murky & without substance

You have to make stuff up before you can write about it, and that mostly involves inhabiting the spaces and minds of the places and people you’re writing about. Most of that won’t ever appear on the page. Tolkien’s case is different in a couple of ways. Firstly, the sheer extent of the world he’s imagining. (Of course the book takes years to write! He’s making up the history of Númenor and Gondor from thin air!) Secondly, we have unusual access to his world-building materials in the Appendices, which makes the book feel even more fully formed and authoritative. We also have unusual access to his creative process in HoMe. It’s fucking incredible watching Númenor get invented. People joke that Tolkien didn’t finish things, and use his Númenorean time travel story as an example (Lewis publishes the reciprocal three book space travel stories). But that material IS published in a deeply meaningful way. It’s the whole texture that supplies the unique depth and believability of The Lord of the Rings. Sometimes people joke, “Oh, Tolkien barely published!” Yes, but he published The Lord of the fucking Rings. And an essay that revolutionised the study of Beowulf. I’d take that.

This quote also by necessity downplays the rewriting process of LotR which of course was years of painstaking craft and revision, and is its own story. But, yes, of course these things didn’t exist! He had to make them up! So if in doubt, go away and lie in the hammock or on the bed and gaze into nothing and really think about what the world of your story is like and how it feels and what it must be like to be inside the minds of the made-up people whose lives, for some bizarre reason, you want to make up. This actually is part of the work and it’s not frenetic. And there’s no real shortcut. But what is nicer? Why rush this?

!! ERHA CHAPTER 97 SPOILERS !!

There he drew forth his sword, that now alone remained to him of all his possessions, and he said: ‘Hail Gurthang! No lord or loyalty dost thou know, save the hand that wieldeth thee. From no blood wilt thou shrink. Wilt thou therefore take Túrin Turambar, wilt thou slay me swiftly?’ And from the blade rang a cold voice in answer: ‘Yea, I will drink thy blood gladly, that so I may forget the blood of Beleg my master, and the blood of Brandir slain unjustly. I will slay thee swiftly.’ Then Túrin set the hilts upon the ground, and cast himself upon the point of Gurthang, and the black blade took his life.

Wooden figure of shaman spirit wrapped in cotton textile with a cotton canvas layer below. Selkup people, Northern Siberia. Collected by Marie Antoinette Czaplicka in 1914. © The Pitt Rivers Museum.

So in a modern AU, what would Angbang use for operating systems? I see Mairon as the quintessential Arch Linux user, whereas Melkor has a collection of computers of varying ages and still runs Windows XP and NT on some of them. He hates Windows 11 and ardently still holds on to Win 10, even though he hates that only slightly less.

Melkor does fire up some form of Mac he keeps in the bedroom to tweak the logo for his building company, or mess around with the UI of the web page. He takes a perverse joy when when customers phone up screaming at him why he "aimlessly re-did his website for the tenth time this year".

Mairon has tried to get Melkor into using Linux, and is hoping some of the more retro-styled Windows desktop managers you can get with e.g. Plasma.

soo...may i run with this idea and share my take on what it would be if it was all foss?

mairon would start out with debian because it's reliable and stable, he can know (and does know) it inside out; it will give him no unpleasant surprises. over time he grows more tolerant of weirdness and switches to arch. it's still very much legible, so in case something unexpected happens, it's usually an easy, logical fix, but in return for living on the edge and things sometimes breaking, you get a neater system less bogged down with empty tradition. besides, it always was quite distasteful to follow someone else's release schedule.

melkor on the other hand would oscillate beween a couple of systems, some of them running gentoo (it's ok if compiling a package *just so* blows up in his face or takes forever, he's got plenty of time and he's not afraid to start from scratch if needed). but for experimenting a little more, he'd use nixos. sure it's a chaotic mess, and a lot of work, the way he uses it, cleverly if not quite as intended, but, well he's not afraid of that either. in fact he probably enjoys it. and he'll figure it out. he's the master of the system, not the other way around. besides, there's something to be said about nixos being designed for predictability but the actual user experience oftentimes being, well, uh something else, at least if you stray from the trodden path like he would. and also about it being a somewhat esoteric choice, such as he himself is - only really appreciated by those supremely dedicatedmairon.

The Letters of J.R.R Tolkien

By a triple treachery: 1. Because of his admiration of Strength he had become a follower of Morgoth and fell with him down into the depths of evil, becoming his chief agent in Middle Earth. 2. when Morgoth was defeated by the Valar finally he forsook his allegiance; but out of fear only; he did not present himself to the Valar or sue for pardon, and remained in Middle Earth. 3. When he found how greatly his knowledge was admired by all other rational creatures and how easy it was to influence them, his pride became boundless. By the end of the Second Age he assumed the position of Morgoth's representative. By the end of the Third Age (though actually much weaker than before) he claimed to be Morgoth returned. But in this 'mythology' all the 'angelic' powers concerned with this world were capable of many degrees of error and failing between the absolute Satanic rebellion and evil of Morgoth and his satellite Sauron, and the fainéance of some of the other higher powers or 'gods'. Some had attached themselves to such major artists and knew things chiefly indirectly through their knowledge of the minds of these masters. Sauron had been attached to the greatest, Melkor, who ultimately became the inevitable Rebel and self-worshipper of mythologies that begin with a transcendent unique Creator.

