EACHDRAIDH APP
Dec. 5th, 2013 11:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bythewaves( PLAYER INFORMATION )
- ★ NAME: bookworm
- ★ AGE: 32
- ★ TIMEZONE: GMT +9:30
- ★ CONTACT:bookworm_faith / ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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bookwormfaith
( CHARACTER INFORMATION )
- ★ NAME: Makalaure 'Maglor' Kanafinwe
- ★ AGE: older than the moon and sun which makes it hard to guess age (THANK YOU FOR BEING UNCLEAR PROFESSOR), but... taken at the end of the First Age, he's... probably about 3000 or so?
- ★ CANON INFORMATION: Maglor specifically, Silmarillion generally if you wish to ignore my TLDR.
So I cannot be concise re: Tolkien BUT I WILL TRY. Also please bear in mind that The Professor CONSTANTLY CHANGED HIS MIND about ... everything ever, so I go by published Silmarillion canon with HoME for clarification and seldom venture beyond that.
Once there was a king who wanted children. When his wife gave birth to a son he was overjoyed, only to find that she had put so much of her spirit into the boy that she couldn't live. He still wanted more children though, so he married again. THIS WAS PERHAPS A MISTAKE. The boy in question was a genius in every sense of the word, and unfortunately grew up despising his stepmom (who he felt displaced his own mother) and resenting his stepsiblings, especially the eldest son. So now we have a young REBELLIOUS genius with a jealous streak who also happens to be the heir to the throne. Then he meets a girl. He settles down and marries her and everyone thinks WHEW dodged that bullet, despite that they got married surprisingly early and after a whirlwind courtship. They then proceed to have seven children, much to the shock of everyone around them (four is considered a big family), all sons. Maglor is the second of those sons, but we'll get to him later. NOW A SLIGHT DIVERSION.
IN THE BEGINNING was God, and Eru (That's His name) created Beings called the Ainur and taught them to Sing, and their Song was what created the world. Some of them loved the world they had created so much that they bound themselves to it. The most powerful of these are called the Valar and they're essentially gods (with a small 'g'), and the lesser are the Maiar, their servants (who you can think of as angels). One of them, however, grew jealous, and set about destroying everything his siblings did - his name was Melkor. We'll get back to him later. Among other things, they had to work out how to light this planet they were building. They started with giant Lamps, but Melkor broke them, then decided to go to Trees - one gold, one silver, both casting living light. THESE ARE IMPORTANT LATER. Now the Valar got sick of fixing everything Melkor broke so they withdrew to a continent of their own and put giant mountain ranges between them and Melkor. This basically left the majority of the world in darkness apart from the stars and Melkor basically went HAH I WIN. This is when the Elves woke up.
So Elves wake up and OOO STARS so they love stars best above all things. The Valar and Melkor are all GOSH WHAT ARE THESE AMAZING BEINGS THEY ARE SPECIAL CREATIONS OF GOD. And the Valar promptly decide WE MUST KEEP THEM while Melkor, obviously, decides I MUST DESTROY THEM so. THINGS HAPPEN. THE ELVES PACK UP AND HALF OF THEM LEAVE TO LIVE WITH THE VALAR. And this is where we left off earlier. Mighty Genius that he is Feanor decides to capture the light of the trees in three jewels. They are so beautiful that they promptly become the Middle Earth equivalent of crack in solid form and EVERYONE WANTS THEM. THINGS HAPPEN including Feanor threatening his brother and getting exiled and Maglor getting married somewhere in there and Melkor getting captured and wandering around Stirring Things Up and then running off to hide. And then he finds Ungoilant who is this. Giant Void Spider or something and they sneak in, kill the trees, kill Feanor's dad, steal the Silmarils and book it back to Middle Earth laughing all the way. Feanor promptly goes nuts, renames Melkor Morgoth, and swears this horrible unbreakable oath that nothing and no one will stop him getting his shinies back and ALL HIS SONS SWEAR IT TOO. This is bad. Then they proceed to leave Valinor & kill a whole bunch of people on the way because they refused to share their ships - this is called the first kinslaying. They then arrive in Middle Earth and Feanor, being nuts, BURNS THE BOATs and... accidentally kills his youngest son who was sleeping onboard and wanted to go home oops. His wife, somewhere back in Valinor, promptly screams I TOLD YOU SO, but we aren't watching her right now.
THINGS CONTINUE TO GO BADLY. Feanor rushes Morgoth, who being a big sissy (but also smart) hides behind his balrogs who mortally injure Feanor until his sons drive them off. Feanor curses Morgoth and tells his sons to make sure they avenge him, okay? OKAY DAD. Maedhros, now High King, goes to a meeting with Morgoth, and is promptly captured. Maglor, now High King in his brother's stead, makes the smart decision and doesn't go rescue him. MEANWHILE, Feanor's half-bro is making his way across the Grinding Ice (which is exactly as bad as it sounds) with his men since FEANOR WAS A DICK AND BURNT THE BOATS. When they arrive, Maedhros gets rescued because Fingon is awesome and apparently doesn't know the meaning of fear, and in gratitude Maedhros turns the kingship over to his uncle Fingolfin. Maglor and the rest are implied to be pissed about this, but in the end they agree because its what Maedhros wants so. They have by now worked out they can't attack Morgoth directly, so they siege him instead. For several centuries. Yes.
THINGS HAPPEN. A SILMARIL MAKES ITS WAY OUT OF MORGOTH'S HANDS AND INTO THE HANDS OF A ELF KING CALLED DIOR. Elf kings are much more approachable than Ultimate Evil, so Maedhros et al send and say PLZ GIVE US OUR SHINY. and Dior says NO MUM AND DAD DIED FOR THIS SHINY. So they attack Dior's kingdom and raze it to the ground. This is the second kinslaying. Three brothers die in this attack. MORE THINGS HAPPEN INVOLVING WAR AND BLOOD AND DEATH AND FIRE. Dior's daughter escaped with the Silmaril, and one day they work out she has it. So they send to her PRETTY PLZ CAN WE HAVE OUR SHINY. And she says NO YOU KILLED MY FAMILY. So they attack her and raze her kingdom (it was more of a giant refugee camp that was starting to become a city, actually) but before they can grab her she jumps out the window with the jewel. oops. This is the third kinslaying. She does not actually die, but the Valar of the Ocean turns her into a bird and she flies off with the jewel to her husband who was sailing at the time. They proceed to use the jewel to get all the way to Valinor and petition for the Valar to get off their butts and do something. The Valar agree and turn her husband's ship into a spaceship so he can sail in the sky with the jewel and bring hope (YES THIS IS CANON). IN THE MEANTIME.
