He saw the guilt on their faces every time they caught themselves, that knife-sharp regret that tainted every moment spent in his company. So no, he could not blame them for not asking him to stay.
He hoped that they, in turn, did not blame him for leaving. Even if abandoning them for a wintry wasteland felt as though he was punishing them for being afraid.
The Amlach/Maedhros fic I've been talking about for ages (well part one of two at least). Have you ever met two people who are both fucked up in different ways and are processing it in the worst way possible (or almost worse)? That's them. Also I'm holding @nycterisg responsible for putting this ship in my brain
I would say someone needs to get them help but I think they're fun like this.
Guys, I’m recovering from a concussion again so I apologize if this is a bit disjointed
The story of Amlach has always been so deeply unsettling to me.
Amlach was a grandson of Marach (of whom Hador also descended) who was among a small group of men in Estolad who especially distrusted the elves. Of course, he's most famous for something that he did not do.
There was a council of Edain representing those who wished to follow the elves and those who didn't. In the words of the novel, "there arose one who seemed to all to be Amlach son of Imlach". This figure gives a speech against the Eldar, claiming "all of this is but elvish lore, tales to beguile newcomers that are unwary. The sea has no shore. There is no light in the west." He goes on to seemingly doubt the existence of Morgoth himself, or at least to claim that he is but a monster roused to life by the Noldor's greed (actually that line kind of reminds me of the one about the dwarves digging too deeply in their greed). As he speaks a shadow of fear falls upon the hearts of those listening and some flee completely.
However, Amlach returns later and states that he had never attended any council or said anything like this.
"Then the elf friends said: you will believe this at least, there is a dark lord and his spies and emissaries are among us and fear us and the strength that we may give to his foes".
Indeed, Amlach does believe this and is so distraught at an agent of Morgoth impersonating him (including to Bereg, a friend and sympathizer to him!) that he says he will hold a personal grudge against Morgoth till the end of his days and goes to enter the service of Maedhros.
The philosophy discussed is obviously fascinating and I do want to get into that more in a later post but even beside that, the idea of a servant of Morgoth successfully taking the face and voice of a figure including to those known to him is so frightening!
Amlach is a fairly minor figure but it makes this event perhaps more disquieting in what it implies. Far, far away from the Iron Mountains and Angband, a minor leader of men who doubts the Eldar is identified, planned around, and successfully impersonated and we as the reader are no wiser to who truly appeared at that council. I have a post somewhere about mimics and shapeshifters in Angband which I enjoy for the horror potential but this canon example, with no blood, no torture…
Note: part of the dialogue that we are to believe Amlach actually did say is this “we took long roads desiring to escape the perils of Middle Earth and the dark things that dwell there for we heard there was light in the west. But now we learn the light is beyond the sea.”
This is clearly echoed later in the full story of The Children of Húrin when Sador says “It may be that we fled from a fear of the dark, only to find it here before us with nowhere to fly but the sea" which I went into a lot here!
Hello! Zero pressure return of the Sleepover ask game!!
What is would be your favorite headcanons for a character you love but that doesn't get talked about enough? (Feel free to take this opportunity to talk about whatever character you want).
Or if that's too vague, what's your favorite story you've ever heard told?
Again, no pressure to answer and I hope your day goes well!
Forgive me for not replying sooner 😭 - half the time I didn't even notice the question, and afterwards I spent quite a while trying to put an answer together. The thing is: I don't think I have any *truly* unpopular headcanons; generally, I fall (I think!) into one of the err two major interpretative camps. That said, as a rule I tend to switch characters around depending on the period, and in the meantime I end up forgetting many of my own headcanons. So here are a few headcanons that may or may not fit the label, but they're the ones that are especially dear to me.
1) It won't come as a surprise if we're moots loool but Maglor takes up a huge part of my thoughts ehehe there are several moments I revisit endlessly to better understand his character (Maglor killing Uldor mmmh).
My "unpopular" (meh) headcanon of the day concerns his relationship with Maedhros. Personally, I tend to see Maglor as the most "complete" of Fëanor's sons - at least after the 1st kinslaying. Maglor before the kinslaying tho? You can bet he was composing songs glorifying the suffering of a mythical past that the Noldor had left behind - temporally, but above all spatially (mehhhh).
