#of lothrin

Lothrin just having to learn new languages every hundred years....

*dunadan knocks on the door and enters her study*

“My lady, Lothrin. One of our scholars unearthed this document, but we are unsure of its contents? We believe it might be the language of Rhudaur? 1100 TA, perhaps?”

“11th century Rhudaurian? Ah, no - It’s 14th century as the language changed drastically after Angmar conquered and annexed Rhudaur. You see it in the addition of accents on some of the letters.”

or

“What, I’ve just learned the language of the Perian and they already have regional dialects?? It’s only been a couple hundred years?!”

The northern dunedain are heavily outnumbered, outskilled, and outmatched. This fact is well known. None of the dunedain chieftains that followed the fall of Arthedain would ever even dream on taking the Angmarean forces head on. One of the professions I wrote in Lothrin’s bio is “strategist” and I was thinking of developing that a bit. Now I would strictly like to mention that Lothrin is quite harsh when it comes to battle plans and will always suggest guerrilla tactics whenever possible. 

One of the things she is most keen on is that everyone and I mean everyone is trained not in “one on one” combat but in “one vs. many” combat. The major disadvantage the dunedain suffer is that their numbers are always dwindling while the enemy always has time aplenty to replenish their numbers. Whenever briefing sentries and the like she will be keen on 6 principles: 

If you are in a group, always keep the element of surprise, always rely on stealth, traps and ranged attacks.

If your group has been discovered, do not get separated! Separation means the enemy will find it easy to corner an individual, and pick the members of the group one by one.

If you are separated, do not engage in combat! Always run or try to find a safe advantageous point to launch an attack.

If you are unable to run, try to find a way to separate your attackers. Use any means necessary to confuse them. 

If you are forced to fight against multiple enemies, call upon the training that’s been given. There are tactics in fighting two, three and even four enemies at once, depending on the species and armor of the enemy.

There is never only one orc. Orcs always travel in packs. Do not target a lone individual as there is always a second one prowling around.

You are correct with all of your guesses! They were kept in Annùminas at first, since that is where she had indeed completed the majority of her scholarly work, but with the depopulation of Annùminas, the Fall of Fornost and all that, the originals were swiftly brought to Rivendell for safe-keeping. After the dust had settled following the war, Lothrin took to copying them, rewriting some of her tomes and distributing them across the main settlements of the northern dùnedain, since the knowledge within does belong to them.

But in the same way a sword from Gondolin ended up in a troll cave in the Trollshaws, so do copies of her work end up in peculiar places. I'm pretty sure some of those copies must have ended up in the library of Minas Tirith at some point or the other.

Her newest works however are kept in Evendim, but not in Annùminas but a bit to the north. If you play Lotro, then you must be familiar with the keep of Tinnudir. That's where her main study is and she has this room full of artefacts, tomes and scrolls. She's trying her best to keep them safe and dry, but Evendim is indeed a very humid area.

Sunflowers. // Great friendship is there between the hobbit-folk and the wandering rangers, and when a hobbit-lass is rescued by two of their number, a reward is due for their tall deed.

They trained the twins together! Swordfight, bow and arrow, even riding!

It is Lindir who spins tales in the Halls of Fire most often, but on the incredibly rare occasions when Glorfindel is in an reminiscing mood, he will sit down and tell tales of Beleriand and of Gondolin. Guess who sits front of the front row? Lothrin wouldn’t miss those evenings for anything in the world! 

Can you imagine asking someone who lived there about the beauty of Gondolin? Lothrin was a bit flustered in the beginning, but in the end she mustered the courage to ask him about her hero, Ecthelion. Glorfindel laughed serenely and told her everything there was to know of the House of the Fountain and its leader.

Also, one thing she always wanted to ask him was - how was it to die, be reborn into Valinor then sent back to Middle-earth? She had this whole debate with herself, but in the end decided against asking him. It might be a bit of a rude question, you know?

I am actually amazed you caught on such a detail. His nandorin name only the nandor know, but his name as the sindar know it was Hvaeros, a very botched attempt at translation if you ask me. He was a nandor of little renown, unmarried and childless. Same as Lothrin, he once shared a passion both for the blade and for the lore of the world, but in an unfortunate battle he became invalid. His right leg was injured to the point he couldn’t use it anymore and had to employ the help of crutches to move around. In a culture such as the one in Lothlórien, where the elves live in Telain in the trees, you can imagine the daily hurdle Hvaeros had to undergo. He could not fight anymore, so he channeled his time into maintaining Lórien’s library and training any promising scholars. 

The life of the eldar is a long one and Hvaeros had to learn to live with his disability. Perhaps it was a reflection of his younger self that he saw mirrored in Lothrin that prompted him to take her under his wing. He taught her of the history of their people and the avari, what geography he knew of Rhovanion and the lands to the east and even some short linguistic lessons. 

