Re: The Tombs

Kithrater Sat Jul 12, 2008 5:23 pm

A story by Bard, set a couple of hundred years before game time...

Valorion was a Lord of the Sindar. A great warrior among his people. He was known for his enmity with a particular Orc-chieftain, Kagh. He once lived in the northern reaches of Doriath with his family – a wife, Linvile, and two brothers, Valos and Valannon. While upon a hunting expedition to the north, they were set upon and Linvile was taken captive by the Orc warlord, Kagh.

In a mad rage, Valorion pursed Kagh and his Yrkish minions, far north into Dorthonion, seeking his beloved. With him went his family, his brothers and their families. Against the counsel of the Grey King, Elu Thingol, they were relentless in their quest for Linvile’s safe return.

Their mad journey ended within Kagh’s stone fortress itself. The elven hosts of Valorion gathered outside the gates, demanding that Linvile be returned to them or they would wreak bloody vengeance upon each and every Orc in the keep. Kagh himself came to the battlements and laughed them to scorn, but he promised they would have Linvile back.

She was brought struggling to the battlements, high above the ground, two Orcs holding her arms. She had been injured grieviously. Then, in full view of Valorion and his kin, Linvile’s head was severed from her shoulders with one blow, and then her body was hewn into pieces and cast down upon the ground in mockery.

Valorion’s madness overtook him. He and his kin attacked the fortress. They were outnumbered, but had the greater weapons, greater skill, and the sheer power of blind rage. A vicious battle ensued that echoed throughout the Echoriath. Valos was slain by an arrow, protecting his older brother Valorion from an archer. Valannon was next to fall, hewn in twain by an Orc wielding a greataxe.

Valorion engaged Kagh himself in single combat, while the rest of his kin fought, slew and were slain about him. The battle was long and bloody. The Elf had greater speed and agility, yet the Orc was also swift, and had greater numbers. They fought from the gates, into the keep and out again, and up the walls. Their fighting carried them to the walls overlooking a steep cliff.

In the end, Kagh’s axe bore down upon Valorion’s sword, breaking it, and hewed him in the side with a mortal blow. Valorion collapsed as his strength fled his limbs, and Kagh laughed, looming over the dying Elf. It is was in this moment of weakness that Valorion drew upon his last strength and thrust Kagh through the throat with his broken sword. Kagh toppled backward, gurgling and fell from the battlements.

The Orcs were routed until not one remained, but only a mere handful of Valorion’s kin survived. The bodies of he and his brothers were gathered up, and the remains of Linvile, his beloved, also – and all were laid out in a tomb in the mountains where they would be together again in death. The path to the tomb was guarded by two stone elven statues. The rest of their kin returned to Doriath to tell the tale.

Kithrater Wed Jul 30, 2008 10:46 pm

Another tomb-story from Bard.

In the hills of Dorthonion there once lived a small Noldorin family: a father, Faeryn – and his young son, Faeros. Faeros, a small elven child, was born with a strange and powerful gift of Foresight. He could tell the future and knew things about other people he met, by being in their presence.

Despite his elven heritage, it was a difficult gift to bear for one so young, as many elf lords and ladies with the same power did not develop it until much older. Faeros struggled with terrible, vivid waking dreams day and night since elves do not require sleep. There was another price to this power: it attracted the attention of evil.

While out in the woods alone, away from people to ease the pressure upon his young mind, Faeros was set upon by a spirit or shadow of some kind that had no physical form that he could see. A voice through it spoke to him in the words of Quenya, but they sounded fell, not fair as when spoken by elves. It promised to devour the boy’s flesh and his soul, feasting upon them in the dark places of the earth. The young boy trembled in fear.

The shadow enveloped the elf-child, chilling him to the core and filling him with such morbid terror that Faeros’ spirit fled his body, leaving it to perish upon the forest floor. The shadow departed, and some hours later, Faeros’ father, Faeryn came upon the scene of his son lying dead and cold upon the forest floor. He fell mad, such was his sorrow and immediately began scouring the woods and hills for his son’s murderer.

Other elves aided him for a long time ere they finally gave up, but Faeryn would not be dissuaded. He departed into the mountains and was never seen again. The body of the elf-boy was taken and laid in a tomb, but despite this resting place there were still rumours of a small male elf-child wandering the woods and hills alone at night, perhaps seeking the body from which he fled. And more eerie still, there could sometimes be heard the broken-hearted weeping of an elven male, but never in the same place.