TOLKIEN AU ☆ ELROND as a descendant of CELEGORM [through Dior]

Elros is all wild tumbles, dirt on his palms and dark hair mussed with knots. He’s vivacious with a toothy grin and a quick wit. But it’s the other twin, Elrond, that puzzles Maglor.

Elrond is a quiet fire with the same metal-grey eyes as his brother. But while Elros's hair is a dark chestnut, Elrond has a head of silver-hot hair - smooth strands that pool over his shoulders. The other differences between the twins are miniscule, the sharpness of Elrond’s features compared to Elros’s softer smile or the downturn of the mouth that sets the twins apart.

In mood, they seem alike - Elrond is no sullen child by any means but the realisation barrels into Maglor when the twins smile at him. The way Elrond smiles, as good-hearted as he seems, as if he’s baring his teeth and the smile doesn’t reach his feline-like eyes.

A smile that he once saw in his younger brother who was all ferocious grins and furrowed brows - his younger brother who had hair that seemed to capture the white fire of stars.

Not long after, when Maglor slams his hands on Maedhros’s desk and relays his concerns, the story seems to make so much sense. 

Celegorm’s attachment to the Princess of Doriath, the shocked look on their younger brother’s face when his eyes were glazed over with death and Dior Eluchíl lay bleeding just out of arm’s reach and the pure spirit that Elrond possesses - that scorching fire and the will to survive and to fight and to struggle against it all.

this or that 🧡

ensemble cast or just a few characters

chosen one or no i hate it 

impending end of the world or personal stakes

historical vampires or fantasy pirates

dark academia or light academia

magic banned or magic loved

reclusive hermit or bogwitch

traversing the world or contained setting

soft confessions or grand declarations

nature or architecture

angst or fluff

stop this was so hard 😭 i literally sat and stared at this for a solid five minutes.

friends-to-lovers or enemies-to-lovers

foes-to-friends or friends-to-foes

himbos or nerds

intense worldbuilding or easy please

gigantic trees or impossible towers

fairytale retelling or mythology retelling

hehe im glad u liked my ingwe post ✊ let me see if i can map out my very vague ideas 😭 it was more of a vibe that i got but here's what i think 

if we set the timeline to before finrod was even born, so a young/early teen equivalent elven age for finarfin, he didn’t really have many other elves around him that he wanted to be like. like don’t get me wrong - he still loves finwe and fingolfin and even feanor to an extent. 

and finwe is not a bad dad per say, but he gives a lot of attention to feanor. always catering to his eldest brother’s mood and whims and vaguely explosive moments at the dinner table.

and he adores fingolfin. he admires his older brother a lot and they stick together a lot and are pretty close. but fingolfin can be just as stormy as feanor. even if the anger is never directed at him. while feanor is an electrifying bolt of lightning that strikes the air and makes it crackle, fingolfin is the simmering thundercloud with the furrowed brow. 

and finarfin is a natural born people pleaser. but he isn’t a pushover, he doesn’t take orders with a sweet smile and an air of sunshine around him. he’ll sometimes do things with a down-turned twist in his mouth and a displeased disposition. but! ultimately he does it all for the peace. he can go thru some unpleasant things and endure some harsh words as long as it’s for the best. 

it’s the trait that makes him a good diplomant. he’s great at finding middle ground and listening to both parties (after all, he was often in the middle of feanor and fingolfin). and it’s a reason he admires ingwe. in his eyes, ingwe is like an uncle - although in reality, he’s more of a grand-uncle. and he’s spent time with his mother’s people, the vanyar, and thus, sat in on council meetings and seen how easily ingwe leads his people. ingwe doesn’t lead with the arrogance of a genius (like feanor) or the stiffness of a perfect prince (fingolfin). finarfin admires how ingwe has the respect of his people and yet he is so easy-going and charming.

for finrod!

