from a distance. He smiles a lot, and so typically is described as having a very friendly face. He's a bit small for his age, but he also isn't finished growing yet, and hopes he's going to get a lot taller before he's done.

Personality:
Tobedir (aka Toby, or Tobe) is a generally cheerful young man with a positive outlook on things. He has always looked up to his older brother, and usually never let Trevedir's annoyed attitude get to him when he was younger. He tries to always be helpful and kind, often offering to help if he sees someone in need of help, and trying to pitch in and do what he can to assist his grandmother, teachers, or other elders. He is respectful and polite for the most part, although with certain people, he gets very nervous and shy, and has often been teased about being 'chicken'. Being a rather docile kind of person, he tends to get pushed around by bullies on a regular basis, and since he prefers to avoid conflict, this leads to him being perceived as cowardly by his peers. It doesn't help that he usually backs down from confrontations, so not to get picked on any worse. Yet, he will stand up for something if it's important enough, though in such an instance, he usually tries to use his brain to overcome the problem, rather than fight.

Toby was frequently the 'tattletale' of his brother's mischievous ways, but it was always done with the best of intentions. For example, Trevedir was going to do something that might get him hurt, so Toby was afraid for him and told someone so they could stop it. Since this always made his brother more annoyed at him, however, Toby eventually learned to try not to tattle if there was any way he could keep from it.

Biography:
Since his mother died when he was born, Tobedir never had the chance to know her. Nor did he ever meet his father, who has actually never even laid eyes on him, since the man left after learning that his beloved wife had died in labor. Toby grew up raised by his maternal grandmother, and with only an older brother for company; along with Trevedir's friends. Hearing many horrifying (some totally untrue) stories about some of the people in town, Toby became somewhat terrified of certain people, including but not limited to Addhor, Ms Irma, and others. The only friends Toby has live in or near Dol Amroth, much to his regret, and he only sees them during the summer visits to his grandfather, who lives on the Azrubel's Lond Col estate.

Since Trevadir didn't like to have Toby tagging along with him all the time, Toby often ended up either spending more time with his grandmother, or with Cali and Iole, who were slightly older than Trev. Because he spent so much time with Grandma, Toby was very attached to her, as many children might become attached to their mommy. Even from a young age, he helped her cook and sew, although his brother and others in school teased him for learning 'girl stuff'. Later, this skill came in handy, at times when Trev might come in with his clothes torn and begging Toby to fix it so Grandma wouldn't scold him. (although their grandma eventually did insist on Trev learning how to do this himself)

At school, Toby found very few children his own age to play with, and one of the older boys ("Ric") would occasionally torment him, although he always backed off when Trevedir and his friends stepped in. Though Trevedir told him it wasn't because he liked Toby or anything, Toby was sure that Trev really didn't mean that. He was happy to know that his brother would defend him, even if he picked on Toby a lot, himself. Though he didn't care for it, he tried to convince himself that it was simply Trev's way of showing affection for his little brother. Toby looked up to him a great deal, and wanted to be just like him, yet his grandmother kept telling him that he should be himself, instead.

Then, many things changed, and it seemed to happen one after another. One of Trev's friends died, the other was missing somewhere, and nearly died. The girls that had been friends with Trev, and nice to Toby, seemed to have other things to do. Toby was still quite young, and felt very lonely. Trevedir was very upset and even Toby could see that he was hurting and frightened, yet he wouldn't let Toby near him. He wouldn't come down from the treehouse, and Toby didn't know what to do. It was a rather confusing time because it was actually the first time in his life that he'd truly given much thought to death. Although he knew his mother had died, it didn't have such a significant impact on him since it had happened before he could remember.

At last, things slowly settled into a new normal, but the next summer when the brothers were on their way to visit their paternal grandparents, as they did every year, Toby awakened after a lengthy nap on the wagon, to find himself surrounded by strangers on the ferry, and his brother nowhere in sight! He was frightened, suffering a momentary panic that something terrible had happened to take his brother away from him, until he discovered a note left by Trev, stating that he had started feeling sick and returned home, but wanted Toby to continue onward and have a good time.