Lothrin often opted for his company as she felt that for once there was a quende that had no expectations of her. Lothrin’s early years have been steeped in familial dramatics and she felt the library was the one place of quiet in her life. With Hvaeros things were always simple. It was nothing more than a mentor-student relationship. Her mother wished for Lothrin to follow in her steps and become a singer, while Lothrin wished for nothing else but to follow her brothers and become a border guard, which she eventually did to her mother’s dissatisfaction. 

How does a day in the life of Lothrin, Lady of Twilight, Sage of Annúminas and aid to the Dúnedain look like? More uneventful that one would expect. In order to better paint a picture of her daily schedule, I shall be using LOTRO canon, thus using the geography and settlements presented therein. Secondly, this schedule is applicable between the years of TA 2500 and TA 3019.

Lothrin’s usual residence and where she might be found most of the time is the keep of Tinnudir, in the heart of Evendim. Though depending on the season, she may move to the encampment at High King’s Crossing, the farms in Barandalf or the camp in the heart of Annúminas. More often than not, when not in Evendim, Lothrin can be found in Sarn Ford, Esteldin, Falathlorn or Imladris.

Uh oh, that’s a very touchy subject. You gotta have like level 5 friendship clearance to unlock the backstory™ behind this. Or you would have, if you were one of the residents in Middle-earth. (Just joking)

Trust me when I say, this is something she will not talk about with anyone. Even her best friends Astoeth and Naeriel only know little about her feelings on this matter. She simply refuses to answer, if ever asked. It’s a very hard subject for her to talk about for various reasons.  

It honestly depends on the elves in question. 

The elves of Imladris not only agree with this endeavor, but wholeheartedly support her. It was at her behest that Elladan and Elrohir started their campaigns in the north. She was also a great influence behind Andriel’s friendship with the ranger Eradan. Her unfaltering dedication to the northern lands inspired the Imladrim elves and greatly helped in the number of skirmishes they led in Eriador.

The elves of Lindon are indifferent to this situation. Maybe indifferent is strong, neutral is best said. The elves of Lindon have always been isolationist, with only very limited campaigns outside their borders (the rescue of Arvedui and the Battle of Fornost coming to mind). They still care about tidings from afar, as Cirdan and Elrond are good friends and messengers go between the two realms all the time, but they prefer to keep to their own. Singular Lindon elves might travel to dúnedain settlements to help.

The elves of Lórien are a whole other cup of tea. There’s a lot of history to get into, so I’ll just go step by step. Out of all the elven realms of MIddle-earth, I would say the elves of Lórien have had the least human contact ever. The elves of Imladris are in constant contact with the dúnedain, those of Lindon have both the dúnedain and the humans settled around Ered Luin, those of Eryn Galen have the men of Dale and Esgaroth and those of Edhellond had the men of Dol Amroth. Who do the elves of Lórien have? I remember from the books that Haldir while courteous to Aragorn and his dúnedain kin, was also very distant and kept his interactions to a polite minimum. The men of Rohan say that Lórien is cursed and that Galadriel is a witch. This belief couldn’t have come from nowhere, surely?

What you have to keep in mind about Lórien, is that it has been one of the most affected elven kingdoms in the wake of Sauron’s destruction, only surpassed by Eregion. Lindon and Imladris have been relatively sheltered due to their location. It was Lórien that had to bear the brunt of Noldor and Sindar refugees that came from Eregion, it was Lórien that had to comfort dwarven refugees and double their military skirmishes when the Balrog destroyed Khazad-dûm, it was Lórien then Eryn Galen that lost almost all of their population in the War of the Last Alliance. The point that I’m trying to make is that Lórien is a land that has been hit with near extermination, they now care terribly about their youth. 

How does Lothrin fit into this equation? Well, if you remember from her bio, her elder brother died in the War of the Last Alliance, alongside a great number of Lórien elves. I cannot begin to describe to you the grief that followed the end of the war. Lothrin followed her younger brother home and delivered the news to her parents but did not stay. She departed for the northern lands, and that’s when she found lake Nenuial and Annúminas. By leaving both her parents in their time of grief and her land in its time of need, Lothrin committed a cultural taboo. But I understand her reasoning, leaving was her way of dealing with her grief and war memories. Years later, when the elves of Lórien heard what she had been up to, some of them named her Adasser “Lover of Mortal Men”, as she chose humans over her own kin. Relations between herself and her homeland have slowly but surely cooled. She still visited Lórien, but her mother especially was ever upset that her daughter chose not to remain home and guard her birth realm. Combined with the fact that the Nandor culture was slowly being replaced with that of the Sindar and Noldor, made Lothrin feel a great cultural disassociation from her own homeland. Of course, both her and the dúnedain are still courtly treated as Lady Galadriel is kin to Lord Elrond who in turn is one of the great supporting forces behind the dúnedain, but Lothrin is ever wary of talking about her home. She feels more or less like a stranger there.