The  Silmarillion

In all the deeds of Melkor the Morgoth upon Arda, in his vast works and in the deceits of his cunning, Sauron had a part, and was only less evil than his master in that for long he served another and not himself. But in after years he rose like a shadow of Morgoth and a ghost of his malice, and walked behind him on the same ruinous path down into the Void.

In this Age, as is elsewhere told, Sauron arose again in Middle-earth, and grew, and turned back to the evil in which he was nurtured by Morgoth, becoming mighty in his service.

‘And out of it the world was made. For Darkness alone is worshipful, and the Lord thereof may yet make other worlds to be gifts to those that serve him, so that the increase of their power shall find no end.’ And Ar-Pharazôn said: ‘Who is the Lord of the Darkness?’ Then behind locked doors Sauron spoke to the King, and he lied, saying: ‘It is he whose name is not now spoken; for the Valar have deceived you concerning him, putting forward the name of Eru, a phantom devised in the folly of their hearts, seeking to enchain Men in servitude to themselves. For they are the oracle of this Eru, which speaks only what they will. But he that is their master shall yet prevail, and he will deliver you from this phantom; and his name is Melkor, Lord of All, Giver of Freedom, and he shall make you stronger than they.’

The Lays of Beleriand

Thu who was throned as thane most mighty neath Morgoth Bauglir; whom that mighty one bade 'Go ravage the realm of the robber Thingol, and mar the magic of Melian the Queen.'

Whom do ye serve, Light or Mirk? Who is the maker of mightiest work? Who is the king of earthly kings, the greatest giver of gold and rings? Who is the master of the wide earth? Who despoiled them of their mirth, the greedy Gods? Repeat your vows, Orcs of Bauglir! Do not bend your brows!

'Thy name, thou shrieking waif, thy name! Tidings enough from Thu there came but short while since. What would he now? Why send such messenger as thou?

Morgoth’s Ring

Now Melkor knew of all that was done; for even then he had secret friends and spies among the Maiar whom he had converted to his cause, and of these the chief, as after became known, was Sauron, a great craftsman of the household of Aule. And afar off in the dark places Melkor was filled with hatred, being jealous of the work of his peers, whom he desired to make subject to himself.

The operations of Sauron naturally and inevitably resembled or repeated those of his master.

So - as soon as he has mentally rejected repentance - he (just like Sauron afterwards on this model) makes a mockery of self-abasement and repentance. From which actually he gets a kind of perverted pleasure as in desecrating something holy - [for the mere contemplating of the possibility of genuine repentance, if that did not come specially then as a direct grace from Eru, was at least one last flicker of his true primeval nature.](3) He feigns remorse and repentance.

But there was seen the effect of Melkor upon Sauron: he spoke of Melkor in Melkor's own terms: as a god, or even as God. This may have been the residue of a state which (* [footnote to the text] But his capability of corrupting other minds, and even engaging their service, was a residue from the fact that his original desire for 'order' had really envisaged the good estate (especially physical well-being) of his 'subjects'.) was in a sense a shadow of good: the ability once in Sauron at least to admire or admit the superiority of a being other than himself. Melkor, and still more Sauron himself afterwards, both profited by this darkened shadow of good and the services of 'worshippers'. But it may be doubted whether even such a shadow of good was still sincerely operative in Sauron by that time. His cunning motive is probably best expressed thus. To wean one of the God-fearing from their allegiance it is best to propound another unseen object of allegiance and another hope of benefits; propound to him a Lord who will sanction what he desires and not forbid it. Sauron, apparently a defeated rival for world-power, now a mere hostage, can hardly propound himself; but as the former servant and disciple of Melkor, the worship of Melkor will raise him from hostage to high priest. But though Sauron's whole true motive was the destruction of the Numenoreans, this was a particular matter of revenge upon Ar-Pharazon, for humiliation.

It was the apparent will and power of Melkor to effect his designs quickly and masterfully that had first attracted Sauron to him.

Morgoth's power was disseminated throughout Gold, if nowhere absolute (for he did not create Gold) it was nowhere absent. (It was this Morgoth-element in matter, indeed, which was a prerequisite for such 'magic' and other evils as Sauron practised with it and upon it.) It is quite possible, of course, that certain 'elements' or conditions of matter had attracted Morgoth's special attention (mainly, unless in the remote past, for reasons of his own plans). For example, all gold (in Middle-earth) seems to have had a specially 'evil' trend - but not silver.

Manwe knew of Sauron, of course. He had commanded Sauron to come before him for judgement, but had left room for repentance and ultimate rehabilitation. Sauron had refused and had fled into hiding.

Though of immensely smaller native power than his Master, he remained less corrupt, cooler and more capable of calculation. At least in the Elder Days, and before he was bereft of his lord and fell into the folly of imitating him, and endeavouring to become himself supreme Lord of Middle-earth. While Morgoth still stood, Sauron did not seek his own supremacy, but worked and schemed for another, desiring the triumph of Melkor, whom in the beginning he had adored. He thus was often able to achieve things, first conceived by Melkor, which his master did not or could not complete in the furious haste of his malice.

It was Sauron, also, who secretly repaired Angband for the help of his Master when he returned;(6) and there the dark places underground were already manned with hosts of the Orcs before Melkor came back at last, as Morgoth the Black Enemy, and sent them forth to bring ruin upon all that was fair.