She left behind two twin sons, and this is finally where Maglor starts to come in. He was, by this time, thoroughly sick of the fighting, and he lost his last brother (the surviving twin) in that last fight. And now there are two boys who need parents. So Maglor takes them in. Somehow, despite the fact that they are technically his hostages, they become a family. And then the Valar arrive. Maglor lets the boys go and they wind up back with Gil-Galad and the Armies of the Valar, but we don't actually have much information on how any of this goes down. Eventually the Valar win, Morgoth is dragged out in chains and the Silmarils are taken from him. At this point, Maglor kinda gives up and says bro can we please just, apologise and go home. And Maedhros says no, the Oath can't be broken so easily. So they decide to go and steal them. Yes. They do, and the Valar let them go, because OH WHOOPS it turns out they have done so much evil the Silmarils simply refuse to let them touch them, instead burning their hands terribly. Maedhros, in utter despair, flings himself into a chasm full of lava. Maglor somehow makes it down to the sea where he chucks his in and contemplates following it. This is when he gets taken from.
- ★ PERSONALITY:
Maglor is Feanorion, to start, which makes him, like his brothers & famous father, stubborn, proud, prone to holding grudges, prone to rash and terrible oaths, honourable enough to keep said terrible oath... and not entirely sane. Maglor specifically was said to have more of his gentler mother's personality, and is likely to have been the peacekeeper of his headstrong brothers. 'Makalaure' was his mother-name, and Tolkien indicates that mother-names often had special significance in regards to either the child's future or personality - Maglor's means 'gold-cleaver' or 'forging gold' and is said to be related to his voice and/or skill with the harp - he was said to be the best bard of the Noldor, and is counted second only to Daeron of Doriath. He wasn't as charismatic as his father, Maedhros or Curufin (all of whom were capable of causing civil unrest pretty much with just one speech), but he is extremely skilled with words. His most famous work is actually the 'basis' for a chunk of the Silmarillion - the Noldolante is the story of his family's fall, and Tolkien says that it was Maglor who wrote it - thus, despite him being one of the most despised First Age Elves, his song is the one that they still sing about those days.
Despite his gentler temperament, he was a strong and capable war-leader, holding Maglor's Gap, the weakest part of their defences, for 4.5 centuries. He was level-headed enough and commanded enough loyalty to refuse to go on a (suicidal) rescue of his older brother Maedhros and held that stance as the High King for the next ~15 (its hard to count when you have no sun) years until Fingon was crazy enough to rescue him. Maedhros, in gratitude, turned the high kingship over to Fingolfin's house, which his brothers disagreed with - it is likely that Maglor was the only one to back him on that decision. He was also politically savvy enough to be one of only 2 of the brothers to stay on good terms with both Fingolfin & Finarfin's house (Maedhros, unsurprisingly, was the other). I suspect, based on how little we hear of his reign (NADA), that he was never comfortable in a leadership role, and really prefers to follow someone. He is loyal to a fault - Tolkien says that he kept the Oath more for love of his family than for any care for the Silmarils, and regretted his actions deeply by the end. He is especially close to Maedhros - they are rarely mentioned without each other - either because they are the two eldest, or the two sanest (probably some combination of the two - I headcannon in politics they played GoodCop/BadCop and then Maglor would get you in the back while you were gaping at Maedhros).
Other things we know - he's a killer, don't mistake that. He took his share of lives, and likely did not discriminate between soldier or innocent, male, female or child. Until Sirion. See, there were three occasions when the Feanorionnath attacked their fellow elves for the stupid shiny things called Silmarils - the third, and generally the one held to be the worst, was Sirion, where there were a bunch of survivors from various wars (and at least one kinslaying) trying to eke a living. Lots of stuff happened, but in the end, there were two young twin elflings left behind, while their mom jumped out a window to keep Maglor and Maedhros from getting one of said Silmarils. Normally, this would mean Elrond & Elros (because this was them) would shortly thereafter be dead. Somehow, this didn't happen. Instead, Maglor & Maedhros took them captive - canon never states why, but here's my theories. One, in Sirion they lost their last brother, who was, in fact, a twin. Second, in Doriath (the previous kinslaying), Maedhros had failed to prevent the death of the king's two twin sons (see a pattern yet?). Three... well I suspect they wanted hostages in case the twin's parents somehow came back, also for protection against the rest of the Noldor. IN ANY CASE. Somehow, despite everything, canon tells us that "love grew between them, as little might be thought" and the next time you see the twins they're with the High King Gil-Galad SO - it turns out Maglor & probably Maedhros make good dads. Good enough, even, to let them go free in the end, and not bind them to their curse (because technically the curse might have applied if they'd stayed, as Elrond & Elros are RELATED to Maglor. Distantly, but there you go).
LONG APP IS LONG. Basically: Emo elf is Emo. Maglor I'm taking here from the end of the Silmarillion - he's just done what his beloved older brother suggested, and instead of surrendering, broke into the camp of the victorious hosts of the Valar & Elves, killed the guards, and stolen the last two Silmarils. And then he found out that because of everything they've done, the damn things won't let either of them touch them without burning them. And after THAT his brother jumps into a firey chasm because he can't see a way forwards any longer... and Maglor in despair chucks his into the sea. Canon says that after 'he wandered ever upon the shores, singing in pain and regret beside the waves' and came 'never back among the elves'. One version says that he fell (threw) himself in with the jewel. SO he is extremely depressed right now, having literally watched everything he loved be lost to him. The only thing he hates more than himself right now is ... well, not much, really. Morgoth, I guess? He is very badly traumatised, and I would seriously doubt that he can sleep without nightmares. He's also very angry with his brother, as well as grieving him. Think a very badly scarred war vet - jumpy, moody, etc. Maglor is just plain tired of everything.
