Call me Nienna or Ni! I'm a 30-something queer Tolkien fan (she/they), currently obsessed with orcs/uruk, elves, and the Ainur. I'm primarily a Silm fan, but I like all of Arda, including the live action tv and film adaptations.
This is my main blog, and it'll mostly be Tolkien, personal, and writing reblogs. If you are here for updates for Scars and associated work, search my blog for #scars of silver and gold.
I also have an art blog that you can find here: @niennadreamt.
the natural lifespan of a fandom is unlimited. when well tended a fandom can be functionally immortal. and yet everywhere you look you see newly bred fandoms withering and dying when they’re barely a year old. barely even six months old. fans are looking at their six month old fandoms and saying i think it’s on its last legs, should i euthanise it? when with the proper care that fandom could outlive them for decades. it’s sad. sad state of affairs we’re in.
the setting is also a character. many do not know this but its true. it has a history and a future and often an arc of its own, and the other characters all have personal relationships with it
this is why college, modern, bakery, flower shop, fantasy, post apoc, etc etc AU is either boring af to me or one of the best stories in a fandom. the thing that makes or breaks the story is whether or not the setting change is treated with the weight of a Character-- how does it impact characters and still keep them recognizable? it's like you've given everyone a new bestie or enemy and they all have to live with it. how does it shape them and change them? what parts survive? what parts of them impact the setting?
Papercraft commission of Frieren! I love this series, so I was extra excited to make this piece. ^_^
Since I had free choice of what spell to depict, I picked the Vollzanbel/black hole spell from the big magic fight in episode 25, because I thought it would look especially rad made out of shimmery holographic paper. Plus, I also got to make flying rocks! Bursts of fiery light! Lots of drama!! And, my favorite part - I got to go super, wildly detailed with Frieren's hair!
The thing that the people who get mad about Nienna defending Melkor and other bad people don't understand is that, being the Lady of Mercy, she is quite literally the public defender archangel. She was created and designed to be able to have empathy for literally everyone in existence, so that no one is ever alone without anyone to speak for them.
And for those who get mad at public defenders and defense attorneys I will also point out that it's absolutely vital for having a state under the rule of law that respects human rights and is not run on the whims and good (or ill) will of those in power that even the worst person imaginable has someone defending them in court.
Similarly, it is vital that someone like Nienna exists. You can probably see now why her close connection to Námo is not a coincidence - he needs her. And why she is counted among the Aratar.
For it is said that even in the Music Nienna took little part,
but listened intent to all that she heard. Therefore she was rich
in memory, and farsighted, perceiving how the themes should
unfold in the Tale of Arda. But she had little mirth, and all her
love was mingled with pity, grieving for the harms of the
world and for the things that failed of fulfilment. So great was
her ruth, it is said, that she could not endure to the end of the
Music. Therefore she has not the hope of Manwe. He is more
farseeing; but Pity is the heart of Nienna
It's important to note that Nienna's pity and mercy does not come out of ignorance, but out of undestanding. It's a different kind of strength. Of course the idea that she defends Melkor has its roots in a version of the Annals of the Valar in which she, Melkor and Manwe are siblings and Nienna supports Melkor "because of her kinship". But I think it makes sense for her to do so even outside of that familial relationship.
There is a quote by Nienna which does not concern Melkor, but I think it can be used about her stance in many situations:
'In the use of Justice there must be Pity, which is the consideration of the singleness of each that cometh under Justice."
Nienna's mercy alone is at times excessive. She is consumed by it and by her compassion. But the Valar were not created to stand alone. They encompassed different aspects that are all necessary for Eru's great plan to run as smoothly as possible. Nienna's empathy, her grief, her forgiveness, are vital. What would be the alternative? For everything to be left to Mandos' pittiless (with one exception) jurisdiction? The Valar without Nienna would have ended up being more alike to Melkor that they'd ever wish to be.
It is time to spread the love with our June 2026 Comment Bingo. Try and fill four in a row, column, or diagonal, or let all the creators out there know how much you appreciate them 🤍🩶🖤 and go for a full black-out!
(textual version behind the readmore ↓)
Brag about your progress and inspire others to follow in your footsteps! Use the #fandomwithbenefits and #FwB2026 Comment Bingo tags to make your post findable.
As a reminder of our general rules, there is no deadline to contribute, if you wonder 'Is X allowed?' the answer is probably yes, and we highly appreciate all kind of works—not just fanfic or fanart!
If you have any questions or feedback, drop us an Ask or a DM! ❤️ Need even more inspiration? Check out our previous events.👀
The comment prompts are listed in order of the grid (rows 1 through 4, columns A through D):
1A: user's first work
1B: a drabble (exactly 100 words)
1C: comment more than 100 words
1D: a work you have bookmarked or saved
-
2A: written before canon (jossed)
2B: less than 500 hits
2C: non-fic (audio, art, poetry,meta,...)
2D: liveblog in comments
-
3A: quote your favorite sentence
3B: a genre or trope you've never read before
3C: first comment on work
3D: one of oldest 20 works in a fandom or ship
-
4A: anonymous work
4B: describe how it made you feel
4C: an old fandom of yours
4D: by user with less than 10 works
-
Credit:
background image by Eva Bronzini @ pexels.com
heart vector by kjpargeter @ freepik
i think peak historical fiction is when there is a random ass major historical figure but as a comedic relief side character. like geoffrey chaucer being a naked gambling addict in a knight’s tale or leonardo da vinci being cinderella’s fairy godmother in ever after. like. nothing can top that.
One thing that has made me a much more well-adjusted person is a clip I once saw of Hank Green saying that anyone can be in amazing shape as long as being in amazing shape is one of their top three priorities.
(This is obviously a generalization that isn't true for everyone. But it is true for most people and I'm proceeding from there.)
This "top three priorities" framing has genuinely reduced my tendency toward jealousy and self-comparison a lot. Now when I feel envious of someone’s spotless, aesthetic home, I think to myself, “Having a spotless, aesthetic home is probably one of their top three priorities. It’s definitely not one of mine, so I shouldn’t expect my home to look like that.”
Or when I see an influencer with a body that takes a ton of work to maintain: “Maintaining that body is obviously one of her top three priorities, because it’s her livelihood. My livelihood is my brain, so I’m never going to prioritize my body like that.”
It also helps me to identify areas that I actually DO want to prioritize more. I realized in recent years that my envy for my friends who prioritized writing more than I did was NOT going away, so I started to prioritize writing more. (Not top three, but higher priority than it has been in the past.)
HEY that's MY emotional support morally ambiguous misunderstood full of trauma touch starved yearning for love drenched in blood responsible for numerous atrocities comfort character who is TRYING & u will TREAT them with RESPECT