But once he set foot in Beleriand, I believe he gained a sort of raw, brutal awareness of their actual circumstances; that he tried to deceive others with his eloquence but deceived himself very little. For this reason, I don't necessarily see him as the weaker party when he interacts with Maedhros. True he yields in the end, but in my mind Maedhros and Maglor clash *constantly* on ethical and moral grounds, and Maglor is no less inclined to stand his ground than Maedhros.
What I mean is that I *love* portrayals of Maglor in which he is strong-willed and fully Maedhros's equal. And honestly, a bit of an asshole to him too.
2) From this angle (and I believe this might genuinely be one of my less popular headcanons??) I tend to view the relationships among all the SoF as particularly tense. There is undeniably a peculiar shade of loyalty among them: strange and unhealthy in its absoluteness, to the point that they fiercely defend even one another's most obvious flaws. There is certainly a very strong love, but in my mind their personalities are so ''strong'' and mutually incompatible that they can barely stand each other.
When I write them, their interactions are never relaxed: there is always a jab, a touch of envy, a mutual desire to dominate. A true homo homini lupus dynamic, made all the more twisted by that absolute loyalty (and/or affection). The other is both salvation and damnation, both ally and enemy. And this applies equally to the canonical pairs: Maglor-Maedhros, Curufin-Celegorm, Amrod-Amras.
3) Given fandom's steadfast devotion to the lord-and-vassal trope, it's almost absurd that Maedhros/Amlach isn't faaaaar more popular. Amlach so deeply wounded in his pride by Morgoth's manipulations and the tricks of that spy who impersonated him essentially blows a raspberry at his own doubts and enters the service of Maedhros. *Maedhros*, specifically! I'm just saying: members of Fingolfin's house get shipped with people from the House of Hador all the time; Amlach/Maedhros deserves the same level of attention.
4) Naturally, this ties back to a certain headcanon I have about Maedhros - definitely not an unpopular one - regarding his err shall we say, approach to diplomacy. First of all there's something interesting about the fact that, although he is present at practically every major event, we know almost nothing about his past in Tirion. Was he truly a diplomat? It's possible! But there are several moments in the silm that point in the opposite direction, moments that read like clear diplomatic failures. And then there's the fact that if he is known for anything, it is his beauty. I could expand on this at much greater length (I have a couple of metas in my drafts lol), but the short and blunt version is: I adore the headcanon that Maedhros essentially whores himself to cement political alliances. It's usually the angle I take when writing Russingon as well, and one of the reasons why I find Maedhros/Thingol both interesting and entirely plausible. I swear this was actually more serious in my mind, but let's be silly.
5) I have at least…three, I think?… headcanons about Indis that I could discuss at length. There's her status as a ''foreigner'' at the Noldorin court (and considering she's a Vanya!), but that's still something I'm working on, partly because 1) I own very little material; 2) I really need to reread the shibboleth before I can articulate my thoughts properly on this.
What I mainly enjoy though is building off a piece of fanon I actually dislike: Indis the BreederTM. Essentially, I like it when characters interact with LaCE - or when LaCE interacts with them. In Indis' case, I imagine she genuinely enjoys being a mother, that she fits in many ways (though not all) into a certain gender role, and that for a very long time she doesn't fully process the nature of the relationship she has formed with that role. This ''flattening'' is far from total - Indis is a nightingale kept in exquisite comfort, but however beautiful the cage, she still beats her wings against it. Yet for a time, I imagine she accepts it simply because she truly wants to be a mother and a wife, seeking happiness in simple things. The next step, for me, is the deeply unhealthy perfectionism she develops - the sense of being an inadequate wife, an inadequate mother. I especially enjoy exploring this through her relationship (or non-relationship) with Fëanor. I keep picturing how inadequate she must have felt when he rejected her so harshly, and at the same time how she must hate him for the unhappiness he brought into the family she tends with such care - but that hatred only amplifies her feelings of inadequacy! (!!!!)
