A Light from the Shadow (Tolkien CKII)
- Thread starter ganonso
- Start date
Oh I am slain!
Wynaut?
- Location
- Tatooine
Unknown is very tempting. A lot of things have already been tried to resolve conflicts on Middle Earth and fight those in the shadows. Morienor is something new. And to forge his path, he may need Wisdom that has never been seen before on Middle Earth.
But...
[X] Memory
Agreed with other comments that Memory is more thematically interesting for this quest. But I wouldn't mind either winning.
But...
[X] Memory
Agreed with other comments that Memory is more thematically interesting for this quest. But I wouldn't mind either winning.
Last edited:
[X] Unknown
Mystery box! Woooo!
Also, forgetting or accepting memory both seem, in their own way, to be living in the past. I'd like this ex-Balrog to move forward in his life.
fasquardon
Mystery box! Woooo!
Also, forgetting or accepting memory both seem, in their own way, to be living in the past. I'd like this ex-Balrog to move forward in his life.
fasquardon
lavanderjasmine
Master of decoration
- Location
- R'lyeh
[x] Unknown
Dark Abstraction
Infrequent Participant
- Location
- United States
[X] Memory
Know the darkness, but live in the light. Forget not the past, but use it to make a better future.
Also, fuck mystery boxes. I hate those fucking things.
Know the darkness, but live in the light. Forget not the past, but use it to make a better future.
Also, fuck mystery boxes. I hate those fucking things.
Dragonjackel
GOLDEN Judgement
- Location
- Gregory House
[X] Memory
Trancelation
A very special snowflake
- Location
- United States of America
[X] Memory
To truly redeem ourselves we must face ourselves with face bared. Only when we know all that we did can we truly atone for it and move forward.
To truly redeem ourselves we must face ourselves with face bared. Only when we know all that we did can we truly atone for it and move forward.
ganonso
Compulsive Quest Starter
- Location
- PACA France
Vote Tally : A Light from the Shadow (Tolkien CKII) | Page 51 | Sufficient Velocity
##### NetTally 1.7.3.2
[x] Memory
No. of Votes: 20
UbeOne
Aburg7
avatar11792
cl20
Dark Abstraction
Dormin
Dragonjackel
EVA-Saiyajin
Fabulous Bob
GoukaRyuu
Halcyon
JaceAoT
MasterDrakus
MoonBunny
Oh I am slain!
Random Member
ShadowNic94
Silver719
Terrabrand
veekie
[x] Unknown
No. of Votes: 14
Shador
acegunner
APL 123AZ
auduni
Dirk93
DragonParadox
fasquardon
Karmic Acumen
lavanderjasmine
M3lk0r
pheonix89
prince84
Pyran
Walkin' Man
[X] Forgetfulness
No. of Votes: 2
Artemis1992
Night_stalker
Total No. of Voters: 36
##### NetTally 1.7.3.2
[x] Memory
No. of Votes: 20
UbeOne
Aburg7
avatar11792
cl20
Dark Abstraction
Dormin
Dragonjackel
EVA-Saiyajin
Fabulous Bob
GoukaRyuu
Halcyon
JaceAoT
MasterDrakus
MoonBunny
Oh I am slain!
Random Member
ShadowNic94
Silver719
Terrabrand
veekie
[x] Unknown
No. of Votes: 14
Shador
acegunner
APL 123AZ
auduni
Dirk93
DragonParadox
fasquardon
Karmic Acumen
lavanderjasmine
M3lk0r
pheonix89
prince84
Pyran
Walkin' Man
[X] Forgetfulness
No. of Votes: 2
Artemis1992
Night_stalker
Total No. of Voters: 36
Lord of Dreams part 3 :
ganonso
Compulsive Quest Starter
- Location
- PACA France
Lord of Dreams part 3 :
Those who forget their past are condemned to repeat it. At least that's what mortals say and you tend to defer to their wisdom as you have so often lapsed in your own. You are not surprised to see a jeweled emerald cup appear in your hands enabling you to draw at the red spring. You are even less surprised by the taste. Like honey in your mouth but bitter down your throat. Such is the way of memory, especially one filled with shadow and shame. Shame for what you have done and shame for befouling the garden of Irmo named Lorien so.
And befoul it you do for your memories, freed from madness and bias fly from your skull and manifest themselves around you. First are the Timeless Halls before creation had a name. Yes, first is the place you can remember but no words can describe for two reasons. One first words and language, even the high tongue of Valinor you never spoken as Melkor had devised his own tongue as many other things, are things of this world, bound by forms and time. Second, the Timeless Halls were a blind universe where there was no sight but only hearing. Your song was like the flame and perhaps you looked like one, lesser flames, hidden in the great brazier of Melkor. With him you sang fire into Arda and no element can reflect both the Music and the Shadow like it can.
