#gimilkhad

I can't write political stuff, and have some WIPs already, but this would make a good fic.

          Tar-Palantír was the twenty-fourth and penultimate King of Númenor. Though his father Ar-Gimilzôr despised the elves and the Valar, his mother Inzilbêth taught him the ways of the Faithful in secret. Gimilzôr thus would rather have had his second son Gimilkhâd inherit, but he could not change the laws of the kingdom to exclude Inziladûn, nor convince him to cede the crown to his brother.           When Tar-Palantír took the scepter, he returned as best he could to the ways of the Valar, taking his name in Quenya and nurturing the White Tree, for he foresaw that its death would spell the end of the line of kings. Yet the King’s Men were still a powerful force in Númenor, led by Gimilkhâd himself, and this attempt to repent from wickedness was met with great backlash from his people and little sympathy from the Valar. Filled with sorrow, Tar-Palantír began to spend more time in the tower of Tar-Minastir, gazing West in the vain hope of catching a glimpse of Tol Eressëa or an elven ship.           Late in his life, Palantír fell in love with a maiden of his court named Nimirrôth. Though her parents were not of the Faithful, neither were they of the King’s Men, and they loved the old stories of the elves, naming her in their memory. Nimirrôth was flattered by the attention of the king’s heir, but her love was focused ever on his brother Gimilkhâd. Yet Gimilkhâd had already wed the leader of the King’s Women, Zôrzimril, and was indifferent to her.           Nimirrôth thus agreed to be Tar-Palantír’s queen, taking the name Tári-Eldafallië which her husband gave her. Though she still loved Gimilkhâd, she bore Palantír a daughter, Míriel, a year before Gimilkhâd and Zôrzimril had a son, Pharazôn. After her husband was crowned King, Nimirrôth broke down and confessed her feelings to Gimilkhâd, and though he did not love her he saw an opportunity here to manipulate the Queen of Númenor into his favor. They began an affair, and Nimirrôth, who had before cared little for politics, soon became a secret supporter of the King’s Men.           Gimilkhâd died before his plans could come to fruition, but Nimirrôth, Zôrzimril, and Pharazôn would work together in his name to bring down the Faithful once and for all. Pharazôn had gone to Middle-earth as a conqueror and warrior against Sauron, but returned Elenna to take up his father’s mantle as the leader of the King’s Men. When Tar-Palantír died, Míriel should have inherited the scepter and become the fourth Ruling Queen of Númenor, but she found herself betrayed by her mother and forced into marriage with her cousin, who took the throne as Ar-Pharazôn and renamed her Ar-Zimraphêl, using the prefix Ar rather than Arî to emphasize his right to rule as the husband of the last king’s heir.           Ar-Pharazôn soon returned to Middle-earth with a great force to humble Sauron and claim the kingship of all Men. When Sauron perceived that he could not defeat the Númenóreans in battle, he feigned humility and allowed Pharazôn to take him as a servant to Númenor where he quickly became chief advisor to the king, known as Zigûr to the people. He corrupted Pharazôn’s heart even further by encouraging him to worship Melkor, Lord of Darkness.           When Isildur of Andúnië stole a fruit from the White Tree, Pharazôn was angered and at the advice of Zigûr he tore the tree down and burned it in a great temple he had constructed to Melkor. He sacrificed many of the Faithful upon the flames in the hope that Melkor would grant him and his supporters immortality, and this practice spread to Middle-earth. Yet age still crept upon Pharazôn, younger than it had any of his predecessors, and he became ever more desperate to escape death.           Zigûr steered the king toward building a great armament to attack Aman itself, preaching that only after conquering Valinor and defeating the Valar could he achieve his goal. At last Ar-Pharazôn set sail, but upon setting foot in the city of Tirion the Valar called upon Eru Ilúvatar for aid. Seeing the wickedness and pride of the Númenóreans, Eru broke the world and made it round, preventing Men from ever again reaching Valinor. In the destruction, Pharazôn’s fleet was destroyed and buried in the underground Caves of the Forgotten, where he and his soldiers await the Dagor Dagorath where they will face Morgoth in order to repent for their sins.           At this time, Númenor was drowned beneath the sea with all its people save those Faithful who had escaped in nine ships led by Elendil of Andúnië and his sons. Zigûr was consumed by the storm and perished laughing, and though he would return to menace Middle-earth once more, he was diminished ever after and could no longer take a fair form.           As the waves rose, Tar-Míriel ascended the peak of the Meneltarma, the highest point on Elenna, and was thus the last Númenórean to take breath upon its soil before she, too, was drowned in the bosom of the vengeful sea.

          Ar-Gimilzôr was the twenty-third King of Anadûnê, and one of its most corrupt and tyrannical leaders, surpassed only by his grandson Ar-Pharazôn. He styled himself as a “second Elros,” as the first king’s Adûnaic name would have been translated as Gimilzôr, though their Quenya names Elerossë and Telemnar were very different. Ar-Gimilzôr proclaimed that under his reign he would re-establish the traditions of Men and bring Númenor to new and greater heights.           To do this, he refused to ascend to the Meneltarma and to tend to the White Tree, as well as completely outlawing the use of the elven tongues and punishing those Faithful who still welcome the few elven ships visiting from Tol Eressëa. While still his father’s heir, Gimilzôr personally took part in this persecution of the Faithful, travelling to Andúnië to demand its lord swear fealty to the crown and reject the ways of the Valar. The Lord of Andúnië was at the time actually Lady Lindórië, for Silmariën’s line had always allowed women to inherit, but in this time of bigotry her brother Eärendur posed as Lord for public situations such as this confrontation.           While in Andúnië, Gimilzôr fell madly in love with Lindórië’s daughter Indilquettë and declared he would make her his queen. At this Eärendur and Lindórië were grieved, but they hoped that if Indilquettë accepted the prince’s suit he would be less harsh in his policies toward their people when he became King. Many Faithful had already sailed to Middle-earth to escape persecution by the King’s Men, and Gimilzôr threatened to exile the rest entirely.           Indilquettë was gifted with foresight showing her that Númenor’s future could be swayed back to the light if there was a Faithful influence upon the next king. With some reluctance, and at great cost to herself, she agreed to marry Gimilzôr and in time became Arî-Inzilbêth, forfeiting her right to become Lady of Andúnië upon her aging mother’s retirement. Instead the title passed to Eärendur’s child, Minasdil, who led the Faithful east to Rómenna at Gimilzôr’s command. Though this put them under his surveillance and removed them from their ancestral lands, he at least permitted them to stay on the island instead of banishing them fully to Middle-earth.           Though Gimilzôr’s infatuation with his wife faded after discovering their political differences, he nonetheless desired her for her beauty. Inzilbêth bore him two sons: the elder she named Palantír in hopes that he would fulfill her vision, while his father called him Inziladûn; the younger was named Elenquáco, though he preferred the Adûnaic version, Gimilkhâd. Inzilbêth taught her children in secret of the ways of the Faithful, but only Palantír took her words to heart.

Notes: This fic is based on headcanons I discussed with crocordile about what happened when Gimilzôr found out that his wife was secretly raising their oldest son to be Faithful. Inziladûn is about 16 here (still very underage for a Numenorean), and Gimilkhâd is about 7. Ar-Sakalthôr is still alive at this time, making Gimilzôr the King’s Heir rather than the King.

sorry for all that yellow, sorry for my oversaturated ways