Mardil Voronwë was the son of Vorondil, and became the first Ruling Steward of Gondor. He served as the third and last Steward to Eärnil II and after him his son Eärnur. Upon Eärnur’s inheritance, the Witch-king of Minas Morgul, whom Eärnur had faced in the North, challenged him again to single combat. Eärnur, rash and humiliated by his failure in their first encounter, was eager to answer, but all his counselors clearly saw that it was a trap.           It took the combined persuasion of Eärnur’s mother, lover, and his Steward to convince him not to go at that time, but after his lover was slain in a skirmish, not even the wisdom of Mardil could prevent him from answering the Witch-king’s third challenge. Eärnur left his crown upon the lap of his father in the Houses of the Dead, where it would remain until Steward Faramir would pass it to King Elessar nearly a thousand years later. Eärnur rode past the gates of Minas Morgul with a small escort of loyal knights, never to be seen again.           As his fate was for a time uncertain and Eärnur had named no heir, nor were there any obvious lords of royal descent to step forth and make their claim, no new King was selected. Thus, with a heavy heart, Mardil took up the leadership of Gondor, first of the Ruling Stewards. He began his rule with the promise to lead “until the King returns,” at first with the hope that Eärnur would ride back to Minas Tirith in glory, and later as but a formality.           Mardil ruled Gondor with wisdom and patience during the time known as the Watchful Peace, earning the epithet Voronwë, “the Steadfast.” He was an even-tempered and practical man who paid close attention to even the minutiae of bureaucracy. His wife Anoriel was likewise a fastidious scholar, and it was at her suggestion that Mardil established a Stewards’ Reckoning of time, inserting two leap-days in an effort to maintain a coherent calendar.           The son of Mardil Voronwë and Anoriel was Eradan, first of the Stewards to be named in Sindarin save for those who had taken names from great heroes of the First Age. Eradan was a solitary man who preferred quietude and the company of books. His wife, Gilwen, was of a similar mind, and together they agreed to leave one another alone as soon as their only son Herion came of age.           Unlike his father, Herion was a lively and boisterous man eager to enter the social circles of Gondor. He wed the dancer Cadwareth, a beautiful woman whom he adored despite her own inconstant affections. Their son Belegorn was a hunter like his ancestor Vorondil, and though he never brought down a beast so mighty as the Kine of Araw, he carried the Horn of Gondor with a reverence matched only by his love for his wife Lossendil, a healer-woman of Ithilien he met on his travels.