#isilme

Isilmë for @merilles for Art Fight 2026! This was all completely new to me and super experimental. It took me WAY longer than I thought it would. I played Pentiment recently and was very inspired by medieval manuscript art! I like to think this would be one of the items that Talion might find in Shadow of War...

Isilmë, the sister of Silmariën

Characters’ moodboards: (429/?)

          Tar-Elendil was the fourth King of Númenor. He received the scepter after his father, Tar-Amandil, passed the kingship onto him a few years before his death. He was a scholar like his grandfather Vardamir Nóliman, and loved to make books from the legends and lore Vardamir had recorded, earning him the name Parmaitë.           Tar-Elendil’s sister Mairen was also a student of lore, though her interest lay in the mystical, and through her forays into magic she met another sage known as Ingólmë. As her friend was interested in the legends of elven magic her brother was collecting, Mairen introduced Ingólmë to Elendil, and the two had an instant connection. Within a year, they were wed, and in time she became his queen.           Tári-Ingólmë bore Tar-Elendil three children: two daughters, Silmariën and Isilmë, both of whom inherited their grandmother Tári-Telemnë’s silver hair; and a son, Írimon. Silmariën was fascinated by gemcraft and metalwork, and with the aid of her cousin Ardamir she devised a mithril fillet that would become a symbol of her house. Isilmë was a scholar like her father, focusing on linguistics and dedicating herself to preserving the language of the dwindling Drúedain. Írimon was a student of the stars, and built a tower in Forostar to watch their movements.           When it came time for Tar-Elendil to pass his mantle onto his heir, he was pressured by the male-dominated Council of the Scepter to name Írimon as his successor rather than Silmariën. Still wishing to honor his eldest how he could, Tar-Elendil created the royal House of Andúnië and gave its leadership to his daughter and her husband Elatan, and passed on the Ring of Barahir to her rather than the newly-crowned Írimon Tar-Meneldur.

first half of the heartbreakers

(Isilme is my genderfluid eladrin cleric/bard with 17 charisma and 9 intelligence - pretty, witty and not very smart. They/them pronouns)

@lord-lunatic this totally made my week, thank you so so much.