Despite everything, however, he raised two remarkably sane half-Elves who went on to do great things, and he never abandoned his brother to the last. He did not WANT to do the things he did, he felt that it was the only road to take (Unbreakable Oaths etc), but he did them for love of his family. He isn't nice - but he could be, if you get on his good side. He's got 'big brother/protector' drilled into his bones - he's the quiet one, the supportive one, the one who was always by his brother's side - chances are, he'll be easy to wrangle into a protector role for... pretty much anyone who needs it. He's not about to let evil walk where he can see it, either (hey, if he dies, better him than another, right?) - he'll not let his tragedy happen again. And here's the interesting thing - Maglor lives, when all the others died - why hasn't he taken his own life? I think, somewhere buried so deep that he refuses to even acknowledge it, Maglor somehow still has Hope. He tells himself he lives so that no-one will forget their story, so that no-one repeats their mistakes, and this is true, but I don't think it's the only truth. I think, deep inside, Maglor seeks redemption, or at least, to know that his deeds were not in vain.
ALSO OF IMPORTANCE: That damned Oath.
So. AS I SAID EARLIER. Once upon a time there as an Elf who was smarter than everyone. He made three lovely jewels and had huge daddy & mummy issues because he was the only elf in paradise whose mom was dead and whose dad remarried because he wanted more than one kid. One day the Big Bad came along and killed his dad, and stole his jewels and he went nuts and swore this terrible Oath. Now, he was the sorta guy you who loved, or loved to hate, and his sons, well, they would have done anything daddy told them, they adored him so. So if dad swears this Unbreakable Oath? Well, we'd better do the same. And then Death (technically, Namo is closer to Fate, but anyway) stands up, and tells them this is a BAD IDEA and details all the ways it is going to go wrong. This is called the Curse or the Doom of the Noldor, and between It and the Oath, has influenced... well pretty much everything in Middle Earth ever (yes, including all the way to LOTR - those Elven Rings of power? forged by the grandson of Feanor. Galadriel? Feanor's niece. Elrond? Feanor's great-great-grandnephew). Feanor, of course, laughed in Namo's face, and his sons dutifully trooped off to Middle Earth with him, and of course EVERYTHING PROCEEDS TO GO TO PIECES FROM THERE - but here's the thing - technically, the Oath is still unfulfilled, as Maglor threw his jewel into the sea, so it MIGHT be recoverable, unlike the other two. Alternatively, you could consider the Oath fulfilled because Maglor was able to relinquish the jewel, although truthfully he... wasn't thinking very straight at the time. Also, there's the curse to consider, which, believe you me, Maglor thinks about a lot. He hates it, but its been his whole life for the last 2000 or so years.
- ★ COURT ALLIANCE: *head in hands* oh frag me stupid sons of Feanor OKAY THIS IS COMPLICATED SO:
Maglor would likely register on the alignment chart as Lawful Evil which makes him Unseelie - he's honorable and noble and loyal to a fault, but you do not get in the way of the Feanorionnath if you like living. He doesn't lie, and his word is his bond - if he says 'give me the jewels or I'll kill you' he means it, but if he says 'I will let you go if you hand over the jewels' he means that too. He can be gentle (see: Elrond & Elros), but he can be utterly merciless too (see: three kinslayings), if you get in his way or threaten his family. His first and last loyalty is to Maedhros, always, (probably also to his father, before) even if he thinks big bro is being an idiot (he tried to talk him out of stealing the Silmarils, but when Maedhros was insistent, he went with him anyway). Without Maedhros and the Silmarils to drive him he'd probably waver back over to Lawful Neutral/Lawful Good eventually. By which I mean he's the worst Unseelie you've ever seen.
Nobility in Tolkien is tricky - especially for these guys - Maglor is technically royalty - second son of the heir to the Noldorian throne - and he's had his stint as High King, as stated. HOWEVER. Maglor is also Dispossessed - those were the words of the Curse, and so he is outcast and exile - especially from the point he is taken, which is where he vanishes out of the known history to wander in regret by the sea. No clue how the Fae will interpret that - up to you!
- ★ ABILITIES: SOB ok so there are some generic elf-things and some things that Maglor specifically would LIKELY be able to do based on extrapolation but Tolkien never specified ok? OK. So.
GENERAL ELF THINGS:
(1) Elves are immortal - they hit 100 (which for them looks like ~20s/30s) and stop aging. They can be killed (even by strange things such as grief - they call that Fading), but otherwise they don't die, and in canon if you kill them their souls go back to Valinor/Paradise to wait to be re-embodied, although (unless you're Glorfindel) you never come back to Middle Earth again
(2) Elves are faster, stronger and hardier than Men, and they heal faster too - this means that if you DON'T manage to kill an elf, he or she'll probably be ready to kill YOU the next day (depending on how badly you hurt them, of course - but really, if death doesn't come for them initially they are going to heal). Bear in mind that this is not 100% proof, as canon has at least one instance where a Man could bear armor that an Elf could not. Also this means they can survive on surprisingly little food & water for a surprisingly long time! (I think Maedhros survived ~15 years with essentially nothing? Admittedly he was a captive of the Big Bad at the time so I dunno if ~*magic*~ was involved there - but crossing the Grinding Ice there can't have been much food, and we are talking Antartic conditions for ~15 years without proper gear - AND MOST OF THEM STILL MADE IT, and in good enough condition to fight when they got to the other side)
(3) Elves have unusually good eyesight and hearing - this is likely pretty variable, but generally an Elf can see further & hear more than a typical human - they can also hear some odd things, which brings us to...
(4) Elves are tied strongly to the natural world, and so... yes, the rocks talk to them. Or they talk to rocks. And trees. And birds and animals (Elves like talking to things in general, really). And it is strongly implied that they get some sort of answer, although I imagine it isn't speech that they get in return but... impressions maybe. Again, who hears what will depend on the Elf in question - Noldor are craftsmen, artisans etc, so rocks are probably more their thing then trees, for example. Maglor, I suspect, hears the Sea loud and clear, and all Elves hear the stars.
(5) Elves glow. No really! This is especially true of those elves who lived in Valinor beneath the light of the Two Trees (...it's a long story) - it's very faint, but in dim light, you'd see the faintest of gleams, as if the moonlight was especially concentrated around them. Also their eyes are often said to be piercing and hard to meet - technically, this is their spirit/soul shining out of their eyes - essentially, Elves, especially those who have lived in Valinor, have... bright. souls. (I know this sounds dumb) and their bodies can't quite contain them. This does also mean, incidentally, that they can perceive things in the spiritual world clearer than most, being as how they're kinda half there already
(6) Elves are very light-footed - this does include the whole 'walk on snow' thing, but it also means that if an Elf doesn't want to be tracked, he or she won't be, unless it's by another elf - again I imagine some are better at this than others (Wood Elves like Legolas, for example, probably find Noldor like Maglor hilariously clumsy and easy to track). They are said in canon to be quieter than even the Hobbits when they walk.