He did just that, enjoying a pleasant visit with his grandparents and playing with his friend Iuldir, who lived near there, and passed the summer vacation enjoying himself. It was the first time he'd ever been there without Trev, and he missed his brother but also found a new sense of freedom in not having his brother around. As if he wasn't just 'Trevedir's little brother' for a while, and just simply himself.

He returned home, excited to tell Trevedir all about the exciting vacation he'd had, but when he arrived he was confused to find that Trevedir never made it home, and Grandma had no idea that he had been supposed to come home. This left both of them very concerned, and soon had organized a search party to scour the Pelennor, fearing something may have happened to the boy. But soon, the mystery was cleared up as Cali heard about their concern, and confessed to being aware of the boys' plans to sneak off on an adventure. Eventually, Nal returned, but not Trev, and Toby was very anxious about his brother's safety until he learned that his older brother had chosen to join the crew of a ship. The specific details were left out, yet Toby knew that their father had been a sailor of some sort, and had his own guessed about where Trev was. Later it was confirmed; that Trev had found their father and went with him.

This left Toby a bit stunned, and a little hurt. That Trev would have had such little regard for him and their grandmother, that he would take off like that, leaving them worried sick, and then... to join up with their father! Toby had asked plenty of questions about their father, years ago when he was younger, and having learned that the man had simply abandoned them... he'd had no interest in meeting him, much less joining him with whatever he was doing. He couldn't understand why Trev would want to. And why did he not at least tell them goodbye? Toby was confused and felt more lonely than ever, and drew closer to his grandmother, who also seemed hurt by the news.

Then the war uprooted everyone for a while, and Toby stuck very close to his grandmother, worried about her, determined to protect her. He didn't know much about weapons but he got a dagger and carried it with him as he helped escort his grandmother and a few others to someplace safer than the city, and he didn't care if anyone thought him a chicken for going with the evacuees, although some other boys about his age had stayed behind in the city. They returned to their home in the city after the war was over, and life settled into yet another new normal, and a few years passed. Toby tried to remain his cheerful self, but it became harder with new bullies at school, along with the challenge of facing them all alone with no one to turn to but his grandmother, whom he didn't want to worry by telling he about this problem.

Although his grandmother insists that he must finish his schooling, Toby desired to be more helpful to his aging grandmother, so he began to look for a job of some sort that he can do after school, so she won't have to do as much to provide income for them. In fact, she's getting quite old now, and he fears she might someday leave him.. and then he would be all alone. More than anything, he wishes his brother would come home, but the more time goes by, the less likely it seems that it will happen, yet he still tries not to lose hope completely. He has recently taken an apprenticeship with Addhor, of all people, and is beginning to realize his brother's tales were rather twisted from the truth.
Last edited by Rillewen on Thu Mar 14, 2024 11:14 am, edited 10 times in total.
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."

Steward of Gondor
Points: 5 582 
Posts: 2650
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2021 10:12 pm
Name: Trastion Leithor
His true name is Anurion Taurhebor
Age: 19

Physical appearance: 6'2½" tall, medium brown hair with natural sun streaks, kept short. Before he left home, it was longer, down to his shoulders or longer (the way his mother preferred it) though he never liked it that way.
Blue eyes and average build. His arms and shoulders have reasonably developed muscles from his athletic lifestyle. He has a few random, minor scars from various activities from his youth.

Personality: Fun-loving and a bit mischievous, Trastion has a knack for finding himself in trouble even when he tries his best to avoid it. He tends to seem a bit accident prone sometimes. He's generally quick to laugh, even at his own mistakes, and tends to have a strong sarcastic side to him, yet he is well-mannered and respectful to his elders, unless he doesn't consider them to deserve it. He has learned in recent years to be cautious, however, and to take time to think things through a little more carefully. Due to recent circumstances, he's a bit anxious and fearful about people learning his secrets, and gets uncomfortable about having to make up explanations for this or that, because he doesn't like lying.