i think finrod is a great diplomat like his father but he also has more of an adventerous streak so he admires how ingwe was able to lead his people thru the treacherous lands of arda in a time when melkor roamed the earth and his servants ran amok

omg so ingwe is my man my buddy my ride or die u know....im just a huge fan of him and i wish tolkien wrote more on him bc u can't just pepper in the fact that he is the high king of the eldar like THE high king and never expand on that. so allow me to climb onto my little soapbox and talk about some general headcanons for ingwe 📢

first of all - in my pov - he's like massively tall. like he's not thingol tall bc his old buddy in the forest is like a tree. but he's definitely taller than maedhros. not by heaps because nelyo isn't called maedhros the tall for nothing. but ingwe is abt just 7'8 (bc i think thingol is 8 foot and maedhros is 7'6). ingwe never tells finwe but he's worried that his eldest grandson might grow taller than him but luckily that never happens. thank god.

then even if its up to interpretation for everyone, i like to think of him as having a light skin tone and very blue eyes but veering towards dark blue. he's def a blondie, he has that pretty vanyar colour that seems to be almost golden but paler strands are caught in the light. it's wavy and thick too!!

ALTHOUGH even tho most elves treasure long hair and like to keep it long (and especially, the vanyar - they are so picky abt appearances), ingwe's hair stops just after his shoulders. and courtiers are always like 'why doesnt he grow his hair out 🤨' and ingwe is like sorry i cant hear u.

he always kept his hair shorter since the days when he was in middle earth, and living a far more treacherous life before coming to valinor. it was practical for him and he felt more comfortable with it being out of his face. or he goes around with a half up/half down hairstyle and no one has the audacity to tell their high king that he should have long hair. like its ingwe, what can ya do?

my main hc for his personality is that even though he presides over arguably the most gilded/golden eldar, he's not a fan of being ostentatious and showy. he's not the flamboyant sort.

i kinda hc all the three high kings of valinor to be like that. ingwe, finwe and olwe both came to valinor from middle earth in the early days of the eldar. they made that treacherous journey and i feel like they were a bit more 'savage' in those days. so even though, they are far more comfortable now - they never really forget what it was like being hunted by foul creatures and seeing their people being captured by melkor.

ingwe used to be a hunter. when the elves first awoke, they had their own 'tribes' of a sort with a chieftan (the vanyar were lead by ingwe's grandfather - imin). they banded together, hunted for furs and used spears. they had such close tight-knit loyalty and they really did live off the lands of arda.

he was furious when melkor was released. like don't get me wrong he respects the valar a lot. and he's pretty devout towards them too. but ingwe couldn't understand why the valar let melkor walk among the eldar and the blessed lands after the horrors that he had seen, as had some of the older elves. he still has a scar from a gruesome beast in middle earth but the scar is tucked underneath fine fabrics and robes on his collar.

he prob gets nightmares a lot too :( i mean it would definitely have a lasting effect of the horrors he has seen. he doesn't sleep very often, he prefers to stay awake and he often sits on his balcony and just gazes towards taniquetil.

but hes v friendly!! he has this easy going charm and he seems pretty cheerful. elves are shocked at how loosely relaxed the high king is, they expect a stuffy king who loves proper manner and decorum. but ingwe is chill yknow.

like he dotes on his niece, indis, as well as her sons like finarfin. he likes fingolfin a good amount, he often remarks that fingolfin reminds him of finwe and he loves telling stories abt finwe's youth to fingolfin - much to finwe's chagrin.

he doesn't know what to think abt feanor. he doesn't want to dislike him but he finds feanor just strange. ingwe knew miriel since they were both very young and he sees that fierce glint that she had in feanor's eyes. but feanor's eyes burn differently and ingwe doesn't tell finwe that he worries abt his friend's eldest son. later, when feanor is clutching finwe's broken scalp on the floor after the darkening, and when the teleri are massacred in their home, ingwe feels sick to his stomach and wanders if it was his fault.

finarfin loves him. finrod by extent.