#avari

[valinorianyears]

The Night of the Flame for TRSB2025

Once a year the Avari gather for a sacred ritual of offering their fears and wishes to the flames.

[tolkien-povs]

POV:

Some paranoid dude called you a "jail-crow," so you decide to torment his entire species.

[arofili]

During the Years of the Trees, the Amanyar lived on a flat world, and of course had no Sun and Moon. But perhaps they had the concept of a horizon, even if landmarks always remained faintly visible no matter how far away they rode.

"Horizon" did not represent the curving of the earth, but rather the ephemeral line where Treelight could not reach. It was a distant horizon indeed from the center of the Light, and many elves could not imagine wanting to cross that line, but there were some who possessed that curiosity, that drive, that impulse to go, to see for themselves the limit of the Valar's power, or just to see the stars in all their glory, unclouded by the Two Trees' overpowering glow.

Of course Fëanor and his sons were among them, explorers and travelers (and even blasphemers) as they were, but I like to think that re-embodied Avari also sought a life beyond the horizon, beneath a sky more like their own. That old souls from Cuiviénen would drift there when they felt melancholy for the old days, for those they left behind. That artists and poets bathed in the faint, mingled light of distant Trees and further-distant stars, straddling the Valinorian horizon for inspiration. That Oromë and his hunters sought strange and beautiful game too fragile for brighter climes.

Horizon was a concept long before the Darkening and the Downfall. It had a different meaning than the one Men of later years understood, but it still represented lands beyond, places unexplored, and the tantalizing, tempting promise of something more, just beyond your line of sight. Just outside of what you know.

[arlenianchronicles]

Do you have any ideas what the Avari Elves would look like in your Eldritch AU? Would they be smaller (cause iirc, Elves from Valinor are taller than those from Middle Earth)? Would they have animal hides?

I hope I'm not annoying. :(

You're not being annoying at all, don't worry!! I love receiving your questions about the AU! Helps me develop the lore hahaa XD

As for the Dark Elves, @overlord-of-fantasy had an idea about them that I really like! You can find it here; they'd indeed wear animal hides and pelts/furs, and their masks could also reflect animal faces to better help with camouflage. I also think they'd be smaller, like you suggested - and this finally gave me the push to draw the different Elven clans lmaoo (using Beren as my human height comparison once again XD)

The Dark Elves are on the left! Morwe and Nurwe are apparently from (likely) abandoned drafts, but I decided to use the names anyway XD And the coloured lines are meant to represent the clans' jewellery styles!

[outofangband]

“the most ancient songs of the elves of which echoes are remembered still in the West, tell of the shadow shapes of walked on the hills above Cuiviénen would pass suddenly over the stars, and of the dark Rider, upon his wild horse, that pursued those that wander to take them and devour them”

I’ve been thinking about this quote a lot in general but right now I’m thinking about it in the context of the elves who never left Middle Earth

First, I absolutely love the love they have for these lands, that despite Morgoth’s encroachment upon it, despite the vile structures he raises, and the terror that creeps around them, there are the forests and hills and stars and they are beloved by these elves. There are their communities that have roots in this land and while their songs may speak of the shadows, they speak of love and hope too. I believe that love for these lands played as much of a role in the decision not to go to Valinor as any potential mistrust of the Valar.

While most tales focus on the struggle of the Noldor and their allies against Morgoth, the elves of Middle Earth have suffered under the shadow of Utumno then Angband for centuries longer.

Most of the elves taken by Morgoth at the time Angband was created were presumably Sindar elves (basing this primarily on geography; I also have so many thoughts on how this effects the culture of Angband, I went into it some on my language post but I’ll definitely write more)

The entire war is imbued with this trauma. If one goes with the version of the orcs in The Silmarillion, then the orcs who attack them are the descendants of stolen kin.

The king of the green elves was killed by Morgoth’s soldiers, forcing many of them to flee from their homes in Ossiriand to the eastern parts of Doriath. Though many flourish there, so much of their lives and customs are destroyed when Denethor is killed on Amon Ereb

Even during the period of Morgoth’s confinement by the Valar, these forces were alive in their lands. Utumno has collapsed but there is no liberation like there is at the end of the war of wrath. Any elves imprisoned under its reign either die, are brought to Angband, or escape into a hostile wild

And when black smoke rises from the Thangorodrim, the Avari, Sindar, and Silvan who see it know exactly what it means. They remember the black smoke of Utumno, they remember their kin vanishing in the night.

And they are afraid. Some scatter, some leave over the Ered Luin, some prepare to fight. But the cultural fear exists among them and in that memory there is no knowledge of a true escape or victory.

[iceyvovo]

but seriously, imagine you are Avari, or a grey-elf who never crossed the Erid Luin, born of parents who refused the call almost entirely.

Imagine being captured at a young age to work as a slave in Angband for the next 1-2 millennia.

You know almost naught but hard labour, starvation, darkness.

Imagine then, how you might feel as Thangorodrim's peaks are tumbling and Eönwë, sword sheathed, tears streaming across his cheeks, offers you his hand.

[ibrithir-was-here]

Tolkien OC Week: Forgotten Characters (Aug 27th)

@tolkienocweek

This one isn't so much a forgotten character, as a forgotten or at least to my mind overlooked culture, this time of the elves. I find the Avari really interesting and wish we knew more about them and what role they played within the three ages chronicled in Arda. I gave them very pale skin as they've not yet experienced the light of the Valar or the sun, and hair that is between black and silver. (Its terrible real world genetics but for fantasy genetics I decided my personal headcanon is that the elvea that live closest to the Valar get darker skin and lighter hair, due to magical light proximity xD)

I also based their fashion off the Celts of Europe, with a focus on star themes. One thing I've come up with is that its part of Avari culture to create a cloak that mirrors the night sky, both as a sign of respect to the stars and also as protection from the dark forces that prowl in the night...

[cadavvera]

So there is this tyrant... A collection of my doodles of the stinky ratman and my Durge Avari + bonus them as little shits