bythewaves | IC Inbox [Ruby City]

Forgive me for my earlier assumption, Lord Maglor. I assumed because of your incredible longevity, grief and loss might be...distant from you. That clearly isn't the case.

[He wonders how Maglor does it. He marvels over the strength it takes to simply live.]

I will care for him as he deserves. He did not see the best of me in those last years.

[ a soft understanding chuff ] I suppose we might seem that way. Distant and remote. But no offence was meant, and none is taken. If we seem so, it is only because pain... is a knife that never fades, for my people. We distance ourselves... we have to. For if we do not it would slay us as surely as if you used a blade in truth. In that regard, Men have always been stronger than we.

And I am sure you would, and will.

Sorrow can kill Men too. [There are scars on his wrists that speak all too clearly.] We can reach the point where we don't want to live too. I think we are more alike than you think.

They call you our younger kindred. [ Maglor acknowledges ] And tis true, we are closer akin to each other than to others. But Men burn brighter and fiercer than we, I think, and you bear hurts that would have slain us.

Who created Elves in your world? Did they also create Men? [The mythology interests him. The Shin'a'in of his world believe in a Star-Eyed Goddess.]

Perhaps we burn brighter because we live such short lives?

That is what we all think, aye - that your fire burns hot and fast, and is the more passionate for it.

As for our creator, the Valar name him Eru, the One, and we, Elves, Men, Dwarves and Hobbits, are the Eruhini, the Children of the One, for we alone they had no part in shaping, and our fates they cannot clearly see, excepting the Doomsman. But Eru is their creator too, the One who stands Alone, before and after all else.

Your Eru reminds me of the Shin'a'in deities. They believe in a Goddess and God. The Goddess has four aspects: the Maiden, the Crone, the Mother and the Warrior. The God has four aspects too: the Rover, the Guardian, the Hunter and the Guide.

[He pauses.]

Have the Valar ever laid eyes on Eru?

They have. He dwells in the Timeless Halls, beyond the Walls of the World, and from thence they came, descending into Arda for love of our world. It is said that perhaps Men go there, after their deaths, but we do not know, for our fates are sundered.

Because you never die? [There is something sad about that and he focuses on that word "sundered".]

Not quite - we can be slain, just like any other. But our fear, our souls, are bound to the world, and so we pass not beyond it but only to the Halls of Waiting, and there to heal, and one day be reborn. But where Men go when they die no one knows.

But Men can be reborn. [He knows that personally.] Do you think some are chosen as...special?

I have heard some who say that, but if Men return they do not do so in the same form as they did before - for us, Rebirth is quite literally that. You walk from the Halls in the body that you died in, albeit healed of its hurts. If Men are indeed reborn... I do not know if all or only some. I know that Luthien chose mortality, she who was the fairest of all the Eruhin to ever live, and that she and her husband passed beyond the walls never to return, but if others might... I do not know.

That is a notable difference. Lendel was returned to me as Stefen and they... Do not look at all alike. But the spirit is the same - as is the Lifebond.

[Something he didn't realize until right before his death.]

This Luthien wished to be with her husband so much that she sacrificed her immortality and her chance to be reborn? I pray they are happy together.

Then perhaps it is so even in our world as well, but if it is so, who would have any way of knowing?

Luthien, Luthien! Theirs is a tale of a love greater than any our world has known. And I think they are - they only needed each other, to be happy I think.

The only way to tell would be through bonds. [Like a Lifebond.] But those are only easily apparent to those who work with magic.

[He sighs quietly, smiling.]

Then she likely does not regret her decision.

[ wryly ]

Doriath's princess never regretted anything, I do not think. I never met her, but if the tales are even slightly true - and they are more than that, for I knew the ellon who wrote the Lay, and he loved her deeply - Luthien was stubborn and strong-willed, and once she set her mind to anything there was no changing it.

If that is her nature, I'm not surprised she made such an extreme decision. [There's no helping stubborn beings.] I would have given my body and soul to stay with Lendel.

Though I was a silly teenager then.

[ A soft chuff of amusement ]

Ah, she was far older than that. She would have been... mm. Perhaps in her second or third millenium, I think. Perhaps older. Fairly young, for one of our folk, but well into her majority. And Beren was a man full grown. But they loved each other - some say their love was fated - with a fire that none could quench, although many tried. The tale is a great one, long! But beautiful. To this day, their tale remains one of the greatest loved.

[A romantic tale and one he's sure the ladies at court would sigh over.]

Love knows no race. [Even age seems questionable - in his case. Though Stefen was a lot more experienced than him.]

After seeing the beauty of Elves, I cannot blame this...Beren. He must have been entranced.

[ wryly ] I believe the line in the canto runs:

A night there was when winter died;
then all alone she sang and cried
and danced until the dawn of spring,
and chanted some wild magic thing
that stirred him, 'till at last it broke
the bonds that held him, and he woke
from dreaming deep and cold despair.

... It is a long tale, but it is said also that Luthien was as enchanted by he, and great was their doom indeed.

You consider it their doom? [Call him a romantic, but Vanyel imagines they're happy. Of course what awaits him is years and years of being a ghost until his lover joins him. Then they will guard Valdemar together as ghosts.]

Some say so. [ The shrug is almost audible ] Beren came to her through the Girdle of Melian, that none could pierce, and through the twisted sorcery of the Forest of Dungortheb... he came to her and she loved him, they say, the moment he called after her. High and great was their doom indeed, for they challenged both Morgoth and later Death itself, and the Doomsman opened the doors of Halls for her, as has never before been done.

I do not see doom; I see contentment and peace. Death can be a comfort for the weary - as I am sure you know. [Immortality isn't a gift if it means being alone.]

For them? Aye. For the rest of us... oh, it was Doom indeed. From their choices has spun so much of our world's fate.

How did their actions affect your people? Was there a conflict?

IC Inbox [Ruby City]

[Voice]

[Voice]

[Voice]

[Voice]

[Voice]

[Voice]

[Voice]

[Voice]

[Voice]

[Voice]

[Voice]

[Voice]

[Voice]

[Voice]

[Voice]

Voice]

[Voice]

[Voice]

[Voice]

[Voice]

[Voice]

[Voice]

[Voice]

[Voice]

[Voice]

[Voice]

[Voice]

[Voice]