MinuBell

Nazgul, Sauron, and Celebrimbor-centric stories and doodles. I just think they're all idiots. My inbox is always open for requests!

[minubell]

I am ALWAYS taking suggestions for things to draw or write!

Silm Content Masterpost:

Tides of War Extended Universe: A canon timeline compliant series focusing on Mairon and the Nazgul. The main series I write in. AO3 Link.

Nyannatar AU: An Alternate Universe where Annatar is Celebrimbor’s weird, scary, maybe only mostly feral cat. AO3 Link

It Takes Two Steps AU: An Alternate Universe where Mairon’s siege of Eregion goes very differently. This is an eventual Fix-It. AO3 Link

Roleswap AU: An Alternate Universe where Celebrimbor has always been a Maia, and Annatar has always been an elf (But not always by that name). AO3 Link

Nice Sauron AU: An Alternate Universe where Sauron literally pours all of his cruelty, malice, and will to dominate life into the One Ring. So he’s actually nice now. (The same cannot be said for the Ring). No AO3 Link yet since nobody has requested any fics.

Silmamemes: Art tag for all the stupid shit I draw including meme redraws, original jokes, etc. Does not include my serious art.

[minubell]

More kitty maiar?🥹

Annatar's body is stock-still and focused. Tense, tight, and stiff, all save a flicker of his tail that betrays his intentions. His eyes, mere seconds ago sharp slivers now dilate until only a faint ring of fiery orange surrounds them. In a moment those tiny, vicious claws will flex, stark white against his black fur, primed to strike. Celebrimbor has seen this often enough, has been subjected to this enough to know what comes next.

"Please do not," Celebrimbor whispers, pleading, already slowly raising his hands to his head to protect his scalp. "Annatar, please. Annatar- ANNATAR, NO!"

[minubell]

Not an ask, Just remembered Nyannatar cause of my friends cat. Love your morally dubious cat au.

Merry Chrysler

Celebrimbor is drawn back to the room following a large crash to find the candles strewn upon the floor and the curtains ablaze. It is a harsh, yet important lesson; one should always be careful with open flames near their morally dubious pets.

Happy Hanukkah!

[minubell]

Realizing I've drawn Eonwe as a cat more than I've drawn him not so.... anyway

[minubell]

Drawing suggestion: Nyannatar and Meowne napping together (possibly in a sunbeam, possibly, like, in the middle of the furnace)

Cuddle buddies!

[minubell]

...You know what, good for her.

[minubell]

"And she descended upon Arda in power and majesty and boobs greater than any other of the Valar-"

The Silmarillion, "Ainulindalë"

[minubell]

...You know what, good for her.

[minubell]

What about the Nazguls in the Nice!Sauron AU?

What's up with them?

They're not alive.

To be clear! Most of the Nazgul aren't Numenorean. Khamul, Indur, Ren, Uvatha, Dwar... they haven't even been born by the time the One Ring would have been forged. For some, their parents haven't even been born. The timeline prior to the creation of Super-Evil-Fucked-Up-Ring!Sauron is unchanged, and the variations resulting from its creation are really only seen a few years after that.

But their lives are not pleasant when they are born. There's a reason each of them took a Ring, or even sought it out on their own. None of the Nazgul were just Powerful Men seeking more Power. They were desperate people trying to defy the fate they had found themselves in. In the Nice!Sauron AU, the elves still keep the Rings of Power. If the elves keep the Rings of Power, there never are any Nazgul to begin with. The Men who would have become Ringwraiths never grasp the means to rise out of their misery.

So they die. They die young, they die tragically, but they all die.

[minubell]

Nyannatar freaking out at Aule, being calm when Aule leaves, then freaking out again when Eonwe discovers him for real is quite the image. Doubly so when Aule returns and discovers him.

For that matter, what does Aule think of Sauron here? Is he shocked? Confused? Does he want to reconnect with him?

So that's the funniest part about the Nyannatar AU.

See, Sauron is absolutely petrified of the Valar. He's terrified of what they'd do to him if they ever found him in wake of the war. He's so scared that he goes through these extreme hoops of hiding in the woods and then turning into a cat and then pretending to be Celebrimbor's sort-of-not-really pet for like 11 years and then leaves notes around in the middle of the night for Celebrimbor to make the Rings of Power and then spends HUNDREDS OF YEARS pretending to be a cat that was made immortal by ring magic and absolutely not just immortal at baseline.

Only for all of the Valar to collectively go, "Oh hey Mairon it's been a while.... Anyway." He was basically never in trouble at all. The ENTIRE thing is just a byproduct of his own paranoia resulting in this elaborate scheme that was never required in the first place. Even Aule is mostly just excited to try to get Mairon back in the forges.

[minubell]

Super Evil Fucked Up Ring Sauron takes one look at Celebrimbor and, for the first in it’s existance, stops shouting and cursing at Nicr Sauron and is instead starstruck and head over heels in love with Celebrimbor.

I think you give him too much credit for not being an absolute menace

The first time he sees him, Super Evil Fucked Up Ring Sauron would immediately hurl himself at Celebrimbor's skull like some kind of terrible bug, climb up his head, grab handfuls of hair in his tiny little hands, and start screaming swears at the top of his lungs while trying to bite anyone who dares to try to dislodge him from his perch.

