#doriath

also poor Húrin and Melian and Morwen.

Melian served under Vána and spent time in the gardens of Irmo, master of dreams and visions

Some is intentional like the Girdle. Melian enacts a significant amount of power over her domain, just as she did in Valinor. Though the walls and pillars of Menengroth are engraved with intricate leaves, ivy, and flowers, some of the flora is real, and is the result of Melian’s power. Melian herself is imbued in the architecture and land.

Some is inadvertent. The Ainur are not necessarily meant to be contained to physical forms and where they live and change becomes imbued with their presence and power.

Forest glades forever suspended in twilight, paintings of birds fluttering into life (or an approximation of it), a strange presence in the waters that fall through Menengroth.

Those around Melian change too, find themselves brushing flowers from their hair and find their skin stained with chlorophyll and prints of ivy, find themselves drawn to twilight, wandering deeper and deeper into the forests at times.

- Galadriel didn't want to be involved in this

- More Doriath' king

- Finrod is just a chilly, happy guy

The Ruin Of Doriath

the last memory of Doriath，move on in sorrow

not my art but my commission.

I have songbirds of Doriath here and my masterlist of environmental world building here!

This will make by birds of Beleriand series almost complete! If there are locations you’d like to see or anything please let me know!

Greater Doriath (Region and Neldoreth): black billed cuckoo, tawny owl, barn owl and subspecies, goshawk, sparrow hawk, wood grouse, common quail, common swift, moorhen (also found in Nivrim), little curlew, red kites, black woodpecker, green woodpecker, hoopoe (in clearings, glades and outskirts),

Nivrim and the twilit Meres: Barrow’s golden eye, ural owl and ural owl subspecies, northern hawk owl, wood duck, water rail, spotted crake, black stork, common golden eye, horned grebe, marsh harrier, tree kingfishers, merlin

Arthórien (markedly different climate): hill partridge, emerald dove, great eared nightjar, kiwi species, black wood pigeon, rain quail, grey headed woodpecker, Japanese scops owl, grass owl, white backed woodpecker, green pigeon, greater painted snipe (I’ll probably make a more thorough post for this entirely)

World building notes:

I’ve talked about this before but common and rain quails are domesticated for their eggs and meat, primarily by the marchwardens! There are little enclosures built in strategic locations between the temporary huts the marchwardens use between scouting and other missions. There are elves, usually younger ones who might be training as a scout or warden, who care full time for the birds. The quails live good long lives and are often named by their keepers. While in Doriath, Túrin saved four quails from being eaten out of spite

Nightjars and owls are considered sacred to the Silvan of Doriath who reside in Arthórien and appear frequently in song and folklore.

Water birds are most commonly found in Nivrim where ponds and marshlands make up part of the ecosystem.

Imaes of waterbirds, specifically rails and kingfishers, appear upon the walls of Menengroth in the passages beneath the river.

Though birds of prey are not reviled by any means, depictions of the deaths of elves in battle or through other violent means are commonly represented as birds of prey killing songbirds.