Marred in Discord were you even when you descended into Arda, tying yourself to the world of forms. By the will of Melkor were you exalted above all other servants except Sauron, and even then you were equal in the eyes of he who called himself Almighty, for he did not forget you were his even before his Fall and needed no convincing to join him in darkness. Beautiful to your eyes was Arda in her infancy and jealous was your love of her. For you loved her in her unshapen beauty, wishing like Melkor to leave her to be. Sketches of mountains, outlines of sea, shadow of continents… Why would the Valar corral such joyous chaos burning the great ocean of stars rather than make their habitation like Melkor did.
Now you understand that Arda was indeed beautiful but that beauty was but the foundation of everything to come. You understand too that Melkor had already fallen from grace and grew angry with Eru Allfather. It would have been so easy after all for your number, for you counted a third of the Powers in your ranks, to create a home in the sea of stars, a burning orb like Tulkas' aster and order it at your liking.
Melkor couldn't accept that of course. Such a world would never bear intelligent life and even in the depths of the Discord none of his immortal servants ever forgot that Eru was the creator of all and even Morgoth the Black Foe could not forget it, no matter how often the knowledge pierced heart and flesh to the core.
So in the wastes of Arda did Melkor found Utumno and Angband, the Greater and Lesser Hells to be his lair and the fortress of his armies. And as he planned war on the world he ordered the Valarauka to adapt themselves to it. It was there you took your form and you chose them not as the Valar did for comeliness, nor as Sauron and the subtler servants as figure of dread majesty. You were Melkor's scourge and weapons and so you looked the part. So terrible were your forms, so attuned to raw physical might and destruction that you forgot without forgetting that you were luminous beings and not creature of base matter.
You mourn in the caves of forgotten Utumno for you realize that for the span of your service in Arda you did not know yourself and now you understand that explains your incapacity to change shape or clothe yourself anew without your master's intervention. In the latter ages, Morgoth did not know you anymore and you were condemned to wander without form or be housed in draconic mantles.
What can you say of your long service? The Valarauka were rarely unleashed in the First Age, especially after the first conflict when your commanders understood you were mortal. Mighty as you were, Melian remained in Middle-Earth and with her the knowledge to forge weapons to hurt you. And Morgoth even just after the destruction of the Lamps grew fearful and he kept you at his side to form his guards. And some of your numbers were tasked to serve Sauron when he was the Captain of Angband, both to help him and keep a watch on him so he could not take the fortress as his own.
So, you watched and watched and watched as other servants corrupted the Elves in the shape of the Orcs. You saw how they extracted promises and oaths who kept their fëa from escaping to Mandos. Tortured and misshapen they were beyond mortal endurance, held in the world by the terror of Sauron's gaze and Morgoth's will was on them to make them breed and multiply in the caverns of the earth. Yet Utumno was breached, the walls sundered by the might of the Valar and you tasted defeat for the first time in this world and were forced to hide while Tulkas chained Melkor and brought him to Valinor for judgment.
Watch you did when Luthien came to Morgoth's throne and danced for him. Clouds appeared in the darkness of the ceiling as the walls came alive. For a moment, it seemed you were lost in Varda or Ulmo's domain where darkness is pierced with many lights. The pillars seemed as living trees groaning under the weight of the fortress. In the middle of that danced Luthien fairest of all the children of creation with the blood of Melian the Maïa singing in her veins. She enchanted you to sleep but now you understand things in the steps of her dance and the dreams brought by the dark mantle of her hair you had not perceived.
Watch you did when Hurin was brought to Morgoth's throne and was cursed for his defiance. Like all of Morgoth's highest servants you saw the life and tragedy of Turin Turambar who decreed Master of Doom. What dark mirth were yours when rumors of that title came to your ears. For Morgoth himself styled himself Master of the Fates of Arda and the arrogance of a simple Man while taking a title reserved for the Almighty was too much to resist. Let him complain about the curse of Melkor on his house. There was no need for it when he ensnared himself so eagerly.
None forced Turin to refuse the pardon of Thingol and run as an outlaw in the woods. None guided his hand to stab his best friend who was freeing him. No ill spirit entered in him to make him counsel Nargothrond to their destruction. And if Glaurung took Nienor under his spell, nobody tempted Turin to take the girl he found wild in the wood and taught to talk in his bed. Turin was effectively Turambar, Master of his own Doom and from him you learn much of evil. For one can learn much from Morgoth's shadows.