Family members:
Father: Lord Authion Taurhebor(deceased)
Mother: Lady Duvaineth Talven(previously Taurhebor)
Stepfather: "Lord" Torthon Talven
Brother: Aearonor Taurhebor(deceased)
Stepbrother: Toggornir Talven
Half-sister: Dúlinnith Talven

Biography:
(Spoilers ahead)
Born the second in line to inherit the Taurhebor family estate, (Called Túrion Dornea) a huge source of lumber in the Belfalast area, Anurion never really cared much about being Nobility, and frequently plotted with his brother about what he might like to become when he was grown. Having heard of the rangers of Ithilien, and growing up with forests all around, he and his brother Aearonor often pretended they were rangers, and dreamed about how exciting that would be, though Aearon knew his duties would never allow him to follow such a path, and their mother had other plans for her younger son, which did not include rangers, or anything he considered fun. Aearonor often spoke of just running away from all of the heavy responsibilities that had been thrust upon him, and promised to take his little brother along if ever he did that, and they dreamed of living exciting lives full of adventure, free of dull parties and obligations.

His father had died before Anurion was born, leaving a pregnant widow, and a two-year-old son. She remarried soon after, perhaps because she didn’t want to raise two boys alone, so the boys had a stepfather from a very young age. Their stepfather had a son already by a previous marriage, who was between the ages of the other two. The three boys grew up together, but it was clear that their stepfather favored his own son. Toggornir, being spoiled and pampered by his father, often thought himself better than his step-brothers, though he was jealous of their closeness. Eventually, a younger sister came along as well, though her father showed far less interest in her than in his son.

All three boys learned their lessons, practiced fighting, and all the typical things a Nobleman is expected to learn, but the Taurhebor brothers often found it difficult to focus on their lessons when there was the whole world outdoors just waiting to be explored. Aearon still managed to satisfy their teacher, and tried to set a good example for his younger brother, who counted himself blessed that he wasn’t the eldest. Their mother clearly favored her eldest son, and tended to measure the younger against his brother, making it seem impossible to ever live up to her expectations. However, Togg often expressed jealousy in that he would never inherit anything, saying it didn't seem fair. Why it wasn't fair, neither of the brothers could quite understand, but shrugged it off as being due to his ways of acting as if he were better than them.

The brothers frequently got into boyish adventures, roaming the forest, climbing trees, exploring caves, etc. Togg, rarely joined them, and when he did, he usually ruined their fun. Later, when she was old enough, their sister sometimes ventured out with them, but she was much younger and could not keep up as well.

When the the forces of Mordor issued forth toward the White City, there were other enemies also threatening the forests of their estate. It took all the forces they had available to protect the valuable lumber which they knew would become extremely necessary for the entire country, once the war had ended. While his stepfather was obliged to take the majority of the men-at-arms of the estate, and march with Prince Imrahel to come to the aid of Minas Tirith, those who had remained at Túrion Dornea worked hard to safeguard their land from invading orcs and corsairs, who put forth their best efforts in setting fire or otherwise ravaging the forests. Aearonor took the few men left behind and went to defend the most vulnerable section of the land, where they most expected the enemy to attack, and they spent many days fighting fires in the pine groves, where there was a side-industry of pine tar and pitch.

At the time, Anurion had sprained his right wrist and had sore ribs after having taken a bad fall while climbing a tree some days before. His mother argued that he was too young and inexperienced to help with the fighting, not to mention injured, and that he ought to stay and defend the home in case any orcs got past the others, but her husband insisted that his son, Togg would be better suited to protect the women, children, and elderly, because he didn't have any injuries, and that Anurion could stay with Togg and help him, if she was worried about her 'little boy'.