(7) Elves can read minds. Tolkien called it 'sanwe-latya', and it's less telepathy and more... really really good perception of each other? Note that this is not limited to Elves, although they can certainly use it easier than Men. Essentially the principle is that if a mind wishes to perceive another mind, and the other mind is open to this (note OPEN, not necessarily WILLING), then they don't actually need to speak with words to communicate. ... It's complicated. Let's just say that some of them (like Galadriel) are a lot better at it than others.
(8) Elves don't need sleep. Ok this is not entirely accurate, because they DO, they just... don't quite do it like other races do. They apparently have the ability to essentially create a waking dream-like state where they can walk and probably talk (although I wouldn't get them to, say, sew or anything needing fine motor control) while meditating on ~*beautiful things*~ (I kid you not) and this is almost as good as sleep for them, allowing them to go days without actually needing shut-eye. Speaking of, they sleep with their eyes open. Yes. An elf sleeping with closed eyes is usually VERY BADLY HURT or faking it.
ODD THINGS MAGLOR CAN PROBABLY DO:
(9) Tolkien's world was created by Song. Therefore, it follows that one may USE Song to affect the world - see: Finrod battling Sauron via EPIC SINGING (yes really). Maglor, as I have noted, is stated to be canonically the second best bard in existence. I suspect, that at the very LEAST he can influence emotion with his music, and at the extreme, do things that are ~*magic*~. Like... I dunno put people to sleep and fight epic rap battles with music. Generally, Elven music was described as drawing the images to mind and lingering there, even if you had no clue what the words meant - I actually think this is related to the osanwe bit, so you could probably block said images out, if you wanted. Also being a musical genius, despite that canon only talks about his harp, chances are, if you put any instrument in his hands he'd learn how to play it pretty quickly - although things closer to what he's familiar with would be easier (he'd look at a piano pretty blankly, for example, but a guitar or a violin would probably be easy to work out, a french horn would get poked at, but a flute would make sense etc.)
(10) Maglor's a bard, and his dad was a genius who invented their written alphabet - chances are, Maglor himself is horribly fond of languages and how they work, and how they influence story. I would put good money that he learns languages for fun (or did, before the whole Oath thing). He's also got a brilliant memory (he would have to to create and then tell his stories, but all elves are supposed to have something pretty close to perfect recall),although I suspect he's a tad absent minded, like most artists - chances are, he can recall EVERYTHING that happened to him if he really wants to
(11) Maglor's dad being Feanor, I'm pretty sure Maglor spent time in the forges - he'd probably be familiar with basic metallurgy and smithing, and with his personality he was probably fascinated by the finicky jewellery type work, although I have no doubt he got out as soon as Feanor let him
(12) Maglor is a very good fighter - he's survived at least a thousand years in a world where fighting is up close and personal and involves things like dragons, balrogs and trolls - and he's done so without loosing any limbs or getting obvious deforming scars. This implies that he is very very good (also probably quite lucky). One of the reasons he was able to hold Maglor's Gap for so long is because he led a calvary - one of the few known in early Middle Earth. At the least, he'd be an excellent swordsman and a very good horseman, and being a calvary officer, he probably also used a spear, and bow & arrows. I usually play him as using a longsword in one hand and a knife in the other, and something of a berserker - he doesn't like killing, but he's very good at it... and once he starts, he can forget how to stop. Also I wouldn't sneak up on him if I were you.
(13) Being second of seven brothers + umpteen younger cousins + raising two elflings + surviving the First Age at all, Maglor's probably pretty good at basic first aid and management of battle wounds. He's not a healer, but he can keep you alive long enough to get you TO a healer. Does that count as an ability?
- ★ INVENTORY:
(1) a silver harp that's almost as old as Maglor - I like to say that it was a gift (reward) from Feanor and is ever-so-slightly magical (as if it wasn't the thing would have fallen to pieces by now it's that old)
(2) a longsword and it's mate, an elven hunting knife - nothing particularly magical about them either, except that they're elven made and also probably came from Valinor (ie they won't rust and are preternaturally sharp and shiny and won't break easily - they may be particularly effective against evil things, perhaps)
(3) a small bow and quiver full of arrows (one of those compact ones for horseback riding - whiiich he wont be able to use considering his hands heh)
(4) a small first aid kit (or what passes for one in his time - some bandages, various salves and dried herbs probably including athelas for treatment of wounds)
(5) The clothes on his back - considering he's just come from a raid on a war-camp, this would include some basic chain mail (nothing as fancy as mithril, but good, hardy elf-make stuff), a dark cloak (he closes it with a silver star-of-feanor pin), and probably vambraces and greaves as well. All his things are marked with the Star of Feanor, and of high quality make but strangely run down, as if they've been patched again and again and again...
- ★ NETWORK SAMPLE:
[Voice]
[ The eyes on the man are far too old for his young face - haunted, despairing and more than a little mad. The voice might have been lovely, once, but it is hoarse, as if the owner had been weeping or screaming (perhaps both) only recently ]
So it is to fight for jewels that they call me here? Oh, but cruel indeed is the hand of fate. Is this then the punishment for my crimes? To work with the like of orcs and the beings of darkness - am I then so forsaken? Ah, but this is just, I suppose - a fit place for a Kinslayer! Mayhap this is e'en the Everlasting Dark, and my mind conjures my demons for me. Must I now be forced to repeat my mistakes? [ He laughs, but the sound is without joy and hollow, and the light in his eyes kindles to a fell madness ] Desperate fools! What recklessness is this, to ask the aid of one of the cursed sons of Feanor? "To evil end will all things turn". Will you have me bring my curse on yourselves? Nay, not this time. I reject thee, Lord and Lady, and I will have no part in your war. Keep your rewards and promises! Even if Forsaken I be, no son of Feanor ever willingly bent knee to any Lord of the Shadows, and I want nothing to do with this war.