Yet for war you were forged and in war you fought. You were with your brethren when you heard in Lammoth the great scream of Morgoth fighting with Ungoliant and loyalty made you fly like a smoke cloud into the darkness of her webs. You remember seeing her bloated and as mighty as a Vala fighting to a standstill your lord and master who brought fire and ice to no avail. You chased the spider with flaming brands and whips, tearing her webs and piercing her incarnated flesh. The power she stole from the trees of Aman she was forced to give up, giving birth to her noxious but mortal brood you promptly slaughtered until few were left alive to join Nan Dungortheb, this valley of Dreadful Death so feared by elves and men.
Your blows struck down Féänor and Fingon, both High Kings of the Noldor, striking them down and trampling their honor in the dust. Your hands bound Mahedros and fixed to the walls of Angband to suffer for years. Yet your greatest feat of war was the destruction of Gondolin.
Even then you found it odd that, with the exception of Glaurung nesting in the halls of Felagund, your master did not want to conquer but only to destroy. Perhaps it was more merciful for the spires of Gondolin to be torn down and cast to the ground to the roaring of your forces, perhaps it was sweeter for the elves you sent to Mandos' halls to think their great city was broken down the cliffs than to think it defiled by the presence of Morgoth's creatures, made in a new Angband. The orders had been clear: Of Gondolin dream in stone of Tirion of Valinor, no two stone remained together. Bitter was your victory this day for one of your brother and Gothmog your prince and commander fell this day.
You see all that, all the battles of Beleriand and the perfidies of Melkor and your song rise unbidden in regret. On yourself you mourn, for you have not reached the perfection of Nienna, but also for others. For your victims, even proud Féänor who the Valar forsook, for the Orcs you drove to evil after their terrible birth. Even for the Spider of Unlight you cry for you remember what she was in the beginning when with the people of Varda she brought night's repose. Your dream end with that haunting song, a great Song giving you back both vigilance and strength for in the First Age, you fought without honor and watched without intervention.
Trait Gained: Vigilant: You have reconnected with your memories of the First Age: +5 Martial and Intrigue.
Those who forget their past are condemned to repeat it. At least that's what mortals say and you tend to defer to their wisdom as you have so often lapsed in your own. You are not surprised to see a jeweled emerald cup appear in your hands enabling you to draw at the red spring. You are even less surprised by the taste. Like honey in your mouth but bitter down your throat. Such is the way of memory, especially one filled with shadow and shame. Shame for what you have done and shame for befouling the garden of Irmo named Lorien so.
And befoul it you do for your memories, freed from madness and bias fly from your skull and manifest themselves around you. First are the Timeless Halls before creation had a name. Yes, first is the place you can remember but no words can describe for two reasons. One first words and language, even the high tongue of Valinor you never spoken as Melkor had devised his own tongue as many other things, are things of this world, bound by forms and time. Second, the Timeless Halls were a blind universe where there was no sight but only hearing. Your song was like the flame and perhaps you looked like one, lesser flames, hidden in the great brazier of Melkor. With him you sang fire into Arda and no element can reflect both the Music and the Shadow like it can.
Marred in Discord were you even when you descended into Arda, tying yourself to the world of forms. By the will of Melkor were you exalted above all other servants except Sauron, and even then you were equal in the eyes of he who called himself Almighty, for he did not forget you were his even before his Fall and needed no convincing to join him in darkness. Beautiful to your eyes was Arda in her infancy and jealous was your love of her. For you loved her in her unshapen beauty, wishing like Melkor to leave her to be. Sketches of mountains, outlines of sea, shadow of continents… Why would the Valar corral such joyous chaos burning the great ocean of stars rather than make their habitation like Melkor did.
Now you understand that Arda was indeed beautiful but that beauty was but the foundation of everything to come. You understand too that Melkor had already fallen from grace and grew angry with Eru Allfather. It would have been so easy after all for your number, for you counted a third of the Powers in your ranks, to create a home in the sea of stars, a burning orb like Tulkas' aster and order it at your liking.
Melkor couldn't accept that of course. Such a world would never bear intelligent life and even in the depths of the Discord none of his immortal servants ever forgot that Eru was the creator of all and even Morgoth the Black Foe could not forget it, no matter how often the knowledge pierced heart and flesh to the core.