Ignoring their dispute, the young man was unwilling to stay home and do nothing, like his stepbrother. Taking his sword in his left hand, and a few men, the second-born son of Lord Taurhebor set off on his own to defend areas of the land which had been neglected by the others, mostly due to not having enough men to spare. Using what little resources were left to him by this point, the teenager gathered many loggers and lumberjacks and foresters along the way(whom his stepfather had overlooked), which swelled his ranks significantly. Though these were not trained swordsmen, they could wield axes and hew down their enemies with them. With all of these men, guided by their young leader who remembered well enough what he'd learned in his lessons about strategy and staging battles and such, the group was successful in driving back the invading foes. After defeating their enemies, the group had to put out a few fires, both in the forest and in a few logging settlements, before coming to the aid of others.

Once the war had passed and everything was settling down, it should have been a time for celebration, with the King returned and peace spreading throughout the land. Instead, the family ended up grieving. The brothers had planned to make a circuit trip of their landholdings, to inspect the damage and see what repairs were needed, and other important errands. Torthon set off to the West, while Aearonor and Anurion planned to go the opposite, and they planned to meet at the river, the midpoint, before returning home. Anurion was eager to be included for once, and could hardly wait. The morning they planned to set out, as they were gathering their supplies, Anurion and Togg got into a fight; not uncommon for them, but this one ended with Anurion being rushed to the healer. He was unable to accompany his brother on the trip, and was very disappointed. As it turned out, that saved his life, but it was the last time he would ever see his brother alive. For, at some point during his travels, Aearonor was killed in a tragic accident that, had Anurion been with him, would have also claimed his life.

The surviving brother couldn't believe such a tragedy could have happened, and it was a great shock to them all, that Aearon had survived the war only to die in some accident. Still, he pushed through his grief as best he could, and tried to comfort his half-sister. They grew even closer. She was, in fact, the only one left that he could get along with, for he didn’t get along so well with his mother, and they often butted heads. Duvaineth was a headstrong, pushy, controlling woman who liked to have her way in everything, and wanted to make all the decisions herself, including who her children would marry and what they would do with their lives, even down to the smallest decisions like what colors they should wear and what length the boys' hair would be cut, and so on.

For a while, after Aearon’s death, Lady Talven became ill and it was commonly believed her condition was due to grief over losing her oldest son. Despite this, she still remained as forceful and strong-willed, though she tired more easily. Though he didn’t always get along with his mother, Anurion was pleased when she finally began to show signs of improvement from her illness. Then one day, she came to her surviving son, reminding him that he was now set to inherit the entire estate, and told him that she had made arrangements for him to marry a promising young lady. The same young lady, in fact, that had been promised to his brother. Anurion was shocked and very upset, and they argued about it a great deal. He wanted to make his own decisions, and didn’t want to get stuck with some girl he didn’t know, who he might not even like, and not to mention the awkwardness over the fact that she had been meant for Aearon, not him. He wanted to marry someone he chose, and only when he felt ready for marriage, though his mother insisted she knew better than he did what was best for him.


One day, while going to the kitchens to get something to eat, he chanced to overhear a conversation that would change his life forever. His stepfather was speaking to Togg about plans to get rid of him so that Togg could inherit everything! He was stunned, further, to hear the man mention having had part in Aearon’s "accidental" death, and finally the pieces fit together, and the young man realized that he was in serious danger here, and he could find himself the victim of a similar "accident" at any time. Forgetting about the snack, he returned to his room and packed his things as fast as he could.

On his way out, he stopped and said goodbye to Dulinnith, without telling her his reasons for leaving; only that he was going off on a trip, an adventure, and that he would be gone for a long, long time, and didn’t know when he would come back. He asked her to keep it a secret, and then left just as he would if he were simply going off on one of his usual adventures. So, with his life in danger, he fled from the only home he’d ever known, and traveled as far as he could.

Fearing his stepfather might come looking for him, he took a false name; Trastion, a personal joke because he had always been told since he was little that he was ‘nothing but trouble’. Trastion found it strange trying to fit in as a commoner, after living his whole life as a rich nobleman’s son, but he tried hard to make the adjustment. He still has a little difficulty, however.