- ★ LOG SAMPLE:
Will this do?
- ★ NAME: bookworm
- ★ AGE: 32
- ★ TIMEZONE: GMT +9:30
- ★ CONTACT:
bookworm_faith / bookworm_faith / ( CHARACTER INFORMATION )
- ★ NAME: Makalaure 'Maglor' Kanafinwe
- ★ AGE: older than the moon and sun which makes it hard to guess age (THANK YOU FOR BEING UNCLEAR PROFESSOR), but... taken at the end of the First Age, he's... probably about 3000 or so?
- ★ CANON INFORMATION: Maglor specifically, Silmarillion generally if you wish to ignore my TLDR.
So I cannot be concise re: Tolkien BUT I WILL TRY. Also please bear in mind that The Professor CONSTANTLY CHANGED HIS MIND about ... everything ever, so I go by published Silmarillion canon with HoME for clarification and seldom venture beyond that.
Once there was a king who wanted children. When his wife gave birth to a son he was overjoyed, only to find that she had put so much of her spirit into the boy that she couldn't live. He still wanted more children though, so he married again. THIS WAS PERHAPS A MISTAKE. The boy in question was a genius in every sense of the word, and unfortunately grew up despising his stepmom (who he felt displaced his own mother) and resenting his stepsiblings, especially the eldest son. So now we have a young REBELLIOUS genius with a jealous streak who also happens to be the heir to the throne. Then he meets a girl. He settles down and marries her and everyone thinks WHEW dodged that bullet, despite that they got married surprisingly early and after a whirlwind courtship. They then proceed to have seven children, much to the shock of everyone around them (four is considered a big family), all sons. Maglor is the second of those sons, but we'll get to him later. NOW A SLIGHT DIVERSION.
IN THE BEGINNING was God, and Eru (That's His name) created Beings called the Ainur and taught them to Sing, and their Song was what created the world. Some of them loved the world they had created so much that they bound themselves to it. The most powerful of these are called the Valar and they're essentially gods (with a small 'g'), and the lesser are the Maiar, their servants (who you can think of as angels). One of them, however, grew jealous, and set about destroying everything his siblings did - his name was Melkor. We'll get back to him later. Among other things, they had to work out how to light this planet they were building. They started with giant Lamps, but Melkor broke them, then decided to go to Trees - one gold, one silver, both casting living light. THESE ARE IMPORTANT LATER. Now the Valar got sick of fixing everything Melkor broke so they withdrew to a continent of their own and put giant mountain ranges between them and Melkor. This basically left the majority of the world in darkness apart from the stars and Melkor basically went HAH I WIN. This is when the Elves woke up.
So Elves wake up and OOO STARS so they love stars best above all things. The Valar and Melkor are all GOSH WHAT ARE THESE AMAZING BEINGS THEY ARE SPECIAL CREATIONS OF GOD. And the Valar promptly decide WE MUST KEEP THEM while Melkor, obviously, decides I MUST DESTROY THEM so. THINGS HAPPEN. THE ELVES PACK UP AND HALF OF THEM LEAVE TO LIVE WITH THE VALAR. And this is where we left off earlier. Mighty Genius that he is Feanor decides to capture the light of the trees in three jewels. They are so beautiful that they promptly become the Middle Earth equivalent of crack in solid form and EVERYONE WANTS THEM. THINGS HAPPEN including Feanor threatening his brother and getting exiled and Maglor getting married somewhere in there and Melkor getting captured and wandering around Stirring Things Up and then running off to hide. And then he finds Ungoilant who is this. Giant Void Spider or something and they sneak in, kill the trees, kill Feanor's dad, steal the Silmarils and book it back to Middle Earth laughing all the way. Feanor promptly goes nuts, renames Melkor Morgoth, and swears this horrible unbreakable oath that nothing and no one will stop him getting his shinies back and ALL HIS SONS SWEAR IT TOO. This is bad. Then they proceed to leave Valinor & kill a whole bunch of people on the way because they refused to share their ships - this is called the first kinslaying. They then arrive in Middle Earth and Feanor, being nuts, BURNS THE BOATs and... accidentally kills his youngest son who was sleeping onboard and wanted to go home oops. His wife, somewhere back in Valinor, promptly screams I TOLD YOU SO, but we aren't watching her right now.
THINGS CONTINUE TO GO BADLY. Feanor rushes Morgoth, who being a big sissy (but also smart) hides behind his balrogs who mortally injure Feanor until his sons drive them off. Feanor curses Morgoth and tells his sons to make sure they avenge him, okay? OKAY DAD. Maedhros, now High King, goes to a meeting with Morgoth, and is promptly captured. Maglor, now High King in his brother's stead, makes the smart decision and doesn't go rescue him. MEANWHILE, Feanor's half-bro is making his way across the Grinding Ice (which is exactly as bad as it sounds) with his men since FEANOR WAS A DICK AND BURNT THE BOATS. When they arrive, Maedhros gets rescued because Fingon is awesome and apparently doesn't know the meaning of fear, and in gratitude Maedhros turns the kingship over to his uncle Fingolfin. Maglor and the rest are implied to be pissed about this, but in the end they agree because its what Maedhros wants so. They have by now worked out they can't attack Morgoth directly, so they siege him instead. For several centuries. Yes.
THINGS HAPPEN. A SILMARIL MAKES ITS WAY OUT OF MORGOTH'S HANDS AND INTO THE HANDS OF A ELF KING CALLED DIOR. Elf kings are much more approachable than Ultimate Evil, so Maedhros et al send and say PLZ GIVE US OUR SHINY. and Dior says NO MUM AND DAD DIED FOR THIS SHINY. So they attack Dior's kingdom and raze it to the ground. This is the second kinslaying. Three brothers die in this attack. MORE THINGS HAPPEN INVOLVING WAR AND BLOOD AND DEATH AND FIRE. Dior's daughter escaped with the Silmaril, and one day they work out she has it. So they send to her PRETTY PLZ CAN WE HAVE OUR SHINY. And she says NO YOU KILLED MY FAMILY. So they attack her and raze her kingdom (it was more of a giant refugee camp that was starting to become a city, actually) but before they can grab her she jumps out the window with the jewel. oops. This is the third kinslaying. She does not actually die, but the Valar of the Ocean turns her into a bird and she flies off with the jewel to her husband who was sailing at the time. They proceed to use the jewel to get all the way to Valinor and petition for the Valar to get off their butts and do something. The Valar agree and turn her husband's ship into a spaceship so he can sail in the sky with the jewel and bring hope (YES THIS IS CANON). IN THE MEANTIME.
