Lord of Dreams part 1
ganonso
Compulsive Quest Starter
- Location
- PACA France
Lord of Dreams
You sleep.
That's not new, even as a Valarauka, you needed to sleep sometimes, indeed you spent most of the time following your flight from Angband's ruin. This is different. You gathered the most promising of your students, as well as the elders of the settlement and then partook with them of the strange mushrooms you found. You were upfront with it too. The plants would guide their consciousness, making them journey through the ether to face their fears, regrets and hopes. You urged them to meditate on Irmo, lord of dreams and master of Lorien. You hope their dreams will help them reconnect with the great Music of the world. You took the same substance as they did, fearing neither introspection nor the judgement of the Powers. Lorien is the only one who can receive you and you see no harm in submitting yourself to his gaze.
Your eyes are close but soon you see. You see the world in its youth when it was still being shaped. You are in the great sea of ice who would hold Utumno the great. It's beautiful in a way. You see the frozen waves and the underground flames next to each other, the great rocks molded by the fury of Morgoth into towers and look-out. Your gaze is keen enough to see through stone and ground to embrace the manifold caverns. Yet they are empty, not full of the loathsome life and hideous blasphemy Morgoth filled them with. For a moment you ponder what would have happened if Melkor had decided to work alone with your order, sculpting stone and ice and fire, making palaces and sanctuaries. That would not have happened of course. Beauty is nothing without spectators and neither Melkor, nor any of you would have been content with mastering the inanimate. Yet perhaps after a time the other Powers would have come to see your works and found a place for their brother. Or perhaps not, you don't think you ever understood your master after all. For a time you are lost in thoughts.
Then you see him
You didn't see this form since an eternity. For he doesn't appear as he looked even before the Darkening of Valinor, as a black knight great and terrible. He is huge like a giant. His body seems a sculpted armor of ice depicting forms that never were covering a skin of red fire. No, you recognize know the pattern of the armors, vines spreading and coursing around flowers made of gemstones. He wears a crown of black gold in which three stars are inlaid. His cloak is of starry knights Where his skin is not burning, it is of obsidian so pure you can see yourself in it. His hair fall like a river of flame on his shoulders. His eyes shine with colors who don't exist.
At his belt hang Ghrond the Hammer who crushes mountains.
Seeing him like this, like he was and yet not like he was, make you remember why you followed him so long ago, even in the Timeless Halls were none of you where clad in flesh.
[] Love, it was love. How could you not love Him? He was, even before the world was the most sublime of all Eru's creation, endowed with all powers and all majesty. He was power and wisdom true but it paled with the chance to simply be with Him, at His sides as he shaped the world to make it a mirror of his beauty. You loved Him and you love what He made, the ice falling in deadly shards, the fire coming in scarlet ribbons. Your nature was of fire, as befitted your passion but for Him you took the mantle of night and embodied the contradiction of elements, as best as you could.
[] To be in the presence of Melkor, was to know wisdom. Of all the Aïnur he seemed the most wise, always rushing to answer the questions of the Allfather, always eager to teach what he knew, to share what he thought. When he made the Discord, you didn't think of evil but you simply followed the teacher you chose. If he decided to go against Eru's overt design, there must have been a reason, some secret plan you weren't privy off. You followed him on Arda for you believed in his wisdom and he shared with you many things on the working on the world, even secrets taken from the Void during his lonely errands.
[] Melkor deserved his name in the beginning. He was indeed He Who Arises in Might, the Strong. Even in the Timeless Halls his nature expressed itself and to be in his presence was to know power, was to feel as being in the presence of power, shaped by it, even more strongly than in the presence of Eru. You wanted to be part of this power, to feel as he felt. When he declared his rebellion during the Music, you admired his resolve. He stood straight against the Father's rebuke and that was enough. You descended with him in Arda and took a form of power, fit for being a vessel of physical strength and destruction. As he was stronger than you even in the very end, you didn't think of questioning him.