After leaving home, Trastion worked for a little while digging ditches and doing other mundane tasks, then he tried being a gardener, but messed up too frequently, and had to find another job. For a very short time he worked as a kitchen scullion but abandoned that job after a few hours. Next, he worked as a logger, and he liked that well enough because it reminded him of home, and he felt most comfortable in the forest. He kept that job for several months. But then, a new man began working with them, and Trastion recognized him as having previously worked at his family’s estate. Fearing he would be recognized by the man, he left there quickly. After that, he spent a brief time as an apothecary’s assistant, since he was fairly familiar with many kinds of plants and how to find them, but he wasn’t very interested in that as a long-term job, and began seeking another.

Eventually, Trastion got a job working in a stone quarry, which he stuck with for nearly a year. It was hard work, but he got a lot of practice at rock climbing and enjoyed it. Still, Trastion felt restless, and longed to do something more exciting, something purposeful, in life. When someone came around asking questions... about him... He realized the man had been sent by his family, and left quickly, fearing what the man's purpose was in seeking him. That was when he made his way to Minas Tirith, deciding at last that there was nothing anymore to stop him from following his childhood dream of becoming a ranger, and hopes to find a place where he belongs, at last, and where he will be safe from plots of murder. He can't help feeling nervous and wary as he tries to protect his secret identity, fearing to trust anyone with his big secret. At this point, his story begins in RP.

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The Taurhebor family colors are forest green and light brown.
The family traditionally values loyalty very highly in a person, above many other qualities.


The coat of arms is a shield of green, with a brown/tenne chevron. An oak tree stands in the middle, with two crossed axes over the trunk, and a bear stands at the roots of the oak tree.

* Green: loyalty, hope, and joy. Other meanings include prosperity or abundance of riches.
* Brown, closest I can find is ‘Tawny’, meaning ambition.
* Pile(downward-pointing triangle)Represents large pieces of wood used in building bridges; engineering skills, builder
* Axe: The symbol of military service and duty. The battle axe is often used to show that a person is in a position of power within the military. It denotes authority and is often associated with the crusades era of persecution and battles in the name of religion.
* Oak tree, leaves or bush: an emblem of great age, virtue and strength, continuous growth and fertility.
* Bear: Strength, cunning, ferocity in the protection of one’s kindred



Name: Dulinneth Talven
Age: 12

Physical appearance:
She is tall and slender, so far at the height of 5'4", though she is still growing (at least she insists she is). She has long, wavy brown hair, dark grey eyes, and many freckles splashed across her face. Clearly, this is a girl who cares nothing for shielding her complexion from the sun, as other daughters of nobility tend to do.

Personality:
Dulinneth is usually a cheerful girl, but grows weary at times of her father and brother Toggornir treating her as if she's nothing, and her mother trying to control her every action. She enjoys doing many things however; painting, singing, sewing, and riding horses. Her favorite sewing projects involve making tiny, hand stitched animals and dolls out of fabric scraps. She enjoys the outdoors and often takes long rides on the horse left in her care by her brother Anurion. Often, she will bring paint and canvas, and other such things, and spend the day outside, painting a picture of whatever scene she finds most beautiful. Anything to keep her outside enjoying the fresh air and sunlight for as long as possible. She also loves animals and occasionally ends up with 'pets' which aren't the usual housepets.. a squirrel or raccoon, for instance.

Despite the fact that she behaves herself the way her father and mother expect her to be.. acting like an obedient puppet.. the girl has found a few ways to work around their stiff, rigid rules and expectations, and has hopes of someday becoming more than what social norms say a girl can be. Having been encouraged by her two brothers on the Taurhebor side, and inspired somewhat by the lady knight of one of their neighboring estates, (which those same brothers used to admire) Dulinneth has decided that girls can certainly do plenty of things which the rest of her family deem for 'boys only'. Getting started is hard though, when her father, especially, is so opposed to such ideas.


Background:
Dulinneth was very fond of two out of three older (half)brothers; Aearonor and Anurion often played with her, and occasionally took her along with them and let her play outside, sometimes she even got to play in the shallow parts of the river, while her brothers watched to make sure she didn't venture too far into the deep parts. As she grew up, the girl listened eagerly to any tales they told, whether true or made up. She especially liked to hear about elves and heroes having exciting adventures in far-off lands.