She left behind two twin sons, and this is finally where Maglor starts to come in. He was, by this time, thoroughly sick of the fighting, and he lost his last brother (the surviving twin) in that last fight. And now there are two boys who need parents. So Maglor takes them in. Somehow, despite the fact that they are technically his hostages, they become a family. And then the Valar arrive. Maglor lets the boys go and they wind up back with Gil-Galad and the Armies of the Valar, but we don't actually have much information on how any of this goes down. Eventually the Valar win, Morgoth is dragged out in chains and the Silmarils are taken from him. At this point, Maglor kinda gives up and says bro can we please just, apologise and go home. And Maedhros says no, the Oath can't be broken so easily. So they decide to go and steal them. Yes. They do, and the Valar let them go, because OH WHOOPS it turns out they have done so much evil the Silmarils simply refuse to let them touch them, instead burning their hands terribly. Maedhros, in utter despair, flings himself into a chasm full of lava. Maglor somehow makes it down to the sea where he chucks his in and contemplates following it. This is when he gets taken from.
- ★ PERSONALITY:
Maglor is Feanorion, to start, which makes him, like his brothers & famous father, stubborn, proud, prone to holding grudges, prone to rash and terrible oaths, honourable enough to keep said terrible oath... and not entirely sane. Maglor specifically was said to have more of his gentler mother's personality, and is likely to have been the peacekeeper of his headstrong brothers. 'Makalaure' was his mother-name, and Tolkien indicates that mother-names often had special significance in regards to either the child's future or personality - Maglor's means 'gold-cleaver' or 'forging gold' and is said to be related to his voice and/or skill with the harp - he was said to be the best bard of the Noldor, and is counted second only to Daeron of Doriath. He wasn't as charismatic as his father, Maedhros or Curufin (all of whom were capable of causing civil unrest pretty much with just one speech), but he is extremely skilled with words. His most famous work is actually the 'basis' for a chunk of the Silmarillion - the Noldolante is the story of his family's fall, and Tolkien says that it was Maglor who wrote it - thus, despite him being one of the most despised First Age Elves, his song is the one that they still sing about those days.
Despite his gentler temperament, he was a strong and capable war-leader, holding Maglor's Gap, the weakest part of their defences, for 4.5 centuries. He was level-headed enough and commanded enough loyalty to refuse to go on a (suicidal) rescue of his older brother Maedhros and held that stance as the High King for the next ~15 (its hard to count when you have no sun) years until Fingon was crazy enough to rescue him. Maedhros, in gratitude, turned the high kingship over to Fingolfin's house, which his brothers disagreed with - it is likely that Maglor was the only one to back him on that decision. He was also politically savvy enough to be one of only 2 of the brothers to stay on good terms with both Fingolfin & Finarfin's house (Maedhros, unsurprisingly, was the other). I suspect, based on how little we hear of his reign (NADA), that he was never comfortable in a leadership role, and really prefers to follow someone. He is loyal to a fault - Tolkien says that he kept the Oath more for love of his family than for any care for the Silmarils, and regretted his actions deeply by the end. He is especially close to Maedhros - they are rarely mentioned without each other - either because they are the two eldest, or the two sanest (probably some combination of the two - I headcannon in politics they played GoodCop/BadCop and then Maglor would get you in the back while you were gaping at Maedhros).
Other things we know - he's a killer, don't mistake that. He took his share of lives, and likely did not discriminate between soldier or innocent, male, female or child. Until Sirion. See, there were three occasions when the Feanorionnath attacked their fellow elves for the stupid shiny things called Silmarils - the third, and generally the one held to be the worst, was Sirion, where there were a bunch of survivors from various wars (and at least one kinslaying) trying to eke a living. Lots of stuff happened, but in the end, there were two young twin elflings left behind, while their mom jumped out a window to keep Maglor and Maedhros from getting one of said Silmarils. Normally, this would mean Elrond & Elros (because this was them) would shortly thereafter be dead. Somehow, this didn't happen. Instead, Maglor & Maedhros took them captive - canon never states why, but here's my theories. One, in Sirion they lost their last brother, who was, in fact, a twin. Second, in Doriath (the previous kinslaying), Maedhros had failed to prevent the death of the king's two twin sons (see a pattern yet?). Three... well I suspect they wanted hostages in case the twin's parents somehow came back, also for protection against the rest of the Noldor. IN ANY CASE. Somehow, despite everything, canon tells us that "love grew between them, as little might be thought" and the next time you see the twins they're with the High King Gil-Galad SO - it turns out Maglor & probably Maedhros make good dads. Good enough, even, to let them go free in the end, and not bind them to their curse (because technically the curse might have applied if they'd stayed, as Elrond & Elros are RELATED to Maglor. Distantly, but there you go).
LONG APP IS LONG. Basically: Emo elf is Emo. Maglor I'm taking here from the end of the Silmarillion - he's just done what his beloved older brother suggested, and instead of surrendering, broke into the camp of the victorious hosts of the Valar & Elves, killed the guards, and stolen the last two Silmarils. And then he found out that because of everything they've done, the damn things won't let either of them touch them without burning them. And after THAT his brother jumps into a firey chasm because he can't see a way forwards any longer... and Maglor in despair chucks his into the sea. Canon says that after 'he wandered ever upon the shores, singing in pain and regret beside the waves' and came 'never back among the elves'. One version says that he fell (threw) himself in with the jewel. SO he is extremely depressed right now, having literally watched everything he loved be lost to him. The only thing he hates more than himself right now is ... well, not much, really. Morgoth, I guess? He is very badly traumatised, and I would seriously doubt that he can sleep without nightmares. He's also very angry with his brother, as well as grieving him. Think a very badly scarred war vet - jumpy, moody, etc. Maglor is just plain tired of everything.
