men of middle-earth ∿ misc. númenóreans ∿ headcanon disclaimer
In the last days of Númenor, when its people lived under the Shadow of Sauron, there were still some Faithful elf-friends yet remaining upon the Isle of the Gift. These were the Lords of Andúnië and their followers, banished to Rómenna where they could look to the West no longer, but still they kept their faith. Among these Faithful folk was a young lord named Herendil, the cousin of Isildur and Anárion through their mother Lauriel’s sister. He was born shortly before Sauron’s arrival in Númenor, and had no memory of a time before the rise of the Zigûr. Though his family lived among the Faithful, his mother feared the wrath of the King and sheltered him from the teachings her sister, a loremaster dedicated to preserving their traditions, so dearly loved. But she would not keep Herendil from his kin, and when he stumbled across Lauriel’s writings while on a visit to the house of his elder cousins, Herendil’s eyes were opened to the corruption eating away at the heart of Númenor. Troubled, Herendil took counsel with his aunt and her husband Elendil, learning of their people’s trials and tribulations. Though at first he was hesitant to believe Zigûr was capable of such evils, he quickly became eager to spread the word to the youth of Rómenna, many of whom had been similarly steered away from the political dangers in which their parents were entangled. Though some mocked him, calling him “Terendul” for his short and slender frame they believed showed his weakness, others were as stirred by these revelations as him. The siblings Almáriel and Poldor, tall and strong youths descended from Narwalótë sister of Númendil, defended Herendil, and Poldor went so far as to call him “Eärendil,” likening him to the famed mariner of old for bringing the difficult truth to light. As he became more involved with the quiet rebellion among the Faithful, Herendil met the maiden Fíriel, daughter of Orontor. They swiftly fell in love, and when Fíriel’s father left on a mysterious errand with Lord Amandil and two others, Herendil comforted her and spoke to his uncle Elendil, Amandil’s son and now the Lord of the Faithful, asking him to welcome her into his household. For a few uneasy years, Herendil and his friends worked under Elendil’s command to prepare for evacuation of Rómenna when Ar-Pharazôn’s ambitions endangered the Faithful even more. But of Herendil and his companions, only one would escape the inevitable Downfall of Númenor. As one night Fíriel sang a song of Ilúvatar for her beloved Herendil, she was overheard by one of Pharazôn’s spies who reported her blasphemies to the King. Fíriel was dragged before Zigûr and interrogated, and though she did not give up any information on the doings of the Faithful, she found she was not strong enough to stand in her convictions of Eru and Manwë’s grace and begged forgiveness for her “sins.” Amused by her pleading, Zigûr ordered her to enter the cloisters in the Temple of Melkor, forcing her to become a priestess of Darkness, serving the very evil she had worked against. Some months later, when Pharazôn’s Great Armament was nearly completed, he sent the King’s Men out across Anadûnê to recruit men for his army. Though many volunteered, a large portion of the soldiers were conscripted by force—especially those among the Faithful of Rómenna. Herendil and Poldor were both drafted against their will, and Herendil in particular refused to go against the Valar. Furious and wishing to make an example of this mutineer, Ar-Pharazôn ordered Herendil to be sacrificed in the Temple of Melkor for his disobedience. Zigûr looked into Herendil’s mind and discovered his connection to the vanished Fíriel, and delighting in his wicked schemes he arranged so Fíriel would make her first sacrifice to Melkor on the very day of Herendil’s death. Thus it was that Fíriel slew the one she most loved, offering his heart to the Dark Vala, and became so entrenched in despair that she made no further efforts at resistance. Witnessing the awful fate of his friend, Poldor submitted to his conscription and entered Pharazôn’s army. He was among those who sailed to Aman and assailed Valinor, and along with the rest of the Great Armament he was drowned beneath the seas, his spirit held captive in the Caves of the Forgotten until the Dagor Dagorath, when they shall be summoned to fight against Morgoth. His sister Almáriel remained among the Faithful of Elendil’s house and alone of her friends escaped with them to Middle-earth when the great wave came to drown Númenor, for Fíriel could not escape the Temple of Melkor and was consumed along with the wicked.