Aranorverse stuff: Gondor edition
Although I use ‘Aranorverse’ for the f!Aragorn/f!Faramir fic, since Aranor (f!Aragorn) is the main point of it ... it definitionally also extends beyond her. The original premise is that the Númenórean throwbacks in LOTR are genderbent: Denethor, Aragorn, Imrahil, and Faramir.
To make it work, though, I had to consider Imrahil’s siblings, and Finduilas definitely reads as a Númenórean/Elvish type, so she became a man and f!Denethor’s husband. For simplicity’s sake, I assumed that Ivriniel is also a throwback, making m!Ivriniel the prince and leaving f!Imrahil free to be a full-time lady knight.
(Canon Imrahil’s shock at finding a woman among the Rohirrim makes this funnier to me, ngl.)
OTOH, f!Denethor really needed to be the Steward for multiple reasons, and I was thinking of how it would happen, since Denethor canonically has older sisters and is maybe-implied to have a younger brother. I ultimately decided that Denethor’s older sisters went off and made suitable marriages, but the brother (here the only son) was unable to ascend / completely opposed to ascending to the Ruling Stewardship.
Denethor says in LOTR that he and Faramir are the last of the House of the Stewards, so it doesn’t seem like there would be undisputed contenders to succeed Ecthelion apart from his children. I imagined that Denethor’s brother, along with f!Denethor herself, was able and willing to fight tooth and nail for one of his sisters to take on the mantle rather than opening the gates to a new Kinstrife, and while the two eldest were “lol no,” lady Denethor agreed. She might even have canon Denethor’s feeling (according to UT) of having been appointed by destiny to lead Gondor through this bleak hour.
Anyway: for names, I was thinking mainly of the Stewards’ propensity for naming children after major First Age figures and/or previous members of their family. I provisionally went with Andreth for Denethor and Belecthor for the younger brother. (I always headcanon the older sisters as Emeldir and Rían.)
Oh, and another idea is that Andreth’s unprecedented ascension to the Stewardship didn’t immediately overhaul the lot and expectations of women in Gondor, but it did blaze a path that some women are able to follow, most notably f!Imrahil (leader of the knights of Dol Amroth) and, ironically enough, f!Aragorn. Aranor might have been able to become queen anyway, but it would have been much more of an uphill battle without the precedent that Andreth set.
(Andreth would hate this if she knew about it.)
Back to Dol Amroth, I’d originally tried to come up with approximations of the canon names (Ivrinion? Fingon?). But it entertained me more to do something different. Since canon Ivriniel and Finduilas seem to have both been named for Finduilas of Nargothrond, I decided to name m!Ivriniel and m!Finduilas after her love interests—Túrin (already attested as a Gondorian name) and Gwindor. I did go for a direct conversion for Imrahil, who becomes Imraphel (mostly bc I like it).
Last of all, there’s f!Faramir, who here is Míriel. That’s partly because I wanted to distinguish her from my other f!Faramir fic (/whistles), and partly because it’s a royal name (like Faramir) that retains the -mir- connection with Boromir.
In the other fic, Faramir was the only genderbent character, and male Denethor had no expectation of a daughter being a warrior. This actually smoothed their relationship in a lot of ways. But while female Denethor doesn’t expect it, either, it’s at least a possibility in their timeline. So Míriel turning out as a gentle, gracious lady is more of a disappointment than in the other ’verse, esp after Boromir’s death, though it’s still far short of the strain between canon Denethor and Faramir.
Míriel, I think, is (reluctantly) evacuated with the other women and children before Gandalf and Pippin ever show up; her argument with Andreth about it is the last time they ever speak to each other. Andreth dies in the retreat across the Pelennor, Imraphel takes command, and Aranor arrives to turn the tide of battle while Míriel is basically stuck doing what Éowyn rejected—leading the civilians while others fight in the battle.
It’s an important task, and Míriel is a charismatic, strong-willed leader who is loved and respected by her people, but it’s still a difficult position to be in. By the time she receives news of Andreth’s death and Aranor’s existence, events have already rushed on. By the time Míriel returns to Minas Tirith, Sauron is defeated (wonderful!) and Aranor, whom Míriel has never met, is Queen of Gondor in all but name (maybe good, maybe bad). Míriel’s own place in the new world is extremely unclear. And then she actually meets Aranor and is, while not quite as swept away as canon without the mystical healing, still very powerfully struck by her and willing to step aside.
And then ... stuff.