So in the wastes of Arda did Melkor found Utumno and Angband, the Greater and Lesser Hells to be his lair and the fortress of his armies. And as he planned war on the world he ordered the Valarauka to adapt themselves to it. It was there you took your form and you chose them not as the Valar did for comeliness, nor as Sauron and the subtler servants as figure of dread majesty. You were Melkor's scourge and weapons and so you looked the part. So terrible were your forms, so attuned to raw physical might and destruction that you forgot without forgetting that you were luminous beings and not creature of base matter.
You mourn in the caves of forgotten Utumno for you realize that for the span of your service in Arda you did not know yourself and now you understand that explains your incapacity to change shape or clothe yourself anew without your master's intervention. In the latter ages, Morgoth did not know you anymore and you were condemned to wander without form or be housed in draconic mantles.
What can you say of your long service? The Valarauka were rarely unleashed in the First Age, especially after the first conflict when your commanders understood you were mortal. Mighty as you were, Melian remained in Middle-Earth and with her the knowledge to forge weapons to hurt you. And Morgoth even just after the destruction of the Lamps grew fearful and he kept you at his side to form his guards. And some of your numbers were tasked to serve Sauron when he was the Captain of Angband, both to help him and keep a watch on him so he could not take the fortress as his own.
So, you watched and watched and watched as other servants corrupted the Elves in the shape of the Orcs. You saw how they extracted promises and oaths who kept their fëa from escaping to Mandos. Tortured and misshapen they were beyond mortal endurance, held in the world by the terror of Sauron's gaze and Morgoth's will was on them to make them breed and multiply in the caverns of the earth. Yet Utumno was breached, the walls sundered by the might of the Valar and you tasted defeat for the first time in this world and were forced to hide while Tulkas chained Melkor and brought him to Valinor for judgment.
Watch you did when Luthien came to Morgoth's throne and danced for him. Clouds appeared in the darkness of the ceiling as the walls came alive. For a moment, it seemed you were lost in Varda or Ulmo's domain where darkness is pierced with many lights. The pillars seemed as living trees groaning under the weight of the fortress. In the middle of that danced Luthien fairest of all the children of creation with the blood of Melian the Maïa singing in her veins. She enchanted you to sleep but now you understand things in the steps of her dance and the dreams brought by the dark mantle of her hair you had not perceived.
Watch you did when Hurin was brought to Morgoth's throne and was cursed for his defiance. Like all of Morgoth's highest servants you saw the life and tragedy of Turin Turambar who decreed Master of Doom. What dark mirth were yours when rumors of that title came to your ears. For Morgoth himself styled himself Master of the Fates of Arda and the arrogance of a simple Man while taking a title reserved for the Almighty was too much to resist. Let him complain about the curse of Melkor on his house. There was no need for it when he ensnared himself so eagerly.
None forced Turin to refuse the pardon of Thingol and run as an outlaw in the woods. None guided his hand to stab his best friend who was freeing him. No ill spirit entered in him to make him counsel Nargothrond to their destruction. And if Glaurung took Nienor under his spell, nobody tempted Turin to take the girl he found wild in the wood and taught to talk in his bed. Turin was effectively Turambar, Master of his own Doom and from him you learn much of evil. For one can learn much from Morgoth's shadows.
Yet for war you were forged and in war you fought. You were with your brethren when you heard in Lammoth the great scream of Morgoth fighting with Ungoliant and loyalty made you fly like a smoke cloud into the darkness of her webs. You remember seeing her bloated and as mighty as a Vala fighting to a standstill your lord and master who brought fire and ice to no avail. You chased the spider with flaming brands and whips, tearing her webs and piercing her incarnated flesh. The power she stole from the trees of Aman she was forced to give up, giving birth to her noxious but mortal brood you promptly slaughtered until few were left alive to join Nan Dungortheb, this valley of Dreadful Death so feared by elves and men.
Your blows struck down Féänor and Fingon, both High Kings of the Noldor, striking them down and trampling their honor in the dust. Your hands bound Mahedros and fixed to the walls of Angband to suffer for years. Yet your greatest feat of war was the destruction of Gondolin.
Even then you found it odd that, with the exception of Glaurung nesting in the halls of Felagund, your master did not want to conquer but only to destroy. Perhaps it was more merciful for the spires of Gondolin to be torn down and cast to the ground to the roaring of your forces, perhaps it was sweeter for the elves you sent to Mandos' halls to think their great city was broken down the cliffs than to think it defiled by the presence of Morgoth's creatures, made in a new Angband. The orders had been clear: Of Gondolin dream in stone of Tirion of Valinor, no two stone remained together. Bitter was your victory this day for one of your brother and Gothmog your prince and commander fell this day.