Even as you see him, you see the world changes, becoming harsher and harsher. He changes too becoming the giant of black steel and blazing fangs, with madness in his eyes and torment in his hands, you remember all too well. His smile becomes the smile of torment, nearly a scream as he fills the land with dread. You see him fall and you fall with him, the dream showing all stages of the rising of the Shadow and your service to it. There are so many things you regret now, but one stands in particular.
[] You hate yourself for becoming numb to pain and evil as they occurred around you. You despise your cowardice as you took your rage on lesser beings but let the fire in your heart die. You did not embrace evil wholeheaterdly, at least not in the beginning, but you didn't speak against it let alone act to slow things down, even when Melkor would accept counsel. You renounced the good of the intellect and became a dumb beast, hurting to hurt and killing to kill, with no zeal but numb apathy.
[] You hate yourself for being so easily misled. Melkor was ever the liar you see that now, he lied even to himself. Yet you followed him willingly, ensnared by his promises, dazzled by his radiance. You thought you were being good, perhaps even that you still served Eru's great purpose and were still on the side of the Father's. Perhaps you thought Melkor being a reflection of his thoughts meant your acts were condoned. You spread the lies of Melkor through your actions and your commands, leading at least some souls in the service of the Shadow.
[] You hate yourself for you believed wholeheartedly in Melkor's cause. You understood it perfectly. You saw his thoughts change from desiring the Light to hating it and you changed with him. You understood his rebellion against Eru Allfather and decided to bear arms in his service. No atrocity was enough, no crime was enough to make the creator pay for refusing to let you alter the world to your liking. Melkor deserved your worship, he deserved to have his own world, or at least the crown of Arda and the adoration of the other Valar.
Yet in the Shadow you found something to your liking, something that even now you regret having left. They say redemption is renouncement. What have you forsaken when you listened to Nienna?
[] You long for the power you held in the halls of Angband. For in these lands the essence of Morgoth was in everything and you could shape it with impunity. You regret the rush of power you had in His presence and the capacity to be in His image, an avatar of burning strength while now you must willingly settle things by word and not violence
[] You long for the certainty you felt at Morgoth's side. In Angband His word was law and he didn't leave even his most powerful servants much room to rebel or to move. There were no conflict, no uncertainty, no fear. He commanded and you obeyed. Now even Nienna's mandate leaves you much choices and you confess you are afraid.
[] You long for the absence of the limits you had when you followed the Shadow. You felt as if nothing could constrain you, as you were free to do everything. Melkor was the wellspring of infinite potential and he promised freedom from all limits and all chains. Now you have willingly put yourself in the service of another and gladly so but you still remember the urge to do simply whatever you want.
The scene shifts a last time and you see Morgoth's final fate, a shape of darkness and fire and ice constrained by Angaïnor the great chain and thrown into the Void until the Last Battle. What thoughts fill your head now on the master you so long served. What do you think of Melkor named Morgoth and his final fate? What do you think his future could be?
[] You still love and admire him. Not what he became but what he was, what he could still be. Eru created him as the most powerful of the Ainur and gave him the greater part of all energies. Even wounded and marred, having forsook the power he was given to embrace another, he still commands part of your respect. He could be great again, if only he could simply bow and accept other will than his exist and matter.
[] Even if he amended himself, you cannot see Melkor take the role he was meant to take at the beginning of time. Too much power was squandered for that. Yet he could take a role in creation. Perhaps he could wed Nienna who mourns for what never was and complement her by longing for what will never be. They would not make a happy couple in the strictest sense but them that's not their role in creation.
[] Even as a servant of Nienna you don't think Morgoth will ever seek redemption. The Valar thought so for they threw him into the Void without the possibility to plead his cause. To abase himself before another, even the Allfather is contrary to Morgoth's very essence. He is nothing but the Black Foe of the world now and all traces of his light are but fading memories.