As she got older, things began to get scarier. She heard of frightening enemies attacking their land, dark powers trying to take over, and then her father and brothers had to ride away to fight in a war. Dulinneth feared she might never see them again, but to her relief, they all came back mostly unharmed. Soon after, though, they lost Aearonor. Dulinneth was terribly grieved, but found comfort from her remaining brother, Anurion, who came often to find her and consoled her as well as he could, distracted her with stories, games, and took her out riding and for nice long walks in the forest. Dulinneth was old enough to ride by herself by then, but she had no horse of her own. As time wore on, Anurion became her best friend. She loved her brother dearly.. that one anyway. Toggornir hardly spoke to her even when they were in the same room, so it was difficult to become fond of him, and he didn't seem interested in spending time with her. Just like her father didn't. So she clung to Anurion more than anyone, even more than her governess.

Dulinneth was very disappointed, then, when he came to tell her goodbye one day. Just like that, without warning, he just knocked on her door and said he was leaving, that he had some important quest, and it was a big secret and she mustn't tell anyone, and that he had no idea when he might return. Dulinneth begged him to take her along. An adventure sounded much more exciting than sitting around sewing or learning lessons while her parents paid hardly any attention to her. He refused to let her come however, and Dulinneth was very upset. After he had gone, Dulinneth became closer friends with the young lady he had been meant to marry, the youngest daughter of the Dimaethor family. Dulinneth had taken a liking to her when she first met Azraindil, and had been excited at the prospect of having a big sister. Now, with Anurion gone off to who knew where, Dulinneth needed a friend more than ever.

She also honored her brother's request that she take care of his horse, Rhovan. Dulinneth began spending more time around the horse, and therefore, became friendly with the stable master, an older man who treated her kindly. She has since developed a sort of father/daughter type of relationship with him, though she may not recognize it as such, given her lack of closeness with her actual father. She has become more and more interested in riding, and even in racing on horseback. She's discovered that taking a long ride is a good way for her to get away from the oppressive rule of her father, and just be on her own for a while and enjoy the solitude of the forest.

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The Talven family colors are green and maroon.


The coat of arms is a shield of green, with maroon chief. A wreath of laurels surrounds a wolf in the green field, with while a hunting horn rests in the chief above all.

* Green: prosperity or abundance of riches.
* Maroon: Patient in battle, and yet victorious.
* Chief (band across the top) : authority and domination of will.
* Wolf: Reward from perseverance in long sieges and/or hard industry
* Wreath of Laurels: triumph
* Hunting Horn – Someone who is fond of the chase; of high spirits

Last edited by Rillewen on Thu Mar 14, 2024 11:24 am, edited 4 times in total.
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."

Chief Counsellor of Gondor
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Name :Anardil Thavron
(known as ‘Warder’ in Lond Col. Sometimes called ‘Nardy’ by his young cousin, Unalmis)

Age (bracket) : Late 30’s / 40-ish.


Physical Appearance : Tall enough to stand though average for a Man of Dol Amroth, still the striking features of ancient Numenor have been somewhat diluted through the ages. Warder’s hair is a deeper brown than black, although it lies as poker straight as his mother’s: almost as though he has trained it to remain neat and uniform. He presents as well turned out as he can, for his station must represent his affluent employers despite his not being one of their elite number himself. His face is long, his eyes are grey and his stance reflects that of any who has spent such a time to appease others.



Personality : Warder is contemplative although not so quiet as his mother. While he is compliant to the wishes of his employers, he can recognise when they act not in their own best interests, and will seek to steer them toward safer goals. His sense of responsibility is shaped around protecting those who require his aid, and he can be overly diligent where it comes to doing things ‘properly’, or at least giving the appearance of so doing. Warder inherited his mother’s intelligence although far prefers to be about outside with horses than debating philosophy in a study. He spends much time on reading and composing poetry, but this is much in response to a want to be ‘civilised’ and court the laws of chivalry that he fears his low birth deny him, in contrast to the great knights he admires.