Despite everything, however, he raised two remarkably sane half-Elves who went on to do great things, and he never abandoned his brother to the last. He did not WANT to do the things he did, he felt that it was the only road to take (Unbreakable Oaths etc), but he did them for love of his family. He isn't nice - but he could be, if you get on his good side. He's got 'big brother/protector' drilled into his bones - he's the quiet one, the supportive one, the one who was always by his brother's side - chances are, he'll be easy to wrangle into a protector role for... pretty much anyone who needs it. He's not about to let evil walk where he can see it, either (hey, if he dies, better him than another, right?) - he'll not let his tragedy happen again. And here's the interesting thing - Maglor lives, when all the others died - why hasn't he taken his own life? I think, somewhere buried so deep that he refuses to even acknowledge it, Maglor somehow still has Hope. He tells himself he lives so that no-one will forget their story, so that no-one repeats their mistakes, and this is true, but I don't think it's the only truth. I think, deep inside, Maglor seeks redemption, or at least, to know that his deeds were not in vain.
ALSO OF IMPORTANCE: That damned Oath.
So. AS I SAID EARLIER. Once upon a time there as an Elf who was smarter than everyone. He made three lovely jewels and had huge daddy & mummy issues because he was the only elf in paradise whose mom was dead and whose dad remarried because he wanted more than one kid. One day the Big Bad came along and killed his dad, and stole his jewels and he went nuts and swore this terrible Oath. Now, he was the sorta guy you who loved, or loved to hate, and his sons, well, they would have done anything daddy told them, they adored him so. So if dad swears this Unbreakable Oath? Well, we'd better do the same. And then Death (technically, Namo is closer to Fate, but anyway) stands up, and tells them this is a BAD IDEA and details all the ways it is going to go wrong. This is called the Curse or the Doom of the Noldor, and between It and the Oath, has influenced... well pretty much everything in Middle Earth ever (yes, including all the way to LOTR - those Elven Rings of power? forged by the grandson of Feanor. Galadriel? Feanor's niece. Elrond? Feanor's great-great-grandnephew). Feanor, of course, laughed in Namo's face, and his sons dutifully trooped off to Middle Earth with him, and of course EVERYTHING PROCEEDS TO GO TO PIECES FROM THERE - but here's the thing - technically, the Oath is still unfulfilled, as Maglor threw his jewel into the sea, so it MIGHT be recoverable, unlike the other two. Alternatively, you could consider the Oath fulfilled because Maglor was able to relinquish the jewel, although truthfully he... wasn't thinking very straight at the time. Also, there's the curse to consider, which, believe you me, Maglor thinks about a lot. He hates it, but its been his whole life for the last 2000 or so years.
- ★ COURT ALLIANCE: *head in hands* oh frag me stupid sons of Feanor OKAY THIS IS COMPLICATED SO:
Maglor would likely register on the alignment chart as Lawful Evil which makes him Unseelie - he's honorable and noble and loyal to a fault, but you do not get in the way of the Feanorionnath if you like living. He doesn't lie, and his word is his bond - if he says 'give me the jewels or I'll kill you' he means it, but if he says 'I will let you go if you hand over the jewels' he means that too. He can be gentle (see: Elrond & Elros), but he can be utterly merciless too (see: three kinslayings), if you get in his way or threaten his family. His first and last loyalty is to Maedhros, always, (probably also to his father, before) even if he thinks big bro is being an idiot (he tried to talk him out of stealing the Silmarils, but when Maedhros was insistent, he went with him anyway). Without Maedhros and the Silmarils to drive him he'd probably waver back over to Lawful Neutral/Lawful Good eventually. By which I mean he's the worst Unseelie you've ever seen.
Nobility in Tolkien is tricky - especially for these guys - Maglor is technically royalty - second son of the heir to the Noldorian throne - and he's had his stint as High King, as stated. HOWEVER. Maglor is also Dispossessed - those were the words of the Curse, and so he is outcast and exile - especially from the point he is taken, which is where he vanishes out of the known history to wander in regret by the sea. No clue how the Fae will interpret that - up to you!
- ★ ABILITIES: SOB ok so there are some generic elf-things and some things that Maglor specifically would LIKELY be able to do based on extrapolation but Tolkien never specified ok? OK. So.
GENERAL ELF THINGS:
(1) Elves are immortal - they hit 100 (which for them looks like ~20s/30s) and stop aging. They can be killed (even by strange things such as grief - they call that Fading), but otherwise they don't die, and in canon if you kill them their souls go back to Valinor/Paradise to wait to be re-embodied, although (unless you're Glorfindel) you never come back to Middle Earth again
(2) Elves are faster, stronger and hardier than Men, and they heal faster too - this means that if you DON'T manage to kill an elf, he or she'll probably be ready to kill YOU the next day (depending on how badly you hurt them, of course - but really, if death doesn't come for them initially they are going to heal). Bear in mind that this is not 100% proof, as canon has at least one instance where a Man could bear armor that an Elf could not. Also this means they can survive on surprisingly little food & water for a surprisingly long time! (I think Maedhros survived ~15 years with essentially nothing? Admittedly he was a captive of the Big Bad at the time so I dunno if ~*magic*~ was involved there - but crossing the Grinding Ice there can't have been much food, and we are talking Antartic conditions for ~15 years without proper gear - AND MOST OF THEM STILL MADE IT, and in good enough condition to fight when they got to the other side)
(3) Elves have unusually good eyesight and hearing - this is likely pretty variable, but generally an Elf can see further & hear more than a typical human - they can also hear some odd things, which brings us to...
(4) Elves are tied strongly to the natural world, and so... yes, the rocks talk to them. Or they talk to rocks. And trees. And birds and animals (Elves like talking to things in general, really). And it is strongly implied that they get some sort of answer, although I imagine it isn't speech that they get in return but... impressions maybe. Again, who hears what will depend on the Elf in question - Noldor are craftsmen, artisans etc, so rocks are probably more their thing then trees, for example. Maglor, I suspect, hears the Sea loud and clear, and all Elves hear the stars.
(5) Elves glow. No really! This is especially true of those elves who lived in Valinor beneath the light of the Two Trees (...it's a long story) - it's very faint, but in dim light, you'd see the faintest of gleams, as if the moonlight was especially concentrated around them. Also their eyes are often said to be piercing and hard to meet - technically, this is their spirit/soul shining out of their eyes - essentially, Elves, especially those who have lived in Valinor, have... bright. souls. (I know this sounds dumb) and their bodies can't quite contain them. This does also mean, incidentally, that they can perceive things in the spiritual world clearer than most, being as how they're kinda half there already
(6) Elves are very light-footed - this does include the whole 'walk on snow' thing, but it also means that if an Elf doesn't want to be tracked, he or she won't be, unless it's by another elf - again I imagine some are better at this than others (Wood Elves like Legolas, for example, probably find Noldor like Maglor hilariously clumsy and easy to track). They are said in canon to be quieter than even the Hobbits when they walk.