Fëanor is not the core of the issue, merely a symptom of how her role and the gender conventions surrounding it consume her, making her feel insufficient and never up to the task. Her standards for herself , what it means to be a certain kind of wife and mother, are impossibly high. She suppresses any unpleasant feeling, any desire or ambition that doesn't align with that ideal. Even when she conforms perfectly, she doesn't believe she excels. And I think that at a certain point this awareness makes her cage feel tighter - and it's the recipe for the explosion. In short: I love making characters suffer. The way I portray Indis' particular flavor of suffering comes from both herself and the world she lives in. She actively struggles with it, actively struggles against The Breeder - it's essentially amplified by the fact that she doesn't despise those roles per se, but they're also the roles people around her cast her into. She was made so completely that her self-perception comes down to being a wife and a mother, and of course she feels like she's failing at those roles - and failing as a person, because she is (feels like) 100% those roles - when everything explodes in her face. It must be said that The Breeder remains a double-edged sword for her: it's derogatory from Fëanor's side, but even the ''glorifying'' connotation only reinforces her cage and, at the same time, makes her feel inadequate. Please stop me.
bonus) Maedhros/Himring is a thing for me - definitely not crack. As Maedhros stans we all naturally care a lot about Himring too. Give me M/E rated fics about them! Actually that's my pet project for after graduation, but I'd love to read some in the meantime lol.
Dammmn that's so long! And also extremely random and not very precise because I basically touched on points my brain is currently trying to sort out and also I’m a bit tipsy lol. Thank you for the ask, dear!
1 - "On a time of autumn he came in the dusk of evening, and drawing near he saw as he thought a light at the window; and coming warily he looked within."
2 - "But there arose one who seemed to all to be Amlach son of Imlach, speaking fell words that shook the hearts of all who heard him."
Late but heartfelt submission for @tolkienhorrorweek Day 1, "seeth all things crooked." I love the eerie illusion of these Silmarillion moments with Gorlim and Amlach. Although in canon the vision of Eilinel at the window is starving and worn, I have always tended to imagine her alluring and well-groomed, a symbol of the home Gorlim and the Bëorians have lost.
Doing this one for Deeper Roots Than Reason. I ALMOST made that bingo...should have taken the premise just one Age farther.
That fic was a TRSB fill for an absolutely gorgeous piece of art, which just set off all kinds of sparks for me. I'm always happy to twist the Oath and the Doom a little more.
My thought process was roughly: what if the Oath and all its related misery was...not contagious, but definitely transmissible? Inheritable, if you will. Mwahaha! What if it was inheritable by MEN? MWAHAHA! What if my beloved tortured idiot Maedhros made another Big Mistake? MWAHAHAHAHA!
And then it became a challenge to see how far I could fill in cracks of canon with this wonderful horrible idea without anything going awry. Amlach? Ideal victim. Elrond and Elros, o noooo! ISILDUR!!! It worked so well I spooked myself. What IF?????
I did in fact have a writer's dream about this one. All the creepies, lol.
Here's an excerpt:
In the turmoil of his furious, seeking mind a memory flared – but not his own: steel under torchlight; eight blades shining. His own grief and hatred and hunger for vengeance rose to meet it, as a faint call echoed: Neither law, nor love, nor league of swords, dread nor danger, not Doom itself shall defend him…on the holy mountain hear in witness and our vow remember.
“Yes!” Amlach gasped. “My Lord! My Lord!”
Then he was shuddering to his knees with Maedhros’ hand on his shoulder, his mind his own again, his cheeks wet with sudden tears.
“Will you serve me, Amlach?” Maedhros asked, with dangerous tenderness.
And Amlach drew himself to steadiness and breathed. “Yes, my lord. I and my people, for as long as you will have us. To whatever end."
This was fun! Tagging @polutrope @melestasflight @queerofthedagger @vefanyar @starsuncounted @starspray and anyone else who feels inclined.
Prompt: I'm thinking about Amlach, the Man in Silm who experiences one of Morgoth's illusions and then (because he now has a grudge against Morgoth & co) makes his way to Himring to fight with Maedhros. I'd love to see some exploration of Maedhros' reputation in Beleriand (I'm most interested in Himring era here, but if you wanted to go earlier or later that's OK too.) Maedhros "lore," songs, stories, Chuck Norris type jokes, or any combo of those would be amazing.