Biography : Warder/Anardil is the lynch pin which links the Raxelilta and the Azrubel families in Gondor. It began with his ancestors : the siblings, Alescan and Selene Raxelilta who were orphaned, though neither one was alone for long. Alescan, a ranger of Ithilien, married Odessa of Lossarnach, and fathered two sons, Aladdhor and Domanol, before he fell in service to his country. His pregnant widow moved to Minas Tirith to start over. Meanwhile, Selene married Baron Emere, an extremely successful shepherd based in Lebennin. They had one daughter, Sírdes. Though her father was not noble, his given name of ‘Baron’ led people to believe that he was in fact titled. Thus his daughter was invited to be the playmate of the rich and affluent Aglaron heir. Soonafter the two girls became friends so that the truth no longer mattered. So that when Eressild Aglaron was selected to wed the noble Lord Araldur Azrubel of Lond Col, Sírdes went along with her, to Belfalas to serve as her ‘companion’.

Though she greatly admired Araldur’s younger brother, the Lord Edhelmir Azrubel, Sírdes did not ever dare to imagine that the nobleman would ever look her way and, due to his own shy mannerisms, though he similarly adored her back, nothing came of their mutual fascination for a good many years. During that time, Sírdes fell instead for the pluck and charm of a low born but ambitious sailor. Through hard work and tenacity, Gaearindil Thavron worked his way from being the son of a carpenter, to being a ship’s carpenter’s mate, then a ship’s carpenter, and finally a Ship’s Captain in his own right (though this last was far more to do with he and Swan Knight Araldur being the sole survivors of a sea skirmish which bonded the pair during their various adventures).

Gaerindil and Sírdes named their only son Anardil, in tribute of the sea-loving king of ancient Numenor, both noble and a patron saint to humble carpenters and sailors. Their child enjoyed a happy childhood living with his mother and his paternal grandfather who still ran the Thavron Carpentry Business in Lond Col. Though his father was away at sea most of the time, life was simple and enjoyable. And whenever Gaearindil returned, it was with new tales of all the enthralling journeys and quests that he had undertaken with Lord Araldur Azrubel, his new best friend. Alas for the sailor to learn that his son harboured a secret love of knights and battle rather than putting any thought toward following his patriarch to a similar nautical dream.


Anardil thus entered the service of the House of Azrubel when he was six years old, as a page to Lord Araldur, so that he might see and learn the ways of the great warriors and lords who shaped his country. The only other child in all Castle Azrubel, was Lady Ilisys, the Lord’s only daughter and heir. She and Anardil grew up in close proximity, though a veiled line was drawn between them. Still the boy never could resent the girl, for she was ever keen to open his eyes to ‘her world’. Of all the maids and manservants who sought to tame their little princess, the boy was the only one able to keep up with her. For this knack of presenting ever at her side, thus he become known in the Castle Azrubel as her ‘Warder’.

Over the years that followed, he learnt the arts of etiquette, of horsemanship, of manners. He served at great tables to observe how nobles dined. He was included in proper dance instruction, so that Isys could practice with a partner. He learnt from elder servants how to mind and maintain the family’s opulent armour and weapons, and he was permitted (on the estate) to compete against the bold young lady in their ‘junior’ jousts. The greatest experience of his young life was to accompany Lord Araldur to Dol Amroth, and watch the mighty nobles of the realm ride the popular lines. He got to see it all, although the privileged life he grew up rehearsing for would never be his own.


Alas a mere four years into this tutelage, Warder’s father and also his lord were both killed in a horrific act of sabotage by a vengeful Umbarian whose ship the two reckless adventurers had conquered. His parent and his budding career stolen in one swipe, the young boy returned back to his grandfather’s cottage where his widowed mother would not be without him. Sadly Thavron Senior died soon afterward, and a mercenary apprentice seized the family carpentry business for his own, casting the young mother and son onto the street. Sirdes was too proud and independent to return home to her parents in Lebennin and, though she was offered the position of governess to young lady Isys, Warder’s mother would not consent to supplanting the girl’s current governess. Rather she allowed for her friend Eressild to give a good reference, and so found employment in a well-to-do household in Dol Amroth. Warder, now ten years old, returned to Lond Col, little presuming of how his life and expectations might now be altered.