(7) Elves can read minds. Tolkien called it 'sanwe-latya', and it's less telepathy and more... really really good perception of each other? Note that this is not limited to Elves, although they can certainly use it easier than Men. Essentially the principle is that if a mind wishes to perceive another mind, and the other mind is open to this (note OPEN, not necessarily WILLING), then they don't actually need to speak with words to communicate. ... It's complicated. Let's just say that some of them (like Galadriel) are a lot better at it than others.
(8) Elves don't need sleep. Ok this is not entirely accurate, because they DO, they just... don't quite do it like other races do. They apparently have the ability to essentially create a waking dream-like state where they can walk and probably talk (although I wouldn't get them to, say, sew or anything needing fine motor control) while meditating on ~*beautiful things*~ (I kid you not) and this is almost as good as sleep for them, allowing them to go days without actually needing shut-eye. Speaking of, they sleep with their eyes open. Yes. An elf sleeping with closed eyes is usually VERY BADLY HURT or faking it.
ODD THINGS MAGLOR CAN PROBABLY DO:
(9) Tolkien's world was created by Song. Therefore, it follows that one may USE Song to affect the world - see: Finrod battling Sauron via EPIC SINGING (yes really). Maglor, as I have noted, is stated to be canonically the second best bard in existence. I suspect, that at the very LEAST he can influence emotion with his music, and at the extreme, do things that are ~*magic*~. Like... I dunno put people to sleep and fight epic rap battles with music. Generally, Elven music was described as drawing the images to mind and lingering there, even if you had no clue what the words meant - I actually think this is related to the osanwe bit, so you could probably block said images out, if you wanted. Also being a musical genius, despite that canon only talks about his harp, chances are, if you put any instrument in his hands he'd learn how to play it pretty quickly - although things closer to what he's familiar with would be easier (he'd look at a piano pretty blankly, for example, but a guitar or a violin would probably be easy to work out, a french horn would get poked at, but a flute would make sense etc.)
(10) Maglor's a bard, and his dad was a genius who invented their written alphabet - chances are, Maglor himself is horribly fond of languages and how they work, and how they influence story. I would put good money that he learns languages for fun (or did, before the whole Oath thing). He's also got a brilliant memory (he would have to to create and then tell his stories, but all elves are supposed to have something pretty close to perfect recall),although I suspect he's a tad absent minded, like most artists - chances are, he can recall EVERYTHING that happened to him if he really wants to
(11) Maglor's dad being Feanor, I'm pretty sure Maglor spent time in the forges - he'd probably be familiar with basic metallurgy and smithing, and with his personality he was probably fascinated by the finicky jewellery type work, although I have no doubt he got out as soon as Feanor let him
(12) Maglor is a very good fighter - he's survived at least a thousand years in a world where fighting is up close and personal and involves things like dragons, balrogs and trolls - and he's done so without loosing any limbs or getting obvious deforming scars. This implies that he is very very good (also probably quite lucky). One of the reasons he was able to hold Maglor's Gap for so long is because he led a calvary - one of the few known in early Middle Earth. At the least, he'd be an excellent swordsman and a very good horseman, and being a calvary officer, he probably also used a spear, and bow & arrows. I usually play him as using a longsword in one hand and a knife in the other, and something of a berserker - he doesn't like killing, but he's very good at it... and once he starts, he can forget how to stop. Also I wouldn't sneak up on him if I were you.
(13) Being second of seven brothers + umpteen younger cousins + raising two elflings + surviving the First Age at all, Maglor's probably pretty good at basic first aid and management of battle wounds. He's not a healer, but he can keep you alive long enough to get you TO a healer. Does that count as an ability?
- ★ INVENTORY:
(1) a silver harp that's almost as old as Maglor - I like to say that it was a gift (reward) from Feanor and is ever-so-slightly magical (as if it wasn't the thing would have fallen to pieces by now it's that old)
(2) a longsword and it's mate, an elven hunting knife - nothing particularly magical about them either, except that they're elven made and also probably came from Valinor (ie they won't rust and are preternaturally sharp and shiny and won't break easily - they may be particularly effective against evil things, perhaps)
(3) a small bow and quiver full of arrows (one of those compact ones for horseback riding - whiiich he wont be able to use considering his hands heh)
(4) a small first aid kit (or what passes for one in his time - some bandages, various salves and dried herbs probably including athelas for treatment of wounds)
(5) The clothes on his back - considering he's just come from a raid on a war-camp, this would include some basic chain mail (nothing as fancy as mithril, but good, hardy elf-make stuff), a dark cloak (he closes it with a silver star-of-feanor pin), and probably vambraces and greaves as well. All his things are marked with the Star of Feanor, and of high quality make but strangely run down, as if they've been patched again and again and again...
- ★ NETWORK SAMPLE:
[Voice]
[ The eyes on the man are far too old for his young face - haunted, despairing and more than a little mad. The voice might have been lovely, once, but it is hoarse, as if the owner had been weeping or screaming (perhaps both) only recently ]
So it is to fight for jewels that they call me here? Oh, but cruel indeed is the hand of fate. Is this then the punishment for my crimes? To work with the like of orcs and the beings of darkness - am I then so forsaken? Ah, but this is just, I suppose - a fit place for a Kinslayer! Mayhap this is e'en the Everlasting Dark, and my mind conjures my demons for me. Must I now be forced to repeat my mistakes? [ He laughs, but the sound is without joy and hollow, and the light in his eyes kindles to a fell madness ] Desperate fools! What recklessness is this, to ask the aid of one of the cursed sons of Feanor? "To evil end will all things turn". Will you have me bring my curse on yourselves? Nay, not this time. I reject thee, Lord and Lady, and I will have no part in your war. Keep your rewards and promises! Even if Forsaken I be, no son of Feanor ever willingly bent knee to any Lord of the Shadows, and I want nothing to do with this war.
- ★ LOG SAMPLE:
Will this do?