You see all that, all the battles of Beleriand and the perfidies of Melkor and your song rise unbidden in regret. On yourself you mourn, for you have not reached the perfection of Nienna, but also for others. For your victims, even proud Féänor who the Valar forsook, for the Orcs you drove to evil after their terrible birth. Even for the Spider of Unlight you cry for you remember what she was in the beginning when with the people of Varda she brought night's repose. Your dream end with that haunting song, a great Song giving you back both vigilance and strength for in the First Age, you fought without honor and watched without intervention.
Trait Gained: Vigilant: You have reconnected with your memories of the First Age: +5 Martial and Intrigue.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well that was nice.
- Location
- The World
Wait, so other than Melkor and Sauron we were basically the main bad guy during most of the Silmarilion and Unfinished Tales? We tied Mahedros to the wall personally?
That's rough.
That's rough.
- Location
- Too Deep in the Midnight Sea
Unless this refers to the hands of the Balrogs in general, it seems like we were pretty motherfucking hardcore in the First Age.
Well, this boosted two of Morianor's weaker stats. That's cool.
Also, it seems Morianor was pretty important back in the day.
@ganonso: did Morianor become a more important minion of Morgoth due to the choices we made, or was he always going to be so important?
fasquardon
ganonso
Compulsive Quest Starter
- Location
- PACA France
It's the hands of the Balrogs in general. Their tactics in the Silmarion except in the Nirnaeth are always described as an unit and when they take action it's to lead the Fall of Gondolin where Gothmog is commander in-chief.
Importance is a relative term. The Balrogs were the personal guard of Morgoth Bauglir and as said above are always described in the Silmarion as acting together. (It helps that Book of Lost Tales notwhistanding Tolkienian canon fix their numbers at seven, which for me works as the only Balrogs we see dying before the War of Wrath are Gothmog and Glorfindel's adversary)
Note that technically you did nothing more than your brothers in your First Age. It's just as Morgoth's bodyguard you were in his throne room pretty much everytime you weren't on the battlefield, so you were on the front rows when Morgoth did something.
In my headcanon the hierarchy of Angband was this way:
Melkor
The Balrogs-Sauron
Others Umaïar and Boldogs
Slaves (technically Orcs at the top but as we see the Mouth of Sauron in LOTR being the Lieutenant of Barad-Dur aka second person of Mordor I think it was somewhat meritocratic).
I don't know where to place Glaurung because while he leads armies against Nargothrond, he seems pretty much to act on his own and the Orcs leave him squat in the halls of Felagund alone.
Sauron got more shit done because he has a more diverse skill-set (and with the exception of Gothmog the Balrogs were specialized in killing stuff, not leading armies) but the Balrogs were not beholden to him. In my interpretation it is because of all Morgoth's servants the Balrogs were all that remained of Melkor's followers from before the Music and not corrupted beings, the rest having either not descended into Ea, been imprisoned in the conflicts of dawn time or died. Thus they were his oldest and most trustworthy slaves.
Last edited:
ganonso
Compulsive Quest Starter
- Location
- PACA France
For those curious Forgetfullness would have granted the vision of an alternate history where you would not have fallen (Martial/Piety)
Unknown would have either granted a vision of an alternate history where another Vala (or more probably a couple) would have fallen instead of Melkor, or Daggor Daggorath (Intrigue/Learning)
Unknown would have either granted a vision of an alternate history where another Vala (or more probably a couple) would have fallen instead of Melkor, or Daggor Daggorath (Intrigue/Learning)
Both of those sound like very interesting reads.
Oh well. Onwards!
fasquardon
ganonso
Compulsive Quest Starter
- Location
- PACA France
Valar above I'm doing the sheets for Gandalf and Saruman as they are coming to visit you and welll.
- You are more persuasive than Gandalf
- Saruman is a saint with absolute Piety. Seems his fall has been completely butterflied at this point
- It is very possible Saruman abuses his Ainu powers to make gold. He certainly makes the stuff appear like it was magic.
- He's also a better general than Gandalf
- They have both MAX INTRIGUE, Good thing they despise most of the stuff therein.
- Location
- The World
So we're the Balrog but we're behind in everything except diplomacy? Wow.
ganonso
Compulsive Quest Starter
- Location
- PACA France
You have
- Better Diplomacy: Sincerely I think you are the most silver-tongued guy in Arda right now with the possible exception of Sauron
- An awesome battleform with in-built magic weapons and the potential to change it.
- Bonuses whch vary at noticing the work of the Shadow.
- Slightly higher growth potential. They have 40 in some stats but they can't go further. You can go to 50