There was after all no longer any Swan Knight in Castle Azrubel to cater to, and so the boy picked up duties wheresoever they existed, anything that he might do to feel he was earning his keep. The groom, Ruberon, had lost his own grown son in the Lond Col party ship disaster, and it seemed that he found comfort in friendship with the boy, just as like as Warder found in this surrogate father. He still visited his mother, three times in the following five years, though they wrote each other frequently. And it was on one of these rare visits that Warder first met Gael Estennin, his mother’s young student. Unlike Isys, of whom he knew all secrets and was as though a (privileged) sister, Gael was an enchanting mystery, and the study of chivalry and poetry gave rise to that young maiden as his muse. Many verses in her honour were scribbled in private and stowed away in the stables.



When she was thirteen, Lady Isys had decided she should become a knight in her father’s stead, for her uncle had inadvertently usurped her inheritance, and the offers for her hand in marriage subsequently dropped as consequence. Even the Lady Eressild supported her, albeit under her own terms. Warder though at last had his opportunity to properly squire, and although some felt it inappropriate for their genders and age, the two seemed to enjoy a mutually beneficial situation for some time. There were undoubtedly instances in the years which followed, where Warder was considered to be ‘too close’ to Isys, though their friendship has ever only been platonic. Years later, facing otherwise a fragility in their line of descent, the Lady Eressild encouraged a marriage between Sirdes and Lord Edhelmir so that, with the blushing groom being Isys’s paternal uncle, the childhood friends were made at last truly kin; at least by marriage. The rumours were as a result somewhat crushed, as now their relatives’ marriage would insist that there could never come anything between the young man and woman.

Warder however struggled to feel properly settled in yet another strange new dynamic of circumstances, particularly when his mother and stepfather gave him a much younger half brother, Emeredir, who was heir to the entire estate on that side of the estuary. He fell yet even deeper into despair when his beloved muse, Lady Gael Estennin, was taken as a prize by raiding corsairs and presumed lost. So when his cousins, Addhor and Unalmis were injured in an escapade against Pharak Halsad, and hardworking Odessa Raxelilta was unable to take care of them both herself, whilst working and keeping them all fed .. Warder was sent by Eressild and Sirdis to house with his distant kin for at least a year in Minas Tirith. During this time he met Sergeant Pele Alarion of the Rangers and later completed some training and work assignments in the White City.


When he helped Pele to thwart an Umbarian attempt by Keket Halsad to steal the infamous Red Arrow of Gondor, Warder was disheartened to learn that the thief was in fact Lord Heldedir Estennin, Gael’s father. Seeking to discover the reasoning behind this, he was witness to the surprising suicide of that nobleman. Hoping to investigate the why behind this treacherous crime, he set out once again for Minas Tirith. Warder there learned of Pele’s abduction by Umbarians and, with the loss of Gael already spurring him onward against their enemy, he set out with young Ranger Cadil, and the Swan knight in training, Abrazimir Dimaethor, in order to bring their mutual trainer/sergeant home. They bartered passage from Devedir Thormaetha, a questionable associate who took advantage of their desperation, and by the time they had arrived, it transpired that Pele had escaped of her own accord.

Finding Gael Estennin, whom Warder had believed dead, in Umbar, he brought her home instead. Her ruin and her father's suspicious suicide having convinced the young woman’s land-owning relations to disinherit her, Gael was left alone, traumatised, and scarred by her time in Umbar. But learning that the love letters which Isys had sent on to her for years as teenagers, had in fact been written by Warder, the young lady Estennin was delighted when the non-lord asked to wed her. Their daughter is Airelen, and though his wife is still rebuilding her life, in constant fear of corsairs, Warder now serves as a master of arms, defending both his family and the estate of Lond Col, which he has ever served and loved.
All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost
The old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not touched by the frost.

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