Bonuses (free bingo card to pick and choose lol):
-Speculation about what Maedhros was like back in the West
-Speculation about what happened in Angband or otherwise to make Maedhros Like This
-Joking complaints about Maedhros' exactingness in terms of logistics or discipline
-Loyalty and/or Maedhros as a heroic figure
-Maedhros has scarring or other visible changes in aspect from his captivity
-Amlach could be a great character to serve as the POV or entry point here, or you could just sketch out anything on the theme, however small, without it being "grounded" in real events per se!
In terms of other content, gen or any Maedhros ships you like are good by me to include one way or another; I would just like the focus to remain mostly on Maedhros and his reputation(s). I am also OK with reading allusions to rape/noncon if you want to include them--you definitely do not have to, but I wanted to get the blanket permissions out of the way!
Ao3 link | dreamwidth link
Cw:incest Curufin/Fingolfin degradation
Prompt Rating: E
Warnings: Chose Not To Warn
Prompt: What it says on the tin!
Basically for whatever reason they have sex, and Fingolfin uses it to dominate him and take his anger out on Curufin. I'm open to anything- I don't have any DNWs but I do have one must have:
Trans Curufin; Fingolfin gets off on knocking him up and ruining Feanor's favorite son.
(Wether or not he gets pregnant with Tyelpe is up to the writer!)
Other then that feel free to go hog wild with it :)
dreamwidth link
Celebrimbor/Narvi
Prompt Rating: E
Warnings: Major Character Death
Prompt: A number of prompts for these two, whom I love!
Aging Narvi has Celebrimbor by his side in Khazad-dum. Maybe he reveals Celebrimbor his name in Khuzdul, maybe he's already dead or is dying and Celebrimbor is dealing with dwarven funerary customs. It'd be cool if the idea of the dwarven soul being able to return to the body (like Durin) was used here.
Celebrimbor and Narvi make things together, invent some science, or work themselves to exhaustion and then recover by chilling alone for a while. Maybe they sing to the stones. Or they're skinny dipping in the river, or in a subterranean pool.
Including some politics with Durin would be fun, but that would likely turn this into a much longer fic, so don't feel compelled. Short and intense or slice of life is also fun and cool.
Male Narvi and Celebrimbor son of Curufin please.
Bonuses:
- dwarven customs and politics, inclusion of the Gwaith-i-Mirdain
- creation as a sense of sharing
- mention of the family history with dwarves (Maedhros and Azaghal, Curufin and Telchar, Caranthir and dwarves)
DNW
- Annatar or silvergifting mentions
- Celebrimbor hating his father (complicated feelings okay, hate no) or with very low self-esteem/no ambitions
Ao3 link | dreamwidth link
Fingon/Maglor, any context
Prompt Rating: E
Warnings: Chose Not To Warn
Prompt: I'd love to see basically anything with this ship. I think it'd be fun to play with Maglor's insecurity about Fingon having been the one to heroically save Maedhros/other feelings of perhaps tension between them, but a purely fluffy dynamic or already established relationship is all good too.
Very optional bonuses:
- Smut w/ toppy Fingon
- Emotional hurt/comfort
- Some suggestion of/setup of Fingon "saving" Maglor or Maglor "saving" Fingon
- Maglor attempting to keep up an exterior appearance of carelessness/poise/wtv that is quick to melt away
Inclusion of Maedhros or one or both of them having relationships with Maedhros is fine with me but definitely not required! Trans hcs, genderbend, a/b/o also fine.
Ao3 link | dreamwidth link
To see all 497 prompts, please visit the kinkmeme's Ao3 collection. Don't forget to give some love to the authors of our 211 works. Check out also our Prompt Post 1 on dreamwidth for prompts and fills not posted on Ao3, to ask any clarifying questions to the prompters or just to squeal under the prompts you loved.
this is still one of the funniest parts of the silmarillion. morgoth made a catfish account using amlach’s pictures and tweeted a bunch of bullshit and amlach said “BITCH next time i see you it’s ON SIGHT”