[necro-styx]

i never post my stuff here bc i only ever remember i have tumblr when i want to see shipart of my blorbos,, but here's an artfight attack i did on @minubell of their two AU designs for Mairon! find me on AF at @/necrostyx ૮ • ﻌ - ა

[minubell]

Yay I'm so happy you have a tumblr and posted it here! I love this so much!!! Thank you for drawing my boys you're such an incredible artist!

[minubell]

I’m now imagining Nice Sauron hanging around Barad-Dur, moping a little since he can’t be with Celebrimbor anymore only for Celebrimbor himself to stroll up and demand to be let in. Actually, how would Celebrimbor find Sauron? It’s not like he knows where he is? Does Eonwe or Aule just stumble across him and help him out?

I think the thing about the Nice Sauron AU, is that Nice!Sauron is… well, Nice. And that’s kind of it!

During the making of the One Ring, he splits himself. He pours his cruelty, his malice and his will to dominate all life. That last part there includes a lot of other secret things like his possessiveness, his volatility, and even his ability to love. The two pieces left behind are both incomplete parts of one being, just in different ways.

One is passionate and powerless.

One is passionless and powerful.

Nice!Sauron is incapable of moping. He doesn’t feel anything at all if he looks at Celebrimbor. He might look like the Annatar Celebrimbor was looking for, but the person who loves him back isn’t home. Maybe he was never even there at all…

[minubell]

I can’t wait for Eonwe to come strolling through Ost-in-Edhil one day and come across Nyannatar! Though I do wonder how he knew that cat was Sauron since you previously said that the Valar and the Maiar didn’t look at what lies beneath a creature’s skin in the seen world by gazing into the unseen world.

Well obviously there are two explanations here:

The first is that Sauron isn't always Nyannatar. Sometimes he's forced to turn back into himself to deal with troublesome visitors to Ost-in-Edhil with terrible ideas about hurting Celebrimbor. I mean, Celebrimbor is very accident prone in this AU. Constantly running into danger (sometimes deliberately). It wouldn't be too unreasonable to say that during one such happening, Eonwe managed to see him.

Or....

Eonwe: "I know what you are." Sauron, dropping all pretenses immediately: "Damn, how did you figure it out?" Eonwe: "Omg Mairon is that you?!??!?! I was gonna say you were a good little boy this is so funny haha what are you doing what are the odds??"

[minubell]

It Takes Two Steps Sauron finding a Balrog in the supposedly safe mines and killing it because it disturbed Celebrimbor's nap. Dwarves: O_o Sauron: It is _very important_ that he have quiet when he is sleeping!! Incarnates need their rest!!

Bold of you to assume Sauron wouldn't immediately find Durin's Bane during his various attempts to baby proof the Mines of Moria, before the dwarves ever even realize it's slumbering down there

Sauron, cleaning off his hands: "Negotiations have failed." Durin's Bane's ghost: "WHAT NEGOTIATIONS?!?!?!? YOU STABBED ME IN THE CHEST WHILE I WAS SLEEPING?!?!"

Sauron: "...Anyway, back to my Celebrimbor."

[minubell]

Since Roleswap!Annatar is a paranoid woobie, what was his backstory before the arrival of Celebrimbor? What is the difference frok Mairon the elf and Mairon the ainur?

Well you see, Annatar is a very normal elf with a very normal childhood who was tragically scarred by an attack on him by a werewolf during the War of Wrath. He is of the Vanyar, and in a very noble quest elected to remain behind after the battle had finished to try and help the land to heal. He's very kind and fair and calm and soft spoken and everyone loves him and nobody would ever even THINK to ask to see under his veil because he's already sacrificed so much, how could you do that to him???

...Mairon is of the Noldor who was captured and imprisoned by Morgoth. The memories of a time before Utumno are foreign and fractured after the tortures he suffered at the Dark Lord's hand. He does not even know if Mairon was his name, or simply what Morgoth decided to call him once the Dark Lord took a fancy to tormenting him. He managed to escape, but not before his body was irreparably tainted by Morgoth power, his mind broken by his torment, and his skin marred by his brand. He is a Thrall, existing between the realms of both orc and elf and damned by all for it.

[minubell]

So I was looking over the Nice Sauron AU when something occurred to me: What’s Celebrimbor doing? IIRC, he died after the forging of the One Ring and Sauron’s attempt to control the Elves, but here that attempt is never made. Does Sauron confess his former evilness to him or does Celebrimbor live blissfully unaware with his mysterious boyfriend?

Celebrimbor is alive, healthy, and confused as hell.

Without the rest of Sauron's power (Which Nice Sauron annoyingly has a monopoly on), Super Evil Fucked Up Ring Sauron is essentially neutered. It can yowl as much as it likes but can't really do anything on its own. And with Nice Sauron refusing to wearing it, it's all bark and no bite. Most of this bark is directed towards Nice Sauron, but every once in a while Super Evil Fucked Up Ring Sauron will scream loud enough for it's violent swearing to echo softly through to the other Rings of Power.

Basically every once in a while Celebrimbor's ring inexplicably calls him a bitch.

[minubell]

Working 144 hours in 12 days has me making the Cup of Theseus.

If I keep adding shots of espresso to my cup when it gets low, is it still the same cup of coffee that I started my day with?