Think of your answers for then the landscape changes and you are taken to the presence of Irmo in the gardens of Lorien.
You sleep.
That's not new, even as a Valarauka, you needed to sleep sometimes, indeed you spent most of the time following your flight from Angband's ruin. This is different. You gathered the most promising of your students, as well as the elders of the settlement and then partook with them of the strange mushrooms you found. You were upfront with it too. The plants would guide their consciousness, making them journey through the ether to face their fears, regrets and hopes. You urged them to meditate on Irmo, lord of dreams and master of Lorien. You hope their dreams will help them reconnect with the great Music of the world. You took the same substance as they did, fearing neither introspection nor the judgement of the Powers. Lorien is the only one who can receive you and you see no harm in submitting yourself to his gaze.
Your eyes are close but soon you see. You see the world in its youth when it was still being shaped. You are in the great sea of ice who would hold Utumno the great. It's beautiful in a way. You see the frozen waves and the underground flames next to each other, the great rocks molded by the fury of Morgoth into towers and look-out. Your gaze is keen enough to see through stone and ground to embrace the manifold caverns. Yet they are empty, not full of the loathsome life and hideous blasphemy Morgoth filled them with. For a moment you ponder what would have happened if Melkor had decided to work alone with your order, sculpting stone and ice and fire, making palaces and sanctuaries. That would not have happened of course. Beauty is nothing without spectators and neither Melkor, nor any of you would have been content with mastering the inanimate. Yet perhaps after a time the other Powers would have come to see your works and found a place for their brother. Or perhaps not, you don't think you ever understood your master after all. For a time you are lost in thoughts.
Then you see him
You didn't see this form since an eternity. For he doesn't appear as he looked even before the Darkening of Valinor, as a black knight great and terrible. He is huge like a giant. His body seems a sculpted armor of ice depicting forms that never were covering a skin of red fire. No, you recognize know the pattern of the armors, vines spreading and coursing around flowers made of gemstones. He wears a crown of black gold in which three stars are inlaid. His cloak is of starry knights Where his skin is not burning, it is of obsidian so pure you can see yourself in it. His hair fall like a river of flame on his shoulders. His eyes shine with colors who don't exist.
At his belt hang Ghrond the Hammer who crushes mountains.
Seeing him like this, like he was and yet not like he was, make you remember why you followed him so long ago, even in the Timeless Halls were none of you where clad in flesh.
[] Love, it was love. How could you not love Him? He was, even before the world was the most sublime of all Eru's creation, endowed with all powers and all majesty. He was power and wisdom true but it paled with the chance to simply be with Him, at His sides as he shaped the world to make it a mirror of his beauty. You loved Him and you love what He made, the ice falling in deadly shards, the fire coming in scarlet ribbons. Your nature was of fire, as befitted your passion but for Him you took the mantle of night and embodied the contradiction of elements, as best as you could.
[] To be in the presence of Melkor, was to know wisdom. Of all the Aïnur he seemed the most wise, always rushing to answer the questions of the Allfather, always eager to teach what he knew, to share what he thought. When he made the Discord, you didn't think of evil but you simply followed the teacher you chose. If he decided to go against Eru's overt design, there must have been a reason, some secret plan you weren't privy off. You followed him on Arda for you believed in his wisdom and he shared with you many things on the working on the world, even secrets taken from the Void during his lonely errands.
[] Melkor deserved his name in the beginning. He was indeed He Who Arises in Might, the Strong. Even in the Timeless Halls his nature expressed itself and to be in his presence was to know power, was to feel as being in the presence of power, shaped by it, even more strongly than in the presence of Eru. You wanted to be part of this power, to feel as he felt. When he declared his rebellion during the Music, you admired his resolve. He stood straight against the Father's rebuke and that was enough. You descended with him in Arda and took a form of power, fit for being a vessel of physical strength and destruction. As he was stronger than you even in the very end, you didn't think of questioning him.
Even as you see him, you see the world changes, becoming harsher and harsher. He changes too becoming the giant of black steel and blazing fangs, with madness in his eyes and torment in his hands, you remember all too well. His smile becomes the smile of torment, nearly a scream as he fills the land with dread. You see him fall and you fall with him, the dream showing all stages of the rising of the Shadow and your service to it. There are so many things you regret now, but one stands in particular.
[] You hate yourself for becoming numb to pain and evil as they occurred around you. You despise your cowardice as you took your rage on lesser beings but let the fire in your heart die. You did not embrace evil wholeheaterdly, at least not in the beginning, but you didn't speak against it let alone act to slow things down, even when Melkor would accept counsel. You renounced the good of the intellect and became a dumb beast, hurting to hurt and killing to kill, with no zeal but numb apathy.
[] You hate yourself for being so easily misled. Melkor was ever the liar you see that now, he lied even to himself. Yet you followed him willingly, ensnared by his promises, dazzled by his radiance. You thought you were being good, perhaps even that you still served Eru's great purpose and were still on the side of the Father's. Perhaps you thought Melkor being a reflection of his thoughts meant your acts were condoned. You spread the lies of Melkor through your actions and your commands, leading at least some souls in the service of the Shadow.
[] You hate yourself for you believed wholeheartedly in Melkor's cause. You understood it perfectly. You saw his thoughts change from desiring the Light to hating it and you changed with him. You understood his rebellion against Eru Allfather and decided to bear arms in his service. No atrocity was enough, no crime was enough to make the creator pay for refusing to let you alter the world to your liking. Melkor deserved your worship, he deserved to have his own world, or at least the crown of Arda and the adoration of the other Valar.
Yet in the Shadow you found something to your liking, something that even now you regret having left. They say redemption is renouncement. What have you forsaken when you listened to Nienna?
[] You long for the power you held in the halls of Angband. For in these lands the essence of Morgoth was in everything and you could shape it with impunity. You regret the rush of power you had in His presence and the capacity to be in His image, an avatar of burning strength while now you must willingly settle things by word and not violence
[] You long for the certainty you felt at Morgoth's side. In Angband His word was law and he didn't leave even his most powerful servants much room to rebel or to move. There were no conflict, no uncertainty, no fear. He commanded and you obeyed. Now even Nienna's mandate leaves you much choices and you confess you are afraid.
[] You long for the absence of the limits you had when you followed the Shadow. You felt as if nothing could constrain you, as you were free to do everything. Melkor was the wellspring of infinite potential and he promised freedom from all limits and all chains. Now you have willingly put yourself in the service of another and gladly so but you still remember the urge to do simply whatever you want.
The scene shifts a last time and you see Morgoth's final fate, a shape of darkness and fire and ice constrained by Angaïnor the great chain and thrown into the Void until the Last Battle. What thoughts fill your head now on the master you so long served. What do you think of Melkor named Morgoth and his final fate? What do you think his future could be?
[] You still love and admire him. Not what he became but what he was, what he could still be. Eru created him as the most powerful of the Ainur and gave him the greater part of all energies. Even wounded and marred, having forsook the power he was given to embrace another, he still commands part of your respect. He could be great again, if only he could simply bow and accept other will than his exist and matter.
[] Even if he amended himself, you cannot see Melkor take the role he was meant to take at the beginning of time. Too much power was squandered for that. Yet he could take a role in creation. Perhaps he could wed Nienna who mourns for what never was and complement her by longing for what will never be. They would not make a happy couple in the strictest sense but them that's not their role in creation.
[] Even as a servant of Nienna you don't think Morgoth will ever seek redemption. The Valar thought so for they threw him into the Void without the possibility to plead his cause. To abase himself before another, even the Allfather is contrary to Morgoth's very essence. He is nothing but the Black Foe of the world now and all traces of his light are but fading memories.
Think of your answers for then the landscape changes and you are taken to the presence of Irmo in the gardens of Lorien.
